ANNEX No. 16.

IMPERIAL EDICT of December 24, 1901 (Translation).

It has been stipulated in the treaties concluded between China and the Foreign Powers that the citizens of these Powers shall be allowed to penetrate into the interior.

The Court, in order to assure and maintain relations with other countries, has already published decrees ordering that most sincere efforts be made in the provinces to assure protection. Nevertheless, the local authorities having gradually grown lax (in the exercise of their duties), malefactors have caused trouble, and attacks have been directed against foreigners. Similar incidents have repeatedly occurred.

We realize that our ability was too limited to reform the ignorant people, and consequently we have made very grievous mistakes. In ordinary times, not one of the local officials has been able to make understood European affairs, and none have comprehended the importance of foreign relations. Consequently the conflagration spread everywhere, threatening the Empire, and, if they reflect, they will find they have cause for uneasiness.

Henceforth each one of you must strive to overcome his resentment and to lay aside his prejudices. You should know that the maintenance of friendly relations with foreign countries has in all times been a fundamental law. People coming to China from afar, whether as merchants to exchange their products, or as travelers to increase their scientific knowledge, or yet as missionaries to preach religion with the object of exhorting the people to do good, have crossed mountains and seas at the risk of great fatigue.

Since China passes for a civilized country, it should practice the duties of a host toward its guests. Moreover, the Chinese who have gone abroad in recent years number at least several hundreds of thousands. The safety of their persons and property depends upon the guaranty assured them by the Powers, who have given them their protection. How could we continue to treat their citizens differently?

We again command all the responsible High civil and military Authorities of all the provinces to order their subordinates to protect, in the most efficacious manner, the agents and nationals of the foreign Powers who may enter within their districts. In case daring malefactors should urge to illtreat and massacre foreigners, order must be restored immediately and the guilty parties arrested and punished without delay. No delay should occur. If, owing to indifference, or rather of voluntary tolerance, great calamities take place, or if treaties should be violated and no immediate steps taken to make reparation or inflict punishment, the Governors-general, Governors, and the provincial or local Officials responsible will be removed and shall not be reappointed to other offices in other provinces, or hope to be reinstated or receive any further honors.

The present decree must be printed and published to warn the officials and put an end to all shameful customs.

Respect this!

Correct copy.

A. D'ANTHOUARD.

B. KROUPENSKY.
REGINALD TOWER.

G. BOHLEN-HALBACH.

ANNEX No. 17.

Regulations for the improvement of the course of the Whangpu.*

I. A River Conservancy Board is established at Shanghai for the Whangpu river.

II. The Board shall have the twofold duty of acting as agent for the straightening and improvement of the river, and as controlling agent.

III. The jurisdiction of the Board shall extend from a line drawn from the lower limit of the Kiang-nan Arsenal towards the mouth of Arsenal Creek, to the red buoy in the Yangtze.

IV. The Board shall consist of: (a) The Taotai; (b) the Commissioner of Customs; (c) two members elected by the Consular Body; (d) two members of the General Chamber of Commerce of Shanghai, elected by the committee of the said Chamber; (e) two members representing shipping interests, elected by shipping companies, commercial firms, and the merchants the total of whose entrances and clearances at Shanghai, Woosung, and other ports on the Whangpu exceeds 50,000 tons per annum; (f) a member of the municipal Council of the International Settlement; (g) a member of the municipal Council of the French Concession, and (h) a representative of each country the total tonnage of whose ships entering and clearing at Shanghai and any other port of the Whangpu exceeds two hundred thousand tons a year.

V. The ex officio members shall hold office as long as they fill the position by virtue of which they sit on the Board.

VI. The representatives of the muncipal Councils and of the Chamber of Commerce shall be elected for a period of one year. They may be immediately reelected.

The term of office of the members to be designated by the Governments (provided under paragraph h) shall also be one year.

The term of the other members is for three years. They may be immediately reelected.

VII. In case of a vacancy during a term, the successor of the out-going member shall be designated for one year or for three years, according to the class to which he belongs.

VIII. The Board shall elect its Chairman and Vice-Chairman from

*These Regulations have been replaced by the Huangpu Conservancy Agreement of September 27, 1905 (No. 1905/10, post).

amongst its members for a term of one year. If there is no majority at the election of Chairman, the Senior Consul shall be requested to give a casting

vote.

IX. In case of the absence of the Chairman the Vice-Chairman shall take his place. If both of them are absent the members shall choose amongst themselves a President for the occasion.

X. In all meetings of the Board, if votes are equally divided, the Chairman shall have a casting vote.

XI. Four members form a quorum.

XII. The Board shall appoint the officials and employees deemed necessary for carrying out the works and enforcing its regulations; it shall fix their salaries, wages, and gratuities, and shall pay them out of the funds placed at its disposal, and it may make regulations and take every measure necessary concerning its staff, which it can dismiss at pleasure.

XIII. The Board shall decide on the necessary steps for the regulation. of traffic, including the placing of moorings in the river and the berthing of vessels within the limits indicated in Article III, and on all water courses (such as the Soochow Creek and others) passing through the French Concession or the International Settlement at Shanghai and the foreign quarter at Woosung, as well as on all the other creeks emptying into the river, for a distance of 2 English miles above their mouths.

XIV. The Board shall have power to expropriate the private moorings and to establish a system of public moorings in the river.

XV. The authorization of the Board shall be necessary to carry out any dredging, to build bunds, to construct jetties, or to place pontoons and hulks in the section of the river mentioned in Article XIII. The Board may, at its discretion, refuse such authorization.

XVI. The Board shall have full power to remove all obstacles in the river, or the above-mentioned creeks, and to recover, if necessary, the cost of so doing from those responsible.

XVII. The Board shall have control of all floating lights, buoys, beacons, landmarks, and light signals within the section of the river and within the creeks mentioned in Article XIII, as well as over such marks on the shore as may be necessary for the safe navigation of the river, with the exception of light-houses, which shall remain subject to Article XXXII of the treaty of 1858 between Great Britain and China.

XVIII. The improvement and conservancy works of the Whangpu shall be entirely under the the technical control of the Board, even should the carrying out of them necessitate works beyond the limits of its jurisdiction. In this case the necessary orders will be transmitted by and the work will be done with the consent of the Chinese authorities.

XIX. The Board shall receive and disburse all the funds collected for the works and take, in conjunction with the competent authorities, all proper and efficacious measures to ensure the collection of the taxes and the enforcement of the regulations.

XX. The Board shall appoint the Harbour Master and his staff. This

department shall act, within the limits of the powers assigned to the board, in the section of the river indicated in Article XIII.

XXI. The Board shall have authority to organize a police and watch service to ensure the execution of its regulations and orders.

XXII. The Board shall have the direction and control of the Shanghai (Lower Yangtze) pilot service. Licenses for pilots for ships bound for Shanghai shall only be issued by the Board and at its discretion.

XXIII. In case of infractions of its regulations, the Board shall sue offenders in the following way: Foreigners, before their respective consuls or competent judicial authority; Chinese or foreigners whose Governments are not represented in China, in the mixed Court, in the presence of a foreign

assessor.

XXIV. All suits against the Board shall be brought before the Court of Consuls at Shanghai. The Board shall be represented in suits by its secretary.

XXV. Members of the Board and persons employed by it shall not incur any personal responsibility for the votes and acts of the Board, for contracts made or expenses incurred by the said body, when the said votes, acts, contracts, and expenses concern the carrying out or the enforcement, under the authority or by order of the Board or of one of its branches, of the regulations enacted by said body.

XXVI. Besides the provisions mentioned in Article XIII of the present annex, the Board shall have power to enact, within the limits of its competency, all necessary ordinances and regulations, and to fix fines for the violation thereof.

XXVII. The ordinances and regulations mentioned in Article XXVI shall be submitted for the approbation of the Consular Body. If two months after presenting the draft of the proposed ordinances and regulations the Consular Body has made no objection or suggested no modification, it shall be considered as approved and shall come into force.

XXVIII. The Board shall have power to acquire by purchase the lands necessary for carrying out the works of improvement and conservancy of the Whangpu and to dispose of them.

If, for this purpose, it shall be deemed necessary to expropriate land, the rules laid down in Article VI (a) of "The Land Regulations for the Foreign Settlement of Shanghai North of the Yang-king-pang" shall be followed. The price shall be fixed by a Committee consisting of, first, a person chosen by the authority to whose jurisdiction the owner is subject; second, one chosen by the Board, and, third, one chosen by the Dean of the Consular Corps.

XXIX. Riparian owners shall have the refusal of all land made in front of their properties by the reclamation carried out for the improvement of the waterways in question. The purchase price of these lands shall be fixed by a Committee composed in the same manner as provided for in Article XXVIII. XXX. The revenues of the Board are to be derived from

(a) An annual tax of one-tenth of 1 per cent (0.1 per cent) on the assessed value of all lands and houses in the French Concession and the International Settlement.

(b) A tax of equal amount on all property with water frontage on the Whangpu, from a line drawn from the lower limit of the Kiang-nan Arsenal toward the mouth of Arsenal Creek to the place where the Whangpu empties into the Yangtze. The assessed value of this property shall be fixed by the Committee mentioned in Article XXVIII.

(c) A tax of five candereens per ton on all ships of non-Chinese type and of a tonnage superior to 150 tons entering or leaving the port of Shanghai, Woosung, or any other port on the Whangpu.

Ships of non-Chinese type of 150 tons and under shall pay a quarter of the above-mentioned tax. These taxes shall only be leviable on each ship once every four months, irrespective of the number of its entrances and clearances.

Foreign-built ships navigating the Yangtze and only stopping at Woosung to take their river papers shall be exempted from the taxes above mentioned, on condition that on their way up or down they shall not carry on any commercial transactions at Woosung. They shall, however, be allowed to take on water and supplies at Woosung.

(d) A tax of one-tenth of 1 per centum (0.1 per cent) on all merchandise passing through the customs at Shanghai, Woosung, or any other port on the Whangpu.

(e) An annual contribution from the Chinese Government equal to that supplied by the various foreign interests.

XXXI. The collection of the taxes enumerated in Article XXX shall be made through the medium of the following authorities :

Tax a, by the respective Municipalities.

Tax b, to be collected from persons under the jurisdiction of Governments represented in China by their respective Consuls; the taxes to be collected from Chinese or from persons whose Governments are not represented in China by the Taotai.

Taxes c and d, by the Imperial Maritime Customs.

XXXII. Should the total annual revenues of the Board not be sufficient for the payment of interests and the amortization of the capital to be borrowed for carrying out the works, for keeping up the completed works, and for the service in general, the Board shall have the power to increase in the same proportion the various taxes on shipping, on land and houses, and on trade, to a figure sufficient to supply its recognized needs. This eventual increase would apply in the same proportion to the contribution of the Chinese Government mentioned in paragraph e of Article XXX.

XXXIII. The Board shall give notice to the Superintendent of Southern Trade and to the Consular Body of the necessity for the increase referred to in Article XXXII. Such increase shall only come into force after its approval by the Consular Body at Shanghai.

XXXIV. The Board shall submit to the Superintendent of Southern Trade and to the Consular Body at Shanghai, within six months after the closing of each financial year, its annual accounts, accompanied by a detailed report on the general management and the receipts and expenditures during the preceding twelve months. This report shall be published.