CO129-553-5 Japanese activities in Macao and Canton 31-1-1935 - 22-11-1935 — Page 131

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Macao is a small rocky peninsula on the south

China coast in the Canton territory between the estuaries

of the Pearl River and the Canton River. The Portuguese,

after they had frequented the neighbourhood for many years

for trading purposes, were conceded the use of Macao in

1557 in return for their services against a notorious

pirate who preyed along the south China coast and had even

gone so far as to blockade the Chinese Viceroy in the port

of Canton. The Portuguese succeeded in driving off this

menace

ce and soon built up a permanent establishment at

Macao, and during the 17th and 18th centuries trade

flourished

there partly because of the difficulty experi- enced by traders of obtaining permission to reside in

Canton. The East India Company and the Dutch Company also had establishments in Macao. Although the Portuguese

have always claimed by reason of the grant from the Viceroy

at Canton, that Macao was Portuguese territory, they had

in fact accepted the obligation to pay to the Emperor

of China an annual rental for the territory, which was

continued until 1848 when the Governor at the time

drove out the Chinese Customs officials, and with them

every vestige of Chinese authority and ceased further

payments of the annual rent. For this temerity he was

assassinated in the following year, but an assault on

Macao by Chinese troops was at the same time repulsed

by the Portuguese.

All this time Hong Kong was nothing more than a

abodz

C sparsely populated hedy of fishermen. On the ession,

however, of Hong Kong to the British in 1841, the trade

of