THE  PROVINCES  AND  THE  TREATY  PORTS  213
only  in  a  crisis,  and  ordinarily  the  duly-elected  Municipal
councillors  are  de  facto  rulers  of  a  self-constituted  little
republic.  In  the  other  concessions  nomination,  and  not
election,  decides  the  choice  of  Councillors.  For  the  French
concession  the  Municipal  Council  consists  of  the  Consul  as
ex  officio  President,  the  six  land-owners  paying  the  highest
taxes,  and  the  three  tenants  paying  the  highest  rent.  Germany ­
  in  1897  contracted  with  a  commercial  syndicate  to
develop  and  administer  her  concession  ;  and  in  1905  the
Reichstag  passed  an  enabling  Act  to  allow  self-government
when  desired.  On  the  Japanese,  Russian,  Belgian,  and
Italian  concessions  the  Consul  is  sole  administrator.  On
the  Austro-Hungarian  concession  there  is  little  if  any
Austrian  or  Hungarian  interest,  the  land-owners  and
inhabitants  being  Chinese  ;  and  here  the  power  is  vested
in  an  Administrative  Secretary,  nominated  by  the  Consul,
and  in  six  of  the  leading  Chinese  residents  also  nominated.
Of  the  extensions,  the  French,  German,  and  Japanese  are
merely  extensions  of  the  original  concessions,  held  in  the
same  way  under  lease  in  perpetuity  to  the  foreign  power.
In  the  British  Extension,  which  was  the  first,  a  different
principle  was  followed.  The  soil  remains  Chinese,  and
title-deeds  are  sealed  and  issued  by  the  Chinese  authorities
as  at  Shanghai,  and  as  at  Shanghai  it  is  only  administrative
functions—taxing,  works,  and  police—which  are  delegated
by  the  sovereign  power.  The  Municipal  Council,  in  its
corporate  capacity,  and  the  “  land-renters  ”  of  the  British
Concession  own  a  considerable  portion  of  the  land  in  its
extension,  and  the  Municipal  Council  of  the  extension  is
composed  of  the  members  elected  to  the  Municipal  Council
of  the  concession,  ex  officio,  and  four  others  elected  ad  hoc  ;
this  makes  it  possible,  while  having  separate  budgets,  to
carry  on  the  administrative  work  of  the  two  areas  with  a
staff  common  to  both.  In  the  foreign  residential  section
of  Tientsin,  with  a  total  area  of  3,550  acres,  of  which  28
per  cent,  is  in  the  Russian  Concession,  we  have  thus  six
distinct^forms  of  government  under  eight  European  powers.
At  Tientsin  and  in  its  consular  district  live  (December  31,