SHANGHAI

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19784, 7 March 1927, Page 10

SHANGHAI

ORIGINS OF THE SETTLEMENT POSITION OF CHINESE. Shanghai, that great distributing centre for piece goods, doing nearly half of China’s trade with the outer world, is a very individual place with many peculiar features. The city began its modern life on November 17, 1843, between which day and the end of the year seven vessels entered the port, their average capacity being 281 tons. Their imports totalled in value 433,729 dollars, their exports 146,072 dollars. By the end of the year the British residents numbered 25, amongst the earliest trading names being two well-known today, Jardine, Matheson and Co., and Gibb, Livingstone and Co. By 1847 the residents numbered 108, and by 1855 243. To-day in the International Settlement and the districts that lie outside but adjacent to it there are, exclusive of the population in the French Settlement—or Concession, as the French prefer to call it, —some 7000 British, over 13,000 Japanese, more than 2000 Americans, about 300 Frenchmen, close on 3000 Russians, and well over 5000 subjects of other Powers, the Chinese population of the Settlement being not less than 810,000, of whom about 50,000 are Cantonese. British capital in land, buildings, and certain other forms —municipal debentures, for instance—is reckoned at not less than £63,000,000, while some valuations place the figure very much higher. The direct trade of the port is valued at over 750,000,000 Customs taels. Installation of the Municipal Government. Shanghai hast from the outiwt welcomed all Peniersj from the first to a largo extent It has governed itself without, except tn the French Concession, subservience to official opinion i it has lived by and for trade, yet the large administrative problems with which it lias boon faced have brought it into frequent contact with political issues affecting its constitutional rights. Those are embodied in land regulations which in 1845 took the comparatively elementary form of fixing the method of acquiring title to land, of making provision for roads, bridges, drainage, and lighting, and so on. These regulations were agreed to between the British Consul and the local Chinese official known as the Taotai, and under them three land renters were elected to serve as a “Committee of Roads and Jetties,” an annual meeting being held under the chairmanship of the British Consul. Between September, 1853, and February, 1855, the native city of Shanghai was occupied by the Taiping rebels, to escape whom thousands of refugees flocked into the International Settlement and, as a result, the small European community had to seek wider powers of government. Accordingly in 1854 a new code of municipal and land regulations, approved by the Taotai and the British, American and French Consuls, was issued, by article 10 of which, as Mr Morse says in his “International relations of the Chinese Empire,” “the government having authority over the soil, and the governments having authority over the persons and property of the foreigners, delegated to those foreigners the highest power in all government, that of taxing and policing their own communitv. ”

French Separatism. It wns nt this time also that two other Imuoriftflf dovelopments took place—namely, the separation of tho French and Iha taxation of Chinese reaidontM. The French hod acquired land for Battlement In 1849 and succeeded in giving their area a separate administration. At the end of .1855 the French Consul withdrew his signature from the new land regulations, and in 1862 a French municipal council was brought into existence, all its decisions being subject to the approval or veto of the French Consul. Meanwhile the Chinese population of the British area —which was only 470 acres—had grown to 500,000. At the beginning of 1855 it had been agreed between the Taotai and the foreign Consuls that any Chinese wishing to live in this area should apply to the landlord’s Consul, provide two wealthy householders as sureties, and undertake to “conform strictly to the land regulations and contribute his share to any general assessments.” In the previous year the franchise had been extended to all foreign ratepayers; it was not now extended to Chinese ratepayers.

The International Settlement. In view of what Is taking place in China to-flay it is Interesting to recall some of the details of the next phase of this development. In March, 1862, tho land renters agreed unanimously to ft proposal, supported by tho American Consul, Mr G. F. Seward, that the American Hettloment, which had grown up in a district called Hongkew, lying north of the Soochow Creek—a creek running westward from the Whangpoo —should be amalgamated with the British Settlement. The British and French Consuls concurred and tho decision was confirmed by a further meetI ing of land renters held in September of the following year. Thus the InterI national Settlement of Shanghai, north of the Yangkingpang—the boundary of the French Settlement or Concession —was created. Had the French been willing to amalgamate also the Chinese would have been given a share in the government of the municipality. The Anglo-American Council, consisting of nine members, were willing to give them a share as part of a new and larger scheme for the administration of the Settlement, which they had first proposed should be converted into a free city under the protection of the Treaty Powers. When this proposal was condemned by tho British Envoy on the ground that the territory belonged to the Emperor of China, the Council proposed that the British, American, and French should form one municipality; that each resident should be subject to both criminal and civil suits to the jurisdiction of his own authorities; that arrests of Chinese should be made for the Chinese authorities by the municipal polied, and that Chinese should be given seats on the Council. The French refused to amalgamate and the proposal fell through.

The Mixed Court. It was at this time also that another matter arose which has a direct bearing on the events of to-day. In July, 1862, the Taotai asked that he might impose a poll tax, which was being collected in the native city, on the Chinese inhabitants of the International Settlement. The Municipality took the view that this would introduce a dual fiscal administration into the Settlement. As a compromise it was arranged that the

Council should collect from Chinese residents 20 per cent, instead of 10 per cent, of ratings, under tho supervision of the Taotai’s deputies, in consideration of which no other taxes should be levied by him. The arrangement, however, was never carried into effect. In 1864 another development took place essential to an understanding of Shanghai’s problems—namely, the establishment of the Mixed Court, under a deputy of the Taotai, to take the place of the Consular Courts in dealing with mixed suits between foreigners and Chinese. The deputy alone, took cognisance in police cases; a foreign assessor was present in criminal or civil cases in which a foreigner was concerned. The Taotai and a consular assessor heard appeals. In 1869 procedure was altered so as to admit of the presence of a foreign assessor in all cases affecting the interests of foreigners; criminal charges against Chinese for which the penalty was death were placed under the Shanghai district magistrate. With the issue of fresh land reflations in the same year the International Settlement became, in essential respects, the municipality that exists to-day, with a council of not more than nine nor less than five members, elected by foreign ratepayers owning land of the value of 500 taels, paying an assessment on land or houses of ten taels, or, as householders, paying on an assessed rental of not less than 500 taels per annum; any foreigner paying an annual assessment of 50 taels; or, as a householder, paying on an assessed rental of .1200 taels per annum, being qualified for election as a councillor.