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"Peking and Tientsin Times" and published by that paper, copies of which will be sent by book post for the information of those who are willing to make a more detailed study.
This important question has already been discussed or made the subject of reference in previous memoranda. No. 13 contained an account of the genesis of the problem and the history up to the time of the Commission which sat in 1926. Nos. 18 and 17 respectively set out the findings of the Commission and reproduced reports of speeches made in Washington and Chicago by Mr. Silas Strawn the American representative, all going to show conclusively that the time had not yet arrived when any substantial change could be contemplated. No. 27, published as lately as July last, dealt with certain recent aspects of the matter.
Since then the American, British and other replies to the Chinese Note communicated in April last and indicating the utmost willingness to move forward as rapidly as circum- stances should admit, yet demonstrating the impossibility at the present time of conceding the Chinese demands, have been made public.
It might be thought that no useful purpose could be served by further emphasis. This Committee. however, takes a different view. It is felt to be incumbent upon the British Com- munities in China to support as far as it is within their power the Government's policy and at least to contribute from first hand experience such information as may show the justification of policy or bring forward matters which should be taken into consideration when framing the method of giving effect to policy. If the present position on this funda- mental question can be summarised for those whose avocations do not admit of more de- tailed study, a wider opinion in support of the Government possibly may be secured.
In its Note dated April 27th. last addressed to the Powers still in enjoyment of Extra- territorial privileges, the Chinese Government called for the abolition of Extra-territorial jurisdiction on January 1st. next. The contention of the Note was that the assimilation of Western legal conceptions by Chinese Jurists and the incorporation of Western legal principles in Chinese Jurisprudence had proceeded rapidly and that courts and prisons along modern lines had been established and were being established throughout the country.
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The Foreign Notes in reply were sympathetic but conclusive against this claim. The American Note in its final conclusion based itself upon the Report of the Commission Extra-territoriality under date September 18th. 1926.
"This report" ran the Note, "contained an account of the conditions then prevalling in the Judicial system of China, as well as a number of recommendations carefully sug- gested ás Indicating the changes and improvements which would be necessary before there would be adequately developed A system of known law and an independent Judiciary capable of justly controlling and protecting the lives and property of the citizens of foreign countries doing business in China. Your Government will recall that the Commission on Extra-terri- toriality which made these recommendations was composed of representatives from thirteen countries Including both China and the United States and that its recommendations thoughtfully and reasonably conceived were unanimously adopted and were signed by all of the commissioners.
Because of its friendship for the Chinese people and its desire, to which allusion has been al ready made, to relinquish as soon as possible extraterritorial Jurisdiction over its own citizens In China. my Government has followed with attentive consideration this entire subject, including particularly the progress which has been made in carrying out its recommendations since the rendition of this report.
It fully appreciates the efforts which are being made in China to asalmiiate those western Juridical principles to which your Government has referred in Its note, but it would be lacking in sincerity and candour, as well as disregardful of its obligations towards its own nationals, if it did not frank- ly point out that the recommendations aforesaid have not been substantially carried out and that there does not exist in China to-day a system of independent Chinese courts free from extraneous in- fiuence which is capable of adequately doing justice between Chinese and foreign litigants. My Govern- ment believes that not until these recommendations are fulfilled in far greater measure than is the case to-day will it be possible for American citizens safely to live and do business in China and foreign property adequately to be protected without the intervention of the consular courts."
The note of the British Government was not less conclusive. After resuming the History and conditions with insight and sympathetic consideration, it stated the inference which the conditions in China to-day render inevitable.
"His Majesty's Government would however observe that the promulgation of codes embodying Western legal principles represents only one portion of the task to be accomplished before it would be safe to abandon in their entirety the special arrangements which have hitherto regulated the residence of foreigners in China. In order that those reforms should become a living reality it appears to His Majesty's Government to be necessary that Western legal principles should be understood and be found acceptable by the people at large, no less than by their rulers, and that the Courts which administer these laws should be free from interference and dictation at the hands, not only of military chiefs but of groups and associations who either set up arbitrary and illegal tribunals of their own or attempt to use legal courts for the furtherance of political objects rather than for the administration of equal Justice between Chinese and Chinese and between Chinese and foreigners. Not until these conditions are fulfilled in a far greater measure than appears to be the case to-day will it be practicable for
*H. G. W. Woodhead, C.B.E., Editor China Year Book.
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British merchants to reside, trade and own property throughout the territories of China with the same equality of freedom and safety as these privileges are accorded to Chinese merchants in Great Britain. Any agreement purporting to accord such privileges to British merchants would remain for some time to come a mere paper agreement to which it would be impossible to give effect in practice. Any attempt prematurely to accord such privileges would not only be no benefit to British involve the Government and people of China in political and economic difficultles."
merchants but might
The inexorable logic, however sympathetically phrased, of the Governments of two of the more liberal minded and democratic peoples, is incontrovertible. Nevertheless the Chinese Government is understood to have replied to these and the Notes from certain other Governments. Only one of such replies has been published namely the reply to the American Note in which Nanking to a large extent changes its ground. Omitting reference to the appeal made in respect of what had been the attitude of the United States in regard to Turkey and the Capitulations, to which there is little analogy, in effect it takes two points. Firstly it urges that security depends on improved goodwill between the Chinese and American peoples, and that such would result from the abolition of Extra-territorial Jurls- diction. Secondly it claims that the citizens of those powers who had relinquished or lost their Extra-territorial rights enjoy friendly sentiment and confidence such as could not have been achieved by citizens of the Extra-territorial Powers.
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The American Government is undoubtedly aware of the fact that the liberty of American citizens and the security of their property rights do nos so much depend upon the continued exercise of jurls- dletion by their own Consular Courts, as upon the timely removal of hindrances to the free and full assertion of China's sovereign rights. Extra-territorial privileges, while apparently beneficial to foreign- ers in China in giving the impression of security and safety, have really had the most Injurious effect their relations with the Chinese by producing in the latter the feeling of humiliation and a sense of resentment which have always caused mutual suspicion and the consequent loss of mutual confidence, thus undermining the very foundations of friendly relations and not infrequently giving rise to com- plications and conflicts. Such conflicts and complications could be easily avoided were there none of those special privileges. In this connection, it may be pointed out that towards nationals of certain countries who have lost their extraterritorial privileges and have submitted to the jurisdiction of China. the Chinese people entertain the most friendly feelings and repose in them great confidence, a valuable asset. it will be admitted, in the intercourse, commercial or otherwise of any two peoples. Such marked difference in the relations between Chinese and nationals of Extra-territorial Powers on the one hand and those between the Chinese and the nationals of non-extraterritorial Powers on the other will, as long as the extraterritorial system is retained, become more and more pronounced, and much 25 the Chinese Government may try to discountenance this difference of attitude on the part of its citizens, it will not be within its powers to control the natural expression of their feelings."
Unfortunately this argument is based upon a state of affairs that does not in fact exist. Between the masses of the people and foreigners there is no hostility save such as may have been deliberately fomented by virulent anti-foreign propaganda either emanating from Government or former Government sources or at least approved, it must be supposed, since it is not suppressed. History proves that the genesis of practically every foreign rising has been instigated or at least not discountenanced by Authority. The Chinese people ask
for nothing more than peace for their husbandry, for the work of their artizans and for their trade. British and Chinese co-operation in business has been uniformly successful when allowed to develope without official interference. It is not at the hands of the people that foreigners fear despollation or personal injury. It is at the official hands of the extortionate and irregular tax-gatherer supported by the brutalities of the police.
As regards the subjects or citizens of Powers no longer in enjoyment of Extra-terri- torial privileges, their lot is far from being a happy one. If the attitude of Chinese is different towards them than to the subjects and citizens of the Extra-territorial Powers, it is in the direction of oppression and contumely. There is no question but that these people are worse off than formerly, and they regard the Chinese desire to impress the Powers still in enjoyment of this right as their main safeguard.
In an article towards the end of his series Mr. Woodhead creates, unconsciously per- haps, what may almost be described as a vignette of conditions in China to-day, which affords a striking commentary upon the pretensions of Nanking.
China To-day
"The supposition that if China were placed upon her honour she would vindicate herself in the matter of the administration of justice is unwarranted. The Chinese are wholly indifferent to their moral obligations except where those to whom they are due are in a position to enforce them. was placed upon her honour more than sixteen years ago in the matter of opium cultivation. she produces annually from eight to ten times as much opium as the whole of the rest of the world. She was placed upon the honour, in 1925 in the matter of the abolition of likin. In only three or four provinces can it be said that any progress has been made: in the others likin. or substitutes therefor. continue to be levied as if no undertaking to abolish It had ever been given. A further disquieting feature is the complete indifference of the Chinese authorities to foreign opinion. A series of dastardly miscarriage of justice occurred in Peking while the Commission OD Extraterritoriality was actually in session. That Commission noted that "the method of execution, the death penalty, prescribed in the Chinese Provisional Criminal Code is death by strangulation" within the precincts of the prison. Public executions are still, however, a common occurrence, and are not Infrequently accompanied by incredible brutality. The condemned are paraded bound through the streets. The Peking authorities, months after the Commission on Extraterritoriality had concluded its labours endeavoured to introduce execution by
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