BRITISH CONSULS IST CHINA.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10704, 10 July 1900, Page 4

BRITISH CONSULS IST CHINA.

When a British subject i,n : a foreign land

is in any difficulty, and there are no papers to -vrhioh he can write, his first, thought is—the Consul. The ordinary Consul iv a European city ; is merely a British trad* agent, but in China he is a great deal more. He has to kesp un eye on, British, jo-tercets over an area often ag great as that of France or Germany. He lias to act as judge in "both civil and' criminal cases, and is, therefore, supposed to kn'mv a good deal of Chinese a,nd English la<w—not that he ever

In China our interests are. o! course, chiefly ..commercial, and' the X'hamibers trf j Commerce are constantly eompl&i*ini-g that j tlie Cfcnsuis do not uudsifttaßd trada and \ do not use their official powers to benefit j it. The Consuls generally reply th&fe the j British merchant haa shown through many generations tiiat he knows Ids business better than any Government could teach him, ] and that lie dees ifc betft -when left severely j alone. This ia possibly tru«, i>ut.\the 1 "taissez faira" policy can certainly be car- . ried tpo far. To give a signfficanfc.example. In 1898 a British miaiog engineer wanted an introduction to the Viceroy of a. pi«ovi»ce tvhieh he wiahe<i to prospect for minerals. He applied to hb Coasu'l, and was refused on the ground that tihe j Viceroy might not gTant an interview ; this j would be an insult to tie Consul and, -there- | fore, to Great Bntair.—a-mi what / icStould happen then? British Consuls tiaturally have to refuse a great many requests, but in China, if the evidence of residents is correct, tharr first and permanent impulse is to say no. At Chdjakiang, ire are told,

gets any opportunity of acquiring the knowlodge. H« has vagus but extensive , powers over-the British subjects among whom Jie lives. He has to register all their sales and purchases of land, to register their marriages, and to register them individually and ssparat-eiy onee 1 a. ye&r. It is .not to be expected that even a British Consul can ever satisfy everybody, .but in China he

generally succeeds in dissatisfying , a, very large nuiaber of people. . His manifold duties make him half commercial attache and half diplomatist, and the troubles is thai he has seldom had any chance of learning his business in either line of life. The consular body is selected' from mere lads fresh from school or college by competitive examination. The successful candidates go straight off to China, and are

shul» up for two years or so ia Peking

studykig the official dialect. They spend another three years at one of the ports as assistants, sometimes even as Vice-Consuls, and they are then expected to be quite fit ami ready to undertake a. coniplication of dutke that could not poasibly "be carried out with succes hy the joint tSovts of Talleyrand, Jay Gould, and ll*ord Kitchener. After all, the -wonder is that the Consular duties we perfornMrd so well.

tolly the-Britishflag on clmi^^i; At Hang .Kong, it. is flwerted< j? every British cons*.!, *•! % appear, to bo to make the gr;uUiun Ll *» f tectum to Great Britain Chiue^l f ; a matter of extreme difficulty." At ?f s | lit is Stated that "the eagerness of { • 1 ' Consuls to forward tie interns | nationas is a strong contrast to the r,'»" S displayed 'by m& of our Onisu],- i a j . And generally -throiigliont the I j asserted fliat British subjects revive I * I privileges -from tlwir CoosuU than mercV* 1 ;of any other natdon, and' lav* to "' * - . higher price for them. Evident:'- * I some room for reform in tlrs (Jo; -' i,»" " 1} vice. Better training and | ■ would be useful before such heavy t J are assumed. Less work, more p\y, J shorter service •would certainly imprJve t 'C j Consular body in every i«spe< t. But *•> *■'■ ■ of its deficiencies seem to l>e ciussd X the aefecta of the system, and in China the Consuls "have, ;n a class t ■bibited thu industry, the courage, ' lionesty vrhicii are tire traditional xiiife of the British official.