Who's Who in China (3rd edition)/Lu Cheng-hsiang

Mr. Lu Cheng-hsiang

陸徵祥字子欣

Mr. Lu Cheng-hsiang, was born at Shanghai in 1870. Receiving his first education at the Language School in the Kiangnan Arsenal, he was sent to the Tung Wen Kwan College in Peking for his post-graduate work. One year after his post-graduation, he was sent to the Chinese Legation at Petrograd as interpreter in 1890. In 1892 he was promoted to be attache, and in 1893 secretary. He was afterwards deputed to accompany the Chinese Envoy Extraordinary to the coronation of the Tsar. In 1899 Minister Lu was appointed to represent China at the Hague Conference. He was made Minister to the Netherlands in 1905. When the second Hague Conference convened, he was again appointed China's delegate. During his second term as Chinese Minister to Holland in 1908, he negotiated the Consular Convention with that country. In the revolutionary year of 1911, he was sent to the Hague to exchange ratifications of this Convention, and thence proceeded to Petrograd to undertake negotiations with the Russian government for the revision of the Treaty of 1891. At the same time he was appointed Minister to Russia. Lu Cheng-hsiang was elected Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first Republican Cabinet in March 1912. He arrived at Peking on May 24, to take up his new post. On June 17, 1912 he was ordered to act as Prime Minister. On June 29 he was appointed Prime Minister and retained the portfolio of Foreign Affairs. In September 1912 Mr. Lu resigned from the Prime Ministership. From November 1912 to September 1913 he was again Minister of Foreign Affairs. Subsequently he became Master of Ceremony in the President's office. In January 1915 Mr. Lu was again appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. In December 1915 he was ordered to act for Hsu Shih-Chiang as Secretary of State. This position he held until March 1916. In May 1916 he resigned from the Ministership of Foreign Affairs. In December 1917 Mr. Lu was again appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. He remained intact through the cabinet changes in March 1918 and January 1919. In January 1919 Mr. Lu became China's Chief Delegate to the Paris Peace Conference. In December 1919 he returned to Peking and became Minister of Foreign Affairs again. In March 1920 Mr. Lu was awarded the First Order of Merit. In August 1920 he was relieved of the Ministership of Foreign Affairs. In October 1920 he became co-director of Government Famine Relief Bureau. From May to August 1921 Mr. Lu was president of the Famine Prevention Commission. In June 1922 he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Switzerland and also China's representative to the League of Nations. In October 1922 he represented China at the International Laborers' Conference. At the same time he was awarded the Second Class Wenfu. In September 1923 he represented China at the International Laborers' Conference again.