CO129-529-5 China- extraterritoriality 23-11-1931 - 31-12-1931 — Page 135

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Appendix I. THE LAND REGULATIONS.

AN ABRIDGED HISTORY.

1. The Land Regulations date back to 1845. They were published on November 29th of that year under the joint authority of the local Chinese official known as the Taotai (Intendant of Circuit and Superintendent of Customs) and the British Consul, and applied to an area of approximately 138 acres set aside to be "rented to English merchants, for erecting their buildings, and re- siding upon," titles to land bought by such merchants from native owners taking the form (as explained in Section III (A)) of perpetual leases, under which a small annual rent was reserved for payment to the Chinese authorities. The Regulations contained 23 articles and provided for the appointment by the British Consul of "three upright merchants" to act as a Committee for certain purposes-the nature of which is indicated by the name which the Committee acquired, i.e., Committee of Roads and Jetties.

2. In the first instance the Settlement was regarded as a British area. The Land Regulations of 1845 pro- vided that the "native inhabitants of the said quarters must not rent to each other nor may they again build houses there for the purpose of renting to Chinese merchants." They also provided that merchants might not "build houses for renting to or for the use of Chinese."

(Vol. I, Part II, p. 31.) Moreover, before

a non-British foreigner could acquire land the per- mission of the British Consul had to be obtained. This latter restriction, however, was not insisted on. By 1848 the Settlement had a population of over 100 foreigners, including representatives of 24 mercantile firms, of which three were American and the remainder British. Up to 1853 the Chinese residing in the Settlement numbered only 500. In that year, however, the disorders of the Taiping rebellion (referred to in Section II (c)) began to drive many Chinese into the Settlement. By the follow- year they numbered 20,000. (Vol. I, Part II, pp. 29-32.)

3. This fact, together with the occupation by the Taipings of the native city of Shanghai and its siege by Chinese Government forces, led in 1854 to the adoption

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of a more elaborate set of Land Regulations. These cumstances" revealed to the inhabitants of the Settle- ment their weakness so long as they remained an un- organized community consisting of groups of foreigners belonging to different nations, each living under their own laws and subject to the jurisdiction of their own Consuls." (Vol. I, Part I, p. 35.) On July 11th, 1854, a public meeting of foreign renters of land was held in the Settlement. The British Consul presided, and the American and French Consuls were both present, and the meeting adopted a new set of Regulations "which had already received the assent of the British and American Ministers and the Taotai, and had been sealed by the Taotai and signed by the American and French Consuls as well as the British Consul." (Vol. I, Part II, p. 36.) Acting under the constitution of 1854, the Settle- ment community for the first time established for itself an elected representative body and provided for the organization of a common police Force and for the exer- eise of compulsory powers of taxation." (Ibid p. 38.) These 1854 Land Regulations omitted the 1845 clauses prohibiting the erection of houses for Chinese and pro- hibiting Chinese from renting land to each other. By 1862 the Chinese population had increased to 500,000. (Ibid pp. 32,34.)

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4. In 1865 a revised set of Land Regulations was submitted to and received the approval of the land renters at a public meeting held in March, 1866. It was intended that they should apply both to the British and American Settlements (amalgamated by agreement on September 21st, 1863, the latter having grown up in an informal way, north of the originally British area, since 1853) and to the French area, formally delimited, south of the British area, on April 6th, 1849. The French, however, (who had not applied the 1854 Regulations to their area) were unwilling to apply these. It was arranged, accord- ingly, that the French area should be governed by the règlement issued by the French Consul.

The revised Regulations were sent to the Diplomatic Body and were provisionally approved by the diplomatic representatives of Great Britain, the United States,