29
65
Much of 1860 was spent working with the Chinese authorities searching for ways to shut down the continuing private trade in the outskirts of the city. That was not as easy as regularizing the trade within the city. The occupation administration was convinced that the illegal coolie trade with its accompanying brutality would make their continuing administration difficult if not impossible. Thus the commissioners and allied commanders remained committed to outlawing the illegal trade.
Conclusion
If the illegal trade remained a difficult problem, nevertheless, the Cantonese resistance to the occupation seems to have considerably lessened by 1860, and the next year and a half, that is until the allied withdrawal, was relatively uneventful. According to one observer:
Today, French, English, Americans, Russians and Portuguese, every foreign nationality can come without experiencing the least obstacle. When we walk in the streets of Canton the Chinese regard us with a curious air, even as we ourselves look at them, but without any demonstration of anger or vengefulness. Everyone knows that we came among them neither to dominate nor to enslave them. They are beginning to understand that our diplomatic and commercial relations should one day make them rich and free. I think they are not far from actually liking us. In effect, the Chinese cannot detest these strangers who have brought them the benefits of civilization.
Whatever the likelihood that the average Cantonese would have described the situation as our commentator did, it is nevertheless true that by 1860 the occupation had finally settled down to the routine so many have assumed it to have shown from the beginning. And a year later, by 1861, it was finally time to turn control of the city back to the Chinese.
The official ceremony of departure, in the wake of the settlement of the Arrow War, took place on October 19, 1861, just short of the fourth anniversary of the city's occupation and after most of the allied troops