hina's Sovereignty
Some three months ago Britain and America declared their inten- n of renouncing the extra-territorial rights which they have exer- sed under treaties of over a century's standing. Last Monday the presentatives of the countries concerned signed treaties carrying t :he terms of the declarations. Henceforward, or as soon as the '.iese Government has resumed control of territory held by Japan, nese sovereignty will he complete within her own borders, and ritish and American citizens will no longer claim to be tried by e law of their own country or to enjoy the other special privileges hich they had acquired. Some of these rights, in the past, when hi:ia was suffering from unsettled Governments and disunity, were t w:thout justification, and in some respects their effects were even beneficial to the Chinese. But all that became changed when a reformed National Government came into being capable of improv- ing its legal system and establishing modernised prisons. Since 1926 it has been a foregone conclusion that a settlement or this question must be concluded between China and Britain, and but for the war with Japan it would probably have been completed before now. The heroic part that China is playing in the war and the certainty of her association with the United Nations in the peace make it obvious that in the exercise of sovereignty in her territory she must enjoy absolute equality with other civilised nations. The treaty deals with a number of questions relating to the handing over of the settlements and rights of travel, trade and navigation. It cannot, of course, come fully into effect till the Japanese have been driven out, but it was most desirable that there should be no delay in the full recognition of China's .status among the Powers. A gratifying feature of the preceding negotiations has been the close co-operation between the Foreign Office and the American State Department, particularly through personal contacts between Mr. Eden and Mr. Winant, in the preparation of identical treaties signed by Britain and America on the one side and China on the other.
