REPLY TO CHINA

Hokitika Guardian, 6 September 1929, Page 6

REPLY TO CHINA

BY BRITISH GOVERNMENT VBritish Official Wireless.) RtJGBY, Sept. 4. British Government through the Min-: ister at Peking have transmitted to -ie National Government of China, a reply to the latter’s desire for the removal of restrictions imposed on jurisdictional sovereignty of China by a system of extra territoriality. The British Government say that animated by friendly feelings which they have always entertained towards the Government and people of China, they have given sympathetic consideration to the request of the Chinese Government. Discussing how the present system of extra territoriality came into existence, the British Government recalls 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 and independent states, was entirely alien to Chinese modes of thought. When traders of the west first found their way to fife coasts of China, the Chinese Government found it difficult to allow them freely to enter into their'cb'tmtry and mingle with their people, hoi’', did they recognise that the nations to which they belonged were the equals : of China'. Traders were, therefore, confined to a small section of a single city, in one corner of the Empire and while on one hand they were subjected to many disabilities and to grave humiliations, on the other hand by a species of amorphous and - irregulated extra territoriality 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. The object of first treaties, continued me British note, was to secure recognition by China of Great Britain’s equality with herself and to define and regulate the*extra territorial status of British subjects. The relations between the two countries having thus been placed upon a' footing of equality and mutual respect, Great Britain was content that her nationals snould continue to bear those responsibilities and to labour under those disabilities which respect for the sovereignty of China entailed upon them. The condition did not permit a general opening'of the interior of' China and the residence of foreigners has consequently continued down to the present day to be restricted to a limited number, of cities known as treaty ports.

The.- British Government recognise' the defects and the inconveniences of the system of consular jursdictioli. In 1902 in Articles 12 of the Treaty of Commerce; between Great Britain and China the British Government stated their readiness to relinquish the extraterritorial rights, when they were satisfied the state of Chinese Ij»vs, arrangement for their administration and other considerations' warranted them in doing so. They have since watched with ap- ■ predation the progress wnich China has made in the assimilation of western legal principles, and have observed witK deep interest the facts set out and recommendations made in the report of commission on extra territoriality. in the year 1926. More" recently in the declaration published in 'December 1926 and proposals which they made to Chinese authorities in January 1927, the British Government have given concrete evidence of their desire to meet in a spirit of friendship and sympathy the legitmate aspirations. of the Chinese people. They have already travelled some distance along the road marked out in those documents and they are willing to examine in collaboration with the Chinese Government, the whole problem of extra territorial jurisdiction with a view to ascertaining what further steps in the same direction it may be possible to take at the present time.

The British Government would however, observe that a promulgation of codes embodying western legal principles represents only one portion of tne task to be accomplished before it would be safe to abandone 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 would be understood and be found acceptable to the people at large, no less tham by their rulers, free fro many reference or dictation at the hands not only of .the military chiefs hut of groups and associations who either set up arbitrary and illegal tribunals of their own or attempt to use legal courts for the furtherance of political objects, rather than for administration of equal justice between Chinese and forengners. Not until these conditions are fulfilled in far greater measure than appears to the case to-day, will it be practicable for British merchants to reside, trade and own property in 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 privilege sto 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 no benefit to British merchants but might involve the Government and 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 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 modification in that system beyond those already made, and alluded to above it, would lie desirable and practicable to effect.

The British Government' await further proposals from the National- Government as to procedure now to be adopted for examining this question, and will continue to maintain a friendly and helpful attitude towards any such proposals.