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175
III. THE SETTLEMENT AND THE CHINESE
GOVERNMENT.
(a) The Land in the Settlement.-"When the terms for the acquisition of land by foreign merchants were first arranged in 1845, objection was raised to the foreigner becoming the actual owner of land, which was in theory the property of the Emperor. It was therefore settled that, instead of obtaining an actual conveyance of the land purchased, the foreigner should receive a deed of perpetual lease.... The rent payable under the lease, which amounts now to Tl. 1 per mow* per annum in the case of land inside the Settlement, and to Tl. 1 or Tls. 2 per mow per annum in the case of land outside, is paid to the Chinese Government, and, in the event of the deed becoming null and void owing to non-payment of the rent or any other cause, the ownership of the land reverts, not to the Chinese proprietor who was the vendor, but to the lord of the soil,' that is, to the Chinese Government." (Vol. I, Part III, p. 319.)
At a very early date it became the practice for Chinese to become the beneficial owners of land held under perpetual lease, and registered in Consular Registers and a great deal of land, both inside and outside the Settle- ment, held under Consular title deeds and registered in foreign Consulates, is now owned by Chinese. Chinese subjects cannot, however, be entered on Consular Regis- ters as owners of land held under Consular title deeds; such land is, therefore, held in the name of a foreign trus- tee, usually a lawyer or surveyor, who is a subject of the country in whose Consulate the land is registered, on be-- half of the Chinese beneficial owner, though no mention of the trust actually appears on the Consular Register. Much of the land so held by foreign trustees on behalf of Chinese owners has, no doubt, been acquired as the result of purchases made by Chinese of land previously acquired by foreigners and registered at their own Con- sulates, but in a very large number of cases the ownership by Chinese of land registered in foreign Consulates is not the result of any purchase made by a Chinese from a
"A mow is roughly one-sixth of an acre.
9
foreign owner, but the result of conversion by Chinese of hinese title deeds into Consular titles under the guise of a sale to a foreigner." (Vol. I, Part III, p. 321.)
In 1926, a table prepared in the British Consulate showed that "the total of land situate in the Foreign Settlement, registered in the British Consulate in the name of British subjects was Tls. 282,939,408," of which Tls. 103,330,473 represented the value of land registered in the name of British subjects but owned by non-British. (Vol. I, Part III, p. 323.)
(b) Jurisdiction Over Chinese Residents.-Chinese residents in the Settlement come under the jurisdiction of the Shanghai Special Area District Court and a branch of the Kiangsu High Court. "These two new courts are purely Chinese Courts, and are incorporated in the Chinese judicial system as part of the modern machinery provided for the administration of justice.' (Vol. I, Part II, p. 175.)
The Courts are of recent origin (April 1st, 1930) having taken the place of a much older Court, known as the Mixed Court, the history of which forms Appendix II of this summary. By one of the terms of the agree- ment establishing them "all Chinese laws and regula- tions, substantive as well as procedural, which are now in force or which may hereafter be duly enacted and pro- mulgated, shall be applicable in the Courts, due account being taken of the Land Regulations and Bye-laws of the International Settlement." The latter are further safe- guarded by the terms of a note annexed to the agreement. This reads: "We"-i.e., the foreign Consular Body- "further reserve the right to object to the enforcement in the International Settlement of any future Chinese laws that affect or in any way invalidate the land Regula- tions or Bye-laws of the International Settlement or that may be considered prejudicial to the maintenance of peace and order within this area." (Vol. I, Part II, p. 176.)
(c) Jurisdiction Over Foreign_Residents.-Foreign residents without extraterritorial rights (Germans, Austrians, Russians and others) come under the jurisdiction of the Courts named above.
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