HISTORY
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EXTENSIONS TO THE COLONY 1860–99
The Second Anglo-Chinese War of 1856-8, arose out of disputes over the interpretation of the earlier treaties and over the boarding of a British lorcha, the Arrow, by Chinese in search of suspected pirates. The Treaty of Tientsin in 1858, which ended the war, gave the British the privilege of diplomatic representation in China. The first British envoy, Sir Frederick Bruce, who had been the first Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong, was fired on at Taku Bar on his way to Peking to present his credentials, and hostilities were renewed from 1859-60. The troops serving on this second expedition camped on Kowloon peninsula, as the earliest Colony photographs show. Finding it healthy, they wished to retain it as a military cantonment, with the result that Sir Harry Parkes, Consul at Canton, secured from the Viceroy the perpetual lease of the peninsula as far as Boundary Street, including Stonecutters Island. The Convention of Peking in 1860 which ended the hostilities, provided for its outright cession.
Other European countries and Japan were now demanding con- cessions from China, particularly after Germany, France and Russia had rescued her from the worst consequences of her defeat by Japan in 1895. In the ensuing tension Britain felt that efficient defence of Hong Kong harbour demanded control of the land around it. –
By the Convention of Peking on June 9, 1898, the New Territories, comprising the area north of Kowloon up to the Shum Chun River, and 235 islands, were leased for 99 years. Some desultory opposition when the British first took over the New Territories in March 1889, soon disappeared. The area was declared part of the Colony, but was administered separately from the urban area.
GROWTH OF THE COLONY 1841-1941
The new Colony was a great disappointment at first. It attracted unruly elements; fever and typhoons threatened life and property and crime was rife. The Chinese influx was unexpected as it had not been anticipated they would choose to live under a foreign flag. The population rose from 32,983 (31,463 Chinese) in 1851 to 878,947 (859,425 Chinese) in 1931.
The Chinese asked only to be left alone, and thrived under a liberal British colonial rule. Hong Kong became a centre of Chinese emigration and of trade with Chinese communities abroad. Ocean- going shipping using the port increased from 2,889 ships of 1,555,645 tons in 1860 to 23,881 of 29,196,466 tons in 1939. The dominance of
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