EXTRATERRITORIALITY  195
prescriptive  right  derived  through  the  Roman  Catholic
missions,  they  claimed  under  Article  XII.  of  the  British
treaty,  given  above,  by  the  terms  of  which  they  were  permitted ­
  to  own  property  “  whether  at  the  ports  or  at  other
places  ”  ;  it  was  not  intended  by  the  negotiators  on  either
side  that  the  right  of  residence  in  the  interior  should  be
granted  by  these  words,  but,  strictly  interpreted,  they  certainly ­
  carry  on  the  rights  claimed  and  continued  by  their
Roman  Catholic  colleagues.
Of  German  missions  there  are  both  Protestant  and
Catholic,  though  neither  are  numerous,  but  they  attract
attention  because  of  the  terms  of  the  German  treaty  of  1861,
of  which  Article  X.  reads  as  follows  :—
“  Die  Bekenner  und  Lehrer  der  christlichen  Religion
sollen  in  China  volle  Sicherheit  für  ihre  Personen,
ihr  Eigenthum  und  die  Ausübung  ihrer  Religions-Gebräuche
  gemessen.”
Thus  to  Germany,  and  therefore  to  all  nations,  by  this
curt  clause  is  guaranteed  full  security  to  the  persons  and
property  of  missionaries  and  their  converts  ;  and  this  brings
us  to  the  second  debated  question  in  connection  with  missionaries, ­
  the  degree  of  protection  to  be  accorded  to  Chinese
subjects  who  have  become  Christians.*
The  German  treaty,  in  its  brevity,  seems  to  remove  the
convert  from  the  jurisdiction  of  his  own  laws  and  to  extraterritorialise
  him  ;  but  is  it  for  a  moment  to  be  supposed
that  this  was  the  intention  of  the  negotiators,  even  on  the
German  side  ?  The  convert  remains  a  Chinese  subject,  and
is  under  the  jurisdiction  of  his  own  laws  and  entitled  to  such
justice  as  they  will  give  him,  as  much  after  his  conversion
as  before,  subject  only  to  the  proviso  that  he  shall  not  be
persecuted  because  of  his  faith  ;  and  in  this  respect  the
same  right  of  user  cannot  be  claimed  as  in  the  case  of  mission
property  and  residence  in  the  interior,  since  the  Chinese
Government  has  always,  even  in  the  time  of  its  greatest
weakness,  resisted  the  idea  that  its  subjects  could  change
their  status.  With  the  reservation  of  the  case  of  persecu-!
  j  *  See  Appendix  C.