THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE: 'THE CHINESE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF HONG KONG
H. J. LETHBRIDGE*
An American political scientist, Lennox Mills, concluded after a period of research in Hong Kong that the District Watch Committee was 'in reality the Chinese Executive Council of Hong Kong'. Yet ‘legally', he continued, it is merely a committee of fifteen Chinese who meet under the chairmanship of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs to manage the District Watch Force" — in 1941 a body of some 120 Chinese constables and detectives recruited and paid for by the Committee for the purpose of patrolling predominantly Chinese districts of urban Hong Kong Island and Urban Kowloon. The 1941 Committee contained the five names of the Chinese unofficial members of the Legislative and Executive Councils as well as a number of extremely rich and influential Chinese, all of whom sat on various interlocking committees and boards. The Committee, needless to say, because of its prestigious membership, exercised political power within the Chinese community: it was, therefore, a group listened to and cosseted by the government.
The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of the District Watchmen Force, a constabulary body, from its inception in 1866 and to show how its Committee of Management acquired over time prestige, status and power so that it became, as Lennox Mills wrote, 'the Chinese Executive Council of Hong Kong'.
When the Island of Hong Kong was ceded to Britain in 1842, some Englishmen assumed its Chinese inhabitants were a chance collocation of poor peasants, piratical fishermen and unkempt
* Mr. Lethbridge is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Hong Kong. He is the author of several articles on Hong Kong subjects. His "Hong Kong under Japanese Occupation: Changes in Social Structure" appeared in I. C. Jarvie and Joseph Agassi, Hong Kong, A Society in Transition — contributions to the study of Hong Kong Society (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969) pp. 77-127. Another article, on the Tung Wah Hospitals 1870-1970, will appear in Contributions to Asian Studies, Vol. I, 1971. His "Hong Kong Cadets, 1862-1941" appeared in the 1970 Journal, Ed.
THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE: 'THE CHINESE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF
HONG KONG
H. J. LETHBRIDGE*
An American political scientist, Lennox Mills, concluded after a period of research in Hong Kong that the District Watch Committee was 'in reality the Chinese Executive Council of Hong Kong. Yet ‘legally', he continued, it is merely a committee of fifteen Chinese who meet under the chairmanship of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs to manage the District Watch Force" — in 1941 a body of some 120 Chinese constables and detectives recruited and paid for by the Committee for the purpose of patrolling predominantly Chinese districts of urban Hong Kong Island and Urban Kowloon. The 1941 Committee contained the five names of the Chinese unofficial members of the Legislative and Executive Councils as well as a number of extremely rich and influential Chinese, all of whom sat on various interlocking committees and boards. The Committee, needless to say, because of its prestigious membership, exercised political power within the Chinese community: it was, therefore, a group listened to and cosseted by the government,
The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of the District Watchmen Force, a constabulary body, from its inception in 1866 and to show how its Committee of Management acquired over time prestige, status and power so that it became, as Lennox Mills wrote, 'the Chinese Executive Council of Hong Kong'.
When the Island of Hong Kong was ceded to Britain in 1842, some Englishmen assumed its Chinese inhabitants were a chance collocation of poor peasants, piratical fishermen and unkempt
* Mr. Lethbridge is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Hong Kong. He is the author of several articles on Hong Kong subjects. His "Hong Kong under Japanese Occupation: Changes in Social Structure" appeared in I. C. Jarvie and Joseph Agassi, Hong Kong, A Society in Transition — contributions to the study of Hong Kong Society (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969) pp. 77-127. Another article, on the Tung Wah Hospitals 1870-1970, will appear in Contributions to Asian Studies, Vol. I, 1971. His "Hong Kong Cadets, 1862-1941" appeared in the 1970 Journal, Ed.
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