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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
It is becoming increasingly clear that the decade following the Washington Conference constituted a distinct epoch in the Far East. The revolutionary surge of Nationalist China with its warcry, “abolish the unequal treaties,” threw the foreign Powers on the defensive for the first time in a century. Skillful Chinese diplomacy supported by physical, moral, and economic force swept away foreign rights and privileges of long standing. Expansive world prosperity bolstered up a sagging Japanese financial structure and encouraged all the Powers to respect the self-denying pledges of the Washington treaties and the demands of Chinese nationalism. This period terminated with the Japanese attack on Mukden in September, 1931. As hard times put increasing strain upon the economy of the Island Empire, the Japanese army, with continental ambitions rekindled, launched a bold campaign for hegemony north of the Great Wall—and possibly south.
During the nineteen-twenties, the center of gravity in China shifted to the Yangtse Valley. Shanghai, the foreign-controlled metropolis which stands at the cross-roads of Far Eastern commerce and dominates an immense hinterland, assumed a position of increasing importance in the domestic economy and international politics of China.
1 Remer, C. F., Foreign Investments in China (New York, 1933), p. 97Google Scholar.
2 Ibid., p. 395. It is worthy of note that of more than thirteen billions invested abroad by Americans between 1912 and 1930, only about one per cent found its way to China. Cf. Dickens, Paul D., A New Estimate of American Investments Abroad (U.S. Department of Commerce, Trade Information Bulletin, No. 767, Washington, 1931), pp. 24, 27Google Scholar.
3 Cf. Report of the Hon. Mr. Justice Feetham, C. M. G., to the Shanghai Municipal Council (Shanghai, 1931), Pt. II, Ch. 5Google Scholar.
4 Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 94–95.
5 The personnel in the upper ranks of the staff remains predominantly British, but Chinese have been appointed to the following positions: assistant secretary, adviser on muncipal affairs, deputy police commissioner, and auditor. The Chinese taxpayers are also permitted to elect six Chinese to the Council's advisory committees as well as two land commissioners. In 1933, six young Chinese graduates of the Central Political Institute at Nanking were attached to the Council's staff for a four months' training period.
6 Foreign taxpayers cast a record vote of 1,787 in the elections of March, 1934. (North China Herald, March 28, 1934, p. 489). The total number of eligible voters is approximately twice this figure, while the foreign population of the Settlement is somewhat in excess of 26,965, the official figure for 1930. Chinese taxpayers cast a total of 2,011 votes in the March election of one-third of the board of directors of the Chinese Rate-payers' Association, which in turn elects the Chinese members of the Municipal Council. The remaining two-thirds of the board are chosen by commercial organizations and resident guilds (North China Herald, March 30, 1934, p. 523Google Scholar). The 1930 census puts the Chinese population of the Settlement at 971,397.
7 The present chairman of the Council, for example, is one of several councillors closely affiliated with important real estate interests. He is also a director of the local bus company and of an investment concern which has substantial holdings in the tramway lines. Two of the pressing problems now before the Council are road-widening and the reorganization and control of transportation facilities.
8 Steps have recently been taken, however, to ameliorate the distressing plight of the ricksha-puller. The question of factory regulation in the Settlement is discussed below, pp. 1040–1043.
9 In May, 1934, the strength of foreign military forces in Shanghai was as follows: American, 1,800; Japanese, 1,500–1,600; French, 1,450; British, 1,071 (North China Herald, May 23, 1934, p. 264Google Scholar.)
10 The old Mixed Court of the French Concession was replaced in 1931 with a similar arrangement. Both agreements were renewed for a three-year period in February, 1933.
11 Speaking strictly, this so-called tax on land is rent paid to the Chinese government for the perpetual lease of land.
12 Letter from the senior consul to the Taotai, dated July 2, 1899. Quoted by Feetham, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 107.
13 Report of the Commission on Extraterritoriality in China (Washington, 1926), p. 109Google Scholar.
14 These figures were compiled by the Ministry of Industries in 1930. Woodhead, H. G. W. (ed.), China Year Book, 1933 (Shanghai, 1933), pp. 362, 381Google Scholar.
15 Land and Labour in China (New York, 1932), p. 143Google Scholar.
16 Ibid., pp. 149–150.
17 It has been suggested that foreign courts be empowered by suitable legislation to enforce the Chinese factory law. Whatever the merits of this scheme as a means of progressively abolishing extraterritoriality, it would probably involve long delay in instituting factory regulation, and could be sabotaged by one recalcitrant foreign Power.
18 Op. cit., p. 161.
19 Toynbee, Arnold J., Survey of International Affairs, 1931 (London, 1932), p. 460Google Scholar.
