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A PAGE FROM KOWLOON HISTORY (contd.)
April 16, when the flag was hoisted by the then Colonial Secretary, Mr. J. H. Stewart Lockhart, C.M.G., who was later honoured with a knighthood by H.M. the King.
Military operations were found necessary to overcome the opposition, and on April 18, the rebels were routed in an action fought at Sheung Tsun.
On the British side there were no fatalities, and only one or two slight casualties; a number of Chinese were killed or wounded, but as those who fell were promptly carried away by their friends, the exact figures were not ascertained.
In the Convention it was provided that Kowloon City was to remain Chinese, but owing to difficulties in administration, and on account of the disturbances which occurred on the ceding of the leased area, the Home Government decided to take over this area and orders were issued to the military authorities to seize Kowloon Walled City and Samchan. This was done on May 16, 1899, no opposition being encountered in either places. It will be interesting to note here that the Hongkong Volunteers took part in the expedition to Kowloon City, Samchan was eventually restored to the Chinese authorities in November 1899.
THIRTY YEARS OF PROGRESS
A census taken in 1931 showed that Kowloon and the New Territories had a population of 358,402 as compared with 206,651, the figures taken in the census of 1921.
It is now a matter of history how Kowloon and the New Territories have been developed. Despite all the work done in the past 50 years, development is still going on, and only two days back, a large and up-to-date Brewery was opened. That went to prove the vast possibilities of the New Territories as an industrial centre, and as one gentleman remarked, it also showed that with such progressive development, it was plain that the greatness of Hongkong lies in the future, and not in the past.
Something further on the Kowloon of old might be given (see 25.8.33). It is probably not realised that the first official suggestion of the importance of Kowloon originated with a naval officer. This was Captain W. K. Hall, of H.M.S. Calcutta, who forwarded to the Governor a letter suggesting the acquisition of Kowloon Point and Stonecutters Island.
Eventually, Sir Hercules Robinson, the then Governor, authorised steps towards that end, and Viceroy Loo of Canton agreed. In March, 1860, a lease was signed, sealed and delivered leasing the Peninsula in perpetuity.
The ceremony for the handing over of Kowloon took place on January 19, 1861, in the presence of a vast concourse of people and some 2,000 troops; being attended by Lord Elgin (on a mission to China), Sir Hercules Robinson, Lady Robinson, Sir H. Parkes, and Mr. Adams, the acting Chief Justice. Lord Elgin was met by four Chinese mandarins who handed to him some earth in a piece of paper, as a sign that the territory was henceforth to be British. Men-o-war in the harbour fired salutes, and a battery at Stonecutters followed suit.
It is regrettable that the spot where the Royal Standard was hoisted and the formal handing over took place is not marked: as with Hongkong (see 25.7.33) this omission is one which seems strange to us to-day.
After the area had been surveyed, a controversy arose as to the allotment of land: the Civil authorities eventually (in 1864) sold a number of marine and inland lots to Hongkong residents, but the Navy received some valuable portions, and the Military, it is recorded, had the lion's share - a matter of present-day concern!
Later, as we have already seen, so-called garden allotments were leased, a notification of August 25, 1873, stating "The Government is prepared to grant leases for ground for garden purposes at Kowloon for 14 years determinable by lessee at the end of the first seven years at $20 an acre."
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