18th March.
Tue "Proposition of Eight Articles for the Extension of the Settlement" which was read by the Chairman of the joint meeting of the two China Associations on Thursday last is deserving of a little more attention than we were able to give it yesterday morning. Whoever drew up these articles must have known at the time that they would be received with derision, as they entirely destroy the very idea of a Foreign Settlement. They indicate, presuming that they were not merely proposed in order to prolong the negotiations, that the spirit of the celebrated article on "The Awakening of China" published over the signature of the Marquis Tseng is not dead. In that article the Margnis contemplated ther stunption by China of her full control over the Foreign Settlements, a step which Japan has persuaded the Powers to agree to, and it, seems that there is some one in Nanking who thinks this resumption possible, though in the interval since the article' was published China has been granting new leases and concessions to every one who pressed for them. The author of this Proposition must surely have laughed in his sleeve as he drew up a scheme for the extension of the Foreign Settlement which would at the same time destroy its character as a Foreign Settlement altogether. We cannot suppose him simple enough to. imagin ficial with that the offic whom he was negotiating would not through his device.
The first article is This time, after the extension of the Settlement, the rights of the Chinese residents within the same shall be equal to those of the residents of other nationalities, with no difference whatever, and Chin ought to vote on the occasion of nomination of Councillors."
Self-appointed protectors of the Chinese have proposed more than once than one or more Chinese should be admitted as members of the Municipal Council, urging that as the Chinese pay tasses they should be represented. It has never been shown that the Chinese merchants or the rich men who have made their home in the Settlements want representation. The majority of them, in fact, have come here and continue to reside here in order to be under foreign protection, and they know, as we all know, that however well the admission of Chinese on the Council may work in Tientsin, Chinese Councillors here would alway: be liable to be worked upon by their own. officials, with danger to the welfare and independence of Chinese residents in the Settlements. Fortunately the Land Regulations, lasly as_ they were drawn up, though sufficiently for the needs of the time when they were compiled, are explicit on this point. Article XIX on
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.