Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918

File No. 862a.01/3

The Consul at Tsingtao ( Peck) to the Secretary of State

No. 169

Tsingtao, November 30, 1917.

Sir: Referring to my despatch No. 155, of October 5, 1917, regarding the creation on October 1, 1917, of a department of civil administration in the headquarters of the Japanese military force in occupation of the Leased Territory of Kiaochow, I have the honor to state that this action at once aroused great opposition on the part of the Chinese in the Province of Shantung and elsewhere. I learn from the press that the Chinese Government in October presented a formal protest against not only the civil administration itself, but also against the stationing of troops and the extension of Japanese administrative functions outside the Leased Territory.

The Chinese plainly fear that the comparatively trivial military operations against the Germans are to be made the basis of Japanese domination of Shantung and they fear and are bitterly opposing every manifestation of what they feel are hostile and sinister usurpations of their fundamental rights.

The Japanese, on the other hand, starting with the assumption that the Shantung Railway, as well as the Leased Territory, are conquered areas, assert that it is both their right and their duty to provide for the peace and prosperity of this region, and that the new department of civil administration and its branches outside the Leased Territory have been created with only this laudable object in view.

This office is of the opinion that Japanese expansion in Shantung will not be seriously obstructed by local opposition. I have the honor to enclose herewith a memorandum treating of the circumstances attending the creation of the department of civil administration and conditions in the following two months.¹ The subject matter of this memorandum trenches in some degree on the district of the American Consul at Chefoo whose reports it is designed, to that extent, simply to supplement.

A copy of this despatch with its enclosure has been sent to the American Minister at Peking.

I have [etc.]

Willys R. Peck

[Enclosure 1]

Regulations of the Civil Administration Department of the Tsingtao Army Headquarters

Promulgated October 1, 1917.

(Imperial Ordinance No. 175. Signed by the Premier and the Minister of War and sanctioned by the Emperor of Japan on September 29, 1917, to be effective on the date of promulgation.)

Article 1

The civil administration department is established as a part of the army headquarters of the Tsingtao garrison.

Article 2

The civil administration department shall have executive control of all administrative and judicial functions except military.

The railway department is established to control the Shantung Railway, the mines attached thereto, the wharves, and all the business connected therewith.

The communications department is established to control the means of communication and the electric works.

These departments shall be under the control of the civil administration department.

The organization of the different sections in the civil administration department shall be determined by the commanding general of the Tsingtao garrison.

Article 3

Offices of the civil administration shall be established to carry on the administrative duties. The location, names, districts of the former shall be determined by the commanding general.

Article 4

The following officers shall be appointed in the civil administration department:

• The chief civil administrator: chokunin rank.
• The chief of the railway department: chokunin rank.
• The chief of the communications department: sonin rank.
• Administrative officials: 13 sonin rank (one may be of chokunin rank).
• Engineers: 12 sonin rank.
• Railway management officials and engineers: 26 sonin rank.
• Communications management officials and engineers: 9 sonin rank.
• Medical officers: 15 sonin rank.
• Pharmacy officers: 2 sonin rank.
• Interpreters: 3 sonin rank.
• Subordinate officers:

Engineers	}	99 hannin rank.
Pharmacists
Interpreters

• Railway subordinate officers:

Engineers	}	350 hannin rank.
Interpreters

• Communications subordinate officers:

Engineers	}	68 hannin rank
Interpreters

Article 5

The chief civil administrator shall control all civil executive functions under the orders of the commanding general.

Article 6

The chief of the railway department shall conduct all the business of the railway under the direction and control of the chief civil administrator.

Article 7

The chief of the communications department shall conduct all the business connected with communications under the direction and control of the chief civil administrator.

Article 8

Administrative officials shall conduct the business of their departments under the direction of their respective superiors.

Article 9

An administrative official shall be appointed to be chief of the central administration and to conduct all administrative business under the direction and control of the chief civil administrator.

Article 10

When the chief of the central administration is obliged to be absent from his duty the post shall be filled temporarily by an officer appointed by the chief civil administrator.

The chief of the central administration office may appoint a junior officer to act as his representative temporarily to transact a part of the administrative business.

Article 11

The engineers, railway engineers, and communication engineers shall attend to engineering work under the direction of their official superiors.

Article 12

The medical officials shall attend to medical work under the direction of their senior officer.

Article 13

The pharmacy officials shall attend to pharmacy work under the direction of their senior officer.

Article 14

The interpreters shall do interpreting under the instruction of their senior officer.

Article 15

The subordinate officers, engineers, pharmacists, interpreters (hannin rank) shall undertake general affairs, engineering work, medical work, pharmacy work, and interpreting under the direction of their respective official superiors.

Article 16

Administrative and judicial police functions shall be performed by the gendarmerie in accordance with the regulations determined by the commanding general.

The gendarmerie in their performance of official administrative and judicial police duties shall be controlled by the chief civil administrator and instructed by the chief of the central civil administration office.

Article 17

The judicial affairs of the civil administration department shall be executed by the military judges and clerks.

These regulations shall be in force from the date of their publication.

All the higher and subordinate officials and engineers and interpreters who are engaged at the military administration, wharf office, and post office and who have not received any notification shall be appointed to the same posts with the same salary under the civil administration.

[Enclosure 2]

Department of Civil Administration

Military Ordinance No. 19

Regulations for the apportionment of duties in the department of civil administration in the Tsingtao Army Headquarters are sanctioned as follows:

October 1, 1917.

Fusataro Hongo,
Commander in Chief of the Tsingtao garrison

Article 1

The secretary’s office and the following four bureaus shall be established in the department of civil administration, and bureau chiefs shall be appointed in the secretary’s office and in the bureaus:

• Bureau of general affairs
• Bureau of police
• Bureau of finance
• Bureau of civil engineering

Article 2

The chiefs of the bureaus and the chief of the secretary’s office shall be appointed from among the higher officials of the department of civil administration. They shall have charge of their respective departments, supervising the staffs of the bureaus and of the secretary’s office, respectively, under the direction of the chief of the department of civil administration.

Article 3

The secretary’s office shall have charge of the following business:

1. Important, confidential matters;

2. Personnel, i. e., the appointment and resignation of those who are treated as officials, or engaged for special purposes, or employees;

3. Charge of the official seals of the army headquarters, of the commander in chief of the Tsingtao garrison, the department of civil administration and of the chief of that department;

4. Conferring of ranks, decorations, and rewards;

5. Pensions, compassionate allowances to surviving families, and other allowances;

6. Ceremonies and rituals;

7. Maintaining order in the office and premises;

8. Night duty.

Article 4

Sections shall be established in each bureau of the department of civil administration, which shall have the following functions:

bureau of general affairs

1. Section of correspondencitem:

(a) Dispatch and receipt of correspondence, copying, and printing;

(b) Compilation of official gazette, orders, and regulations;

(c) Reports and statistics;

(d) Translation and interpretation;

(e) Compilation of correspondence and records, custody of the same and of books and maps.

2. Section of general affairitem:

(a) Affairs of the local administrations;

b) Foreign affairs;

(c) Legal affairs;

(d) Registration of family rolls;

(e) Interpretation of orders and regulations;

(f) Relief and charity;

(g) Government hospitals;

(h) Investigation of old customs and old regulations;

(i) All matters not assigned to other bureaus and sections.

3. Section of educatioitem:

(a) Matters connected with education, the sciences, and arts;

b) Schools, kindergartens, and libraries;

(c) Temples and religious matters;

(d) Registration for military service.

4. Section of industrieitem:

(a) Trade and manufacturing;

(b) Marine produce;

(c) Salt business;

(d) Agriculture;

(e) Domestic animals;

(f) Factories;

(g) Market and industrial guilds;

(h) Measures and scales;

(i) Commercial museums and markets;

(j) Experimental farms.

bureau of police

1. Section of policitem:

(a) Administrative policing matters;

(b) Judicial policing matters;

(c) Prisons and jails;

(d) Training native police assistants.

2. Section of sanitatioitem:

(a) Medical affairs;

(b) Medicine;

(c) Quarantine and public health;

(d) Animal diseases;

(e) Private hospitals.

bureau of finance

1. Section of taxatioitem:

(a) Taxes and other revenues;

(b) Monopolies;

(c) Local currency;

(d) Banks and money circulation.

2. Section of the treasuritem:

(a) Budget of revenue and expenditure and their settlement;

(b) Cash accounts exclusive of the revenue and expenditures;

(c) Control of government property;

(d) Investigation of registered real property;

(e) Investigation of real property having a bearing on international relations;

(f) Charge of foreigners’ private property left behind;

(g) Cash office.

3. Section of accountitem:

(a) Orders for payments;

(b) Supervision of cash accounts;

(c) Charge of receipts and disbursements of properties and equipment;

(d) Matters connected with temporary employes.

bureau of civil engineering

1. Section of landitem:

(a) Plotting, of towns and streets;

(b) Listing of lands and houses;

(c) Reclamation of land and use thereof;

(d) Investigations of rivers and other streams;

(e) Utilization of land;

(f) Parks.

2. Section of civil engineerinitem:

(a) Planning, construction, and supervision of roads, rivers, streams, harbors, water utilization, sand banks, waterworks, and drainage;

(b) Investigation of civil engineering works in general;

(c) Watering streets and discharging of drainage;

(d) Surveying and plotting of land.

3. Section of building and repairinitem:

(a) Specifications of buildings, etc., and their construction and supervision;

(b) Building and repairing of office buildings and residential quarters of officers.

Article 5

The experimental farm, forestry office, and slaughterhouse shall be established under the bureau of general affairs, with duties as follows:

1. The experimental farm shall have charge of experiments in agriculture;

2. The forestry office shall have charge of the maintenance and encouragement of forestry;

3. The slaughterhouse shall have charge of slaughtering and breeding of domestic animals.

Article 6

The harbor office shall be established under the bureau of police, and shall have the following duties:

1. Marking sea courses;

2. Marine policing;

3. Harbor quarantine;

4. Dredging of harbors;

5. Fixing buoys;

6. Other matters connected with harbor activities.

Article 7

The electric light works shall be established under the bureau of finance and shall have the duty of supplying electric current for light and power.

Article 8

The Tsingtao military hospital, the Tsingtao hospital, the railway hospital and the Tsingtao meteorological station shall be established under the department of civil administration. Their organization and the appointment of their officers shall be determined separately.

Supplementary Rules

This ordinance shall be effective from the date of promulgation.

[Enclosure 3]

Military Notification No. 93

The names, localities and districts under the jurisdictions of the civil administrations of the Tsingtao garrison have been decided on as follows:

October 11, 1911.

Fusataro Hongo
Commander in Chief of Tsingtao Garrison

Name: Tsingtao civil administration.

Locality: Tsingtao.

Districts: Tsingtao city and the region south of the line connecting Koshan, Shuichingkou, Tashan, Kaotzu, Shuanglenkou, Fushanhou, southern point of Shantungtou; Kiaochow Bay including Yintao, Huangtao and Shilingshan and the leased districts on the other side opposite Tsingtao.

Name: Litsun civil administration.

Locality: Litsun.

Districts: The districts north of the line connecting Koshan, Shuichingkou, Tashan, Kaotzu, Shuanglenkou, Fushanhou, southern point of Shantungtou; districts south of the boundary of the Leased Territory.

Name: Fangtze civil administration.

Locality: Fangtze.

Districts: Along the railway line between the boundary of the Leased Territory and Tsinan as well as along the railway line between Poshan and Changtien.

[Enclosure 4]

Military Ordinance No. 21

October 1, 1917

Fusataro Hongo
Commander in Chief of the Tsingtao Garrison

Regulations of apportionment of business in the local civil administration offices:

• Article 1. Bureaus of general affairs, police, and finance shall be established in the local civil administration offices.
• Art. 2. The bureau of general affairs shall have charge of the following business:

  1. Personnel and correspondence;

  2. Reports and statistics;

  3. Local affairs;

  4. Buildings and constructions;

  5. Matters not connected with other bureaus.

• Art. 3. The bureau of police shall have charge of the following business:

  1. Policing;

  2. Sanitation affairs;

  3. Family registration;

  4. Animal diseases.

• Art. 4. The bureau of finance shall have charge of the following business:

  1. Taxes and revenues;

  2. Cash accounts;

  3. Supplying materials.

• Art. 5. The chiefs of the civil administration offices may determine the business procedures of their offices with the sanction of the commander in chief of the Tsingtao garrison.

1. The memorandum itself is not printed, although certain of its enclosures follow.