It is somewhat astonishing that the Municipal Council's statement, on the subject of the eviction of refugees from various properties in Shanghai, should have aroused no more protest than the letter which appears in this morning's correspondence columns over the signature of Amazep, for the issues involved are serious and something which sooner or later the Council will have to face. During the influx of refugees into Shanghai a large number, stated by Amazep to amount to some 40,000, took possession of various privately owned properties in the International Settlement, and, despite efforts to dislodge them, have remained in occupation ever since. The Council were apparently prepared, through the services of the Police, to help the landlords recover possession of their properties, but on the showing of several parent refugee organizations, asking for a postponement of action, has now decided to hold its hand for the moment. The case for the refugee organizations was that there had been delays in procuring suitable refugee camp sites, difficulties in obtaining the necessary materials, and protraction of negotiations aiming to secure the consent of all the authorities concerned. The result is that alternative refugee accommodation has not yet been prepared, and to evict them from the properties in which they are at present housed would mean the throwing of these thousands of destitute popple on the streets, increasing the possibilities of the spread of disease, and jeopardizing the public peace consequent upon begging and stealing, and perhaps forcible entry into other premises on the part of the people so evicted. Those are all considerations which would and should weigh heavily with the Municipal Council, and that it should decide for the moment to take no further steps is not, in the circumstances, any matter for great surprise. Such a decision follows the policy of condoning the inconvenience of the few for the general good of the many. That is generally a bad doctrine when viewed from the usual standpoints, and the only excuse which can be offered for it in this instance is that conditions are unique,, and that unique remedies are the only ones which are applicable. But the fact that it is bad does not relieve property-owners' anxieties in the matter, for they are wearing the shoe and consequently know best where it pinches.
The Council seems to be on worse ground when it endeavours to explain its attitude. It is compelled, it says, in the interests of public peace, order and good health further to withhold police action invoked by the landlords to evict refugees, but goes on to state that it appreciates the legal obligation resting upon the Council to carry out evictions in individual cases where the landlords have secured a court order lawfully authorizing an eviction. But these refugees do not occupy the contractual relationship, vis-à-vis of the landlord, of tenant: They are trespassers pure and simple, squatters who have effected forcible entry into premises and continue to occupy them against the wishes of the rightful] owners. It is definitely neither in the interests of public peace nor order that these people should be permitted to continue in this form of occupation which sets the law at defiance, It is a definite denial of property rights, rights vhich are recognized in law. That the landlords should be obliged to resort to the courts to obtain a redress, which should be afforded by the police force as a matter of course, cannot be admitted. Surely if a person ly into the house of another, it should not be necessary to go to law to have him expelled. All that should be necessary is to summon the police, and ask them either to evict the man, or, if he will not go, take him into custody with a view to further proceedings. It would be absurd, if a person or persons forcibly effected entry into a private house, refused to leave, and in the event of the police failing or refusing to perform their obvious duty the householder were obliged to put up with the intruders, until by the somewhat slow processes of law, an order from the Court could be obtained instructing the police to do what they should have done in the first instance. The fact that the refugees are present on properties in large numbers does not alter the principle at all, even though it may present the authorities with a more difficult problem. And even though it is more dificult, the authorities cannot be excused from carrying out their duty merely because of that. Landlords have to meet their obligations to the Council, and in turn have the right to expect that they shall be given the protection for which they pay.
It is readily admitted that, on the score of public (health, it is undesirable that these 40,000 refugees should be thrown homeless into the streets, But for the protection to health afforded by allowing these people to herd unlawfully in other peoples' premises the landlord, and the landlords alone, are being forced to pay. It amounts to a levy upon them for the protection of the health of the community as a whole, and there will be sympathy with the property owners if they are heard to ask why they, and they only, are thus being penalized in the interests of the general public health. It is not merely a loss to the owners of rentals which might be secured today if their premises were not thus
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encumbered, but also of the general deterioration of the properties which is inevitable in such circumstances, and the owners may very Moral Moment well contend that they are being forced to Ruin men may be honest, but fat men find make an unwarrantably heavy contribution to it a little difficult to stoop to anything low, too, the general good of the community. The foregoing remarks are not to be taken as Official Verdict being merely critical. There is and must be A WRITER says it isn't easy tò find out a a great deal of sympathy with the Council Mexican's politics. That usually comes out at the inquest. in times such as these, and admiration for the manner in which it has met the many A.R.P. in the Garden problems which the hostilities have forced upon it. Nevertheless property owners have Brack cotton stretched between twigs will protect your vegetable seeds from the birds, their rights, and there must of necessity be says a horticultural writer. sympathy with them if they complain that they are not being protected in the manner Humour Note they reasonably expect. This journal is not "ANIMALS have a sense of humour," says a much impressed by the correspondent's con-zoologist, tention that the Council ought to have fore-Anyway, horses are fond of chaff. seen and prepared against such an eventuality as this, and to criticize it for failing to do so Reason Why is merely to indulge in the exhibition of that Fewer people are killed in railway accidents ex post facto wisdom which is always so than on the road, says a writer. Engine drivers, readily acquired. It is, however, much con-of course, do not whizz round corners at 60 cerned with the suggestion that a particular m.p.h, with one arm round a girl, class should be made to bear a burden which should fall upon the shoulders of the com-Two Ways of Walking munity as a whole. That is contrary to all Tue preacher: I was surprised to see your husband walk out of church while I "was ideas of common justice. Arrangements preaching. should be made for the proper housing of The wife: Oh, don't mind that.
You know these refugees. If the various charitable he's troubled with somnambulism. organizations cannot undertake it, then the community as a whole, and not property
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.