No. 165.
Mr. Angell
to Mr. Blaine.
Peking, June 20, 1881. (Received August 1.)
Sir: In my No. 149 of April 30, I submitted for your consideration some interesting and important questions concerning the jurisdiction over foreigners in the Chinese customs service. These questions had been suggested by the trial of a British subject, Mr. Page, for shooting a Chinaman, who was engaged in smuggling. Mr. Page has left the customs service. Meantime the inspector-general of customs, Mr. Hart, who studiously avoids as a rule all diplomatic embarrassments of the customs service, has made some regulations for his subordinates, which will greatly diminish, if not altogether remove, the chances of serious trouble concerning the jurisdiction over foreigners employed under him.
I am not permitted to furnish you the circular containing the new rules. But Mr. Hart has read it to me, and I can properly give you the substance of the regulations. It is ordered that if any foreign employé of the Chinese customs kills or wounds any person, he shall at once resign his place and report to the consul of his nationality, within whose jurisdiction he resides. If the consul tries and convicts him, his resignation is to be permanent. If the consul acquits him or decides that there is no cause for trial, the employé may resume his official position with full pay during the time since his resignation.
The consul, it will be observed, may still profitably have some instructions to guide him in determining whether there is cause for trial; whether, for instance, the fact that the killing or wounding was done in the course of official duty should exempt a man from trial.
I have, &c.,