Dec. 18.
Shanghai has been profoundly shocked by the murder on Monday evening of M. E. d'Hooghe, legal adviser to the French Municipal Council, which wax committed near his home by two Chinese. Not only is the community shocked; it is highly indignant that such a crime should have been committed, and the time has come for a little upon the subject. It fs believed that there is a connection between the recent transfer of the Second District Court in the French Concession to the Nanking regime. It is stated that M. d'Hooghe played an im= portant part in bringing about that change' by reason of the advice he gave to the French authorities, and it is being freely' stated that the French official was killed for motives of revenge for the part he played. Up to the present no other possible reason for the rime has been put forward, and it is believed that none can be. That being the case it is not! difficult to determine who may be respon= sible for this dastardly outrage.
Tt certainly cannot be adherents of the Nanking régim® for they have no reason to be other than satisfied with the transfer of the Court, and it would be the last thing to be expected of them that they would adopt such a means of demonstrating thelt grati" tude. There is nothing to indicate that this: was merely a motiveless murder committed wantonly and for no particular purpose. No suggestion has been made that M. d'Hooghe was murdered for the purpose of robbery, or because of some obscure feud against him, ind the conclusion to be drawn is that he was slain by sympathizers with the Chinese National Government at Chungking. Whe= ther they were acting upon instructions, or completely irresponsibly cannot at the moment be ascertained. It is hoped that they committed this murder entirely on their own, and it is the duty of the Chungking Government to make that plain if that is!
Nothing will serve to clear it of 1an_a forthright statement fully disassociating itself from the erjgne and cot dernning the murderers, for if the men were neting upon oficial inspiration the obloquy ing would frankly; a Government seeks to further its own ends by methods is not worthy of its name. It is defeating its main function, namely the preservation of law and order, and the vin~ dication of justice if it is guilty of in any way inspiring, or condoning this crime. It
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.