CO129-478 - Public Offices & Others - 1922 — Page 365

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public interest that would inevitably follow it may be taken for granted that there would be still greater competition. The man in the street," too, would soon shake off his hopeless and apathetic attitude as soon as he found that he could command attention. The example of Shanghai, although the vote there is based on a property qualification, furnishes convincing evidence on these points.

That if reform were granted the same class of men would sit on the Council us at present.

There is no ground for assuming that this would be the case, as men would be encouraged to come forward who stand no chance of being nominated under present conditions. But, even conceding for the sake of argument that the assumption were correct. there would be this very material differ- ence--that those returned to the Council would be elected on a popular franchise and so could not afford, as at present, to ignore the views of "the man in the street,"

The Government has no are to grind.

The honesty of the Government has never been called into question, bat honesty alone does not constitute sufficient title to the sole direction of public affairs. A bureaucarcy needs a powerful opposition, representative of the community, to stimulate its activity, check its mistakes and secure proper at- tention to the needs of all sections. Hitherto the Government's Unofficial advi- sers have been drawn exclusively from one class, and this fact may have given rise to the innuendo conveyed in the claim which heads this paragraph. In his despatch to the Secretary of State in 1916 H.E. Sir Henry May took credit for the "scrupulous care with which veated interests and public opinion are consulted," but it will be noticed that, although endeavouring to make out the best possible case for his own side, he very properly gave vested interests the first place. Popular election, with its corollary popular rejection, would provide a simple and effective means of dealing with axe-grinders that is not available under the existing system of nomination.

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