IV.
HONG KONG,
No. 1.
Earl Grey to
Governor Sir J. Davis, Bart.
19 March 1847.
Rev. G. Smith,
12
CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE COLONIAL DEPARTMENT
(No. 77.)
HONG KONG
No. 1.
Copy of a DESPATCH from Earl Grey to Governor Sir J. Davis, Bart.
Sir,
Downing-street, 19 March 1847.
19 January 1847.
Colonial Office, 19 March.
Enclosure in No. 1.
I TRANSMIT to you herewith, for your information, the copies of a correspondence between the Reverend G. Smith and myself, on the subject of certain suggestions and statements submitted to me by that gentleman, relative to the religious and social interests of Hong Kong.
I wish especially to direct your attention to the statement made by Mr. Smith, regarding the liability of Chinese to be detained in custody at Hong Kong for moving abroad in the streets and high roads in the evening without a light, and a written note from their European employers; and I have to request that you would furnish me with an explanation as to the origin and necessity for this regulation. From such means as I now possess of forming a judgment upon it, I cannot but state that the regulation in question appears to me to be very objectionable.
My Lord,
Enclosure in No. 1.
I have, &c. (signed) Grey.
Church Missionary House, 16 January 1847.
A COMMUNICATION from the Bishop of London relative to an interview with your Lordship led me to the inference that there might be some specific subjects of information respecting China, to which your Lordship might wish to direct the attention of one recently returned from that country. Under this erroneous impression, I came to the interview with which I was favoured by your Lordship without previous preparation upon specific matters connected with China.
But the request made by your Lordship at the close of the interview, that if any subjects of information presented themselves to my mind as desirable for the Government to possess, I would make them the subject of a subsequent written communication, leads me to submit to your Lordship's consideration the following facts and statements.
Presuming that the extension of the colonial empire of Britain involves responsibilities of the highest order, namely, of diffusing through the world the blessings of liberty, of civilization, and of Christianity, I beg to submit the following specific measures as likely to exert a favourable influence towards these ends.
1. The first measure which I would respectfully lay before your Lordship is the extreme importance of adopting a more liberal policy towards our Chinese fellow subjects of the Island of Hong Kong, with the view of encouraging more promising subjects for Christian instruction. My own observation leads me to fear that the present system of police injuriously affects the immigration of respectable Chinese, and the consequent improvement of the colony. For instance, no Chinese is permitted to move abroad in the streets or public roads after a certain hour in the evening, without bearing a lantern, and a written note from his European employer. A respectable Chinese coming to Hong Kong, and venturing in the public streets without such protection, would be in danger of being apprehended by the police, kept in custody during the night, and rendered liable to the humiliating disgrace of corporal punishment. It may be pleaded that such a precaution in the present social state of the native population may be necessary; but I cannot forbear to state to your Lordship that such a regime, as long as it is permitted to continue, will seriously affect the well-being of the colony,
and
ON COLONIAL CHURCH LEGISLATION, &c.
13
and preclude every hope of securing any better class of immigrants than that which at present exists. Needy adventurers, who have little of character or of pecuniary means, will be bribed to submit for a few months to this regime by high wages. But to the wealthy native merchants, to the well-educated native scholars, to the Chinese gentry, money will be an ineffectual inducement in leading them to submit to such invidious regulations.
It would be easy to particularize other instances by which a race of people, the most alive to good treatment, instead of becoming friends, are converted into enemies of British connexion; and return with heartburnings and hatred to the mainland, to spread abroad disaffection to Hong Kong, and detestation of the western barbarians. Till a more liberal policy toward the native population of Hong Kong can be substituted for the present system, I cannot but express to your Lordship that there exists but a very faint hope of being able to encourage the immigration of a better class of commercial traders; or, what in my view of the question is of still higher importance, of more hopeful subjects for Christian instruction.
2. The second measure which I venture to propose to your Lordship, refers to the desirableness of Christian schools established and supported by Government, for the intellectual, moral, and religious education of Chinese youths. It might at first view, appear desirable that educational measures might be undertaken by some of the Missionary Societies in existence, assisted by pecuniary grants from the Colonial Legislature of Hong Kong. Such a plan would, I apprehend, be open to objections, and many practical inconveniences. Missionary Societies will always have a primary, if not exclusive, reference to the object of raising up a body of native teachers and evangelists, who may, by the Divine blessing, become the instructors of their fellow countrymen.
On the other hand, the Government must look on the natives educated by their funds, as the nucleus of a body of native interpreters, writers, and subordinate officers. In China, where the language is so difficult, and where interpreters are consequently so much in request, the demand will for a long time considerably exceed the supply; and in scholastic institutions under a mixed control, there must arise apparent collisions of interests and objects on various grounds of mutual dissatisfaction. The case of the Morrison Education School at Hong Kong may be cited in some respects as an instance in point.
The practical measure I beg leave to suggest to your Lordship is the establishment of an efficient educational institution for the benefit of the Chinese at Hong Kong, in which an European principal of Christian zeal and ability might dispense the benefits of an education in the literature, the science, and the religion of the West. By such a measure, not only would an important Christian duty and responsibility be discharged, but also important and obvious advantages of a secular kind would be secured. From among the recipients of this bounty of a Christian Government, the Colonial Executive might look with justice for a reinforcement of native interpreters, who by the efficiency gained from an European education, and by the principles of moral integrity instilled during the progress of Christian instruction, might be placed in a position to repay the debt of gratitude in some subordinate official trust, and might also effect much towards leavening with the influence of Christian loyalty the whole mass of native society.
The management of such an institution might be undertaken by the ecclesiastical representatives of the Church of England in the colony, under the visitorial control of the Governor.
3. There is another practical measure to which I beg leave next to direct your Lordship's attention. An adequate provision for the spiritual wants of British subjects in China, military, civil and mercantile, carries with it a most powerful claim. While barracks, forts, hospitals, magazines, official residences and private dwellings have been erected at a munificent outlay of expenditure; while places of worship, raised by the Roman-catholics, and by different Christian sects from Europe and America, and even a Mahomedan mosque, built by the contributions of the poor Indian sepoys and camp followers, have risen up with wonderful rapidity, at the period of my leaving China, in May last, only a temporary building, almost the meanest edifice in the town, existed as a place for Divine worship according to the ritual of the Church of England. This neglect will doubtless soon be repaired; but one Colonial Chaplain and one Military Chaplain
355.-4.
B 3
IV. HONG KONG.