CO129-427 - Public Offices - 1915 — Page 47

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German Concession at Tientsin.

At Hankow there are several German establish-

ments in the British Concession, while one very large

British concern the International Export Company

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has its jetties and godowns on the German Concession.

I mention these details to show how ramified and

complicated the situation is and to accentuate the

difficulty of dealing with an isolated case like

Shameen.

As German subjects in British Concessions are

leaseholders of the British Government, I presume

that we should be justified in cancelling, the

lease in any case where it could be conclusively

shown that the lot-holder's behaviour was a menace

to public safety. But His Majesty's Acting

Consul-General states that there is no ground for

complaint as regards the general behaviour of the

Germans towards the rest of the community and any

action taken towards them collectively would doubt-

less lead to reprisals and open up the whole question

of the status of foreign Concessions in China. The

expulsion