GOVERNORS
Continuation
3444
he should publish these cartoons in book form: and the young man commissioned a Chinese printing shop in Hollywood Road to make the blocks, including the title page.
Everything seems to have been well under way when the War broke out. Mr. Hatfield left almost immediately to join up and it is sad to have to relate that he was killed in action. Nobody seems to have remained out here who knew of the proposed production, so the blocks were left on the hands of the Chinese printers, who stored them and awaited a claimant.
The discoverer of this rather tragic piece of local history has kindly lent me the prints (the blocks have, it seems, entirely disappeared, and probably been destroyed). I reproduce two of the cartoons, twenty years after they were prepared, one being of Governor Sir Henry ("Paddy") May, and another of Sir Claud Severn, whose familiar figure as Colonial Secretary was known to all, and whose death occurred not very long back.
In the originals the prints are approximately 42 by 7 inches. The title page was to have read as follows:
"Some People I have met in Hongkong. By R.B. Hatfield. 1914. With apologies,"
There is in the corner a small sketch, presumably of the artist himself, wearing a monocle. Requiescat in pace.
Any historical survey of this Colony must include a summary of the administrations of the various Governors, and brief biographical sketches. In the course of this series, I have referred to several past Governors in some detail, but a resume of the individual holders of office might now be given.
The first Administrator was Captain Charles Elliot, R.N. He came here with the fleet at the time of the first China War, and negotiated the cession of Hongkong at the end of 1840, being Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary in China. Appointed to get things going, he took charge of the newly-formed Colony, and was in office here from January 26 to August 10, 1841. There were several aspects of his administration which did not meet with approval, but we have to remember that he came at the most difficult time, and could not possibly please everyone. The merchants would almost certainly not see eye to eye with him on every point, and the opium question was one on which he appears to have gone counter to various considered opinions, so that he left under a cloud: we merely read that in July 1841 despatches arrived in Hongkong informing Captain Elliot of the disapproval of the Chuenpi Treaty by Her Majesty's Government and of the appointment of Sir Henry Pottinger as Plenipotentiary. Towards the close of August that year Elliot left the Colony for Macao, with his family, accompanied by Sir Gordon Bremer, en route for Home.
When he embarked aboard the vessel Atalanta, one of the Macao forts, fired a salute of thirteen guns in his honour, but his own countrymen appear to have done scant justice to his memory. There was "no public address presented to him, nor any honours bestowed either by the Hongkong community or by the Government on the man who found Hongkong a barren rock and left it a prosperous city. The new settlers on Hongkong, feeling the grievances they had in connection with Elliot's attitude towards the opium trade, and his dishonoured Treasury bills, and subsequently learning the disavowal by the Government of his land sales, were unable at the
GOVERNORS
Continuation
3444
he should publish these cartoons in book form: and the young man commissioned a Chinese printing shop in Hollywood Road to make the blocks, including the title page.
Everything seems to have been well under way when the War broke out. Mr. Hatfield left almost immediately to join up and it is sad to have to relate that he was killed in action. Nobody seems to have remained out here who knew of the proposed production, so the blocks were left on the hands of the Chinese printers, who stored them and awaited a claimant.
The discoverer of this rather tragic piece of local history has kindly lent me the prints (the blocks have, it seems, entirely disappeared, and probably been destroyed). I reproduce two of the cartoons, twenty years after they were prepared one being of Governor Sir Henry ("Paddy") May, and another of Sir Claud Severn, whose familiar figure as Colonial Secretary was known. to all, and whose death occurred not very long back.
W
In
the originals the prints are approximately 42 by 7 inches. The title page was to have read as follows:
"Some People I have met in Hongkong. By R.B. Hatfield.
1914. With apologies,"
There is in the corner a small sketch, presumably of the artist himself, wearing a monocle. Requiescat in pace.
Any historical survey of this Colony must include a summary of the administrations of the various Governors, and brief biographical sketches. In the course of this series, I have referred to several past Governors in some detail, but a resume of the individual holders of office might now be given.
The first Administrator was Captain Charles Elliot, R.N. He came here with the fleet at the time of the first China War, and negotiated the cession of liongkong at the end of 1840, being Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary in China. Appointed to get things going, he took charge of the newly-formed Colony, and was in office here from January 26 to August 10, 1841. There were several aspects of his administration which did not meet with approval, but we have to remember that he came at the most difficult tine, and could not possibly please everyone. The merchants would almost certainly not see eye to eye with him on every point, and the opiun question was one on which he appears to have gone counter to various considered opinions, so that he left under a cloud: we merely read that in July 1841 despatches arrived in Hongkong informing Captain Elliot of the disapproval of the Chuenpi Treaty by her Majesty's Government and of the appointment of Sir Henry Pottinger as Plenipotentiary. Towards the close of August that year Elliot left the Colony for Macao, with his family, accompanied by Sir Gordon Bremer, en route for Hone.
When he embarked aboard the vessel Atalanta, one of the Macao forts, fired a salute of thirteen guns in his honour, but his own countrymen appear to have done scant justice to */his memory. There was "no public address presented to him, nor any honours bestowed either by the Hongkong community or by the Government on the man who found Hongkong a barren
· rock and left it a prosperous city. The new settlers on Hongkong, feeling the grievances they had in connection with Elliot's attitude towards the opium trade, and his dis- honoured Treasury bills, and subsequently learning the dis- avowal by the Government of his land sales, were unable at the
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