was ratified, the island of Hong Kong was declared a British Colony and free port and Sir Henry Pottinger became its first Governor. Since the traders had
already precipitated the development of a settlement there, Pottinger had had little choice but to accept the tide of events. He reported back to the new Foreign Secretary, Lord Aberdeen, in the summer of 1843, "I had no predilection for raising a colony at Hong Kong or at any other place in China" but "this settlement has already advanced too far to admit of its ever being restored to the authority of the Emperor".
6. The Convention of Peking, 1860. The Second Anglo-Chinese War (1856-8) arose out of disputes over the interpretation of earlier treaties and over the boarding of a Hong Kong-registered lorcha, the "Arrow", by Chinese in search of suspected pirates. In June 1858 the Treaty of Tientsin ended the war, China agreed to open additional ports to trade and agreed to receive a British diplomatic mission resident in Peking. However, hostilities were resumed in 1860 when the British envoy found his passage to Peking barred at the Beihe (Peiho) River. Peking was occupied and China and Britain signed the Convention of Peking on 24 October 1860.
7. Article VI of this Convention provided for the cession to Britain of the tongue of land known as
Kowloon Point, on the mainland a little more than
a mile away from the island of Hong Kong. Ports of the Kowloon Peninsula had been used by British troops during the recent hostilities as a camping ground and assembly point. Their presence was justified as a means of controlling the Chinese
population there. On 20 March 1860, the British
Commissioner at Canton, Mr Harry Smith Parkes had proposed to the Governor-General of the Provinces
Сполјуналу of Guangdong and Guangxi, Lao Chong-Guang (Lau Ch'ung-kwang; given as Lau Tsung Kwang in the English text of the Convention of Peking) that the Chinese authorities: "mark out a boundary and cede
/the ground