To the Editor of the "Nowru-Cuixa, Daty News"
}grounds for complaint, a person who Sme-Bosmins Were as lie has Held a vote for twenty years and has not used it has not done his duty by the community or even. to himself. T have been in China for "nearly twenty years, sixteen of them here the international "Settlement, but without a_vole, T wanted: that vole, rig civie sense' was such, that T that the order of things which did not grant to me a vole even though 1 lived in the Seitiement should be uprooted, anda new order of tings bbe planted in'its stead. This year circumstances are such that the vote minoand f shall use it, but. and.
here that my puzzle comes in. Who shall 1 vote for? Tam not going 'o be dictated to in this matter but shall use my vote in accordance with the knowledge that 'T have of the candidates and what they stand for. How can 1. a small man, nota mem: ber of a single club, unlike Mr. Bare have an antideluvian ear, how can yet to know what these mon' stand for? There is a possibility: that. '8 municipality such as ours, where 50 many nationals are involved, each nation has some "kind of "tus Hush" policy up ils sleeve, but there fare bigger Issues, issues which ate Hot, solist, which have the benefit of the Shanghai Community' of to-day and of twenty or fifty years hence think of and work out.
The argument that the capitalists or the Taipan dasi should be elected {alls flat when the vested interest and financiers of Great Britain have special representation in the House of Commons or in any of the County: Councils.
Tt ig not the Taipan who drives in modern ear, can know the sanitary conditions of the drains, but the mall man who walks on" the street.
is not the landlord who collects the rent feels the burden of taxa-
Yon, but the tenant who pays it. Therefore, this system of nomination Is it possible in this city to get! together a group of both small and big men to put. forward. suggestions to" the vote holders of this city meeting early in 1887? It is almost {too late to do tke job well this year. If the. group met" twice or thres Himes" in the course of the winter and poled ideas, sifted them, and then brought forward suggestions. to a public meeting in good time. 1 [convinced that the order of things here would soon be changed. It seems to me that two things are necessary in Shanghai, talking ina general sense, to make any gathering into a Success. First, if any thinking is neces-'Sary to atlgin the objective, elect a sub-committee to do it for the body, the second, if no intellectual demands fare necessary, a cocktail party -will five it the necessary stimulus and Esstire success.
Panvus.
Shanghai, Feb, 20,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.