An uncomfortable number of letters addressed to the "North-China Daily News" on the subject of the S.M.C. increases has not been Published because the writers have indulged in personalities against men who by reason of their terms of Contract are unable to reply. Those communications have reached the waste paper, basket. The contention advanced in these columns on Saturday last, that these increases amounted to a blunder is still insisted jon. It was a blunder; that is something which cannot be gain said. That it should be rectified follows, but it is suggested emphatically that the real issue is well defined, and much of what is being written serves only to cloud it. Those correspondents who imagine the whole matter arose from the inspiration of the men most likely to profit by the increases are making an assumption which in the ultimate result may not prove to be correct, There is nothing to show that the all of them are in agreement with what is being done, and what is of importance is that under the terms of their contracts they are prohibited from discussing the matter in the public press. Attempts to drag the issue out of its proper perspective are to be regretted. It must be remembered that during the crisis of 1937, when hostilities surged around Shanghai the Council and its employees rendered so vices of the greatest possible value to th community, proving themselves to be men of vision, courage and ability, who can be relied upon to make the necessary adjustment. The statement issued by the S. AM. C. Publicity Office yesterday afternoon, to the effect that the Council had decided to appoint a committee of representative business men to review the exchange adjustments and cost of living bonuses, is welcomed in this connection as a ise step. So long as the committee is a fully representative one, and so long as its finding: are ultimately adopted by the Council there should be no misgivings that adequate justice will not be done between the Council's staff or the one hand and the ratepayers on the other.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.