"It is easy to demonstrate that such a point of view is based on a misunderstanding. Extra-territorial rights, so far as they are secured by treaty, comprise exclusively the right of every foreigner to be judged by his own Consul. They do not, however, in any way exempt him from the obligation to pay town and other taxes, or to submit to established regulations. The difference between the pure Chinese open ports where there are no foreign concessions and places which lie in the territorial zone of the Chinese Eastern Railway, and are open to foreign trade, consists solely in the fact that in the former the Chinese authorities have the power to make administration rules at their own discretion, while in places in the territorial zone of the Eastern Railway the Chinese Government has, by the concession agreement signed on August 28, 1896, and the convention of May 10, 1909, transferred the rights of administration to the Chinese Eastern Railway Company, as a private concession, so that the company acts as the agent of the Chinese Government in supervising the administration of Kharbin and other places. {102} "Another misunderstanding has evidently given rise to the statement that Kharbin has recently been converted into an international concession. The contracting parties never had any such intentions. By reason of legal acts, as well as of traditions and conditions of a local character, under which Kharbin originated, it is clear that this is a special kind of concession, which is distinguished from other concessions by its exceptionally liberal and exceedingly hospitable regulations in regard to foreigners." CHINA: A. D. 1909 (October). Naval plans. See (in this Volume) WAR, THE PREPARATIONS FOR: NAVAL: CHINESE. CHINA: A. D. 1909 (October). Opening of the Peking-Kalgan Line of Railway. A purely Chinese undertaking. See (in this Volume) RAILWAYS: CHINA. CHINA: A. D. 1909 (October). Death of Chang Chih-Tung. Chang Chih-Tung, Grand Councillor of the Empire of China, died on the 4th of October, 1909, and Tai Hung-tze, President of the Board of Justice, was appointed his successor in office. CHINA: A. D. 1909 (October-November). Election and opening of Provincial Assemblies. Beginnings of the institution of Constitutional and Representative Government. The following, from the Peking reports to _The Times_, London, narrates the actual beginning of the series of proceedings planned and promised for the gradual institution of representative constitutional government. The first is of the date of October 14, 1909: