"Important Changes in View:
Additions to Bench, and Trial by Jury connexion with the report of the action of the Associated American Chambers of Commerce: of China regarding the status of the U. S. Cowt for China, at the annual conference held in Shanghai last week, reference was omitted to a recommendation that an additional U.S. Court Commissioner should be appointed for service in Tientsin.
The Associated American Chambers now have ander consideration, by the legal committee of the Shanglai Chamber, a measure which it is intended to have introduced in Congress at the coming session. This bil] will place the administration of the Court solely under the administration of the Department of Justice in Washington instead of the present nominal jurisdiction of the State Department. The bill will also provide for extending the powers of the court commissioner, making him to a certain extent an ant judge in that, during the absence or disability of the judge, the commissioner may make orders which the judge might make in chambers. The commissioners are to be appointed solely by the Attorney General in the same manner in which the judge, clerk, and district. attorney are now appointed.
In addition to the foregoing the bill will contain a provision for the service of assessors in capital and criminal cases, thus providing for a system of jury trial considered to be workable under the American extraterritorial jarsdiction in China. The new court measure will also prohibit officials of the court from engaging in the private—practice of law during their tenure of office.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.