233
question.
The reply was properly evasive and noncommittal.
In 1881 when Ma Kei-chung, Li's representative to India, passed through Hongkong, he was most anxious to confer with Governor Hennessy. According to local notices, the Governor played hard to get, though it was rumoured that they had discussed the formation of a syndicate which would buy opium in India, bring it to Hongkong and from there distribute it throughout China.
It is here that Ho A-mei enters the story. According to Eitel's history of Hongkong, Europe in China, A-mei was to arrange for the $20 million proposed as capital for the new syndicate. Just which capitalists would back the project was not stated. Undoubtedly a number of wealthy Chinese in Hongkong were interested.
Not long after Ma's stopover in Hongkong, Sir John Pope Hennessy, Governor of Hongkong, made a trip of a “private” nature to Peking. A John Pitman went to Peking at about the same time. He was a financial adventurer who became involved in several big schemes backed by Chinese capital. In one of these, the bid for the Wei Sing gambling monopoly at Macau, Ho A-mei had been associated with Pitman. Pitman was an intimate friend of Sir John Hennessy and it is possible that the Governor was presenting a scheme in Peking in which his friend had an interest.
In January 1882, a report was circulated that Li Hung-chang had done a turnabout and appealed to the Emperor not to establish an opium syndicate.
Fast upon this news came the rumour that the Tsung-li Yamen (the Chinese Foreign Affairs Bureau) was so pleased with Ma Kei-chung's negotiations, after his return from India, with Sir Thomas Wade, the British Minister, that it was going to recommend him for the post of superintendent of the syndicate should it be established in Hongkong. The authenticity of the report was put in doubt by the comment that a British Minister had never previously negotiated with anyone under the rank of a Viceroy, a position
233
question.
The reply was properly evasive and noncommittal.
In 1881 when Ma Kei-chung, Li's representative to India, passed through Hongkong, he was most anxious to confer with Governor Hennessy. According to local notices, the Governor played hard to get, though it was rumoured that they had dis- cussed the formation of a syndicate which would buy opium in India, bring it to Hongkong and from there distribute it through- out China.
It is here that Ho A-mei enters the story. According to Eitel's history of Hongkong, Europe in China, A-mei was to arrange for the $20 million proposed as capital for the new syndicate. Just which capitalists would back the projct was not stated. Undoubt- edly a number of wealthy Chinese in Hongkong were interested.
Not long after Ma's stopover in Hongkong, Sir John Pope Hennessy, Governor of Hongkong, made a trip of a “private” nature to Peking. A John Pitman went to Peking at about the same time. He was a financial adventurer who became involved in sev- eral big schemes backed by Chinese capital. In one of these, the bid for the Wei Sing gambling monopoly at Macau, Ho A-mei had been associated with Pitman. Pitman was an intimate friend of Sir John Hennessy and it is possible that the Governor was pre- senting a scheme in Peking in which his friend had an interest.
In January 1882, a report was circulated that Li Hung-chang had done a turnabout and appealed to the Emperor not to estab- lish an opium syndicate.
Fast upon this news came the rumour that the Tsung-li Yamen (the Chinese Foreign Affairs Bureau) was so pleased with Ma Kei- chung's negotiations, after his return from India, with Sir Thomas Wade, the British Minister, that it was going to recommend him for the post of superintendent of the syndicate should it be estab- lished in Hongkong. The authenticity of the report was put in doubt by the comment that a British Minister had never previous- ly negotiated with anyone under the rank of a Viceroy, a position
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