BRITISH IN CHINA

Hokitika Guardian, 1 August 1931, Page 5

BRITISH IN CHINA

NEED FOR PROTECTION. [United Press Association — By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.] LONDON, July 31. The “Manchester Guardian,” in a leading article on the disappearance of John Tliurlmrn at Shanghai, says: “it is clear, in spite of special privileges, that British subjects cannot be protected in many parts of China, because of a collapse of the civil authority. This places the whole .question of extraterritoriality, on an entirely different footing from that which it occupied in the past. The Tlmrburn case is bound to have considerable influence on the negotiations, which have been taking place spasmodically for a long time past, over the abolition of the legal privileges, which British subjects enjoy in China. It is evident that up country, English lives could only be adequately guaranteed if we secured, at our own cost, the adequate policing of the country. Such a programme is entirely out of the question, but in the treaty ports, and especial-, ly in Shanghai, the position is quite different. There the safety of foreigners can be adequately guaranteed, and the existence of these settled centres of business is of great advantage to China ill her present time of anarchy.