The Municipal Council should feel by no means surprised if the manner in which they have dealt with the riot of the Chinese soldiers interned in Kiaochow Park is very severely criticised, for upon the closest scrutiny it is impossible to discover what principles of good government can possibly be invoked in its justification. Cutting away all the dramatics which have been woven around the men involved, the facts are that they were interned during the course bf hostilities around Shanghai, in accordance with the neutrality of the International Set tlement, they had for months behaved in such 'a manner, that the Council itself had to confess that "It has been found recently by: the Camp Commandant that it was becoming, increasingly dificult, and at times impossible, to enforce any kind of discipline in the camp: Attempts to enforce discipline were met with obstruction, ete," and eventually these men flouted authority and created a riot in the suppression of which some of them were in~ jured, three fatally. The matter was taken up. by the Chinese Ratepayers Association, for what reason apart from sentiment it is impossible to understand, and the Council has decided to award compensation to the families of the dead men. The letter conveying this decision is abject in its terms, overflowing with regrets and expressions of sympathy,—a very humble communication. The only possible sentiment that could in the circumstances have been expressed would, surely, have been that the Council regretted that the behaviour of the men obliged its officers to take the action they did, for any modification of that point of view derogates from the authority of the Council and its servants, There should most certainly have been left no opening for any suggestion that the action of the officials concerned in any way deserved less than the completest support from the Council, The communication to the Chinese Ratepayers Association continues On humanitarian grounds the Council has decided to urent the sum of $1,000 to the dependents of each of the men who died of injuries, Accordingly I have pleasure in en~ closing cheque for $8,000, wit the request that your Association ascertain the names and addresses of the dependents properly entitled to the money, and hand it over 10 them.
Many interesting questions arise from the above passage. Have the Council been completely informed as to the number and nature of the dependents of the dead men? Have they any tangible evidence that any such people do in fact exist, and the closeness of their relationship with the three deceased? The answer implied above seems to be in the negative, for the Council asks the Association to "ascertain the names and addresses of the dependents properly entitled to the money, and hand it over to them." Three thousand dollars have been handed over to the Association, a most reputable organization it is readily admitted, for it to pass on to people who apparently' from the available evidence have made no claims, and whose identities are at present unknown to the Council, or even to the Association which is requested to discover them. The Municipal Council cannot possibly believe that many ratepayers will readily accept. this arrangement as a business-like settlement of the trouble. Admitting that the reason for this grant is purely humanitarian, was it really necessary that the Council should make it without itself being certain that there are dependents who have suffered by the deaths of these men? On the face of the Acting Seceretary's letter no such case has been made out, and, even if it were, it is open to very considerable doubt whether this is a proper instance in which such compensation should have been granted, for the men obviously behaviour. suffered as a result of their own disorderly
Tt must be obvious to everyone that this affair establishes an unfortunate precedent, one which verges on the absurd, and if at some future date the Council finds itself faced with a demand from the relatives of an armed robber, shot while fighting the police,*there will be many who will fail to perceive very much real difference between the two cases. Certainly the hypothetical instance ig ridiculous, and this settlement very little removed from it, Nor will the Shanghai public be at all impressed if at some time or other it is suggested that some esoteric doctrine of high policy is responsible for this extraordinary grant having been made. No matter what humanitarian gloss may be spread over this settlement, it has the unhappy appearance, of an agreement made for the purpose of bringing about "harmonious relations......between the Council's offers responsible for guarding the camp and the interned officers and men." In other words 'a capitulation to the disorderly elements whose misbehaviour over a number of months: culminated in a riot, There should be no very great surprise if it is ultimately shown parts that this magnanimous gesture on the part of the Council fails of its purpose. Discipline cannot be bought, and if this journal's reading of the facts is correct that is' all that is being attempted. From the ratepayers' point of view a procedure which provides for the payment of compensation for losses to rioters or
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.