Twelve days are to be devoted to the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the City Government of Shanghai, The picturesque decorations in the streets have been reinforced by those lantern exuberances which seem to give even the most official function in China a note of intimate roguishness comparable only with the gaiety of the Venetian carnival. The two elder and, of course, the uglier sisters of the Shanghai Trinity will wish Cinderella a happy birthday. They are not so wrapped up in their own affairs as to be unable to give thought to Cinderella and her problems, They are pre~ pared to agree that the young woman has grown much in ten years; she is not so feckless in her habits, she has discarded the irresponsibility of. youth, she is developing a pretty siyle of her own and she is showing what her elders may feel to be a disconcerting progressiveness in her approach to certain problems of which the modern municipal maiden cannot afford to be ignorant. Nor has she any reason to be ashamed of the way in which she has translated her ideals into practice, She may not move as quickly as she or her friends would like but even a modern girl cannot afford to be con sidered fast.. The beautifully planned Civie Centre with its build~ ings conforming to the best in Chinese architecture, its promise of a spacious future, the tentative be~ ginnings of a housing scheme, the wharf at Jukong, the modern Fish Market, are all outward and visible signs of real progress.
Four Mayors are gratefully re~ membered as Shanghai looks back on these ten years of the City Government's history. The importance of their work can be judged from their subsequent careers. The late General Huang Fu, the first of the Tine, became Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chairman of the Peiping Political Council and a notable intermediary between the Chinese and Japanese Governments, General Chang Ting-fan became a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang. General Chang Chun, also at one time Minister for Foreign Affairs, the right-hand man of General Chiang Kai-shek, is now Secretary-General of the Centrat Political Council, General Wu Te-chen, whom Shanghai is glad to welcome again so soon after his departure from Kiangwan on the completion of a successful may~ orally, is now Governor of Kwangtung where he has already made excellent impression. The 'Acting Mayor, Mr, Vu Hung-chun, better known as Mr, 0. K, Yui, has a prescriptive right to preside over the present ceremonies for, in his substantive capacity as Secre~ tary-General of the City Government, he has been the executive chief' of staff to the young municipality ever since 1928, nearly the whole period of its existence, He therefore deserves no little of the credit for the achievements record~ ed. A graduate of St. John's University, Mr. Yui was at one time a Shanghai journalist but was caught up by the Foreign Ofice for employment at Hankow whence he was promoted within a year to the charge of the new City Government's secretariat here, Still on the right side of forty—he will reach that age next year—Mr. Yui is an excellent example of the official of modern China, He naturally receives special congratulations the auspicious anniversary which is now being celebrated. Both he and Madame Yui have braced them= selves to the arduous task of their present duties with a dignity and charm which have been generally admired.
It was not to be expected that the unprecedented task of organizing a modern municipality in an area so closely interwoven with and iminging on two neighbour foreign administrations would be free from difficulty and embarrassment. Moreover in the early years of the decade of Cinderelia's existence political issues greatly complicated that task. Nor would it be fair to ignore the differences of opinion und outlook which were bound to intrude, The elder sisters were perhaps apt to resent the sudden emergence of this vigorous Cinderella. Cinderella was inclined at times to be impatient when she was asked to note the superior manners and equipment of her experienced sisters, Yet the scheme for the new City Government which was in-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.