The letter ed HUNGJAO HOUSEHOLDER
Graws attention to. the rapidly-deteriorating state of affairs to the west of Shanghai beyond the defence perimeter, He writes with very considerable restraint, but gives sufficient of an outline to enable readers to fill in their own detail. Tomorrow, May 12, will end tly six months since the Japanese forces cially occupied the whole of the Hungjao is interesting/to review the condition in which Shanghai now finds itself Despite the fact th apanese have been in undisputed possession of Shanghai for that period the city has been denied the possibilities of a return to normality to a degree which fits ill with the assurances which have been given. Free access is not yet possible north of Sccchow Creek, trams are not yet allowed to ply in Hongkew and Yangtszepoo, are iG B rane xetutm to faciosy activity though not to an extent likely to solve Shanghai's immediate problems, the Whangpoo is not being attended to as so important a waterway requires, while access to the Hungjao area is attended by all sorts of capricious regulations as to make residence there unnecessarily burdensome. By these el{-same restrictions the farmers west of the railway are hindered in their work of producing vegetable food for this city, and while the state of affairs in this respect is not immediately serious, unless they are permitted to get into full stride with the production of their crops, the repercussion on Shanghai some months hence may prove most serious Apart from that the discipline maintained by the Japanese troops in that area is still open to severe An example of what is here meant is to be found in a report reaching is office yesterday to the effect that on May two "Japanese sentries marched a Chinese with his hands tied behind his back across the Jessfield Railway Bridge, and when he reached the damaged portion he was pushed into the Creek, Though foreign observers waited and watched for a quarter of an hour the man did not reappear. Later the same day three more Chinese were first beaten, taken on the bridge and forced to jump into the Creek. Fortunately they were able to struggle ashore.
Foreigners who endeavour to understand the reasons for the very apparent shortcomings of the Japanese in this area are thrown back on the choice of one of three alternatives, though it is possible that the are due to a combination of all three, The! are those who are firmly of the opinion that the failure to afford Shanghai the opportunity of starting on the long process of rehabilitation is due to sheer contrariety on the part of the Japanese authorities; others attribute it all to inefficiency, and there does seem to be seme ground for that belief, while t a third class contend that most of the difficulty lies in inability to maintain law and order in and around Shanghai. That last alternative naturally embraces the indiscipline which has iced amongst the Japanese troops in western area, the primary cause of the bru lity and outrage which are all too frequent and constitute a very serious blot upon the Japanese escutcheon. Incidents of brutal behaviour, even amounting to murder, ed above must be the result of a Tack of discipline, for it is still inconceivable that responsible Japanese officers countenance for one moment the various crimes pei petrated against the ignorant and compara tively harmless Chinese countryman. This journal still prefers to believe that such b haviour is utterly contrary to the wishes of the Japanese command and that the latter would stop it, if they knew how. It is of no avail to complain that foreign wine es of such incidents will not come forward and against the culprits. To do so, would invite reprisals from the comi of the men so proved guilt; But the fact that such witnesses will mot come forward doe: not in any way lessen the truth of the accounts. he tally of such occurrence is too long, in most cases too well substantiated, t permit of the existence of much unbelief.
It is but natural that firist attention should be paid to the humanitarian considerations which such brutal behaviour inspires, but now, we may ask, what about Shanghai? For the last six months the Japanese have had it in their power to allow Shanghai to commence repairing some of the awful damage that has been inflicted her. There are still hundreds of thousands of Chinese anxious ie get back to work. Their neglect to do so results not only in the complete stagnation of the place, but adds daily to the tale of damage. The Whangpoo is going from bad to worse through sheer neglect, a neglect which is ezmpletely contrary to the assurances regarding neutral foreign interests which it has been so frequently alleged it is one of the chief aims of the Japanese to protect. At the risk of overmuch reiteration it must be again strongly emphasized that there is mot one valid military or naval reason why the work of rehabilitating the harbour should not be set in hand at once, instead of which millions of dollars of conservancy plant are lying idle when, so much could be done to maintain the harbour at that degree of efficiency necessitated by the enormous trade it has handled in the past and may confidently expect to deal with in the future. The same arguments to some extent apply to the question of reopening, without any strings attached to it, of the eastern and northern districts and the question arises why these things should be. No surprise should be aroused in Japanese minds to learn that there is a by no means inconsiderable body of public opinion in Shanghai, and for that matter elsewhere, which believes that all these failures to abide y the pledged word are derived from a spirit of perverse caprice, but, if it is because of the failure to maintain effective law and order around Shanghai, then the real reason must be found in that degree of inefficiency which has been so often noticed. And in this connection if so little improvement has been effected around Shanghai during the last six months as can now be seen, in how many years can it be expected that the Japanese Will have set up effective machinery for the establishment of those conditions which will permit Shanghai to get busy again?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.