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members who were not elected but appointed. Even when colonial cities obtained a Municipal Council in one form or another as Hong Kong did in 1883 with the Sanitary Board, the later Urban Council, and Singapore in 1856, while it was still under the Bengal Presidency the main government rested in the hands of the Governor and the other appointed Councils. Furthermore, in these cities, if legislative measures had to be taken, approval of one foreign authority was necessary—the one in the metropolitan country.
This was in sharp contrast to the administrative system which prevailed in the Settlement. There municipal government consisted of a Municipal Council which was elected from among the foreign ratepayers in accordance with a written constitution termed the Land Regulations. If important byelaws had to be made these had to be approved by both the Council and the general body of foreign ratepayers assembled in Public Meeting as well as by a majority of the foreign consuls and ministers at Peking. This whole procedure was rather unwieldy when it was necessary to answer the new problems which were posed when the population of the Settlement increased (from 15 foreigners in 1844 to 38,940 foreigners and 1,120,860 Chinese in 1935), and when industrialisation gained pace from the 1920s.*
As regards the administration of justice, Shanghai equally held a special position. All foreigners belonging to countries having a treaty with China enjoyed extraterritorial rights, that is, in law cases they were tried by their own consuls according to the laws of their own country. This did not obtain in other colonies; there, strangers were prosecuted under the laws of the colony.
As for the Chinese in the Settlement they were tried by a so-called Mixed Court, in which a Chinese judge and a foreign assessor sat together on the bench.
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3.
J. H. HAAN
members who were not elected but appointed. Even when colonial cities obtained a Municipal Council in one form or another as Hong Kong did in 1883 with the Sanitary Board, the later Urban Council, and Singapore in 1856, while it was still under the Bengal Presidency the main government rested in the hands of the Governor and the other appointed Councils. Furthermore, in these cities, if legislative measures had to be taken, approval of one foreign authority was necessary the one in the metropolitan country.
-
This was in sharp contrast to the administrative system which prevailed in the Settlement. There muni- cipal government consisted of a Municipal Council which was elected from among the foreign ratepayers in accordance with a written constitution termed the Land Regulations. If important byelaws had to be made these had to be approved by both the Council and the general body of foreign ratepayers assembled in Public Meeting as well as by a majority of the foreign consuls and ministers at Peking. This whole procedure was rather unwieldy when it was necessary to answer the new problems which were posed when the population of the Settlement increased (from 15 foreigners in 1844 to 38,940 foreigners and 1,120,860 Chinese in 1935), and when industrialisation gained pace from the 1920s.*
As regards the administration of justice, Shanghai equally held a special position. All foreigners belong- ing to countries having a treaty with China enjoyed extraterritorial rights, that is, in law cases they were tried by their own consuls according to the laws of their own country. This did not obtain in other colonies; there, strangers were prosecuted under the laws of the colony.
As for the Chinese in the Settlement they were tried by a so called Mixed Court, in which a Chinese judge and a foreign assessor sat together on the bench.
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