Tha object of the first treaties! was to secure recognition by China of Great Britain's equality with herself and to define and regulate the extraterritorial status of British subjects. The relations between the two countries having thus been played on a footing of equality and mutual respect, Great Britain was content that her nationals should continue to bear those responsibilities. and to labour under those disabilities which respect for the sovereignty of China entailed upon them. Conditions did not permit the general opening of the interior of China, and the residence of foreigners has consequently continued down to the present day to however, observe that the promulge. tion of codes embodying Western egal principles represents only one portion of the task to be accom plished before it would be safe to abandon la their entirety the special arrangements which have hitherto regulated the residence of foreigners in China, In order that the: should become a living it appears to His Majesty's Government to be necessary that Western legal principles should be understood and be found acceptable by the people at largo no less than by their rulers, and that the courts which administer these laws should be free from interference and dicta. tion at the hands not only of military chiefs but of groups and associntions who either sot up arbitrary, and illegal tribunals of their own or attempt to use legal courts for the furtherance of political objects rather than for the administration of equal justice between Chinese and Chinese and Chinese and foreigners, Paper Promises i Not until these conditions are fulfilled in @ far greater measure than appears to be the case ti will it be practicable for British merchants to reside, trade and own property throughout the territories of China with the same equality of freedom and safety as these pri vileges are accorded to Chinese merchants in Great Britain, Any, agreement purporting to accord such privileges to British merchants would remain for some time to come a mero paper agreement to which it would be impossible to give effect in practice, Any attempt prematurely to accord suc ti privileges would not only be of no benefit to British merchants but might involve the Government and people" of China in political and economic difficulties, So long as these conditions subs sist there appears to be no, practic: able alternative to maintaining, though perhaps: in a modified form, the treaty-port system that hug
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.