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Houghing remonstrated with the Deputy Magistrate of Nowloon and urged him to clear the peninsula of this population but all with no effect.
Their contempt for Authority may be judged from the fact that in August 1832 they actually took the fort of Kowloon.
Thus the injury they occasion both to British and Chinese interests is very great, and it becomes impossible for the British Authorities to see their people any longer exposed to so serious a Nuisance.
A remedy must therefore be provided at once, and those on whom responsibility in the matter devolves must act up to their obligations.
The difficulty is only to be met in one of two ways: either the Chinese authorities must send officers and troops to the spot to expel the present bad population, and must moreover constantly maintain there a competent force; or, if it be inconvenient to them to take measures of this nature, they should mark out a boundary and cede the ground within it to the British Government in the same manner as Hongkong, when it would be in the power of the latter to exercise complete jurisdiction over the place, and to take all the measures they may deem necessary for securing order among the population.
His Excellency the Governor General being unable however to arrange for the cession of the peninsula without previous reference to his Government...