Directory_and_Chronicle_1906 — Page 808

SHANGHAI

GOVERNMENT

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As at all the open ports, foreigners are in judicial matters subject to the immediate control of their Consuls, British subjects coming under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, which was opened in September, 1865. Subjects of His Britannic Majesty have to pay an annual poll tax of two dollars, for which they have the privilege of being registered at the Consulate and heard as plaintiffs before the Court.. There is enforced registration at several of the other Consulates, but it is free of charge. Chinese residents in the Foreign Settlements are subject to their own laws, administered by a so-called Mixed Court, which was established at the in- stigation of Sir Harry Parkes in 1864, and originally sat at the British Consulate. It is presided over by an official of the rank of Tung-chi or sub-prefect. The cases. are watched by foreign assessors from the principal Consulates. The working of the Court, especially in regard to civil suits, is far from satisfactory, as the judge- has not sufficient power to enforce his decisions. The matter has for some years. been supposed to be engaging the attention of the authorities at Peking and possibly the riot in December last will result in a speedy settlement of the question.. For the French Concession there is a separate Mixed Court, which sits at the French Consulate. There is a Court of Consuls which was established in 1870, the judges of which are elected by the Consuls annually, its purpose being to enable the Municipal Council to be sued.

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In local affairs the foreign residents govern themselves and the natives within the Settlements by means of the Municipal Councils, under the authority of the "Land Regulations.' These were originally drawn up for the British Settlement by H.B.M. Consul in 1845, but have since undergone various amendments. In 1854 the first general Land Regulations-the city charter, as they may be called-were arranged between the British Consul, Captain Balfour, and the local authorities, by which persons of all foreign nationalities were allowed to rent land within the defined limits, and in 1863 the so-called "American Settlement" was amalgamated with the British into one Municipality. The "Committee of Roads and Jetties," originally consisting of "three upright British Merchants," appointed by the British Consul, became in 1855 the "Municipal Council," elected by the renters of land, and when the revised Land Regulations came into force in 1870, the "Council for the Foreign Community of Shanghai North of the Yang-king-pang," elected in January of each year by all householders who pay rates on an assessed rental of five hundred taels, or owners of land valued at five hundred taels and over. The Council now consists of nine members of various nationalities, who elect their own chairman and vice- Chairman, and who give their services free. The great increase of municipal business however, is proving so much a tax on the time of the councillors, the chairman especially, that some new arrangement is necessary. The Secretariat was in 1897 strengthened and its efficiency increased, but no move in the direction of a change in the Council's constitution has yet been made. A committee of residents was ap- pointed in November, 1879, to revise the Land Regulations, and their work was considered and passed by the ratepayers in May, 1881, but the co-operative policy," under which a voice is given to small Powers having practically no in- terests in China, equal to that given to Great Britain, caused a delay of seven- teen years. The Regulations were again revised and passed by the ratepayers in March 1898, and in November the Council received a formal notification that the additions and alterations and bye-laws had received the approval of the Diplomatic Body at Peking, and they have the force of law in the Anglo-American Settlement. They give the Council the power which it had been for nearly twenty years trying to get to compulsorily acquire land for new roads, the extension and widening of existing roads, the extension of lands already occupied by public works and for pur- poses of sanitation, and to introduce building bye-laws. The rights of the foreign ren- ters and native owners concerned are most carefully guarded, for which purpose a board of three Land Commissioners has been constituted, one being appointed by the Council, one by the registered owners of land in the Settlement, and one by resolution of a meet- ing of ratepayers. At the time of the Taiping rebellion it was proposed by the Defence Committee, with the almost unanimous consent of the land renters and residents, to make the Settlements and City with the district around a free city, under the protection of the Treaty Powers. Had this proposal, which was thoroughly justifiable owing to the Imperial Government having lost all power in the provinces, been carried out, Shanghai would have become the chief city in China, and it is safe to say would have acted as a leaven, to the ultimate

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