Aug. 29.
'The meeting which was held on Tuesday, attended by the Chairman of the Municipal Council, Mr. W. J. Keswick, the Japan ese Consul-General, Mayor' Fu Siao-en and a representative of the French Consul-General who attended as an observer, will, it is hoped, mark the commencement of a definite move on the part of all authorities concerned to stamp out terrorism and crimes of that nature which wre rendering the local situation intolerable. {tis indeed a good thing that such a meeting should be held as giving evidence of a general all round intention to ce-operate in dealing with a very sad state of affairs. It was eyreed by the Japanese Consul-General, Mr, Fu Sigo-en and the Chairman'
the Municipal Council to endeavour {0 nye regular meetings between the heads their various police forces operating rea, in order to devise means! for the pr vention of terrorism. It is stated that French ce-operation in this respect! is assured. That is as it should be, and i is now to be assumed that the decks have been cleared for positive action to be taken against those criminal elements whose activities have caused so much anxiety.
There can be no gainsaying the fact that! with real ce-operation from all quarters the problem which is presented is by no means. incapable of solution, but it is necessary. to look the fact straight in the face that crimes of violence no matter by what political consideration they are inspired, or by what-party they have been carried out must receive adequate punishment. It follows that one of the main essentinis is that in the ce-operation which has been agreed upon there shall be the completest possible impartiality, and that criminals shall dealt with irrespective of what particular faction may happen to be behind them, In|" the duty of maintaining law and order crime must be dealt with as such, and no other consideration can possibly be allowed to interfere with the apprehension of the criminal nor the administration of justice with regard to him. Once that principle is accepted it should be possible for all the: authorities concerned to work smoothly' toward the desirable end of eliminating those individuals whose activities occasion such concern.
The "badlands" come up first for consideration. With a common determination to wipe out that unsavoury area, there should be no difficulty in dealing with it. Apart from the fact that it is the refuge gangsters and men suspected of complicity in the various political crimes which have recently been committed, there is the question of the widespread gambling which being permitted in that quarter. Apart from the fact that such gambling is entirely contrary to the law of China, there is always the danger that the ' interests behind it may come into conflict with each other. That has happened in the past, and there is no reason to suppose it will not occur again. A general clean-up of that Alsatia for rogues is of urgent necessity. This it is not believed for one moment) would completely relieve the situation, but It fs suggested that it is the first step which should be taken.
'To that end it is necessary that the' special police force, which has been agreed upon in principle between the Shanghai Municipal Council and Mayor Fu Siao-en, should be brought into existence with the east possible delay. Regret is felt that Jong a period has passed since that arrange~ ment was agreed upon without its having' been implemented, but now that the inten~ tion to ce-operate has been generally expressed it is to be hoped that steps will be accelerated towards that end, The response of the Consular Body to the appeal of the Chairman of the Municipal Council clearly eft the whole matter in the hands of the local authorities, and the reaction of the latter has been satisfactory. It should now be possible for the authorities having Jurisdiction in the various areas of Shanghai to embark upon a concerted drive against criminals of all kinds. A clean-up has long. been overdue, and, if the decision at last Tuesday's meeting is carried into force, a8 is believed it be, the time should not be far distant when the criminal situation will again be well in hand. That is an end devoutly to be hoped for, for there can be no real excuse for the deplorable conditions which have prevailed all too long.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.