PRIVILEGES OF FOREIGNERS

Hokitika Guardian, 29 January 1930, Page 6

PRIVILEGES OF FOREIGNERS

INCIDENT AT HANKOW. POSITION OF MISSIONARIES.. [ United: Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.] .SHANGHAI, January 25. Indicative of feelings in the interior of China regarding the rights of/ all foreigners is an incident Hankow, in which Paymaster Mcßride of the British Navy, was arrested and refused release by the Chinese authorities, following a motor accident and subsequent death of a Chinese boy. Mcßride was held to be responsible. Repersentatipns made by British consular officials met with a firm refusal by the Chinese authorities to release the officer, and they intimated that all foreigners were now under Chinese law,, according to instructions from Nanking. The officer was only released following representations to Nanking and upon the guarantee by the British Consul-General that Mcßride would submit to a subsequent Chinese enquiry. There was a storm of protest m locai missionary . circles fallowing-.the, annbuncement-. of the British ForeignSecretary, Mr Arthur Henderson, that the special privileges of British misrsionaries- had Tiediv abolished.. -lliese privileges principally consult of permission to own property, to reside in non-treaty ports, and virtually also the protection afforded by extra-territorial-ity:

(/‘•-.The- abolition of these privileges/a local prominent British missionary declares, “ places 1 every''British, and possibly even- other foreign missionary,, at the mercy of bandits, and will render -Christian"work in the interior of China doubly precarious when the bandits learn that the protection has been officially withdrawn. Mr Henderson’s statement was totally unexpected. Conferences are being convened locally for the purpose of protesting at the Foreign Minister’s action.