RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h 90 E. G. PRYOR Besides their wider trading interests, the British in Canton had established a thriving trade in opium brought from India. The Chinese government regarded this trade with considerable concern, on the grounds that it was harmful to human welfare and also a serious drain on the country's finances. Early attempts by the Chinese government to stop the opium trade failed but in 1839 a Special Imperial Commissioner was appointed who forced the British traders in Canton to relinquish their supplies of the narcotic. The British Superintendent of Trade, Captain Elliot, consequently withdrew the English merchants to Macau and later transferred them onto ships anchored in Hong Kong harbour; subsequent events led to open hostilities between Chinese and British forces. It was decided by Lord Palmerston, the British Foreign Secretary, that a satisfactory settlement of the dispute would require either a commercial treaty with adequate guarantees to protect the interests of British merchants or the cession of one or more off-shore islands from which the traders could operate without restriction. A British expedition was despatched to China in 1840 to back up these demands and in January 1841 negotiations were held in Canton between Captain Elliot and Keshen, a Manchu Commissioner, whereby it was agreed by the Convention of Chuenpi that Hong Kong Island was to be ceded to the British (Figure 1).* A British naval force took possession of the island on 26th January 1841, The Chuenpi terms were accepted by neither side. Elliot was replaced by Sir Henry Pottinger and hostilities were renewed. The war was concluded by the Treaty of Nanking on 29th August 1842 by which the island of Hong Kong was ceded in perpetuity to the Crown and four additional ports besides Canton were opened to British traders. The island was formally declared a British Colony on 26th June 1843 and Sir Henry Pottinger was appointed the first Governor. Hong Kong was declared a free port and by the Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue the Chinese were given free access to the island for trading purposes. The Housing Problem Takes Root: 1841-1881 Almost from the day Captain Elliot raised the British flag on the northern shores of Hong Kong Island, a steady stream of artisans and labourers made their way to the Colony from the southern provinces. *Figures 1-8 will be found at the rear of the text. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 105 HONG KONG ISLAND BEFORE 1841 JAMES HAYES Hail, little isle! and Hong's fair haven, hail! First-fruits of China to the ocean-queen! New orient realms, new navies' embryo sail Glass'd in thy shifting horoscope are seen. May British virtue shine, in thee confest; And in her colony be Britain blest!'* The cession of Hong Kong evoked different feelings in both China and Britain. In China, needless to say, there was scarcely rejoicing. The sixty-year-old Tao Kuang emperor, monarch of China since 1820, when asked to sanction the proposed Treaty of Peace that granted Hong Kong to Britain, spent the rest of the day and most of the night pacing up and down the corridor of his Palace, deep in anxious thought. Several times he was heard to mutter "impossible" and to sigh deeply. At last, at 3 a.m., he stamped his foot and proceeded to the audience chamber where he affixed the "vermilion pencil" to the draft. One of his subjects, the great Chinese statesman Tso Tsung-tang (1812-1885), then an unknown and rather unsuccessful scholar, wrote four poems in which he expressed grief and indignation when he heard that the British had taken over Hong Kong; and when he learned the final terms of the peace he was so overcome that he thought seriously of retiring to some lonely mountain retreat for the rest of his days. 2 3 In England the young Queen Victoria, twenty-two years old and married with a baby daughter wrote to her uncle, the king of the Belgians, "Albert is so much amused at my having got the Island of Hong Kong and we think Victoria ought to be called Princess of Hong Kong in addition to Princess Royal".2 Her Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, was not amused. He received the news of the Chuenpi agreement (January 1841) between Captain Elliot, the British Plenipotentiary, and the Imperial Commissioner Kishen, with disappointment and disapproval. * See Plates 1-3 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 368 Sung, Hok-p'ang et. al. (1984), pp. 1-9. 1973 "Legends and stories of the New Territories: Kam T'in', JHKBRAS xiii, 1973, pp. 28-40. 1974 "Legends and stories of the New Territories: Kam T'in", JHKBRAS xiv, 1974, pp. 160-185. Taga, Akigoro Tanaka, Issei 1982 Chugoku Sofu no Kenkyu, vol. 2, Tokyo. 1985 Tsui, Bartholomew Watson, Rubie S. Wolf, Arthur P. (ed.) A Chiu 亞潮(?) baai 拜 baai-san Baak Mou-Seung Ú Baak-Ging Baishe Zhuan Lineage and Theatre in China. Interdependence of Festival Organization, ritual, and theatre in the lineage society of South China, Tokyo. 1989 Village Festivals in China: Backgrounds of Local Theatres. Tokyo forthcoming "Daojiao Yili ya Jishen Kiju zhijian de Guanxi”, forthcoming "Taoist Ritual Books of the New Territories". 1985 Inequality Among Brothers: Class and Kinship in South China, Cambridge University Press. 1974 Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, Stanford. GLOSSARY chiu-gaan chiu-dou * Chiu-Yip # chu 柱 Chuk Yuen 竹園 Chung E Chung Yeung 重陽 Chung-Saan U Bak Bin 北便 Bak Dai 北帝 bei 陂 bong 榜 Bou-Dak Chi #AM bui cha-gwo 茶果 Chan Gau 陳九 Chan 陳 chau-san + Chenghua 成化 cheun-ding T cheun-fu 巡撫 Cheung-Cheun Yun cheung-saam Chi-Naam Ching Ming U Ching-Lok Chung-Yut Я chyun 村 Daai-Si Wong ✰± Daai-Wong E daai-yan ★A daai-yau daam daam-jung da-jai 打仔 da-jiu 打醮 dan 躉 Dang 鄧 Dang Chung 鄧璁 Dao 道 da-saat Dei-Jong Wong E ================================================================================