The controversy between the Chinese officials of Kiangsi and the Kuling Couneil- over the control of the Kuling Estate is becoming a test case both of the rights of private property and the Central Government's aut-bority in the provinces. Three distinct attempts have been made by the officials of Kiangsi to take possession of the Estate; and. these have latterly been followed by petty encroachments, less spectacular but more insidious, In 1927, when all foreigners were driven from Kuling, Chinese officials bodily took possession of it. Mr. Lin, then Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, came with his family and occupied the Estate House, and armed police were put into the Transport Office, without a word of explanation to the Council or any authorization from them. No attempt was made during this"period to administer the Estate or do any serious work of maintenance.
There appears reason to believe that the Chinese were much disappointed in respect of the revenue they had expected to get from Kuling; after a little while Mr, Lin gave up the Estate Office, the police were remove, and; with the subsidence of the Communist madness, the right: ful owners gradually returned to Kuling.
The second attempt to seize control of the Estate occurred Jast June, when a notice issued by, Mr. C, S, Wood, Mayor of Kiukiang, was posted inside the Eptate, without—consultation with or permission of the Council, stating (erroneously) that the Kuling Estate was no longer administered as formerly, under the Council elected by the landrenters' annual meeting, but had become an adjunct of the so-called Municipal Government of Kiukiang, to which all taxes in future should be paid. Natural the Kuling Council objected ~XGigorously, and the next move made by the Kiangsi provincial official was to call a meeting it Kuling, outside the Estate, on August 20, to which members of the Council were invited. Mr.
Wood, the Mayor of Kiukiang, took the chair, and it was announced that the above-mentioned plan had been abandoned, and that in its place the prov' ial officials at Nanchang would abolish all present methods of administration, within the Estate as weill as without; and in future treat the whole Lushan area (that is, the entire range of Kuling Mountains, developed and undeveloped, foreign-owned and Chinese) as "one unit." This decision, it will be observed, completely brushes aside all previous rights included in the deeds of purchase, all long-established precedents acknowled~ ged by successive Chinese governments, both Manchu and Republican, and openly coa-traveness the oft-repeated- promises of the Nanking Nationali: t Government to protect the property interests of foreigners in China, 'This question is still a matter of: long-drawn correspondence: but: in the meantime the Counc' wave had to protest to the Chairman of the Kiangsi Provincial Government aga inst occupation of Estate land various private Chinese. Thus on October 3, they wrote "the Kuling Estate Council find necessary to call your attention te, the manifest encroachments on Estate property om the hillside above the tennis courts, by Messrs. Wang Usin-pu and Chang Meo-chih. 'The Estate boundaries at this' point extend along the waist of the hill and boundary stones occupied Jand aver on the Botate ide; they ork Tol posting. al iorases 0 sais property, aad, tall.
came on Therefore the' Coun: cil once more enter a most_em-photic protest, and request that the work be stopped, until a settlement reached, The Chinese mentioned in this letter claim that they possess "land papers" from the Kuling Chinese Land Office, which entitle them to the land in question. But it is obvious even a government bureau, the Land Office, cannot Tegal issue deeds or'"Land Papers" for property of private ownership. Another instance which thas come tothe notice of the Council, is the "sale" of a strip of land, covered by a gavel ment deed in the Council's name, on which Iand an Estate watchman's house has been built and occupied since 1897, within official boundary marks carved in the living rock, The third instance of encroachment is being attempted by the 'Kiangsi Forestry Bureau, which, we are told, has staked off and occupied two' areas, one large and one small, adjoining the foreign cemetery. In no part of the Estate boundaries are the original stones placed by. both Chinese officials and the Estate authorities, in better order or more clearly located. Twice this summer the stone-masons at work for the Kuling Council on a boundary wall were stopped by the Forestry Bureau. At a conference of representatives of both sides with the local police official, documents and maps quickly cleared up the matter, and the Bureau agreed to remov its, stones to the true boundary, ana not to intimidate the workmen who were building the wall. This settlement lasted exactly one week, and we are told, the Bureau's stones and stakes nppeared again far over on Estate property, inside the newly-made wall: and a 25-ft belt was cut in the brushwood and trees, ldlemarking this new claim, in total disregard of long-standing legal property rights.
It Is probable that none of tke officials in Nanchang have any clear idea of how the Kuling Estate is held, and a similer ignorance may' be assumed on the part of those in Kiukiang when the attempt was made lust 'June to get control of the Estate. But certainly by now the mayor of Kiukiang has no longer any ground for pleading ignorance. Originally the Central Valley was bought by the landowners at the end of 1895, under on agreement signed by' the British Consul at Kiukiang and the Taotai of that port. The price wag admittedly nominal as the land was valueless and it was recognized that the purchasers would have to spend considerable sums, as they have done, on its development. Subsequent extensions of the Estate were obtained by purchase under a further agreement of October 7, 1904, between the Consul aad Taotai, a price then being charged of $200 a mow, the Government thus taking full advantage fof the development done by the foreign owners, although the newly bought land was otherwise as useless as the old. The lots, of course, have repeatedly changed hands and are owned by people of all " nationalities. But no Government has ever dreamed of questioning their title. Furthermore, it may be mentioned that the Council collect all the land tax and pay it ina lump sum to the British Consul in Kiukiang for traas-mission to the Chinese authorities, this effectually disposing fof any pretence that the Estate comes under a Chinese bureau; and since the Council also pay $2,000. for the -maintenance the Chinese police (who would probably otherwise be unpaid), Kiukfang has 30 justification whatever for at tempting to impose a_polic tax. The point which must be emphasized is that the Kuling Estate is not a concession which can be "resumed," but a purely
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.