Staunton Street was named after Sir George Staunton, the famous translator of the original Statutes of the Tatsing Dynasty (the penal code of China). He was a trusted servant of the East India Company long before the cession of Hongkong and, later, as a Member of Parliament, strongly supported the policy of Sir John Davis in face of much current criticism. As far back as 1833 he had advocated the establishment of a British outpost on the China Coast.
Staveley Street was named after Major General Staveley, C.B., who succeeded General D'Aguilar as General Officer Commanding, in 1848. He became Lieutenant Governor of the Colony in 1850, and left in 1851 for Bombay, where he was appointed Divisional Commander of the Bombay Army. Before his departure from Hongkong he was presented with an address from the leading residents.
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Shelley Street is named, not after the poet, but after a former Auditor General of Hongkong. Mr. Adolphus E. Shelley, who was appointed Clerk of Councils in 1844, previously having been a Hindustani interpreter. He only served here for a few years as Auditor General, later going to Mauritius to take up a similar post.
In the naming of yet another thoroughfare it is interesting to find that a Commander-in-Chief of the Naval forces here was presented with plate valued at 2,000 guineas when he left. This was Rear-Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, K.C.B., (after whom Seymour Road was named) who was on the China Station from 1857 to 1859. Formerly he had been second in command of the Baltic Fleet, and had lost an eye through the explosion of a Russian bomb during the Crimean War. It is on record that the gift to the Admiral (actually a draft on London, with which he was to purchase the plate) was an effort by the European community to throw into contrast their indifference to the departure, about the same time, of the much-disliked Governor, Sir John Bowring.
Further notes might be given to-day on the place-names of Hongkong city. Taking the map of sixty years ago as a basis, we have already discussed the origin of several street namings, and a further list might now be considered. Moving a little east from Seymour Road (see yesterday) we have Peel Street, Old Bailey, Chancery Lane, and a little lower down there are Elgin Street, and roadways bearing such names as Graham, Gutzlaff, Cochrane and Pottinger. There are further interesting names to be found nearby, but space considerations preclude my dealing with them for the present.
It is interesting to trace the naming of Peel Street. In years to come it would be quite likely that the uninitiated person, merely glancing at a street plan of, say, 1953, would think the present Governor of the Colony were thus commemorated.
As it happens, even the present historian would naturally look for some local resident who might have thus been honoured, and in the old directories there are several instances of this surname: but none of them belonging to people likely to have been so singled out. One's mind naturally turns then to the statesmen of the old days, particularly those who may have had some connexion with Hongkong, bearing in mind the many other instances we have seen of such commemoration in Hongkong's streets.
We come thus to Sir Robert Peel, who was so prominent a Minister in the early Forties, and in fact took a great interest in Hongkong's earliest years. It was Sir Robert's Government who thought of suppressing the Colony's opium trade (in 1846) by imposing a prohibitive tax. There remains no doubt what-
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