Unfounded Nature of Insinuations Against Judge's Imparti raised the commentary on the Feetham ted. It represents a competent Pore a "of Foreign Airs to la Taceday's issue necewsarly endorsed by the "North-China By A Fosticn Stupext op Curse Arrauns A Chinese Student of Foreign Affairs" has criticised the report of Mr. Justice Feetham to some purpose. His conclusions, if they hold water, amount to indictments of Mr. "Justice Feetham's ability, knowledge, and integrity; denials of the declared motives of the Shanghai Municipal Council in asking Mr, Justice Feetham to investigate, and suggest solutions for, the problems of Shanghai; imputations of partiality in the procedure and aims -|of the inquiry; "and, incidentally, grave reflections upon the honesty and efficiency of the administration of the other foreign area in Stanghai, the French Concession, ere it not that the sum of these indictments constitutes a_ stronger indictment of "A Chinese Student of Foreign Affairs" than any be. has drawn up against others, they might matter, But since every criticism of the Peethanr Report and those who sponsored it is a result of methods and means which outdo in disingenuousness the worst. which the critic professes to see in the document in question, "his con. clusions vitiate themselves. They might have been ignored had it not been for one important fact—that they are a Chinese point of view, resented by one "of high standing and official experience." Thic is the only excuse for taking the article seriously. "A point of view which founded upon misunderstanding, misinformation, and prejudieg can be improved; though in this instance the prejudice which invests the eminently fair Mr. Justice Feetham in the robes of a black magician may be too strong to be influenced by anything less copelusive than the Last Trump.
Tt is most charitable to suppose that "A Chinese Student of Foreign Affairs" did not appreciate construction which foreigners would place upon his words. It cannot. be said that the actions of a British Judge have shaken "confidence in the British Bench" without imputing something extremely serious against the judge. It cannot be said that a judge has assumed "the role of counsel for the defence" in the case he is assessing without denying him everything that makes him worthy of the responsibilities of a judge. Nor can it be said that the Shanghai Municipal Council, in asking. for an impartial inguiry, have given out insulting the intelligence of every member of the community—Chinese or foreign—whose interests they watch and on whose. behalf they have called for the inquiry. Yet Chinese grotesque implications.
Hardly less grotesque are the extenuations advanced. for' these alleged shortcomings. On behalf of Mr. Justice Feetham "A Chinese Student of Foreign Affairs" puts forwards the excuse that he was "swept off his feet by his environ-
Shaw, how would it have done it? Had some signal proof of favour been. thought necessary for Lady Astor, what would it have been. Doctors' degrees, such as might have met the case in any land still under the pall of capitalism, would be taboo. Would Mr. Bernard Shaw have been made an honorary linotype operator of "Pravda"? And would Lady Astor have brought back with her a diploma to signify that she is an honorary baby-tender of Baku?
'Once i you start on this, you will never' stop. The study is one for the sociologist. In Soviet Russia there seems to be growing up another aristocracy, neither of birth nor of learning, but of honorary metal workers, hororplumbers, honorary railway men, honorary transport workers, honorary miners, honorary boot and shoe workers—blacklegs all, whose existence should prove a thorn in the flesh of the Trades Union Congress and their fellows who hold similar; powers in other lands. mont and perhaps by the limitations of his own qualifications"; that the task was too great for one man and [could only have been handled international commission (the. im-Plication that the Council selected a Briton because he would be more likely to report in their favour is Pericnee with diplomatic affairs 0 ite Far East"
The last, from the Council's iandpoint, must be "the most. Kindest cut of all" It is peccoctly clear from the" opening of Vol. 1 of the Report that Mr. Justice Feetham's Tack of experience in the diplomatic affairs of the Far Bart yas no accident, The Council went to some trouble and to the other hemisphere to secure an invest who was also "an expert international "reputation," "free from personal commitments or bias, "ho. combined judicial with mui pal and. political experience." A person. who possessed feat ions was found [South Africa, who government, "as the most detached from Far Eastern controversies, is exceptionally situated to render this in unravelling the knot at. the the diplomat East was, fication for his selection, and that this detachment should now be advanced in extenuation of ridings and as it is possi In commenting upon this one point, the answer has been given to nearly all of the other criticism enumerated. Mr. Justice Feetham's "international reputation" has not|—he suggests be earned in a hole or corner Council preferred a manner.
Winning were outlined in the /"North-China Daily News" when it became known that he had accepted the thankless task which was offered to him. Nor are such reputations earned by men who abandon their judicial "attitude to become countd for the defence"; or wh are easily "swept off fe when it is essential that they should] stand firm; or who allow diplomatic lor political influence to warp their judgment of facts. The reputation foamed by a judge who would abandon his judicial attitude easily as "A Chinese Student [Foreign Affairs" seems to imagine thet Mr. Justice Feetham abandoned hig, would be such as to make eer~ his burried and undignified Jexit from the Bench, if not impeachment proceedings. That Mr. Justi Feetham has left Shanghai with fame not diminished, but greatly enhanced, is testimony enough that the charges against him are based lonly in the imagination of those Jwho share with "A: Chinese Student lof Foreign Affairs" his disappoint Jment that the learned judge did not recommend the immediate rendition Jof the International Settlement' the Chinese government.
The perusal of the Feetham report has caused "A Chinese Student of Foreign Affairs" perplexity and disappointment: perplexity because the quality of the report is uneven, disappointment because the judge's conclusions are to. immediate su"- render, "A. "Chinese—Student's" and manifestly impartial historical' chapters—the judge's Smming: vp of events leading "to the tangie he has been request clnirresistibly calls to wind the trial scene from "The Merchant lof Venice":— dock: A Daniel come to Sudgment! wise young tan, how do gon Thereafter, as in the play, comes the disappointment. The analogy, need not be laboured. There is not the least doubt that patriots like "Al Chinese Student of Foreign Affairs" have been: disappointed by Me. Justice Feetham's proceeding to Judgment, and to a certain extent this accounts for their bitterness.
So involved has this disappoint. ment caused the case against the Feetham Report to become that the person replying to it finds himself alternately answering charges and extenuating circumstances, which are sometimes worse than the charges, Sufficient, however, has deen said to dispose of the charge of partiality, made both against Mr, Justice Feetham and the Municipal Council. The motives of the Municipal Council in calling for the inquiry, ignoring the fact that it was suggested to them officially to id that, presumably, their sel tion of an investigator had to ha official sanction, are ap set forth sufficiently d report itself. But what is set forth, with the proof of the pains they have been to in securing. tthe services of an expert least likely to be prejudiced, is surely cumber some camouflage if their motives were improper.
There remains the imputation that Mr, Justice Feetham did not possess the ability for such an inquiry; it, was too great for him and should have been the work of ternational commission. The pal evidence in support of Yhis contention the report, but of Foreign Affairs" also adduces indy points from the report it-'One of these is that Mr. Justice Feetham is unable to understand or appreciate any system Justice but the Anglo-Saxon, Because the Chinese system is based upon the Continental he, and Lord Hailsham with Took upon it with hostile eyes, and are unable to see any good' in it. The sug-I gestion is absurd to anyone who knows the qualifications which are required from judges of the British Bench and, in the case of Lord from a Lord High ign Affairs" does not make this knowledge necessary for his con tention to be revealed for what is worth, In his argument that an international commission would have better handled the Feetham inquiry—in which he may be right that the Municipal single man, The circumstances of its|"and a Briton at that," on account of their previous experience of international commissions of inquiry, in which he is certainly wrong. For on the occasion to which he refers—the inquiry into the May 30 affair—a judge familiar with the Anglo-Saxon system was the tone who disagreed with another judge familiar with the same system, and it was not, og mi author's statements, the Japanese judge who the anglo-Saxon judges Municipal Council's" previous experience of judicial inquiries, therefore, does, not seem to indiento a present preference for any type of jurist over any other.
The truth is that, though the Anglo-Saxon and the Continental systems may be different in procedure, their end is the sam Justice And an experienced jurist would not look for imperfections in this end.
No. system of justice perfect, but there is standard, by which its imperfections may be measured.
Mr. Justice Feetham may be allowed 'a mind catholic enough not to condemn a nation's judicial 5 tem for no other reason than be-ise itis not Anglo-Saxon. He ca inquire, for instance, whether a system of justice is in working order. Does the judicial system of China apply throughout the country?) The answer is not difficult to get. In the places it does apply, is it functioning in the best in: terests of justice? Is the judiciary independent? Upon.the "answers to these questions depends the judgment of any. inquirer. That the answers mag be in the negative need not mecessai sweeping condemn whole system: but it. must mean that, the application of the syst is either adequate or inadequate.
Mr, Justice Feetham did not seek the answer to these questions solely in the privacy of his office in the administration Building. He travelled. Te is true that he did not travel deeply into the interior, where he might have learned much,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.