March 2
Discussions of the possibility: of amending the Land Regulations and, therefore, providing the Interna tional Settlement with a less rigidly archaic constitution naturally lead to expression of the view that such amendment is di Meult to achieve. Experience bitterly confirms its accuracy, although many people still feel that acceptance of it to the extent of inaction is unjustified—despite the considerations adduced by Mr. H. E. Arnhold, last evening, at the dinner of the Society of, Chartered Accountants in China.
Leaving that question aside, this Journal has consistently urged upon the Council the importance of set~ ting up machinery for two purposes: but It would be far [tory and, probably, productive results, if a definite organization were created to overhaul all the for the more general representation of other communities in the conduct of the Settlement's affairs. Thus the international character of the Settlement would be strengthened and 0 wider grasp of current municipal problems cultivated. In parti cular: the "smaller" communities would feel more direct responsibility for, and interest in, the Settlement's government.
The point is restated because its Importance is well lustrated by the attention now being pald to the polling arrangements which so badly broke down last week. It is always useful to have the inde~ pendent view of an outside critic and such a view is forthcoming from yesterday's issue of "Lo Journal de Shanghai." That organ of French opinion has not commented on the Municipal Elections hitherto, being presumably of the opinion that it should be chiefly concerned with affairs of the French Concession, However, the unprecedented episode of the uncounted votes has led it to expound the situation to its readers in a purely objective fashion. It} comes to the conclusion that the lapse was due not so much to human negligence as to the absurdity of the method employed for counting the votes. The method, it declares, may perhaps have been suitable to an earller era when the electors were few and the rivalries were different. Tt points out that In other countries, the candidates or their representatives and. electors have the right to be present at the opening of the boxes, to, verity and personally' count' the' voting papers.
'After recognizing that the system prescribed by the Land Regulations, the French journal expresses the view that nothing in those regulations prevents the presence of candidates' representatives t the time of the opening of the boxes. It may be contended that it is always open to any administration to learn by experience, but the system of proceeding by-trial and error, although respectably endorsed recent years, is dangerous. The trouble is that the Council has taken no positive action for reform. Its departments are no doubt open to suggestion but the official mind—very properly in nine cases out of ten—is always more agile in finding reasons for defending current practle then in devising means for adopting a measure of reform.
That is exactly why this journal Ihas advocated the creation of a departmental organization—let it be called a "branch," "section," or "offire""—charged with the positive obligation of probing the possibillties of reform in the whole of the administration. It might be made to operate at the present time with the definite object of effecting economies, thus meeting ancther urgent requirement of the moment. The ballot-box tragedy shows that! the department: temselves, caught up in the rculine of their doy-today work, will not readily initiate improved procedure. The stimulus must come to them from the Connell {itself fortified by the researches of] an ad hoc organization. It is pernent here to make reference again the procedure at the Ratepayers' meeting. Despite the breakdown last year, it is not at all clear, whether the Council has done more than invite departmental attention to the needs of the modern meeting as revealed on that occasion. The pitblic has the impression that there is far foo much taken for granted
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.