Odd Status of Shanghai Spanish

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 101, 15 May 1937, Page 16

Odd Status of Shanghai Spanish

SHANGHAI. — Spain's civil war has left 130 Spaniards in Shanghai in a state of national uncertainty due to the fact that their consular representation has vanished and that their possession of extra-territoriality makes them not susceptible to Chinese law. The Spanish Consul-General resigned last. autumn and the aeting consulgeneral vanished. It recently was disclosed that the former consul-general had an appointment from the revolutionary government (not recognised by China) and that he had ordered a iocal printshop to prepare a considerable number of Spanish passports, presumably to be made available to local White Russians or others anxious to acquire a fictitious Spanish citizenship in return for their services as.fighters. At the same time it was le&rned that without benefit of publicity, a Spaniard had been brought into a Chinese court where the extra-territorial issue was raised and inquiries made to Nanking,

with the. resuit that ms position and that of his fellow-Spaniards is somewhat in doubt until the Foreign Oliice and the home authorities can thresh things out. In some quarters it has been suggested that China might seize the opportunityto cancel Spanish extra-territorial privileges, as was done in the case of the Central "Powers during the World War. The drawback to this course is that Spain is not at war with China and ther6 is no desire to take a course which could b6 construed by all Spanish factions as an unfriendly act, . Soviet Eussia voluntarily canceled extra-terri-toriality some years ago, but as a usual th-ing nations which have extra-terri-torial privileges hang to it doggedly although the prineiple of eventual relinquishment is universally accepted. "Step up here, O'Brien, and let mo have a good look at ye?" "What's the idea?" "I've got some insultin' things to say to ye, an' I want to be able later on to identify ye positively as the man who struck me." 3> $> $ 5> "Was it a big cheque you lost?" "Not very — about the same size as a postcard."