Yo the Editor of the "2°3 Nowru-Cura Dati News.
Sin,—A groat deal of nonsense is being talked and written by Chinese on the subject of sovereign rights. Most of this may be sot aside as the foolish vapourings of half-crli: eated youngsters, but the mandarin is evidently attempting to advance certain definite claims of. this class, in regard to the administration of the Settlement, which deserve attention.
The oracles who decide these matters in Poking are not always as fully informed as they might be, and experience has shown mare than once that they dispose ne affairs in a light-hearted but most trous. manner. It may be well, therefore, to point out what the Chinese are endeavouring to do, and why they! has been for the past thirty years. should not do it.
The demands seriously advanced by rative officials and gentry, taking the present Mixed Court'case as a pretext, are stated by the ' Oniver: to be: (1) the removal of the British Assessor aad the dismissal of "Inspector Matheson; (2) native control and administration in Chinese. cases in the Settlement; (3) detention of all Chinese prisoners by the Native Authorities (4) Tepresontation of the Chinese community on the Council, and supervision of Chinese affairs by. that member. All these are asserted to be claims which can properly jo poi in recognition of Chinese sovereign rights.
What these gentlemen forget, and what they should be told most plainly, is tha: by certain code known as the Land Regulations, the administration of this Settlement has been definitely handed over to the Foreign Authorities, and that, unless the Western Powers suddenly go mad, the reversion of that authority into native hands is improbable. The Chinese lay great stress on the rules of the Mixed Court which were drawn up as a provisional measure some forty years ago, and which were admitted in the Chefoo Convention to be inadequate and useless, magistrate's independent business fined to the decision of civil and commercial suits between natives. In try to obtain through the Court an extended trol over local administration, the Chinese, and those who advise them, confuse They practically claim that in police cases and suits which may-affect inw and order where Chinese are the defendants, the ma teat The whole fabric government and the curity of life and property therein depend, however, on the maintenance of the principle that the Land Regulations have placed the. rety for law and order and the ent of the Police Force, which maintains them, in foreign hands, and it follows clearly from that principle that any case which affects the for munity's interests is not a matter for endent trial by the Chinese Anthobut must be decided with the ea currence of the Foreign Assessor. Th Consular Body has always tirmaly insisted upon adherence to this condition, without which the Settlement would speedly revert to the condi of a. native To any thinking person whose mind is not confused by the noise which emanate from: Chinese yamens, it must dent that the control of the Police Force by the foreign community carries with it The Chi are now trying to ela H. B. M.'s Minister's weal concession to cut, their agitation, the control of all Chinese prisoners, on the ground that China's sovereign rights entitle them to such control, but it is to be earnestly ho; that those whose business it is to this matter will remember that, within the 1 of the Settlement, those sov-ights are modified. by agreement with the Cisinese Government, and tmovtified in a way which excludes native officials from any control of Chinese prisoners except that which is contained in the proper judicial functions of the Mixed Court.
And perhaps while they are about the Ministers at Peking may tike the opportunity of making our Mixed Court something better than the ludicroi farce tempered by barbarism which it I am, ete, 16th December.
To the Editor of the "Norra-Csmva Dattx News,"
Sim,—Your correspondent " Diogenes" has accurately defined the status of the Foreign Settlement, but it will require something more then this to readjust the present situation of affairs. The nor ant mandarin in our midst, and the silliest student that yelps at the meetings of the Patriotic Orators, know perfectly well that Chine's' sovereign rights in the Foreign Settlement have The solid proofs of that fact confront them on all sides, Their deliberate abject to recover for themselves the: administration of this weal by. Sot'lemont tha. purpose has been s cadily growing for some time past, and the' female prisoners" case was the first convenient pretext for a trial of strength.: who raised that question wore: acting under orders from Nanking and Peking—they have admitted the fact, At the same time, they all know perfectly well that the Chine Authorities have for ithout protest. in the imprisonment of fomdles in the: foreign gaol of the French Settlement (inchargo of male warders), xnd that Chinw's sovereign rights could not depend on such a matter, If it had not been the question of female prisoners, Messrs. other good ground for contesting lit of the foreign community's administration, When Chinese were first allowed to ro-side within Settlement limits they di under formal authority of the B Consul and on payment of a poll ta {50 per annum. I have one of the origin 1 permit forms in my ow book, With the Taiping rebellion vast numbers of unrives sought the protection of the administration they are is destroy, and it became ni foreign community should obtain, formal authority for the maintousnce of law and order.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.