CHINESE TREATY PORTS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4817, 31 July 1939, Page 3

CHINESE TREATY PORTS

STATUS OFTEN MISUNDERSTOOD.

INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENTS AND FOREIGN CONCESSIONS.

The status of three treaty ports in China in which Japanese, British and other Powers are at present vitally concerned, is often misunderstood. The ports concerned are Tientsin, Shanghai and Amoy, through all of which there is a vast volume of trade between foreign Powers and China. The misunderstandings arose from the somewhat ambiguous manner in which the terms "international settlement" and "foreign concession" have been used. Actually, there is a material difference. The treaty ports of Shanghai and Kulangsu are international settlements, whereas Tientsin consists of forein concessions.

The treaty port of Shanghai consists of a French concession, over which France has supreme administrative control, and an international settlement, governed by representatives of America, Japan, Britain and China. Regarding Kulangsu, which is an island off Amoy, Britain had a concession there about nine years after Amoy was opened for British trade in 1842-43. A Japanese concession was established there in 1900. The United States also had a concession there, but in 189.9 she relinquished control. In 1902 the Chinese authorities proclaimed . Kulangsu an international settlement. The settlement is govei-ned by a council of eight members, including three Chinese and one Japanese. Tientsin consists of some foreign concessions, each governed by a council of nationals of the respective Powers to whom the territory has been conceded. There is a Japanese concession, a French, a British and an Italian. Prior to the Great War there was a Russian, a German and an Austrian concession. The two latter automatically reverted to Chinese control when China joined the Allies, whereas Russia forfeited her concessions when Czarism was overthrown. The United States has no concessions anywhere in China.