HISTORY
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British community could live free from the pressure Lin had used. An expeditionary force arrived in June 1840 with orders to support these demands by enforcing measures against China's economy. Negotiations between Elliot, the British plenipotentiary, and Keshen, a Manchu commissioner who had replaced Lin after his exile in disgrace, resulted in agreement over the preliminaries of a treaty-the Convention of Chuenpi-on 20th January 1841. By it, Hong Kong was to be ceded. The island was formally occupied by a naval party on the 26th January 1841, and a few days later Elliot proclaimed it a British Colony.
THE ISLAND COLONY, 1841-60
Neither side accepted the Chuenpi terms. The cession of an island aroused shame and anger among the Cantonese, and the strength of the war party at Court forced the Emperor to continue hostilities. The unfortunate Keshen was arrested and sent to Peking in chains. Palmerston was in any case dissatisfied with Hong Kong, which he contemptuously described as a 'barren island with hardly a house upon it', and refused to accept it as the island station which was to be demanded as an alternative to a commercial treaty. Elliot's successor, Sir Henry Pottinger, who arrived at Macau in August 1841, renewed hostilities with resolution and by the following August, when British troops were threatening to assault Nanking, brought the war to a close by the Treaty of Nanking. Under it Hong Kong was ceded to the British Crown, 'it being obviously necessary and desirable that British subjects should have some port whereat they may careen and refit their ships . . . .', and four additional ports on the mainland were opened to trade.
Pottinger visited Hong Kong Island during the winter of 1841-2 and found so much evidence of progress since its occupation that he determined to retain it in spite of Palmerston's strictures. In June 1843, after the Treaty had been ratified by both countries, Hong Kong was declared a British Colony, and the name 'Victoria' was conferred upon the settlement; the main thoroughfare on the northern side of the island facing the harbour was named 'Queen's Road'. Hong Kong was declared a free port and by the Supple- mentary Treaty of the Bogue in October 1843 the Chinese were