BRITISH INTERESTS IN HANKAU

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 63, 28 October 1911, Page 3

BRITISH INTERESTS IN HANKAU

Wuchang, the storm contra of the ‘foung China” revolution, is too capical of tne combined provinces of Hupeh and, Hunan, it is si united on the right hank of the river Vmig-mc. Though a considerable number of missionaries, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, live at'Wuchang, it is not open to foreign trade and residence. Duly the breadth of the river, however, separates it from Hankau, tho great commercial centre of the middle portion. ,of the Chinese Empire, in w .lit n -city the British have cousiderr.hle_ interests as As shown in the new edition of the Eneylopacdia Brituunica. '1 ho British concession, on which tho business part of the foreign settlement is built, was obtained in 18(51 by ,a lease in perpetuity from the Chinese authorities in favour of the Crown., ~ By 18(53.a-great embankment and a; troadway were completed along the river, which may rise as much as oOft or more above the ordinary levels, and not infrequently, as m 1819 and -18'b6, lays a large part of the town under water. On the former occasion little was left uncovered but the rpofs of the houses. In 18(51 a public assay office was established. Subleases lor a term of years are granted by tho Crown to private individuals ; local control, including the policing of tho settlement, is managed by a municipal council elected under, regulations promulgated by the British Minister in China, acting by authority of the Sovereign’s Order ill Council. Foreigners, i. 0., non-British, arc admitted to become leaseholders on their submitting to bo bound by the municipal regulations. The concession, however, gives no territorial jurisdiction. All foreigners, of whatever nationality, are justiciable only, before their own consular authorities, by virtue of the extra-territorial clauses of their treaties with China. In 1890 a concession, on similar terras to that under which the British is held, was obtained by Germany, and this was followed by concessions to France and Russia. These three concessions all lie on the north bank of ‘ho river and immediately below the British. An extension of the British concession backwards was granted m 1898. The Roman Catholics, the London Missionary Society, and the Wcsleyans, have all missions in the town; and there are two missionary hospitals.