By patient argument and. widespread appeal the Council of the International Settlement secured the necessary quorum for the special meeting of Ratepayers on Wednesday. Three years ago a special. meet jing was summoned for the purpose not of approving a but of reversing" a jon which, it was held, had been obtained by a "snap vote." Those who recall the anxiety which then prevailed lest the requisite quorum should not be secured will agree that the Shanghai Municipal Council, on this "occasion, has reason' to leongratulate itself on the ease with which the one-third attendance was-secured. The actual figure required was 1,260 "qualified electors" present or represented. The official record Jshows that the poll attendance was 1,349 and the voting strength was i.751—or nearly, 00 in excess' of the prescribed minimum. Estimating the Japanese vote, which was marshalled in spectacular solidarity, to have been somewhere about 600, it will be seen that' the requisite quorum was obtained with such strong non-Japanese assistance that the resolutions adopted had a particularly authoritative mandate. Once again' in Shang-hal it has been proved that an intelligent system of public for which the Press Information Department must surely be able to take much eredit—will greatly assist the Council in securing smooth path for its consider-led decisions. It is reasonable also to suggest that the large attendance showed that interest in Municipal affairs is far more active than is sometimes deduced from the figures of the election contests, Wednesday was, from the weather point of view,' about as bad a day as could have been selected; yet from four o'clock Jonwards' over 1,200 people—a tinkling of non-electors was Jdiscernible—were quite happy to shiver in a damp, mausoleum of incomplete magnificance in order to cheer (with the diffident decorum of international gathering) dissent from fand vote on speeches and resolutions put to them. For this reason it was satisfactory to note that the Council's advisers took the opyprtunity to secure certain electoral changes which will enable this growing civic spirit to find more active expression, This achievement will be more readily appreciated when it is remembered that, during the been only "three successful fast thirty "years, there "have attempts to exercise the power to make bye-laws under the Land Regulations. On no less than six occasions during the last ten years have efforts to exert the power been vain. The mee ings which obtained the necessary quorum were held March 20, 1907, November 14, 1910 and July 10, 1919 and the Proposed bye-laws concerned the licensing of various undertakings and occupations, plague prevention and the supervision of building operations and other matters respectively. The plague prevention proposal never. Zz brought into operation "but Bye-laws XXIII to XXXVII, a8 they now stand, were the products of the other two meetings The Special Meeting of May 2, 1930 has already been mentioned and Mr. Justice Feetham notes that it was secured by effective organisation and preparation "by press propaganda, canvas ing and individual exhortati The poll attendance at that meeting was 1.226 with a voting strength of 1,668. Mr. Justice Feetham says of it:—"There was not opportunity for real discussion, the audience was undisciplined and impatient, and there was a lack of effective leadership' to the assembly.
Whole, as distinct from particular general concentration on a_ clear section! but there was and definite issue for which the minds of practically" all present Were. prepared beforehand; and the instinct for fair play, "as between the different community and the holders of opposing views, made itself clearly felt.
That comment may be' aptly applied to last Wednesday's meeting. - It should, however, be noted that, owing to the size of the gathering, the promoters of the meeting were always handi-leaped by the time factor... Had there been any determined effort} to use the privileges of public were extended as in regularly occupied deliberative assemblies, it is almost certain that th house itself would have safeguarded individual engagements elsewhere by drastic, if rough and ready, methods for cutting short the speakers. This would have tended to sprint of fair point of fact pre There can be little doubt in the minds of those who were present that the Ratepayers Meeting on Wednesday listened Wwith close attention to the admirably lucid official speeches expounding the Council's past actions and policy. It was all the more fortunate that the accident of the Special Meeting's requirements brought before the Council so large a body of Ratepayers. Many there must have felt that if the electors, before they.cast their votes for the Couineil, had the opportunity. of seeing the Councillors in action, they would be able with greater satisfaction to themselves and, possibly, with some enhancement fof the corporate judgment of the poll, to assess the qualities on which, to a large extent, they' now vote in a state of semiblindness.
Platform manner definite conclusions regarding the debating power of most. the speakers. Mr. Bell had th and, of course, was able to spee from prepared material, easy handling of the different subjects assigned to him, his ready grasp of the opportunity to reply courteously but effectively to arguments adduced in the course of discussion won for him a personal triumph, Tt was shared by his two colleagues Mr. 0, Okamoto and Mr, H. Arnhold, the Jatter's impromptu intervention bearing all the marks of the practised—public debater. Of the "non-official" speeches, none were unprepared but Dr. Ht. Couper-Patrick showed the house how deftly to com: press a note of criticism on a matter of great importance into small space. The unfortunate accident to the microphone made it impossible adequately to deal with some of the other speeches as—with the exception of that of it. E, F, Harris—they failed to get across." 'The special vir= tues of the Council's constitution might be weakened were undue emphasis uld on oratorical ability. Still, with' the -unmistakable increase in the Ratepayers' interest in the Sottlement's affairs, it is desirable to consider whether—steps should not be taken to ensure" some form of public assessment. of candidates' grasp of municipal problems in the period between nomination and election. In the near future the Council will require to assert closer touch than ever with th community for which it york: Problems arousing considerable discussion are likely to arise. The civ: spirit should therefore be stimulated by tunity for "deliberative dis: Rreater oppor cussion among the Ratepayers with the Members of the Council giving guidance, expounding policy and suggesting decisions,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.