Directory_and_Chronicle_1912 — Page 993

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SHANGHAI

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, acting under Imperial instructions, 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 councilors, the chairman especially, that some new arrangement is generally considered necessary. A move in this direction was made in 1907, by the creation of a paid Board, exercising much the same functions as a Com- pany's Board of Directors, for the supervision of the Electrical Department. The Sec- retariat was in 1897 strengthened and its efficiency increased, but no move in the direc- tion of a change in the Council's constitution has yet been made. A committee of re- sidents was appointed 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 intérests in China, equal to that given to Great Britain, caused a delay of seventeen 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 by-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 powers which it had been for nearly twenty years trying to obtain, including the com- pulsory acquisition of land for new roads, and the extension and improvement of already existing thoroughfares, the promotion of sanitation, and the enforcement of building re- gulations. All these had been foreshadowed in the Original Land Regulations of Captain Balfour, but they, being unskilfully drafted and their immediate necessity not appearing evident to the struggling community, were permitted to fall into temporary abeyance. The rights of the foreign renters and native owners concerned are most care- fully guarded, for which purpose a board of three Land Commissioners has been con- stituted, one being appointed by the Council, one by the registered owners of land in the Settlement, and one by resolution of a meeting of ratepayers. At the time of the Taiping rebellion it was proposed by the Defence Committee, with the almost un- animous 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 hav- ing lost all power in the provinces, been carried out, Shanghai would have become the chief city in the Far East, and it is safe to say would have acted as a leaven, to the ultimate immense benefit of the whole Chinese Empire. A separate Council for the French Concession was appointed in 1862, and now works under the “ Règlement d'Organisation Municipale de la Concession Française," passed in 1868. It consists of four French and four foreign members, elected for two years, half of whom retire an- nually. Their resolutions are inoperative until sanctioned by the Consul-General. The members are elected by all owners of land in the Concession, or occupants paying a ren- tal of a thousand francs per annum, or residents with an annual income of four thou- sand francs. This, it will be noticed, approaches more nearly to "universal suffrage' than the franchise of the other Settlements. The qualification for councillors north of the Yang-kingpang is the payment of rates to the amount of fifty taels annually, or being a householder paying rates on an assessed rental of twelve hundred taels. Several efforts have been made to amalgamate the French with the other Settlements, but hitherto without success. Meetings of ratepayers are held in February or March of each year, at which the budgets are voted and the new Councils instructed as to the policy they are to pursue. No important measure can be undertaken without being referred to a meet- ing of ratepayers, any twenty-five of whom can call a Special Meeting, whose findings are of equal validity with the Regular Annual Meeting. The Council divides itself into Defence, Finance, Watch, and Works Committees. This cosmopolitan system of govern- ment has for many years worked well and, the peculiar needs of the community con- sidered, economically, so that Shanghai early earned for itself the name of "The Mode Settlement."