The voice of the Japanese community, insisting upon its right to an increasing prominence in the management of our civic society, has today attained an ominous stridency. The danger signals are flying and we ignore them at the peril of creating for the first time a situation which these three communities have very wisely avoided throughout the whole of the Settlement's past history.
What, basically, is the Japanese community asking of their fellow-communities? Fundamentally, it is stated to be that no one community shall over-dominate and dictate in municipal affairs. The official statement of the Japanese Ratepayers' Association issued on December 24, 1940, is that:
"It does not aim at the monopoly of the Settlement administration by taking over the position of the British, but aims at the improvement as well as internationalization of the administration, as was Clarified on the occasion of the last election and Ratepayers' Meeting, so that residents of all nationalities may have equal participation in the administration and equal benefit for their trade and living."
That is a statement with which their fellow communities can have no quarrel, since it asseverates what is essential in the Settlement's character. The Japanese plea asserts itself as being for a larger measure of Japsnese participation in the administration of the Settlement, ie, an Regulations hed ten years ago become the declared aim and policy of the Settlement. The Feetham reforms of 1930 were to liberalize the municipal system in its fundamental aspects, including a more liberal Voting enfranchisement and an increase of Councillors. These reforms thus aimed to concede much thst the Jepanese community asserts it is asking for.
Where, then, is the difficulty? It lies precisely in the fact that the ostensible aims of the Japanese community are suspected to veil and to abet Japan in achieving its national and sovereign aims in China and in the Settlement. What the Japanese community suspects of the British and American community in municipal affairs is what the other national communities precisely charge the Jepanese with, namely, the subordination of local to national aims. It is essential, therefore, to the recovery of mutual trust and harmony between the Japanese community and other national communities that both sides should be able to disabuse their minds of the fear that municipal politics are being utilized to subserve national ends.
The Japanese community, on its tart, cannot plead that it is guiltless of the creation of this fear, since the official pronouncement of the Japan-;|ese Ratepayers' Association refers to the "inseparable connection of interests within Shanghai with the strategie considerations of Japan's war in China", and to the effect the Settlement administration has on Japanese operations against Chungking. Furthermore, the statement ties up the Japanese community's civic "aims with the national aim of randiting the Settlement to the Nanking Government.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.