RELATIONS WITH CHINA

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 5 September 1929, Page 9

RELATIONS WITH CHINA

j EXTRATERRITORIAL RIGHTS. PROPOSALS TO MODIFY THEM. TIME NOT YET READY. JBritisn Official Wireless. RUGBY, Sept. 4. Tiie British Government, through the Minister at Peking, has transmitted to the National Government of I China a reply to the latter’s desire for removal of restrictions imposed on jurisdictional sovereignty of China by the system of extraterritoriality. The British Government says that, animated by the friendly feelings which it has always entertained towards the Government and people of China, it has given sympathetic consideration In I lie request of the Chinese Government. Discussing how the present system <4 extraterritoriality came into existence, the British Government retails that before science improved communications the Chinese people were secluded from the rest of the world and developed a civilisation and a policy peculiar to themselves, the Western conception of international relations and intercourse between equal and independent States being entirely alient to Chinese modes of thought. When the traders of the West first found their wav* to the

coasts of China the Chinese GoAernmont found it difficult to allow them to freely enter into their countrv and

mingle with their people, nor did if recognise that the nations to which they belonged were the equals of China. The traders were therefore confined to a small section of a single city in one corner of the empire. While on the one hand they were' subjected to many disabilities and to grave humiliations, on the other hand, by a species of amorphous and unregulated extraterritoriality. Avhioh Avas the natural outcome of these conditions. the responsibility of managing their own affairs and maintaining order amongst, themselves was in some measure left to their own initiative. Relations continued for many years upon this insecure- and unsatisfactory footing.

The object of the first treaties, continues the British Note, was to secure 'recognition by China of Great Britain’s iequality with herself, and to define and | regulate, the extra-territorial .status of ' British subjects. The relations between the two countries having thus been placed upon a footing of equality and usual respect. Great Britain was content that her nationals should' continue' to bear those responsibilities and to labour under those disabilities which respect for the sovereignty of China entailed upon them. These conditions did not permit a general opening of the' interior of China, and the residence of I foreigners has consequently continued' down to the present day to be restrict- 1 ed to a limited number of cities known as treaty ports. The British Government recognises the defects and inconvenience of tho system of consular jurisdiction .in 1902. in article 12 of the treaty of commerce between Great Britain and China. The British Government stated its readiness to retlinquisli extraterritorial rights when they were satisfied that the state of Chinese 'laws, the arrangements for their administration and other consid-

erations warranted them in doing so. They hove since watched with appreciation the progress which China, has made in the assimilation of Avestern legal principles and have observed Avitli deep interest, the facts set out and re--1 commendation® made in the report of the commission on extraterritoriality in tho year 1926 and more recently, in the declaration published in December, 1926, and the. .proposals which they madly to. the Chinese authorities in January, 1927. The British Government has given concrete evidence of its desire to meet in a, spirit of friendship and sympathy the legitimate aspirations of the Chinese people. It lias already traA'elled some distance along the road marked

out in those documents, and it is willing to examine in collaboration with the Chinese Government the „ whole problem of extraterritorial jurisdiction, Avith a view to ascertaining what further steps in the same direction it may be possible to take at the present time. The British Government would, however, observe that the promulga-j tion of codes embodying Avestern legal J principles represents only one portion 1 of the task to be accomplished before j it would be safe to abandon the special I arrangements which have hitherto regulated the residence of foreigners in China. In order that these reforms should become a living reality, it ap-j pears to the British Government to bej

necessary that, western legal principles should be understood and be found acceptable to the people at large, no less than by their rulers, free from

interference and dictation at the hands nut only of the military chiefs, hut of the groups and associations who either set up arbitrary and illegal tribunals of their own or attempt to use the legal courts for the furtherance or political objects, rather than for the administration of equal justice between Chinese and Chinese and between Chinese and foreigners. Not until these conditions are fulfilled in a far greater measure than appears to be the. case to-day will it be practicable for British merchant's to reside, trade, and own property throughout the territories of China with the same equality of freedom and safety as these privileges are accorded to Chinese merchants in Great Britain. An agreement purporting to accord such privileges to British merchants would remain ror some time to come a mere paper agreement, to which it would be impossible to give effect in practice, and an attempt prematurely to accord such privileges would not only he of no benefit to British merchants, but might involve the Government and-people of China in political and economic difficulties

Soj long as these conditions -subsist there appears to be no practicable alternative to maintaining, though, perhaps in a modified form, the- treaty port system that has served for nearly a- century to regulate intercourse between China and the British subjects within her domain. Some system of extraterritoriality is the natural corollary to the maintenance even, in a. modified form, of the treaty port system and the- problem as it presents itself to the British. Government at the present moment, is to discover what- further modifications in that system, beyond those already made and alluded to above fit would: he desirable and practicable to effect. The British Government awaits further proposals from the National Government as to procedure, now to he adopted for examining this question and will continue to mainthih a friendly and helpful attitude towards any such proposals.