HONG KONG RIOTS OF OCTOBER 1884
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What happened in Hong Kong in the fall of 1884 to make this study necessary? According to the local newspaper and official reports of the colonial administration, the boatmen engaged in the servicing of ships in Hong Kong harbor refused to provide their services to ships flying the French flag. When the boatmen were taken to court and fined for refusing to work, they claimed that they were being coerced by the Chinese authorities at Canton who threatened their relatives with harm if the boatmen did not boycott the French. France and China were engaged in an undeclared war, and the Cantonese authorities were using the Hong Kong Chinese to put pressure on the French—or so the boatmen were reported to have claimed in court.
When at last the boatmen were prepared to return to work, they could hardly have been able to afford to remain out forever—they were prevented from doing so by local Chinese mobs. Attempts by the police to break up those mobs led to serious street violence in which at least one Chinese rioter was killed and a number of Sikh police injured. Troops had to be called out, and for several days, the situation was serious enough for the authorities in London to wonder if an Indian regiment might be needed to keep order in the Colony. Fortunately, the disturbances ended before this extra measure became necessary.
As matters turned out, though no troops were needed, the colonial administration felt that a new peace preservation ordinance was necessary. It was hurriedly passed and required the collection of all arms from the Chinese population. Large quantities were collected, and a number of people believed to be agitators were ordered banished from the Colony. The belief that one of those banished, seventy-year-old Yau Poot-in, had been sent to Hong Kong with three thousand dollars to stir up trouble against the French eventually led to official protests to the Imperial Government by the British Legation in Peking.3
Yet, in spite of its many implications, the incident is comparatively unknown. Its underlying causes, as well as the truth about its origins, remain obscure. Was it, as the colonial administrators and the press believed, merely the result of intimidation and agitation from Canton with the support of anti-foreign and criminal elements within the Colony? Or was it an example of the growing sense of nationalism among the Chinese, which is more clearly seen...