CHINESE LAW

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 104, 27 January 1930, Page 11

CHINESE LAW

BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER ARRESTED BOY KILLED BY MOTOR MISSIONARIES’ PRIVILEGES WITHDRAWN (United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph. —Copyright.) (Rec. January 26, 5.5 p.m.) Shanghai, January 25. Indicative of the feelings in the interior of China regarding the rights of all foreigners is an incident at Hankow in which Paymaster Mcßride, of the British Navy, was arrested and refused release by the Chinese authorities following a motor accident and the subsequent death of a Chinese boy. Mcßride was held responsible. Representations by British Consular oflicials met with a firm refusal by the Chinese authorities to release the officer. They intimated that all foreigners were now under Chinese law, according to instructions from Nanking. The officer was only released following representations to Nanking upon a guarantee by the British Consul-General that Mcßride would submit to a subsequent Chinese inquiry. There was a storm of protest in local missionary circles at the announcement of the British Foreign Secretary, Mr. Henderson, that special privileges to British missionaries had been abolished. The privileges principally consist of permission to own property and reside -in non-treaty ports and virtually also the protection afforded by extraterritoriality. “The abolition of privileges,” a local prominent British missionary declares, “places every British and possibly every other foreign missionary at the mercy of bandits and renders Christian’ work in the interior of China doubly precarious when bandits learn that the present protection has been officially withdrawn. Mr. Henderson’s statement was totally unexpected.” Conferences are being convened locally for the purpose of protesting at the Foreign Minister’s action.