Looking Ahead:
And the Policy of Drift To the Editor of the "Norrx-Cuma Dalny News"
Sm,—Although keenly interested in Shanghai affairs I can only keep in touch with them at present through the medium of your weekly edition the "Herald" as there is no newspaper published in English here.
The last issue I received yesterday is March 9. Your editorial under the heading "Looking Ahead" inspires the following comment, There must have always existed sbrhe powerful stimulating cause favouring the amazing development of Shanghai from a marshy flat to one Of the world's greatest cities in less than a century. This is fully explained in the preamble to Mr. van Heidenstam's last report before he retired as Engineer-in-Chief of the Whangpoo Conservancy some years ago.
He stated that Shanghai's geography ical situation was unexcelled by any other city iti the world as the site of a great commercial and shipping centre. It is at the mouth of one of the world's greatest water highways. It is the natural economic clearing-house for a hinterland of about 600,000 square miles and a population of approximately 160,000,000, These natural advantages constitute the soul of Shanghai which cannot be destroyed. Past experiences have demonstrated its vitality and now, as in the past, it will recover quickly from the present debacle. Nothing can prevent this. It is only a question as "to the kind of body in which this economic heart of China will continue to function.
This is a matter of paramount irportance not only to the residents of the Settlement itself but to China and to all the trading nations of the world, Something more than natural advantages has been needed to stimulate the rapid growth of the Foreign Settlement and French Concession. It is common knowledge that this stimulus could not come from China herself, Foreign initiative and capital operating in an area where these had free play under modern conceptions provided the necessary architects, contragtors, and building materials to erect one of the greatest and most remarkable civic structures in the world on its natural and permanent foundation. E For some time to come the foreign element in the administration of Shanghai must be paramount for it is vitally necessary in its rehabilitation. In this it serves China's own national interests in a manner somewhat analogous to the services rendered to the economic development of British and Dutch Malaya by the overseas Chinese Communities in these countries. The orderly evolutionary development of the administration should not be violently interrupted as it proceeds on the basis of Justice Feetham's recommendations, The policy suggested, after the "most searching enquiry and unanimously adopted by the Council and public opinion, provides for increasing Chinese collaboration in the administration so that, when practical, the element of foreign control can pass safely, peace fully and entirely into Chinese hands iraihed to maintain, with little fears of impairment, the cumulative achievements of the past.
Under the aegis of the foreign Powers a model administration has been evolved which experience and achievement and public-opinion have endorsed, Obviously there had to be a common language and a general agreement as to the nature of the administrative control calculated to best serve the common welfare of such a polyglot community.
It is natural that English was and must continue to be the common administrative language and that British civie traditions should continue to constitute the framework of the administrative structure. It was originally a British concession and I think I am Correct in stating that as between China and Great Britain that status, as it applies to the most important! Part of the Settlement, remains unchanged to this day.
Some of your readers may have been present, as I was, at a mass meeting of British residents held at the Town Hall in the early days of the war when Sir Everard Fraser surprised his audience by asserting th amd adding that, if circumstances made it expedient to do so, this status would be made again effective, British initiative and traditions have been almost' wholly responsible for the character of the settlement administration. Thousands of headstones in the cemeteries of Shanghai bear mute testimony to the part the British have played in the development of Shanghai as it exists today. By a natural evolutionary process the administration has gradually become more cosmopolitan in its personnel. No administration is ever free from criticism and that of a constructive nature is valuable. In spite of its critics, among whom I have figured somewhat prominently at times, I venture to say, without fear of contradiction, that no civic administration in the world has excelled that of Shanghai in efficiency, economy and integrity, Especially during those recent months when Shanghai was continuously a city of dreadful night' the various departments functioned admirably and services were rendered under such dangerous and trying conditions that their value could not be measured in terms of money. On two occasions I had to venture into the war zone to rescue relatives of my Chinese colleagues marooned there. At the Hongkew police station I found the municipal staff bravely carrying on their duties with destruction and death going on continuously in their immediate vicinity.
An absence of public spirit has been referred to in your correspondence columns from time to time but actual-cly it has been more apparent than Teal. What grounds there were for this impression have been complimentary to the administration. It has been a case of "let Bill continue to do it" for Bill had been carrying on remarkably well and giving general satisfaction, There has only been one organized attempt to undermine confidence in the council and the obvious falsity of the allegations could not fail to impugn the motives for them.
There has in fact been developed a very real sense of citizenship in this the most cosmopolitan city. in the world and a pride in its achievements, To most foreign residents it is now almost more their home than any other place. It is very necessary that "there should be a more general recognition that the administration of "the city in which they have been for jx y so long domiciled, the integrity of Which they have fondly imagined has been guaranteed by a combination of all the leading Powers of the world, is in grave danger.
"Put not your trust in Princes" I would warn my fellow citizens of Shanghai. Your civic interests have teen, to some extent in the past, already sacrificed on the altar of diplomatic expediency and may be again to an even greater extent, The most vigorous united effort must be made to influence those who hold your destiny in their hands. What you can achieve in this respect was strikingly demonstrated recently by the American community when Washington trifled with the idea of scuttle.
It was these considerations which led me to write three letters to the Secretary of the Council the first on August 27, the second on September 10 and the third on the 23rd of that month. This correspondence would prove interesting reading at this juncture but it is too lengthy for reproduction in full Perhaps, however, Mr. Editor you can afford space for a brief summary. I may say that all three letters are to the same effect, The second and the third were largely to press home the urgency of carrying out the suggestions in the first for the first received, as did the others, scant consideration if any at all I leave it to your readers to judge whether these suggestions were worthy of a better fate.
Having been a member of the Council during the Shanghai conflict of 1882 I rightly or wrongly felt thet I could speak with some authority. I reviewed the certainty. that appropriate diplomatic action could then have rendered the whole Shanghai area immune from any danger of a recurrence of such wholesale destruction and loss of life as then occurred. I place squarely on the shoulders of inexcusable diplomatic blundering the holocaust that has again stricken this great city of Shanghai.
I urged that planning should begin at once for Shanghai's future protection and development that could when the opportune moment arrived be presented for the consideration of the Diplomatic Corps backed by the united support of the Council and all concerned in the welfare of the Settlement.
Avoiding publicity for the time being I suggested the immediate appointment by the Council of an informal advisory commission that would be frequently in session closely following the course of events and making deductions from them as guide to their final recommendations. It was suggested that members of the commission should consist only of those with a thorough knowledge in the historical background of the sequence of events in China affecting Shanghai and that the Council should not neglect the collaboration of authoritative opinion outside their own body.
Other suggestions may be summarized as follows At the conclusion of hostilities the Settlement should be in a position to borrow a large sum of say ten to twenty million pounds for its economic rehabilitation. To do so must depend upon the maintenance of its political integrity.
The Settlement has only a trifling bonded indebtedness and at the outbreak of war in Shanghai possessed unencumbered civic assets estimated at over $100,000,000 whilst civic taxation was probably a record low' as compared with other great cities The maximum loan suggested woul be small in comparison with civic resources and with the bonded indebtedness of other municipalities pursuing this policy of drift and tacit acquiescence in activities tending to undermine, possibly permanently the constitution and integrity of the Settlement with cynical indifference to the welfare of not only of their Own nationals actually residing in it, but to millions of others whose interests are concerned with the maintenance of its independent international status.
A. J. Hucmes, Batavia, Mar. 31.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.