FOREIGN PRIVILEGES

Hokitika Guardian, 28 January 1930, Page 2

FOREIGN PRIVILEGES

ENDING IN CHINA. (United Press Association. —By Electrio Telegraph.—Copyright.) SHANGHAI, January 25. Indicative of the feeling in the interior of China, regarding the rights of all foreigners, is an incident at HanhoAV, in which Paymaster McBride of the British Navy, was ar-j rested and was refused release by the Chinese authorities, following on a motor accident and the subsequent death of a Chinese boy. Paymaster

Mcßride was held responsible. Representations by tlie British Consular officials met with a firm refusal by the Chinese authorities to release tlie officer. They intimated that ali foreigners were not under the Chinese law. According to instructions from Nanking, the officer was only released following on representations to Nanking, upon a guarantee by tlie British Consul General that Mcßride would submit to a subsequent Chinese Inquiry. There is a storm of protest in local missionary circles at the announcement by the British Secretary, IU. Hon. Mr Henderson, that the special privileges of British Missionaries have been

abolished. These privileges principally consist of permission to own property, and to reside at non-treaty ports, and virtually also the protection afforded by extra-territoriality. The abolition of the privileges,” a local prominent British Missionary declares, “places every British and possibly every other foreign missionary, at the mercy of bandits, and renders Christian work in tlie interior of China doubly precarious when the bandits learn that the present protection i has been officially withdrawn. Mr I Henderson’s statements were totallv j unexpected. Conferences are being convened locally for tlie purpose of ' protesting at the Foreign Ministers [action.