THE SHANGHAI REPORT.

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18349, 8 June 1931, Page 6

THE SHANGHAI REPORT.

Plainly Shanghai has been fortunate to secure Mr Justice Feetham to advise on municipal reform in the International Settlement. The first portion of his report, which has been issued in Shanghai, deals with the existing ■situation. It Is so lucid and cogent that It enables one to anticipate with some confidence the second instalment, due in June, which will outline the necessary reforms. In all the discussions on extraterritoriality Shanghai plays a distinctive part. Foreign enterprise, foreign security, and foreign justice have raised Shanghai to the rank of one of the world’s most Important commercial centres. This foreign influence was the necessary condition of Shanghai’s growth; it is not, however, the sole eauso of her prosperity. Chinese merchants and Chinese wealth play a large part in the commercial life of the city. They have been attracted to the settlement by the unbroken record of security and honest justice which the foreigners have established. They have come to Shanghai'because it is a foreign settlement, but they have not oeased to be Chinese. Their influx has altered the balance of what used and was intended to be a foreign settlement inside China. What was meant to be an international settlement, in the sense that it was to cater for all nationalities but the Chinese, has become international In a more Inclusive sense. The Shanghai settlement to-day is an association of foreigners and Chinese as far as population and commerce are concerned. It is not yet to a just extent an association in government. Mr Justice Feetham’s task is to hammer out reforms which will satisfy legitimate Chinese interests without impairing the foreign-born sense of security. It would be a difficult task in any case, but it is made all the more complicated by the fact that Shanghai is not a British concession but an international settlement. Fortunately, Shanghai may have confidence in Mr Justice Feetham’s wisdom and good sense.