BRITISH TRADERS IN CHINA

Taranaki Daily News, 6 September 1929, Page 9

BRITISH TRADERS IN CHINA

SCHEME OF TREATY PORTS

JURISDICTION SYSTEM FLAWS

NATIONALISTS SEEK CHANGE

British Official Wireless.

Rugby, Sept. 4.

The British Government, through the Minister at Peking, has transmitted to the National Government of China a reply to the latter’s desire for removal of the restrictions imposed on the jurisdictional sovereignity of China by the system of extra-territoriality. 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 to the request of the Chinese Government.

Discussing how the present system of extra-territoriality came into existence, the British Government recalled that before science improved communications the Chinese people were secluded from the rest of the world and developed a civilisation and policy peculiar to . themselves. The Western conception of international relations as intercourse between equal in dependent States was entirely alien to Chinese modes of thought. When the traders of the West first found their way to the coasts of China, the Chinese Government found it difficult to allow them freely to enter the country and mingle with the people, nor did it 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, and, 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 which was 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.

EXTRA-TERRITORIAL RIGHTS.'

The object of the first treaties, continues the British Note, was to secure recognition by China of Great Britain’s equality with herself and to define and regulate the extraterritorial status of British subjects. Relations between the two countries having thus been placed upon a footing of equality and mutual respect, Great Britain was content that her nationals should continue to bear those responsibilities and to labour under those disabilities which respect of the sovereignty of China entailed upon them. Conditions did not permit of a general opening of the interior of China and residence of foreigners had consequently continued down to the present day to be restricted to a limited number of cities, known as the treaty ports. The British Government recognises the defects and inconveniences of the 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 relinquish extra-territorial rights when it was satisfied that the state of the Chinese laws, arrangements for their administration and other considerations warranted it in doing so. It has since -watched with appreciation the* progress which China has made in the assimilation of Western legal principles, and has observed with deep interest the facts set out and the recommendations made in the report of the commission on extra-territoriality in 1926. More recently, in the declaration published in December, 1926, and the proposals it made 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 has already travelled some distance along roads marked out in those documents and is willing to examine, in the collaboration with the Chinese Government, the whole problem of extra-terri-torial jurisdiction with a view to ascertaining what further steps in the same direction it may be possble to take.

INTRODUCTION OF THE “WEST.”

At the present time the British Government would, however, observe that the promulogation of codes embodying Western legal principles represents only one portion of the task to be accomplished before it would be safe to abandon the special arrangements which have hitherto regulated the residence of foreigners in China. In order that these reforms should become a living reality it appears to the British Government to be 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, not only of. the military chiefs, but of groups pf associations who either set up arbitrary and illegal tribunals of their own or attempt to use the legal courts for the furtherance of political objects rather than.for the administration of equal justice 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 merchants 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. Any agreement purporting to accord such privileges to British merchants would remain, for some time to come, a mere paper agreement to which it would be impossible to give effect in practice. Any attempt prematurely to accord such privileges would not only be of no benefit to British merchants but might involve the Government and the people of China in political and economic difficulties. So 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 extra-territoriality is a 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, it would be desirable and practicable to effect. The British Government awaits further proposals from the National Government ns to the procedure now to be adopted for examining this question and will continue t to maintain a friendly and helpful attitude | towards any such proposaL