Finger-printed Peiping, June 23, A not.unamusing snd mest typical storm in a tea-cup has blown up in effelal Japanese and Chinese circles here over, the so-called "residential permits," The original cause of dis-ute' was quite a simple and minor 'Question, but, as so often happens in official circles all the world over, has become a question of face, not of principle, and the gale Become go strong' that Gen, Vu Chin hho, local mayor, is said to have offered his resignation in consequence, With the closing of the city gates, the search of persons entering oF leaving the city, the house to house Inspection by the police, und every possible kind of census' and crossfeensus, the Japanese appeared for the time being to have exhausted their stock of new and original schemes to ald the establishment of the. ce-prosperity sphere in the "new order in greater east Asia" and, incidentally. to irritate the Chinese public in Peiping, For several weeks the population was left in comparative peace, but not for long, Some bright mind on a fresh and profitable scheme for annoying the people, Last month an order wor Issued that every single Adult. Chinese, male or female, was fo apply for'a special residential permit, and {o carry it always ang to produce it on demand.
An Ingenious Touch 'These permits were to be obtained before July 1 and had to be accom= panied by. a certified photo, These Photographs could only' be obtained, ©n payment of 30 cents, from cer= tain photographers specially licensed for the purpose by the police, These photographer, were an ingenious touch, At first all went as merry as a wedding bell; and every day in the main streets of the city were to ko seen- long queues of patient and sheeplike Pekingese, waiting their turn outside the temporary stands of the licensed photographers, Alack. and last How true Is the French saying that "the best is the enemy of the good." The Japanese Gen-@ormerie who, as we know, are nothing if not thorough, were not content with the photograph, They {insisted on finger-prints as well, And their colleagues of the Chinese police naturally insisted on it too, 'This 1s where the trouble started, In drawing up the regulations for the' Issue of these residential permits the Political Council had laid down that it was not necessary to have both photos. and riger-prints, Lut added the somewhat vague pro-visa that "different localities can Ax their own choice depending on loc conditions," The police are nomi ally under the Peiping Municipality, of which Mayor Vu Chin-o is the head, and this, again, is subordinates the Political Council, But the Chinese police ure also—and thig by no means nominally—under the control of the Japanese Gendarmerie. They Ignored, therefore, the wishes of the Political Couhell and went ahead, under the cover of the proviso, with the taking of finger-prints. Anxious as ever to uvald a row, the Political Council, they' paid' any attention to it at all, overlooked this deflancs of their irsteuctions, They were, however, soon to regret their complacency,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.