An interesting memorandum has been issued by the Tients British Committee of Information on the working of the modern Chinese courts. The document contains the recital of three important cases which occupied the attention of the Tientsin Courts during the past year from which three important conclusions are to be deduced. Ju the first a Russian who had introduced a compatriot, who subsequently absconded, guarantors for the purpose of obtaining bail in a proceeding for slander, was forced to part with a considerable sum before he was liberated from an order holding him liable if he did not bring back the absconder who had fled to San Francisco. In the second an English company whose agent defrauded them of over four lakhs of dollars could obtain mo redress up to the time of writing the memorandum, though the case first arose in February 1930 and was deprived off securing the money from the Accused's Chinese creditors to whom it bad apparently been paid, by reason of the absence of adequate bankruptey laws. And in the third, a case arising in 1929, the aggrieved party in an infringement of trademarks case has as yet been unable to obtain justice. The memorandum does not say whether these are the only cases capable of being criticized which have arisen in the northern port during the period under review and it is not necessary that there should be for the purpose of any argument which {s to follow.
It will be remembered that result of the Extraterritoriality commission which sat a few years ago it was found that China's laws and machinery of Gustice were unequal to the responsibility involved in the emption of jurisdiction over foreign nationals, and if the three cases above are cited as a text, it must not be forgotten that they are not isolated, and that many parallel instances may be found in other Courts where Chinese judges and officials have jurisdiction over non-extraterritorial foreigners. 'Abuses of a different nature may be found even in Shanghai as witness executive interference Po: with the Provisional Court in the case of the' Sheng Kung-pao estate, which at a recent, but late date appears to have been more or less satisfactorily ad-dusted. The chief point to which the Tientsin British Committee of Information draws attention is the power of the Procurator, who may or may not wreck a case by perfunctory examination of its principal points and his failure strictly to apply whatever law does exist, the "poorness of the salaries attached to the office which cannot attract the highest close of man, the absence of any security office, and the consequent lack of independence on the part of the Bench, While undoubtedly the work of law codification which has been and still is proceeding in Nanking may Serve in the long run to remove one of the more important points of the finding of the Extraterritorial Commission, its ultimate success must be'a matter of speculation. It promises well so far as English translations have been available, and it may very well be the case that in a short while Nanking may have established a prima facie removal of this one great objec-
But the arrangement of codes lees not establish a system of law. More important than the principles thus laid down is the manner of their application and the people by whom that funetion is to be performed. In these respects the instances quoted from Tientsin do not tend to allay the ameasiness in this respect enunciated some four or fine years ago. For the working of a Procurate, admire able as it may be in ' certain countries, necessarily calls for legal learning, an impartiality almost as even as that of the Court before the case is to be tried, and an independence every bit as absolute. It would be idle in view of all the facts to contend that under existing conditions room for criticism has been effectually removed by anything which has been done up to the present. It is a matter of considerable anxiety among foreigners who sooner or later must come within the jurisdiction of such a system as to whether the new codes will be accompanied by such reform of the judiciary as will conduce to greater confidence in its operation. It is to be doubted on two grounds. First lack of sufficient pay to attract highly qualified men, second, considerable doubt as to whether if adequate pay were forthcoming there would be sufficient men to All all the posts in a reasonably efficient administration. not, on the face of a such a foment as that issued by the Tientsin British Committee of Information, be too strongly urged, as this journal has so often urged in the past, that the greatest progress all round will be made by going slowly, by seeing that the jerry-built codes of the past are replaced not only by a more effective set of laws, but by the best possible machinery for enforcing them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.