893.05/220: Telegram
The Chargé in China (Perkins) to the Secretary of State
1190. Department’s 426, December 21, 9 p.m. The American Consul General at Shanghai has submitted the following observations with regard to the principal questions at issue in the negotiations regarding the Provisional Court. This telegram is repeated for the consideration of the Department in connection with any instructions which it may have occasion to give in this matter.
“December 24, noon. I respectfully submit for the Legation’s consideration the following comments in regard to specific points under negotiation, my sole reason being to place again before the Legation the results of my observation of and experience with the workings of the court and the municipality extending over a period of years.
It is inconceivable that any proposal by the Chinese which brings into question the validity of the land regulations and municipal bylaws would be seriously considered by the foreign powers. The Provisional Court has been aptly termed the keystone of the Shanghai municipality.
The land regulations are the very foundation stone. When these are replaced by any legislation, such law will be subject to unilateral interpretation, amendment and repeal, and the public opinion of the whole world will endorse such a claim as soon as the land regulations have been superseded. Replace the land regulation[s] and the foreign administration of the Settlement disappears very quickly. Such a replacement surrenders all the debatable rights claimed by foreigners such as extra-Settlement roads and concomitant questions. No legislation can possibly be enacted to include all the provisions of the land regulations, much less the bylaws and precedents, and any attempt to enforce a law replacing the charter of the Settlement would inevitably be a new cause of friction. I urge that the delegates’ recommendation be not disregarded.
It is rather remarkable that the Chinese should insist upon imposing upon the foreign settlement the procurator system which they consider as unsuitable for modern China. It is unsuited for Shanghai municipal affairs. I seriously object to the procurator system in any form, though within stated limits with ample safeguards and provision against new legislation which will halt his functions he assumes his least objectionable form.
[Page 742]I hope that no recession from the delegates’ position in regard to consular representatives will be regarded as possible at this time and his position in the court should be such to distinctly mark his presence as being different from the ordinary visitor. The Chinese proposal seems humiliating and undignified. If the new court proves efficient and such as to commend its action to the public, the animosities in practice will soon disappear no matter what the treaties may contain.
It is inconceivable that the most important safeguard of the foreigner and the residences of the International Settlement should be in any way interfered with. The judicial police are necessarily Shanghai’s municipal police if the individual wealth of the Settlement is not to be subject to depredation, and any other system would lead to constant and irreconcilable conflicts. No objections can be offered to providing special uniforms, but, when discharged, they must not be ineligible to municipal reemployment. The Chief Clerk is very important to guarantee the handling of funds and publicity when necessary, which is one of the great safeguards, since the judicial proceedings cannot be kept from the press. Unexecuted judgments of the Mixed and Provisional Courts must be recognized and executed throughout China. I feel it important that all appeals should be confined to the court within the Settlement. Certainly all appeals which concern the foreigner and law and order of the Settlement should without question be heard and finally determined by a court in the Settlement.
Prisons should be under the complete control of the Settlement authorities though some joint control as a face-saving device might be possible. The rules of 1902 defining respective jurisdiction in the courts of the French and International Settlements would probably find a place in the negotiations.”
- Telegram in five sections.↩