CHINA’S NEW TRUST

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23317, 28 September 1945, Page 2

CHINA’S NEW TRUST

Grievance Removed “Extraterritorial” Rights Surrendered There is one New Order of the Pacific which is to remain—in spite of Japan’s defeat. It affects you and me and every Briton, American, and Dutchman who may, for business reasons or pleasure, visit China from now ™ Our status in that country before this war started, and even up to a couple of years ago, was based upon an extraordinary privilege “extraterritoriality”—a privilege which gave us the right to live in China and yet be subject to our own country’s laws, whether we were British, American, Dutch, or any other favoured nation (states a writer in the Melbourne “Argus.”) That state of affairs no longer exists. From now on we are all under Chinese law, when In China. Extraterritoriality has ended with a voluntary gesture on the part of the powers concerned. China has been accepted into the family of the United Nations on a basis of equality, and her sovereign rights have been to her after nearly a century. Her last cause of complaint has been removed. It is now up to China to prove herself worthy of the trust which the powers have thus placed in her. Introduced at the time of the “gunboat policy,” extraterritoriality outgrew its necessity, and desirability, several years ago. It was an emergency measure designed as much for its psychological effest as for the material benefits it conferred upon those enjoying it. Without its protection it is very doubtful whether China’s foreign trade would have attained its present-day proportions. Without it, it is almost certain that those magnificent foreign concessions at Shanghai. Hankow, Tientsin, and elsewhere throughout China would never have been built. China now gets these back as “victory presents.” They give her a good start in the rebuilding of the nation. And. more important still, China has regained her “face.” Juridical Set-Up ' The exercise of extraterritorial privileges by foreigners in China created a juridical set-up probably without parallel in the world. It necessitated the establishment of separate consular courts in each of the treaty ports, with a special set of King’s Regulations to be administered. Great Britain, for example, allowed juries of six instead of the customary 12. the small British population available for jury purposes no doubt causing that change. Otherwise Court procedure differed little from that at Home, or at any other British centre of justice. A judge had to be well up in every branch of the law. for everything from divorce to capital crime came before him. Twice a year his Honour went on circuit from his base at Shanghai, clearing up court calendars on a round of visits to British courts in the other treaty ports. Judges of other nationalities did likewise. Hong Kong was the exception. There the British Colony administered its own affairs. However, Hong Kong judges frequently came to Shanghai to sit on Courts of Appeal. The motion pictures have shown “Westerns” in which cowboys were accustomed to “park their guns” upon entering a court for a prairie trial. Shanghai’s restless Indian community provided a humorous counterpart to this. A large community, this Indian community of China. Tens of thousands of them filled positions of policemen, night watchmen, guards, moneylenders. tradesmen all over China. Their largest communities were, however. at Shanghai and Hong Kong. Their feuds kept the Courts busy. Diversity of religion was one reason for the feuds; gambling, repudiation of debts, and shady, usurious tactics provided others.

The remarks of one British judge presiding over a divorce action some years ago created an international furore at the time. His Lordship commented upon the increasing divorce actions among British subjects arising out of third-party beautiful Russian girls, many hundreds of whom fled to cities in China to escape from Red forces advancing eastwards, wi<h Vladivostok their goal, in 1920. Their charms, according to the British judge, appeared to be upsetting many British households. Execution “Racket” The queerest Courts in all the world arose out of the extraterritorial system when the International Mixed Courts (Shanghai, Tientsin, Hankow, etc.) were created to cone with crime and law enforcement involving Chinese within the areas controlled by foreigners. China agreed to foreign jurisdiction over Chinese within such areas, but reserved the sovereign right to execute her own countrymen wherever the foreign Court rendered such a verdict. Condemned prisoners were therefore, Black Maria'd into Chinese official hands, a receipt was taken for the prisoner, who was then dispatched according to Chinese methods. That was, until one or two supposedly “dead ’ desperadoes came to light later under the finger-print system and inquiries uncovered a lucrative “racket." Thereafter. precautions were taken to see that executions were carried out as ordered. The civil war period <1920-2a) subjected the extraterritorial system to | severe strain when battling war lords used the foreign concessions as base headquarters and shelter spots, at will. Clad in mufti, and occupying luxurious suites in leading hotels, it was difficult to interfere without being accused of taking sides in these disputes Classic example of this type was provided by Japanese puppet Wang Ching-wei, from 1937 onwards. This opponent of the Chiang Kai-shek regime whose official headquarters were in Nanking, established subsidiary quarters in the French Concession (Shanghai), where he converted a large ma>sion into a citadel and garrisoned I it with an abundant supply of puppet troops and weapons. He and his men j camfc and went while the French locai government stood helplessly by. It is important to point out that | at no time during the existence of extraterritoriality did the powers attempt to impose foreign laws upon + he Chinese, even upon those Chinese who broke the law within the foreign concessions or settlements. However, the Chinese civil and criminal code is widely different from our own in many respects and some alterations are likely to be made as part of the price China is willing to pay for the abolition of the system. . Basic reasons for the introduction of * these special privileges for foreigners living in China were the unsettled state of affairs in that country and the need to inspire sufficient confidence into would-be traders and merchants required to expand the trade which was our reason for forcing open China’s ports in the first place. x ~ . Tb” present Nationalist Government of China has been in continuous office since 1927 and during those 18 years have evidently satisfied the powers that it can be trusted to take over control of foreign lives, propertv. and investments. Reversion to Chinese control of the numerous foreign concessions and international settlements, withdrawal of foreign military and naval protection, and other evidences of infringement of China’s sovereign rights represent a tremendous “face’’ gam for the Chiang Kai-shek regime. Relations between the Nationalist Government and the Western powers throughout those 18 years have always been harmonious, and while abolition o f extraterritoriality was made without undue pressure, this was inevitable, particularly since the Cairo conference. and the gesture became more gracious bv being voluntary