CO537-3711 — Page 46

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According to a return (see Appendix 10) furnished by the

Deputy Magistrate, the total population of Kowloon city is 744;

the garrison amounts to 544; the civil population to 200. The

officials stationed within the city are, with the exception of one

civil officer a Deputy Magistrate, military officers, the head of

whom is the Colonel Commpanding. This officer is the chief military

officer in the district of San On; is immediately subordinate to

the T'i Tu, or General in Command of all the land forces in the

province of Kwong-tung. The Colonel's jurisdiction is purely a

military one, extending over the whole district of San On and the

islands adjacent thereto. His Original headquarters were at Taipang (see Map VII., showing residences of officials), and his official designation is still Taip'ang Hip, or Colonel stationed at

Taip'ang, at which place he has a yamên or official quarters. The

reason for his having taken up a residence within the city of

Kowloon was to place him in closer relations with the Colony of

Hong Kong.

As the garrison now under the command of the Colonel is

maintained for the defence of the district of San On and the adjoining

islands, and as the larger portion of that district and most of the

islands are to be leased by the British Government, most of the

soldiers now supposed to exist under the Colonel's command will be disbanded or transferred elsewhere, whilst the services of those re-

tained will berequired not within, but outside the territory referred

to in the Convention. The residence, therefore, of the Colonel

Commanding and of his troops within the city of Kowloon is entirely

unnecessary. But even if it were necessary, the military re-

quirements for the defence of Hong Kong must surely render it impossible to allow the retention in the very heart of the territory of a garrison of soldiers belonging to a foreign power, however

friendly that power may be.

The only civil officer resident within the city is a Deputy

/Magistrate