To the Editor of the Nortt-Cla Datty News."
Sin—With reference to the recent, to a layman at any rate, inexplicable outburst of a Judge of the Provisional Court against a foreign lawyer who was appearing before him, I should like to draw the attention of the foreign com munity in Shanghai, who still enjoy (sic) extraterritorial rights, that With the passing of the Provisional Court on April 1 next, the one slender safeguard, viz., the presence of Consular Deputies on the Bench, against such incidents as the one created by Judge Yang, will disappear, and that to all intents and purposes foreign merchants, even though they are not, in theory, subject to the jurisdiction of the Court, will, in the case of claims against Chinese, in practice, be so subject.
In England, I am informed, even County Court Judge, who is invested with only very limited jurisdic has to be a barrister of fifteen' years standing and practice before he is eligible for a judgeship, and is usually a man from forty to fifty years old. Few Judges, in foreign civilized countries, attain their judicial status before they are at least fort to fifty years of age. What have Shanghai? A Judge of uinal Is, @ case involving 'a million taels and possibly full of camp ed points of law—a mere boy of twenty-four or thereabouts, who can have had no practical experitence in the law or of legal practices or procedure of any length, and who quite possibly may have only' just obtained his law degree; what 2 judicial farce!
Tu this letter, I have, with dificully, restrained but, what a diatribe may be writfen'on the subject.
Tam, ce, "Caveat Littcat ix Furen hai, Mar. 14, 1939,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.