The Feetham Report: A New Plan for Shanghai

Extract

Shall the International Settlement of Shanghai be returned to China to become the prey of Chinese politics and civil disruption, or shall it be held in trust through a plan of Sino-foreign partnership until such time as China shall be able to preserve and protect its wealth and trade? This is the question now brought to the attention of Chinese and foreigners by the recently published report of Judge Richard Feetham, of South Africa, after eighteen months of intensive study of the problem. The report represents the most significant step yet taken toward solving the question of the future status of the International Settlement, the most important of all foreign concessions and settlements in China. For the first time in the history of the Settlement, China and the foreign powers have before them an adequate study of its development, and a definite plan upon which to base an agreement for future action.

The International Settlement is a foreign controlled and governed area on Chinese soil, located on the Whangpoo River and serving as the chief center for the vast trade and commerce of the Yangtze valley. Together with the French Settlement and the Chinese Municipality, it forms a part of the modern city of Shanghai. The International Settlement is an outgrowth of the British Settlement established in 1843 when Shanghai was first opened to foreign trade. Other foreigners were admitted to the original British area, and in 1863 the British and Americans pooled their interests after the French had set up a separate settlement of their own. The amalgamated British and American Settlement, extended in 1899, became the International Settlement of today, containing some eight and three-fourths square miles of land on which reside over one million people. In population, the Settlement is truly international. Although the Chinese comprise over ninety-five per cent of the total, more than forty different nationalities are to be found among the foreign residents. For seventy-three years, however, the Settlement was governed wholly by foreigners in spite of its over-whelming majority of Chinese residents, and it is only since 1928 that the Chinese have had any official voice in Settlement affairs.