Directory_and_Chronicle_1913 — Page 889

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SHANGHAI

established in 1870, the judges of which are elected by the Consuls annually, its purpose being to enable the Municipal Council to be sued.

The

In local affairs the foreign residents govern themselves and the natives within the Settlements by means of the Municipal Councils, which exist 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, 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 caine 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 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 smill Powers having practically no interests in China, equal to that given to Great Britain, caused a delay of seventeen years, 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 aboyance. 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- aninous 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 hay- 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 sepirate 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 membes, elected for two yours, 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 ovenpants paying a ren- tal of a thousand franés 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 Settlement. The qualification for councillors north of the Yang-king-pang is the payment of rates to the amount of fifty taels annually, or being a householder paying rates on an assessed rental of twelve huidred 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-

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