Introduction
The method of publishing them changed over the years. Until 1886, each colony's report was not published individually but as part of one omnibus report presented to the British Parliament entitled 'Reports exhibiting the past and present state of Her Majesty's colonial possessions'; from 1887 onwards each colony's report became a separate publication. The actual publisher of the reports changed, too. From the beginning until 1919, Parliament itself published these reports as Command Papers; from 1920 onwards the Colonial Office published them through the agency of His Majesty's Stationery Office.
The arrangement and division of the volumes in this publication reflects and illustrates the changes in title, method of publication, and type of report.
The arrangement is as follows:
Volume 1 contains the early reports from 1841-1844 before the system of annual reports was started; it also contains all the reports from 1844 to 1886, during which period the reports were published as one section of the omnibus report containing 'Reports exhibiting the past and present state of Her Majesty's colonial possessions'.
Volume 2 contains the reports from 1887 to 1903, during which period each colony's report was published as a separate publication and not as one section of a compendium report. As mentioned above, the title changed with the 1890 report but the form of the contents remained the same.
Volume 3 contains the reports from 1903 to 1919, and the reports in this period are similar in form, title and publisher to those from 1890 to 1903 contained in volume 2.
Volume 4 contains the reports from 1920 to 1930, during which period the form and title were the same as for the years 1890 to 1919, but the publisher changed from the House of Commons to the Colonial Office through the agency of HMSO.
Volume 5 contains the reports from 1931 to 1939, during which period the form (for all) and the publisher (up to 1938) were the same as for the period 1920 to 1930 but the title was changed to ‘Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of Hong Kong'.
Volume 6: No composite annual report was written for 1940/41 or 1941/2 but we do have department annual reports and financial estimates, and these have been reproduced. At the end of this period, the worsening of the war situation prevented for the time being the preparation of any more reports.
Above is a general outline of the nature of the reports and contents of these volumes. Below are more detailed notes on each period of reports, on which reports were published and which were not published, on which reports were not written and the despatch that is to be taken as a substitute for the annual report, and on the location and reference of every single document used.