Background
Mr. Hoo was native of Wuhsing, Zhejiang, China. He was born in Washington, United States, in 1894.
胡世泽
Mr. Hoo was native of Wuhsing, Zhejiang, China. He was born in Washington, United States, in 1894.
The first five years Hu Shih-tsi spent in Washington, D.C., where his father Hu Wei-teh was then secretary of the Chinese Legation. Then he went to Russia in 1899 with his father (then Minister to Russia) and attended the Kaiser Primary School and Annen Schule in St. Petersburg, graduating from both in 1905 and 1912 respectively. Mr. Hu visited Japan several times during this period (where his father had been Chinese Minister since 1908).
Mr. Hu went to Paris in 1912, where he graduated from and was awarded the first prize by the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, Section Diplomatique. He joined the law school of the University of Paris in 1913 and received degree of Licencie en Droit in 1918 and of Docteur en Droit in 1918. Hu Shih-tsi awarded by the same University the Prix Goullencourt for his studies and the Prix de these for his doctoral dissertation, "Les Bases Conventionnelles des relations modernes entre la Chine et la Russie". While a student in France, he spent his summers in England, attending summer lectures either in Oxford or Cambridge.
He was appointed assistant secretary of the Chinese Delegation to the Peace Conference at Paris, 1919. Mr. Hu went to Brussels in 1920 as member of the Chinese Delegation to the Conference of Associations for the League of Nations and as a technical member of the Chinese Delegation to the International Finance Conference. He also attended as a technical delegate of the Chinese Delegation the conference for the suppression of traffic in women and children at Geneva, 1921.
Hu Shih-tsi attended as a technical adviser of the Chinese Delegation to the League of Nations the first five Assemblies of the League and also many other conferences convened by the League of Nations. He was appointed 3rd secretary of the Chinese Legation in Belgium in 1921, but did not proceed to his post, having joined as secretary to the Chinese Delegation to the Washington Conference. Mr. Hu transferred to the Chinese Legation in Berlin as a 2nd secretary, promoted 1st secretary in 1923 and became Charge d'affaires in 1924.
He returned from Germany to China in 1925 to serve in the Tariff Conference in Beijing (Peking) as assistant director of the treaty department, 1927. Hu Shih-tsi was also appointed technical expert to the Sino-Soviet Conference and assistant councillor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He served as a sectional chief in the treaty department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and secretary of the Cabinet in 1926. He was promoted assistant director of the treaty department in 1927. In September 1928 Hu Shih-tsi was appointed councillor of the Shanghai City Government and secretary of the Reorganization Commission, which positions he resigned when he became secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the National Government at the end of 1928.
Mr. Hu served as a director of the Department of Asiatic Affairs of the same Ministry from 1930 to 1931. In April 1931 he went to Moscow as technical adviser of the Chinese Delegation for the Sino-Soviet negotiations on the Chinese Eastern Railway. In September 1931 Hu Shihh-tsi attended the Assembly of the League of Nations as Secretary General of the Chinese Delegation. He attended in that capacity all the meetings of the League on the Sino-Japanese Conflict.
In January 1932 Mr. Hu assumed the post of Director of the Permanent Office of the Chinese Delegation to the League of Nations concurrently with that of Charge d' Affaires in Switzerland. In August 1933 he was promoted Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Berne while remaining at the same time as Director of the Permanent Office at Geneva. Since May 1932 he also represents China at the League's Advisory Committee on opium and other dangerous drugs.
His father Hu Wei-teh was secretary of the Chinese Legation in United States. Then he was Minister to Russia. Later Mr. Hu was Chinese Minister in Japan.