The correspondence concerning the Western Area outside the perimeter again brings up the query as to when that district will be fully open for residence and when the eastern and northern districts will be thrown completely open so that Shanghai can get on with the task of rehabilitation. With regard to the frst, the district open subject to a curfew regulation which is enforced between the hours of 5 p.m. and 6 am. and it is contended that this unreasonable restriction makes it impossible and undesirable for foreigners to re-"occupy their valuable properties which have been lying unattended to for months past.
Owners are deprived of the right to enjoy the amenities which they have provided for themselves at considerable expense, and it is contended that those responsible for this restriction of their rights are behaving in a completely unreasonable manner. It is idle for anyone to urge that there are military reasons for maintaining these restrictions.
Fighting has moved away from Shanghai for many months and it is eminently able that this portion of the environs of Shanghai should be restored to normality as speedily as possible, And that for many reasons, not the least of which is that this continued denial of the area in question to foreign residents therein constitutes a direct interference with those neutral rights which the Japanese have so often expressed their intention scrupulously to respect. It has been repeatedly urged upon the Japanese authorities that it is necessary that Shanghai should be allowed to engage upon the task of reconstruction as quickly as possible, and in this connection it is emphatically pointed out that not only does the keeping closed of this area that is what the curfew restrictions in lay that necess but it actually tends tos deterioraion of the properties situated there, It is a well-known fact that unoccupied houses rw into dilapidation quicker those which are occupied, and that proce ually going on in those properties which have bee! denied to their owners for all too long a period.
Apart from the material and moral sides of this matter, there is an important consideration of which the responsible Japanese authorities appear to have lost sight. A great deal of complaint has been heard from the Japanese to the effect that foreign neutrals completely fail to understand them. This is probably true, and if it is, the Japanese have themselves alone to blame. Residents in Shanghai can thoroughly understand what goes on before their very eyes. They contrast those things which they witness with the assurances which are so freely given them by the Japanese authorities, and they fail to find any real agreement between the two. It s not to be wondered at, therefore, if finding this lack of congruity between assurances and focis they express no little scepticism regarding Japanese bona fides. That is a matter which concerns the Japanese alone, The fact is that the manner in which they are dealing with this question of opening the areas which have been closed so long, despite repeated representations, conveys the impression that the Japanese authorities are treating foreign neutrals with complete disregard, ignoring not only thei ights, but the assurances which have been given them. It is obvious from the foregoing that the Japanese authorities alone are responsible for much of the local misunderstanding of the aims and policies which undoubtedly exists at the present moment. They may, it is true have reasons for their present behaviour which seem perfectly good to them. If they have, foreign observers do not know what they are, They would like to know, but it is clear that those reasons would have to be very impressive to convince neutrals that there is any very real reason why they should be denied full access to the districts in question.
These considerations apply with as much force to the question of the western area as they do to the reopening of eastern and northern districts for the purpose of industry.
In the absence of any known real reason justifying the limitations still imposed, the question is naturally asked as to what the Japanese intentions are. Is it intended to maintain a strangle hold on the industrial areas, until by the flux of time they are completely ruined? The impression that this is the case is widely prevalent and the Japanese alone can remove it. Much would be done to allay prevailing suspicions if the Japanese authorities gave an example of their good faith by meeting these requests which have so frequently been made. The Hungjao area should be open to foreign residence with no greater restriction: than are imposed upon foreign residence in the eastern and northern districts, Precisely the same curfew regulations would make it possible for foreigners to return to their homes there, whereas the existing rules definitely prevent it. If there is insufficient police force properly to administer the district, the responsibility falls directly on Japanese shoulders: they have had all the time necessary to develop such a force, and the fact that they have not—if such indeed be the case—is but another justification for the criticism which is being freely expressed, If it is argued that the district has not yet been sufficiently cleaned up, then it must be pointed out that the speed with which the Japanese cleaned the districts north of the Soochow Creek, justifies the belief that they have not been displaying the same celerity west of the perimeter, If that is the case then they lay themselves open to the charge that they are discriminating against foreign neutrals, and in the discrimination damaging those very interests which they have promised to respect. From all of the foregoing it should be apparent to the Japanese that much of the misunderstanding of which they complain is entirely of their own creation. Its removal is just as much a matter for Japanese concern, and this journal and the foreign community of Shanghai would welcome any action on the part of the Japanese authorities which would help to remove the uncomfortable suspicions which have been created in the minds of many.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.