The aftermath was, however, that on renppeurance of the ease Judge Chou upheld his original decision and would have nothing to do with the matter. Whereupon Mr. Stevens, who in the interim had received the full backing of the Consular Body, made a stronger protest than before and pointed out that, according to the third chapter of the Regulation Relating Criminal Procedure, unless the accused were tried within 14 days of their being taken into custody, they were entitled to freedom at the: end of that time.
Obviously such an action would not only have a comical aspect and reflect on the sanity of the Settlement's laws, but it would also be a glaring warning that something was radically wrong with the judicial intercourse now existing between the Settlement authorities and the Chinese lawmaking bodies, Investigation into the matter brings to light much that is of interest to Shanghai residents, be they Taymen in matters legal, or not, For a clearer conception of what the Consular Body is faced with it is necessary briefly to review the terms of the Rendition Agreement.
The Agreement in Working The Rendition Agreement is an attempt to solve the problem of how to bring the Court of the International Settlement at Shanghai as nearly as possible into line with purely Chinese Courts in the interior whilst at the same time safeguarding the enormous foreign interests involved, and without surrendering the authority of the Shanghai Municipal Council and the Consular Body, upon whom rests the responsibility for the government of ud the maintenance of peace and order in this Settlemen'. This Agreement was made somewhat hastily, and at a time when chaos prevailed at all events in many parts of China, outside Kiangsu and Chekiang with the result that its provisions are in some respects ill-defined, ax shown by the actual working. Certain amplifications have been made in the exchange of notes appended to the Agroement, but even so it is liable to prove unworkable unless either the present dispute is settled by a further exchange of notes or the Chinese authorities decide to dear in good faith and carry out their side of the Agreement in spirit as well as in the letter.
In the old Mixed Court every case—eivil or criminal—was heard before a foreign Assessor jointly with a Chinese May In other words there was no judg ment without the concurrence of the foreign Assessor and in practice the judgement was the decision of the Assessor. The Chinese objected both to the title and to the functions of the Assessor as being derogatory to China's prestige, so the following, concessions were made:—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.