'A Nanking message of January quoted a statement to the Press by Mr. Hu Han-min, President of the Legislative Yuan, in which he enumerated the number of laws recently promulgated by the State Gouncil and now in force. The together with improvements troduced in Chinese prisons, should he enough, Mr. Hu said, to satisfy foreigners qualms over the giving up of extraterritoriality: and Mr. Hu further quoted og saying that.
"the Government reas confident. of its ability to assume jurisdiction over and afford adequate protection to all foreign notionate tu the country.
{he italics are ours, for reasons to be shown presently," Another message of about the same date said that the Government was now about to devote all its efforts to. getting foreign troops: removed from' China, With regard to new Jaws, the obvious answer is. that China's claim to assume jurisdiction yer foreigners depends, not upon ithe number of Ia..8 she promulgates, But on her ability to enforce them.
Extraterritoriality Commission, Headed by Mr, Strawn, found that Whinese courts were altogether too abject to generals and politicians Yor consular jurisdiction safely to the abandoned and there. is no evidence of any improvement in this respect. As for the Government' ability "to afford adequate protection to foreign nationals in this country"; an assertion frequently made by ministerial speakers, we have at the resent. moment a simple means testing its value. On December 13 ast the Rev. H. W. K. Sandy was kidnapped by. bandits © (or Communists; it really does not matter which) at Tayeh, in Hupeh, and s0 far as we know' at' the moment of writing is still in captivity. The Mission to which Mr. Sandy belongs has rightly decided that it will not, pay a ransom for him, as to do so would endanger the freedom and very likely the lives of all its members; it also quite rightly feels that the responsibility of saving Mr. Sandy lies with the Nanking Government. Tayeh is, perhaps, 15 miles from the right bank of the Yangtze, about midway between Hankow and Kiukiang. All the Yangtze Valley belongs to that section of China over which, more than any other, Nanking claims complete control: Yet the "adequate protection of foreign nationals in this country" so often pledged appears equally powerless to prevent foreigners from being kidnapped or to rescue them when they are, Had not these airy promises better wait until such disgraceful episodes as the kidnapping and continued captivity of Mr. Sandy are less frequent?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.