Directory_and_Chronicle_1920 — Page 777

27 3 3 R S

SHANGHAI

705

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 and native renters 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 rental 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 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 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 Finance, Watch, and Works Committees. This cosmopolitan system of government has for many years worked well and, the peculiar needs of the community considered, economically, so that Shanghai early earned for itself the name of "The Model Settlement. An agitation was started in 1919 for Chinese representation on the Municipal Council of the International Settlement on the plea that there should not be taxation without representation, and some little difficulty was experienced in connection with the collection of rates. Although, as explained on page 708, the Chinese reside in the Settlement on suffrance, the Council offered to accept two Chinese in an advisory capacity on Chinese affairs, but the agitators were not satisfied with this and urged that the Land Regulations should be revised so as to enable them to have seats on the Council. Firm opposition was offered to this and the dispute was still in progress, when we went to press.

It is indicative of the wisdom of the principles laid down by Captain Balfour, and subsequently extended by Sir Rutherford Alcock, which, while granting the foreign re- sidents full and complete power to manage their own municipal affairs, and holding them responsible for the peace and good order of the Settlements, carefully refrained from any interference with the sovereign rights of the Emperor of China as Lord of the Soil, that for a space of seventy years no clashing of authority, which could not be at once removed by the excrcise of a little common-sense on both sides, has been found to occur. Twice, indeed, it may be said, the Foreign Settlements proved the salvation of Imperial rule over the whole Empire. It was owing to the fact that the Im- perial troops, aided by Gordon's "Ever-Victorious Army," were able to make the Foreign Settlements their base of operations, that the capture of Soochow in November 1863, and after it the complete suppression of the Taiping Rebellion was due. Later, in 1900, when the Emperor was a prisoner in his own palace, and the insurgent troops of Prince Tün and T'ung Fu-siang were actually besieging Peking, it was the loyal conduct of the Nanking Viceroy, the late Liu K'wen-yi, backed up by the loyalty of the Chinese residents in the Foreign Settlements, that finally brought about the restoration of order in the North, and saved the Empire from extinction and partition. These things were per- fectly well understood by a long run of distinguished statesmen, who in turn held for