覚書：満洲事変後の冀察方面における領事館警察の膨張について

Abstract

満洲事変後から華北分離工作の時期にかけて，中国の河北省・察哈爾省では日本の領事館警 察の膨張がみられたが，それはたんなる量的拡大にとどまらず，質的な変化をともなっていた。 満洲事変前には，この地域の領事館警察の分布は天津，北京など特定の地域に限定されていた。 これは領事裁判権を有する外国人が居住・営業の自由を享受できるのは，原則として開市開港 地に限定されているとの通商条約の解釈に，日本側もしたがっていたからである。ところが塘 沽停戦協定後，この地域では，日本軍隊が占領した非武装地域に日本臣民が進出し，その「保護取締」のために領事館警察が進出し，それによってさらなる日本臣民の増加というサイクルがみられた。その結果，この地域では治外法権を有したままでの日本臣民の「内地雑居」が現 出し，それに並行して領事館警察が増殖したのであった。このような状況は，満洲事変以前の 日本側の通商条約解釈からみても，それを大きく逸脱するものであった。そして日中戦争開始後には，日本軍の占領邸の拡大にともない，このような領事館警察の増殖現象が，華北全域さらには華中・華南の中国全体に拡大するのである。

Between the Manchurian Incident and the Japanese Intervention to North China, the expansion of Japanese consular police forces in Hebei and Chahar provinces was evident, but this was not merely a numerical increase; there was also a change in character of the Japanese consular police in China. Before the Manchurian Incident, the distribution of consular police in this area was limited to specific regions such as Tianjin and Beijing. That was so because Japan also held an understanding of their commercial treaties with China by which foreigners with consular jurisdiction authority enjoyed freedom of residence and business limited in principle only to ports and cities opened by those treaties. After the Manchurian Incident, however, Japan throw away such understanding in Hebei and Chahar and expanded consular police forces in location over the limited areas. The Tanggu armistice agreement made a demilitarized zone in Hebei and Chahar where the Japanese military forces had occupied during the Manchurian Incident. After the armistice within that demilitaeized region there arose an increase in resident Japanese nationals, and consular police forces then increased in size and location in order to protect and control those residents, which in turn led to increased numbers of new Japanese residents. As a result, in these areas a policy emerged for the 'opening of concessions' ('naichi zakkyō') for Japanese nationals while maintaining extraterritorial rights, and the expansion of Japanese consular police forces continued simultaneously. These circumstances represent a significant divergence from how the commercial treaties were understood by the Japanese side before the Manchurian Incident. After the beginning of the China-Japan war in 1937, the growth of Japanese consular police forces continued in conjunction with the Japanese army's occupation of northern China, and then expanded over time into central, south and ultimately all of China.