CONSULS IN HONGKONG 1
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Reference to Consuls suggests a little research into the subject of representatives of foreign countries in the old days of the Colony. We find that the United States, Denmark and Portugal were the first countries to have Consuls in Hongkong. Mr. F. T. Bush acted for the United States in 1845, Mr. J. Burd was appointed Danish Consul in 1847, whilst in the same year Mr. F. J. de Paiva was appointed for Portugal.
By 1871, there were no fewer than fifteen Consular representatives in the Colony, these being the Consuls for Austria, Belgium, for Denmark, Sweden, and Norway (all three combined), France, Germany, Italy and Hawaii (a dual post held by Mr. W. Keswick), the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Siam, Spain and the United States.
There is considerable political history in Consular appointments like that for Hawaii (1869) later incorporated under the American flag. In 1860, for example, we find separate Consuls for Prussia, for Oldenburg and Hanover, and for Sardinia. These continued for several years, until political changes in Europe brought about amalgamation and incorporation.
CONSULS IN HONGKONG (2)
CONSULS FIGHT A DUEL.
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In these days when duelling is rare even on the Continent of Europe, something of glamour attaches to the thought of this one-time-fashionable method of settling a dispute. It is interesting to find on record the account of a duel which was fought in Hongkong, nearly 63 years ago. As might be expected the parties concerned were not British, one being a Spaniard and the other a South American. The weapons they chose were pistols. The cause was not the romantic one of a fair lady, but the more prosaic matter of card debts.
What made the affair so notable an event was that the duellists were men of some standing, being the Consular representatives for their respective countries. They selected the seashore at Kowloon City - then a more sparsely populated place, under Chinese jurisdiction - as the scene of the encounter, which fortunately did not terminate fatally, though one combatant was wounded. Presumably honour was thereby satisfied.
For a fairly full account of the affair, the facts of which were probably difficult to obtain, we have to search the newspaper files of the period and an extract from one of these is given below:
A report dated July 30, 1872 states:
Considerable excitement was caused yesterday by its getting about that a duel had been fought between Mr. Leon Checa, Consul for Spain at Hongkong, and Mr. Torre Bueno, Peruvian Consul at Macao, who it will be recollected was recently tried before the Court at that place. The origin of the dispute seems