Kwu Ling, for instance," and official action is not remembered in the fighting between Tsuen Wan and Shing Mun, or in that between Tai Wai and Cheung Sha Wan, at about the same dates. Between 1850 and 1880 it would seem that the policy of the District Magistrate was to turn a blind eye to inter-village disputes unless this was impossible.
Krone, in his 1858 "Notice of the Sanon District"2 speaks at some length on inter-village warfare in the area and the ineffectiveness of the District Magistrate in responding to it. The District was "troubled and insecure... internecine wars are almost always raging between some or other of the villages, and these wars ... are often long-continued and sanguinary. The people are of a quarrelsome nature, and fond of rapine [and, in the sub-mandarin's view,] depraved and so drowned in all manner of wickedness as to have lost their human nature. ... The Mandarins have very little power.
The people do not allow the Mandarins to interfere with their own local government. Law suits, differences and offences are seldom brought before the Mandarins. The disputes between villages and clans are settled by the gentry. If they cannot come to an agreement, all connection is broken off, and without any declaration of hostilities, the disputants commence a predatory war on each other; in these quarrels, many a bloody battle is fought, hundreds of men perish, and whole villages are destroyed. Men of neutral villages or clans are generally well distinguished, and their rights respected.... etc'. Krone notes particularly a long-fought inter-village war at Sha Tsing (7 JP, Shajing). Here, the District Magistrate eventually came with 1,000 soldiers to make peace (this was probably in 1852 or 1853), and was not only ignored, but threatened by both combatants; intervention by neutral clans allowed the Magistrate to retreat with his "face" intact, but his intervention had no effect on the course of the dispute.
The Basel Missionaries also had a low opinion of the District Magistrate in this period. One said, in 1861, “The San On Magistrate is a miserable, dirty fraud and hypocrite. He demands outward respect, but does no justice. Hence differences, by being denied a hearing, grow to quarrels, then to blows, then to war, while he sits at home and does nothing”.13
This ineffectiveness may not have been the normal situation of the district. The military posts which Krone found empty and ruinous
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Kwu Ling, for instance," and official action is not remembered in the fighting between Tsuen Wan and Shing Mun, or in that between Tai Wai and Cheung Sha Wan, at about the same dates. Between 1850 and 1880 it would seem that the policy of the District Magistrate was to turn a blind eye to inter-village disputes unless this was impossible.
Krone, in his 1858 "Notice of the Sanon District'2 speaks at some length on inter-village warfare in the area and the ineffectiveness of the District Magistrate in responding to it. The District was "troubled and insecure... internecine wars are almost always raging between some or other of the villages, and these wars ... are often long-continued and sanguinary. The people are of a quarrelsome nature, and fond of rapine [and, in the sub-mandarin's view,] depraved and so drowned in all manner of wickedness as to have lost their human nature. ... The Mandarins have
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have very little power.
The people
do not allow the Mandarins to interfere with their own local government. Law suits, differences and offences are seldom brought before the Mandarins. The disputes between villages and
clans are settled by the gentry. If they cannot come to an agreement, all connection is broken off, and without any declaration of hostilities, the disputants commence a predatory war on each other; in these quarrels, many a bloody battle is fought, hundreds of men perish, and whole villages are destroyed. Men of neutral villages or clans are generally well distinguished, and their rights respected.... etc'. Krone notes particularly a long-fought inter-village war at Sha Tsing (7) JP, Shajing). Here, the District Magistrate eventually came with 1,000 soldiers to make peace (this was probably in 1852 or 1853), and was not only ignored, but threatened by both combatants intervention by neutral clans allowed the Magistrate to retreat with his "face" intact, but his intervention had no effect on the course. of the dispute.
The Basel Missionaries also had a low opinion of the District Magistrate in this period. One said, in 1861, “The San On Magistrate is a miserable, dirty fraud and hypocrite. He demands outward respect, but does no justice. Hence differences, by being denied a hearing, grow to quarrels, then to blows, then to war, while he sits at home and does nothing”.13
This ineffectiveness may not have been the normal situation of the district. The military posts which Krone found empty and ruinous
Page 300Page 301
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