Directory_and_Chronicle_1932 — Page 228

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EXTRATERRITORIALITY

take an active interest in the reforms to that end which remain to be accom- plished and that it will carefully note all the facts which tend to show that these reforms are effectively carried out in the administration and judicial practice of the Government authorities and the people of China.

On the other hand, the French Government will not fail to avail itself of the opportunities as they arise to co-operate profitably with Chinese authori- ties in the endeavour to hasten a state of affairs which would permit it to modify with the necessary guarantees the present jurisdictional status of the French nationals in China.

THE NETHERLANDS' REPLY.

The following is the English translation of the reply of the Netherlands Government to China's note concerning the abolition of extraterritoriality.

Légation des Pays-Bas

Peking, Aug. 10. 1929.

Monsieur le Ministre,

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency's Note of April 27 last in which the Chinese Government expresses the hope that Her Majesty's Government would take into sympathetic consideration the desire of China to come to an agreement by which the limitation on China's jurisdic- tional sovereignty will be removed and which will enable the Chinese Govern- ment to assume jurisdiction over all nationals within its domain.

Your Excellency expressed the conviction that the reciprocal advantages resulting from the tariff convention recently concluded between our two countries would be considerably enhanced if the relations between our two countries were regulated on the basis of equality in matters of jurisdiction, and that by the abolition of the system of consular jurisdiction an obstacle would be removed for the full co-operation between the Chinese people and foreign nationals especially in commercial matters; the desire of the Chinese Government for promotig the material interests of all who choose to associate themselves with the Chinese people would in that case find its early realization.

Her Majesty's Government has given this request its most careful consi- deration, and now instructs me to inform Your Excellency that just as it was happy to join the other powers in bringing about the Resolution adopted on December 10th 1921 by the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Armaments, which placed on record its sympathetic disposition towards China's aspiration, so it will be pleased to co-operte with these Powers and with China for the realization and fulfilment of China's desire with regard to the question of jurisdiction.

It may here be recalled that with this end in view Her Majest's Govern- ment wholeheartedly participated in the work of the International Commission which was instituted as a result of the above-mentioned Resolution and which drew up a number of valuable recommendations for the benefit of the Chinese- Government.

It cannot be gainsaid that there exists a close relationship between the internal situation of China, the guarantees which the laws offer to foreign rights and interests and their administration in the whole of China on the one hand, and the measure of progress which it will be possible to make on the road to abolition of the special arrangements now in force with regard to foreigners on the other. The possibility for Netherlands subjects to enjoy liberty of trade, of residence and of the exercise of civil rights including that of owing property throughout the whole of China is in the same way closely connected with the- degree of security existing in the interior of the country and with the question of what safeguards the Chinese judicial institutions offer with a view to their independence and their immunity from interference by military and political authorities.

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