1941-01-20 — Page 52

CHINA MAIL, PAGE 4

18.41

HONG KONG CENTENARY NUMBER ‚

Roused

(Continued from Page 2)

Tientsin, Ningpo and Chusan; for storage depots at Peking, Chusan and Canton; for the abolition of transit duties between Macao and prohibition of Canton; and the the levy of duties over and above those authorised by Imperial de-

crce.

was

was

The mission, however.

Lord Macartney failure. treated with the utmost courtesy and received expressions of good. will from the Emperor, but the mission itself was treated as proof that Britain was a state tributary to China and its every request was turned down.

In 1795, Kien Lung abdicated the throne in favour of his 15th son, Kia King, whose reign was disturbed

and disastrous, brought no relief to the question of foreign relations.

and

The Kow-Kow

A second altempt was made to Amherst improve matters, Lond selling out from Britain in Feb- Tuary, 1816, on a similar mission to that at Lord Macartney. This HISSIVIL, foo. proved abortive. Lord Amherst not even being re- vered with the courtesy accord ed his predecessor The man trouble artse

the question of "kow-tow”. which was per emptordy musisted

Lord

ד

Amherst refused this affront to ha dignity and to the dignity of the State he represented, and so was not even accorded an inter

view.

Pe

for

Conflict was mevitable betwee two proud states, and the Chi-

blamed can hardly be thinking that a 'tle i-land many thousands of miles away scarcely deserved to be put on a similar tooting with the proud. vast coun- try of China.

1

When the East India Company's charter expired in 1834, trading became general and since the Pe- king Government considered the handling of foreign trade as matter far below its high regard and left it and the handling of foreigners to the Canton ofcials. the British Government sent out Superintenden's of its own. This put trade relations on a more offi- cial footing, but the difficulties No way ameliorated

were

thereby.

in

Death in Macao

of

as to

One of the Superintendents, Lord Napier, was treated with contempt by the Canton officials and the anxieties of his mission he was SO were so great and poorly supported that he was un- able to fight an attack of fever and died at Macao in 1834, only a few months after he arrived.

in 1836 With the arrival Captain Charles Elliott, R.N., Superintendent, events began

swiftly. move more

The chief was complaint of the mandarins the import of opium, which the more conscientious among them had tried for years to suppress; unscrupulous, en- others, more gaged in contraband traffic, and it is not surprising that the traders. themselves were interested in keeping up the flow of trade in oplum, out of which they were making nice profits..

One must not be too hard on these traders for being engaged on a trade which is Justifiably look- ed on with horror to-day. Cus- toms and ideas have changed im- mensely in the past 200 years. Barely a century and a half ago, English men, women and children were still being hanged for steal- ing property worth a shilling or more and. French criminals were publically and legally tortured to death, while the coast of Africa 'was being ralded for slaves.

No

Captain Elliott himself, in 1839, at length agreed that all opium held by English subjects should The Chinese be handed over to authorities -exneting a pledge from the merchants they would On no longer deal in the drug. April 3rd, 1839, over 20,280 cases of opium were handed over the mandarins. who destroyed them.

to

Enthusiasms

dispute were abortive, Lin issu-

ing an order for all foreign shipa waters within to leave Chinese three days, meanwhile preparing to sheli Hong Kong with shore batteries dominating the anchor - age.

In the first naval engagement in British and history between the

November 3, Chinese fleets, on promptly

1839, the Chinese fleet had to re- tire in distress. The shore batter- and merchant up, ies opened shipping in the Hong Kong an- chorage had to retire to Tungku.

Unfortunately for the s'ate of the Western relations between World and China, a somwhat pug- individual, Lin Tse-su, nacious had been appointed Chinese Im- perial Commissioner at Canton, the year before, and the combina. tion of a great patriot and poor statesman turned him into an ex- tremist of

aomewhat violent they had them!) character.

a

(Even in those days

A Casus Belli

This constiluted a casus belli and in 1840, 16 British warships in Hong Kong had assembled harbour, together with 27 trans- rushed some ports which had

Sir Henry Pottinger. Hong Kong's first officially constitut- ed Governor. From a mozzotint by Sir F. Grant in 1847, in the Chater Collection.-(Photo: King's Studio.)

to

In May, 1839, the British com- munity at Canton moved to Macao as a temporary measure, soon be hoping that they would allowed to return and trade in the City of Rams. Unfortunately, Lin misconstrued this as an admission of weakness and of wrong-doing, and he put forward further de- mands, including submission the Chinese penal code, whose principal punishments were be heading, flogging and strangling, The British felt that they would receive scant justice at the hands of Chinese courts. Lin's pro- posals were refused. Threatening demonstrations were soon rife in Macao, against the British com- munity there and Hong Kong re- ceived its first evacuees, when little fleet of ships arrived on August 20th, 1889, with British men, women and children bqurd from Macao,

Further, attempts at settling the

a

on-

4,000 troops to the scene. Under the instructions of Captain Elliott, this expedition was commanded

Sir by Admiral

J. J. Gordon

Bremner.

naval The second.

battle of Chuenpei (some 50 miles from Canton) was fought on January 7, 1841, and was settled in under two hours. When the forts fell, the Emperor realised that only two paths lay open to him to conduct a full-scale war, or to accede to the British demands fo fair treatment. Lin Tse-su was promptly degraded and Ki Shen took his place as Imperial Com- missioner.

On January 20th, 1841, the Treaty of Chuenpel was conclud- ed, under which Ki Shen's pro- posal for the cession of the island of Hồng Kong as a depot for. Brit-", ish' trade was "accepted.

The cession was announced that same day by Captain Elliott in

a circular issued in Macao

day,

board following the HMS. Wellesley in Hong Kong harbour, he assumed the gover

As al- norship of Hong Kong.

Bremner Admiral ready noted, took formal possession on Janu- ary 26th.

and

on

ΟΙ

the

was

But this did not please either the British Government Chinese Emperor. Ki Shen degraded, and Captain Elliott re- called.

When Sir Henry Pottinger had replaced Captain Elliott, the first formal treaty be ween Britain and China was signed on August 29th, 1842, on board H.M.S. Cornwallis off Nanking, Sir Henry signing for Britain and the new High Com- missioner, Keying, and three As- sistant Commissioners on behalf of the Emperor.

four

more

Under this treaty, treaty ports were added, so that Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai were opened to for- eign trade.

on

Section III of this treaty con- firmed the cession of Hong Kong, and on the signing of the Royal Charter creating the Colony April 5th. 1843, with Sir Henry the Pottinger as first Governor, real history of Hong Kong as a ̧ colony and port may be said to have begun.

Beginning New

to

The Colony cannot be said have had a very auspicious be- ginning. for apart from rain. storms and fires and further trou. ble with the mandarins (not to mention considerable activity by pirates), the early settlers found themselves faced with the task of literally building up everything from the very start.

The population of the island was then only around 5,000, for the most part smugglers, vaga- bonds and pirates, with a bare handful of stone-cutters and fish- erfolk. Here and there, In those early years, patches of land around the coast of the island ac- commodated small crops of rice, yams and sweet potatoes, but the Colony did not show many signs of being able to produce a home supply of vegetables.

Indigenous fruits were the mango, pear, orange and lichee and animal life was scanty, the fauna comprising a land tortoise, the armadillo, several poisonous snakes, the boa and some wood- cock. White ants soon showed that they considered the island their native paradise.

Popular Song

Little wonder, then, that a writ- er of the period (in a book en- titled "China," published in 1847) should head one of his chapters

pros "Hong Kong, its position, pects, character and utter worth- lessness from every point of view to England."

at Home at A popular song about this period was "You may. go to Hong Kong for me"--a sen- timent that just about sumined up the popular contempt for an island chiefly noted then for its pirates, heavy rainstorms, typhoons, malTM aria, dysentery, internal and exè ternal strife and trouble and so on.

Nevertheless, the Colony grad- qually, slowly started to grow. By March, 1842, the population had increased from 5,000 to around.' 20,000, and the firms of Dent & Co., Fletcher & Co., Gemmell &.. Co., Gibb, Livingston & Co., Heard & Co., Jamieson, How & Co., Jardine, Matheson & Co and Lind- say & Co. were well established. In: their offices.

Wyndham Stree; and Wellington Street were still garden ground

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1941