Is this use of concession correct? [closed]

On https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tientsin_incident I read An additional problem for the British was normally the concession police handed over Chinese suspects to the Tientsin police to be tried by Chinese courts

Can concession really be used like that? What does the sentence mean?

Solution 1:

Don't overlook one meaning of concession given by Lexico as:

The right to use land or other property for a specified purpose, granted by a government, company, or other controlling body.

Various foreign countries had concessions in China, usally for trading purposes, similar to a commercial concession in a airport. Reading the Wikipedia article it is clear this is the meaning of the word. So in your sentence there is a noun adjunct phrase

concession police

In other words, the police acting within the concession area, on behalf of the British administration, who would only deal with the British residents themselves. But before then, they had dealt with all trouble makers as shown by this extract:

the worse thing that would happen to them if captured by the concession police was to be held in the local jail, which was considered vastly preferable to being tortured and executed by the Japanese