KOWLOON, OLD CITY
(cont.)
614
3
The Taipings issued a proclamation to the people of the surrounding districts, advising them that they would not be disturbed if they pursued their avocations in peace.
The leader of the army which captured Kowloon and the New Territories bore the surname Lo. His Chancellor was known as Tong.
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Despite the fact that a first-class war was being waged on the other side of the Harbour, Hongkong learnt little of the actual hostilities. It was unsafe for Europeans to visit the war zone, and the newspapers contained little other than second-hand reports.
Finally, in desperation, the Friend of China engaged a coolie as war correspondent! He received 25 cents for his services and is therefore the lowest paid war correspondent in history.
The coolie brought back the following particulars of the war in Kowloon,
! Leaving only 300 troops in Kowloon, the Taiping on August 28, left in a body for the town of Tai-ping. That night they reached Lak-yuen where they were given a warm reception and plenty of food by the villagers. Next day they reached Ty-poo-hee (the present Taipo Market) and on the following day appeared at Sha-tow-kok and Eeun-teen-hee.
Five days after they left Kowloon, the rebels took up a position at Ty-poon-shan. At all these places, the villagers plied them with food, gave liberal monetary support and hundreds flocked to join the rebels.
In less than a week, the Taipings had been reinforced by 10,000 able-bodied men and were ready for further conquests. Before they marched on, they had warned all the Mandarins to leave the district, forced all Imperial soldiers to give up their arms and had extracted fifty thousand taels for the subsistence of their men.
In the meantime, all was not well with the Taiping Garrison at Kowloon. They quarrelled among themselves and in less than a fortnight, at least one-third had deserted their posts and left to join the main body.
What happened to the Taipings subsequently is too well known for repetition here. Suffice to say the rebellion was utterly crushed, but not before a Taiping Dynasty had been set up in Nanking. The Imperial Government took a terrible revenge and at Canton, in one year alone, it is estimated that 80,000 rebels were beheaded.
KOWLOON-CANTON RAILWAY
If any evidence of the progress made in this Colony during the last half century be required, it is merely necessary to state that thirty years ago there were neither trams nor railways in Hongkong.
The Canton-Kowloon Railway was one of the railway concessions given to the famous British and Chinese Corporation. At the time the concession was granted, British territory in Kowloon consisted only of the southern end of the peninsula of Tsim Sha Tsui, extending northward for little more than a mile.
In 1898, however, a further piece of territory, extending up to Shum-chun, was leased to Great Britain. The Colonial Government decided in 1905 to build the railway in the old and new (or leased) territory, leaving the line from Shumchun River to Canton to be built by the British and Chinese Corporation.
An engineering party was sent out from England to make surveys of routes. Both routes started from the south-east end of the Kowloon