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differs from all of these four dependencies of the British Crown alike in degree and in kind. It is smaller than any of them, it has no history or traditions, no record of old settlement or of political usages and constitutional rights. It has practically no indigenous population; and, if I understand right, it has few lifelong residents, whether European or Chinese.
8. It is perhaps a fair account of Hongkong and its fortunes as a British Colony, to say that 50 years ago it was taken by and for the British Crown to serve Imperial purposes, and to safeguard British trade in the far East. Holding a commanding position at the mouth of the Canton river; endowed by nature with a fine harbour, which has been carefully kept as a free port: like the Sister Crown Colony of the Straits Settlements, strongly protected by an Imperial garrison and British ships of War, it has owed its prosperity to these advantages, as well as to the policy of the Imperial Government and to the fact that being strongly guarded, it has attracted a large Chinese population who have found that under British rule their lives and their property have been safe.
I should be inclined to judge not merely that it has prospered as a Crown Colony but that it has prospered in great measure because it has been a Crown Colony.
9. It may however be contended that while the Crown