"
cession to the British Crown of the area previously leased to the
British Commissioner.
4.
Over the next few decades disputes continued between the
Chinese and the British authorities in Hong Kong over smuggling in
opium and other commodities.
of a large influx of Chinese.
The population grew rapidly as the result
5.
Following territorial and other concessions extracted from
China by other western powers and Japan in the 1890s, as part of an
effort to protect its own position, Britain acquired the 99-year
lease on the New Territories, beginning from 1 July 1898. The
Convention of Peking, in granting the lease, stipulated that the
Chinese would retain various rights in the leased territories.
Among these, Chinese officials were to retain jurisdiction within
Kowloon City "except so far as may be inconsistent with the military
requirements for the defence of Hong Kong", and Chinese vessels of
war retained the right to use the waters of Mirs Bay and Deep Bay.
An Order in Council was passed in December 1898 to include Kowloon
City in the New Territory, but this arrangement was not recognised
by China. British forces assumed control of the leased territories
in April 1899, encountering some opposition from local inhabitants
encouraged by the Chinese Viceroy in Canton.
6.
Despite a period of turbulence in the 1920s, marked by the
Seamen's strike of 1922 and a general strike in 1925-26, Hong Kong
continued its growth. As a result of the Japanese advance into
China, some 650,000 refugees fled to Hong Kong in 1938-39. When the