New-York tribune., 1921-11-18
China S Inland Domain
The Principle That Foreign Traders Outside Treaty Ports
Should Submit to Chinese Jurisdiction
BY Gilbert Reid

questions, but rather a growing feeling
of mutual good will. All the more has
this favorable turn taken place if the
missionary and the native convert have
refused to look for protection and in
reference from the foreign consul or
legation.
A subsequent cause of friction, which
still exists while the other has disap-
peared, has come from foreign traders
AT first they contented themselves with
mere travelling up and down the coun
try and establishing Chinese agencies
at leading centers. 1t must be said
to the credit of the great trading COM
panies. that they gave very little cause
OF annoyance to Chinese officialdom-
Along with these great trading estab-
lishments, pushing out into every prov
ince of China with deserving success,
there grew up another form of bust
ness outside the limits of the treaty
ports, and that in connection with rail-
way and mining concessions.
Of the various concessionaries and
engineers engaged in such big bust
ness probably the Germans were most
provocative of trouble in the early
days before the Boxer uprising
(though they changed their tactics
afterward), while the Russians added
to their enterprise of building the
railway across Manchuria the still
more threatening movement of mill
. tary guards along the line of the rail-
way. The Russians thus introduced a
form of military occupation.
When the Japanese defeated the
Russians in 1904, they adopted the
same form of military domination in
that part of Manchuria allotted to
them as field for exploitation. When
they defeated the Germans in 1914
they introduced also into Shantung
this fragrant intrusion of military
barracks and military occupation.
They have not contented themselves
with mere policing of the railways in
both Manchuria and Shantung, but
they go far afeld in giving protection
to any Japanese who may claim that
he is in trouble or danger. There are
thus two offences, one of trading or
living where one has no right to be,
and the other of relying not on the
Chinese for protection, but on the
Japanese political and military force.
Such conduct, clearly violation of
the treaties, is blow at China's ma
tional integrity, and also generally
proves hindrance to the open door
principle, since others who rely On no
such military power are at disad-
vantage in pushing legitimate business.
The Traders Status
If the Chinese are not to be granted
their wish in ridding the treaty ports
of extra-territorial rule, they certainly
should be free from such rule outside
the limits Of the treaty ports. The
trader, like the missionary, if he in.
sists on carrying on business wher-
! ever he pleases in inland China, should
demean himself as a guest who -
there by sufferance and not as an inter-
loper. He should submit to Chinese
ways and not be tool of outside polit-
ical interference or of the menace of
foreign militarism.
Failure in this matter will mean
growing friction. The Japanese at
present are almost the sole offenders,
and if for politeness' sake no halt is
called to all such penetration (far from
peacefully, Manchuria and then Shan
tung will go the way of hapless
Cofea.
The principle here referred to is i'm