"to the Baltor of the "Nonti-Cunta Dany News" peat in print the result of of the eleethe time these words' ap-
Yon-will be known, Whatever the foueome may be, T think there are tuny amongst the serious-minded Taldents (whether entitled to vole oF hot) who will regard what has happened og constituting a particularly ido aot want this to be interpreted aa'an apology for the action taken by {he British section of the community defence of their representation on {he Council, for elreumstances left no tption In the matter: but I know there feeling of considerable regret In many quarters that the exigencies of he moment should have necessitated the methods adopted.
wunielpal polities throughout, the world are a matter of Keen parlisanhip, but in well ordered communities the division of opinion Les along the fine of belle? in' the personal worth of the candidates and their ability to 'éministor for the greater good of the Tesldents a8 a whole. If we desire. peace, progress and prosperity in this Foreign Seitloment, conflicts along purely. national lines must Uliminated and future elections con-udod In a different manner.
Tam not blind to the dimeultles which confront any one attempting to combine in harmonious action all the arious nationalities in Shangha, with heir different prejudices and pri: Vileges, Tights. and. Interests: but Just be obtfous to all that any scheme of representation on our administra {ive Council which necessitates something In the nature of a dog-fight be: tween three nationalities whilst the omalnder are ignored, is, entirely Unsatistactory and definitely. dorovatory to Ube standing and intelligence of all concerned.
to be hoped that when the feelings engendered by this. election have returned to normal, those with claims to leadership and influence imongat the foreign communities here will pet together to seek a solution of our dimeulties, and to see that, a happier method of dealing with the matier 1s evolved before next spring td another attack of "election fever dans 8. 1. Pere, shang al, Mar. 24, Topical Triolets "to the Baltor of the "Nonru-Curwa Dox Nes Td Tave to be a Councillor And in the Council bang my hat With high Optclals by the score—Fd Tave to be a Counelllor—To take me to the sacrad door That's Inbelled Secretariat, Yd Tave to be a Councillor And In the Council hang my hat. love to be a Scrutineer And count the jolly little votes And have to say, it may seem queer—
The Ballot Boxes being clear, Tave to be a Serutineer Here are the Sheep and here the Goats.
Td tave to be a Serutineer And count the jolly little votes. lwve to be the noble Lord Who steered the Council on the rocks, Holl surely reap a rich reward—Td love to be the noble Lord—To> dignified (or else too bored)
To empty out the Ballot Box.
love to be the noble Lord Who steered the Council on the rocks, 'd tave to be " Bureaucrat And 90 immunity to claim Should eer the Proletarlat—love to be a Bureaucrat—Desire to have me on the mat When Bill (the coolie) is to blame, love to be a Bureaucrat And so immunity to claim. the voting: procedure will be reformed so as to prevent a recurrence of blunders of this kind, but while this is being done why would it not be good idea to go a bit far'ser and perfect the election machinery so a3 to prevent trickery as well as blunders, There is no suggestion that there has ever been fraud in any election in the past. As a matter of fact most elections have been such cut and dried affairs that there has been no incentive for fraud, and the club-tike method of holding the elections has been quite adequate, But the fact remains that under the present procedure it would be ulto on easy matier for anyone to stuff the ballot box" with no fear of detection, I have personally had no experience in this sort of thing but will explain how it can be done.
T voted early.on Monday morning.
would have been a very simple matter for me to take the ballot to} any one of dozens of print shops, duplicate the type and the paper and befor. the polls closed for the day have in my possession hundreds or thousands of voting tickets which no Jone could tell from the genuine. With these Incmy possession it would have been an even simpler matter to pule dozen fake ballots in the box and with a few confederates it would be possible to put in hundreds.
The recent count of ballots showed that the scrutineers did not. check the ballots they counted with the voting list as checked off by the! election clerks, If they had done so they would at once have detected the discrepancy between the number of votes andthe number of ballots. If this precaution is not taken the fact that the ballot boxes were stut-fed could not be detected, Even it] the fraud were discovered it would be impossible to detect which ballots were spurious. The signatures would be no ald because half the signatures in Shanghai are illegible except to there who are familiar with them.
If the election procedure is not} reformed and precautions taken! Jagainst fraud of this kind 1 will guarantee to place at least six copies of this letter in the ballot box at the] next election. It would be a very simple matter to prevent fraud of this kind, An election official should be placed at each box to whom the ballots will be handed for deposit latter he has checked a second voting Uist, This would not only prevent any stulling of the ballot box but do away with the necessity (if there is fa necessity) for signing the ballot this is a distasteful procedure for most people who ore accustomed to the. secret ballot which prevails in. most countries, A great many people believe that the members of the Council have access to these ballots. not true but many
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.