CO129-352 - Public Offices - 1908 — Page 436

roads, whether inside or outside the International Settlement, was acquiesced in by the Chinese authorities. No sooner, however, had the new Chinese municipality been inaugurated than the Taotai, at the request of the Paoshan Magistrate, who was temporarily in charge of its affairs, addressed a letter to the Senior Consul asking for the removal of the municipal police from the North Szechuan road extension, which was stated to be within the area under its control. He informed the Consular Body that a sufficient number of well-trained native police had been engaged to maintain order, and that there was no longer any necessity for the Council to police the road. In view, however, of the fact that since the establishment of the Chinese municipality crime in the district had shown a tendency to increase rather than decrease, the Senior Consul replied to this letter by pointing out that it was scarcely the time to consider the advisability of withdrawing efficient police patrols from roads the property of the foreign community; on the contrary, the Consular Body was of opinion that it might be necessary before long to increase the number of municipal police to assure better the safety of the inhabitants and their property. After this the Taotai confined himself to objecting on various grounds to the new municipal roads in course of construction outside The Settlement, and it was not until the 30th January of the present year that he again returned to the subject by disputing the right of the Council to police the boundary road, another municipal road which runs along the northern boundary of the Settlement, almost parallel to the railway station, and which, like the North Chekiang road, is half inside and half outside the Settlement. His objection, this time, was based on the fact that the road had been built on the site of a creek which, though it had been filled in at municipal expense, was Chinese Government property, and had never been sold to the Council. The inference drawn from this last complaint of the Taotai's was that he no longer questioned the right of the Council to police roads which were indisputably their property, yet from this time onwards the municipal police had constant reason to complain of encroachment by the native police on almost all the municipal roads within the area of the Chinese Settlement, but especially on the North Chekiang road. At first the trespassers were merely ordered off, but, as the nuisance increased, and it became apparent that they were acting under instructions from their superiors, orders were given by the Council to their police to arrest any Chinese police who attempted to patrol a municipal road. On the 28th ultimo two of the Paoshan police were arrested for this offence on the North Chekiang road and taken to the West Hongkew police station. Their detention seems to have caused considerable indignation among their comrades, and later in the day some forty or fifty of them gathered at the mouth of an alley-way entering the road from the Paoshan side, and, when ordered back by the foreign constable on duty, suddenly attacked him and dragged him some distance up the alley-way, with the intention, it is alleged by the Council, of carrying him off and confining him in the Paoshan police station, in revenge for the arrest of the two native policemen. The constable succeeded, however, in drawing his truncheon and forcing his way back again.

The Council having reported to me in error that the man, who is a British subject, had actually been carried off, I at once sent Mr. Wilkinson, the Vice-Consul, to the Taotai to demand his instant release. Mr. Wilkinson's inquiries soon showed that, as far as the constable was concerned, the seriousness of the affair had been exaggerated, but on the other hand he found both the Shanghae Taotai and Wang Taotai, the official in charge of the Paoshan Settlement, considerably alarmed at the behaviour of their own police. They informed him that the men had got out of hand, and that, unless their two comrades were released, there would most certainly be trouble before the end of the day. At their earnest request Mr. Wilkinson agreed, on condition that they undertook to produce the men at the Mixed Court when required and in the meanwhile to make no further attempts at patrolling the road, to explain the situation to the Council, and ask, on their behalf, for the release of the two men on bail. To these terms they consented, and on the state of affairs being represented by Mr. Wilkinson to the Council, the two men were at once released on the personal security of Wang Taotai that they would appear at the Mixed Court when called upon.

The day fixed for their trial was Friday last, but on that day neither of the men was sent to the Court, the Taotai explaining afterwards to Mr. Wilkinson that, while he had no intention of going back on his word, he did not propose to allow them to appear until some arrangement had been arrived at on the question of the patrolling of the North Chekiang road, on which, he claimed, the Paoshan police had as much right as the municipal police.

The affair in itself is of no great importance, but it has brought to a head the Council's resolve to apply for an extension of the International Settlement which will incorporate within its limits the whole of the tract lying between the Settlement and the railway line.

It is the suburbs in this direction that are the most thickly populated of the Settlement and which it is most desirable from every point of view to have brought within the scope of the Land Regulations.

It will no doubt be within your recollection that when the Settlement was extended in 1899 it was over the extension into this neighbourhood that the negotiations very nearly broke down. The Council of the time, recognizing the importance of the locality—for it was evident even then that it was in this direction that the growth of the Settlement would be most rapid—were most unwilling to allow it to be excluded from the extension, and it was only on the understanding that the extension then granted was not by any means final, but only an instalment, and that as soon as the necessity of further expansion was proved the Consular Body would at once take the matter up, that they agreed to accept the boundary offered by the Chinese authorities.

The grounds on which the Council base their opinion that the time has now arrived for applying for a further extension of the Settlement are briefly stated in the Chairman's letter. It is obvious that, if the necessity of including within Settlement limits the district indicated by them was manifest in 1899, the need is far more pressing at the present time. In those days the district in question was most of it open country, and the boundary of the Settlement clearly defined by creeks and other natural obstructions; at the present time the whole area is thickly populated, and as house property has encroached on the boundary the latter has become obliterated, and is now an imaginary line running in places along the middle of a municipal road.

As you are aware, the Chinese authorities, realizing the state of affairs in this district, and anticipating a demand on the part of the Council for an extension of the Settlement, have established in the locality the Chinese municipality, to which reference has already been made. The district in which it functions is called officially the Chinese Commercial Settlement in Paoshan, but, as it includes the Chapei district as well, it is usually known as the Chapei Municipality. In the English sense of the word, it is not a municipal concern at all, but is run by a Chinese expectant Taotai by the name of Wang, appointed by the Viceroy. The intention of the authorities in founding the Settlement was admittedly to block by its means any further extension of the Settlement in a northerly direction, where, as they well knew, the need for extension was most keenly felt. Had the Chapei Municipality been successful in accomplishing the object with which the authorities professed to the Consular Body that it had been established, namely, to insure the good government of the place by affording effective police protection to the inhabitants, preserving cleanliness, providing lighting and pure water, and other benefits of civilization, it is possible that their policy would have been successful, and the question of extension in this direction might have been indefinitely postponed, but, beyond building a few roads and engaging a large but undisciplined and utterly inefficient police force, the achievements of the Chapei Municipality have fallen lamentably short of its professed aims. In spite of its numerous police, the district still enjoys an unenviable reputation as a haunt of robbers and criminals generally, and from a sanitary point of view, as the report of the Municipal Health Officer for 1907, published in the Annual Report of the Shanghae Municipal Council, shows, it is a menace to the public health. In other words, the establishment of a Chinese municipality has proved of no practical benefit to the inhabitants of the district; while, on the other hand, the obstructive policy of the officials in charge of its affairs and the aggressiveness of its police are a source of constant friction with the Shanghae Municipality, which sooner or later is bound to lead to serious consequences. In the interests, therefore, of peace and order, and for the sanitary safety of the International Settlement, it is urgently desirable that the extension suggested by the Council should be conceded at the earliest possible date by the Chinese authorities.

In his letter to the Senior Consul the Chairman of the Council states that, beyond indicating the railway line as the most desirable new limit in the absence of any natural barrier, the Council do not desire at present to go further into the question of the amount of extension which should be arranged. Although the area suggested by the Council is comparatively small, it is certain that, as in 1898, any expansion into the Paoshan district, within which a portion of proposed extension lies, will for political reasons be strongly opposed by the Chinese authorities. The latter have always maintained that the Treaty port of Shanghae is situated within the limits of the Shanghae Hsien or Magistracy only, and does not extend into the Paoshan Hsien, and on this pretext they have obstructed and constantly disallowed the sale of land to foreigners in the northern outskirts of the Settlement. Once any portion of Paoshan district is included within the area of the Settlement they must of necessity abandon this pretext.

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