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Sir,
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council's possession as to what has been done by the Chinese in Chapei to improve the police and sanitary conditions there.
I have, &c.
D. SIFFERT, Consul-General for Belgium and Senior Consul.
Chairman, Muncipal Council, to Consul-General Sir P. Warren,
Shanghai, October 12, 1910. I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the consular body's communication dated the 13th July, requesting information as to what progress has been made by the Chapei Administration towards the improvement of the police and sanitary conditions in that district.
I have accordingly the honour to enclose police reports and memoranda from the Health Office and by the municipal engineer, giving complete replies to the consular body's enquiries. Therefrom it will be seen that there is little difference or improvement to be recorded. On the other hand, there are many indications in these reports of the risks which the foreign community incurs from this hazardous experiment on the settlement's borders, and of the many troublesome incidents which date from its inauguration.
I have further the honour to enclose a protest by 100 owners of land in the neighbourhood registered in foreign consulates, and measuring nearly 3,000 mou, The total area registered in foreign inclusive of the council's holding of 400 mou,
It will be seen that the signatories consulates measures approximately 3,124 mou. object to intervention by the constabulary as an infringement upon their treaty rights. A still more serious irregularity is the attempted levy of taxation, to which the letter giving cover to this protest refers. I have no doubt that this influential expression of the views of the foreigners closely concerned, when transmitted to the diplomatic body at Peking, will receive the unstinted support which it merits, and that strong representations will be made in protest against the misdirected activities of the Chapel Administration.
In conclusion, I further venture to express the hope that the consular body, in forwarding the enclosed information to Peking, will endorse my request that efforts be steadily sustained to secure attention to the request of the community for an extension of the settlement, which, in the council's opinion, has now become a matter of urgent public necessity, and alone will prove the ultimate means of putting an end to rapidly growing complications.
I have, &c.
Police Report.
DAVID LANDALE.
In respect to what has been done by the Chinese in Chapei to improve the police conditions there, I have to offer the following remarks :-
I have never had the opportunity of seeing the inner organisation or working of the Chapei police, and therefore am not in a position to say what improvement has taken place during the last three years. It may, however, be of use to the consular body to recall the various difficulties which the police have experienced with the Chapei constabulary during the last two years. The attached list is a summary of these.
So far as my own observation goes during the three years I have been in charge of the force, it is clear that the Chapei constabulary, who fuuction on the boundary, are placed there mainly for the purpose of watching our police force, and also for the purpose of maintaining what is called China's sovereign rights so far as the actual boundary itself is concerned.
On the Chinese side of the settlement boundary their work appears to be of little account, to judge by the open way in which armed parties of robbers can gain access to the north-eastern boundary of the settlement apparently whenever they wish.
Co-operation in the true sense of the word is, I regret to say, impossible. The Shanghai municipal police are prepared to furnish all the usual means of co-operation, such as pawnshop circulars, circulars of lost property, circulars of deportees; also of prisoners wanted for serious crimes. But the result of the offer to furnish these details has resulted practically in no advantage.
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On the other hand, the force is always ready to aid the Chinese authorities in the arrest of criminals wanted by them who have taken refuge within settlement limits. It is seldom that any such action is required from this force, for the reason that the Chapei authorities seem to have preference for the irregular action of sending their own runners, or men of even higher authority, into the settlement to make arrests themselves.
The only sign of co-operation (which it is a pleasure to refer to) is that given mainly in the West Hongkew and Hongkew districts on the northern border by underlings in charge of certain native stations there.
So long as the constabulary surrounding this settlement is organised and conducted under present methods, so long will co-operation be impossible. If the authorities in charge of police work at Soochow, Nanking, Hangchow, and other similar towns were really in earnest in endeavouring to aid this settlement in capturing criminals and preventing crime, very much might be done were modern organisation put into force. As things now are, it is, I regret to say, impossible to count upon assistance. For any bargain there must be reciprocity.
Sub-Enclosure.
C. D. BRUCE, Captain-Superintendent of Police.
May 27, 1908.-Police Constable Sinclair assaulted by constabulary, vide council's letter of the 28th May; vide "Municipal Gazette" of the 4th June, 1908.
May 31, 1908.-Treatment of railway foreman by Chapei constabulary for assaulting an official's mafoo, vide “Municipal Gazette" of the 18th June and of the 6th August, 1908.
Report for October, 1908.-No co-operation in recovery of stolen property. Pawnshops unsupervised, springing up on the settlement boundary.
October 9, 1908.-Native police constable 384 arrested by constabulary and confined in an insanitary privy, vide "Municipal Gazette" of the 19th November, 1908.
December 1908.-Shooting of two children and another attacked with a sword at gambling sheds, Harbin Road, vide "Municipal Gazette" of the 10th December, 1908.
February 1909.--Municipal servants molested in executing their ordinary duties in Alabaster Road, vide" Municipal Gazetto" of the 18th February 1909.
March 13, 1909.-Constabulary encroaching on road leading from North Szechuan road to railway crossing, and molesting municipal servants, vide "Municipal Gazette" of the 15th April, 1909.
Report for March.-Gambling in Li Hongkew, unsuppressed by the constabulary, in a depôt about 200 yards from a constabulary station.
Report for May-The same subject.
August 22, 1909.-Irregular arrest of Ng Ah-dau in Markham Road, vide "Municipal Gazette" of 21st October, 1999, p. 298, and “Municipal Gazette" of the 13th January, 1910, and the 20th January, 1910.
September 1909-Obstruction by Wang Taotai, Superintendent of the Chapel Constabulary, to police action in endeavouring to arrest a suspected felon, and an ex-Chapel constable in refuge at his private residence, No. 11, Sinza Road, vide Municipal Gazette" of the 21st October and the 28th October, 1909, pp. 303 and 314.
Report for September.-Further communication on the same incident.
Report for December.-Gambling in Li Hongker sheds proceeding under the eyes of the constabulary.
Report for February 1910.-Continued systematic public gambling beyond the boundary,
Report for May 1910.-Armed robberies in Wayside and Yaugtszepoo, and the inefficient manner in which Chinese authorities manage matters affecting the settlement or its north-east boundary.
Report for June 1910.-Action of the Chapel constabulary in respect to the supply of pork.
C. D. BRUCE, Captain-Superintendent of Police.
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