Moustier to Henry Richard Charles Wellesley, May 23, 1867

Mr. Moustier to Lord Cowley

Monsieur l’Ambassadeur: In answer to the communication which you were pleased to make to me the 25th of last month, of a despatch of Lord Stanley relative to the municipal regulations of the French concession of Shanghai, I am happy to inform your excellency that the views of the imperial government on this question are in perfect harmony with those of her Britanic Majesty’s government.

In fact, as soon as the principal secretary of state of the Queen recognized that the fusion of the two establishments situated on the north and on the south side of the Yang-King-Pang was henceforth impracticable, and when he adheres to the considerations developed in the letter which I had the honor to address to your excellency on the 6th of June of last year, I hasten to modify the only provision which is objectionable to the London cabinet. According to the views of my department the 16th article was simply intended to establish what already practically existed, the principal of the rights of persons continuing to be respected in the most scrupulous manner. But I do not hesitate to admit that the language which was adopted does not protect these principles in terms sufficiently explicit, and although it appears that an explanatory declaration of the imperial government appears to Lord Stanley to be sufficient to prevent all difficulty, I believe that I shall respond still more completely to the desire of the British government by altering the 16th article according to the meaning of the considerations presented by Sir Edmund Hornby, judge of the English supreme court in China and Japan. I propose, therefore, Monsieur l’ambassadeur, to request the consul general of France in Shanghai to substitute for this article a provision thus conceived:

“The consul general, in concert with the authorities under whose jurisdiction the foreign residents may be placed, and in accordance with the principles of a just reciprocity, shall determine the manner of the execution of the warrants of arrest which these authorities may issue, as well as of all judgments and orders of seizure, issued against strangers, resident, or in transitu, in the concession.”

The Viscount Bremier de Montmorand, however, should not effect this substitution until he has come to a definite understanding with the consular and judicial authorities of the Anglo-American establishment, on the manner of executing the respective judgments and warrants of arrest. In order that this understanding should not meet either with delay or with difficulties, I consider it important that the French and British governments should immediately decide upon the base of an agreement, and issue to their agents at Shanghai identical instructions. I should therefore be greatly obliged to your excellency, if you would request Lord Stanley to communicate to you as soon as possible his views in this matter. As far as I am concerned, I adhere willingly to the proposition which has been made by the consuls of England and the United States in Shanghai, “to decide that all warrants of arrest issued by the authorities in the Anglo-American quarter should, in order to be executed in the French concession, and except in cases of extreme urgency, be previously countersigned by the consul general of France, or at least presented to the chief of the municipal police of the concession. However it appears to me useful to have it at the same time understood, that in case the warrant is not countersigned by the consul general, the chief of the French police shall always have the right to send one of his agents to accompany the constable who is charged with its execution.

Further, it seems to me desirable, to regulate the conditions of the instructions of the respective agents of the public force in cases of seizure, and others, in which physical resistance might be opposed to the execution of judicial sentences. Finally, the mode of execution in the Anglo-American establishment of judicial divisions and warrants of arrest issued by the consul general of France, should also be decided by an arrangement of intervention according to the principles of perfect reciprocity.

In conclusion, I believe it proper, Monsieur I ambassadeur, to call your attention to the importance of mutual assistance, which the judicial authorities of the different nations should render to each other, to assure by those under their jurisdiction the observance of the municipal regulations in force both north and south of the Yang-King-Pang. Thus, as I had the honor to remark to your excellency in my letter of the 6th of June last, strangers living on the French concession will remain under the jurisdiction of their national authorities, even in cases of simple violations of police regulations or of disturbance of the peace, or in suits for the recovery of taxes. French subjects residing in the Anglo-American quarter will in analogous cases be brought before the consul general of France. But in order that the application of the principle of the rights of persons under these circumstances should have results advantageous to the interests of the community, it is important that full and prompt justice should be done on one part as well as the other, and that the respective authorities should feel no uncertainty as to the nature and extent of their obligations on this subject. I am pleased therefore to think, that her Britannic Majesty’s government will not hesitate in cases of necessity to join its efforts to those of the imperial government to bring about, in reference to the infraction of municipal regulations, as complete an understanding as possible between the different foreign agents who exercise in Shanghai over their countrymen the rights of jurisdiction, recognized by the different treaties with the Celestial Empire.