CO129-529-5 China- extraterritoriality 23-11-1931 - 31-12-1931 — Page 269

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT

CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[F 6142/34/10]

No. 1.

335

October 27, 1931.

SECTION 1.

Memorandum by Mr. H. Porter, C.M.G., respecting the Extra-territoriality Question in China. (Communicated to Foreign Office, October 27, 1931.)

THE treaty recently initialled by Sir Miles Lampson and Dr. C. T. Wang provides for the abolition of extra-territorial privileges of British subjects and British-protected persons throughout the Republic of China, with the exception of the Shanghai and Tientsin areas, which are specially reserved for a total period of five years as regards Tientsin and a maximum period of ten years as regards Shanghai. The Shanghai area is reserved absolutely for five years, after which a further period of five years will be taken up with discussions as to the future administration of the municipality, with the proviso that, in the event of no agreement being reached at the end of the second period of five years, extra- territoriality for British subjects there will automatically lapse.

So far as Canton, Hankow and the other treaty ports are concerned, as well as in the interior generally, British extra-territorial rights cease immediately upon ratification of the treaty, subject to the various safeguards included therein. Opinions are naturally much divided as to (a) the wisdom, (b) the necessity, and (c) the opportuneness of taking this step at the present juncture.

As regards the wisdom of the step. The Chinese have for years been making increasingly urgent demands upon the foreign Powers to consent to the abolition of extra-territoriality, which their newly-awakened national consciousness, con- siders to be derogatory to their dignity and to class them among the less civilised nations of the world. They point to Japan, Siam and Turkey, where these privileges have been successively given up. They quote the numerous promises and assurances they have received from the Powers individually or collectively from time to time in recent years. They claim to have created modern courts, to have issued Codes of Civil and Criminal Law, and to be prepared to administer justice in accordance with accepted modern principles. Why then, they ask, do the Powers still delay to meet their wishes? On what grounds can the Powers justify the continuation of these anomalous privileges so repugnant to the awakened conscience of the Chinese people? Accusations of bad faith are freely made, and the more extreme members of the Kuomintang or Nationalist party advocate unilateral denunciation of the so-called unequal treaties and the abolition of all foreign privileges on the part of China without further reference to the foreign Powers concerned. In fact, influenced by these extremists, the National Govern- ment did at one time announce the abolition of extra-territoriality as from January 1930. The only practical effect of this action was, however, to speed up negotiations which culminated in the virtual conclusion of a treaty between China and Great Britain last June. During the course of those negotiations, which were somewhat prolonged, and at one time nearly reached a deadlock, another declaration of the Chinese Government announced that extra-territoriality would be abolished finally as from January 1932.

There is no doubt whatever that feeling amongst the Chinese, that is the intelligentsia and the ruling classes, including the military, runs very high on this question. They are fully aware of the more liberal attitude of the Powers towards the great nations of Asia, and the more sympathetic understanding which has come over the world since the experiences of the Great War. They are also well informed of post-war conditions, of the universal desire to avoid unnecessary causes of international friction, of the implications of the Kellogg Pact, and all the international movements of a nature tending to advance the cause of humanity. Also they are fully aware of the financial plight of the world in general, and the trend of public opinion, which makes any attempt to maintain a privileged position in a foreign country by means of armed force well-nigh impossible.

In these circumstances, it seems to be the part of wisdom to meet the unanimously expressed wishes of the Chinese people and Government, before it is too late, in a spirit of friendly compromise, even at the cost of some temporary

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