ARTES SCIENTIA VERITAS
DEPARTMENT OF TECHNICAL CO - OPERATION
Overseas Research Publication No. 4
An Eastern Entrepôt
A COLLECTION OF DOCUMENTS
ILLUSTRATING THE HISTORY
OF HONG KONG
by
G. B. ENDACOTT
LONDON
HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE
1964
НС
60
.G78
204
Crown copyright 1964
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To my College at Oxford , in gratitude .
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I gladly acknowledge the help given in the preparation of
this collection of documents by the Superintendent and
Staff of the Reading Room at the Public Record Office ,
London , by the Librarian and Staff of the Hong Kong
University Library and by those in charge of the Hong
Kong Colonial Secretariat Library and Hong Kong Supreme
Court Library. I am grateful to the University of Hong
Kong for practical assistance given through a research
grant. Unpublished Crown Copyright material in the
Public Record Office has been used with the permission of
the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office .
I am extremely grateful to Miss Munsie Kam-man Yip
and Mr. Lo Shui Man , both of the University Staff, for
helping me in the onerous task of typing the manuscripts .
G. B. Endacott
Hong Kong.
(73476) 111
CONTENTS
Page No.
Foreword
(a) An Introduction to the Colony of Hong Kong.
(b) The Development of Hong Kong as an Entrepôt. vi
(c) A Note on Sources and choice of Documents . Xvi
List of Documents
I. Grievances at Canton and the Founding of XX
Hong Kong.
II . The Treaty Ports and Hong Kong . XX
III . The Opium Trade . xxi
IV. Early Disappointment over Hong Kong Trade . xxi
V. Growth of the Entrepot Trade . xxii
VI . Currency and Finance . xxiii
VII . Constitutional Arrangements and the. xxiii
Influence of Merchant Opinion .
VIII . Extension of the Boundaries . xxiv
Select Documents 1-291
Appendix I
List of Governors of Hong Kong. 293
Appendix ||
List of Secretaries of State for the 294
Colonies .
(73476) iv
FOREWORD
(a) An Introduction to the Colony of Hong Kong
The Colony of Hong Kong consists of the Island of Hong Kong ( 29
square miles) , the Kowloon Peninsula on the mainland opposite , ( 3
square miles) and , held on lease from China, the New Territories
(365 square miles ) , which lie to the north of the Kowloon
Peninsula , and include some 235 islands. The total area of the
Colony is thus 3984 square miles . It is situated on the southern
coast of China at the mouth of the Pearl River Estuaryopposite
the Portuguese Colony of Macao and lies about 75 miles south- east
of Canton . The land is for the most part barren and hilly; the
peaks on the Island rise almost perpendicularly from the sea to a
height of about 2,000 feet leaving little margin for cultivation
or for building, and though the New Territories have river valleys
which offer greater scope for agriculture , even so only about one
sixth of the area of the Colony can be cultivated . The amount of
rice produced would suffice for about one month . The Colony has
therefore to depend on outside sources of food supply of which the
mainland is inevitably an important one .
In the past , Hong Kong's greatest asset was its harbour. Its
life-blood was shipping which supported an extensive entrepôt
trade and around which there grew up associated undertakings such
as ship-building and repairing, ship- chandling and the provision
of wharfage and warehousing services . The growth of commerce
brought related commercial enterprises such as banking, insurance
and specialised markets , e . g. in bullion and currency. A stable
monetary system, confidence in impartial administration of justice ,
and an efficient administration , have also been factors in the
Colony's economic progress . Since the Second World War, a
growing industrialisation has reduced the Colony's dependence on
the extrepôt services , but has not materially diminished its
economic dependence on overseas markets both as sources for its
raw materials and outlets for its products. Hong Kong still
lives as it has always lived, by importing and exporting.
A census held in 1961 gave a population figure of 3, 133, 131 .
The population is for the most part herded together in two large
urban areas, one, Victoria , stretching along the eleven miles of
the northern shore of the Island, and the other, Kowloon including
New Kowloon, the latter being the built-up portion of the
adjoining Leased Territory. In addition, urbanisation of the
parts of the rural areas which formerly supported under 500,000
people is increasing . Of the 1961 to tal , no less than 3,074,000
or 98.2% were estimated to be Chinese by race . Most of these
were Cantonese- speaking people from Kwangtung Province , but many
(73476) V
villages in the New Territories are Hakka, that is , literally,
" guest families " , descendants of immigrants from the interior who
came into the district some 300 years ago . There are a few
fishing communities from Fukien Province , and many Northerners who
were refugees from the communist regime .
The non-Chinese sections of the people are of very varied
origin . In the 1961 census , 33, 140 claimed to originate from
Commonwealth countries and 16, 607 from non- commonwealth countries
and the latter included great variety of nationalities , and both
categories include some of Chinese racial origin . The whole
population was in the past extremely migratory and few Chinese or
Europeans made the Colony their permanent home , but the population
structure of the Colony was completely changed by the influx
between 1947 and 1950 , of three quarters of a million refugees ,
most of them from the neighbouring Kwangtung Province , and by the
closing of the frontier in 1950. In 1961, 40.8 % of the population
were under 15 years of age with the result that the number able to
claim British nationality by virtue of being born in Hong Kong is
rapidly increasing.
An already over- crowded urban area has become grossly over-
crowded, and the great problem has been to integrate the new- comers
in to the life of the Colony, to find employment, and to provide
housing and public services . Most brought little but their
labour, but some brought capital and skill and were instrumental in
bringing about a rapid development of industrialism.
(b) The Development of Hong Kong as an Entrepôt
Hong Kong as a British Colony dates from 1841. At that period a
spectacular commercial expansion found British merchants making
their way into every part of the world along trade routes spanning
every ocean . This primarily maritime commercial enterprise called
for some degree of naval protection , and to achieve this , British
policy was in part directed to maintaining a defensive chain of old-
established or newly-acquired insular or peninsular possessions ,
such as Bermuda, Malta, Mauritius , Penang, Singapore , Gibraltar,
The Cape , Aden and Trincomalee . ( Some of these were held by the
East India Company, but it may be assumed that in this respect the
Company's policies accorded with those of the State . ) Some of
them developed into trading entrepôts but some did not, for their
primary, though not necessarily their only purpose was to serve as
bases from which British trade could be expanded, protected and
controlled. Hong Kong fell naturally into place in this general
scheme, in so far as it related to trade with the East .
The actual circumstances of the founding of Hong Kong as a
British Colony were not without significance in their bearing on
its economic fortunes . In the first place , there was no
unequivocally-expressed intention to secure a colony on the China
coast whether as an entrepôt or otherwise . Before 1841 , trade
with China had been restricted to Canton under conditions which
were dictated by the Chinese and were characterised by capricious
regulations and arbitrarily varied charges , against which the
(73476 ) vi
western traders were denied every diplomatic or other accepted
means of seeking redress . When in 1839 Commissioner Lin Tse- hsu
con fined them within the Canton Factory area in order to compel
acquiescence in his demands for the abolition of the opium trade ,
Palmerston , backed by the British Parliament, decided to use the
incident to insist on a settlement . The British Foreign Secretary
did not, however, regard the cession of an island as a vital
requirement. It is true in his letter to the " Minister to the
Emperor of China " he insisted on a suitably situated island or
islands to provide security for the British traders under the
British flag, subject to their own laws and officials, and free
from the sort of pressure Lin had tried to exercise . But his
essential demand was for security for British trade and his letter
to the British Plenipotentiaries clearly set out two alternatives
by either of which this security might be achieved , viz the
cession by the Chinese of an island or islands , or, if they
objected to such a cession , the granting of a commercial treaty
laying down agreed terms for regulating future commercial
intercourse . If the Chinese agreed to cede an island, the latter
should be chosen , not by the Plenipotentiaries, but by the Admiral
and Superintendent of Trade , to ensure its suitability for both
trade and defence . * When the Whigs fell from office in
September 1841 , the new Foreign Secretary, Lord Aberdeen , abandoned
the claim for an island altogether and made the negotiation of a
commercial treaty the sole object of hostilities ; but in the end,
at the Treaty of Nanking, 1842, Sir Henry Pottinger secured both
an island, Hong Kong, and the promise of a commercial treaty.
Commodore Sir J. J. Gordon Bremer and Captain Charles Elliot
R. N. Jointly issued the Proclamation of February 1st 1841
addressed to the inhabitants of Hong Kong, announcing the cession ,
but it was undoubtedly Elliot as Plenipotentiary and Superintendent
of Trade who was instrumental in choosing Hong Kong as a suitable
island to be ceded under Palmerston's instructions . Elliot
argued that an island near the Pearl River Estuary was necessary
since it could be expected that Chinese prejudice against
foreigners would keep western trade as far away from the capital
as possible , and that Canton would remain the centre of trade with
the west. Hong Kong, conveniently close to Canton, was small and
sparsely populated and so its loss was not likely to ruffle
Chinese feelings. The main attraction was an extensive sheltered
harbour which Elliot had reason to appreciate when he and the
whole British community took refuge there in 1839. Palmerston
was not impressed by these arguments ; he refused to recognise
Elliot's proclamation and recalled him in favour of
Sir Henry Pottinger .
Palmerston had clearly pointed out in a dispatch to the
Plenipotentiaries dated February 3, 1841 , that an island would be
valueless unless its freedom to trade with the mainland were safe-
guarded. Unfortunately, Pottinger's arrangements to provide for
this in the Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue of October 1843, led
to unhappy and unsatisfactory results . By Article XIII Chinese
merchants were allowed freedom to ship goods from any of the
treaty ports to Hong Kong . Chinese were also allowed free and
(73476) vii
full permission to come to Hong Kong to purchase goods , but if they
required a Chinese vessel to ship their goods they had to " obtain a
pass or port clearance for her at the customs-house of the port
whence the vessel may sail for Hong Kong" . This presumably meant,
but did not specifically state , that that port must be one of the
treaty ports . Also no provision whatever was made for Hong Kong
Junks . Articles XIV and XVI provided for the appointment by the
Hong Kong Government of an English official to examine all
registers and passes of Chinese vessels at Hong Kong and for the
Hong Kong and Chinese authorities to supply monthly returns of
Chinese shipping and cargoes as a check against smuggling.
These articles aroused great resentment among the British merchants
as an infringement of the officially proclaimed freedom of the
port. The Chinese properly took their stand on treaty stipula-
tions which confined all foreign trade with China to the open
ports and Pottinger recognised the force of their contention . In 1
the event, articles XIV and XVI were disregarded by the British and
no official was appointed to control the native craft using the
harbour, although, as a poor substitute , a cursory report on the
native trade was prepared each year for some years by
Charles Gutzlaff. Commercial relations between Hong Kong and the
mainland were therefore left obscure , and the resultant uncertainty
opened the way to much disreputable smuggling in which the Chinese
proved themselves no less adept than the foreigners .
At first sanguine hopes of great prosperity were entertained
in Hong Kong and land was bought at high prices in the expectation
of rapid development and quick profit. This mood of optimism
soon gave way to an equally exaggerated gloom as it came to be
realised that Hong Kong's commercial prospects were not bright, and
that its development would be slow. There were many reasons for
this failure of the Colony to come up to expectations . One has
already been mentioned, that the Chinese regarded uncontrolled
trade between Hong Kong and the mainland as contrary to the treaty .
Perhaps the main reason was that the most exaggerated notions were
entertained of a rapid expansion of trade with China generally
and failure to reap its harvest was attributed to Chinese
recalcitrance and obstruction . But even if trade with China had
expanded to the extent expected , it did not follow that Hong
Kong's trade would necessarily have grown pari passu , because the
opening of the Treaty Ports had created a new situation in that
direct shipments to those ports would lessen the need for a
central distributing centre on the China coast. Few foresaw how
the new arrangements brought into being by the Treaty of Nanking
would work in practice and most tended to read into those
arrangements their experience of the old Canton-Macao days . In
the past the Chinese trade had always been seasonal because
sailing ships used the monsoon winds ; residence at Canton had
therefore been for the trading season only and Macao served as a
commercial and social headquarters . Many thought that this
pattern of trading would continue , that residence at the new
treaty ports would be similarly seasonal and that Hong Kong would
become the commercial emporium and social centre . Though there
was some justification for this view since the era of the steam-
ship , which was not dependent on the winds , was only beginning ,
( 73476 ) viii
nevertheless it was based on failure to see that a new situation had
arisen .
Again some foreign merchant houses , particularly American,
which had for long traded at Canton, tended to remain there, and saw
little reason why they should move to Hong Kong. Trade was also
hindered by the serious incidence of piracy. The British regarded
anti -piracy measures as a matter for the Chinese officials and took
no effective action until 1849 by which time it had become apparent
that the Chinese were either incapable of taking effective measures
or unwilling to do so . Finally, it must be remembered that Hong
Kong merchants were especially impatient at the slow rate of
commercial growth, and understandably so, because the reputation of
the Island for deadly fever was such that they were in a hurry to
make money and get out before being claimed by the rapidly filling
cemetery in the Happy Valley .
There is little wonder, then, that many regarded the selection
of Hong Kong as a mistake , that the Hong Kong merchants began to
talk of returning to Macao or that they complained in a petition to
the Secretary of State in August 1845 that " such a settlement as
Hong Kong was never really required ... " . Nevertheless Hong Kong
had substantial advantages which ensured its retention and progress .
It possessed a deep , spacious and sheltered harbour with good
holding ground, and this attracted shipping . British merchants
enjoyed the benefits of British law and justice under their own
flag, and the principal British firms preferred to establish their
headquarters there. The building of go- downs, for the storage of
opium for example , led to lower insurance charges , and a British
garrison gave a comforting feeling of security.
After a period of uncertainty, Hong Kong began to grow.
Primarily, this growth of Hong Kong as an entrepôt was a product of
secular forces operating over the 19th century and after . They
were, the opening of China to western trade and influence , followed
by the opening of Japan , Siam , and Korea . Secondly the opening of
the trade routes in the Pacific Ocean stemming from the development
of countries bordering the Pacific, such as the United States ' west
coast, the South American Republics , Australasia, and South- east
Asia . Thirdly, the development in England of a highly
industrialised society, accompanied by a commercial maritime and
financial enterprise which carried British goods into every part of
the world in search of markets . Fourthly, British liberal
economic policies , particularly free trade , and a strong laissez-
faire spirit in administration which aimed at keeping the ring
clear for free enterprise under the law administered impartially to
all without fear or favour, attracted to Hong Kong merchants of
every nationality . It encouraged in addition an ever increasing
Chinese population . At first , the Chinese came as labourers ,
artisans and shop- keepers because the Chinese officials frowned on
Chinese emigration there . Chinese prejudice against Hong Kong
gradually subsided , Chinese families came to settle , and become
prosperous under a regime which suited their individualistic
temperament . Hong Kong quickly became and remained predominantly
Chinese . The Chinese community which was enterprising, frugal and
(73476) ix
commercially active , has been without any doubt, a most significant
factor in Hong Kong's economic prosperity.
Hong Kong, referred to by Palmerston with pardonable
exaggeration as a barren island, was virtually devoid of natural
resources , and what trade it had, was of necessity entrepôt trade .
The outlines of the growth of Hong Kong as an entrepôt centre are
fairly clear, but detailed statistics are lacking because of its
free port status. Successive harbourmasters in the colony made
valiant attempts to include estimates of the Colony's trade in
their annual reports , and R. Murray Rumsey, who was Harbourmaster
from 1888 to 1903, began a more serious attempt in 1893 to
estimate the trade by attempting to secure details of cargoes from
agents or masters of ships using the harbour. The Chamber of
Commerce criticised him for " some apparent errors " in the figures
for 1895 and questioned if it were " worth while attempting to make
any return at all " . Rumsey pointed out in his annual report for
1896 that " Indifference, want of knowledge , and commercial jealousy,
will probably always militate against accurate information being
supplied" and retorted that he had clearly stated the sources of
his information and that it rested with those who had the means of
supplying in formation to help avoid inaccuracies . Merchants
understandably resisted having details of their business exposed ,
and the Chinese firms , which tended usually to be family partner-
ships, were equally secretive . The Annual Blue Book of
Statistics for Hong Kong, Colonial Office series 133, gives some
information under three headings, shipping, imports and exports ,
and the junk trade . Details of shipping using the harbour, such
as size , nationality, port of origin or destination, are fully
given and are fairly certainly accurate . For some years , an
attempt was made to add some indication of the cargo carried and to
repeat this information with a little more elaboration in the
Imports and Exports section . This section still had little detail
and in 1849 a note was added that the import and export figures
were quite unreliable and were dropped ; but they were again given ,
after a lapse of some three years, and then dropped again in 1860 ,
probably following the arrival of a new governor, Sir Hercules
Robinson. There was no official provision for the collection of
commercial statistics and it must be assumed that the Harbourmaster
gained his information by casual conversation with the ships '
masters and merchants and perhaps from local gossip . Details of
the junk trade were collected haphazardly by officials in the
Chinese Secretary's department under the office of the Superinten-
dent of Trade , and Gutzlaff, the Chinese Secretary, was made
responsible. This was very much spare- time job . The 1849
report on the junk trade was admittedly compiled from in formation
obtained by the Chinese office messenger, and in the following
year, 1850 , T. F. Wade , who was responsible for the report in the
absence of Gutzlaff, confessed that the material had been compiled
by a Chinese clerk in the department . Gutzlaff complained that
Junk-masters were very much averse to being questioned and usually
under- estimated their cargoes . The conclusion is that while
in formation on Hong Kong's trade does exist, it is neither
detailed nor reliable and can be used only with the greatest
caution . The commercial records of the leading Agency Houses and
( 73476) X
Chinese Hongs would throw more light on the rise and sources of the
entrepôt trade in Hong Kong than any of the available statistics .
The British and foreign Agency houses continued for some time
in Hong Kong as the commercial unit. They were primarily agents
for manufacturers or wholesalers in Britain , Europe and India, and
sold cargoes or consignments on a commission basis. Warehouses ,
or godowns as they were locally called, were therefore indispensable
because of goods having to be stored while waiting for a favourable
turn in the market . Merchants in Hong Kong also usually combined
the functions of shipowners , shipping agents , bullion brokers and
bullion carriers - until this side of their business was reduced by
the rise of banks insurance agents and ship chandlers . They
also derived profits from property speculation , and the formation
of public utility companies and private companies . The era of the
princely hongs came virtually to an end by the opening of the
Suez Canal in November 1869 , and the coming of the telegraph, which
brought the British manufacturer more quickly in touch with the
eastern market and therefore made him less dependent on the
discretion of his agent. Thereafter the manufacturer generally
supplied goods in fulfilment of orders received .
Joint-stock companies in Britain began to increase in number
after the legislation of 1844 and showed more striking increase
after that of 1855-56 which gave them the advantage of limited
liability. Much of this legislation was adopted by the Colony and
embodied in the Companies Ordinance of March 1865 ( No. 1 of 1865) .
Sir Hercules Robinson wrote home that Jardine , Matheson & Co. , and
Russell & Co. , two of the oldest and largest agency houses, had
been much opposed , and at one point the bill had been dropped, but
was revived and passed after memorials supporting it had been
received from the General Chamber of Commerce and the merchant
community. This legislation led to the increase in the number of
firms trading in the eastern market and to greater opportunities
for smaller import-export companies to start up in Hong Kong.
The old wealthy merchant houses retained their pre- eminence , but
had to meet much more competition .
Hong Kong's entrepôt trade at first was mainly with Britain ,
India and China . Later, in the century, as Germany, France ,
Holland and other European countries became industrialised , trade
with the European continent increased ; there were already in
Hong Kong a number of continental firms thanks to the liberalism
of British colonial rule, and the increase was smoothly built upon
already existing connections . Here again the growth cannot be
traced in accurate detail , but the British trade with China while
it steadily grew in amount, diminished in proportion as European ,
American and Japanese trade increased . The cosmopolitan character
of Hong Kong gave it a considerable advantage as an entrepôt of
European trade with the east.
The treaty ports of China did not develop as expected . of
the four opened in 1842 , Shanghai , Ningpo , Foochow and Amoy, only
Shanghai became an important centre of the China trade . Ningpo
was too close to Shanghal ; the approach to Foochow was difficult
( 73476 ) xi
and there much Chinese opposition to a provincial capital city
being opened to the foreigners; and Amoy had few hinterland
products to offer. Can ton retained much of its old trade because
of long-established trading connections and of the vast hinterland
tapped by the river systems which converged on the City; but 111-
feeling against foreigners persisted after the Opium War and
merchants were confined to the factory area until the Shameen
concession was leased in 1860 , and so the development of western
trade in Canton was steady but not spectacular . The additional
ports opened by the Treaty of Tientsin 1858 , the Conventions of
Peking 1860 and of the Chefoo 1876 , showed little sign of develop- ·
ing into large centres of trade with the possible exception of
Tientsin . The result was that cargoes for the less developed
ports had either to be transhipped at Hong Kong or Shanghai , or the
ships carrying the cargoes had to be diverted to the various
smaller ports . Hence there were factors making for a transhipment
1
trade at Hong Kong.
Another factor in the rise of Hong Kong as an entrepôt centre
was that many ships even if destined for ports further north ,
called for orders , because Hong Kong was the headquarters of the
largest firms in the trade . After the long 1800 miles voyage from
Singapore during which a sailing vessel would cover much more than
that distance , vessels would also call for water , victualling,
repairs or to land sick crew, and advantage of such calls was taken
to make any advantageous transhipments . Because Amoy did not
develop as an important trading centre , Hong Kong tended to develop
as the centre of the coastal trade between Hainan and Amoy.
The entrepôt trade of Hong Kong not only grew, but spread to
embrace the whole Far East and South- east Asia. There were two
main factors in this process . The first arose from the vast
Chinese migration in the 19th century and the second from the
development of specialised entrepôt services . Chinese communities
burgeoned on the west coast of North and South America , in the
West Indies , the Sandwich Islands ( Hawaii Islands ) Australia , Dutch
East Indies , North Borneo , Sarawak, the Straits Settlements and
Malaya, Siam, Burma , Mauritius and the Seychelles , and Indo- China .
These Chinese communities held tenaciously to their Chinese way
of life and were supplied with Chinese products through Hong Kong,
where many Chinese hongs , such as the Nam Pak Hongs ( North- South
firms) were engaged in this trade . Some of the emigrants were
inden tured labourers , but there was much free emigration of which
Hong Kong was the centre because the emigrants were mostly
Cantonese including Hakka, and to a less extent Fukienese . In
addition , the Chinese emigrants in South- east Asia tended to
monopolise the industry and commerce of the countries to which they
went, because of their business efficiency and assiduity and partly
because, as in Siam, commerce was looked down on as an inferior and
to some extent even a debased avocation . They tended to be hard-
working, frugal and commercially ambitious , and their strength
lay in being closely knit through the family to their Chinese
communities . Many had relatives in Hong Kong, and close business
relations grew up .
(73476) xii
The process cannot be traced in detail , but its repercussions
in Hong Kong can . The Chinese business community there grew, and
occupied the western district between the central district and
Sai Ying Pun. By 1880 , they had spread into Queen's Road Central
which had up to then been reserved for European residence and they
spread to other European areas such as Wellington Street and
Hollywood Road. They became the largest ratepayers and the census
of 1881 provided detailed evidence of growing Chinese prosperity,
based on overseas trade . Sir John Pope Hennessy estimated in 1880
that the Chinese in Hong Kong were contributing 90% of the total
revenue of the Colony. Evidence of the growth of Chinese firms can
be found in the old records still held by the Hong Kong Government
Rating and Valuation Department, and in the growing lists of
Chinese firms given each year in the Chronicle and Directory of
China, Japan and the Philippines published annually by the Hong Kong
Daily Press.
The Chinese were efficient business men, and their frugal way
of life and less pretentious living conditions tended to give them
considerable advantages in acting as middlemen . They were content
with narrower profit margins, which made them more competitive .
The British consular reports of these years , (e . g. that of Hankow
1883) make the same point that Chinese business men were taking
over much more of the trade with the west and were competing
successfully with British firms.
The essential feature of the entrepôt trade of Hong Kong was
the existence of entrepôt services which tended automatically to
attract trade . It is not strange that Hong Kong trade developed
slowly nor that its early years produced great disappointment, for
there is no reason why trade should be attracted to a relatively
barren island which had no products of its own to exploit and
exchange. But, in addition to its natural harbour, Hong Kong
possessed assets that were almost equally potent in making it a
successful commercial centre . It possessed among its people ,
business acumen , managerial ability, commercial experience ,
professional skill , financial resources , control of shipping and a
good supply of industrious and inexpensive artisans and workers .
It would be an exaggeration to say that the entrepôt trade was a
product of these entrepôt services because clearly the two interact,
but it can be said that in Hong Kong, the British and Chinese
communities provided the expertise which inevitably stimulated an
entrepôt trade , and that services which were designed to cater for
the whole of the eastern trade were immediately available in Hong
Kong on the spot. It is true that Shanghai after 1880 began to
out- strip Hong Kong in economic importance because of the
geographical advantages of proximity to a highly productive area
and its situation as the terminal port of a vitally important
commercial highway, the Yangtze River; but Hong Kong was able to
compete because it remained an official British administrative and
military centre , the commercial headquarters of the chief firms
and the abode of a growing Chinese community. The rise of Hong
Kong rested on the twin pillars of shipping and commercial skill
both European and Chinese , functioning under the security of a
British administration .
(73476) xiii
The enlargement of the entrepôt trade to embrace not merely
that between China and the West but that of the Far East generally
was largely a consequence of the development of Hong Kong as a
shipping centre . Hong Kong's geographical position contiguous to
the populous provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangsi , its sheltered
anchorage and the presence of the leading firms, the security
provided by the flag all attracted shipping. Ship- repairing and
ship-building industries, victualling and ship- chandling
facilities , and insurance followed as a natural consequence . It
naturally tended to be a convenient centre of the carrying trade .
The growth of shipping using the port can be followed in
detail in the harbourmasters ' reports. The leading commercial
houses usually, but not invariably possessed their own ships or
became agents for British and European shipping lines , and they
tended to use the port as a port of call to give themselves the
opportunity of diverting ships if necessary to take advantage of
the most favourable market prices along the Coast. The enormous
migration of the Chinese was clearly an important factor in the
growth of the shipping using the port , and this tended to develop
trade with Chinese communities overseas . Locally based shipping
lines came into being and entrepôt trade tended to be attracted by
the facilities readily available . These shipping lines were
mainly British , it was an age of British maritime leadership , and
tended to gravitate towards British-held territory and this was an
important factor in the rise of Hong Kong. Jardine, Matheson
& Co. , Dent & Co. , MacVicar & Co. , Turner & Co. , Gibb , Livingston
& Co. , and Douglas Lapraik, were some of the local agency houses
which had their own ships. Jardine , Matheson & Co. , eventually
in 1882, organised their ships under the Indo - China Steam
Navigation Co. , which was controlled by them. The Pacific Mall
Line was started in 1866, the Glen Line began calling at Hong Kong
in 1869. The Messageries Maritimes , or Messageries Imperiales as
it was known in the days of the Second Empire , came to Hong Kong
in 1862. The P. & 0. Steam Navigation Company commenced a fort-
nightly service to Hong Kong as early as 1845 and for some short
time entered the local coastal trade . Butterfield & Swire which
set up in Shanghai in 1866 and came to Hong Kong in 1870 founded
the China Navigation Company in 1872.
In addition to these ocean- going and coastal shipping lines,
there were local shipping agencies engaged in the local distribu-
tive trade . The Hong Kong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Co. , was
formed by local shipping interests in 1865. There were innumerable
smaller independent and often ephemeral ventures , like that of
D. R. Caldwell , the Registrar-General , with a Chinese Ma Chow Wong,
which came into history when both were accused of piracy. Many
small lorchas , which were small ships with a European hull and
Chinese rigging, a type of ship which originated with the
Portuguese , were owned by Chinese in Hong Kong and would often have
a British master and a Chinese crew, such as the " Arrow " , the
incident over which led to the " Arrow" war in 1856. Lastly there
was the ubiquitous junk manned and generally owned by a Chinese
family which lived permanently afloat. But the Chinese junk was
adversely affected by piracy, by unsettled conditions in China ,
(73476) xiv
for example the T'ai P'ing Rebellion , and by the expense of paying
for armed protection often made available by local adventurers .
In 1874 the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company was
founded with the strong encouragement of Li Hung- chang, by Chinese
merchants among whom those in Hong Kong held the largest share .
Hong Kong became a centre of the carrying trade which was an
essential concomitant of the entrepôt trade. The importance of the
shipping interest was acknowledged by the establishment of the
Observatory in 1883.
The other entrepôt services have already been mentioned and
need not be restated at length . The main British firms were
centred at Hong Kong, and other ports were regarded as out-ports ,
and this remained broadly true , even when Shanghai outstripped
Hong Kong in commercial importance . For example the Chronicle and
Directory of China, Japan and the Philippines referred to above
gives a list of public and private companies at Hong Kong and each
of the Treaty Ports , including the names of their partners or
directors and the port at which each was stationed . It is not
easy to use these statistics because sheer numbers do not show the
degree of importance in the China trade , but there is clear
evidence of control from Hong Kong. Some firms like Butterfield
and Swire began at Shanghai and gravitated to Hong Kong, others
began at one of the treaty ports and like Bradley & Co. , at
Swatow, and later moved to the Colony. Professional services
were easily accessible in Hong Kong. There were lawyers,
barristers and solicitors to assist with legal advice . There were
insurance companies, brokers , bullion brokers, bankers, operators
in specialised markets as well as physicians and medical facilities .
Again, it cannot be said that they created the commercial prosperity.
They were attracted because of commercial opportunities , and then in
turn attracted more firms and the inter-action continued .
Financial resources were mobilised through the rise of banking
institutions . The Oriental Banking Corporation was the first Bank
to open in Hong Kong, in 1845, and it was followed by The Agra and
United Services Bank, Commercial Bank of India, the Bank of
Hindustan China and Japan , The Bank of Western India and others .
Most of these disappeared in the financial crisis of the middle
1860's . The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company was formed in
1864 by local merchants and became the leading financial
institution . The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China , and
the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China, which
later became known as the Mercantile Bank of India , set up branches
in Hong Kong as did French, Dutch, German , Russian and American
Banks . China had a longer tradition of banking than the West.
The Chinese were served by their own native banks and formed a
Native Banks Guild which laid down rules and principles to which its
members were expected to con form. They financed trade with China
passing through Chinese hands, and trade with South- east Asia and
Chinese communities overseas , and were used by the latter in
sending remittances to China . The first Chinese bank run on
western lines was the Bank of Canton formed in 1912, and this was
followed by the Bank of East Asia in 1919 .
(73476 ) XV
The important merchant houses and the Banks maintained offices
or had their head offices in London , and thus close liaison with
the London money market was maintained . There was always ample
capital available for commercial and development projects and
British financial transactions in the Far East tended to be
channelled through Hong Kong.
Commercial , financial and professional services were therefore
important in Hong Kong overall economic position . Commissions ,
fees and services were as important to Hong Kong as the income from
the visible movement of trade ; but in the absence of reliable
figures it would be rash to make any estimate as to their
proportions.
Finally Hong Kong as an entrepôt stemmed from certain local
favourable conditions. The British administration , though far
from faultless , tended to hold the balance equally between the
Chinese and foreign communities and to provide conditions of
security and social order which the Chinese seemed unable to
achieve for themselves at that time . The Colonial Office and the
British Parliament were ready to pounce on abuses , and the Chinese
throve under British rule . The justice administered by the courts
gained respect and met an essential need . The currency was
convertible being based on silver. Above all , the port was a
free port where men of any nation could freely reside and trade ,
and no irritating restrictions were put in their way. In a system
of private enterprise , all men were free to go about their lawful
business without interference . In addition the merchants were
given a great deal of in fluence in the government of the Island and
the supremacy of the mercantile interest received recognition in
the appointment of two merchants in 1850 as unofficial members of
the Legislative Council , subsequently increased to three in 1857,
to five in 1884, and six in 1896. Up to 1880 they were British,
but from that year Chinese and Indian elements have been added and
the British-born element cut down . In 1884 the Hong Kong General
Chamber of Commerce was allowed to nominate one representative to
the Legislative Council , and the Unofficial Justices of the Peace ,
many of whom were merchants , were given the privilege of nominating
another member. Two unofficial members of the merchant community
were added to the Executive Council in 1896 , and a third in 1926 .
The merchants were therefore given opportunity of making their
voice heard in the official counsels of the Colony.
(c) A note on Sources and Choice of Documents
The sources for a study of the development of Hong Kong as an
entrepôt centre are regrettably incomplete and deficient in
detail . Statistical evidence of the growth and spread of the
Island's entrepôt function is lacking because Hong Kong was a
free port and therefore there are no customs returns to help .
Generally, conclusions on the subject have to be deduced from
indirect evidence and from such trade returns of other countries
as are available .
(73476 ) xvi
Three types of most valuable source material are either non-
existent or not available. First, as has been said, there are no
reliable figures of Hong Kong's imports and exports before 1919 ,
because until then, it was nobody's business to collect them. The
exception to this concerns the opium trade , for which figures exist
from 1887. In that year an Imports and Exports office was set up
as a result of the 1886 agreement with China which was made in
accordance with the terms of the Chefoo Convention of 1876 and of
the Additional Article to that Convention of July 1885. By this
agreement the Hong Kong Government undertook to inform the Chinese
Government of all movements of opium in and out of Hong Kong, and
the Office was set up to do this . Secondly, commercial records
of the Chief Hong Kong business houses are all privately held ,
except those of Jardine , Matheson & Company which are housed in the
Cambridge University Library, but can be consulted only with the
Company's permission , and material from it can be published only by
permission . Thirdly, there are no detailed accounts of the rise
to importance of the Chinese firms and their trading connections
overseas, because they were equally secretive over their
activities. There can be no complaint about this because there is
no compelling reason why business houses should publicise their
activities; indeed there was every incentive to refrain from
action which might assist their competitors . A history of the
emergence of some of the present-day Chinese families which have
gained positions of importance in the present- day economic life of
Hong Kong would provide instructive reading on this subject .
It is then easier to be eloquent about the lack of desirable
source material than about that which is available , but this latter
is not negligible. The official records in the Public Record
Office , London , give the Governors ' dispatches and the replies
from the Colonial Office in Downing Street in the series CO 129 .
They rarely gave details of or dealt with the entrepôt trade
directly, and more frequently, the most useful evidence is given as
it were accidentally when dealing with some other important side
issues , such as the Hong Kong Mint, or the Hong Kong Blockade by
Chinese revenue and customs cruisers in 1866 and following years .
Each year the Governor gave an annual review of the Colony's
progress for the annual Blue Book of Statistics , CO 133, in which
economic progress is touched on in general terms. These official
utterances from the Colony's chief executive officer are of course
factually accurate, and yet must be used with caution because
Governors, as with other men, did not always resist the temptation
to present their own doings in the most favourable light, and were
apt to be selective in their review of events , and to stress those
features which brought them credit .
Then there are official reports of Commissions or Committees
of Enquiry, tending again to be factually accurate and probably
unbiased, some held locally in the colony and some held in London ,
such as the Parliamentary Committee of 1847. Next, of great
importance are the annual reports of the Hong Kong Government
Department, particularly those of the Harbourmaster. An Import-
Export Department was set up in 1887 , as has already been mentioned,
following an agreement with China , aimed at controlling the opium
(73476) xvii
trade of Hong Kong to safeguard China's customs Revenue , and from
that date , presumably accurate returns of that trade are available .
This department was at first placed under the Harbourmaster ; in
September 1909 , after the imposition of import duties on certain
luxury articles, a Superintendent of Imports and Exports was
appointed and his office became an independent department in 1914 .
From 1919 complete and presumably accurate figures of trade had
to be furnished by ordinance to the Department by the commercial
firms . Included in this category, and essential for the study
of Hong Kong trade, are the annual statistics issued by the
Statistical Division of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs and
available from 1864 to 1940, and after the War until the
establishment of the Chinese Peoples ' Republic .
Then there were semi - official sources , such as reports on
trade by officials or by private individuals which were deemed of
sufficient merit to be sent to the Secretary of State , for example
the Report on Hong Kong trade by W. H. Mitchell , sent home by
Governor Bonham in 1850. Some were tendentious like that of
Robert Montgomery Martin in 1845, but they provide valuable
evidence nevertheless . The annual proceedings of an important
body such as the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce come into
this category .
The remaining sources are private papers , newspaper reports
and accounts by private individuals . Al so included in this
collection of documents are specially compiled tables of figures
such as selected statistics taken from the mass of information
supplied by the Chinese Maritime Customs Service . These have
value , but their limitation rests on the fact of their selection ;
they do not therefore speak for themselves so much as indicate
what the compiler has in mind.
The problem regarding the choice of documents is not always
an easy one to resolve . Relevance is clearly the dominating
factor, but this criterion is not as simple as it appears . For
example , constitutional issues and the question of representation
of merchant opinion in the Legislative Council might well have
been , and the writer believes was , a not unimportant factor in the
development of Hong Kong as an entrepôt centre because of the
pressure they were able to exercise if necessary to bring official
Colonial Office policy into line with the commercial needs of
Hong Kong. One criterion of some practical importance is whether
a document is available to the general reader or not , for clearly,
given documents of equal relevance to select those not generally
available would be preferred to those that were . Most of the
important documents were in fact printed , often as the result of
a demand by Parliament for information , and are to be found in
Blue Books, but many appear in print in this book for the first
time. Again, by the same criterion unprinted source material is
to be preferred to that already printed assuming they have the
desired minimum of relevance . For all these reasons, the
selection of documents has been on broad lines and the criterion
of relevance has been tempered by the considerations mentioned to
give the subject a broad interpretation . There is one other
(73476) xviii
difficulty that of deciding whether to give a document complete as
it stands or to give selected extracts. Clearly, only the whole
document can be allowed to speak for itself, and selected excerpts
tend to prejudge the issue by allowing the reader to see only what
the author wishes him to see. It is a question of space some-
times , and of giving the reader only what is strictly relevant to
save him from having to read a mass of tiresome matter which does
not add to the comprehension of the main theme. The compiler can
only plead that the excerpts, where given, have been carefully
chosen and that relevant parts have not been omitted . Generally,
the documents have been given as found, but occasionally some
minor editing has been done regarding punctuation , since many 19th
century officials seem to have had only a cursory acquaintance
with the principles of that art.
(73476 ) xix
LIST OF DOCUMENTS
Page
No.
The Documents, arranged under eight headings, each prefaced by a
short introduction , are cited by their official titles ; to assist
the reader, an indication of the subject matter is given in those
cases where the title does not make this clear. Colonial Office
Records are also cited by the letters C.0 . followed by the series
number followed by the number of the volume , e.g. CO 129/81 .
1. Grievances at Canton and the Founding of Hong Kong
Extracts from a letter from the Secret Commercial
Committee of the East India Company to the Right
Honourable Lord Amherst , Ambassador etc. etc.
17th January 1816 . 5
2. Petition of British Subjects in China, praying for the
permanent residence , at Peking, of a Representative of
His Majesty, to protect the interests of his Countrymen .
24th December 1830 .. 13 .
3. A Memorial from the Canton Government to the Emperor
with Eight Regulations restrictive of Foreign Trade .
March 8 , 1835. English Translation . Handed by the
Hoppo to the Co- hong for the information of the Foreign
Merchants . 16
4. Treaty of Nanking. August 29 , 1842. 24
5. Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue . October 8, 1843. 29
6. General Regulations governing the China Trade,
( subsequently incorporated as Article 2 of the
Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue) and Sir Henry
Pottinger's Proclamation of July 22, 1843 by which they
were published . 35
11 . The Treaty Ports and Hong Kong
7. An Act for the better Government of Her Majesty's
subjects resorting to China 6 v 7 Vic . cap 80 .
22nd August 1843... 42
8. Order in Council , April 17, 1844 empowering the
Superintendent of Trade and the Hong Kong Legislative
Council to legislate for British subjects in China . 44
(73476) XX
Page
No.
9. Dispatch from Lord Aberdeen to Sir Henry Pottinger,
No. 81 , September 2, 1843 relating to control over British
subjects in the Treaty Ports . 46
10 . Dispatch from Lord Aberdeen to Sir John Davis , No. 4,
February 28 , 1844 relating to control over British
subjects in the Treaty Ports . 50
11 . Order in Council June 13, 1853 abrogating the Hong Kong
Legislative Council's authority over British subjects in
China. 56
III. The Opium Trade
12 . Extract from a Dispatch from Lord Aberdeen to Sir Henry
Pottinger No. 7, January 4, 1843, prohibiting the Opium
Trade in Hong Kong. 78
13. Proclamation by Sir Henry Pottinger forbidding the
smuggling of goods into China. 1st August, 1843 . 79
14. Letter from H. M. Addington , Permanent Under- Secretary,
Foreign Office , to Sir James Stephen, Permanent Under-
Secretary, Colonial Office , November 11 , 1843 proposing
the suspension of the exclusion of Opium vessels from
80
Hong Kong.
15 . Extract from a Dispatch from Sir John Davis to
Lord Stanley No. 79 December 28 , 1844 , regarding the
Opium Trade . 81
16 . Dispatch from Sir R. G. MacDonnell to Duke of Buckingham
No. 553, August 6, 1868 , giving an estimate of the Opium
Trade in 1868. 82
17. The Additional Article to the Chefoo Convention signed in
London , July 18 , 1885. 87
18 . A Dispatch from W. H. Marsh to the Secretary of State ,
Rt. Hon . E. Stanhope , 15th September 1886 , enclosing the
Opium Agreement of September 11 , 1886 . 90
IV. Early Disappointment over Hong Kong Trade
19. Extracts from a Report on the Colony of Hong Kong by
Robert Montgomery Martin . July 24, 1844 . 96
20. Report on the native Junk Trade by Charles Gutzlaff.
April 1 , 1845 . 106
21 . Report of the Select Committee on Commercial Relations
with China ordered by the House of Commons to be printed .
110
July 12, 1847 .
(73476 ) XX1
Page
22 . No.
Memorandum upon the present condition trade and prospects
of Hong Kong by W. H. Mitchell , enclosed in a Dispatch
from Sir S. G. Bonham to Earl Grey, No. 114.
28 th December 1850 . 115
23 . Minutes by A. Blackwood July 7, 1849 and Earl Grey
July 12, 1849 , on a Dispatch from Sir S. G. Bonham to
Earl Grey No. 41 , April 24, 1849 , on the subject of
piracy. 118
24. Dispatch from Sir Hercules Robinson to Duke of Newcastle
No. 71 , 11th May 1864, forwarding a report on Piracy
from Captain U. S. Nolloth R. N. , dated 30th April 1864. 120
25. (a) Dispatch from Sir R. G. MacDonnell to Earl of
Carnarvon No. 19 , April 14, 1866 and ( b ) reply by
Earl of Carnarvon No. 18 , August 10 , 1866 , on the
subject of piracy. 127
V. Growth of the Entrepôt Trade
26. Shipping, Population and Migration Table . 1841-1930 . 132
27. The Chinese Passengers Act 1855. 18 v 19 Vict cap 104. 134
28 . Extract from a Dispatch from Sir John Pope Hennessy to
the Earl of Carnarvon September 27, 1877 relating to
Economic Progress of the Chinese in Hong Kong . 142
29 . Extract from a Report of a Speech by Sir John Pope
Hennessy to the Legislative Council January 3, 1881
relating to growth of Commerce in Chinese hands .. 145
30. Extracts from a Report on the condition and prospects of
Hong Kong by Sir G. William Des Voeux 31st October, 1889. 152
31 . Report on the Junk Trade for 1891. Hong Kong Sessional
Papers, 1892. 157
32 . Estimates of Hong Kong Trade .
(a) Extracts from the Harbourmaster's Report for 1868 .
(b) Extracts from the Harbourmaster's Report for 1888 .
(c) Extracts from the Harbourmaster's Report for 1898 .
(d) Extracts from the Report on Trade and Industry for
1919 , Administration Reports 1919 .
(e) Extracts from the Report on Trade and Industry for
1938 , Administration Reports 1938 . 160
(73476) xxii
Page
33. Tables of Statistics of trade between Hong Kong and China No.
1864-1940 compiled from the publications of the Chinese
Imperial Maritime Customs , and , after 1911 , of the
Chinese Maritime Customs . .190
VI . Currency and Finance
34. Currency Proclamation . May 1 , 1845.. 198
35. Dispatch from Sir Hercules Robinson to Duke of Newcastle ,
Confidential , March 9 , 1861 , on the subject of the
currency . ...201
36 . Dispatch from Sir R. G. MacDonnell to Earl of Carnarvon
No. 172 , December 13 , 1866 on the failure of the Hong Kong
Mint . 212
37. Table showing the depreciation in the value of the silver
dollar 1870-1936 . 221
38 . Report of the Hong Kong Government Currency Committee
July 14 , 1930. 222
39. The Hong Kong Currency Ordinance 1935 , and Extract from
the Administration Reports , 1936 . 234
40. The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Prospectus .
3rd August 1864 . 237
41 . Agreement for a loan to provide for the construction of
the Canton- Kowloon Railway 7th March 1907. 238
VII . Constitutional arrangements and the Influence of Merchant
Opinion
42 . The Hong Kong Charter . A Commission for erecting the
Island of Hong Kong into a separate Colony .....
.
April 5 , 1843 . 252
43. Extracts from the Instructions to Sir Henry Pottinger
from Lord Stanley , No. 8 , June 3 , 1843 , regarding the
Administration of Hong Kong . 255
44 . Letter from H. Addington , Permanent Under- Secretary at
the Foreign Office to Sir James Stephen , Permanent Under-
Secretary at the Colonial Office , March 22,1843 relating
to a separate administration for the Chinese in Hong Kong. 259
45. A Memorial to the Secretary of State for the Colonies
from the Merchants of Hong Kong August 13 , 1845 and the
Reply of the Secretary of State W. E. Gladstone to
Sir John Davis Bt . No. 32 , March 7 , 1846 . ..262
46 . Dispatch from Sir John Pope Hennessy to Sir Michael
Hicks Beach No. 4 , January 19, 1880 relating to the
appointment of a Chinese to the Legislative Council . 268
(73476) xxiii
Page
No.
47 . Dispatch from Earl of Derby to Sir George Bowen No. 158 ,
August 7 , 1883, relating to the reform of the Legislative
Council . 271
48 . Petition of the Merchants, Bankers , Professional men ,
Traders , Artisans and other Ratepayers and Inhabitants
of Hong Kong to the House of Commons, June 1894 and
Replies from Marquis of Ripon No. 135, August 23, 1894
and Joseph Chamberlain , No. 119 , May 29, 1886 . 274
VIII . Extension of the Boundaries
49. Dispatch from Lord John Russell to the Earl of Elgin ,
Secret, No. 11 , April 25 , 1860 relating to the cession of
Kowloon . 287
50 . (a) The Perpetual Lease of Kowloon granted to
Sir Harry Parkes by the Governor- general of Kwangtung
and Kwangsi , March 20, 1960 , also ( b) Article VI of the
Convention of Peking October 24, 1860 . 288
51. Convention between Great Britain and China respecting an
extension of Hong Kong Territory, signed at Peking,
9th June 1898 . 290
(73476) xxiv
SELECT DOCUMENTS
(73476 ) 1
I. GRIEVANCES AT CANTON AND THE FOUNDING OF HONG KONG
Hong Kong was occupied by the British in January 1841 and declared a
British Colony in June 1843. It arose out of the rupture of
commercial relations between Britain and China at Canton to which
City western trade with China had been restricted since 1755 . The
East India Company enjoyed a monopoly of British trade there until
1833 , but for some years had increasingly concentrated on the highly
profitable export of tea and licensed private traders to handle the
"Country trade " between India and China . For some time it denied
the right to reside at Canton to the private " country " traders who ,
however , were able to circumvent this difficulty by the device of
acting as consuls for foreign states . The abolition of the Company's
control led to a rapid expansion of trade and by 1837 there was a
vigorous foreign community of 308 , chiefly British , mostly employed
by the 57 foreign firms or agency houses .
There was a similar monopoly on the Chinese side , held by a
group of merchants called the Co -hong who had bought the privilege ;
trading as individuals and not corporately, they were not merely
security merchants for the western traders , but were held responsible
for their behaviour , since all non- Chinese were regarded as barbar-
ians ; they also served as the channel of communication between the
foreigners and the provincial officials .
The western traders had many grievances . Residence at Canton
was confined to the trading season , and restricted to a small
factory area except for three supervised ' excursions per month
across the river ; and there were other personal restrictions
regarding the hire of Chinese as servants , the use of sedan chairs
and the learning of the Chinese language , but they were not always
enforced. Commercial grievances concerned the Canton and Co - hong
monopolies , and arbitrary variations in charges on shipping and
trade . Unavailing efforts were made by British embassies in 1793
and 1816 to improve conditions at Canton and in 1834 a British
Superintendent of Trade , Lord Napier, was sent to exercise control
after the Company's monopoly was abolished , but he failed to secure
recognition and retired , a sick man , to Macao where he died . His
mission had lasted barely three months . His successors fared
little better . Opinion began to gain ground that a solution could
come only by force , and this course was advocated by the British
merchants in Canton in a Petition to the Crown in December 1834 ,
after the Napier incident . Many demanded an Island trading station
under the British flag as the most efficacious means of freeing them-
selves from Chinese arbitrariness .
The solution came following hostilities which broke out in 1839
as a result of disputes over the contraband trade in opium .
(73476 ) 3
Between 1820 and 1839 this traffic almost quadrupled in value and
led to a reversal of the balance of trade and the outflow of silver
from China . In 1839 Lin Tse -hsu was sent to Canton as special
commissioner to enquire into and suppress the opium trade . He
adopted the traditional methods of stopping all trade and withdrawing
all services from the merchants , virtually imprisoning them in the
Factories , including Captain Charles Elliot who came to Canton on
receiving news of the trouble . Lin also demanded the surrender
of all existing stocks of opium, and the signing of a bond by masters
of vessels , embodying an undertaking that they would hence forward not
carry opium to China under penalty of death . This action against
the persons of the traders and of the British Superintendent was made
the occasion of a demand by the British Government for a diplomatic
settlement with China aimed at the security of British trade and
recognition of British official representatives .
Palmerston , the British Foreign Secretary , demanded greater
freedom of trade by the opening of additional ports and the abolition
of the Co -hong monopoly, and greater security for British traders to
be achieved either by a commercial treaty giving adequate guarantees
regarding conditions under which the trade should be carried on, or
alternatively, by the cession of an island in which they could live
under the protection of their own laws .
Captain Charles Elliot was recalled for conducting the hostilit-
ies with excessive regard for Chinese susceptibilities , and replaced
by Sir Henry Pottinger . In August 1842 hostilities were brought
to an end by Chinese acceptance of the British demands in the Treaty
of Nanking , and Pottinger was able to secure guarantees for the
future by gaining both the desired commercial treaty and the cession
of the Island of Hong Kong .
This section is an introductory one , and the documents 1 and 2
illustrate the main British grievances ; the 3rd document gives the
last re - issue of the Chinese regulations governing western commerce
and residence at Canton . The terms of the Treaty of Nanking and of
the Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue of October 1843 and the
General Regulations governing the China trade which were negotiated
at the same time as the new tariff and later incorporated as section 2
of the Treaty of the Bogue , are also given .
H
(73476)
DOCUMENT No. I
Extracts from a Letter from Secret Commercial Committee
to the Rt. Hon . Lord Amherst , Ambassador , etc. etc. etc.
Dated 17th January, 1816
My Lord ,
1. His Royal Highness the Prince Regent having in consequence
of the representations of the East India Company been graciously
pleased to determine on the measure of sending an Embassy to the
Emperor of China , and having selected your Lordship to fill the
first place in that High Commission , you will doubtless receive from
the Ministers of His Royal Highness , such Instructions as they may
deem proper to be given by the Government of this Country, for the
conduct of the delicate and important negociation committed chiefly
to your Care . Yet, as the interests to be agitated in that
Negociation, though ultimately those of the Nation , are more immedia-
tely the interests of the East India Company, and to them of the
greatest value , we trust it will appear proper , that we also should ,
on behalf of the Company, address your Lordship on this occasion ,
and enter with rather more particularity than may perhaps suit a
Public Dispatch , into the Causes which have led to the present
measure of an Embassy to China ; the Objects which, as we conceive ,
are now chiefly to be sought in a Negociation there ; and such rela-
tive Observations as may be likely to afford any useful information
or suggestion in the difficult work of treating with a Court which
has shown singular indisposition to diplomatic intercourse and free
communication , especially with Europeans .
2. The Causes which in the opinion of the Company's
Administration in China , of the Court of Directors , and of the Prince
Regent's Government , have rendered a Mission from this Country
expedient , are the insolent , capricious , vexatious proceedings which
the local Government of Canton has for some time past held towards
the Company's Representatives there , by which they have obstructed ,
and embarrassed the conduct of the Company's Commerce , have shewn it
to be exposed to arbitrary interruption , - to uncertainty and
insecurity . All which are highly prejudicial to concerns of such
magnitude and importance to which the idea of permanence is essential .
These proceedings have also rendered the task of the Supra -Cargoes
in upholding the interests of their employers extremely difficult ,
and they be get a reasonable apprehension , lest the wanton exercise
of power, in a Government little under the influence of public
principle or private honour , should lead to an entire stoppage of
the Trade , either by the immediate act of the local Government itself ,
or by compelling the Supra -Cargoes , on their part , to have recourse
to that extreme measure , in order to avoid the still worse alterna-
tive of yielding to despotic imposition , which might be expected
to derive further encouragement from submission .
(73476) 5
3. The Objects to be aimed at in the Negociation , which your
Lordship will have to conduct , are generally in our humble judgment ,
a removal of the grievances which have been experienced , and exemption
from them, and others of the like nature for the time to come ; with
the Establishment of the Company's Trade upon a secure , solid ,
equitable footing , free from the capricious arbitrary aggressions of
the local Authorities , and under the protection of the Emperor , and
the sanction of Regulations to be appointed by himself .
4. The details of the proceedings above alluded to , which
occurred chiefly in the Years 1813 and 1814 will be found in the
Consultations and Letters of the Supra -Cargoes of which a pretty
large collection , extending to the early part of the present year ,
has been prepared , and is herewith transmitted to your Lordship .
5. A brief abstract of these details is contained in a
Letter which we had the honour to address to Lord Buckinghamshire
under date the 28th July last , in explanation of the reasons which
appeared to recommend the interposition of the Sovereign of this
Country with the Court of Pekin , and in the same Letter there is a
succinct enumeration of the principal points to be proposed and con-
tended for by the Embassy . Of this Letter , a Copy is also furnished
to your Lordship ; and the information contained in it and in the
before mentioned larger Documents from the Supra- Cargoes , renders it
unnecessary to go into any ample statement here of the same things .
We shall therefore , only recapitulate shortly from the Letter , the
principal aggressions of which the Supra -Cargoes complain , and the
remedies which appear to be requisite .
First . Under the head of aggressions are to be noted .
1stly. The attempt of the local authorities of Canton in the
year 1813 , to interfere in the case of Mr. Roberts
with the Company's nomination of the managers of their
Affairs , and , in effect , to introduce a principle
which would make the sanction of that Government neces-
sary to such nomination , and go to place the whole of
the European Trade with that Empire , under their
control .
2ndly. Another attempt of one of the Authorities in the same
Year, to establish what is termed the System of
Co - hong ; that is , to confine the Company's Dealings
and the whole European Trade of Canton , to two or three
Native Merchants , who would thus have the power of
regulating the prices of purchases and Sales , or in
other words a strict Monopoly; and would become most
convenient and effectual instruments of the venal views
of the Chinese Functionaries , to the consequent
oppression and injury of all other Traders .
3rdly . Prohibiting in the Year 1814 , the Natives of China from
serving in the English Factory , and from communication
with the Supra- Cargoes .
(73476 ) 6
4thly . Seizing, beating and imprisoning the Chinese Linguist ,
who had been employed by the Supra-Cargoes , on the
ground of his attachment to , and connection with them;
and even reporting him to the Emperor to be engaged in
treasonable practices with them.
5thly . Returning the Address of the Supra- Cargoes to the Canton
Authorities unopened .
6thly . Requiring the Supra - Cargoes to address them always in
the English Language , instead of the Chinese , which
had been used of late Years with manifest advantage ;
and the discontinuance of which would leave it in the
power of the Authorities to give what translations they
pleased of the English Addresses .
7thly . The local Authorities in the Edicts promulgated by them,
used very offensive language towards the Supra-Cargoes ;
and in their personal behaviour towards them, were contemp-
uous and insulting , proceeding so far in one case , as
without any previous notice , to enter the English
Factory which the Supra-Cargoes considered as a gross
violation of the privilege , till then enjoyed , by the
British Nation .
8thly . The conduct of the Local Government at length became so
hostile as to render it , in the judgment of the Supra-
Cargoes , their duty to proceed themselves to the
suspension of the British Trade .
6. Your Lordship will observe from the Papers , that the fore-
going transactions in the Year 1814 , were by the Chinese Authorities ,
connected with certain operations of His Majesty's Frigate Doris on
the Coast of China , which the Canton Government represented as a
violation of the laws of Neutrality and the rights of the Empire .
And their allegations on this head , though strained beyond the truth ,
appear not to have been without foundation . Upon that circumstance ,
though extremely to be lamented , it is not our province to comment .
We know that the Prince Regent's Ministers are quite alive to it ,
and doubt not they have taken proper measures to prevent the recur-
rence of so serious an inconvenience , and to prepare a satisfactory
explanation of it through your Lordship to the Imperial Government ,
which may be very material in opening your Lordship's way to a
successful representation of the grievances of which the Company
complain .
7. We notice the subject here partly in order to remark, that
the conduct of the local Government , respecting it , indicated not
merely resentment of the alleged injury, but pre -existing hostility ,
and a venal partiality to the American Ships then at Canton , in which
the Chinese Merchants were deeply interested ; and thence used all
their arts to influence the Government in their favour .
8. The Papers sufficiently shew that the vigorous determina-
tion of the Select Committee to stop the Company's Trade , had the
(73476) 7
effect of bringing, for that time , the local authorities in a good
degree to reason . But it will also appear that the Committee
placed no reliance upon the continuance of tranquility . They have
stated their conviction that if the disputes of 1814 , could have been
avoided , the strong measure they then adopted , would have been
necessary a year or two afterwards . The Canton Government appear
to entertain a permanent wish to bring the British Factory wholly
under their own control . They could then carry on venal and
collusive practices against the European Trade more securely , and
deceive the Emperor from whom they now conceal the truth with less
danger of discovery . These , however , are very cogent reasons , in
addition to the other motives which have been stated , for opening
a direct communication with His Imperial Majesty , by such an Embassy 1
as your Lordship is now appointed to conduct . 1
9. Secondly - The Objects to be sought are , in our opinion ,
principally those stated in the Letter to Lord Buckinghamshire ,
already mentioned , in which they are described nearly as follows : -
"First . Protection from the violence and injustice of
the local Government , and , in order thereto , the privileges of
the Company to be more accurately defined and detailed . "
"Second . Security for the continuance of the Trade ,
(whilst we observe the prescribed Laws and Regulations ) against
sudden and capricious interruptions ― a Security necessary
where such great property is embarked ; and the Mercantile
transactions requisite for its transfer and circulation , can-
not be carried on without confidence . "
" The Supra - Cargoes to be also secured in the privilege of
employing and dealing with such Native Merchants as they may see
fit . "
" Third . A Regulation securing freedom from the intrusion
of Chinese Officers into the Company's Factory; permission
to the Members of the Factory to engage Chinese Servants ;
exemption from abusive , contemptuous , or insolent treatment
from the Chinese Functionaries . "
"Fourth . ' An open channel of communication between
the Members of the Factory, and some public Department or
Tribunal , at Pekin , either by a British Resident there , or by
written representations in the Chinese Language , and a confirma-
tion of the right of using that Language in all addresses or
representations to the local or Imperial Government . ' "
"Fifth . ' Other points which the experience of the Supra-
Cargoes in the transaction of business there may suggest as
requiring melioration , and as fit matter of discussion . (Among
these may be particularized the Regulation of the Article of
duties in whatever way that shall be found requisite , and a
just satisfaction for all claims on Native Merchants without
subjecting the Company's Trade to any New impost , in order to
make up deficiencies of that nature " . ) "
(73476) 8
"Sixth . ' Lastly to give such explanation as may be
requisite respecting the affair of the Doris , or any other
subject of a Political nature , on which it may be found
expedient to touch . ' "
" The general scope of these propositions , is as before
intimated , to place the trade of this Country with China , on
steady and fixed principles , which shall guard it from the
fatal effects of an arbitrary capricious or unjust exercise
of power , and if this benefit alone were obtained for the
Trade upon its present scale , it would obviously be a very
valuable acquisition , especially at a time when the steady
continuance of the Commerce is become of such peculiar import-
ance to the Company .
19. We are however aware that the public interest is not the
only one likely to be guarded in the discussion of this subject .
The local Functionaries of Canton , their patrons at Court , and all
who look to succeed to such situations , may be expected to do their
utmost to stifle the truth, to dis - credit the complaints of the
Company's Servants , to misrepresent their conduct , to baffle inquiry,
and , in a word , to defeat the objects of the Mission . This may
prove to be the greatest danger your Lordship will have to encounter .
It is one respecting which detailed minute advice cannot well be
offered from this Country . The experience and local knowledge of
the Company's Servants who are to be employed with your Lordship
in the Embassy will here be especially required ; We doubt not also
greatly useful : and we are persuaded your Lordship will avail your-
self of the aids to be derived from them ; and of all occurring
circumstances , to manage this most delicate and important part of
the Negociation in the happiest manner . It may perhaps be found
sufficient without going into any particular statement of past
grievances , in the first place , to solicit in general the pro-
tection of His Imperial Majesty to the Subjects and Commerce of
this Country, and then to bring forward propositions for the regu-
lation of the Trade which shall be calculated to prevent such evils
in future ; and even in proceeding to the subject in this way a
cautious and gradual approach to it may be requisite .
27. Upon the ground of this argument and of general justice ,
of the vast property embarked in the Trade , and the necessity of
certainty and security in carrying it on , of the dignity of Great
Britain , which entitles its subjects to honourable treatment , and in
all other Countries secures it to them; on the ground in fine of
the mutual interests of both Nations , we conceive the Emperor may be
solicited to grant by some authentic Act or Regulation , security and
protection , on solid and recognized principles , to the Trade and the
Representatives of the Company in all the particulars above enumera-
ted , and any others which the Supra - Cargoes may find just reason to
add .
28 . Exemption from all the degrading treatment before des-
cribed of the local Authorities both in respect to the conduct of
the Trade , and the persons of the Company's Servants , is a thing
(73476 ) 9
so reasonable in itself, and so consonant to the true interest of
Government , that it would seem only to require the fair proposal of
it to the Emperor : But in some other of the points already noticed ,
and those material to the welfare of our China system , the Emperor
himself and his Council may not be so ready to acquiesce . We allude
to the attempt made first to interfere with the Company's Appointments
of European Servants for the management of their Affairs ; and sec-
ondly to throw the whole Native Agency in those Affairs into the hands
of two or three Individuals , who would thus become the Arbiters of
the prices of purchases and Sales ; and in short Monopolists of the
whole Trade as has been already explained . This last project is
not one of new invention , it has been long entertained by the local
Authorities , brought forward at different times , and once it had a
temporary success under the denomination of Co - hong: But that
association was by the efforts of the Supra - Cargoes , abolished in the
Year 1770. The recent attempt however is peculiarly formidable ,
because it is understood to have originated in an Edict from Pekin ,
which whether procured or not by the intrigues of the people of
Canton , engages the Imperial Government as a party in it . It is a
scheme , we are assured , fraught with extreme danger to our interests
and therefore necessarily to be deprecated and opposed . But it will
require all the sagacity and delicacy of the Ambassador to resist it ,
if in progress ; or if unhappily it has been enforced , to obtain its
abolition .
30. There is still another point noticed in our Letter to Lord
Buckinghamshire , which is obviously of great importance , the Establish-
ment of an European Resident on the part of the Company or of
Government at Pekin . We are aware that a proposition to this effect
was made to Lord Macartney , and positively refused in the above-
mentioned Letter from the late Emperor to His Majesty . Perhaps the
same objections may still exist on the part of the Chinese Court and
the proposition must necessarily be obnoxious to all the local
authorities , and their connections at Pekin . But the measure would
so essentially contribute to the preservation of good understanding
between the two Governments , the repression of mal -administration at
Canton and the general benefit of the Trade , in which so many thousands
of the subjects of China are concerned , that it is clearly for the
interest of the Government of that Country to adopt it ; and it may
be represented to them that as from the want of prescribed means
of free communication between the Canton Authorities and the English
Residents it has happened that selfish Men have found opportunities
of misrepresenting the English Character and views ; so all evils
of this nature can be best obviated by the residence of an European
near the seat of Government . We are satisfied your Lordship's
judgment will appreciate so highly the advantage which would result
from the concession of such a point to the Company, that your utmost
efforts and those of the Gentlemen associated with you , will be
exerted to accomplish it . Much however as we appreciate this
object , and wish for its attainment , it is possible you may find the
Imperial Court in a disposition less likely to recede from its
former cautious policy, than to entertain renewed jealousy of any
proposition tending to the extension of our footing in China . Should
this indeed appear to be the case , we must leave it to your Lordship's
judgment whether to bring forward the present question at all . For
(73476 ) 10
most desirable as success would certainly be , it must be better not
to make the attempt , if the only effect should be to excite a sus-
picion which might render the obtainment of the grand objects of
the Mission more difficult . On the supposition that the consent
of the Chinese Government could not be procured to the Establish-
ment of an English Resident at Pekin , it has been suggested to
propose to them the admission on the part of His Majesty of an
English Consul at Canton , as likely to improve the means of
Communication , and to prevent or more easily obviate differences
and misunderstandings , between the local authorities and the Supra-
Cargoes . We believe the measure would be calculated to serve
these ends , provided the Consul were allowed to mediate for the
purposes just mentioned ; and we should be much pleased to obtain
even such a concession . But if the Consul were to have no other
powers than those now possessed by the Consuls whom the Americans
and Prussians appoint , they would amount only to such powers as
our Chiefs have always exercised . And we should fear that with
respect to powers of a superior description they may probably be
viewed by the Chinese with the same disclination with which they
regard every other attempt to meliorate our condition in that
Country . They might object to it also as establishing a kind of
Arbiter on the part of the King between his subjects , and those of
China ; and perhaps an Officer bearing a Commission from His Majesty
would find it difficult , without seeming to compromise the honour of
his Sovereign , to submit to things which the Representatives of
the Company have deemed it expedient to bear with . Still however
the suggestion is worthy of being discussed with the Members of the
Select Committee : And if your Lordship finds that it is fit to be
pursued , and that it may be acted upon with any hope of success ,
we trust your best offices will be employed to bring it to effect ;
in which case we hold it to be perfectly clear that the powers of the
Consulate should be vested in the President of the Select Committee
for the time being; because placed in any other hands , they might
rather divide and embarrass than strengthen the British Authority
there .
43. It becomes necessary however to notice here that long
after the composition of the Embassy was fixed , His Majesty's
Ministers began to entertain serious doubts of the expediency of
forming the Embassy in that manner . These doubts arose from a
consideration of the fastidious character of the Chinese Court ,
of the inferior rank it assigns to Men of the Commercial Class , in
which light only it would regard Messrs . Elphinstone and Staunton ,
of the disputes which had arisen with our Factory chiefly represented
by these two Gentlemen , and of the personal accusation advanced
by the Chinese against Sir Geo . Staunton from all which, apprehen-
sions began to be entertained , that a Mission so composed might be
unacceptable to the Chinese Government and the objects of it be
endangered at the very outset . Other persons , who were acquainted
with the temper of that Government , and also entertained a very
favourable opinion of the Gentlemen in question , expressed senti-
ments of the same nature . They thought such an association would
lower the estimation of the Embassy in the eyes of the Chinese ;
indicate at once that it proceeded in a great measure from the
Company, and probably suggest also the nature of the objects it had
in view: thus adding perhaps dangerously to the difficulties of an
(73476 ) 11
arduous undertaking . These opinions excited the alarm of the
Prince Regent's Ministers , who fearful lest the success of the Mission
should be marred by a determined adherence to the arrangement first
adopted , and thinking the great depending Interests of the Company
and the Nation ought not to be hazarded for the sake of maintaining
that arrangement at all events , they, as we understand , have
determined that in the Commission , appointing your Lordship ,
Mr. Elphinstone , and Sir Geo . Staunton , the Ambassadors of the
Prince Regent , a clause shall be inserted making the Agency of the
two Gentlemen last named conditional , that is to be exercised only ,
provided it can be done without injury to the objects in view,
without the danger of giving umbrage to the Imperial Court , or of
raising additional obstacles in treating with it . Though we are
inclined to believe that nothing less than the fear of frustrating
the design of the Mission would dispose the Court of Directors to
give their assent to this change ; and are sure , as to ourselves ,
that such a consideration alone could induce us to acquiesce in it ,
yet judging also that if it were convenient to introduce into the
Court and discussion on so delicate a point , they would not think
it their duty to risk the whole success of the Mission , or rather
to prevent its proceeding , after being so far advanced , by contend-
ing at all events for the first arrangement and the sentiments by
which we conceive they would be actuated being also our own we have
not felt it allowable to oppose the modification of the Commission ,
which as emanating from the Crown , cannot , if issued at all , issue in
terms contrary to the Will of the Sovereign . It may be observed
however that the change must be in any case less essential , because
there was a stipulation from the beginning that the first
Ambassador was to possess an extraordinary power of acting on his own
responsibility in opposition to the sentiments of his Colleagues .
And we are so satisfied of the Public Spirit of Messrs . Elphinstone
and Staunton , as to believe that if they saw the interest of the
Embassy likely to suffer by their being joined in it , they would
themselves choose to decline acting . We have an equally strong
persuasion that it will be your Lordship's wish if possible to
have their able assistance as coadjutors in the Work you have under-
taken . But if it should be thought on the whole , expedient that
they should not act as Members of the Embassy , the Commission con-
stituting your Lordship and these Gentlemen joint Ambassadors , will
not be extinct , but remain dormant ; and it may perhaps be practic-
able for your Lordship to consult with them as Coadjutors though
they do not act ostensibly as such . However it may be found
expedient to settle this point , the services of Sir George Staunton
as the chief medium of communication between the Chinese Government
and the Embassy , will be so essential , that we trust nothing will
deprive the Company of the benefit of them even if they should be
rendered without his being a Member of the Embassy .
(73476) 12
DOCUMENT NO . 2
A Petition of British Subjects in China , praying
for the permanent residence , at Peking , of a Representa-
tive of His Majesty , to protect the interests of his
Countrymen [Presented to the Honourable House of Commons ,
on the 28th of June , 1831 ]
" To the Honourable the Commons of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland , in Parliament assembled . "
THE HUMBLE PETITION OF BRITISH SUBJECTS IN CHINA
Humbly Showeth,
That Your Petitioners , having long submitted in silence to the
absolute and corrupt rule of the Chinese Government , consider it a
duty alike owing to their Country and to Themselves , to bring their
Grievances to the notice of Your Honourable House at this important
crisis , when the regulation of British intercourse with China engages
the attention of the Legislature , in consequence of the approaching
termination of the East India Company's Charter .
"While British intercourse with every other considerable State
in the world is regulated by international Treaties , that with the
Chinese Empire is abandoned to the arbitrary control of the local
authorities of Canton, a venal and corrupt class of persons , who ,
having purchased their appointments , study only the means of amas-
sing wealth by extortion and injustice , equally unrestrained by their
own , and unopposed by the Governments whose subjects they oppress ;
for the attainment of this end , severe burthens are imposed upon
Commerce , unsanctioned by, and frequently in defiance of , commands
from the Imperial Government at Peking, to which the most unfounded
reports are made of occurrences in this remote province , while no
means of counteraction , by opposing statements , are in any way afforded
to Your Petitioners . "
" From the earliest periods of British Subjects resorting to
this Empire , Trade has been the sole object , a desire to promote
which , and sometimes , it must be admitted , a nervous anxiety for its
preservation , have subjected foreigners to privations and treatment
to which it would be difficult to find a parallel in any part of the
world . China was too remote from England , and the commerce was too
limited , to render it in former years a subject of much national
interest ; but during the whole of the eighteenth , and still more dur-
ing the present century , it has been gradually increasing , in defiance
of Chinese restrictions , until it has reached a point of such import-
ant magnitude , as Your Petitioners feel satisfied will raise the anxiety
of Your Honourable House to place it , if it be possible , upon a perman-
ent and honourable basis . "
" Your Petitioners entertain a firm belief that much may be
obtained from the fears , but that nothing will ever be conceded by the
good will of the Chinese Government . In confirmation of this opinion ,
the attention of Your Honourable House need only be entreated to the
total failure of both the Embassies to the Court of Peking, in every
(73476) 13
respect , except the high principle which was maintained in the
refusal to acquiesce in humiliating and degrading requisitions ,
which, Your Petitioners are convinced , produced a moral effect of
the most beneficial tendency upon the minds of the Chinese . That
these Embassies were undertaken with a view to the improvement of
the condition of British Subjects in China , Your Petitioners are
deeply sensible , and indeed find this expressed in the instructions
from His Majesty's Ministers to Lord Macartney: ' Under these cir-
cumstances , it would become the dignity and character of His
Majesty to extend his paternal regard to these his distant subjects ,
even if the commerce and prosperity of the nation were not concerned
in their success , and to claim the Emperor of China's particular
protection of them, with that weight which is due to the requisition
of one great Sovereign to another . ' Your Petitioners trust that
His Majesty's Government may ever be influenced by similar opinions .
It is with considerable regret , however , that Your Petitioners make
another brief extract from the same Instructions , unhappily still
descriptive of the condition in which they remain : ' Hitherto ,
however , Great Britain has been obliged to pursue the trade with
that country under circumstances the most discouraging , hazardous
to its agents employed in conducting it , and precarious to the
various interests involved in it ; the only place where His Majesty's
subjects have the privilege of a factory is at Canton ; the fair
competition of the market is there destroyed by associations of the
Chinese ; our Supra- Cargoes are denied open access to the tribunals
of the country , and to the equal execution of its laws , and are
kept altogether in a most arbitrary state of depression , ill suited
to the importance of the concerns which are intrusted to their care ,
and scarcely compatible with the regulations of civilized society ' . "
" The result of the two British Embassies , in common with
those of all other European Governments , will forcibly suggest to
Your Honourable House , how little is to be gained in China by any
of the refinements in diplomacy . "
" The whole history of foreign intercourse with this Country
demonstrates , that a firm opposition to the arrogance and unreason-
able pretensions of its Government , even with imperfect means ,
has , sooner or later , been followed by an amicable and conciliatory
disposition . While the Portuguese of Macao maintained their
Independence , they were treated by the Chinese Government with
respect , and carried on an extensive and advantageous commerce ; but
when they adopted a servile course of policy , they were regarded
with contempt ; and a flourishing colony has gradually sunk into
misery and decay. Even violence has frequently received friendly
treatment at the hands of this Government , while obedience and con-
formity to its arbitrary laws have met only with the return of
severity and oppression . In the history of English commerce with
China , many instances of this description exist : When Admiral
Drury, in compliance with the reiterated commands of the Canton
Government , yielded up possession of Macao , which for several months
had been garrisoned by a British force , the most contumelious and
threatening proclamations were issued against him , he was declared
to have fled from a dread of the punishment which awaited him .
About the same period , after a horde of pirates , well known by the
name of ' Ladrones ' , had for a succession of years ravaged the
southern coasts of the empire , and committed numerous atrocities ,
(73476) 14
their leader , a man of bold and determined character , was received
in person by the Viceroy with every mark of respect , invested with
a robe of honour , and ultimately nominated to an important official
situation .
"Your Petitioners will now briefly advert to some of the princi-
pal Commercial Disabilities to which they are subjected : English
ships were formerly admitted to trade at various ports , Amoy, Limpo,
and the Islands of Chusan and Formosa , but of late the entire
foreign commerce of this vast Empire has been restricted to the
single port of Canton , where the exorbitant harbour does operate as
a virtual exclusion of the smaller class of shipping ; while the
privilege of dealing with foreigners is confined to some ten or
twelve licensed native Merchants . Such is the oppressive conduct
of the local authorities towards these individuals , by a systema-
tic course of constantly- recurring exactions , and generally harsh
treatment , that respectable and wealthy men cannot be prevailed on
to accept the privilege , though earnestly urged by the Government to
do so , for the purpose of supplying vacancies arising from deaths
and bankruptcies . The Government being thus unable to maintain
in an efficient state the limited medium of intercourse which they
have established , and prohibiting foreigners from renting ware-
houses in which to deposit their cargoes , there is no adequate
competition , nor any chance of obtaining the fair market value of a
commodity ; an evil the more deeply felt in consequence of nearly
all the imports in the year necessarily arriving about the same time ,
during the few months when the periodical winds are favourable in the
China Sea . From the moment a foreign vessel arrives , her business
is liable to be delayed by underlings of the Custom-house , on friv-
olous pretexts , for the sake of extorting unauthorized charges ; the
duty on her import cargo is levied in an arbitrary manner , by low,
unprincipled men , who openly demand bribes ; it is consequently of
uncertain amount , and , by the addition of local exactions , exceeds
by many times the rate prescribed by the Imperial Tariff, which
appears to be in general moderate , although so little attended to
in practice , that it is scarcely possible to name any fixed charge ,
except on a very few articles . "
" It is unnecessary to occupy the time of your Honourable House ,
by dwelling on the individual and national loss arising from this
oppressive and corrupt system : it would be equally out of place to
enter into a detail of the many studied indignities heaped upon
foreigners by the acts of this Government , and by contumelious
edicts placarded on the walls of their very houses , representing
them as addicted to the most revolting crimes , with no other object
than to stamp them in the eyes of the people as a barbarous , ignorant ,
and depraved race , every way inferior to themselves ; thereby excit-
ing the lower orders to treat them with habitual insolence . Suf-
fice it to say, that no privation or discomfort is too minute to
escape notice in the pursuit of this ever- present purpose ; free air
and exercise are curtailed , by precluding access to the country or
beyond the confined streets in the immediate vicinity of their habita-
tions ; even the sacred ties of domestic life are disregarded , in
the separation of husband and wife , parent and child ; rendered
unavoidable by a capricious prohibition against foreign ladies residing
(73476 ) 15
in Canton , for which there appears to be no known law, and no other
authority than the plea of usage . "
" The successful termination of the Burmese War , and the
approximation of British dominion in India to the confines of China ,
are well known in this country; and a remonstrance from the
British Government would , Your Petitioners have reason to believe ,
be received with a deference and attention never yet accorded to
any Embassy ; all of which have been conducted on the erroneous
principle of attempting to negotiate for that which, if firmly
demanded , could not have been withheld , while the Ammassadors have
been designated ' Tribute Bearers ' , and recognized in no other light
than that of public officers , deputed by inferior princes to offer
presents and acknowledge vassalage to the supreme sovereign on earth .
But Your Petitioners cannot deny to the Chinese Government the credit
of having hitherto successfully triumphed over European power and
dignity: the Ruler of this most ancient Empire has seen the repre-
sentatives of the Monarchs of other countries bear tribute to his
throne , and in many instances prostrate themselves in the dust
before him, while he has treated their abject and submissive
spirit with the general indifference which it deserved . "
" Unless , through the direct intervention of His Majesty's
Government , in communication with the Court of Peking , Your
Petitioners fear that no material extension of British Commerce ,
or effectual amelioration of the humiliating condition of British
Subjects in China , can be expected . If unattainable by the
course suggested , Your Petitioners indulge a hope that the
Government of Great Britain , with the sanction of the Legislature ,
will adopt a resolution worthy of the Nation , and , by the acquisition
of an insular possession near the coast of China , place British
Commerce in this remote quarter of the globe beyond the reach of
future despotism and oppression. "
" Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray , that Your Honourable
House will take the premises into Your consideration , and grant
such relief as to Your wisdom may appear expedient .
[Signed by Forty- one Persons . ]
" Canton in China ,
the 24th day of December , 1830 "
DOCUMENT NO . 3
A memorial from the Canton Government to the Emperor ,
with eight regulations restrictive of foreign trade
" A reverent memorial , respecting restrictive regulations ,
determined on for the direction of the trade , and of barbarians , is
hereby presented , imploring the sacred glance to be cast there on . "
(73476) 16
"With reference to barbarians from beyond the outer seas ,
coming to Canton to trade , since the time when , in the 25th year
of Keen-Lung, ( 1760 ) , restrictive enactments were fixed by a
representation (to the throne ) , there have also been further regu-
lations , from time to time , namely , in the 14th year of Keaking ,
( 1810 ) , and in the 11th year of Taoukwang , ( 1831 ) , determined on ,
by the several former Governors and Lieutenant - Governors ; and on
representation (to the throne ) the same have been sanctioned ;
obedience has been paid to them; and they have become established
laws . These have been completed and effectual . But in length
of days , wherein they have been in operation , either they have in
the end become a dead letter , or there have gradually sprung up
unrestrained offences . "
" Last year the English Company was ended and dissolved . The
said nation's merchants come at their own option to trade . There
is none having a general control . Although commands have been
issued to the said barbarian merchants , to send a letter home to
their country, to continue the appointment of a Taepan who shall
come to Canton , for the direction and control ( of affairs ) ; yet ,
as the merchants are now many, and individuals are mingled
together , while affairs are under no united jurisdiction , it is
necessarily required that regulations should be enacted and pub-
lished , in order to furnish matter to be obeyed and adhered to .
But the affairs of time have variations of present and past ; and ,
since the English barbarians ' Company is dissolved , the attendant
circumstances of commerce are also slightly different from what
they before were . "
" Besides those old regulations , respecting which it is
unnecessary further to deliberate , but all which , as formerly ,
continue to be distinctly enumerated in plain commands : and ,
besides the regulations regarding the management of barbarian
debts , and regarding the strict seizure of smugglers , both which
have already been specially represented , there are still regulations
which require to be reconsidered , for the purpose of adding or
altering . These , we , your Majesty's Ministers , calling into
Council with us the Porchingsze and Anchasze , have carefully
deliberated upon .
" The rules of dignified decorum should be rendered awe-
striking, in order to repress overstepping presumption ; the bonds
of intercourse should be closely drawn , in order to eradicate
Chinese traitors ; the restraints on egress and ingress should be
diligently enforced ; the responsible task of investigation and
supervision should be carefully attended to . Then, surely, with
regard to the restrictive enactments , will there be increasingly
displayed minute care and diligence . At the same time , the
Hong merchants should be strictly commanded to trade fairly and
equitably, each regarding highly his respectability , in order that
all the foreigners , thoroughly imbued with the sacred dew of
favour , may universally quake with awe , and be filled with tender
regard . "
(73476) 17
" Looking upwards , to aid our Sovereign's extreme desire to
soothe into subjection the far- coming barbarians , and to give
attention and weight to the maritime guard , we respectfully join
these expressions , in a reverent and duly prepared memorial ; and
also take the eight regulations which we have determined on , and ,
making separately a fair copy thereof , respectfully offer them for
the Imperial perusal ; prostrate supplicating our Sovereign to
cast the sacred glance there on , and to impart instruction . A
respectful memorial " .
" Taoukwang, 15th year , 1st moon , 28th day . (February 25 , 1835. ) "
"We respectfully take eight additional and altered regulations ,
restrictive of the barbarians , where on we have deliberated and
decided ; and , having attentively made a fair copy thereof , we , with
reverence , offer them for the Imperial perusal . "
1. The outside barbarians ' ships of war conveying goods are
not permitted to sail into the inner seas . It is requisite to
enforce with strictness the prohibitory commands , and to make the
Naval force responsible for keeping them off .
On examination , it appears , that the trading barbarians may
bring ships of war to protect their goods themselves . This has , for
a long time past , been the case . But the regulation hitherto
existing only permits them to anchor in the outer seas , there waiting
till the cargo vessels leave the port , and then sailing back with
them . They are not allowed to presume to enter the maritime port .
From the period of the reign of Keaking onwards , they have gradually
failed to pay implicit obedience to the old rule ; and last year ,
there was again an affair of irregularly pushing in through the
maritime entrance . Although the said barbarians , sailing into
the shallow waters of the inner river , can effect nothing in the
least , yet restrictive measures always should be perfect and complete.
With regard to the line of forts at the Bocca Tigris , there are now
some additional erections , and some removals in progress ; and , at
the same time , more cannon are being cast , and measures of prepara-
tion and defence are being determined on . It is , besides this ,
requisite to enforce with strictness the regulations and prohibitions .
Hereafter , if a ship of war of any nation , conveying goods ,
presume to enter either of the maritime ports of Cross harbour , or
the Bocca Tigris , the barbarian merchants ' cargo vessels shall have
their holds altogether closed , and their trade stopped , and , at
the same time , she ( the ship of war ) shall be immediately driven
out . The Naval Commander- in - Chief also shall be held responsible ,
whenever he meets with a ship of war of the outside barbarians
anchored in the outer seas , to give commands immediately to all the
officers and men of the forts , that they apply themselves to the
object of keeping up preventive measures against the same ; also to
lead forth in person the naval squadron ; to cruize about with them
in guard of all the maritime entrances ; and to unite their
strength to that of the forts , for the purpose of guarding against
( any such ship of war ) . Should the officers or soldiers be guilty
of negligence and indolence , they shall be reported against with
severity . It is imperatively necessary that the power of the naval
(73476) 18
and land forces should be made to act in unbroken concert , so that
the barbarian ships may have no way of irregularly pushing through .
2. When barbarians stealthily transport muskets and cannon ,
or clandestinely bring up foreign females or foreign sailors , to the
provincial city, the Hong merchants shall be held responsible in all
points , for investigating the matter .
It appears on examination , that barbarians may carry with them
one sword , one rapier , and one gun , each; this the regulations do
not prohibit . But if they presume , besides this , to bring cannon
and muskets , or other military weapons , and foreign females , up to
the provincial city, the fixed regulations hold the men and officers
of the guard stations responsible for finding out and stopping them.
The guard stations have indeed the responsible duty of searching and
discovering ; but the barbarian merchants at Canton , dwelling in
the outside barbarians ' factories , the apartments which they occupy
are all rented by them from the Hong merchants . The said merchants '
ears and eyes being so close to them, they certainly cannot be ignor-
ant ( of anything they do ) ; it is evidently befitting that they
should be held responsible for investigation and finding out .
Hereafter , the barbarians of every nation shall be utterly dis-
allowed bringing up muskets , cannon , or other military weapons , or
foreign females , or sailors , to the provincial city . If any should
clandestinely bring them up , the Hong merchants from whom their
factory is rented , shall be held responsible for discovering and pre-
venting it , and for disallowing them to be brought into the factory;
and for at the same time repairing to the local magistrate to report
(any such attempt ) . Should he suffer , connive at , and conceal such ,
the said Hong merchant shall be punished according to the law against
clandestine intercourse with outside nations . The officers and men
of the guard stations , who fail to discover such misdemeanors , shall
also be severally tried and rigorously punished , as guilty of fail-
ing to investigate , and wilfully conniving !
3. Pilots and compradors of barbarian ships , must have licenses
from the Tungche of Macao ; it must not be allowed that they should
be privately hired .
It is found on examination , that in the office of the Tungche
of Macao , there have hitherto been appointed fourteen pilots ; and
whenever a barbarian ship arrives in the sea outside of the Bocca
Tigris , a report should be made to the said Tungche , that he may
command a pilot to take the ship into the port . For the provisions
and necessities required by the barbarian merchants on board the ship ,
a comprador should be employed , who is also selected from among men
conspicuous in their native village for substance and property , and
is appointed by the said Tungche to fill the station . Of late ,
there has constantly been a set of vagabonds in the outer seas ,
falsely acting in the capacity of pilots , who artfully make away with
the goods of barbarians , and then run off . There has also been a
class of vagabonds who craftily assume the name of compradors , and
unlawfully combine for the purpose of smuggling , and other illegalties .
When the thing is discovered , and search is made for them, their names
and surnames having been falsely assumed , there are no means of
finding and bringing them to trial .
(73476) 19
Hereafter , the Tungche of Macao, when appointing pilots , shall
ascertain fully, their age , and outward appearance , their native
place and habits of life , and shall then give them a place in the
list ( of pilots ) , and also a sealed and signed waist -warrant * . A
list also shall be kept of them, and a full report respecting them
sent to the governor's office and to the Custom-house , to be
there preserved . When they have to pilot in a barbarian ship ,
a sealed license shall be given to them, stating explicitly the
names and surnames of the pilot and of the master of the ship ; which
when the guard stations have verified , they shall let the ship pass
on . Any men without the sealed and signed waist -warrant , the
barbarian ships must not hire and employ .
With regard to the compradors required by the barbarian ships ,
when anchored at Macao or Whampoa , they must all have waist -warrants
given to them by the said Tungche , and must be subject at Macao , to
examination by the said Tungche , and at Whampoa , to examination by
the Pwanyeeheen magistrate . If the barbarian ships come in or go
out contrary to the regulations , or if the barbarians clandestinely
go about in small boats to places along the coast , rambling among
the villages and farms , the pilots shall be brought to a strict
investigation . And if there be any selling or purchasing of con-
traband goods , or any stealthy smuggling of goods liable to duty,
and the compradors do not report the same according to the truth,
their offences shall be rigorously punished .
4. With regard to hiring and employing natives in the barbarian
factories , there must be limits and rules clearly settled .
On examination , it appears , that it was formerly the regulation
that the trading barbarians should not be permitted to hire and
employ any natives except linguists and compradors . In the 11th
year of Taoukwang, it was , on representation ( to the throne ) , per-
mitted , that in the barbarian factories , for gate - keepers , and for
carriers of water , and carriers of goods , natives might be hired
for (foreigners ) by the compradors . But the silly populace earnestly
gallop after gain , and possess but little shame . And , adjoining
the provincial city, are many persons who understand the barbarian
speech . If the barbarians be allowed to hire them at their own
pleasure , it will be difficult to prevent unlawful combination and
traitorous procedure . It is evidently befitting that a limit and
rule should be fixed , and that a special responsibility should be
created .
Hereafter , in each barbarian factory , whatever the number of
barbarians inhabiting it , whether few or many, it shall be permitted
only to employ two gate - keepers , and four water- carriers : and each
barbarian merchant may hire one man to keep his goods . It shall
not be permitted to employ any more beyond this limited number .
These men , the comprador of the barbarian factory shall be held
responsible for hiring; the linguists shall be held responsible
for securing and filling up the places of the compradors ; and the
* This is a piece of wood with characters cut thereon , to be carried
about the person , hence called "waist -warrant " .
(73476) 20
Hong merchants shall be held responsible for securing , and filling
up the places of, the linguists . (This will be ) a shutting -up
regulation , extending through progressive grades . If there be
any illicit combination , or breach of law, only the one who hired
and stood security shall be answerable . At the same time , com-
mands shall be given to the Superintending Hong merchants , to make
out monthly a fair list of the names and birthplaces of the com-
pradors and coolies under each barbarian's name , and hand it in to
the district magistrate , to be kept in the archives , ready at any
time to be examined . As to the carriers of goods , the linguists
shall be commanded to hire them temporarily, when the time comes
(that they are required ) ; and when the business is finished , to
send them back . As to the natives being hired , to become the
menial attendants of barbarian merchants , under the name of shawan ,
(servants ) , it shall be eternally prohibited . Should barbarian
merchants hire coolies beyond the limited number , or clandestinely
hire shawan ( servants ) as menial attendants , the linguists and Hong
merchants shall both receive punishment .
5. With regard to barbarians ' vessels sailing about in the
inner river , there should be reductions and limitations severally
made , and the constant practice of idly rambling about should be
prohibited .
It appears , on examination , that the barbarian trading vessels ,
when they enter the port , anchor at Whampoa . In going to and fro ,
between Canton and Macao , the English Company's skippers only have
hitherto been permitted to travel in flag - bearing sampan boats .
This kind of sampan is a boat with a rather large hull , and a
deck over it , rendering it easy to carry in it military weapons and
contraband goods . Now that the Company has been dissolved , all the
flag-bearing sampan vessels should be done away with.
As to the barbarians residing in the barbarian factories , they
are not permitted to presume to go in and out at their own pleasure .
In the 21st year of Keaking ( 1816 ) , during the period of the former
governor , Tseang, being in office , it was arranged , that on three
days in every month , namely the 8th , 18th , and 28th, they should be
permitted to ramble about once , in the neighbourhood . Of late
years , the said barbarians have continually disobeyed the old regu-
lations , it is imperatively necessary to enforce powerfully the
prohibitory commands .
Hereafter , all the barbarians , when their ships reach Whampoa ,
if they have any business requiring them to go to and fro , between
Canton and Macoa , or to interchange letters , shall only be permitted
to use uncovered sampans , they may not again use flag-bearing sampan
vessels . When the small sampans pass the custom-houses , they must
wait until they are searched ; and should they have in them contra-
band goods , or cannon , or other military weapons , they must be
immediately driven out . The barbarians residing in the factories
shall only be permitted to ramble about once a day, on the 8th , the
18th , and the 28th days of each month, in the neighbouring flower
gardens , and the Hae -Chwang- sze temple (on Honan ) . Each time there
must not be more than ten individuals , and they must be limited to
the hour of 5 in the evening to return to their factories . They
(73476 ) 21
must not be permitted to remain out to sleep or to drink liquor . If,
when it is not the day when they may receive permission , they
should go out to ramble , if they should exceed the number of ten
individuals , or if they should go to other villages , hamlets , or
market places , to ramble about , the Hong merchants and linguists
shall both receive punishment .
6. When barbarians petition on any subject , they should in
all cases petition through the medium of the Hong merchants , in order
that the dignity of Government may be rendered impressive .
On examination , it appears , that the written characters of out-
side barbarians , and of the Central flowery people are not of the
same nature . Among them (the former ) , there are some who have a
rough knowledge of Chinese characters , but they are unacquainted
with style and good diction , and are ignorant of the rules required
for maintainance of dignity . When they petition on affairs , the
expressions used are void of intelligent signification , and there is
always much that it is difficult to explain . They also, in an
irregular manner , adopt epistolary forms , and confusedly proceed to
present papers themselves , greatly infringing the dignity of govern-
ment . Moreover , that for one and the same barbarian affairs ,
petitions should be presented , either through the medium of the Hong
merchants , or by barbarians themselves , is an inconsistent mode of
acting .
Hereafter , on every occasion of barbarians making petitions on
any affairs , they must always have the Hong merchants to petition and
state the circumstances for them. It is unnecessary that they should
themselves frame the expressions of the petitions . If there be an
accusation to be brought against a Hong merchant , on any affair , and
the Hong merchants may perhaps carry it oppressively, and refuse to
petition for them, then the barbarians may be allowed to go them-
selves to the offices of the local magistrates , and bring forward
their charges ; and the Hong merchants shall be immediately brought
to examination and trial .
7. In securing barbarian ships by Hong merchants , there should
be employed both securities by engagement and securities by rotation ,
in order to eradicate clandestine illegalities .
It is found on examination , that when barbarian ships come to
Canton , the old rule is , that they should be secured by all the
Hong merchants in successive rotation , and if they transgress the
laws , the security merchants are alone responsible . Afterwards
it was apprehended that securing by rotation was attended by offences
of grasping and oppressive dealing , and all the Keankeo barbarian
( 1.e. country) ships were therefore permitted themselves to invite
Hongs to become their securities . Now , the Company has been dis-
solved , and the barbarian ships that come are scattered , dispersed ,
and without order ; if the responsibility of being secured by the
Hong merchants in rotation be again enforced , as formerly, it is
apprehended that offences of extortionate oppression will arise .
And yet , if suffered themselves to choose their securities , it is
difficult to insure that there will not be acts of unlawful
combination .
(73476 ) 22
Hereafter , when the barbarian ships arrive at Canton , they shall
still , as formerly, be permitted to invite Hongs wherein they have
confidence , to become their engaged securities , and all the trade in
goods , the requesting permits , the payment of duties , and the trans-
action of public affairs , shall be attended to by the engaged secur-
ity merchant . In the payment of duties , the tariff regulations
shall be conformed to; it shall not be allowed to make the smallest
fractional addition . At the same time , to each vessel shall be
appointed a security by rotation , which duty each of the Hongs shall
fulfil in the order of successive routine . It shall be his special
duty to examine and investigate affairs . If the engaged security
merchant join with the barbarians to make sport of illegal practices
and traitorous machinations , or secretly add to the amount of duties ,
or incur debts to the barbarians , the security merchant by rotation ,
shall be held responsible for giving information thereof according
to the facts , that the other may be brought to an investigation , and
that any debts may be reclaimed . If the security by rotation con-
nive , he shall also on discovery be brought to an investigation .
8. If barbarian ships on the seas clandestinely sell goods
chargeable with duty , the naval force should be held responsible for
finding out and seizing the same . Also , communications should be
sent to all the seaboard provinces requesting them to examine and
investigate .
It appears , on examination , that when the barbarian ships of
every nation bring goods to Canton , it is reasonably required that
they should enter the port , pay measurement charges and duties , and
sell off , through the medium of the Hong merchants . But the said
barbarian vessels continually cast anchor in the outer seas , and
delay entering the port , and some even do not at all enter the port ,
but return and sail away: not only storing up and selling opium ,
but also , it is feared , clandestinely disposing of foreign goods .
We , your Majesty's Ministers , on every occasion of this being
reported to us , have immediately replied by strict directions to
the naval force , to urge and compel them to enter the ports , or if
they will not enter the port to drive them instantly away, and not
permit them to loiter about . We have also appointed officers at
the various maritime entrances , to seize with strictness , smuggling
vagabonds . In repeated instances , men and vessels going out to sea
to sell opium have been seized , and on investigation , punishment has
been inflicted . But the province of Canton has a line of coast
continuous along the provinces of Fuhkeen , Chekeang, Keangsoo , and
Teentsin ( Chihle ) . Traitorous vagabonds of the several provinces
sail in vessels of the sea on the outer ocean , and clandestinely
buy and sell goods , dealing with the barbarians , and then carry
back ( their purchases ) by sea . This class of traitorous dealers
neither entering nor leaving by any of the sea - ports of Canton ,
there are no means of guarding against or seizing them . And the
foreign goods having a divided consumption , the amount that enters
the port is gradually lessened , the consequences of which on the
duties are great .
Hereafter , the naval Commander - in - Chief should be held respon-
sible for giving commands to the naval vessels to cruize about in
(73476 ) 23
the outer seas in a constant course ; and if there be any dealers
approaching the barbarian ships , clandestinely to purchase foreign
goods , immediately to seize them and give them over for trial and
punishment . Also , regulations should be established , that vessels
of the sea , of whatever province , when wanting to purchase foreign
goods , shall all repair to the chief Custom-house of Canton , and
request a sealed manifest , enumerating the goods and their quantities ,
and that none shall be permitted to make private purchases . Com-
munications should be sent to the provinces of Fuhkeen Chekeang , &c . ,
that general orders may be issued , requiring obedience to be paid to
this , and that strict search may be maintained in all the sea- ports ,
that if any vessel of the sea bring back foreign goods , and it appears
that she has not the sealed manifest of the Custom-house , they shall
be immediately regarded as contraband , and on legal investigation , the
vessel and cargo confiscated .
Taoukwang, 15th year , 2nd moon , 10th day . (March 8th , 1835 ) .
DOCUMENT NO . 4
Treaty of Nanking
Treaty between Her Majesty and the Emperor of China,
Signed , in the English and Chinese Languages , at
Nanking , August 29 , 1842
HER Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland , and His Majesty the Emperor of China , being desirous of
putting an end to the misunderstandings and consequent hostilities
which have arisen between the two countries , have resolved to con-
clude a Treaty for that Purpose , and have therefore named as their
Plenipotentiaries , that is to say : -
Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland , Sir Henry
Pottinger , Bart . , a Major General in the service of the East India
Company, &c . , &c .;
And His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of China , the High
Commissioners Keying, a Member of the Imperial House , a Guardian of
the Crown Prince , and General of the garrison of Canton; and Elepoo ,
of the Imperial Kindred , graciously permitted to wear the insignia of
the first rank, and the distinction of a peacock's feather , lately
Minister and Governor - General , &c . , and now Lieutenant - General com-
manding at Chapoo . *
Who, after having communicated to each other their respective
Full Powers , and found them to be in good and due form, have agreed
upon and concluded the following Articles : -
* Although only two Chinese Plenipotentiaries are here named , the Treaty
was in fact signed by three .
(73476 ) 2424
ARTICLE I
There shall hence forward be Peace and Friendship between Her
Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
and His Majesty the Emperor of China , and between their respective
subjects , who shall enjoy full security and protection for their
persons and property within the dominions of the other .
ARTICLE II
His Majesty the Emperor of China agrees , chat British subjects ,
with their families and establishments , shall be allowed to reside ,
for the purpose of carrying on their mercantile pursuits , without
molestation or restraint , at the cities and towns of Canton , Amoy ,
Foochowfoo , Ningpo , and Shanghai ; and Her Majesty the Queen of
Great Britain , & c . , will appoint Superintendents , or Consular Officers ,
to reside at each of the above -named cities or towns , to be the
medium of communication between the Chinese authorities and the said
merchants , and to see that the just duties and other dues of the
Chinese Government , as hereafter provided for , are duly discharged
by Her Britannick Majesty's subjects .
ARTICLE III
It being obviously necessary and desirable that British subjects
should have some port whereat they may careen and refit their ships
when required , and keep stores for that purpose , His Majesty the
Emperor of China cedes to Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain , & c . ,
the Island of Hong- Kong, to be possessed in perpetuity by Her
Britannick Majesty, her Heirs and Successors , and to be governed by
such laws and regulations as Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain ,
&c . , shall see fit to direct .
APTICLE IV
The Emperor of China agrees to pay the sum of six millions of
dollars , as the value of the opium which was delivered up at Canton
in the month of March, 1839 , as a ransom for the lives of Her
Britannick Majesty's Superintendent and subjects , who had been
imprisoned and threatened with death by the Chinese High Officers .
ARTICLE V
The Government of China having compelled the British merchants
trading at Canton to deal exclusively with certain Chinese mer-
chants , called Hong Merchants ( or Co -Hong) , who had been licensed
by the Chinese Government for that purpose , the Emperor of China
agrees to abolish that practice in future at all ports where British
merchants may reside , and to permit them to carry on their mercan-
tile transactions with whatever persons they please ; and His
Imperial Majesty further agrees to pay to the British Government the
sum of three millions of dollars , on account of debts due to British
subjects by some of the said Hong merchants , or Co -Hong, who have
become insolvent , and who owe very large sums of money to subjects
of Her Britannick Majesty .
(73476 ) 25
ARTICLE VI
The Government of Her Britannick Majesty having been obliged to
send out an expedition to demand and obtain redress for the violent
and unjust proceedings of the Chinese High Authorities towards Her
Britannick Majesty's Officer and subjects , the Emperor of China agrees
to pay the sum of twelve millions of dollars , on account of the
expenses incurred ; and Her Britannick Majesty's Plenipotentiary vol-
untarily agrees , on behalf of Her Majesty , to deduct from the said
amount of twelve millions of dollars , any sums which may have been
received by Her Majesty's combined forces , as ransom for cities and
towns in China , subsequent to the 1st day of August , 1841 .
ARTICLE VII
It is agreed , that the total amount of twenty- one millions of
dollars , described in the three preceeding Articles , shall be paid as
follows : -
Six millions immediately.
Six millions in 1843 ; that is , three millions on or before the
30th of the month of June , and three millions on or before the
31st of December .
Five millions in 1844; that is , two millions and a half on or
before the 30th of June , and two millions and a half on or before the
31st of December .
Four millions in 1845; that is , two millions on or before the
30th of June , and two millions on or before the 31st of December .
And it is further stipulated , that interest , at the rate of
5 per cent . per annum, shall be paid by the Government of China on
any portion of the above sums that are not punctually discharged at
the periods fixed .
ARTICLE VIII
The Emperor of China agrees to release , unconditionally, all
subjects of Her Britannick Majesty (whether natives of Europe or India ) ,
who may be in confinement at this moment in any part of the Chinese
Empire .
ARTICLE IX
The Emperor of China agrees to publish and promulgate , under
His Imperial Sign Manual and Seal , a full and entire amnesty and act
of indemnity to all subjects of China , on account of their having
resided under , or having had dealings and intercourse with , or hav-
ing entered the service of , Her Britannick Majesty, or of Her
Majesty's officers ; and His Imperial Majesty further engages to
release all Chinese subjects who may be at this moment in confine-
ment for similar reasons .
(73476 ) 26
ARTICLE X
His Majesty the Emperor of China agrees to establish at all the
ports which are , by the Second Article of this Treaty, to be thrown
open for the resort of British merchants , a fair and regular Tariff
of export and import customs and other dues , which Tariff shall be
publickly notified and promulgated for general information; and the
Emperor further engages , that when British merchandize shall have
once paid at any of the said ports the regulated customs and dues ,
agreeable to the Tariff to be hereafter fixed , such merchandize may
be conveyed by Chinese merchants to any province or city in the in-
terior of the Empire of China , on paying a further amount as transit
duties , which shall not exceed * per cent . on the tariff value of
such goods .
ARTICLE XI
It is agreed that Her Britannick Majesty's Chief High Officer
in China shall correspond with the Chinese High Officers , both at
the Capital and in the Provinces , under the term " communication "
昭 ; the subordinate British Officers and Chinese
會
High Officers in the Provinces , under the term " statement "
on the part of the former, and on the part of the
申 陳
latter, " declaration " 劄 行 and the subordinates of both
:
countries on a footing of perfect equality : merchants and others not
holding official situations , and therefore not included in the above ,
on both sides , to use the term " representation " in
禀明
all papers addressed to , or intended for the notice of , the respect-
ive Governments .
ARTICLE XII
On the assent of the Emperor of China to this Treaty being
received , and the discharge of the first instalment of money, Her
Britannick Majesty's forces will retire from Nanking and the Grand
Canal , and will no longer molest or stop the trade of China . The
military post at Chinhai will also be withdrawn ; but the Islands
of Koolangsoo , and that of Chusan, will continue to be held by Her
Majesty's forces until the money payments , and the arrangements for
opening the ports to British merchants , be completed .
ARTICLE XIII
The Ratification of this Treaty by Her Majesty the Queen of Great
Britain , &c . , and His Majesty the Emperor of China , shall be exchanged
as soon as the great distance which separates England from China will
admit ; but in the meantime , counterpart copies of it , signed and
sealed by the Plenipotentiaries on behalf of their respective
Sovereigns , shall be mutually delivered , and all its provisions and
arrangements shall take effect .
Left blank . A Declaration was signed on this subject and a copy of
which follows the Treaty .
(73476) 27
Done at Nanking, and signed and sealed by the Plenipotentiaries
on board Her Britannick Majesty's ship " Cornwallis " , this twenty-
ninth day of August , 1842 ; corresponding with the Chinese date ,
twenty-fourth day of the seventh month , in the twenty-second year
of Taoukwang .
(L. S. ) HENRY POTTINGER ,
Her M.'s Plenipotentiary.
DECLARATION RESPECTING TRANSIT DUTIES
[Signed in the English and Chinese Languages . ]
WHERFAS by the Tenth Article of the Treaty between Her Majesty the
Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , and His
Majesty the Emperor of China , concluded and signed on board Her
Britannick Majesty's ship " Cornwallis " , at Nanking , on the 29th day
of August , 1842 , corresponding with the Chinese date 24th day of the
7th month , in the 22nd year of Taoukwang, it is stipulated and
agreed , that His Majesty the Emperor of China shall establish at all
the ports which , by the Second Article of the said Treaty , are to be
thrown open for the resort of British merchants , a fair and regular
Tariff of export and import customs and other dues , which Tariff
shall be publickly notified and promulgated for general information ;
and further , that when British merchandize shall have once paid , at
any of the said ports , the regulated customs and dues , agreeably to
the Tariff to be hereafter fixed , such merchandize may be conveyed
by Chinese merchants to any province or city in the interior of the
Empire of China , on paying a further amount of duty as transit duty;
And whereas the rate of transit duty to be so levied was not
fixed by the said Treaty;
Now therefore , the undersigned Plenipotentiaries of Her
Britannick Majesty, and of His Majesty the Emperor of China , do here-
by, on proceeding to the exchange of the Ratifications of the said
Treaty, agree and declare , that the further amount of duty to be so
levied on British merchandize , as transit duty , shall not exceed the
present rates , which are upon a moderate scale ; and the Ratifica
tions of the said Treaty are exchanged subject to the express
declaration and stipulation herein contained .
In witness where of the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed
the present Declaration , and have affixed thereto their respective
seals .
Done at Hong- Kong , the 26th day of June , one thousand eight
hundred and forty- three , corresponding with the Chinese date ,
Taoukwang twenty- third year , fifth month, and twenty-ninth day .
(L.S. ) HENRY POTTINGER
Seal
and Signature
of the Chinese
Plenipotentiary
(73476) 28
DOCUMENT NO . 5
Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue
Supplementary Treaty between Her Majesty and the Emperor
of China , Signed at Hoomun -Chae , October 8 , 1843
WHEREAS a Treaty of perpetual Peace and Friendship between
Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland , and His Majesty the Emperor of China , was concluded at
Nanking, and signed on board Her said Majesty's ship " Cornwallis "
on the 29th day of August , A.D. 1842 , corresponding with the
Chinese date of the 24th day of the 7th month , of the 22nd year of
Taoukwang, of which said Treaty of perpetual Peace and Friendship ,
the Ratifications , under the respective Seals and Signs Manual of
the Queen of Great Britain , &c . , and the Emperor of China , were
duly exchanged at Hong -Kong on the 26th day of June , A.D. 1843 ,
corresponding with the Chinese date the 29th day of the fifth month ,
in the 23rd year of Taoukwang; and whereas in the said Treaty it
was provided (amongst other things ) , that the five ports of Canton ,
Foochowfoo , Amoy , Ningpo , and Shanghai , should be thrown open for
the resort and residence of British merchants , and that a fair and
regular Tariff of Export and Import duties , and other dues , should
be established at such ports ; and whereas various other matters of
detail , connected with, and bearing relation to the said Treaty of
perpetual Peace and Friendship , have been since under the mutual
discussion and consideration of the Plenipotentiary and accredited
Commissioners of the High Contracting Parties ; and the said Tariff
and details having been now finally examined into , adjusted , and
agreed upon, it has been determined to arrange and record them in
the form of a Supplementary Treaty of Articles , which Articles
shall be held to be as binding, and of the same efficacy , as though
they had been inserted in the original Treaty of perpetual Peace
and Friendship .
ARTICLE I
The Tariff of Export and Import duties , which is hereunto
attached under the seals and signatures of the respective
Plenipotentiary and Commissioners , shall hence forward be in force
at the five ports of Canton , Foochowfoo , Amoy, Ningpo , and Shanghai .
ARTICLE II
The General Regulations of Trade , which are hereunto attached
under the seals and signatures of the respective Plenipotentiary
and Commissioners , shall henceforward be in force at the five
aforenamed ports .
ARTICLE III
All penalties enforced or confiscations made under the third
clause of the said General Regulations of Trade , shall belong and be
appropriated to the public service of the Government of China .
(73476) 29
ARTICLE IV
After the five ports of Canton , Foochow, Amoy , Ningpo , and
Shanghai , shall be thrown open , English merchants shall be allowed
to trade only at those five ports . Neither shall they repair to
any other ports or places , nor will the Chinese people at any other
ports or places be permitted to trade with them . If English
merchant-vessels shall , in contravention of this agreement , and of a
Proclamation to the same purport , to be issued by the British
Plenipotentiary , repair to any other ports or places , the Chinese
Government Officers shall be at liberty to seize and confiscate both
vessels and cargoes ; and should Chinese people be discovered
clandestinely dealing with English merchants at any other ports or
places , they shall be punished by the Chinese Government in such
manner as the law may direct .
ARTICLE V
The fourth clause of the General Regulations of Trade , on the
subject of commercial dealings and debts between English and Chinese
merchants , is to be clearly understood to be applicable to both
parties .
ARTICLE VI
It is agreed that English merchants and others residing at , or
resorting to , the five ports to be opened , shall not go into the
surrounding country beyond certain short distances to be named by
the local authorities , in concert with the British Consul , and on
no pretence for purposes of traffic . Seamen and persons belonging
to the ships shall only be allowed to land under authority and rules
which will be fixed by the Consul , in communication with the local
officers ; and should any persons whatever infringe the stipulations
of this Article , and wander away into the country, they shall be
seized and handed over to the British Consul for suitable
punishment .
ARTICLE VII
The Treaty of perpetual Peace and Friendship provides for
British subjects and their families residing at the cities and towns
of Canton , Foochow , Amoy, Ningpo , and Shanghai , without molestation
or restraint . It is accordingly determined that ground and houses ,
the rent or price of which is to be fairly and equitably arranged
for , according to the rates prevailing amongst the people , without
exaction on either side , shall be set apart by the local officers ,
in communication with the Consul , and the number of houses built , or
rented , will be reported annually to the said local officers by the
Consul , for the information of their respective Viceroys and
Governors ; but the number cannot be limited , seeing that it will be
greater or less , according to the resort of merchants .
ARTICLE VIII
The Emperor of China having been graciously pleased to grant to
all foreign countries whose subjects or citizens have hitherto
(73476) 30
traded at Canton, the privilege of resorting for purposes of trade to the
other four ports of Foochow , Amoy , Ningpo , and Shanghai , on the
same terms as the English , it is further agreed , that should the
Emperor hereafter , from any cause whatever , be pleased to grant
additional privileges or immunities to any of the subjects or citizens
of such foreign countries , the same privileges and immunities will be
extended to , and enjoyed by, British subjects ; but it is to be
understood , that demands or requests are not on this plea to be
unnecessarily brought forward .
ARTICLE IX
If lawless natives of China having committed crimes or offences
against their own Government , shall flee to Hong-Kong , or to the
English ships of war , or English merchant -ships , for refuge , they
shall if discovered by the English officers , be handed over at once
to the Chinese officers for trial and punishment ; or if, before
such discovery be made by the English officers , it should be
ascertained or suspected by the officers of the Government of China
whither such criminals and offenders have fled , a communication shall
be made to the proper English officer , in order that the said
criminals and offenders may be rigidly searched for , seized , and ,
on proof or admission of their guilt , delivered up . In like man-
ner, if any soldier or sailor , or any other person , whatever his
caste or country , who is a subject of the Crown of England , shall ,
from any cause or on any pretence , desert, fly , or escape into the
Chinese territory , such soldier or sailor , or other person , shall be
apprehended and confined by the Chinese Authorities , and sent to the
nearest British Consular or other Government officer. In neither
case shall concealment or refuge be afforded .
ARTICLE X
At each of the five ports to be opened to British merchants ,
one English cruizer will be stationed to enforce good order and
discipline amongst the crews of merchant shipping , and to support
the necessary authority of the Consul over British subjects . The
crew of such ships of war will be carefully restrained by the
officer commanding the vessel , and they will be subject to all the
rules regarding going on shore and straying into the country , that
are already laid down for the crews of merchant- vessels . Whenever it
may be necessary to relieve such ships of war by another , intimation
of that intention will be communicated by the Consul , or by the Consul ,
or by the British Superintendent of Trade , where circumstances will
permit , to the local Chinese Authorities , lest the appearance of an
additional ship should excite misgivings amongst the people ; and the
Chinese cruizers are to offer no hindrance to such relieving ship ,
nor is she to be considered liable to any port - charges , or other
rules laid down in the General Regulations of Trade , seeing that
British ships of war never trade in any shape .
ARTICLE XI
The posts of Chusan and Koolangsoo will be withdrawn , as provided
for in the Treaty of perpetual Peace and Friendship , the moment all the
monies stipulated for in that Treaty shall be paid ; and the British
(73476) 31
Plenipotentiary distinctly and voluntarily agrees , that all
dwelling-houses , store -houses , barracks , and other buildings that
the British troops or people may have occupied , or intermediately
built or repaired , shall be handed over , on the evacuation of the
posts , exactly as they stand , to the Chinese Authorities , so as to
prevent any pretence for delay, or the slightest occasion for dis-
cussion or dispute on those points .
ARTICLE XII
A fair and regular Tariff of duties and other dues having now
been established , it is to be hoped that the system of smuggling
which has heretofore been carried on between English and Chinese mer-
chants - in many cases with the open connivance and collusion of the
Chinese Custom-house officers ― will entirely cease ; and the most
peremptory Proclamation to all English merchants has been already
issued on this subject by the British Plenipotentiary , who will also
instruct the different Consuls to strictly watch over, and carefully
scrutinize , the conduct of all persons , being British subjects , trad-
ing under his superintendence . In any positive instance of smug-
gling transactions coming to the Consul's knowledge , he will instantly
apprize the Chinese Authorities of the fact , and they will proceed to
seize and confiscate all goods , whatever their value or nature , that
may have been so smuggled , and will also be at liberty, if they see
fit , to prohibit the ship from which the smuggled goods were landed ,
from trading further , and to send her away , as soon as her accounts
are adjusted and paid . The Chinese Government officers will , at
the same time , adopt whatever measures they may think fit with regard
to the Chinese merchants and Custom-house officers who may be discovered
to be concerned in smuggling .
ARTICLE XIII
All persons , whether natives of China or otherwise , who may
wish to convey goods from any one of the five ports of Canton ,
Foochowfoo , Amoy, Ningpo , and Shanghai , to Hong -Kong , for sale or
consumption , shall be at full and perfect liberty to do so , on paying
the duties on such goods , and obtaining a pass , or port clearance ,
from the Chinese Custom-house at one of the said ports . Should
natives of China wish to repair to Hong-Kong to purchase goods ,
they shall have free and full permission to do so ; and should they
require a Chinese vessel to carry away their purchases , they must
obtain a pass , or port - clearance , for her at the Custom- house of
the port whence the vessel may sail for Hong-Kong . It is further
settled , that in all cases these passes are to be returned to the
officers of the Chinese Government , as soon as the trip for which
they may be granted shall be completed .
ARTICLE XIV
An English officer will be appointed at Hong-Kong, one part of
whose duty will be to examine the registers and passes of all
Chinese vessels that may repair to that port to buy or sell goods ; and
should such officer at any time find that any Chinese merchant -vessel
has not a pass , or register , from one of the five ports , she is to be
considered as an unauthorized or smuggling vessel , and is not to be
(73476) 32
allowed to trade , whilst a report of the circumstance is to be made
to the Chinese Authorities . By this arrangement , it is to be hoped
that piracy and illegal traffic will be effectually prevented .
ARTICLE XV
Should natives of China who may repair to Hong-Kong to trade ,
incur debts there , the recovery of such debts must be arranged for by
the English Courts of Justice on the spot ; but if the Chinese
debtor shall abscond and be known to have property, real or personal ,
within the Chinese territory , the rule laid down in the fourth clause
of the General Regulations for Trade shall be applied to the case ;
and it will be the duty of the Chinese Authorities , on application by,
and in concert with, the British Consuls , to do their utmost to see
justice done between the parties . On the same principle , should a
British merchant incur debts at any of the five ports , and fly to
Hong-Kong , the British Authorities will , on receiving an application
from the Chinese Government officers , accompanied by statements and
full proofs of the debts , institute an investigation into the claims ,
and, when established , oblige the defaulter or debtor to settle
them to the utmost of his means .
ARTICLE XVI
It is agreed , that the Custom-house officers at the five ports
shall make a monthly return to Canton , of the passes granted to
vessels proceeding to Hong-Kong , together with the nature of their
cargoes ; and a copy of these returns will be embodied in one return ,
and communicated once a -month to the proper English officer at Hong-
Kong. The said English officer will , on his part , make a similar
return or communication to the Chinese Authorities at Canton , showing
the names of Chinese vessels arrived at Hong-Kong , or departed from
that port , with the nature of their cargoes ; and the Canton
Authorities will apprize the Custom-houses at the five ports , in order
that , by these arrangements and precautions , all clandestine and
illegal trade , under the cover of passes , may be averted .
XVII . OR ADDITIONAL ARTICLE
Relating to British Small Craft
Various small vessels belonging to the English nation called
schooners , cutters , lorchas &c . , have not hitherto been chargeable with
tonnage dues . It is now agreed , in relation to this class of ves-
sels which ply between Hong-Kong and the city , and the city of Macao ,
that if they only carry passengers , letters , and baggage , they shall , as
heretofore , pay no tonnage dues ; but if these small craft carry
any dutiable articles , no matter how small the quantity may be , they
ought , in principle , to pay their full tonnage dues . But this class
of small craft are not like the large ships which are engaged in
foreign trade , they are constantly coming and going ; they make
several trips a month, and are not like the large foreign ships ,
which , on entering the port , cast anchor at Whampoa . If we were to
place them on the same footing as the large foreign ships , the
charge would fall unequally ; therefore after this , the smallest of
these craft shall be rated at 75 tons , and the largest not to exceed
(73476) 33
150 tons ; whenever they enter the port ( or leave the port with
cargo ) they shall pay tonnage dues at the rate of one mace per ton
register . If not so large as 75 tons , they shall still be consid-
ered and charged as of 75 tons ; and if they exceed 150 tons , they
shall be considered as large foreign ships , and , like them, charged
tonnage dues , at the rate of five mace per register ton . Foochow
and the other ports having none of this kind of intercourse , and
none of this kind of small craft , it would be unnecessary to make
any arrangement as regards them .
The following are the rules by which they are to be
regulated: -
1st . Every British schooner , cutter , lorcha , & c . ,
shall have a sailing letter or register in Chinese and English ,
under the seal and signature of the Chief Superintendent of
Trade , describing her appearance , burthen , &c . , &c .
2nd . Every schooner , lorcha , and such vessel , shall
report herself, as large vessels are required to do , at the
Bocca Tigris ; and when she carries cargo , she shall also
report herself at Whampoa , and shall , on reaching Canton,
deliver up her sailing letter or register to the British
Consul , who will obtain permission from the Hoppo for her to
discharge her cargo , which she is not to do without such per-
mission , under the forfeiture of the penalties laid down in
the 3rd clause of the General Regulations of Trade .
3rd . When the inward cargo is discharged , and an outward
one ( if intended ) taken on board , and the duties on both arranged
and paid , the Consul will restore the register or sailing
letter , and allow the vessel to depart .
This Supplementary Treaty , to be attached to the original
Treaty of Peace , consisting of sixteen Articles , and one additional
Article relating to small vessels , is now written out , forming,
with its accompaniments , four pamphlets , and is formally signed and
sealed by their Excellencies the British Plenipotentiary , and the
Chinese Imperial Commissioner , who , in the first instance , take
two copies each , and exchange them, that their provisions may be
immediately carried into effect . At the same time , each of these
high functionaries , having taken his two copies , shall duly memor-
ialize the Sovereign of his nation ; but the two countries are dif-
ferently situated as respects distance , so that the will of the one
Sovereign can be known sooner than the will of the other . It is now
therefore agreed , that on receiving the gracious Assent of the
Emperor in the Vermilion Pencil , the Imperial Commissioner will
deliver the very document containing it into the hands of his
Excellency Hwang, Judge of Canton , who will proceed to such place as
the Plenipotentiary may appoint , and deliver it to the English
Plenipotentiary , to have and to hold . Afterwards , the Sign Manual
of the Sovereign of England having been receiving at Hong- Kong,
likewise graciously assenting to and confirming the Treaty , the
English Plenipotentiary will despatch a specially appointed officer
to Canton , who will deliver the copy containing the Royal Sign Manual
to his Excellency Hwang, who will forward it to the Imperial
(73476) 34
Commissioner, as a rule and a guide to both nations for ever , and as
a solemn confirmation of our Peace and Friendship .
A most important Supplementary Treaty.
Signed and sealed at Hoomun-Chae , on the Eighth day of October,
1843 , corresponding with the Chinese date of the Fifteenth day of
the Eighth moon, of the 23rd year of Taoukwang.
(L.S. ) HENRY POTTINGER
DOCUMENT NO . 6
Proclamation issued by Sir Henry Pottinger , July 22 ,
1843 and the General Regulations governing the China Trade
SIR HENRY POTTINGER, Bart . , G. C.B. , Her Britannick Majesty's
Plenipotentiary, &c . , &c . , in China , has the gratification to
announce , for the general information and guidance of all subjects
of Her said Majesty , that he has concluded and sealed , with the
High Commissioner appointed by His Imperial Majesty the Emperor
of China to treat with him, a Commercial Treaty, stipulated for in
the Definitive Treaty of Peace , signed at Nanking on the 29th day
of August , 1842 , and the ratifications of which Definitive Treaty
of Peace have been lately exchanged under the Signs Manual and
Seals of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland , &c . ,
and His Majesty the Emperor of China .
Her Britannick Majesty's Plenipotentiary, &c . , now publishes the
Export and Import Tariff, and the Regulations of trade , which have
been , after the most searching scrutiny and examination , fixed and
finally agreed upon , and which Tariff and Regulations of trade are
to be promulgated in Chinese , simultaneously with this Proclamation ,
accompanied by a Proclamation on the part of the Imperial Commissioner ,
&C .
Her Britannick Majesty's Plenipotentiary, & c . , trusts , that
the provisions of the Commercial Treaty will be found in practice
mutually advantageous , beneficial , and just , as regards the inter-
ests , the honour , and the future augmented prosperity of the
Governments of the two mighty Contracting Empires , and their sub-
jects : and his Excellency most solemnly and urgently calls upon
all subjects of the British Crown , individually and collectively ,
by their allegiance to their Sovereign , by their duty to their
country, by their own personal reputation , respect , and good name ,
and by the integrity and honesty which is due from them as men , to
the imperial rights of the Emperor of China , not only to strictly
conform and act up to the said provisions of the Commercial Treaty ,
but to spurn , decry , and make known to the world , any base ,
unprincipled , and traitorous overtures which they, or their agents
or employees , may receive from, or which may be in any shape made
to them, by any subject of China - whether officially connected
with the Government , or not - towards entering into any collusion
or scheme for the purpose of evading, or acting in contravention of ,
the said provisions of the Commercial Treaty .
(73476) 35
Her Britannick Majesty's Plenipotentiary, &c . , will not allow
himself to anticipate or suppose , that the appeal which he now
makes to all Her Majesty's subjects will be unheeded , or over-
looked , by even a single individual ; but at the same time it is his
duty, in the responsible and unprecedented situation in which he has
been placed by the course of events , to distinctly intimate , that
he is determined , by every means at his disposal , to see the pro-
visions of the Commercial Treaty fulfilled by all who choose to
engage in future in commerce with China ; and that in any case where
he may receive well - grounded representations from Her Majesty's
Consuls , or from the Chinese Authorities , that such provisions of
the Commercial Treaty have been evaded ( or have been attempted to
be so) , he will adopt the most stringent and decided measures
against the offending parties ; and where his present powers may not
fully authorize and sanction such measures as may seem to him fitting ,
he will respectfully trust that the Legislature of Great Britain will
hold him indemnified for adopting them, in an emergency directly
compromising the national honour , dignity, and good faith in the
estimation of the Government of China , and in the eyes of all other
nations .
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.
Dated at Government -House , at Victoria , Hong-Kong,
this 22nd day of July , 1843 .
HENRY POTTINGER
GENERAL REGULATIONS , under which the British Trade is to be con-
ducted at the Five Ports of Canton , Amoy , Foochow foo ,
Ningpo, and Shanghai .
I. PILOTS
WHENEVER a British merchantman shall arrive off any of the five
ports opened to trade , viz . , Canton , Foochowfoo , Amoy , Ningpo , or
Shanghai , pilots shall be allowed to take her immediately into port ;
and , in like manner , when such British ship shall have settled all
legal duties and charges , and is about to return home , pilots shall
be immediately granted to take her out to sea , without any stoppage
or delay .
Regarding the remuneration to be given these pilots , that will
be equitably settled by the British Consul appointed to each particu-
lar port , who will determine it with due reference to the distance
gone over , the risk run , &c .
(73476 ) 36
II . CUSTCM-HOUSE GUARDS
The Chinese Superintendent of Customs at each port will adopt
the means that he may judge most proper to prevent the revenue
suffering by fraud or smuggling . Whenever the pilot shall have
brought any British merchantman into port , the Superintendent of
Customs will depute one or two trusty Custom-house officers , whose
duty it will be to watch against frauds on the revenue . These
will either live in a boat of their own , or stay on board the
English ship , as may best suit their convenience . Their food
and expenses will be supplied them from day to day from the Custom-
house , and they may not exact any fees whatever from either the
Commander or Consignee . Should they violate this regulation , they
shall be punished proportionately to the amount so exacted .
III . MASTERS OF SHIPS REPORTING THEMSELVES ON ARRIVAL
Whenever a British vessel shall have cast anchor at any one of
the above -mentioned ports , the Captain will , within four and twenty
hours after arrival , proceed to the British Consulate , and deposit
his ship's papers , bill of lading, manifest , &c . , in the hands of the
Consul ; failing to do which, he will subject himself to a penalty of
two hundred dollars .
For presenting a false manifest , the penalty will be five
hundred dollars .
For breaking bulk and commencing to discharge , before due
permission shall be obtained , the penalty will be five hundred dol-
lars , and confiscation of the goods so discharged .
The Consul , having taken possession of the ship's papers , will
immediately send a written communication to the Superintendent of
Customs , specifying the register tonnage of the ship , and the parti-
culars of the cargo she has on board ; all of which being done in
due form, permission will then be given to discharge , and the
duties levied as provided for in the Tariff .
IV . CCMMERCIAL DEALINGS BETWEEN ENGLISH AND CHINESE MERCHANTS
It having been stipulated that English merchants may trade with
whatever native merchants they please , should any Chinese merchant
fraudulently abscond or incur debts which he is unable to discharge ,
the Chinese authorities , upon complaint being made thereof , will of
course do their utmost to bring the offender to justice ; it must ,
however, be distinctly understood , that if the defaulter really can-
not be found , or be dead , or bankrupt , and there be not wherewithal
to pay, the English merchants may not appeal to the former custom of
the Hong Merchants paying for one another , and can no longer expect
to have their losses made good to them .
V. TONNAGE DUES
Every English merchantman , on entering any one of the above-
mentioned five ports , shall pay tonnage -dues at the rate of five
(73476 ) 37
mace per register- ton , in full of all charges . The fees formerly
levied on entry and departure , of every description , are henceforth
abolished .
VI . IMPORT AND EXPORT DUTIES
Goods , whether imported into , or exported from, any one of the
abovementioned five ports , are henceforward to be taxed according to
the Tariff as now fixed and agreed upon, and no further sums are to
be levied beyond those which are specified in the Tariff; all
duties incurred by an English merchant -vessel , whether on goods
imported or exported , or in the shape of tonnage -dues , must first
be paid up in full ; which done , the Superintendent of Customs will
grant a port - clearance , and this being shown to the British Consul ,
he will thereupon return the ship's papers , and permit the vessel
to depart .
VII . EXAMINATION OF GOODS AT THE CUSTOM-HOUSE
Every English merchant , having cargo to load or discharge ,
must give due intimation thereof, and hand particulars of the same
to the Consul , who will immediately dispatch a recognized linguist
of his own establishment to communicate the particulars to the
Superintendent of Customs , that the goods may be duly examined , and
neither party subjected to loss . The English merchant must also
have a properly qualified person on the spot to attend to his
interests when his goods are being examined for duty, otherwise ,
should there be complaints , these cannot be attended to .
Regarding such goods as are subject by the Tariff to an ad
valorem duty, if the English merchant cannot agree with the Chinese
officer in fixing a value , then each party shall call two or three
merchants to look at the goods , and the highest price at which any
of these merchants would be willing to purchase , shall be assumed as
the value of the goods .
To fix the tare on any article , such as tea; if the English mer-
chant cannot agree with the Custom-house officer , then each party
shall choose so many chests out of every hundred , which being first
weighed in gross , shall afterwards be tared , and the average tare
upon these chests shall be assumed as the tare upon the whole ; and
upon this principle shall the tare be fixed upon all other goods in
packages .
If there should still be any disputed points which cannot be
settled , the English merchant may appeal to the Consul , who will
communicate the particulars of the case to the Superintendent of
Customs , that it may be equitably arranged . But the appeal must be
made on the same day, or it will not be regarded . While such points
are still open , the Superintendent of Customs will delay to insert the
same in his books , thus affording an opportunity that the merits of
the case may be duly tried and sifted .
(73476 ) 38
VIII . MANNER OF PAYING THE DUTIES
It is hereinbe fore provided , that every English vessel that
enters any one of the five ports , shall pay all duties and tonnage-
dues before she be permitted to depart . The Superintendent of
Customs will select certain shroffs , or banking establishments , of
known stability, to whom he will give licences , authorizing them
to receive duties from the English merchants on behalf of Govern-
ment , and the receipt of these shroffs for any moneys paid them
shall be considered as a Government voucher . In the paying of
these duties , different kinds of foreign money may be made use of;
but as foreign money is not of equal purity with sycee silver ,
the English Consuls appointed to the different ports will , accord-
ing to time , place , and circumstances , arrange with the Superintend-
ents of Customs at each , what coins may be taken in payment , and
what percentage may be necessary to make them equal to standard of
pure silver .
IX. WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
Sets of balance -yards for the weighing of goods , of money-
weights , and of measures , prepared in exact conformity to those
hitherto in use at the Custom-house of Canton , and duly stamped
and sealed in proof thereof , will be kept in possession of the
Superintendent of Customs , and also at the British Consulate at
each of the five ports , and these shall be the standards by which
all duties shall be charged , and all sums paid to Government . In
case of any dispute arising between British merchants and Chinese
officers of Customs , regarding the weights or measures of goods ,
reference shall be made to these standards , and disputes decided
accordingly.
X. LIGHTERS OR CARGO BOATS
Whenever any English merchant shall have to load or discharge
cargo , he may hire whatever kind of lighter or cargo -boat he
pleases , and the sum to be paid for such boat can be settled
between the parties themselves , without the interference of
Government . The number of these boats shall not be limited , nor
shall a monopoly of them be granted to any parties . If any smug-
gling take place in them, the offenders will of course be punished
according to law . Should any of these boat - people , while engaged
in conveying goods for English merchants , fraudulently abscond with
the property , the Chinese authorities will do their best to
apprehend them; but, at the same time , the English merchants must
take every due precaution for the safety of their goods .
XI . TRANSSHIPMENT OF GOODS
No English merchant -ships may transship goods without special
permission : should any urgent case happen when transshipment is
necessary , the circumstances must first be submitted to the Consul ,
who will give a certificate to that effect , and the Superintendent
of Customs will then send a special officer to be present at the
transshipment . If any one presumes to transship without such
permission being asked for and obtained , the whole of the goods so
illicitly transshipped will be confiscated .
(73476 ) 39
XII . SUBORDINATE CONSULAR OFFICERS
At any place selected for the anchorage of the English
merchant -ships , there may be appointed a subordinate Consular officer,
of approved good conduct , to exercise due control over the seamen and
others . He must exert himself to prevent quarrels between the
English seamen and natives , this being of the utmost importance .
Should anything of the kind unfortunately take place , he will in like
manner do his best to arrange it amicably . When sailors go on shore
to walk , officers shall be required to accompany them; and should
disturbances take place , such officers will be held responsible .
The Chinese officers may not impede natives from coming alongside
the ships to sell clothes or other necessaries to the sailors liv-
ing on board .
XIII . DISPUTES BETWEEN BRITISH SUBJECTS AND CHINESE
Whenever a British subject has reason to complain of a Chinese ,
he must first proceed to the Consulate state his grievance ; the
Consul will thereupon inquire into the merits of the case , and do his
utmost to arrange it amicably . In like manner , if a Chinese have
reason to complain of a British subject , he shall no less listen to
his complaint , and endeavour to settle it in a friendly manner . If
an English merchant have occasion to address the Chinese authorities ,
he shall send such address through the Consul , who will see that the
language is becoming; and , if otherwise , will direct it to be
changed , or will refuse to convey the address . If, unfortunately,
any disputes take place of such a nature that the Consul cannot
arrange them amicably , then he shall request the assistance of a
Chinese officer , that they may together examine into the merits of
the case , and decide it equitably . Regarding the punishment of
English criminals , the English Government will enact the laws neces-
sary to attain that end , and the Consul will be empowered to put
them in force ; and regarding the punishment of Chinese criminals ,
these will be tried and punished by their own laws , in the way pro-
vided for by the correspondence which took place at Nanking , after
the concluding of the peace .
XIV. BRITISH GOVERNMENT CRUIZERS ANCHORING WITHIN THE PORTS
An English Government cruizer will anchor within each of the five
ports , that the Consul may have the means of better restraining
sailors and others , and preventing disturbances . But these Govern-
ment cruizers are not to be put on the same footing as merchant-
vessels ; for, as they bring no merchandize and do not come to trade ,
they will of course pay neither dues nor charges . The Resident
Consul will keep the Superintendent of Customs duly informed of the
arrival and departure of such Government cruizers , that he may take
his measures accordingly .
XV. ON THE SECURITY TO BE GIVEN FOR BRITISH MERCHANT-VESSELS
It has hitherto been the custom, when an English vessel entered
the port of Canton , that a Chinese Hong Merchant stood security for
her , and all duties and charges were paid through such security-
merchant ; but these security-merchants being now done away with, it is
understood , that the British Consul will henceforth be security for all
British merchant -ships entering any of the aforesaid five ports .
(73476) 40
11. THE TREATY PORTS AND HONG KONG
The original intention in 1843 , when the administrative arrangements
covering British subjects in China were being considered , was to
regard the British position there as a whole and to concentrate the
administrative agencies in Hong Kong. Legislative provision was
therefore made for the duties of Superintendent of Trade and
Plenipotentiary to be exercised by the person holding the office of
Governor of Hong Kong, and for the Governor and the Hong Kong
Legislative Council to legislate for British subjects living in
China at the Treaty Ports . This arrangement was based on the
assumption that conditions in the new treaty ports would not be
dissimilar from those obtaining in the past at Canton , under which
the foreigners had lived in a small enclave of their own and for no
longer than was necessary for commercial purposes . Foochow,
Ningpo and Amoy indeed broadly followed this pattern , but the growth
of an important entrepôt centre at Shanghai which was to outstrip
Hong Kong in commercial importance was not immediately foreseen .
Equally unforeseen was the influx of large Chinese populations into
Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Parliamentary sanction was necessary to give the Crown authority
over British subjects resident outside British territory and so an
Act " for the better Government of Her Majesty's subjects resorting
to China " , 6 & 7 Vic . cap.80 was passed in August 1843 , and is given
here as document No. 7. It authorised the Crown to empower the
Superintendent of Trade , " so long as such Superintendent shall also
be Governor of the said Island of Hong Kong " to enact laws and
ordinances with the advice of the Hong Kong Legislative Council ,
subject to the royal power of disallowance and to the retention by
the Crown of the power of concurrent legislation . Document No. 8
gives an Order in Council under which this was carried out and
consular jurisdiction set up . The two series of ordinances , those
relating to the Colony and those relating to the Treaty Ports , had
to be kept distinct , the one series being reported to the Colonial
Secretary and the other to the Foreign Secretary.
It was realised that difficulties might arise over extra-
territorial rights in China and letters from Lord Aberdeen to Sir
Henry Pottinger , and to his successor, Sir John Davis , documents 9
and 10, reveal the anxiety on the part of the British Government
that these rights should not be exercised in a manner injurious to
the Chinese .
An Order in Council of June 13 , 1853, document No. 11 , brought
the control over the British in China by the Hong Kong Legislative
Council to an end and this was the first and most decisive step in
the process of making the Treaty Ports independent of control from
(73476) 41
Hong Kong. The Earl of Elgin who was sent out in 1857 to conduct
hostilities became Plenipotentary and in 1859 , the new Governor of
Hong Kong, Sir Hercules Robinson , ceased to hold concurrently the
post of Superintendent of Trade .
The severance was complete when in 1865, the Supreme Court at
Hong Kong lost its appellate jurisdiction in respect to the consular
courts .
But commercial relations between Hong Kong and the Treaty Ports
remained close , and the colony continued as the headquarters of the
principal merchant houses , banking institutions and shipping
companies in the Far East.
DOCUMENT NO . 7
Act of Parliament
An Act for the better Government of Her Majesty's Subjects
resorting to China. (22nd August 1843 ) 6 & 7 Vic. cap. 80
Whereas an Act was passed in the Fourth Year of the Reign of
His late Majesty, intituled An Act to regulate the Trade to China
and India , whereby certain Powers were vested in Officers therein
described as " Superintendents of the Trade of His Majesty's Subjects
to and from the Dominions of the Emperor of China : " And whereas ,
for giving full Effect to the Purposes of the said Act , it is
necessary that Provision be made for the Establishment from Time to
Time of Regulations for the Government of Her Majesty's Subjects
resorting to China , and it is expedient that such Regulations should
originate with some local Authority cognizant of the actual Circum-
stances and Exigencies of such Her Majesty's Subjects , and of the
Trade carried on by them in China : And whereas Her Majesty hath
been pleased , by a Commission under the Great Seal of the United
Kingdom, to establish a Legislative Council to make Laws for the
Peace , Order , and good Government of Her Majesty's Subjects , being
within Her Majesty's Island of Hong Kong, and to constitute and
appoint as Governor of the said Island the Officer invested under
the said recited Act with the Office of Chief Superintendent of the
Trade of Her Majesty's Subjects to and from China : Be it enacted
by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and
Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal , and Commons , in this
present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same ,
That it shall be lawful for Her Majesty, by any Commission or
Commissions under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, or by any
Instructions under Her Majesty's Signet and Sign Manual accompanying
and referred to in any such Commission or Commissions , to authorize
the Superintendent of the Trade of Her Majesty's Subjects in China
(so long as such Superintendent shall be also the Governor of the
said Island of Hong Kong) to enact , with the Advice of the
Legislative Council of the said Island of Hong Kong, all such Laws
and Ordinances as may from Time to Time be required for the Peace ,
(73476) 42
Order, and good Government of Her Majesty's Subjects being within
the Dominions of the Emperor of China , or being within any Ship or
Vessel at a Distance of not more than One hundred Miles from the
Coast of China , and to enforce the Execution of such Laws and
Ordinances by such Penalties and Forfeitures as to him , by the
Advice aforesaid , shall seem fit; and that it shall also be lawful
for Her Majesty, by any such Commission or Commissions or Instruc-
tions as aforesaid, to impose upon the Exercise of the before-
mentioned Legislative Authority all such Conditions and Limitations
as Her Majesty shall see fit to prescribe ; and that it shall also
be lawful for Her Majesty to disallow, in the whole or in part, any
Laws or Ordinances so to be enacted as aforesaid , and , with the
Advice of Her Majesty's Privy Council , to alter the same or any of
them as to Her Majesty in Council shall seem meet .
II . And be it enac , That it shal be lawf f H
ted l ul or er
Maje , by any Comm o r W a r u n d H e r R o yal S i gn Manual ,
sty issi ran er
to make such Prov aosn to Her Majt esty may seem fit for the
isio
temp Exer ofn the Duti o t s C S
or cis es f he aid hief uperin
in the areyvent of ae Vacan occu in that Offi by Deat te, nden
cy r n ce h t
Resi
gnat
, or othe , and rti hag t the Provisi here cont
i rwis o in aine
resp o n the said Chie Supe n
shal bes take to appl td
e i
the Pecrts ng or Per f
f
t
erin
t e
l n y o
on sons o r h e T i nb e
me deinntg xercie the Duti of
sing e s
Chie Supe u n d er s u c h C o m o r W a r .
f rint miss rant
ende ion
nt
III . And be it enacted , That it shall also be lawful for Her
Majesty , by any Order or Orders made with the Advice of Her Majesty'
s
Privy Council , to ordain , for the Government of Her Majesty's
Subjects being within the Dominions of the Emperor of China , or
being within any Ship or Vessel at a Distance of not more than one
hundred Miles from the Coast of China , any Law or Ordinance which
to Her Majesty in Council may seem meet , as fully and effectual
ly
as any such Law or Ordinance could be made by Her Majesty in Council
for the Government of Her Majesty's Subjects being within the said
Island of Hong Kong.
IV. And be it enacted , That all such Commissions and Instruc-
tions and Orders in Council as aforesaid , and all Laws and Ordinances
so to be made as aforesaid , shall be laid before both Houses of
Parliament as soon as conveniently may be after the making and enact-
ing thereof respectively .
V. And be it enacted , That when and so soon as any such
Commission or Commissions as aforesaid shall have been received at
the said Island of Hong Kong by the Superintendent and Governor
aforesaid, or by the Officer for the Time being in the Administration
of the said Superintendent and Government , so much of the said
recited Act as relates to the Powers and Authorities to be exercised
by the Superintendents therein mentioned over and in respect of the
Trade and Commerce of Her Majesty's Subjects within any Part of the
Dominions of the Emperor of China , or as relates to the making and
issuing Directions and Regulations touching the said Trade and
Commerce , and for the Government of Her Majesty's Subjects within
the said Dominions , and as relates to the Imposition of Penalties ,
Forfeitures , or Imprisonments for the Breach of any such Directions
or Regulations , or as relates to the Creation of a Court of Justice
(73476) 43
for the Trial of Offences committed by Her Majesty's Subjects , as
therein mentioned , shall be repealed : Provided nevertheless , that
all things theretofore done in pursuance of the said recited Act
shall be of the same Validity and Effect as if this Act had not been
passed .
VI . And be it enact , That every Suit or Actio which shall
ed n
be broug
ht against any Person for any thing done in pursuance of
this Act shall be comme
nced within Six Calendar Months after the
Fact commi
tted , and not afterwards , except where the Cause of Action
shall have arise in any Place not withi the Juris of any of
n n dicti
Her Majes C o h C J , a t onw
ty's u r t s a v i n g i v i l u r i s dictio n d h e n i t hin Six
Calen n
dar Months after the Plaintiff and Defendant shall have been
both withi the Juris of any such Court ; and every such
n di
Action or Suit shall bectbiroonug
ht in the Place where the Cause of
Action shall have arise , and not elsew
n her , except where the Cause
of Action shall have arise in any Place ne ct within the Jurisd
n ict o
of any of Her Majes
ty's C o u r ts h a v ing C i v il Jurisdic ; and thie n
Defen s h b e e n t o t h l N , a t
s i o n
nd hall ave theh
dant all titled e ike otice
like Privi
lege of tendering Amends to the Plaintiff , or his Agent or
Attor ,
ney as is provided in Actions brought against any Justice of
the Peace for any Act done by him in the Execu
tion of his Office .
VII . And be it enacted , That this Act may be amended or
repealed by any Act to be passed in this Session of Parliamen .
t
DOCUMENT NO . 8
Order in Council
At the Court at Buckingham Palace , the 17th of April , 1844
Present:
THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY IN COUNCIL
Whereas , by a certain Act of Parliament made and passed in the
session of Parliament holden in the sixth and seventh years of Her
Majesty's reign , intituled " An Act for the better Government of Her
Majesty's Subjects resorting to China " , it is amongst other things
enacted , that it shall be lawful for Her Majesty, by any Order or
Orders made with the advice of Her Majesty's Privy Council , to
ordain , for the government of Her Majesty's subjects being within
the dominions of the Emperor of China , or being within any ship or
vessel at a distance of not more than one hundred miles from the
coast of China, any law or ordinance which to Her Majesty in Council
may seem meet , as fully and effectually as any such law or ordinance
could be made by Her Majesty in Council for the government of Her
Majesty's subjects being within the Island of Hong Kong: And whereas ,
by a certain other Act of Parliament made and passed in the session
of Parliament holden as aforesaid , intituled " An Act to remove Doubts
as to the exercise of Power and " Jurisdiction by Her Majesty within
(73476 ) 44
divers countries and Places out of " Her Majesty's Dominions , and to
render the same more effectual " , it is amongst other things enacted ,
that it is and shall be lawful for Her Majesty to hold , exercise ,
and enjoy, any power or jurisdiction which Her Majesty now hath , or
may at any time hereafter have , within any country or place out of
Her Majesty's dominions , in the same and as ample a manner as if
Her Majesty had acquired such power or jurisdiction by the cession
or conquest of territory : And whereas , Her Majesty hath power and
Jurisdiction in the dominions of the Emperor of China ; Now, there-
fore , in pursuance of the above - recited Acts , or either of them ,
Her Majesty is pleased , by and with the advice of Her Privy Council ,
to order , and it is hereby ordered , that Her Majesty's Consuls and
Vice -Consuls resident within the said dominions , or such other
persons as by warrant under the hand and seal of the Chief Superin-
tendent of the Trade of Her Majesty's subjects in China for the time
being shall be appointed to act provisionally as Consuls or Vice-
Consuls , shall severally in the districts within which they may
respectively be appointed to reside , have and hold all necessary
power and authority to exercise jurisdiction over British subjects
within such districts as aforesaid , for the repression and punish-
ment of crimes and offences by them committed within the dominions
of the Emperor of China, and for the arrangement and settlement of
all and all manner of differences , contentions , suits , and variances
that may or shall happen to arise between them or any of them; and
shall moreover have power and authority, as far as in them lies , to
compose and settle all and all manner of differences , contentions ,
suits , and variances that may or shall happen to arise between
British subjects and the subjects of the Emperor of China , and
between British subjects and the subjects of any foreign Power, and
which may be brought before them for settlement : And whereas by the
above first- recited Act, it is enacted , that it shall be lawful for
Her Majesty , by any Commission or Commissions under the Great Seal
of the United Kingdom, or by any instructions under Her Majesty's
Signet and Sign Manual , accompanying and referred to in any such
Commission or Commissions , to authorize the Superintendent of the
Trade of Her Majesty's subjects in China (so long as such Superin-
tendent shall be also Governor of the Island of Hong Kong) , to
enact with the advice of the Legislative Council of the said Island
of Hong Kong, all such laws and ordinances as may from time to time
be required for the peace , order, and good government of Her
Majesty's subjects being within the dominions of the Emperor of China ,
or being within any ship or vessel at a distance of not more than one
hundred miles from the coast of China , and to enforce the execution
of such laws and ordinances by such penalties and forfeitures , as to
him, by the advice aforesaid , shall seem fit : And whereas Her
Majesty has been pleased to grant such Commission as aforesaid to
John Francis Davis , Esq . , appointed by Her Majesty Superintendent of
the Trade of Her subjects in China , or the Superintendent for the
time being of such trade ; Now therefore Her Majesty is pleased, by
and with the advice of Her Privy Council , to order , and it is hereby
ordered , that Her Majesty's Consuls and Vice -Consuls in China , or
any persons acting provisionally as such Consuls or Vice- Consuls as
aforesaid , shall in the exercise of the jurisdiction granted unto
them by this present Order, be governed by such laws and ordinances
in that behalf as may be enacted , in the manner and form aforesaid ,
by the Superintendent of the Trade of Her Majesty's subjects in
(73476 ) 45
China for the time being, being the Governor of Hong Kong . And in
further exercise of the powers in Her Majesty vested by the above-
recited Act for " Removing doubts as to the exercise " of power and
Jurisdiction by Her Majesty within divers places out of " Her
dominions , and for rendering the same more effectual " , Her Majesty
is pleased , by and with the advice of Her Privy Council , to appoint
the Colony of Hong Kong as the British colony wherein crimes and
offences committed by British subjects within the dominions of the
Emperor of China , which it may be expedient shall be enquired of,
tried , determined and punished within Her Majesty's dominions , shall
be so enquired of, tried , determined , and punished ; and that Her
Majesty's Consuls , Vice -Consuls , or other persons provisionally act-
ing as such under warrant from the Chief Superintendent of British
Trade in China , as aforesaid , shall have authority to cause any
British subject , charged with the commission of any crime or offence ,
the cognizance whereof may at any time appertain to them, or any of
them , to be sent for trial to the said Colony of Hong Kong. And it
is further ordered , that the Chief Justice of the Colony of Hong Kong
for the time being, or other person provisionally acting as such,
shall , when duly required by the said Superintendent , proceed to the
dominions of the Emperor of China, and shall have power and authority
within the said dominions to enquire of , try, determine , and punish
any crimes or offences committed by British subjects within the said
dominions . And the Right Honourable the Earl of Aberdeen , and the
Right Honourable Lord Stanley , two of Her Majesty's Principal
Secretaries of State , are to give the necessary directions herein as
to them may respectively appertain .
(Signed ) C. C. GREVILLE
DOCUMENT NO . 9
Extracts from a Dispatch from Lord Aberdeen to Sir Henry
Pottinger, No. 81 , September 2 , 1843 , Relating to Control
over British Subjects in the Treaty Ports CO129/3
No. 81
Sir Henry Pottinger
Foreign Office . September 2 , 1843 .
Sir,
The Act of Parliament of the year 1833 [ 3 and 4 William IV
cap . 93 ] under which you have hitherto held the office of Superin-
tendent of the Trade of H. M. subjects in China was framed and passed
under circumstances essentially different from those of the present
time . Not only was there at that period a deficiency of any
experience for the guidance of your predecessors in the discharge
of their official duties , but the Crown then held the Dominion of no
(73476 ) 46
territory within or adjacent to the Chinese Empire . The Military
and Diplomatic Transactions which have since occurred and the
acquisition by the Queen of the Sovereignty of Hong Kong have
essentially altered the posture of affairs in that quarter of the
Globe, and have appeared to Her Majesty's Government to call for a
corresponding change in the Law.
The Act of 1833 , from the 5th to the 8th Section both inclusive ,
authorise the appointment of Superintendents , and enable the King
in Council to give them such powers as might be thought necessary
In pursuance of this Statute various measures have been adopted .
Thus on the 9th of December in the same year two Orders of the King
in Council were made of which one had for its object the regulation
of the trade of British subjects at Canton the object of the other
being the establishment at that place of a court for the trial of
offences committed by British subjects in China . A third Order in
Council of the same date imposed Duties on British ships and cargoes
entering Canton . Of these three Orders all may be said to have
been ineffectual . The two first have scarcely ever been brought
into operation . The third was actually revoked by a subsequent
Order in Council of the 5th of March 1834. And thus the case
stood till the commencement of the present year [ 1843 ] , when on the
4th of January last an Order of the Queen in Council was made for
transferring the before -mentioned Court from Canton to Hong Kong.
This was followed on the 24th of February last by an Order forbid-
ding British subjects to resort to China for the purposes of trade
to any ports except the five there enumerated .
Such having been the state of the Law at the commencement of
the late session of Parliament , it appeared to me that it was
inadequate to the exigencies which must be expected to arise in your
administration of your office as Superintendent of the British Trade .
In your capacity of Governor of Hong Kong, the Queen in the exercise
of her Royal Prerogative had indeed invested you with Legislative
authority over all the inhabitants of that Island . But the Crown
possesses no inherent prerogative of imparting a Legislative
Authority over British subjects within a foreign state or on the
High Seas . Hence it followed that unless the aid of Parliament
were invoked and obtained , your powers of making laws binding on
the Queen's subjects must be restricted within the local limits of
Hong Kong . Hence also it was obvious that every disaffected
person might readily place himself beyond the reach of those Laws ,
and escape their penalties , and that your Legislative Powers would
cease to be effectual precisely in the places in which obedience to
them would be most indispensable to the good of Her Majesty's
service .
It did not appear that the Act of 1833 enabled the Queen in
Council to provide any remedy for this inconvenience . Her Majesty,
it is true , might herself have made laws under it for the Government
of Her subjects in China . But experience had abundantly shown what
antecedently to the experiment was indeed sufficiently evident , that
no laws could be properly originated and framed in England for the
government of persons dwelling at such a distance , and placed under
(73476 ) 47
circumstances so imperfectly understood in this country. To obviate
these difficulties a Bill for the better Government of Her Majesty's
Subjects resorting to China was introduced into Parliament . It has
since been passed into a law, of which I transmit a copy for your
information . This Act (the 6th and 7th Victoria cap . 80 ) by the
5th Section repealed so much of the Act of 1833 as relates to the
powers of the Superintendents over the British Trade , and to the
government and British Subjects in China, and as relates to a
British Court of Justice . In other words it repeats the 6th Section
of the Act of 1833. But it expressly provides that all things done
in pursuance of that Act before the repeal shall take effect , shall
be valid as if the later Act had not been passed . The practical
change is therefore as follows . The Act of 1833 must be read with
the omission of the 6th clause . But neither your own appointment as
Superintendent nor anything else lawfully done under that Act is
invalidated . The Orders in Council which I have enumerated will ,
unless revoked by the Queen in Council , retain all their former
authority . It being however the Queen's pleasure in the exercise
of the power now conferred on Her Majesty to delegate to you and to
the Legislative Council of Hong Kong the power of making Laws for
the government of the Queen's subjects in China , and in the adjacent
seas , I transmit to you a Commission under the Great Seal for that
purpose , accompanied by Instructions under the Royal Signet and Sign
Manual . The effect of these instruments will be to extend over the
Queen's subjects in China and in the adjacent seas the Legislative
Authority which you at present exercise over the inhabitants of
Hong Kong .
I further transmit a Warrant under the Royal Sign Manual to
provide for the temporary administration of your office , the effect
of this will be that the Legislative Power last mentioned will not
be suspended by any circumstance which may render the officer
directly appointed by the Queen as Superintendent incapable of dis-
charging the duties of that office . .
[Queen in Council has power also of concurrent legislation for
Queen's subjects in China . ]
Such being the general effect of the recent Act of Parliament ,
and of the Instruments issued in pursuance of it , it remains that I
should advert to those questions which must be expected to arise .
First [Pottinger was given a blanket order in Council enabling
him to suspend the operation of any of these Orders in Council if
they were found to be inconsistent with any measure he thought
important ] .
I next anticipate the observation that the Legislative power
you will be called to exercise being designed to have its operation
in a country where there is no British Law in force nor any officers
of the Crown to carry such enactment into effect , they must to a
great extent be inoperative if not futile . It would be vain to
deny altogether the truth of this remark; [but] in the first place
the breach of such a law night in some cases be the basis of civil
actions . . . . . in British Courts of Justice ; and secondly as all
British subjects in China are only occasional and temporary residents
(73476) 48
there the laws to be made by yourself might in most cases reach
them by requiring Her Majesty's Consuls and Vice -Consuls to withhold
the clearance of any ship in which the offender against such laws
was about to sail until bonds shall be given for landing him at Hong
Kong or at some other British Settlement where he might take his
trial ; and thirdly, if as may be anticipated the concurrence of the
Chinese Government in the exercise by Her Majesty's officers of this
jurisdiction can be obtained , the case will then fall under the pro-
visions of another Act passed within the last session of Parliament
· for the present however that Act (the Act 6th and 7th
Victoria cap . 94) must be considered as inapplicable to the case of
China .
I can foresee a still further difficulty, which is likely to
embarrass you .. the very words by which we describe crime
such as murder, robbery , forgery and the like (which must be employed
in all penal legislation ) have a meaning which is not immutable but
transitory , and which is widely dissimilar even in states of
Christendom The answer is that some general and pre-
liminary law will be requisite , declaring in effect that any Act
which being done in Hong Kong would render the Agent or his abettors
amenable to punishment, shall when done by British subjects within
the Chinese Dominions or within 100 miles from the coasts of China ,
be considered as criminal to the same extent and as rendering the
offender amenable to the same degree and nature of punishment if
they shall afterwards be found within H.M.'s Dominions •
Hitherto I have assumed that all the laws you will have to
promulgate will be of that class which are usually distinguished as
penal . But this will not really be the case . Many occasions may
arise in which it will be necessary that laws should be enacted
rather to ascertain the mutual obligations , than to punish the
offences of the British Residents in China . In cases of
this kind the law will usually command a willing obedience , even
though the enforcement of its penalties may be attended with serious
or even insuperable difficulties .
It is not however my intention to deny that the powers of
legislation with which you will thus be invested , may give rise to
questions scarcely susceptible of a complete or satisfactory solution .
On the contrary I am well aware that the trust is of a very peculiar
and critical nature , and that nothing but the extreme hazard of
exempting our fellow subjects in China from an effective local
control , would justify such an innovation on the general principles
by which the exercise of the Legislative Authority of Independent
States is limited . The anomaly such as it is in theory, will I am
persuaded be deprived in practice of the risks which might otherwise
attend it , by the care which you will constantly employ to promulgate
no law which could give any just or plausible ground of offence to
the Chinese authorities . Exercising your powers with constant
moderation and with a vigilant regard to the prejudices no less than
to the reasonable jealousy of the people and Government of China ,
you will I trust be enabled to derive from them the advantage of an
effective control over H.M.'s subjects , uncompensated for by the
disadvantage of giving umbrage to a power with which it will be your
duty to maintain the most friendly relations .
(73476 ) 49
With regard to the minor details of your Legislative duties as
Superintendent it is sufficient for me to observe that H.M.'s
Instructions have referred you to the rules already laid down for
your guidance in making Laws for the Government of Hong Kong ..•
The two series will be distinct , and will be communicated by you ,
either to myself or to the Secretary of State for the Colonies , as
they may be promulgated either in the one or the other of the two
capacities in which you will act . But the forms and the general
rules of proceeding will in both cases be the same .
I am &c .
Signed Aberdeen
DOCUMENT NO . 10
Dispatch from Lord Aberdeen to Sir John Davis , No. 4 ,
February 28 , 1844 , Relating to the Control over British
Subjects in the Treaty Ports CO129/8
Foreign Office . February 28 , 1844 .
No. 4
Sir,
The Commissions which Her Majesty has been pleased to issue on
the occasion of your proceeding to China , and the full power under
the Great Seal which Her Majesty has likewise granted to You , and
which are severally enclosed in my despatches Nos . 1 , 2 and 3 , of
this date , confer upon you full and sufficient authority for the
execution of the duties which will devolve upon you as Her Majesty's
Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent of British Trade in China .
By the first Commission which has been issued to you in pursu-
ance of the Powers vested in the Crown by the Act of the 3rd and 4th
Will : IV: cap . 93 , Her Majesty has appointed you to be Chief Superin-
tendent of the Trade of Her subjects to and from the Dominions of
The Emperor of China for the purpose of protecting and promoting such
Trade ; and Her Majesty by the same Commission has likewise , in pursu-
ance of the Act of the 6 and 7 Vict : c : 80 : made provision for the
event of a vacancy occurring in that office .
By the second Commission which has been issued to you in pursu-
ance of the last mentioned Act of the 6 and 7 Vic : cap . 80 :, Her
Majesty has been pleased to confer upon you , in your character of
Superintendent , and so long as you shall also be Governor of the
Island of Hong Kong to which office you have been appointed by an
Instrument which you will receive from the Secretary of State for
the Colonial Department , power to enact , with the advice of the
Legislative Council of that Island , all such Laws and Ordinances as
may from time to time be required for the peace , order and good
(73476 ) 50
government of Her Majesty's Subjects being within the dominions of
The Emperor of China , or being within any Ship or Vessel at a
distance of not more than 100 miles from the coast of China , and to
enforce the execution of such Laws and Ordinances , by Penalties and
Forfeitures .
By the Full Power under the Great Seal you are authorized to
treat of and arrange with any P. P. appointed by the Emperor of
China , any matters which may come into discussion between the Two
Crowns .
In addition to the Powers thus imparted to you by specific
instruments , the superintendence and control of all Her Majesty's
Consular Servants in China is vested in your hands ; and you are
moreover authorized under the restrictions and limitations which
you will find recorded in various despatches from this Office which
will be made over to you by your predecessor , to exercise a certain
degree of control over Her Majesty's Naval and Military Forces in
the China Seas .
The several powers which I have enumerated will enable you , I
conceive , amply to provide for any state of things that can be
expected to occur in China ; and Her Majesty's Government trust that
the confidence which they manifest by conferring upon you a degree
of authority more comprehensive in extent and more unusual in
character than is ordinarily imparted to any Servant of the Crown ,
will be an additional inducement to you to prove that Their confid-
ence has been well bestowed , by the judicious and moderate manner in
which that authority is supervised .
You have had the opportunity of perusing the whole of the
correspondence which has passed between this Office and your
Predecessor during his residence in China , and you have seen both
the nature of his transactions during that period , and the views of
Her Majesty's Government upon the several points which have from
time to time been submitted by him for their decision . It is there-
fore only necessary that I should lay down some general principles
by which Her Majesty's Government would desire that your conduct
should , as far as possible , be regulated .
I need scarcely state to you in the outset that the only
commerce which Her Majesty's Government would desire to see main-
tained with China , is that which shall be strictly legal and con-
sistent with the Treaty engagements subsisting between the Two
Countries . All other commerce which British Subjects may attempt
to carry on with the inhabitants of China, it will be your duty to
discountenance to the utmost . With regard however to legal
commerce , Her Majesty's Government would wish you constantly to bear
in mind that it is likely to flourish in proportion as it is allowed
to develop itself unfettered by minute regulations , and untrammelled
by official interference . It is true that the peculiar character
of our intercourse with China calls for a certain degree of super-
vision on the part of British Authorities , but the principle by which
that supervision should be regulated is that of preventing any cause
of discussion or dissension arising between the British Traders and
the Chinese Authorities , at the same time that the rights and
(73476 ) 51
privileges secured to the former, by Treaty, are steadily upheld ,
and secured from disregard or interference on the part of the latter .
Her Majesty's Government are aware that there has been much in
the commercial intercourse of British Subjects with China , especially
of late years , which will require to be amended before the trade
between the Two Countries can be expected to assume a sound and
healthy aspect , and the apprehension of serious misunderstandings
with the Chinese Authorities arising out of attempts to persevere
in a vicious system, entirely laid aside . Much firmness , therefore ,
will be required on your part not only as regards the Chinese
Authorities , but also as regards British Subjects ; and to enable
you to act with promptitude and effect as regards the last the
unusual power of legislating for the government of British Subjects
in China has been delegated to you by the Crown .
The manner and the extent to which you shall exercise this
power will be matter for your most serious consideration . You will
derive valuable assistance in this respect from the Legal Authorities
connected with the Colonial Government over which you preside ; and
the only general principle which I would wish you to bear in mind
is that you are dealing with British Subjects to whom, from educa-
tion and social habits , the exercise of arbitrary power must
necessarily be most repugnant , and therefore can only be justified
by extreme necessity .
I do not anticipate that any occasion is likely to arise in
which you will find it advisable to negotiate and sign any formal
instrument in the shape of a Treaty, in virtue of the Full Power
with which you are provided . The Treaty of Nanking, with the
Supplementary Treaty, the Fifteen Articles , and the Tariff, which
are severally to be taken as part of the first named Treaty , appear
to comprehend every topic which it is requisite , or which it would
be expedient to record in a formal instrument, and it may be doubted
whether it would be advisable to incur the risk of running counter
to the long received prejudices of the Chinese Government by pressing
upon them, without some overpowering necessity , a renewal of discus-
sions and negotiations , which might even tend to weaken the effect
of those which have happily , and most skilfully been brought to a
close by your Predecessor . The main points for the regulation of
intercourse between the Two Countries on a friendly footing have been
adjusted , and minor points which may occasionally arise will , doubt-
less , be susceptible of arrangement by a simpler process than the
conclusion of a distinct Treaty . But as unforeseen emergencies
may occur , and as moreover circumstances do not admit of a diplomatic
agent being accredited by Her Majesty to the Emperor of China , in the
form usually adopted among European Nations , it has been thought
advisable that you should possess some instrument of authority under
Her Majesty's Signature , empowering you to treat with the Chinese
Ministers , upon which , in case of necessity, you may claim to act .
It will be proper that as soon as possible after your assump-
tion of Office in China , you should communicate the fact of your
arrival to the Chinese Authority whom Sir Henry Pottinger may point
out to you as the one to whom such a notification should be addressed ;
and you will request that authority to make known to his Government
(73476) 52
that you have been appointed by The Queen to succeed Sir H. Pottinger
in the several Offices which he has held in China , and that you are
invested with the same powers , and animated with the same disposi-
tion as your Predecessor, to promote friendly relations between the
Two Countries . You will take advantage of the same opportunity to
intimate to the Chinese Government that Her Majesty has approved of
the Supplementary Treaty signed by Sir H. Pottinger at Homun -Chai ,
on the 8th of October last , and that Her Majesty will be prepared
to ratify it , in a manner corresponding with that in which it may
have been ratified by The Emperor of China as soon as the Original
Treaty arrives in this Country .
In all your intercourse with the Chinese Authorities you will
make it your constant endeavour to impress them with a conviction
that Her Majesty's Government most earnestly desire that no cause of
difference should hereafter occur to disturb the harmony between the
Two Nations . You will profess your readiness to cooperate with
them, as far as circumstances will permit , to ensure a faithful
observance by British Subjects of the laws and customs of the Chinese
Empire , and of the regulations which have been laid down for their
commercial dealings , but you will at the same time point out that
all efforts on the part of British Authorities will be ineffectual ,
unless the Chinese Authorities , on their side , exert themselves to
control the conduct of their own people ; and that their power of
control is more easy of application and more likely to be effectual
in operation than any which can be employed by British Authorities ,
however desirous these last may be to keep their countrymen within
proper bounds .
I do not think it necessary to enter at any length on the
subject of the Opium Trade , as the Secretary of State for the
Colonial Department has already fully stated to you the cpinions
and wishes of Her Majesty's Government on that matter . As far as
the discussions with the Chinese Authorities are concerned , they
have terminated , according to the inclosures of Sir H. Pottinger's
Despatch : No. 143 , of the 4th of November , in a statement , on the
part of the former, that they were unable even to discuss any
further at that time the question of legalizing the importation of
Opium into China on payment of a moderate duty, and by a declaration ,
on the part of Sir Henry Pottinger, that notwithstanding all the
measures which he has taken to prevent any illicit trade being
carried on by British Subjects in the Ports and on the Coasts of
China , the Chinese Government can alone effectually put a stop to
such practises by imposing sufficient restraint upon their own
subjects . Nevertheless , Her Majesty's Government rely upon your
taking advantage of any favourable opportunity to urge the Chinese
Government to adopt a sounder policy with respect to this question .
It cannot fail to be a continual source of embarrassment to all
parties as long as it is allowed to remain in its present state ;
and whether the main ground of opposition to legalizing the trade
exists in the personal sentiments of The Emperor , or in the intrigues
of Chinese Officers who find their profit in the continuance of a
smuggling trade , an opportunity may still present itself , which , if
judiciously taken advantage of, may enable you to overcome the
scruples of the Sovereign , or to expose the fraudulent practices of
(73476) 53
his adherents , and thus get rid of a system pregnant with so much
danger and so thoroughly demoralizing as that which now unfortunately
prevails .
The functions which Her Majesty's Consuls in China will be
required to exercise are of a very peculiar character, and will call
for the exertion on your part of unremitting superintendence and
control . It will in some respects be convenient to you to have to
deal with the Consular system in China almost from the commencement,
so that you will be able to lay down such rules respecting it as may
appear to you most suitable to the circumstances in which the Consuls
will be called upon to act . It will of course be desirable that
the general rules for the guidance of Her Majesty's Consuls should
be adhered to as far as possible; but the new duties which will be
imposed upon the Consuls in China will require new rules, especially
as regards the exercise of jurisdiction over British Subjects . The
practice in this respect which is observed in the Levant, will doubt-
less be applicable to China ; and the main question for your con-
sideration will be how far it may be expedient or necessary to
empower the Consuls to proceed in the adjustment of Civil Differ-
ences , or in the repression or punishment of Criminal offences ,
which may arise within the limits of their respective districts .
One thing must always be borne in mind in dealing with the last
description of cases , namely, that certainty rather than severity
of punishment , is to be counted upon in most of the cases which may
come before the Consuls , as likely to produce a salutary effect .
It will be your duty to cause the Consuls steadily to keep in
view the wish of Her Majesty's Government that all Her Majesty's
Servants in China should conciliate the goodwill of the Authorities
and People of the Country. They may effect this object without any
sacrifice of the interests which they are specially appointed to
protect, and although in particular cases the performance of their
duty may be unpalatable to some British Subjects whose irregularities
they may find it necessary to check, it cannot be doubted that the
general advantage of British Trade will be best consulted by proving
to the Chinese Government that its progress and extension are
compatible with respect for the feelings and opinions of the nation
at large .
I have but little to say on the last description of authority
vested in you , namely that by which you are enabled , to a certain
degree , to control Her Majesty's Naval and Military Forces in the
China Seas . I rely upon your bearing in mind that the assumption
of a right of interference in matters of this nature , on the part of
a Civil Servant of the Crown , is likely to be viewed with much
Jealousy and dislike by Officers who are subject to it; while the
same Officers would most cordially assist in carrying out the wishes
of the Civil Servant if presented to them in a manner less repugnant
to their professional feelings . Bearing this in mind you will , I
doubt not , find the utmost readiness on the part of the naval and
military commanders to cooperate with you on all occasions; and the
advantage which must result to the Public Service from the perfect
harmony of the Civil , Naval , and Military Servants of the Crown in
so distant a quarter of the world , and under circumstances of so
peculiar a nature , will , I am sure , weigh with you and induce you to
(73476) 54
spare no pains to ensure unanimity of feeling and of action among
those who are called upon to act in concert for the promotion of
the Public interest .
Before I conclude this despatch, I will advert to some points
on which you may naturally wish to be made acquainted with the views
of Her Majesty's Government .
First then, as regards more direct communication with the Court
at Peking , if an intimation should be conveyed to you that The
Emperor would desire your presence at His Capital , and if His
Imperial Majesty should afford you sufficient assurance that you
would be treated as becomes the Representative of the Queen , and
would not be invited or required to submit to any degrading
ceremonial , Her Majesty's Government would think it advisable that
you should defer in this respect to the wishes of His Imperial
Majesty, and present yourself at His Court . But a further question
may arise , whether you should seek to enter into direct correspond-
ence with the Chinese Ministers residing at the seat of government ?
If unreasonable difficulties should be raised by the Chinese
Authorities with whom in the ordinary course of things you will come
in contact , and if you should think it probable that a direct appeal
to the Imperial Government would be likely to bring about a removal
of those difficulties , I should not consider the unusual character
of the proceeding to be a sufficient obstacle to deter you from
having recourse to it . But it is a measure not lightly to be
adopted , and until our increased intercourse with China shall have
led to our policy being better understood and our motives more
justly appreciated , I should think that it would be prudent to
abstain , except under very pressing circumstances , from any attempt
to open a direct correspondence with Peking, which if unsuccessful
would probably be productive of very great inconvenience . Your
object should always be to avoid advancing pretensions , or urging
claims , which may be of a doubtful character, or not admit of being
maintained by reference to Treaty engagements . Nothing must be so
strictly guarded against as affording the Chinese Authorities oppor-
tunity for withholding acquiescence in any demands which you may
address to them ; but by allowing them to see that on some occasions
they may evade compliance with your wishes without calling for the
such strong remonstrance as you would be justified in using while
protesting against the infringement of Treaty engagements , they may
be encouraged to pursue the same course in violation of those engage-
ments , and thereby give occasion to violent and angry discussion .
The next point to which I will allude is the feeling of Her
Majesty's Government with regard to the intercourse of other Nations
with China . On this I have only to say that Her Majesty's Govern-
ment have no other wish than that all the Nations of the world should
have equal access with themselves to the great mart which the success
of Her Majesty's Arms has opened to them . The more China is brought
within the pale of European Civilization , the more extensive will be
the benefits which will accrue to British Interests ; and Her
Majesty's Government have therefore seen with peculiar satisfaction
the stipulation , so wisely inserted by Sir Henry Pottinger , in the
Supplementary Treaty, by which the privileges occurred to British
Trade are freely conceded to the Trade of all other Nations .
(73476) 55
Finally, as regards the position in which , as Her Majesty's
Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent of British Trade in China ,
you stand towards the Governor- General of India , I have to acquaint
you that it is not intended that His Excellency should have any
greater degree of control over you than would result from the
respectful attention with which you would naturally consider the
wishes of a Functionary in whom so important a trust as the
administration of the British Empire in India is vested . You will
of course keep the Indian Government fully informed upon all matters
of general interest , and you will communicate freely with it on
questions more peculiarly bearing upon the Trade which is carried on
between India and China . .
I am &c
( Signed ) ABERDEEN
DOCUMENT NO . II
Order of Her Majesty in Council for the government of Her
Majesty's subjects being within the Dominions of the
Emperor of China , or being within any ship or vessel at a
distance of not more than one hundred miles from the
Coast of China . [ Ending the Hong Kong Legislative
Council's Authority over British subjects in China]
At the Court at Buckingham Palace ,
the 13th day of June , 1853
Present :
THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY IN COUNCIL
Whereas by an Act passed in the 3rd and 4th years of the reign
of His late Majesty King William the Fourth , intituled " An Act to
regulate the Trade to China and India " , it was among other things
enacted , that it should and might be lawful for His Majesty to appoint
not exceeding three of His Majesty's subjects to be Superintendents
of the Trade of His Majesty's subjects to and from the dominions of
the Emperor of China; and by any Order or Orders in Council to make
and issue directions and regulations touching the said trade and for
the government of His Majesty's subjects within the said dominions :
And whereas by a certain other Act passed in the 6th and 7th
years of Her Majesty's reign , intituled " An Act for the better
government of Her Majesty's subjects resorting to China " , it was
among other things enacted , that it should be lawful for Her Majesty
to authorize the Superintendent of the Trade of Her Majesty's
subjects in China (so long as such Superintendent should be also the
Governor of the Island of Hong Kong ) to enact , with the advice of
the Legislative Council of the said Island of Hong Kong, all such
Laws and Ordinances as might from time to time be required for the
(73476) 56
peace , order , and good government of Her Majesty's subjects being
within the dominions of the Emperor of China , or being within any
ship or vessel at a distance of not more than one hundred miles
from the coast of China; and that it should also be lawful for Her
Majesty, by any Order or Orders in Council , to ordain , for the
government of Her Majesty's subjects , being within the dominions of
the Emperor of China , or being within any ship or vessel at a
distance of not more than one hundred miles from the coast of China ,
any Law or Ordinance which to Her Majesty in Council might seem
meet :
And whereas by a certain other Act passed in the 6th and 7th
years of Her Majesty's reign , intituled " An Act to remove doubts as
to the exercise of power and jurisdiction by Her Majesty within
divers countries and places out of Her Majesty's dominions , and to
render the same more effectual " , it was among other things enacted ,
that it should be lawful for Her Majesty to hold , exercise , and
enjoy any power or jurisdiction which Her Majesty now hath or may
at any time hereafter have with any country or place out of Her
Majesty's dominions , in the same and as ample a manner as if Her
Majesty had acquired such jurisdiction by the cession or conquest
of territory :
And whereas by Treaty, Grant , Sufferance , or other lawful
means , Her Majesty hath power and jurisdiction over British subjects
within the dominions of the Emperor of China , and the same or
certain parts thereof have heretofore been exercised on behalf of
Her Majesty by Her Majesty's Consular officers resident within the
said dominions :
And whereas in pursuance of the powers vested in Her Majesty
by the above - recited Act of the 3rd and 4th years of the reign of
His late Majesty King William the Fourth , Her Majesty was pleased ,
by an Order in Council passed on the 24th day of February, 1843 , to
prohibit her subjects from resorting, for the purposes of trade and
commerce , to any other ports in the dominions of the Emperor of
China than those of Canton , Amoy, Foochow foo , Ningpo , and Shanghae ,
or than might be in the occupation of Her Majesty's forces :
And whereas Her Majesty was pleased , by a certain other Order
in Council passed on the 2nd day of October, 1843 , to order , that
if any law or ordinance made in pursuance of the above - recited Act
passed in the 6th and 7th years of Her Majesty's reign , intituled
" An Act for the better government of Her Majesty's subjects resort-
ing to China " , should be in anywise repugnant to or at variance with
the above -recited Order of Her Majesty in Council of the 24th day of
February, 1843 , or with certain Orders passed by His late Majesty
King William IV, on the 9th of December , 1833 , for the government
and trade of His Majesty's subjects at Canton in the dominions of
the Emperor of China , and for the appointment of a court of justice
with criminal and Admiralty jurisdiction for the trial of offences
committed by His Majesty's subjects within the said dominions and
the ports and havens thereof, or on the high seas within one hundred
miles from the coast of China ; or with a certain other Order passed
by Her Majesty on the 4th day of January, 1843 , directing that the
said court of justice should be holden in the Island of Hong Kong,
(73476) 57
for the purposes aforesaid ; then such law or ordinance , so long as
the same should be in force , should be obeyed and observed ; any-
thing in the said recited Orders in Council contained to the
contrary in anywise notwithstanding:
And whereas Her Majesty was pleased by a certain other Order
in Council , passed on the 17th day of April , 1844 , to order that
Her Majesty's Consuls and Vice - Consuls resident within the dominions
of the Emperor of China , or such other persons as by warrant under
the hand and seal of the Chief Superintendent of the Trade of Her
Majesty's subjects in China for the time being should be appointed
to act provisionally as Consuls or Vice - Consuls , should severally
in the districts within which they might respectively be appointed
to reside , have and hold all necessary power and authority to
exercise jurisdiction over British subjects within such districts
as aforesaid , for the repression and punishment of crimes and
offences by them committed within the dominions of the Emperor of
China, and for the arrangement and settlement of all and all manner
of differences , contentions , suits and variance that might or should
happen to arise between them or any of them; and should moreover
have power and authority , as far as in them might lie , to compose
and settle all and all manner of differences , contentions , suits ,
and variances , that might or should happen to arise between British
subjects and the subjects of the Emperor of China , or between
British subjects and the subjects of any foreign Power , and which
might be brought before them for settlement , and Her Majesty was
further pleased to order that Her Majesty's Consuls and Vice - Consuls
in China , or any persons acting provisionally as such Consuls or
Vice-Consuls , should , in the exercise of the jurisdiction so granted
to them, be governed by such laws and ordinances in that behalf as
might be enacted with the advice of the Legislative Council of the
Island of Hong Kong, by the Superintendent of the Trade of Her
Majesty's subjects in China for the time being, being the Governor
of Hong Kong; and Her Majesty was further pleased to appoint the
Colony of Hong Kong as the British colony , wherein crimes and
offences committed by British subjects within the dominions of the
Emperor of China , which it might be expedient should be inquired of,
tried , determined , and punished within Her Majesty's dominions ,
should be so inquired of , tried , determined , and punished :
And whereas in virtue of the powers conferred upon Her Majesty
by the above - recited Act passed in the 6th and 7th years of Her
Majesty's reign , intituled " An Act for the better government of Her
Majesty's subjects resorting to China " , divers ordinances have , by
authority of Her Majesty, from time to time been enacted by the
Superintendent of the Trade of Her Majesty's subjects in China , being
the Governor of the Island of Hong Kong, with the advice of the
Legislative Council of the said island ; and whereas it is expedient
to consolidate and amend the same :
I. Now, therefore , in pursuance of the above - recited Act
passed in the 3rd and 4th years of the reign of His late Majesty
King William the Fourth, intituled " An Act to regulate the trade to
China and India " , and in pursuance of the above - recited Act passed
in the 6th and 7th years of Her Majesty's reign , intituled " An Act
for the better government of Her Majesty's subjects resorting to
(73476) 58
China" , and in execution of the powers thereby in Her Majesty in
Council vested , Her Majesty is pleased , with the advice of her
Privy Council , to order, and doth hereby order, That from and after
the first day of November next ensuing each and every Ordinance
enacted as aforesaid by the Superintendent of the Trade of Her
Majesty's subjects in China , being the Governor of the Island of
Hong Kong, with the advice of the Legislative Council of the said
island, between the 23rd day of January, 1844 , and the 28th day of
January, 1852 , shall be and is hereby repealed : Provided always ,
that anything done by the Chief Superintendent or any Consul or
Vice-Consul , or person duly authorized to act as such, in pursuance
of any Ordinance so repealed previously to the first day of November
next ensuing, shall have the same force and effect as if this
present Order had not been passed .
II . And it is furt o , That the term " Chie Supe
her rdered f rin-
tend
ent " in this present Order shall be constru to mean the
Supe of Brit T i C ed
ri t ish rade n hina for the time being , or the
pers nd en e au to act as such ;
on uld y nt thori and the term " Cons
ul
" shal
l
be cons to inczled a a e
true ude ll nd very officer in Her Majesty
serv d '
ice , whethe Consul - General , Consul , Vice - Consul , or Conss ular
Agen , or pers r duly auth to act in any of the afor
t on oriz e s
capa with the domi ed of the Emp a i
c er r of China , and d
enga itieisn carrin o
n
t iopns of tho is Order ; and that
ged ying ut he rovisio
wher in this Orde , with refe ns to a
ev r renc ny perso , matte , or
thin , er a ny ord r ords s or are use
w o w i ed import
n
the sing
r
g in ular
numb , or the masc g e nder o n ly , y e t s u ch w g
o rd o r w o rds shall
er ul
be unde to incline seve p e r s a s w e l a s o n e p erso ,
rsto u e ral ons l
fema a o ell as mald n
les s wd es , and several matters or things as well as
one matt o t , unle i b o spec prov , or
er r hing ss t e therwis ia id
ther be some
e t
in the subj or cont e repu lly to suecdh
e e g
cons
truc ; hi an
ng
ct
d that the terms " Britis ship or a
xt n vnt
esse " , or
h l
" ship or ti vo
ensse under the Briti Flag " , shal be take and hel to
l sh l n d
incl a
ude ny ship or vessel British - registe and navi
g a
acco
rd
ing to law , and any ship or vess owne bryeda part entited b l -
el d y tled y aw
to be an owne of a Brit - regi vess , and any ship or
r ish ster e
vess prov w i t s a i - l e t edfro thl e Govern of the Colo
el ided h l ing t e r m n
of Hong Kong , or from the Chi
ef Superin
s of Tro ar
de ; and that y
the term " crew " shal be take and hel tn t e
l n d odeinntclude all persons
empl i n any ship or vess w m b p
oyed n avigat el hich ay e roceede
agai for a brea ingof the prov o t p d
nst ch isio f h e r e sent Order .
ns
III . And it is further ordered , That the Chief Superintendent ,
or Consul in the port , place , or district in which he may reside ,
shall have full power and authority to carry into effect , and to
en force by fine or imprisonment, as hereinafter provided, the
observance of the stipulations of treaties now existing or which
may hereafter be made between Her Majesty , her heirs and successors ,
and the Emperor of China , his heirs and successors , and to make ,
and enforce by fine or imprisonment , rules and regulations for the
observance of the stipulations of such treaties , and for the peace ,
order, and good government of Her Majesty's subjects being within
the dominions of the Emperor of China , or being within any British
ship or vessel at a distance of not more than one hundred miles from
the coast of China , and to enforce in like manner such rules and
regulations as have heretofore been made and continue unrepealed at
the time of the passing of the present order .
(73476) 59
IV. And it is further ordered , That all rules and regulations
heretofore made and continuing unrepealed , or to be hereafter made
by the Chief Superintendent or Consul , as aforesaid , shall forthwith
be printed , and a copy of the same be affixed and kept affixed and
exhibited in some conspicuous place in the public office of the said
Chief Superintendent or Consul ; and printed copies of the said
rules and regulations shall be provided by the said Chief Superin-
tendent or Consul , and sold at a price not exceeding one dollar for
each copy , and for the purpose of convicting any person offending
against the said rules and regulations , and for all other purposes
of law whatsoever , a printed copy of the said rules and regulations ,
certified under the hand of the said Chief Superintendent or Consul
to be a true copy thereof , shall be taken as conclusive evidence of
such rules and regulations ; and no penalty shall be incurred , or
shall be enforced , for the breach of any such rules or regulations
to be hereafter made , until the same shall have been so affixed and
exhibited for one calendar month in the public office of the Consular
district within which the breach of such rules or regulations shall
be alleged to have been committed : Provided always , that no rule
or regulation to be hereafter made by any of Her Majesty's Consuls ,
and to be enforced by a penalty , shall take effect until it has been
submitted to , and approved by , the Chief Superintendent , and has
thereupon been printed , and a copy of the same has been affixed and
exhibited as aforesaid for one calendar month in the public office
of the Consular district .
V. And it is further ordered , That it shall be lawful for the
Chief Superintendent or Consul as aforesaid , upon information , or
upon the complaint of any party, that a British subject has violated
any of the stipulations of treaties between Her Majesty and the
Emperor of China , or has disregarded or infringed any of the rules
and regulations for the observance of the stipulations of such
treaties , affixed and exhibited according to the provisions of the
next preceding article of this present Order, to summon before him
the accused party, and to receive evidence and examine witnesses as
to the guilt or innocence of such party in regard to the offence
laid to his charge ; and to award such penalty of fine or imprison-
ment to any party convicted of an offence against the said treaties
or the said rules and regulations , as may be specified in the said
treaties or in the said rules and regulations; and any charge
against a British subject for a breach of treaties , or for a breach
of the rules and regulations for the observance of such treaties ,
shall be heard and determined by the Chief Superintendent or Consul
without assessors : Provided always , that in no case shall the
penalty to be attached to a breach of the said rules and regulations
exceed five hundred dollars , or three months ' imprisonment .
VI . And it is furt o , That any char a a
her rdered ge gainst
Brit subj for a brea of rule and regu o t h t
er han
is ect ch s la i
thos hrela t t o of trea , sht alo ni l m
e ting o he bservan ties l s n ike anner
be hear and dete by theceChie Supe or Cons ; and
d rmi f rin ul
in all cases in whicnedthe pena shal not teexncdeent two hund
h lty l ed red
doll or one mont impr , the Chie Supe or
ar h' ison f rint
Cons s shal hear ands dete me
tnhte c h a r s u m m w ietnhd e n t t h e ald
u l rm ge ar l out
of asl ; but wher theinpeena a t i a ybrea o t
sess
ors e lty ttached o ch f he
rule and regu othe than thos rela t t o of
s lati r e ting o he bservan
ons ce
(73476 ) 60
treaties shall amount to more than two hundred dollars or to
imprisonment for more than one month , it shall be obligatory upon the
Consul, but not upon the Chief Superintendent , before he shall pro-
ceed to hear the charge , to summon two British subjects of good
repute residing within his district to sit with him as assessors ,
which assessors shall however have no authority to decide on the
innocence or guilt of the party charged , or on the amount of fine or
imprisonment to be awarded to him on conviction ; but it shall rest
with the Consul to decide on the guilt or innocence of the party
charged, and on the amount of fine or imprisonment to be awarded to
him: Provided always , that in no case shall the penalty to be
attached to a breach of rules and regulations other than those for
the observance of treaties exceed five hundred dollars or three
months ' imprisonment ; and provided further, that in the event of the
said assessors or either of them dissenting from the conviction of
the party charged, or from the penalty of fine or imprisonment
awarded to him by the Consul , the Consul shall take a note of such
dissent , with the grounds thereof, and shall require good and
sufficient security for the appearance of the party convicted at a
future time in order to undergo his sentence or receive his dis-
charge ; and the Consul shall within twenty days report his decision ,
with all the particulars of the case , together with the dissent of
the assessors or either of them, and the grounds thereof, to the
Chief Superintendent; and the Chief Superintendent shall have
authority to confirm, or vary, or reverse the decision of the Consul ,
as to him may seem fit: Provided always that if an appeal shall be
entered against the decision of the Consul , no such report shall be
made to the Chief Superintendent on the ground of the dissent of the
assessors or either of them , but the appeal shall be prosecuted in
the manner hereinafter ordered .
VII . And it is further ordered , That in any questio relati
n ng
to the observan o t ,
ce f reaties or of rules and regulations for the
observan o t
ce f reaties , or of rules and regulations other than those
for the observan o t , a report of any or every decisio
ce f reaties n
made by a subordi
nate Consular officer , with or without the aid of
assessor , shall be sent in to the superio Consul
s r ar officer of the
district , and that on the receipt of such report , the superi
or
Consular officer of such distric shall proceed , withou assess
t t ors ,
to revise such decisio as to him may seem fit , and such revisi
n on
shall have , for the purpose of this Order , the same effect as if
s
the case had been origina
lly heard and determined by such superior
Consular officer with or wit hout the aid of assessors : Provided
always , that in any case in which the assesso o r e i t h e r of them
rs
shall dissent from the decisio of a subordi
n nate Consular officer ,
such decisio shall not be subject to revisi
n on by the superior
Consular officer , but , in the event of no appeal being entere as
d
aforesai , shall be submitt
d ed to the Chief Superintendent for
revision in the same manner as if such decisio had been made by the
n
superior Consula officer .
r
VIII . And it is further ordered , That any party tried and con-
victed before a Consul for a breach of treaties between Her Majesty
and the Emperor of China , or for a breach of rules and regulations
for the observance of such treaties , or for a breach of rules and
regulations other than those relating to the observance of treaties ,
(73476 ) 61
may appeal , after sentence given by such Consul , to the Chief
Superintendent , who shall have power to confirm, or vary , or reverse
such sentence , as to him may seem fit, and to adjudge the expenses
of such appeal , and from whose decision there shall be no appeal ;
and upon notice given of such appeal , which notice must be given to
the Consul in writing, signed by the party appealing, within fifteen
days , the Consul shall be entitled to require reasonable security
from the party so appealing, which security shall in part consist
of one or two sufficient sureties to be approved by the Consul , to
the intent that if the Chief Superintendent should confirm or vary
the sentence passed by the Consul , the appellant shall submit to
such sentence , and likewise pay what shall be adjudged by the Chief
Superintendent for expenses: Provided always , that the Consul shall
forthwith report such appeal and transmit a copy of the proceedings
of such trial to the Chief Superintendent, and the party appealing
against the sentence of the Consul shall be required to prosecute
his appeal before the Chief Superintendent within such time as shall
be by the Consul , with the approval of the Chief Superintendent ,
assigned for the prosecution of such appeal ; and if the party
appealing shall not duly prosecute his appeal within such time as
aforesaid , it shall be lawful for the Consul to enforce his sentence
in the same manner as if such appeal had not been interposed .
IX. And it is further ordered , That if any party charged with
an offence committed against such treaties , or such rules and regula-
tions as aforesaid , shall escape or remove from the Consular district
within which such offence was committed , and shall be found within
another Consular district , it shall be lawful for the Consul within
whose district such party shall be found , to proceed against him in
the same manner as if the offence had been committed within such
district .
X. And it is further ordered , That it shall be lawful for the
Consul of the district , within which the party sued shall be found ,
to hear and determine any suit of a civil nature against a British
subject , arising within any part of the dominions of the Emperor of
China, whether such suit be instituted by a subject of the Emperor
of China or by a subject or citizen of a foreign State in amity with
Her Majesty; and if either or any party in such suit shall be dis-
satisfied with the decision given by such Consul , it shall be lawful
for such party within fifteen days to give to the Consul notice of
appeal to the Chief Superintendent ; whereupon the Consul shall ,
with as little delay as possible , transmit all the documents which
were produced before him and none other, together with a statement
of the grounds on which he has formed his decision , to the Chief
Superintendent , and shall forthwith notify to the several parties
the transmission of the process ; and saving the provision contained
in Article XV of this Order, the Chief Superintendent shall decide
on such documents and on such statement , and shall communicate his
decision to the Consul , who shall forthwith proceed to carry the same
into execution ; and against such decision of the Chief Superin-
tendent there shall be no appeal : Provided always , that it shall be
lawful for the Consul to require from any party appealing to the
Chief Superintendent , or to the Supreme Court of the Colony of Hong
Kong in the case hereinafter mentioned , reasonable security, which
(73476) 62
shall consist in part of one or two sufficient sureties to be
approved by the Consul , that such party shall abide by the decision
to be given respectively by the Chief Superintendent , or by the said
Supreme Court .
XI . And it is furt o , That it shal be lawf f t
her rdered l ul or he
Consu of the dist , wit h whic the part sued shal be foun ,
l ri t in h y l d
in like mann to hec ar and determ any suit of a civi natu ,
e l re
aris with r any part of the doimnie o t
f he mper E o C
f hina ,
ing in ni o
inst by a Brit subj agai ons a subj of tr he Emper of
itut i sh e ct n st e ct or
ed aga
China , or inst a subject or citizen of a foreign State in amity
with Her Maje , prov that the defe in such suit shal
st id nd l
conse to submy to hisedjuri and agn itv e suff secu
nt it sdic icie rity
that he will abid by the deci t o t C , or inntcase of
e si ionf he onsul
appea by that of the Chie Supeon , and will pay such
l f rint
expe a t C
nses s he onsul or Chief Supeernidnent shal adju
l dge
; and
if eith or any part in such suit shat endbee di
ll n s
t sati w i t t
h he
er y
deci give by such Cons , it shal be lawf fosrfiseudch party
sion n ul l ul
with t
in ifteen ays o give to the Consul notice of appeal to the
f d
Chie Supe , and the proc in such a suit , or in an
f ri ee
appea aris ntentdheenr from , shal be cdoinnfgs to and unde the same
l ing te l or r
cond as the proc in a suit , moarblien an appe aris
itio e e d a l in
there from ns, in wh
ich a Britn
i g subj i d , and a subj g of
iss ect s efendan ec
the Empe of Chin , or a shubj or citi of ta fore Stat t in
ror a ect zen ign e
amit with Her Maje , is plai .
y sty ntif
f
XII . And it is further ordered, That in the event of any suit
of a civil nature arising between British subjects within the
dominions of the Emperor of China, it shall be lawful , upon the
application of a party , for the Consul of the district , within which
the party sued shall be found , to hear and determine such suit,
subject to an appeal to the Chief Superintendent in any case where
the sum in dispute shall not exceed one thousand dollars : and every
such appeal shall be made and conducted in the same manner and form
and under the same conditions as in cases in which the defendant
only is a British subject : Provided always , that when the sum in
dispute shall exceed one thousand dollars the appeal shall lie to
the Supreme Court of the Colony of Hong Kong, and not to the Chief
Superintendent.
XIII . And it is further ordered , That it shall be lawful for any
of Her Majesty's Consuls , before whom any suit whatever of a civil
nature is brought for decision , to summon two , and not more than
four, British subjects of good repute , residing within his district ,
to sit with him as assessors at the hearing of such suit: and in
case the sum sought to be recovered shall exceed five hundred
dollars , such suit shall not be heard by the Consul without
assessors , if within a reasonable time such assessors can be pro-
cured; and the assessors aforesaid shall have no authority to decide
on the merits of such suit , but in the event of such assessors or any
or either of them dissenting from the decision of the Consul , the
Consul shall enter the fact of such dissent and the grounds thereof
in the minutes of the proceedings , and in case of appeal shall trans-
mit the same to the Chief Superintendent together with the documents
relating to the suit .
(73476 ) 63
XIV. And it is further ordered , That it shall be lawful for
the Chief Superintendent or Consul to enforce his decision against
a British subject in a civil suit , by distress or imprisonment , in
like manner as a decision of the Supreme Court of the Colony of
Hong Kong in a civil suit is enforced within the said Colony.
XV . And it is furt
her ordered , That in an appeal to the Chief
Supe from the deci of a Cons , it shal not be open
rint si ul l
to eith endoerntany part to addu on any furt evide than that
er y ce h e r n c
whic has been laid befo
h re the Consul : and that a peart shal not
y l
be requ
ired to appear personal to pros
e c ut
an appea or supp
l ort
a sente : Prov l
nce ided always , tyhat in all apepeals from the decision
of a Cons , it shal be lawf
ul l ul for a party to allege facts essentia
to the issue of the suit , whic have come to his kno sub- l
h wledg
sequ t o t h e d e o f t h C o , a t
nd o rodu p ee i
e cis
suppontlyof such fact : ionand Prov
e nsul ce vidence n
rt s ided also , that in an appeal to the
Supre C o t C o H K , it shall more
me ourt f he olony f ong ong over be law-
ful for the said Supr C t a a f l
eme o u rt o d m it n y u r ther e g al evidenc ,
besid t a b t C , on its bein esta et
es hat dduced efore he onsul g blish o
the sati o f t h e s a i d S u p reme C o u rt , b y o a t o r a f fidav e d ,
sfact h
that the partiondesi to produ s f e , was it
y ri ce uch urther vidence
ignor of the exis ng o f s u ch e v idenc , o r w a s t a ken by surpri
an tence
at the thear e se
ing before the Consul , or was unable to produce it before
the Cons , afte due and reas d ilige a e
nd xert o h
n is
ul r on bl io
part in that beha , or wher una dere the circum
nce
of tnhe case ,
lf e s tan
it shall appe
ar to the said Supreme Court that furctehser evidence
ought to be rece .
ived
XVI . And it is further ordered , That the Chief Superintendent
or Consul shall have power in a civil suit to examine on oath or in
such form and with such ceremony as he may declare to be binding on
his conscience , any witness who may appear before him, and shall
have power, on the application of any party in the said suit , to
issue a compulsory order for the attendance of any person , being a
British subject , who may be competent to give evidence in such suit ,
and any British subject having been duly served with any such com-
pulsory order, and with a reasonable notice of the day of the hear-
ing of such suit , upon his expenses of appearing as a witness having
been paid or tendered to him by the party at whose application he
shall have been ordered to attend , shall on his wilful default to
appear as a witness at the hearing of such suit, be punished with a
fine not exceeding one hundred dollars , or with imprisonment for a
period not exceeding thirty days , at the discretion of the said Chief
Superintendent or Consul ; and every witness , being a British
subject , so examined as aforesaid , in case of wilful false testimony ,
may be convicted of and punished for the crime of wilful and corrupt
perjury .
XVII . And it is further ordered , That it shall be lawful for the
Chief Superintendent or Consul to promote the settlement of a suit
or contention by amicable agreement between the parties , and with
the consent of the several parties to refer the decision of a suit
or contention to one or more arbitrators , and to take security from
the parties that they will be bound by the result of such reference ,
and the award of such arbitrator or arbitrators shall be to all
intents and purposes deemed and taken to be a judgment or sentence
(73476 ) 64
of the Chief Superintendent or Consul , in such suit or contention ,
and shall be entered and recorded as such, and shall have the like
effect and operation , and shall be enforced accordingly, and shall
not be open to appeal .
XVIII . And it is further ordered , That it shall be lawful for
any of Her Majesty's Consuls to cause to be apprehended and brought
before him any British subject who may be charged with having
committed any crime or offence within the dominions of the Emperor
of China , or within any British ship or vessel being within one
hundred miles from the coast of China , or within any ship or vessel
on the high seas within the same limits not being lawfully entitled
to claim the protection of the flag of any State or nation , or
within any Chinese ship or vessel within the said limits : and such
Consul shall thereupon proceed with all convenient speed to inquire
of the same , and for such purpose and end shall have power to
examine on oath, or in such form and with such ceremony as he shall
declare to be binding on his conscience , any witness who may appear
before him to substantiate the charge ; and shall have power to
compel any person being a British subject who may be competent to
give evidence as to the guilt or innocence of the party so charged ,
to appear and give evidence , and to punish the wilful default of any
such person to appear and give evidence , after reasonable notice of
the day of the hearing of such charge , by fine or imprisonment , in
like manner as provided in Article XVI of this Order ; and shall
examine every such witness in the presence and hearing of the party
accused , and afford the accused party all reasonable facility for
cross -examining such witness ; and shall cause the deposition of
every such witness to be reduced to writing, and the same to be read
over, and, if necessary , explained to the party accused , together
with any other evidence that may have been urged against him during
the course of the inquiry; and shall require such accused party to
defend himself against the charge brought against him, and , if
necessary , advise him of the legal effects of any voluntary confes-
sion , and shall take the evidence of any witness whom the accused
party may tender to be examined in his defence ; and every witness ,
being a British subject , so examined as aforesaid , in case of wilful
false testimony , may be convicted and punished for the crime of
wilful and corrupt perjury: and when the case has been fully
inquired of, and the innocence or guilt of the person accused estab-
lished to the satisfaction of the Consul , the Consul , as the case
may be , shall either discharge the party accused from custody , if
satisfied of his innocence , or proceed to pass sentence on him, if
satisfied of his guilt : And it shall be lawful for any Consul ,
having inquired of, tried , and determined , in the manner aforesaid ,
any charge which may be brought before him, to award to the party
convicted any amount of punishment not exceeding imprisonment for
one month , or a fine of two hundred dollars .
XIX. And it is further ordered , That if the crime or offence
whereof any person , being a British subject, may be accused before
any of Her Majesty's Consuls as aforesaid , shall appear to such
Consul to be of such a nature as , if proved , would not be adequately
punished by the infliction of such punishment as aforesaid , it shall
be lawful for such Consul to summon two , or not more than four,
(73476 ) 65
British subjects of good repute residing within his district, to
sit with him as assessors for inquiring of, trying, and determining
the charge against such person; and the Consul who shall try any
such charge with the assistance of assessors as aforesaid , shall ,
if he is himself convinced of the guilt of the party accused , have
power to award any amount of punishment not exceeding imprisonment
for twelve months , or a fine of one thousand dollars ; and the
assessors aforesaid shall have no authority to decide on the
innocence or guilt of the party accused , or on the amount of punish-
ment to be awarded to him on conviction ; but in the event of the
said assessors , or any or either of them, dissenting from the con-
viction of , or from the amount of punishment awarded to the accused
party, the said assessors , or any or either of them , shall be
authorized to record in the minutes of the proceedings the grounds
on which the said assessors , or any or either of them, may so
dissent ; and the Consul shall forthwith report to Her Majesty's
Chief Superintendent the fact that such dissent has been so recorded
in the minutes of the proceedings , and shall as soon as possible lay
before him copies of the whole of the depositions and proceedings ,
with the dissent of the assessor or assessors recorded therein ;
and it shall be lawful thereupon for Her Majesty's Chief Superin-
tendent , by warrant under his hand and seal , addressed to the Consul
by whom the case was determined , to confirm , or vary, or remit
altogether , as to him may seem fit , the punishment awarded to the
party accused ; and such Consul shall give immediate effect to the
injunction of any such warrant ,
XX. And in order more effectually to repress crimes and
offences on the part of British subjects within the dominions of the
Emperor of China , it is further ordered , That it shall and may be
lawful for any of Her Majesty's Consuls to cause any British subject
who shall have been twice convicted before him of any crime or
offence and punished for the same , and who after execution of the
sentence of the Consul on any second conviction shall not be able
to find good and sufficient security to the satisfaction of the
Consul for his future good behaviour , to be sent out of the dominions
of the Emperor of China ; and to this end any such Consul as afore-
said shall have power and authority, as soon as may be practicable
after execution of the sentence on such second conviction , to send
any such twice convicted party to the Colony of Hong Kong, and mean-
while to detain him in custody, until a suitable opportunity for
sending him out of the said dominions shall present itself; and any
person so to be sent out of the said dominions as aforesaid shall be
embarked in custody on board one of Her Majesty's vessels of war, or
if there should be no such vessel of war available for such purpose ,
then on board any British vessel , bound to Hong Kong, and it shall
be lawful for the commander of any of Her Majesty's ships of war,
or of any British vessel bound to Hong Kong, to receive any such
person as aforesaid under a warrant from the Consul addressed to the
Chief Magistrate of Police of the Colony of Hong Kong, and thereupon
to convey him in custody to Hong Kong, and on his arrival there to
deliver him with the said warrant into the custody of the said Chief
Magistrate of Police , or other officer of Her Majesty within the
said Colony lawfully acting as such , who on the receipt of the said
warrant and of the party therein named , shall be authorized to
commit and shall commit such party to the common gaol of the said
(73476) 66
Colony, to be there detained in custody subject to the directions
of the Chief Superintendent for any period not exceeding three
months; and any such party so embarked on board any of Her Majesty's
ships of war or any British vessel bound to Hong Kong for conveyance
in custody to Hong Kong, shall be conveyed to Hong Kong in the same
manner as if he were a distressed British subject , unless he shall
be willing and able himself to defray the expenses of his passage
to Hong Kong.
XXI . And it is further ordered , That in any case in which any
British subject shall be accused before any of Her Majesty's Consuls
of the crime of arson , or house -breaking, or cutting and maiming ,
or stabbing, or wounding, or assault endangering life , or of causing
any bodily injury dangerous to life , the proceedings before the
Consul shall be carried on with the aid of assessors convened in the
manner aforesaid ; and it shall be lawful for the Consul , if to him
it shall seem fit , to cause any person convicted before him of any
of the crimes aforesaid , over and above any fine or imprisonment
which may be awarded to such person , to be sent out of the dominions
of the Emperor of China and to the Colony of Hong Kong in the manner
pointed out in the next preceding Article of this Order , notwith-
standing the crime laid to the charge of such person may be the
first of which he has been convicted before the Consul .
XXII . And it is further ordered , That it shall be lawful for any
of Her Majesty's Consuls within the dominions of the Emperor of
China, upon information laid before him by one or more credible
witnesses that there is reasonable ground to apprehend that any
British subject is about to commit a breach of the public peace , to
cause such British subject to be brought before him, and to require
such British subject to give sufficient security to keep the peace ;
and in the event of any British subject being convicted of and
punished for a breach of the peace , to cause such British subject
after he shall have undergone the punishment which may have been
awarded to him by the Consul , to find security for his good behaviour ;
and in the event of any British subject who may be required as afore-
said to give sufficient security to keep the peace , or to find
security for his good behaviour , being unable or wilfully omitting
to do so , then and in that case it shall be lawful for Her Majesty's
Consul to send such British subject out of the dominions of the
Emperor of China and to the Colony of Hong Kong in the manner
pointed out in Article XX of this Order .
XXIII . And it is further ordered , That in all cases in which a
British subject shall have been sent out of the dominions of the
Emperor of China to the Colony of Hong Kong as provided in Articles
XX , XXI , and XXII of this Order, the Consul sending him out shall
forthwith report such act of deportation with the grounds of his
decision to Her Majesty's Chief Superintendent ; and on the arrival
of such person at Hong Kong, after the sentence of the Consul shall
have been duly executed , it shall be lawful for the Chief Superin-
tendent to send him to England ; and a party so to be sent to
England by the Chief Superintendent may be embarked and conveyed to
England in the manner provided in Article XX of this Order with
regard to the embarkation and conveyance of such party to the Colony
of Hong Kong; Provided always , that if the Chief Superintendent
(73476 ) 67
shall consider that any such act of deportation inflicts upon the
party a severer punishment than his offence has deserved , it shall
be lawful for the Chief Superintendent to vary or remit such punish-
ment , as to him shall seem fit .
XXIV . And it is further ordered , That a report of every sentence
passed by a subordinate Consular officer in the matters referred to
in Articles XVIII , XIX , XX , XXI , and XXII , of this Order, and award-
ing a fine exceeding twenty dollars , or imprisonment for more than
ten days , shall be sent in to the superior Consular officer of the
district , and on the receipt of such report , such superior Consular
officer shall proceed without assessors to revise such sentence as
to him may seem fit ; and if the sentence should have been pronounced
by the subordinate Consular officer without assessors or with the
concurrence of assessors , then the decision pronounced by the
superior Consular officer on revision of the proceedings shall be
final ; but if the sentence of the subordinate Consular officer
shall have been pronounced with dissent on the part of the assessors
or of any or either of them , then the superior Consular officer shall
not proceed to revise such sentence , but shall submit the whole pro-
ceedings to the Chief Superintendent in the same manner as if the
case had been originally heard and decided by the superior Consular
officer with dissent on the part of the assessors or of any or
either of them .
XXV. And it is further ordered , That it shall be lawful for any
of Her Majesty's Consuls to send any person sentenced to imprisonmen
t
under this Order , at any time while such sentence of imprisonment is
in course of execution , to the Colony of Hong Kong in any of Her
Majesty' ships of war , or in any British vessel , to undergo his
s and it
term of imprisonme in the common gaol of the said Colony ;
nt
shall be lawful for the Commander of any of Her Majesty's ships of
war , or of any British vessel , to receive any such person on board ,
with a copy of such sentence and a warrant from the Consul for its
due execution , addressed to the Chief Magistrate of Police of the
said colony , and thereupon to convey him in custody to Hong Kong ,
and on his arrival there to deliver him with the said copy of such
sentence and warrant into the custody of the said Chief Magistrate
of Police , or other Officer of Her Majesty within the said Colony
lawfully acting as such , who on the receipt of the said warrant ,
and of the person therein named , shall be authorized to commit , and
shall commit such person to the common gaol of the said colony , and
such sentence shall be enforced to execution in the said manner as
if the sentence had been awarded by the Supreme Court of the Colony
of Hong Kong .
XXVI . And it is further ordered , That in cases of assault it
shall be lawful for the Consul before whom complaint is made , to
promote reconciliation between the parties , and to suffer compensa-
tion and amends to be made , and the proceedings thereby to be stayed .
XXVII . And it is further ordered , That save and except as regards
offences committed by British subjects against the stipulations of
Treaties between Her Majesty and the Emperor of China , or against
rules and regulations for the observance of the stipulations of such
Treaties , duly affixed and exhibited according to the provisions of
(73476 ) 68
Article IV of this Order , or against rules and regulations for the
peace , order, and good government of Her Majesty's subjects , being
within the dominions of the Emperor of China , or being within any
British ship or vessel at a distance of not more than one hundred
miles from the coast of China , duly affixed and exhibited as afore-
said, and save and except as regards the offence of engaging in
trade declared by Article XXXIV of this Order to be unlawful , no act
done by a British subject being within the dominions of the Emperor
of China , or being within any ship or vessel at a distance of not
more than one hundred miles from the coast of China shall , by the
Chief Superintendent or by any of Her Majesty's Consuls , be deemed
and taken to be a crime , or misdemeanour , or offence , rendering the
person committing it amenable to punishment , which, if done within
that part of Her Majesty's dominions called England , would not by a
court of justice having criminal jurisdiction in England , have been
deemed and taken to be a crime , or misdemeanour , or offence , render-
ing the person so committing it amenable to punishment .
XXVIII . And it is further ordered , That a minute of the proceedings
in every case heard and determined before a Consul in pursuance of
this Order, shall be drawn up and be signed by the Consul , and shall ,
in cases where assessors are present , be open for the inspection of
such assessors , and for their signature , if they shall therein
concur; and such minute , together with the depositions of the
witnesses , shall be preserved in the public office of the said Consul ,
and a copy of every such minute and of such depositions shall , if
the Chief Superintendent shall see fit to require them, be trans-
mitted by the Consul to the said Chief Superintendent .
XXIX. And it is further ordered , That the Chief Superintendent
shall have the same power and jurisdiction in regard to breaches of
treaties , and breaches of rules and regulations , and in regard to
crimes and offences committed by British subjects , as are granted to
Her Majesty's Consuls by the provisions of this present Order ; and
if any person charged with an offence against any such treaties , or
against any such rules and regulations , or with any crime or offence
committed within the dominions of the Emperor of China , or within
any British ship or vessel within one hundred miles from the coast
of China, or within any ship or vessel on the high seas within the
said limits not being lawfully entitled to claim the protection of
the flag of any state or nation , or within any Chinese ship or vessel
within the said limits , shall escape to , or be found within the Colony
of Hong Kong, it shall be lawful for the Chief Magistrate of Police
of the said colony for the time being, or other officer of Her
Majesty within the said colony lawfully acting as such, and he is
hereby required , on a requisition addressed to him by the Chief
Superintendent under his hand and seal , to cause such person to be
apprehended and brought before him the said Chief Magistrate or other
officer ; and the said Chief Magistrate or other officer on such
person being brought before him , shall proceed to inquire into the
offence laid to the charge of such person , in the same manner as if
such person was charged with having committed an offence within the
Colony of Hong Kong, and the said Chief Magistrate or other officer
having so inquired , shall report the result of such inquiry to the
Chief Superintendent , and shall forthwith transmit to him the
depositions with all the documents or other proofs which have been
(73476 ) 69
made or produced before him against or in behalf of the person so
charged, and shall meanwhile detain the person so charged in custody
or hold him to bail , and the Chief Superintendent shall thereupon
direct the person so charged to be discharged , or shall proceed to
award to such person the punishment to which he may be liable under
the provisions of this Order, in the same manner as if the case had
been originally inquired of , tried , and determined by the Chief
Superintendent ; and the decision of the Chief Superintendent in
every such case shall be final ; and any sentence of imprisonment
awarded by the Chief Superintendent shall be enforced to execution
in the common gaol of the Colony of Hong Kong, in the same manner
as if the sentence had been awarded by the Supreme Court of the said
Colony : Provided always , that the Chief Superintendent may , if he
deems it advisable for the better decision of such cases , call in
the assistance of two or more assessors , who, however, shall only
have power to advise , but shall not have power to decide : and pro-
vided further, that the said Chief Magistrate of Police of the
Colony of Hong Kong, or any persor lawfully acting on his behalf ,
or under his authority, shall not be liable to any action for
damages in consequence of proceedings taken by him in pursuance of
any requisition addressed as aforesaid by the Chief Superintendent
to the said Chief Magistrate .
XXX . And it is further ordered , that save and except as regards
offences committed by British subjects against the stipulations of
Treaties between Her Majesty and the Emperor of China , or against
rules and regulations for the observance of the stipulations of such
Treaties , duly affixed and exhibited according to the provisions of
Article IV of this Order , or against rules and regulations for the
peace , order , and good government of Her Majesty's subjects , being
within the dominions of the Emperor of China , or being within any
British ship or vessel at a distance of not more than one hundred
miles from the coast of China , duly affixed and exhibited as afore-
said , and save and except as regards the offence of engaging in
trade declared by Article XXXIV of this Order to be unlawful , which
offences shall be enquired of, tried , determined , and punished , in
the manner hereinbefore and by Article XXXIV of this Order provided ,
and not otherwise , the Supreme Court of the Colony of Hong Kong shall
have and may exercise , concurrently with the said Chief Superintendent
or Consul , authority and jurisdiction in regard to all crimes and
offences , committed by British subjects being within the dominions
of the Emperor of China , and the ports and havens thereof , or on the
high seas within any ship or vessel at a distance of not more than
one hundred miles from the coast of China , in the same and as ample
a manner as if such crimes and offences had been committed within
the Colony of Hong Kong: Provided always , the the Supreme Court
shall not be bound , unless in a fit case it shall deem it right so
to do , by writ of certiorari or otherwise , to debar or prohibit the
Chief Superintendent or Consul from taking cognizance , pursuant to
the provisions of Articles XVIII , XIX, XX , XXI , and XXII , of this
Order , of any crime , or misdemeanour , or offence , committed by a
British subject , being within the dominions of the Emperor of China ,
or being within any ship or vessel at a distance of not more than
one hundred miles from the coast of China .
( 73476 ) 70
XXXI . And it is further ordered , That it shall be lawful for the
Chief Superintendent or Consul , to cause any British subject charged
with the commission of any crime or offence the cognizance whereof
may at any time appertain to him, to be sent , in any of Her Majesty's
ships of war, or in any British vessel , to the Colony of Hong Kong,
for trial before the Supreme Court of the said colony; and it shall
be lawful for the commander of any of Her Majesty's ships of war or
of any British vessel to receive any such person on board , with a
warrant from the said Chief Superintendent or Consul , addressed to
the Chief Magistrate of Police of the said colony, and thereupon to
convey him in custody to Hong Kong, and on his arrival there to
deliver him , with the said warrant , into the custody of the said
Chief Magistrate of Police , or other officer of Her Majesty within
the said colony lawfully acting as such, who on the receipt of the
said warrant and of the party therein named , shall be authorized to
commit, and shall commit such party so sent for trial to the common
gaol of the said colony, and it shall be lawful for the keeper of
the said common gaol to cause such party to be detained in safe and
proper custody, and to be produced upon the order of the said Supreme
Court; and the Supreme Court at the sessions to be next holden shall
proceed to hear and determine the charge against such party in the
same manner as if the crime , with which he may be charged , had been
committed within the Colony of Hong Kong .
XXXII . And it is further ordered , That the Chief Superintendent
or Consul , on any occasion of sending a prisoner to Hong Kong for
trial , shall observe the provisions made with regard to prisoners
sent for trial to a British colony in an Act passed in the 6th and
7th years of Her Majesty's reign , intituled " An Act to remove doubts
as to the exercise of power and jurisdiction by Her Majesty within
divers countries and places out of Her Majesty's dominions , and to
render the same more effectual " .
XXXIII . And it is further ordered , That the Supreme Court of the
Colony of Hong Kong shall have and may exercise , concurrently with
the Chief Superintendent or Consul , authority and jurisdiction in
regard to all suits of a civil nature between British subjects
arising within any part of the dominions of the Emperor of China ;
Provided always , that the said Supreme Court shall not be bound ,
unless in a fit case it shall deem it right so to do , by writ of
certiorari or otherwise , to debar or prohibit the Chief Superin-
tendent or Consul from hearing and determining , pursuant to the
provisions of the several Articles of this Order , any suit of a
civil nature between British subjects , or to stay the proceedings
of the Chief Superintendent or Consul in any such matter .
XXXIV. And it is further ordered , That all trade whatsoever of
Her Majesty's subjects in, to , or from any part of the coast of
China to the northward of the thirty- second degree of north latitude ,
shall be unlawful ; and each and every party engaged in such trade ,
as principal , agent , ship - owner, shipmaster , or supercargo , shall
be liable to be apprehended by any of Her Majesty's Consuls , and
shall be sent by him to Hong Kong in any of Her Majesty's ships of
war or in any British vessel , for trial before the Chief Superin-
tendent , and it shall be lawful for the Commander of any of Her
Majesty's ships of war or of any British vessel , to receive any such
(73476) 71
party on board under a warrant from the said Consul addressed to
the Chief Magistrate of Police of the Colony of Hong Kong, and
thereupon to convey him in custody to Hong Kong, and on his arrival
there to deliver him, with the said warrant , into the custody of
the said Chief Magistrate of Police , or other officer of Her Majesty
within the said colony lawfully acting as such , who on the receipt
of the said warrant and of the party therein named , shall be
authorized to commit, and shall commit such party so sent for trial
to the common gaol of the said colony, and it shall be lawful for
the keeper of the said common gaol to cause such party to be
detained in safe and proper custody , and to be produced upon the
order of the said Chief Superintendent , and the said Chief Superin-
tendent shall forthwith proceed to hear and determine the charge
against such party , and such party upon conviction before the Chief
Superintendent shall be liable to a fine not exceeding ten thousand
dollars , or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years , and
the sentence of the Chief Superintendent shall be enforced to execu-
tion in the same manner as if the sentence had been awarded by the
Supreme Court of the Colony of Hong Kong.
XXXV. And it is further ordered , That it shall be lawful for any
of the Commanders of Her Majesty's ships , or any other officer duly
authorized in that behalf, to seize any ship or vessel under the
British flag which may reasonably be suspected of having been
engaged , or of being engaged , in trade declared in the next preced-
ing Article to be unlawful , and to bring such ship or vessel , and
the master , officers , supercargo , and crew thereof to the Colony of
Hong Kong, or to any other place where the Chief Superintendent may
for the time being be resident , or direct the same to be brought ,
and there to detain such ship or vessel , and the master , officers ,
supercargo , and crew thereof, until the said Chief Superintendent
shall have tried and determined the charges which may be brought
against them, or any of them, of having been engaged in such unlaw-
ful trade .
XXXVI . And it is further ordered , That all fines and penalties
imposed under this Order may be levied by distress and seizure and
sale of ships , and goods and chattels ; and no bill of sale , mort-
gage or transfer of property made after the apprehension of a party ,
or with a view to security in regard to crimes or offences committed
or to be committed , shall avail to defeat any of the provisions of
this order.
XXXVII . And it is further ordered , That it shall be lawful for the
Chief Superintendent from time to time to establish rules of practice
to be observed in proceedings before the said Chief Superintendent
or Consul , and to make regulations for de fraying the expenses of
witnesses in such proceedings and the costs of criminal prosecutions ,
and also to establish rates of fees to be taken in regard to civil
suits heard and determined before the said Chief Superintendent or
Consul , and it shall be lawful for the said Chief Superintendent or
Consul to enforce by seizure and sale of goods , or if there be no
goods , by imprisonment , the payment of such established fees , and of
such expenses as may be adjudged against the parties , or either or
(73476 ) 72
any of them: Provided always , that a table specifying the rates of
fees to be so taken shall be affixed and kept exhibited in the public
office of the said Chief Superintendent or Consul .
XXXVIII . And it is further ordered , That all fees , penalties , fines ,
and forfeitures levied under this Order, save and except such
penalties as are by treaty payable to the Chinese Government , shall
be paid to the public account , and be applied in diminution of the
public expenditure on account of the Superintendent and Control of
British Trade in China : Provided always , that in the event of the
Chinese authorities declining to receive fines payable to the
Chinese Government as aforesaid , the same shall be paid to the
public account , and applied in the manner last mentioned .
XXXIX. And it is further ordered , That it shall be lawful for
any of Her Majesty's Consuls to grant probate of the will or letters
of administration to the intestate estate of a British subject
deceased and leaving property within the limits of the district
within which such Consul shall exercise authority ; and in the case
of a party so deceased either leaving a will or intestate , it shall
be lawful for the Consul , provided that probate of the will or
letters of administration to the estate of the party deceased shall
not have been applied for within thirty days by any person lawfully
entitled thereto , to administer to such estate , and to reserve to
himself out of the proceeds of such estate a commission not exceed-
ing two and a-half per centum .
XL. And it is further ordered, That a register shall be kept
by each and every of Her Majesty's Consuls , of all British subjects
residing within the ports , places , or districts of China within
his jurisdiction , and that every British subject now residing within
the dominions of the Emperor of China who shall not be already
enrolled in any such Consular register , shall within a reasonable
time after the promulgation of this Order , to be specified in a
notice to be affixed and publicly exhibited in the Consular Office ,
apply to the Consul of the district to be enrolled in such register;
and every British subject who may arrive within the said dominions ,
save and except any British subject who may be borne on the muster-
roll of any British ship arriving in a port of China , shall within
a reasonable time after his arrival , to be specified as aforesaid ,
apply to the Consul of the district to be enrolled in such register ;
and any British subject who shall refuse or neglect to make applica-
tion so to be enrolled , and who shall not be able to excuse , to the
satisfaction of the said Consul , such his refusal or neglect , shall
not be entitled to be recognized or protected as a British subject
in any difficulties or suits whatsoever, in which he may have been
involved within the dominions of the Emperor of China within the
time during which he shall not have been so enrolled .
XLI . And it is further ordered , That the Consul within his
Consular district may exercise any of the powers which by any Acts
of the Imperial Parliament now enacted or hereafter to be enacted
for the regulation of merchant seamen , or for the regulation of the
mercantile marine , may be exercised by one or more justices of the
peace within Her Majesty's dominions .
(73476)
7333
XLII . And it is further ordered , That nothing in this Order
contained shall be taken or construed to preclude a British Consul
within the dominions of the Emperor of China from performing any
act of administration , or jurisdiction , or other act , which British
Consuls within other States at amity with Her Majesty are by law,
usage , or sufferance enabled to perform .
XLIII . And it is further ordered , That it shall be lawful for the
Chief Superintendent or Consul to execute a writ of the Supreme
Court of the Colony of Hong Kong, and take security from each and
every party named in such writ for his appearance in person or by
his attorney at Hong Kong, and in default of such security, to send
such party to Hong Kong in the manner pointed out in Article XXXI
of this Order; Provided always , that the Chief Superintendent or
Consul shall not be liable to an action for the escape of any party
captured under any such writ .
XLIV. And it is further ordered , That any suit or action brought
against the Chief Superintendent or Consul in the Supreme Court of
the Colony of Hong Kong, by reason of anything done under the
authority and in execution of the power or jurisdiction of Her
Majesty entrusted to him by this Order , shall be commenced or
prosecuted within six months after he shall have been within the
jurisdiction of the said Court , and not otherwise , and the defendant
in every such action or suit shall be entitled to the benefit of the
provisions made with respect to defendants in actions or suits , in
an Act passed in the 6th and 7th years of Her Majesty, intituled
" An Act to remove doubts as to the exercise of power and jurisdic-
tion by Her Majesty within divers countries and places out of Her
Majesty's dominions , and to render the same more effectual " .
XLV . And it is further ordered , That the Supreme Court of the
Colony of Hong Kong shall have power to take cognizance of offences
committed by British subjects within the Peninsula of Macao , and of
suits originating there , when the party offending, or the party sued
shall come or be found within its jurisdiction ; but it shall not
have power to issue any warrant or writ to be executed or served
within the Peninsula of Macao .
XLVI . And it is further ordered , That if any provision of any
Article of this Order shall be in any wise repugnant to , or at
variance with , certain Orders passed by his late Majesty King
William IV on the 9th day of December, 1833 , or certain Orders passed
by Her Majesty on the 4th day of January , 1843, and on the 24th day
of February , 1843 , and on the 2nd day of October , 1843 , and on the
17th day of April , 1844 , or any of them, then such provision of such
Article of this Order , so long as the same shall be in force , shall
be obeyed and observed , anything in the said recited Orders in
Council contained to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.
XLVII . And it is further ordered , That if any law or ordinance
hereafter made in pursuance of the Act of the 6th and 7th years of
Her Majesty's reign , intituled " And Act for the better Government
of Her Majesty's subjects resorting to China " , shall be in any wise
repugnant to or at variance with any of the provisions of this
(73476) 74
present Order of Her Majesty in Council , then such law or ordinance ,
so long as the same shall be in force , shall be obeyed and observed,
anything in this Order contained to the contrary in any wise
notwithstanding.
XLVIII. And it is further ordered , That this Order shall take
effect from and after the 1st day November next ensuing.
And the Right Honourable the Earl of Clarendon and His Grace
the Duke of Newcastle , two of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries
of State , and the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, are to give
the necessary directions herein , as to them may respectively
appertain .
15 WM. L. BATHURST
(73476) 75
THE OPIUM TRADE
This section dealing with the opium trade needs little introduction .
The Chinese regarded the opium trade as the main cause of the hostil-
ities which had been ended by the Treaty of Nanking; the British,
on the other hand , consistently argued that the suppression of the
contraband trade in opium was entirely a matter for the Chinese and
that it was no part of the duty of British officials to enforce the
law of a foreign state . Nevertheless the opium trade was regarded
as discreditable , and the British government supported the view,
held by Pottinger , that the prospect of a new era of friendly rela-
tions with China would be jeopardised if that trade was allowed to
continue and flourish in the new Colony under the shelter of the
British flag. As earnest of British goodwill therefore , Pottinger
was instructed to forbid opium ships from using Hong Kong, Document
No. 12. The next Document , No. 13, is Sir Henry Pottinger's
Proclamation against the argument used by some merchants that the
new tariff could be interpreted as sanctioning the import of opium
into China .
This conciliatory policy was countered by the British opium
dealers by the simple expedient of sending the opium store- ships
from Hong Kong to the outer anchorages ; but the main difficulty
was the fear that the British government's action would not check the
opium trade but merely drive it into non -British hands . Document
No. 14 , which is a letter from the Foreign Office to the Colonial
Office , authorised the suspension of the prohibition , and before
Davis had been in Hong Kong a year, he announced the abandonment
of steps to control the trade , Document No. 15 .
It is difficult to give precise figures of the opium trade .
It was a contraband trade in China up to 1858 and in Hong Kong,
being a free port , there were no officials whose duty it was to
collect statistics regarding commerce . Davis reported to the
Secretary of State on May 13, 1844 that he was unable to recommend
any local resident as an unofficial member of the Legislative
Council because " almost every person possessed of capital who is
not connected with government employment is employed in the opium
trade . " So the opium trade at Hong Kong must have been considerable .
The Opium Commission set up in 1840 to deal with the question of
compensation for the opium surrendered at Canton in 1839 on Captain
Charles Elliot's orders , gives a picture of the trade as it was in
that year . From 1854 to 1859 the Hong Kong annual Blue books each
year give the amount of opium and treasure carried to and from Hong
Kong by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. However
interesting these figures may be , they clearly cannot claim to be
an inclusive figure , and there seems little point in including them
here .
(73476) 77
A comprehensive estimate of the opium trade is given in
Document No. 16 and is that made by Sir Richard MacDonnell in 1868
in a dispatch to the Secretary of State . This governor was able
and conscientious , but it must be borne in mind that in this dispatch
his principal concern was to argue that Hong Kong was not the vast
centre of opium smuggling that the Chinese accused it of being and
on account of which they were " blockading" the island with revenue
cruizers .
Document No. 17 gives the Additional Article to the Che foo
Convention of 1876 , negotiated in London in July 1885 , and No. 18
gives the Opium Agreement of September 1886 negotiated under that
Article . As a result of this Agreement, the Hong Kong Government
set up an Imports and Exports Office under the Harbourmaster , in 1887
to record and control all shipments of opium in and out of the
Colony . From this date , official figures of the opium trade for
Hong Kong exist , but they are not in themselves exhaustive evidence
of Hong Kong's stake in the opium trade . The Colony was the head-
quarters of the chief opium firms and the figures take no account of
direct shipments to mainland ports and not passing through the
Colony, but yet from which the Hong Kong merchants equally profited .
The opium trade continued at a high level until 1907 when progressive
restrictions were imposed by the Imperial Government .
DOCUMENT NO . 12
Extract of a Dispatch from Lord Aberdeen to Sir Henry
Pottinger , No. 7 , January 4 , 1843 , Prohibiting the Opium
Trade in Hong Kong CO 129/3
No. 7 Foreign Office ,
January 4th, 1843
But whatever may be the result of your endeavours to prevail
with the Chinese Government to legalize the sale of opium, it will
be right that Her Majesty's servants in China should hold themselves
aloof from all connection with so discreditable a traffic . The
British opium smuggler must receive no protection or support in
the prosecution his illegal speculations ; and he must be made
aware that he will have to take the consequences of his own conduct .
Her Majesty's Government as I have stated above have not the power
to put a stop to this trade on the part of the British smuggler,
but they may perhaps impede it in some degree by preventing the
island of Hongkong or its neighbouring waters from being used as
the point from whence British smugglers shall depart on their
illegal adventures . As the case stands at present with regard
to Hongkong, + The Queen cannot prohibit the importation of opium
into Hongkong; but as soon as you assume the Government of the
Island on the completion of its cession to the Crown , you will
have the power to probibit the importation of opium into Hongkong
for the purpose of exportation , or its deposit on board receiving
(73476 ) 78
vessels in the waters of Hongkong for the same purpose . You will
also have the power to prevent vessels with cargoes of opium from
frequenting the Port of Hongkong on their way to the coasts of
China. If the importation of opium into Hongkong in greater
quantities than are required for consumption in the Island is pro-
hibited, the undue resort of vessels with opium on board, as giving
room to suspicion that the opium is intended to be introduced into
the Island contrary to the prohibition , may also reasonably be
prohibited .
Her Majesty's Government however are sensible that this measure ,
though it may relieve them from the imputation of encouraging the
Opium Trade , will do but little to mitigate the evils which result
from the present system. They wish therefore that you would con-
sider whether it would be possible to place the trade , even as a
smuggling trade on a less discreditable footing than that on which
it is now carried on. The only effectual remedy indeed is in the
power of the Chinese Government , and therefore , it will be proper
that you should do your utmost to induce that Government to sanction
the trade , even if they should confine it to the single port of
Canton. Her Majesty's Government would in that case, endeavour to
assist the Chinese Government in carrying this limitation into effect
by withholding clearance for vessels having opium on board, which
should be destined to other ports. But so long as the prohibition
against the introduction of opium into China is absolute , Her
Majesty's Government can do no more for China in that respect than
prevent the Island of Hongkong from being a resort and market for
the British smuggler.
DOCUMENT NO . 13
PROCLAMATION
BY H.E. Sir Henry Pottinger regarding the Opium Trade
1st August 1843
It having been brought to my notice , that such a step has been
contemplated, as sending vessels with opium on board, into the ports
of China to be opened by treaty to foreign trade ; and demanding,
that the said opium shall be admitted to importation , in virtue of
the concluding clause of the new tariff, which provides for all
articles not actually enumerated in that tariff , passing at an ad
valorem duty of five per cent : I think it expedient , by this
proclamation, to point out to all whom it may concern , that opium
being an article , the traffic in which is well known to be declared
illegal and contraband by the laws and imperial edicts of China,
any person who may take such a step will do so at his own risk,
and will , if a British subject , meet with no support or protection
from Her Majesty's consuls , or other officers .
(73476) 79
This proclamation will be translated and published in Chinese ,
so that no one may plead ignorance of it .
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN
Dated at the Government House , at Victoria , this 1st day of August ,
1843 .
HENRY POTTINGER
DOCUMENT NO . 14
Letter from the Foreign Office to the Colonial Office
proposing the suspension of the Opium Vessels from
Hong Kong CO 129/3
Foreign Office
November 11 , 1843
G. W. Hope , Esq .
Sir,
I am directed by the Earl of Aberdeen to request that you will
acquaint Lord Stanley that Sir Henry Pottinger in his late dispatches
expresses a strong opinion that it would neither be necessary nor
desirable to exclude British vessels trading in opium from Hongkong
harbour or its waters . Sir Henry Pottinger stated this opinion to
the Chinese Penipotentiary in a memorandum dated the 8th July last ,
and in that paper he expressed a strong opinion that the exclusion of
those vessels would only add to the evil of the present state of
things , adducing in support of that opinion observations and argu-
ments which appear to Lord Aberdeen to be cogent and of much weight .
It appears moreover that Sir Henry Pottinger is still in
communication with the Chinese authorities with the view of effecting
the legislation of the Opium Trade in some way or other , and that he
does not dispair of success .
A reference to the instructions to Sir Henry Pottinger on the
subject of the Opium Tradè , contained in the extract of Lord Aberdeen's
despatch No. 7 of the 4th January last , which was communicated to the
Colonial Office on the 9th of that month, will show Lord Stanley the
terms in which the question of the resort of opium vessels to Hong-
kong was treated of in that despatch . But, on further consideration
of the subject, Lord Aberdeen conceives that it might be expedient to
pay due regard to the observations of Sir Henry Pottinger on this
point , and to authorise him to suspend for the present any measures
for the exclusion of opium vessels from the waters and harbour of
(73476 ) 80
Hongkong if he should think it expedient so to do . I am there fore
to request that you will submit this opinion to Lord Stanley, and ,
if His Lordship should concur in it, Lord Aberdeen will without delay
instruct Sir Henry Pottinger to that effect .
I am Sir ,
Your most obedient, humble servant ,
H. M. ADDINGTON
[ Lord Stanley concurred formally on 15th November . ]
DOCUMENT NO . 15
Extract from a Dispatch from Sir John Davis to Lord Stanley,
No. 79, December 28 , 1844 , regarding the Opium Trade
CO 129/7
No. 79 Victoria , HongKong
28 th December, 1844
The Right Honorable
Lord Stanley , M. P. & c . &c . &c .
My Lord ,
I have the honour to forward by this Despatch an Ordinance ,
No. 21 of 1844 , for licensing the sale for consumption within this
Colony , of Salt , Opium , and other substances used by the Chinese
and natives of India .
I have Your Lordship's authority for obtaining a revenue from
Opium consumed within the Colony; and as the Farming system at
Singapore has produced upwards of £23,000 per annum, it seemed the
most expedient course to adopt the same in Hongkong, with nearly the
same regulations .
All scruples with reference to the Chinese Government appear
to me to be done away with by Kiying's last communication to me in
regard to opium, copy of which I have the honour to enclose . He
there requests that no notice may be taken of the conduct of the
Chinese Government towards its own people on the subject of opium;
and proposes in return that I should make what regulations I please
for British subjects on the same point .
The Opium Trade is now fairly established by general connivance
along the whole coast of China , the only interference on the part of
the affairs of the Government being to ensure to themselves a large
portion of the profits . I am not aware of a single edict against
Opium since my arrival in China , and whole chests of the drug are
(73476) 81
publicly landed at Shanghai and other places . Under these altered
circumstances , any scruples on our part , within our own Colony ,
appear to me to be more than superfluous .
I have the honour to be , with the highest respect
Your Lordship's most humble , obedient servant ,
J. F. DAVIS
DOCUMENT NO . 16
A Dispatch from Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell to The
Secretary of State the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos ,
No. 553 August 6 , 1868 , giving an estimate of the Opium
Trade in 1868. CO 129/132
No. 553 Government House ,
Hong Kong . August 6 , 1868
My Lord Duke ,
By last mail I had the honor to transmit a Memorial from the
Mercantile Community of this Colony against the recent establishment
of a cordon of customs stations by the Chinese authorities around
this harbour and at the same time I gave some further explanations
on what I believed to be the tendency of the operations then
commenced .
2. I am now enabled to supplement those details by an extract
from a despatch from Sir Rutherford Alcock to Consul Robertson which
the latter Officer has transmitted for my information and I consider
it fortunate that he has done so , because Your Grace is thereby
placed fully in possession of the reasons by which Her Majesty's
Minister justifies his approval of the Policy pursued by the Chinese .
Those reasons therefore incur no risk of being weakened by any
misinterpretation or omission of mine .
3. The impression which a perusal of them produced on me was
that Sir Rutherford had not comprehended the full scope of the
operations commenced by the Chinese Authorities . If the Proclamation
of the Vice - Roy be placed beside Sir Rutherford's despatch it will
be at once apparent that the Regulations enforced by the former , and
to which I have taken exception as " ultra vires " , and contrary to
existing Treaty provisions are in no way supported by any direct
argument used by Sir Rutherford .
4. On the contrary the argument of the latter is almost
entirely confined to an assertion of the abstract right of the
Chinese Authorities to establish customs on their own territory and
to prevent frauds on their Revenue by " the illicit landing of goods
on their coast" .
(73476) 82
5. It is impossible not to concede so evident a truth or to
deny the right of the Chinese to stop frauds on their Revenue " by
any means which do not violate the Treaties in force " , and I may add
that measures within the limit of treaty rights to prevent frauds ,
whether in the case of opium or any other goods , would be equally
justifiable .
6. All this however may be true in the abstract and neverthe-
less the measures actually adopted by the Chinese Authorities may be
wholly indefensible and against Treaty. To me this appears so plain
that it looks as if Sir Rutherford had not understood the whole
extent of the scheme which he so emphatically approved .
7. The question is surely not a very difficult one . There
are only three treaties in force between this Government and China
which can affect the subject. These are the Treaty of Nanking 1842 ,
the Treaty of Tientsin 1858 ratified in October 1860 and the
Convention of Peking 1860 .
8. For all purposes affecting the questions under consideration
the Treaty of Tientsin with the Tariff and the Rules annexed thereto
may be regarded as the only " scripta lex" on the subject and the
sole Treaty standard to which the legality and propriety of the Vice-
Roy's proceedings can be referred .
9. Reference to that Treaty, proves that Opium, like other
articles in the Tariff , is subject to a duty of 30 taels per picul
and the only difference made between it and other articles is that
its carriage by British subjects into the interior of China for
purposes of trade is prohibited , and also that, unlike other British
imports which may have paid tariff duties , it is not protected against
an excessive levy of Transit dues subsequent to its being landed .
10. On the other hand the Proclamation of the Vice -Roy includes
all vessels and makes no distinction between the open Treaty Ports
and others . It in fact declares that all traders having purchased
Opium here , must then 1.e. before shipping it " proceed to the nearest
(Chinese ) tax station " and there report the opium for payment of a new
tax imposed by the Vice - Roy of 16 taels the chest .
11. There is no exception made and were it not for the evident
absurdity of the demand the Vice - Roy's Customs Officers might under
his proclamation seize a P. &O. steamer bound for Shanghai or an
American steamer bound for California , having opium on board for
either of those destinations , if receipts for payment of the new tax
previous to exportation from Hong Kong could not be produced .
12. In fact every vessel found in Chinese waters with opium on
board in the neighbourhood of Hong Kong and without receipts showing
payment of a new and arbitrary tax would be liable to be boarded ,
searched , and have the opium confiscated . There can therefore be
no question that any such provision contravenes the privilege secured
by treaty to Foreigners of importing opium into any open Port in
China and paying on it there the fixed tariff duty of 30 taels per
picul (1333 lbs ) .
(73476) 83
13. We may now consider the question on the supposition that
the proclamation of the Vice - Roy is to be read as applying to Chinese
vessels only , I am however told that such is not the case , and the
Chinese Authorities consider themselves encouraged by Her Majesty's
Minister to include " persons and vessels sailing under Foreign Flags
and certainly the latter are not excepted , yet even if they were , I
maintain that no nation is entitled to require even its own subjects
before shipping exports from a neighbouring friendly state , to pay a
tax on such exports , I believe the better opinion to be that each
State is bound in its own waters and along its own shores to take the
necessary steps for preventing the illicit landing of goods whether
by their own subjects or others and I have yet to learn on what
grounds the Chinese Government is to be relieved from a trouble and
expense imposed on other civilized nations and be upheld in the levy
of a tax on exports from Hong Kong over and above the regular tariff
duty and above a tax to be collected actually before the said exports
are shipped from this port.
14. The accidental geographical position of Hong Kong surrounded
by the Chinese Mainland and other Chinese soil in the shape of various
islands happens to afford to Chinese Officials , if not prevented , and
especially encouraged there to by Her Majesty's Minister , of adopting
a comparatively easy and inexpensive way of levying duties on exports
at the place of exportation instead of that of importation and I can-
not help feeling that any such attempt to shirk the responsibilities
cheerfully undertaken by other Nations is contrary to international
usage and must therefore be on that ground illegal , for in reality it
matters little whether the Chinese exporter be directed to apply for
receipts at a Chinese Customs station in the heart of this City or
whether he should have to go for them to Kowloon at the other side of
this harbour . So far as mere general convenience is concerned the
former system would be preferable .
15. Again I maintain that the impropriety of these new proceed-
ings may be shown by the " argumentum ad absurdum" because if the Vice-
Roy can insist on payment before exportation of a new tax of 16 taels
per chest why can he not impose a tax of 160 taels and thus practically
prohibit the exportation of an article which is by Treaty made an item
of legalized barter .
16. I would further inquire , as the Treaty of Tientsin has been
made directly between the British Government and the Imperial
Government of China and as the rate of duty leviable on imported Opium
has been fixed by that Treaty in everything but the Transit duty
payable after its being landed at a Treaty Port , whether it is
competent for the Governor of a Province to impose restrictions on
the trade by the imposition of a new tax on that article before it is
landed or attempted to be landed in China . If so it is evident that
the Tariff established by Treaty is little better than a snare and
delusion , for there might be and probably soon would be as many and
different rates of taxation thus imposed as there are maritime
Provinces in China . In that case what would become of the " collection
of duties under one system at all Ports " which is contemplated by rule
10 annexed to the Treaty of Tientsin ?
(73476) 84
17. For these reasons I cannot but feel that the Vice- Roy has
attempted and Her Majesty's Minister has sanctioned a system of
which the legality is more than doubtful , whilst there is no doubt
at all that such proceedings are contrary to every fair interpreta-
tion of the spirit of the Treaty and are just the points on which
I should have looked for assistance from the British Diplomatic .
Authorities in China. I should no doubt have had that assistance
if Her Majesty's Minister had been as astute to look after the
interests of Her Majesty's Colony as he has been to discover reasons
for relieving the Chinese of the burden which protection of the
Revenue entails on other Nations.
18. Her Majesty's Minister has however preferred to leave to
this Colony the humiliating spectacle of seeing its harbour traversed
by armed Chinese boats and cruisers searching for opportunities of
boarding vessels and confiscating the goods of traders which frequent
our waters , a spectacle which I expect has no parallel in any other
part of the world.
19. I need not repeat here the grave arguments against con-
tinuance of the present system on the ground of the probable in-
direct but extensive injury which must accrue to this Colony from
the desertion of our waters by the numerous Native trading Junks ,
which will hesitate to visit a place where they are subject to the
imminent risk of detention and extortion however legitimate their
pursuits may be . That topic has been dealt with in my previous
despatches .
20. I therefore pass from that subject of the importance of
which I am certain Your Grace will be duly sensible , to invite
attention to the tone of Sir Rutherford Alcock's remarks on the
trade in Opium here . His sympathies are all with the Chinese and
he designates Macao and Hong Kong as smuggling depots whilst he
computes the loss of revenue to China through smuggling as amount-
ing to about a million of taels.
21. Now there are many eminent firms here and many individuals ,
myself included , who would only be too happy to join in some reason-
able arrangement for enabling the Executive here to control such
contraband trade as conducted from here provided any such measures
could fairly be required in aid of a well regulated preventive
service conducted by the Chinese on the principles which guide
European Nations in such matters.
22. No opportunity however has been afforded to this Government
of declaring its friendly intentions on the subject. A scheme has
been concocted , illegal I believe , and certainly in many points of
view highly improper , to enable the Chinese to levy an extraordinary
and extortionate tax on exports from Hong Kong. The utmost
secrecy was observed by the parties concerned and very great pains
must have been taken to prevent my becoming acquainted with any
part of the intended scheme till it had been fully matured .
23. Having already solicited Your Grace's opinion as to the
propriety of conducting proceedings essentially affecting this
(73476) 85
Colony in that secret manner, I shall therefore not dwell on that
subject further but conclude by asserting that Sir Rutherford
Alcock's picture of the amount of contraband trade in Opium from
here is greatly exaggerated , although whether it be much or little ,
no Chinese losses can justify Chinese violations of Treaty engage-
ments or International courtesy or usage.
24. The whole amount of Opium imported annually into Hong Kong
may be considered as averaging 80,000 chests , the value being about
11 millions sterling. Of this quantity I believe 63,000 chests go
North in steamers to Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo , Shanghai and Tientsin &c
and the Chinese Tariff duty is paid on every lb of that Opium.
25. About 10,000 chests go to Macao and it is supposed that
4,000 to 4,500 of those are smuggled into non-Treaty Ports. The
remainder are the subject of open and legitimate traffic . There
remain the 7,000 chests to be accounted for at Hong Kong. A great
quantity of this is shipped openly to Canton and other Ports. Α
large amount, nearly 3,000 chests is boiled down and shipped for
California, whilst of the remainder probably some 500 chests are
smuggled in small ventures into different parts of China.
26. The probability however is that out of an importation of
80,000 chests not more than 6,000 , three fourths of which are from
Macao, escape payment of the regular Tariff and other duties of the
Chinese Government, so that the real loss sustained by the Chinese
Government of mere Tariff duty at 30 taels per chest instead of
being one million of taels is considerably less than 200,000 taels.
27. As however the Chinese Governm and its officia employe
ent l es
have hither shewn in protec of its Revenue , except at Treaty
to tion
Ports , the utmost apathy alterna with occasi r a
ti onal apacity nd
extort on the part of its minor ngservant it seems to me that such
ion s
a Govern s c i on only losing a sum far less
ment hould ongratulate tself
than that which it would have been obliged to expend on maintai
ning
an adequa p s .
te reventive ervice
28. That however is a point unconnected with the main question
now submitted to Your Grace, which question involves no less than the
legality of the whole system devised by the Vice- Roy and approved by
Her Majesty's Minister in China, and 2ndly the propriety of the
course pursued by the latter and Her Majesty's Consul at Canton
towards this Government in studiously keeping from my knowledge
matters of essential moment to the general interests of this Colony.
29. The first question can be better resolved by English
lawyers than by any one here , as no Chinese experience or learning
is necessary for the construction of a plain Treaty and the inter-
pretation of International usages . The second point is probably now
of more consequence in regard to the future than the past, but it
seems still desirable to fix the Rule which Her Majesty's Government
(73476) 86
thinks should be established as I have been much embarrassed by the
abrupt suddenness with which these questions have been forced on me .
I have the Honor to be,
My Lord Duke,
Your Grace's most obedient , humble servant,
RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL
DOCUMENT NO . 17
Additional Article to the Agreement between Great Britain
and China signed at Chefoo on the 13th September, 1876
Signed at London , July 18 , 1885
THE Governments of Great Britain and of China, considering that
the arrangements proposed in clauses 1 and 2 of Section III of the
Agreement between Great Britain and China, signed at Chefoo on the
13th September 1876 (hereinafter referred to as the " Chefoo
Agreement " ) , in relation to the area within which li -kin ought not
to be collected on foreign goods at the open ports, and to the
definition of the foreign Settlement area, require further considera-
tion ; also that the terms of clause 3 of the same section are not
sufficiently explicit to serve as an efficient regulation for the
traffic in opium, and recognizing the desirability of placing
restrictions on the consumption of opium , have agreed to the present
Additional Article .
1. As regards the arrangements above referred to and proposed
in clauses 1 and 2 of Section III of the Chefoo Agreement, it is
agreed that they shall be reserved for further consideration between
the two Governments.
2. In lieu of the arrangement respecting opium proposed in
clause 3 of Section III of the Che foo Agreement, it is agreed that
foreign opium , when imported into China, shall be taken cognizance
of by the Imperial Maritime Customs, and shall be deposited in bond,
either in warehouse or receiving-hulks which have been approved of
by the Customs , and that it shall not be removed thence until there
shall have been paid to the Customs the Tariff duty of 30 taels per
chest of 100 catties , and also a sum not exceeding 80 taels per like
chest as li - kin .
3. It is agreed that the aforesaid import and 11 - kin duties
having been paid , the owner shall be allowed to have the opium
repacked in bond under the supervision of the Customs, and put into
packages of such assorted sizes as he may select from such sizes as
shall have been agreed upon by the Customs authorities and British
Consul at the port of entry.
(73476) 87
The Customs shall then, if required , issue gratuitously to the
owner a transit certificate for each such package , or one for any
number of packages , at the option of the owner.
Such certificate shall free the opium to which it applies from
the imposition of any further tax or duty whilst in transport in
the interior, provided that the package has not been opened , and
that the Customs seals , marks , and numbers on the packages have not
been effaced or tampered with.
Such certificate shall have validity only in the hands of
Chinese subjects , and shall not entitle foreigners to convey or
accompany any opium in which they may be interested into the interior .
4. It is agreed that the Regulations under which the said
certificates are to be issued shall be the same for all the ports ,
and that the form shall be as follows : -
" This is to certify that Tariff and li - kin duties at the
rate of taels per chest of 100 catties have been paid on the
opium marked and numbered as under ; and that, in conformity
with the Additional Article signed at London the 18th July,
1885, and appended to the Agreement between China and Great
Britain signed at Chefoo the 13th September, 1876 , and approved
by the Imperial Decree printed on the back hereof, the pro-
duction of this certificate will exempt the opium to which it
refers , wherever it may be found, from the imposition of any
further tax or duty whatever, provided that the packages are
unbroken , and the Customs seals, marks, and numbers have not
been effaced or tampered with.
"Mark.
X NO . 00 packages.
"Port of entry ,
" Date
" Signature of Commissioner of Customs "
5. The Chinese Government undertakes that when the package
shall have been opened at the place of consumption the opium shall
not be subjected to any tax or contribution , direct or indirect ,
other than or in excess of such tax or contribution as is or may
hereafter be levied on native opium.
In the event of such tax or contribution being calculated ad
valorem the same rate , value for value , shall be assessed on foreign
and native opium, and in ascertaining for this purpose the value of
foreign opium the amount paid on it for li -kin at the port of entry
shall be deducted from its market value .
6. It is agreed that the present Additional Article shall be
considered as forming part of the Chefoo Agreement , and that it shall
have the same force and validity as if it were inserted therein word
for word.
(73476) 88
It shall come into operation six months after its signature ,
provided the ratifications have then been exchanged , or if they have
not, then on the date at which such exchange takes place .
7. The arrangement respecting opium contained in the present
Additional Article shall remain binding for four years , after the
expiration of which period either Government may at any time give
twelve months ' notice of its desire to terminate it , and such notice
being given, it shall terminate accordingly .
It is, however, agreed that the Government of Great Britain
shall have the right to terminate the same at any time , should the
transit certificate be found not to confer on the opium complete
exemption from all taxation whatsoever whilst being carried from the
port of entry to the place of consumption in the interior .
In the event of the termination of the present Additional
Article the arrangement with regard to opium now in force under the
Regulations attached to the Treaty of Tien- tsin shall revive .
8. The High Contracting Parties may, by common consent , adopt
any modifications of the provisions of the present Additional Article
which experience may show to be desirable .
9. It is understood that the Commission provided for in clause
7 of Section III of the Chefoo Agreement to inquire into the question
of the prevention of smuggling into China from Hong Kong shall be
appointed as soon as possible .
10. The Chefoo Agreement , together with, and as modified by,
the present Additional Article , shall be ratified , and the ratifica-
tions shall be exchanged at London as soon as possible .
In witness whereof the Undersigned, duly authorized thereto by
their respective Governments , have signed the present Additional
Article , and have affixed there to their seals .
Done at London, in quadruplicate ( two in English and two in
Chinese ) , this 18th day of July, 1885, being the seventh day of the
sixth moon in the eleventh year of the reign of Kwang- Su.
(L. S. ) SALISBURY.
(L. S. ) TSENG.
(73476) 89
DOCUMENT NO . 18
A Dispatch from W. H. Marsh , Officer Administering the
Government to Rt. Hon . E. Stanhope , September 15, 1886 ,
enclosing the Opium Agreement of September 11 , 1886
CO 129/228
Government House
Hong Kong
15th September, 1886
The Right Honorable E. Stanhope
Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the
Colonies etc. , etc. , etc.
Sir,
1
With reference to my Confidential Despatch of the 6th July last
I have the honor to inform you that the Commission appointed under
the Chefoo Convention and additional Article of last year, signed an
agreement on the 11th Instant, copy of which I have the honor to
enclose , which I believe to be satisfactory to all parties.
2. I also enclose copies of the draft Ordinance " A " referred
to in that despatch of 6th July, and of an amended draft " B " which
differs from the former by striking out the word " Raw " before " Opium
Farmer" and by prohibiting the sale or export of opium in quantities
less than one chest , a provision which has practically been the law
in the Straits Settlements for years past . It was contemplated
from the first to put the control of all opium under the prepared
opium Farmer who has a large staff of Excise Officers , and whose
interest in the proper control is very great . The arrangements
first proposed, to a number of which the draft ordinance " A " gave
effect , were accepted by the Chinese Commissioners on the 5th July
and by the Chinese Government on the 14th of that month; but whilst
Sir Robert Hart was negociating at Macao arrangements of an equivalent
nature with the Government of that Colony, further consideration
here and consultation with the Opium Farmer showed that it would be
more satisfactory to the Chinese Government, and more advantageous
in many ways to this Government , especially having regard to future
Revenue , if the sale and export of loose opium were prohibited
altogether . I therefore authorised Mr. Russell , on his recommenda-
tion, to propose an alteration prohibiting the export of broken
chests, if he could get certain concessions from the Chinese
Government as to Junks, and to the hearing of complaints against the
Authorties of the Native Customs Stations and Cruisers by an Officer
of the Foreign Inspectorate . These concessions he obtained and
the agreement embodying all the conditions was then signed .
3. Sir Robert Hart believes that he will have no difficulty
in getting the Chinese Government to arrange with Macao . Indeed
the basis of a Treaty between Portugal and China was negociated
between the Governor of Macao and Sir Robert Hart during July and
August, providing for a recognition of the Sovereignty of Portugal
in Macao on the condition of the Chinese being allowed to establish
(73476) 90
there a branch Custom house of the Foreign Inspectorate , in which
all opium consigned to Macao must be placed , and from which no opium,
unless for manufacture , can be taken , until it has paid the Chinese
duty of 110 taels per picul . That Custom house will be nominally
under the control of the Macao Harbour Master , but really under a
Deputy Commissioner of Chinese Imperial Customs .
4. Sir Robert Hart and Shao Tao Tai pressed their bulk plan
on this Government , and even after acceptance of the Colonial plan
on the 14th July, several attempts were made by telegrams and private
letters from Sir Robert Hart at Macao , to get this Government to
prohibit the delivery of opium, from Godowns or shops in the Colony
without the previous production of Chinese duty receipts . The
Consular Member of the Commission would have supported such a pro-
posal , and even advocated to Mr. Russell , though of course not in
commission ( as it would have been contrary to his instructions) , that
only junks of a certain size should be allowed to carry opium, and
that even they should not be permitted to clear from the Colony with-
out the production of a duty paid certificate , or a bond that it
would be paid at the nearest Customs Station. These attempts against
the sovereignty of the Crown in this Colony were however on principle
successfully resisted .
5. I shall do myself the honor of writing more fully by an
early mail , when I have received from Mr. Russell his report on the
whole proceedings.
I have the honor to be
Sir,
Your Most Obedient Humble Servant
W. H. MARSH
I annex copy of a letter which I have just received from
Mr. Russell forwarding the copy of the agreement .
Enclosure I
Memorandum of the bases of Agreement arrived at after discussion
between Mr. James Russell , Puisne Judge of Hong Kong; Sir Robert
Hart , K. C. M. G. , Inspector General of Customs and Shao Tao Tai , Joint
Commissioners for Chinese ; and Mr. Byran Brenan, Her Majesty's
Consul at Tientsin, in pursuance of Article 7 of Section III of the
Agreement between Great Britain and China, signed at Chefoo on the
13th September 1876 , and of Section 9 of the Additional Article to
the said Agreement signed at London on the 18th July 1885.
Mr. Russell undertakes that the Government of Hong Kong shall
submit to the Legislative Council an Ordinance for the regulation
of the trade of the Colony in Raw Opium subject to conditions herein-
after set forth, and providing: -
1. For the prohibition of the import and export of opium
in quantities less than one Chest.
( 73476) 91
2. For rendering illegal the possession of Raw opium,
its custody on control in quantities less than one Chest except
by the Opium Farmer.
3. That all Opium arriving in the Colony be reported to
the Harbour Master , and that no opium shall be transhipped ,
landed, stored , or moved from one store to another or re-
exported without a permit from the Harbour Master , and notice
to the Opium Farmer.
4. For the keeping by Importers , Exporters, and Godown
owners in such form as the Governor may require , books showing
the movement of Opium .
5. For taking stock of quantities in the stores , and
search for deficiencies by the Opium Farmer, and for furnishing
to the Harbour Master returns of stocks .
6. For amendment of Harbour Regulations as to night
clearances of junks.
The Conditions on which it is agreed to submit the Ordinance
are:
1. That China arranges with Macao for the adoption of
equivalent measures .
2. That the Hong Kong Government shall be entitled to repeal
the Ordinance if it be found to be injurious to the
Revenue or to the legitimate trade of the Colony.
3. That an Office under the Foreign Inspectorate shall be
established on Chinese territory at a convenient spot on
the Kowloon side for sale of Chinese Opium duty Certifi-
cates , which shall be freely sold to all comers and for
such quantities of opium as they may required
4. That Opium accompanied by such Certificates , at the rate
of not more than 110 taels per picul , shall be free from
all further imposts of every sort and have all the bene-
fits stipulated for by the Additional Article on behalf
of Opium on which duty has been paid at one of the ports
of China , and that it may be made up in sealed parcels at
the option of the purchaser.
5. That Junks trading between Chinese Ports and Hong Kong and
ம்
their cargoes shall not be subject to any dues or duties
in excess of those leviable on junks , and their cargoes
trading between Chinese Ports and Macao , and that no dues
whatsoever shall be demanded from Junks coming to Hong
Kong from Ports in China or proceeding from Hong Kong to
Ports in China over and above the dues paid or payable at
the Ports of Clearance or destination.
(73476) 92
6. That the Officer of the Foreign Inspectorate , who will be
responsible for the management of the Kowloon Office shall
investigate and settle any complaints made by Junks trading
with Hong Kong against the native Customs Revenue Stations
or Cruisers in the neighbourhood , and that the Governor of
Hong Kong, if he deems it advisable , shall be entitled to
send a Hong Kong Officer to be present at , and assist in
the investigation and decision . If however they do not
agree a reference may be made to the Authorities at Peking
for a joint decision.
Sir Robert Hart undertakes on behalf of himself and Shao Tao Tai
(who was compelled by unavoidable circumstances to leave before the
sittings of the Commission were terminated) that the Chinese
Government shall agree to the above conditions .
The undersigned are of opinion that if these arrangements are
fully carried out , a fairly satisfactory solution of the questions
connected with the so - called " Hong Kong Blockade " will have been
arrived at.
Signed in triplicate at Hong Kong this 11th day of September
1886.
( Signed) J. RUSSELL
Puisne Judge of Hong Kong
( Signed) ROBERT HART
Inspector General of Customs China
( Signed) BYRAN BRENAN
H. B. M. ' s Consul at Tientsin
(True Copy)
J. RUSSELL
335
( 73476) 93
IV . EARLY DISAPPOINTMENT OVER HONG KONG TRADE
The Treaty of Nanking was followed by a period of unrestrained
optimism regarding the commercial prospects of Hong Kong. Sir Henry
Pottinger foretold that it would become " a new Tyre " as the great
emporium of the East . When this prosperity failed to materialise ,
a reaction set in and there followed a period of unrestrained
pessimism. The British had sought greater security for their trade
with China either by a commercial treaty or by gaining a small island
trading station . Captain Charles Elliot preferred the latter
alternative because he thought that difficulties in the interpretation
of a treaty would provide a fruitful source of misunderstanding and
irritation, and he chose Hong Kong because he thought that the Canton
area would always remain the centre of Chinese trade with the West .
With the negotiation of a commercial treaty and the opening of the
treaty ports , Elliot's arguments for Hong Kong lost some of their
cogency.
For some ten years the mood of pessimism persisted and there
were heart- searchings over the failure of Hong Kong to fulfil its
early promise . The first document in this section , No. 19 gives
extracts from a report on Hong Kong by the Colonial Treasurer Robert
Montgomery Martin , who had already gained some reputation as a writer
on conditions in the British Colonies . It was a voluminous report
and only those sections dealing with his estimates of Hong Kong
trade have been given . His main object was to try to induce the
British Government to give up the Island, and so his report is a
piece of special pleading, but nevertheless contains some interesting
Judgments. Document No. 20 gives a report on the junk trade for
1844 by Charles Gutzlaff with some comments on Hong Kong's prospects .
Document No. 20 gives extracts from the 1847 Select Committee on the
China trade; this enquiry came about largely because of disappoint-
ment with Hong Kong and also disappointment over the China trade in
general . The next document is a report by W. H. Mitchell on the
prospects of Hong Kong trade . Mitchell had been provisionally
appointed to a post on the consular staff at Amoy but had been re-
placed by an appointee from England , otherwise , he seems to have had
no special qualifications entitling him to be regarded as an authority
on commercial questions. He also reported in 1852 on the China
trade generally. These reports earned him the position of magistrate
at Hong Kong after which he appears to have taken little further
interest in commercial questions except to enrich himself by property
speculations in Hong Kong.
One factor which held back trade over the whole China coast ,
including Hong Kong, was piracy. This is a big topic , and here only
(73476) 95
two documents , numbers 22 and 23, have been included to give a brief
illustration of some aspects of this difficult problem .
DOCUMENT NO . 19
Extracts from a Report on Hong Kong by Robert Montgomery
Martin. July 24 , 1844 CO 129/18
REPORT ON THE ISLAND OF HONG KONG
-
Locality Hong Kong which in the Chinese language signifies
" Red Harbour " ( or flowing Streams) is in North Latitude 22 16 27
east longitude 114 14 48 , distant about forty miles east of Macao .
It forms one of a numerous but scattered group of lofty islands
termed the " Ladrones " , which vary in size and height, but agree in
their arid and rugged features. The length of the island from east
to west is about eight miles , with a breadth of two to four miles; 1
it is separated from the mainland of China by a strait or inlet of
the sea, varying in breadth from half a mile to three miles ; one
entrance , the Lymun Pass , being less than a mile wide .
Population and Social Progress • O The island has now
had a fair trial of three and a half years . We shall enquire what
progress it had made in population .
On taking possession of Hong Kong, it was found to contain,
7,500 inhabitants, scattered over twenty fishing hamlets and villages.
The requirements of the fleet and troops , the demand for labourers
to make roads and houses; and the servants of Europeans increased
the number of inhabitants , and in March 1842, they were numbered at
12, 361. In April , 1844 , the number of Chinese on the island was
computed at 19 , 000 , of whom not more than 1,000 are women and children .
In the census are included ninety- seven women slaves, and female
attendants on thirty one brothels, eight gambling houses, and twenty
opium shops &c . It is literally true that after three years and a
half's uninterrupted settlement there is not one respectable Chinese
inhabitant on the island. One man of reputed wealth named Chinam,
who had been engaged in the opium trade , came to Hong Kong, built a
good house , and freighted a ship . He soon returned to Canton, and
died there of a fever and cold contracted at Hong Kong. It was
understood, however, that had he lived he would have been prohibited
returning to Hong Kong, the policy of the mandarins on the adjacent
coast being to prevent all respectable Chinese from settling at Hong
Kong; and in consequence of the hold they possess on their families
and relatives this can be done most effectually. At the same time ,
I believe that they encourage and promote the deportation of every
thief, pirate , and idle or worthless vagabond from the mainland to
Hong Kong. The Rev. Dr. Gutzlaff , who has been engaged in making
the recent census appended to this report, referring to the fishermen
who formed the greater part of the population of the island on our
arrival , says - " They are a roving set of beings, floating on the
wide face of the ocean with their families , and committing depreda-
tions whenever it can be done with impunity . " "The stone- cutters
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have been working here for many years before our arrival . The
majority of the men are unprincipled . They cannot be considered
as domesticated , and are in the habit of going and coming, according
to the state of the trade " . " The most numerous class who have ,
since our arrival , fixed themselves on the island , are from Whampoa;
many of them are of the worst character , and ready to commit any
atrocity. " " The capital of the shopkeepers is very small ; most
of them live from hand to mouth, and lead a life of expedients,
without principle or self- control .
" It is very natural that depraved, idle , and bad characters
from the adjacent mainland and islands should flock to the colony
where some money can be made . "
Dr. Gutzlaff, whose prepossessions are strongly in favour of
the Chinese , concludes this portion of the memorandum with which he
has favoured me , as follows : " The moral standard of the people
congregated in this place ( Hong Kong ) is of the lowest description . "
This observation is borne out by the numerous murders , piracies ,
burglaries, and robberies of every description which have taken place
during the last three years, and with almost perfect impunity , for
the Chinese are formed into secret societies for the mutual pro-
tection of villains , and no man dare inform against another.
At this moment (July 1844) the European inhabitants are obliged
to sleep with loaded pistols under their pillows, - frequently to
turn out of their beds at midnight to protect their lives and property
from gangs of armed robbers, who are ready to sacrifice a few of
their number if they can obtain a large plunder.
This state of things was long ago predicted . In the " Canton
Register " of 23rd February 1841 , it was stated: "Hong Kong will be
the resort and rendezvous of all the Chinese smugglers . Opium
smoking shops and gambling-houses will soon spread; to those haunts
will flock all the discontented and bad spirits of the empire ; the
island will be surrounded by ' Shame ens ' and become a " Gehenna of the
waters " . Three years have completely fulfilled this prediction ,
and neither time nor circumstances will now ever alter the character
of the place . No Chinese of the humbler class will ever bring
their wives and children to the colony. He must be a sanguinary
visionary who expects that Hong Kong will ever contain a numerous
and respectable population; and as regards the present inhabitants ,
( if a migratory race , who are constantly changing, deserve that
epithet) their diminution by one half would be satisfactory, for
then a control by registrationrmight then be exercised, and life
and property be rendered in some degree secure . The daring
character of the population, and its worthlessness for civil purposes
in the formation of a colony, will be seen in the following incident.
On the 27th September, 1843, the Hon. Major Caine , the chief
magistrate , issued a proclamation for pulling down some matsheds ,
which harboured a gang of ruffians who were nightly engaged in
plundering the town. In the beginning of October 1843 , the Chinese
robbers posted a counter- proclamation, on the gate of No. 1 Market-
place , in the chief thoroughfare , declaring, " that if they left the
(73476) 97
island themselves, they would compel others to do so, taking with them
their merchandise and property, and warning people to be cautious how
they ventured out after dark, lest they meet with some unexpected
harm. "
At the same time the Government coal depots were set on fire ;
the mat barracks of the 41st regiment and the Market- place No. 1
were attempted to be burnt; and at noon a number of Chinamen, armed
with knives, entered the Market , threatened all around, wounded an
European policeman, and then walked away unmolested .
The number of prisoners in the Hong Kong jail averaged, during
1843-44, from sixty to ninety a month , and the crimes with which
they were charged were invariably piracy, murder, burglary, robbery
&C. There has been no diminution of crime , the number of prisoners
in the jail have increased ; and the nightly robberies are as frequent
if not more so than they were three years ago. The shopkeepers do
not remain more than a few months on the island, when another set
takes their place; there is, in fact, a continual shifting of a
Bedouin sort of population , whose migratory, predatory , gambling,
and dissolute habits utterly unfit them for continuous industry, and
render them not only useless , but highly injurious subjects, in the
attempt to form a new colony.
There cannot be said to be any other coloured race in the
colony ; a few lascars seek employment in ships. The European
inhabitants, independent of those in the employ of Government, con-
sist of the members of twelve mercantile houses , and their clerks,
together with several European shopkeepers . A few persons have
arrived here from New South Wales , to try and better their fortunes,
many of whom would be glad to return thither.
The principal mercantile firms are engaged in the opium trade ,
who have removed hither from Macao as a safer position for an opium
depot and which they frankly admit is the only trade Hong Kong will
ever possess .
The opium belonging to the two principal firms is not , however
lodged on shore ; it is kept in receiving ships , the " Hormanjee
Bomanjee " belonging to Jardine , Matheson & Co. , and the "John Barry "
belonging to Dent and Co. Even the money in use by those firms
is not entrusted on shore , but is kept in the receiving ships.
These firms and the three or four others partially engaged in the
opium trade , carry on this business in Hong Kong; the tea trade is
carried on distinctly at Canton, by members of the firms resident
there. Excepting the six firms engaged in the opium trade , the
other six houses are small , and are principally agents for manu-
facturers, &c . in Great Britain. The expense of establishments,
the high rate of interest of money, and the want of trade , will ,
it is said , ere long compel the removal or breaking up of several
of the small houses. There is scarcely a firm in the island but
would, I understand , be glad to get back half the money they have
expended in the Colony, and retire from the place . A sort of
hallucination seems to have seized those who built houses here .
They thought that Hong Kong would rapidly " outrival Singapore " ,
and become the " Tyre or Carthage of the Eastern Hemisphere " .
( 73476) 98
Three years ' residence , and the experience thence derived, have
materially sobered some of their views . Unfortunately the
Government of the Colony fostered the delusion respecting the
Colony. The leading Government officers bought land, built houses
or bazaars, which they rented out at high rates, and the public
money was lavished in the most extraordinary manner, building up and
pulling down temporary structures , making zig- zag bridle paths over
the hills and mountains , and forming the " Queen's Road " of from three
to four miles long, on which about 180,000 dollars have been expended ,
but which is not passable for half the year.
The straggling settlement called "Victoria " , built along " Queen's
Road" was dignified with the name of " City" , and it was declared on
the highest authority, that Hong Kong would contain a population
equal to that of ancient Rome . The Surveyor- General , in an official
report to his relative Sir Henry Pottinger , of 22 pages dated 6th
July, 1843, proposed building an entirely new town or " City " in the
Wongneichung Valley, ( which may be aptly called the "Valley of Death " )
with a grand canal and many branch canals, &c . • I refer to
the Government archives for full details of these and other most
ridiculous projects , involving a vast expenditure of public money,
which none but the wildest theorists or self- interested persons
could have projected or entertained. On the 17th December 1843,
the Surveyor- General laid before Sir Henry Pottinger, the elevation
of a building for a Government Office , &c . , with a front of 360 feet
in length, by 50 feet in depth, and which would probably cost
£30,000 sterling. There seemed to be the greatest possible desire
to spend a large part of the Chinese indemnity money on this wretched,
barren, unhealthy and useless rock, which the whole wealth, talent ,
and energy of England would never render habitable , or creditable ,
as a colony, to the British name . In illustration of the mode in
which the public money was proposed to be spent, I give the following,
which is a portion of the estimate of public works in Hong Kong for
1844, and which Sir Henry Pottinger transmitted to England for
approval : -
dollars
Completion of Queen's Road from East Point
to the West side of Wongneichung Valley 28,000
Ditto to Godowns of Jardine , Matheson & Co. 15,000
New Street formation in Victoria 35,000
Sewers in Victoria 100,000
Value of Houses to be removed from Upper
Bazaar &C . 25,000
Drainage of Wongneichung Valley 7,000
Bridle path to Saiwan 3,000
New Church 35,000
[and he lists 21 other items which with contingencies at 5% and the
addition of 45,000 dollars for a consulate at Canton, totalled
796, 275 dollars. ]
This is but a small portion of the contemplated expenditure ;
it does not include the formation of streets and roads in Hong Kong,
which on account of the mountainous nature of the island, would cost
about £100,000 sterling. It does not include barracks, stores ,
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forts, arsenals, dock-yards, wharfs, &c . , all projected and which
would cost several millions sterling before they would be completed .
It is unnecessary to pursue this branch of the subject further;
sufficient has been said to show the absurd and ruinous projects
which were entertained , and the utter failure of the colony in regard
to the nature and extent of its population ; notwithstanding the
1
large sums of money expended , the Governor is now obliged to hire a
residence which belongs to the late deputy Governor Johnston . The
Government offices are in a temporary building which is falling to
pieces; the General Commander has hired an inn for his residence.
There is only one small barrack in Victoria, and that has been
recently erected ; it is not possible to rent a decent house under
160 to 180 dollars per month, about 400 1. sterling per annum. The
Church service is conducted in a matshed; the civil and military
officers are glad to get a location or even a room in any spot on
any terms; and the prices of living and of servants &C. , (see
documentary appendix) are enormous; while the whole population of
the island is entirely dependent for its daily supply of food on the
Emperor of China's subjects on the mainland of China .
Commerce There is no trade of any noticeable extent in Hong
Kong; vessels occasionally touch here on their way to Canton, or
on their return thence , when laden and about to proceed to Europe
for orders. Vessels also proceeding to or coming from the ports
to the northward sometimes touch here , for instructions from the
owners or consignees , but very few " break bulk " at Hong Kong. There
is a considerable business done in opium . Messrs Jardine , Matheson
& Co. , have a large opium receiving ship , the " Hormanjee Bomanjee "
moored the whole year round in this harbour; Messrs Dent & Co. , have
also a large vessel , the "John Barry" , for a similar purpose . The se
receiving- ships contain the opium brought from India, whence it is
transhipped to smaller vessels, and sent up the coast. Messrs
McVicar, Burn & Co. , Fox, Rawson & Co. , and a few smaller houses
also deal to a limited extent in the opium trade , which requires a
large ready-money capital . The smaller houses who have no vessels
of their own consign opium to agents of their own at the Consular
ports, but it is kept on board the receiving- ships moored off or near
those ports until the agents sell the opium to some Chinese broker -
at Shanghai for instance , who then receives an order for the delivery
of the opium from the receiving ship at Woosung.
There are no native junks trading here from the coast of China;
there are none belonging to the port; and a few fishing and passage
boats , which form a safe asylum for ladrones and vagabonds of every
description , constitute the native craft of Hong Kong. Even if
natural impediments did not exist to the establishment of a native
coasting trade , the Articles 13 , 14 and 16 in the Supplementary
Treaty, would effectually prevent any Chinese junks resorting to
Hong Kong. Not only are the junks prevented proceeding thither
from any places but the five consular ports , but they must also
obtain special passports for a voyage to Hong Kong, and when arrived
there the British Government are to act the part of spies for the
Chinese Government, and to report every vessel , the name of her
proprietor, the nature of her cargo , &c . , to the authorities at
Canton. It is now well understood what was the object of these
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clauses; no passes will be readily granted ). and the junks that
might proceed to Hong Kong, would certainly be punished by the
Chinese authorities, who are exceedingly jealous that anything
should occur for the advantage of Hong Kong. These and other
circumstances, together with the fear of pirates, the want of a
Chinese commercial community, the dearness of provisions, and the
absence or high price of any trading commodities, will be sufficient
to prevent any coasting trade at Hong Kong.
Dr. Gutzlaff, whose knowledge of the Chinese character and pro-
ceedings is certainly unsurpassed, says, " So long as the trade is
maintained in the respective ports on an excellent footing, no
vessels will visit the colony to buy articles at the same price which
they can more easily get nearer to them, nor will they bring goods
to Hong Kong for which there is an advantageous market in their own
neighbourhood. When ships find it more profitable to proceed
direct to the northern ports, the chances of Hong Kong becoming an
emporium are very trifling. Whatever native or foreign trade may
be carried on here must be brought to the colony by adventitious
circumstances , and will last or cease according to accident; for
notwithstanding the excellent harbour , Hong Kong has nothing in its
position or relationship to other ports to concentrate commerce . "
Since August 1841 , Sir Henry Pottinger has been issuing
proclamations and regulations respecting commerce and shipping, for
their encouragement and protection . No duties of any kind whatever
have been levied no enquiries have been made as to the cargoes of
vessels; ships might enter and depart at pleasure - but alliin vain;
commerce cannot be created where no materials for it exist .
The table in the Documentary Appendix shows the shipping which
entered the harbour at Hong Kong for three years. It consisted
principally of transports conveying troops , and vessels calling for
orders or seeking freight .
Ample trial has been given to the place , without any satisfactory
result. Nearly four years ' residence on or occupation of the
island , and an immense expenditure , has failed to produce any
commercial operation . Every month the shipping entering the harbour
are diminishing in number; and the imposition of a tonnage duty
would, it is said , cause a still further decrease . There does not
appear to be the slightest probability that, under any circumstances,
Hong Kong will ever become a place of trade . The island produces
nothing whatever; its geographical position , either as regard the
Chinese coast generally, or Canton in particular is bad. For the
trade of the coast of China, it is too far to the southward of a
territory which extends upward of 2,000 miles : and if it were
practicable to remove the foreign trade of Canton , the removal would
be either to some of the open ports to the northward in the neigh-
bourhood of the tea district , or to some island or place in the
Canton river.
Among other delusions that have been promulgated , is the
allegation that Hong Kong is a protection to the British commerce
at Canton, and especially to the tea trade . With reference to the
latter, it should be remembered that the Chinese are as eager to
(73476) 101
sell us tea as we are to buy it; that the cessation of the trade
would be a greater injury to them than to the British nation; that
there was no difficulty in procuring tea during the war; that
nothing would prevent the Chinese supplying our annual demand for
tea, and of course receiving in return English manufactures . The
tea trade is, in fact, as independent of Hong Kong as it would be
of our occupation of the Sandwich Islands . Canton, however, has no
intrinsic advantages to make it the seat of foreign commerce . So
long as the Emperor restricted all foreigners to the most distant
southerly port of the Empire , tea silk, or any other exportable pro-
duce , was obliged to be conveyed thither , however distant the place
of production or manufacture ; but the case now is totally different ,
when the northerly ports in the immediate vicinity of the tea and
silk provinces are , equally with Canton , open to British commerce .
Several vessels have already laden with teas for England in the
northern ports; this may be increased , and the trade of Canton would
then be proportionally diminished, thus rendering Hong Kong ( admitting
for the sake of argument, its reputed value as a protection for the
trade of Canton ) every year less and less useful to British interests
in China. *
It is for the advantage of England that our trade with China ན།
be carried on with the northern ports. In the central districts of
China, along the Yang- tze -Kiang and other great rivers and canals,
the people are more civilised, more wealthy, and (now that they are
becoming acquainted with the Fnglish ) more disposed to friendly and
commercial intercourse . By purchasing tea and silk near the place
of production, the charges of land - carriage fees , etc. , will be
reduced , and the cost price lessened by one- third to the British
consumer; on the other hand, the Chinese will be able to purchase
British manufactures at a cheap rate , when they are brought by our
vessels to their doors. These and other considerations render it
a matter of national importance that our trade with China be diffused
over several ports , instead of being confined to Canton, and indicate
that it is not desirable that Hong Kong be maintained ( even if the
assertion be true ) as a protection to the trade of Canton .
There are now five ports open on the coast of China to all
European , East Indian , and American vessels. There can be no reason
why foreign vessels should discharge cargo at Hong Kong, merely to
change cargoes from one vessel to another; and as the Chinese
Government now allows a vessel to sell part of her cargo at one port
and then proceed to another , and will probably ere long form bonded
warehouses at each port , there will be still less probability of any
trade being established at Hong Kong.
It is indeed a delusion or a deception to talk of Hong Kong
becoming a commercial emporium and to liken it to Singapore . The
circumstances and position of Hong Kong and Singapore present no
resemblance whatever. Hong Kong is a barren rock, producing nothing
- not leading to any place surrounded by no trading or populous
communities with various commodities for barter - and disadvantageously
situated at the most impoverished part of a coast- line of 2,000 miles ,
and which for half the year, is only readily accessible in one direction .
[ Then follows an analysis of the trade of Singapore]
(73476) 102
But sufficient has been said to show that there is no analogy
whatever between Hong Kong and Singapore , and that the geographical ,
territorial , and commercial advantages which have contributed to the
prosperity of Singapore , are totally and entirely wanting, and can
never be created at Hong Kong.
Financial point of view : - There is no apparent prospect of
Hong Kong ever yielding any revenue adequate to more than a very small
civil government . The limited size and rocky nature of the island,
and the fluctuating and predatory character of the population , forbid
the hope of an income being raised to sustain a regular Government
Establishment on the scale now adopted, and which is far beyond the
present or prospective wants of the island community. Under the
most favourable circumstances, there may possibly, some years hence ,
be obtained from the rent of building land £5,000 to £7,000 per
annum. The markets, licenses, fines and fees of every description ,
may realise hereafter about £ 1,000 per annum. The levy of a tonnage
duty would not yield more than £500 to £1,000 per annum, if it.did
not drive away the few ships that now enter the harbour; it is not
probable that vessels would pay six-pence per ton merely to call for
orders , when they can lie in Macao Roads and daily communicate with
Hong Kong. A registrationoor license for each male Chinese resident
on the island, might, if there were a more respectable class of in-
habitants in the colony, produce £ 600 to £ 1,000 per year. Neither
auction duties, stamps , or any of the other ordinary sources of
taxation , would, under present circumstances yield any revenue worth
consideration .
The idea that the Chinese Government will sanction the intro-
duction of opium into China at a moderate fixed duty , and that a
large revenue may then be raised by warehousing the drug at Hong Kong,
must , I think, be abandoned as illusory. The legal admission of
opium into China by the Emperor, according to the best information I
can obtain, is not at all probable . But even if the traffic in
opium were legalised , the traders have declared they would not pay
any duty at Hong Kong. They can keep their large receiving ships
the whole year round in Hong Kong, or in any other harbour, or tran-
ship the opium from the vessels which convey the drug from Bengal
and Bombay to this place , on board the smaller vessels which proceed
along the coast to sell or deposit it at Whampoa , Namoa , Amoy, Chimmo ,
Chin- Chu, Chusan or Woosung, in the receiving ships which lie in
those bays or stations the whole year round .
I will not discuss the question of raising a revenue in Hong
Kong from the introduction of opium for smoking in the island, either
by farming out the drug or otherwise . Independent of the morality
or immorality of the question of Government deriving an income from
a vicious indulgence , so long as the Chinese Government prohibits the
introduction , and make the use of opium a capital offence , it would
not, to say the least , be seemly of us to encourage the use of this
destructive and poisonous stimulant in Hong Kong.
(73476) 103
The total revenue to be expected from this colony cannot , in my
opinion , exceed £ 10,000 per annum; and to obtain this amount, several
years must elapse, under the most favourable circumstances.
The per contra side shows an expenditure at this moment , for
mere civil establishment, salaries and wages at the rate of £ 50,000
per annum, irrespective of the cost of any public works , roads , and
buildings , which is estimated at £ 50,000 per annum for several years;
independent, also , of the consular charges of £ 30,000 per annum, and
of the army and navy. The whole showing a yearly drain on the
British Exchequer of half a million pounds sterling ( see Documentary
appendix) .
And here it may be necessary to remove an erroneous assertion ,
that this heavy yearly charge is only a portion of the revenue that
England derives from the China trade .
The revenue which is obtained from tea is paid by the people
of England, who buy and consume the tea. It might as well be said
that the West Indies furnished the revenue derived by the British
exchequer from the coffee and sugar consumed in the United Kingdom .
The incidence of taxation is on the last purchaser of the taxed
article. The merchant of London adds to the invoice cost of the
tea bought at Canton, the freight to England, the insurance , interest
of money, warehousing, customs duty levied in England, and the fair
profits of trade on every chest of tea he may sell to the grocer ,
who then regulates the price at which he can afford to sell pound
of tea to his customer, who finally pays the whole charges , taxes ,
and profits to the several parties before he drinks his tea.
The revenue derived from the China trade is paid by the people
of England; the merchant who carries on the trade does not pay a
shilling of it. It will be for Her Majesty's Ministers to decide
whether on a review of the whole case , there be any justification
for spending half a million annually on this coast. As a general
principle , colonies that will not pay at least the expense of their
civil government are not worth maintaining. There does not appear
any reason why Hong Kong should be an exception to this rule. There
is not as has been fancifully supposed , any analogy whatever between
Hong Kong and Gibraltar. Hong Kong commands nothing: a glance at
the chart will show that the navigation of the China seas is perfectly
independent of Hong Kong; even the entrance of the Canton river is
not controlled by Hong Kong. It is not possible by any outlay of
money to make the island a fortress ; and it is commanded by the
opposite shore of the mainland. But supposing several millions
sterling were spent in fortifying Hong Kong, and half a million annually
expended for its garrison, the cui bono would constantly recur;
from a Chinese enemy the island has nothing to apprehend even at
present; no European or American state would think of capturing
Hong Kong, for it would be valueless to them; and if mere glory
were sought by the acquisition, they must be aware that the fame must
be of short continuance , as troops and ships from India, from
Australia, and from all our stations eastward of the Cape of Good
Hope , would soon recapture the place or starve out the garrison .
[ There follows an account of the value of Gibraltar and Malta) .
(73476) 104
Every colony of the British empire pays for its own civil
government except small sums which are voted annually in part aid
for the Bahamas , Bermuda, the Falkland Islands , Saint Helena, and
Heligoland , but all these places are intrinsically valuable. The
Bahamas for the geographical position of their harbours; Bermuda ,
as a strong fortress and dock-yard in the Western Atlantic ; the
Falkland Islands , for their important position and fisheries in the
great Southern Ocean near Cape Horn; St. Helena, as a strong fortress
and recruiting station for our numerous ships doubling the Cape of
Good Hope in their voyages to and from India, China, and Australasia
(and in the event of war, the possession of St. Helena would be of
great value to our merchants, and save us a large fleet in the
Atlantic ) ; Heligoland during the late European War was a large
commercial depot for the Elbe and the northern parts of Europe . Its
expense is only about £500 a year .
Numerous as are the colonies of the British Empire , they are
each of some utility to England; for their territorial extent as
emigration fields to provide employment for a surplus population ;
for their production of sugar, coffee, corn, cotton , silk, indigo ,
timber , oil , wool , &c . , as maritime positions or military posts; as
trading emporiums or fishing stations.
I have in vain sought for one valuable quality in Hong Kong.
AIAHU BIKLU
There are other good harbours around, and for 200 years we have not
found the want of such. I can see no justification for the British
Government spending one shilling on Hong Kong.
! !
There are not , indeed , any fairly assignable grounds for the
1
political or military occupancy of Hong Kong, even if there were no
!!!I
expenses attending that occupancy. The Government of China is
sufficiently civilized to respect the persons and property of British
subjects at Canton before any declaration of war took place which ,
however , is an event of very remote probability for many years to
come , if we retain Chusan; and as the Treaty with China provides
for the stationing of a ship of war at Whampoa or Canton, a better
security is thus provided for any British residents at Canton than
Hong Kong could afford . The climate of Hong Kong will not admit
of the Island being made a garrison for our troops; and in the event
of another war with China, an invading army must proceed from India,
unless we keep a small military and naval establishment at Chusan . IN
-
But a very small effective force can not be maintained here , unless
at an enormous expense ; and the impractibility of fortifying an
R
island which is commanded by the hills around, and by any large
11
battery erected on the opposite shore , is now generally acknowledged ,
and is in further corroboration of the inutility of Hong Kong. IN
On a review of the whole question , and examining the island in
all aspects - making even allowance for the newness of the settle-
ment and admitting, for argument sake , that , ultimately, there may
be some trade at Hong Kong, it appears to me very advisable , if Hong
Kong be retained as a British station or colony, that the civil
establishment of the colony be cut down to a scale commensurate with
the resources and wants of the island; and that the supernum ary
officers be provided for in other colonies as vacancies occur.
(73476) 105
That the European and sepoy troops be removed , and a portion of the
1st Ceylon regiment (Malays ) be kept at Hong Kong, in aid of the
civil power . That a frigate or sloop of war be always maintained
in the harbour, with an extra complement of marines, to be landed
only in case of emergency. That the British and other respectable
inhabitants who are householders , be formed into a municipal body,
with power to assess themselves for police , lighting, drainage , and
street-making &c . , of Victoria; that the harbour be a free port,
open to ships under every flag; and that encouragement be given for
the resort to and settlement on the island of other European nations .
If this be done , a few years will determine whether it be possible
to create any trade , or induce any resort to Hong Kong. Large
Government establishments, and an immense outlay of the public money
for the last three years , have produced no beneficial result; let
the opium traders , and those who choose to resort thither, have a
voice in the management of the affairs of the colony. There can
scarcely be less general trade -- less prosperity - less security
to life and property, than now exists , with a large garrison on shore
and a fleet in the harbour .
If there were any one advantage - political , commercial ,
financial , religious , present or prospective - derivable to England
from the existing establishment at Hong Kong, there would be some
Justification for the expense now being incurred , and for the great
annual sacrifice of life ; but when such advantages do not exist ,
it is worse than folly to persist in a course begun in error , and
which, if continued , must eventually end in national loss and general
disappointment.
R. M. MARTIN.
China, July 24 , 1844 .
( Every statement made in this Report has been since most fully
and amply corroborated , and I am ready to prove its correctness by
unimpeachable and disinterested testimony. )
London, March 1846 .
DOCUMENT NO . 20
Remarks upon the Native Trade of Hong Kong , from 1st April
1844 - 1st April 1845 .
Included In The Annual Report for 1844 , The Ist Blue Book sent ,
3rd May 1845 , No. 53 , Davis to Lord Stanley
CO 129/12
Captain Elliot when taking possession of this Island anticipated
that the commerce formerly carried on at Lintin Capsaymoon and
Kamsingmoon would be concentrated under the British flag, at this
spacious harbour. He even anticipated great additions from Canton
(73476) 106
itself and the various ports to the North East . This was natural
under the supposition , that the trading connections with this country,
after all the attempts to improve them, would revert to the same
exclusive system as before , and that as long as China existed as a
whole, no alterations could be expected from its antinational policy .
The aspect of affairs being however changed for the better
beyond the most sanguine hopes, our commerce obtained new channels,
and the idea of making Hongkong the greatest mart in the East , fell
at once to the ground . Still , the mind conversant with the times
of yore looks forward to brighter days , and thinks to trace the
absence of intercourse at this Settlement in the restrictions of the
Supplementary Treaty and other causes. It has often been remarked
that Junks from Shanghai , Tescheo and Amoy which proceed in great
numbers to Singapore and other settlements , would prefer Hongkong as
much nearer and more conveniently situated than those places , in order
to make their purchases, and it is almost inexplicable that they go,
after the opening of this port , as heretofore to their accustomed
harbours.
We ought here to consider that the exports from their own
country are principally if not exclusively destined for the numerous
Chinese colonists that inhabit the Islands of the archipelago. They
freight their vessels with emigrants , and bring home a cargo, the
greater part of which is bought with the savings of their countrymen,
who havellived abroad and amassed some property. The materials of
the junk trade can therefore not be found at Hongkong. Some vessels
nevertheless tried to obtain an export cargo on the spot, and were
after long waiting obliged to receive the same from Canton. With
Straits produce this settlement could not supply the Chinese merchants
at so cheap a rate as they can buy it at Singapore ; the carrying
trade moreover in English bottoms which has recently commenced bids
very fair, on account of its security to engross the direct commerce
from the Archipelago to the various northern ports and we have there-
fore no reason to believe that Hongkong will become in future the
entrepôt for this traffic .
Better founded are our own hopes respecting a more extensive
commerce with Canton, for from first to last a number of large
cargo-boats have been running between this and the metropolis.
With very rare exceptions , these vessels supplied the immediate
necessaries for the consumption at Victoria, building materials as
well as provisions, and goods of shop - keepers . The re- iterated
enquiries , why the merchants did not send down articles for the
European market, have invariably been answered that it would not pay,
and that they could not obtain a ready sale here , if they did so .
Intelligent natives have always affirmed that the absence of this
branch of commerce must be ascribed to there being no Chinese large
firms at Victoria to receive goods in charge , and sell them as soon
as there is a demand. Attempts to found such establishments have
also been made , but have not succeeded from want of encouragement and on
account of considerable individual loss . At the present moment
there remains unfortunately not one single large merchant from
Canton in the settlement who is able to promote by his capital and
influence such a desirable object. The whole business is therefore
(73476 ) 107
in the hands of shopkeepers compradors and pedlars of whom there
are many, though their transactions when considered as a whole are
but trifling . Since their native boats have to compete with our
own schooners, which are constantly going up the river, and moreover
to contend with the Mandarins, who are said to put a high price upon
their permits, no immediate increase can for the present be looked
for; should however unfortunately disturbances arise , there can be
not the slightest doubt that these boats willbbecome carriers to a
considerable amount.
From Keangmun , a place on one of the numerous outlets of the
Canton River, several boats with valuable cargoes have from time to
time visited Hongkong. The merchants that come in them also buy
cotton goods. Unfortunately, however, some of these vessels have
been plundered by pirates , and this prevents the Chinese from putting
any more dear goods on board .
The following places supply Hongkong with provisions : Nantao ,
Taipang, Sinan, Lantao , Macao , Haekong and Tingchoo . No inter-
ruption in this business has ever been experienced , and the reiterated
plunder of pirates , has in many instances been obviated by the pay-
ment of blackmail . Were it possible to cut off these boats, great
distress would be experienced as nearly every article for maintain-
ing life is brought from elsewhere , and very little grows on the
Island itself.
The intercourse with Macao , both by Portuguese lorchas as well
as by fast boats, has always been very lively . though it cannot be
said , that there exists a native trade .
The only branch to which this name is applicable is the traffic
in salt. This is brought from the coast at Haekong and Kweishen,
where it is manufactured in great quantity, in small junks. They
are met here by fast rowing craft from the adjacent rivers , which
buy it and introduce the same in various ways throughout the interior ,
at a far more reduced price than the Governmental salt monopolists
can dispose of it. This has always been a very thriving business ,
and the money realised both by the purchaser as well as seller in
proportion is considerable . Hence the constant resort of the se
junks to this harbour has become an everyday affair ... The captains
take invariably opium and piece goods for the money they get and
often invest capital for this purpose which they have brought with
them. Pirates have frequently attacked and taken these vessels.
The junk trade with the coast exists under the following
limitations.
It is vain to expect that vessels from the ports which are open
to British enterprise should come down to Hongkong for a cargo , when
they can buy the goods they want at their own doors for nearly the
same price . How could they take the sea risk, the outlay of capital ,
and the danger of being attacked by pirates merely to visit Victoria .
Such enterprises can never be anticipated . . . Hence we never had
a single vessel from Shanghae , Ningpo , Amoy nor Fukeen , that would
have made purchases at Hongkong. The people on the coast to the
(73476) 108
west of Canton proceed to Macao Roads and the Typa , • • and never
has yet a single vessel from thence touched here.
Whatever is between Namoa and Hongkong, with the exception of
HAEHONG perhaps where early vessels have been continually at anchor,
such as KITYEO , TEOYEO, HAEYEO , TINGHAE and even CHOU GAN and CHEOPO
IN FOKEEN, belongs exclusively to the commercial sphere of this place ,
and numerous have been the junks that came to this settlement . From
the two latter, they bring camphor bought at Formosa and alum, with
some very coarse chinaware . The former article is only occasionally
saleable and in many instances after having been offered to many
British merchants has been taken to Macao to be sold there . The
latter has formed ballast to India, but very often from want of pur-
chasers, the junks have to proceed to Canton or Macao . These are
the only two articles that have yet in any quantity been brought to
this market. A great attempt was made by TEACHEO junks to import
tea, but whether it was that the boxes were not properly packed , or
the quantity not adapted to our home consumption, it remained unsale-
able in the hands of the importers and was afterwards given with very
great loss to the shopkeepers to dispose of it by retail . Most of
the junks come here to purchase opium and piece goods , none of these
however in any considerable quantity. This is taken to KITYEO ,
TEOYEO or the Island of Hainan and there retailed. The pirates
however have most materially interfered with this branch .
None of the captains who constantly are in the habit of visiting me ,
ever tell that the Chinese Government interferes with their coming
hither , nor have I heard of an instance of seizure and confiscation
on the part of the Canton house .
[Many Junks came and anchor for a tide , as a thoroughfare and
make small purchases . ]
Such is the native trade which Hongkong had hitherto , far below
the lowest calculations, that the most disponding merchants could
have made. Extraordinary circumstances may produce a salutary change ,
but in the ordinary course of events . . . and the Northern ports
engross gradually the business of Canton. Victoria must not expect
much. We have no produce of the Island, except granite , to sell ;
there is no large amount of goods stored up in the godowns, ships do
not come here merely to discharge their cargoes and then return home ,
nor do the Chinese put their commodities in our charge , so that it is
very difficult to obtain manufactures or teas in large quantities.
But as a starting point Hongkong will ever hold a very high place ,
though far inferior to Chusan .
On the whole , we must live in hopes that a more propitious state
of things will take place , and that Hongkong at least in some measure
will answer the expectation of the founder .
Signed CHARLES GUTZLAFF
Chinese Secretary
(73476) 109
DOCUMENT NO . 21
Report from the Select Committee on Commercial Relations
with China : Ordered by the House of Commons to be Printed ,
12 July 1847
In reporting on the condition of our commercial relations with
China, your Committee regret to state , that the trade with that
country has for some time been in a very unsatisfactory position , and
that the result of our extended intercourse has by no means realised
the just expectations which had been naturally founded on a freer
access to so magnificent a market .
Whether we look to the table of exports , which mark a declension
of exports in nearly every branch of manufacture , or listen to the
statements of experienced merchants and manufacturers , we are brought
to the same conclusion.
We find the exports of cotton manufactured decline between the
years 1845-46 from £1,735 , 141 to £ 1 , 246 , 518 in value; those of
woollens, in the same period , from £ 539 , 223 to £439 , 668*.
We find that on a great proportion of the trade for some years ,
the loss , taken both ways, 1. e . that on the manufactures sent out
and on the tea brought home in payment, may fairly be stated at from
35 to 40 per cent ; so great indeed that some manufacturers have
abandoned the trade altogether , and that much of the tea lately sent
home has been on Chinese account, the English merchant declining to
run the risk of the venture .
We find that the difficulties of the trade do not arise from
any want of demand in China for articles of British manufacture , or
from the increasing competition of other nations . There is no
evidence that foreign competition is to be seriously apprehended in
the articles of general demand . The sole difficulty is in providing
a return .
Stripping the question of minor details , which may be fairly
left out , as not affecting the general results , and setting aside
the junk or native trade , which, though considerable , does not assist
in the general adjustment of foreign accounts, the trade of China
may be thus shortly described . The bulk of its transactions are
with England, British India, and the United States.
*The Exports to China since 1843 have been as follows :
1843 1844 1845 1846
20 £ 2 ई
Cottons 871,939 1,575,647 1,735,141 1,246,518
Woollens 417,815 565,428 539,223 439,668
All other articles 166,426 164,542 120,463
£1,456,180 2,305,617 2,394,827
(73476) 110
The recognised imports into China, of which we have any account ,
were, in 1845, as follows:
From all countries 20, 390 , 784 dollars
In English ships 16,073 , 682
In American ships 2,909, 669
18,983, 351
Leaving for all other countries a value of 1 , 413, 433 dollars
only.
To this may be added 23,000,000 dollars, the estimated value of
38,000 chests of Opium, all bought on British or American account ,
and from British India, making the whole imports into China
43, 390 , 784 dollars = at 4s 4d to about £9 , 401 , 336.
The export from China, to all countries, for the same year, was
36,931,000 dollars = £8, 001 , 926 of which
For England and British India 26, 697, 391
For the United States 8, 261 , 702
34,959 , 093
Thus leaving for the exports to all other countries no more
than 1,972 , 875 dollars in value .
The returns for the year 1846 are not yet completed; but as
far as they go , they indicate the same result .
From England , China buys largely of manufactured goods . From
the United States the same articles to the extent of £170,000 . From
British India , Opium and Cotton Wool to a very large amount.
This import reaching, as will have been seen above , a value of
nearly nine millions and a half , has to be paid for, with slight
exceptions , by tea, silk , and silver, though sugar and Chinese grass ,
as a substitute for hemp , may possibly be hereafter of some importance .
The payment for opium, from the inordinate desire for it which
prevails , and from the unrecognised nature of the transaction, which
requires a prompt settlement of accounts, absorbs the silver , to the
great inconvenience of the Chinese; * and tea and silk must in fact
pay the rest.
Of these England and the United States are nearly the sole
consumers; and thus it happens, that the advantages which were so
naturally expected from commercial access to a civilized empire of
above three hundred millions of people , are practically limited by the
extent to which these countries are willing or able to consume these
two products of the soil of China.
* Mr.. M'Gregor , British Consul at Canton , estimates the sum to be annually
drawn from China in specie , to pay for the opium , at nearly £2,000,000 .
(73476) 111
The balance of trade will no doubt adjust itself sooner or
later, in accordance with the severe lessons of loss and disappoint-
ment which the last three years have taught; but unless we can look
forward to an increased consumption of those products in which alone
China has the means of paying, this adjustment can only be made at
the cost of largely diminished exports , and of restricted employment
to every branch of industry connected with them.
The export of silk from China is steadily on the increase ;
and there is every reason to hope that it will grow with the
growing wealth and luxury of nations, and progressively become an
element of greater importance amongst the means of payment .
Your Committee think themselves warranted in recommending to
1
the House a considerable reduction in the duty on tea at the earliest
period which in its wisdom it may see fit , as most desirable in it-
self with a view to the comforts and the social habits of the people ,
as involving but a temporary loss to the revenue , and as essential
to the extension of our trade with China, nay , even to its maintenance
the point which it has already reached.
The port of Shanghai being immediately adjacent to the richest
districts of the Chinese Empire, and especially to those which pro-
duce the principal articles of export , promises to become a formid-
able rival to Canton , and will inevitably draw from it a considerable
portion of its traffic . It already furnishes 16,000 out of the
20,000 bales of silk , and 10,000,000 out of the 57,000,000 pounds
of tea which China last year appears to have furnished to British
markets.
Next in importance is Amoy, which purchases to the extent of
nearly half million sterling of Opium and British manufactures ,
but as yet furnishes little produce in return.
With regard to Ningpo and Foochow, the trade has hitherto
proved but trifling; but the period which has elapsed since they
have been opened has been too short , and the attractions of the
greater ports have been hitherto too powerful , to enable us to pro-
nounce that towns so considerable , connected with provinces so popu-
lous, will not hereafter become important seats of British Commerce .
A regular Post - Office communication by steam-boats from Hong
Kong, both to Canton and to the northern ports , would add much to
the security and activity of our commerce .
From Hong Kong we cannot be said to have derived directly much
commercial advantage , nor indeed does it seem to be likely, by its
position , to become the seat of an extended commerce . It has no
considerable population of its own to feed or clothe , and has no
right to expect to draw away the established trade of the populous
town and province of Canton , to which it is adjacent . From the only
traffic for which it is fitted, that of a depot for the neighbouring
coasts, it is in a great degree debarred, except in regard to the
(73476) 112
five ports , by Treaties , which stipulate distinctly for the observance
of this restriction . In addition , however , to these natural and
necessary disadvantages, it appears to have laboured under others ,
created by a system of monopolies and farms, and petty regulations,
peculiarly unsuited to its position, and prejudicial to its progress.
These seem to have arisen partly from an attempt to struggle with
the difficulties in the way of establishing order and security in
the midst of the vagabond and piratical population which frequent
its waters and infest its coasts; and partly from a desire to raise
a revenue in the island in some degree adequate to the maintenance
of its Civil Government . To this latter object, however, we think
it unwise to sacrifice the real interests of the Settlement , which
can only prosper under the greatest amount of freedom of intercourse
and traffic which is consistent with the engagements of Treaties and
internal order: nor do we think it right that the burden of main-
taining that which is rather a post for general influence and the
protection of the general trade in the China Seas than a colony in
the ordinary sense , should be thrown in any great degree on the
merchants or other persons who might be resident upon it.
To the revision of the whole system we would call the early
attention of the Government, as well as to that of the Establishment
of the Settlement , which, we cannot but think, has been placed on a
footing of needless expense .
Inconvenience appears to arise also from the dependence of the
Governor on two departments of administration at home . As Governor
of the Colony, he is responsible to the Colonial Office ; as in a
manner representative of the Crown to a foreign Court and Super-
intendent of Trade , to the Foreign Office . It would be well if this
relation could be simplified.
We would also recommend that some short Code should be drawn up
for the more convenient administration of justice , as a substitute
for that general reference to the Laws of England " as far as they
are applicable to the case " , which in this, as in some other Colonies,
is the sole rule of guidance , and creates much confusion and
embarrassment. That drafts of all new laws and regulations , unless
of an urgent nature , should , as in India, be published for three or
six months before they are finally enacted . That a share in the
administration of the ordinary and local affairs of the Island should
be given, by some system of municipal government , to the British
residents .
A good court of review for the decisions of the Consular Courts
should be established , so constituted as to ensure general confidence
in its decisions; and in such case the jurisdiction of the Consuls
over civil suits might be extended beyond 500 dollars, the present
limit, so as more effectually to secure justice to the Chinese in
their transactions with British subjects . Facilities should also
be given in Hong Kong for the acquisition of the Chinese language
and encouragement to schools for the Chinese ; and the study of the
Chinese language should be encouraged in the Consular officers, whose
efficiency in every respect is of the highest importance , especially
in the present stage of our commercial intercourse with the country .
(73476) 113
The attention of these officers should be vigilantly directed
to the question of Transit Duties on the internal communications of
China, by which the effect of low duties at the ports of entry might
be effectually defeated. On this head, however, there is not as
yet much ground of complaint .
A Petition was referred to your Committee , emanating from a
highly respectable body of merchants resident at Hong Kong, complain-
ing, among other things , of the mode in which the land sales had
been conducted, and that good faith had not been kept in conveying
to purchasers no more than a limited tenure of seventy- five years,
in lieu of the more permanent interest which they allege to have been
held out. It certainly appears that the assurances, however vague ,
under which some of the early settlers made purchases and entered
into engagements , and expended money , may easily have led to this
expectation; and we are therefore not surprised at the disappointment .
No charge , however, has been sustained against the public officers
engaged in the transactions , who appear to have acted in good faith
throughout.
The same Petition complains of a want of vigour on the part of
the Governor of Hong Kong in protecting the interests of British
subjects in their intercourse with the Chinese ; but on this subject
as we have only partial information , we forbear expressing an opinion .
We feel ourselves , however, warranted by the papers and evidence
before us, as well as by general considerations, in reminding our
fellow countrymen residing in foreign countries , that while they are
entitled to expect that the whole force and influence of their country
should be put forth for their protection , when injured in property
or person; yet that the interests of commerce are best consulted by
studying a conciliatory demeanor , and cultivating the good-will of
the nations with which they traffic .
By keeping these considerations constantly in view, by combining
firmness in maintaining our rights with a studious respect for the
feelings and rights of others, we hope that the newly- opened inter-
course with this remarkable empire may be further extended from time
to time; and that the jealousies by which it has been so long limited
and confined , may, in spite of temporary misunderstandings , which
are the natural result of recent differences and ancient prejudices,
give way ere long to a cordial confidence , founded on a sense of
mutual benefits and mutual respect .
(73476) 114
DOCUMENT NO . 22
Report on the Economic Prospects of Hongkong by
W. H. Mitchell , enclosed in a Dispatch from Sir George
Bonham to Earl Grey , No. 114 , 28 December 1850
CO 129/34
Memo: upon the present condition , trade , and prospects of
Hongkong.
The Colony's prospects are by no means discouraging.
As the great depot of our opium traffic , the Treaty did it no
harm. 3Between 1845-9 some three- fourths of the opium Crops were
deposited in and reshipped from this harbour, which thus protected
an immense amount of British property. By the end of 1844 all the
opium coming to China , save a small portion stored at Cumsingmoon ,
began to be stored in magazines here , or in two receiving ships in
the harbour: that is to say that of 220,717 Chests at $ 500 a chest ,
a low estimate - worth $110 , 358 , 500 , at least three- fourth, worth
$82,768,875 was stored here in five years; giving an annual rate of
$16,000,000 , or about 3 million sterling of property deposited in
Hongkong. This must now increase , as Cumsingmoon anchorage is being
gradually abandoned.
There is of course advantage in the influx of the opium shipping
and their disbursements here , and the local firms otherwise benefit
exceedingly by their position here . - Messrs. Jardine Matheson
& Co. keep a receiving ship in harbour at possibly a tenth of the
expense the difference of crew and other requirements considered -
that they could , were she lying in at outer anchorage; and this
secure from dangers of the sea, pirates , etc.
Messrs. Dent & Co. have been enabled, for the last two years, to
dispense entirely with a receiving ship , and house all their opium on
shore. Smaller firms receiving some 50 Chests from India house them
in the Colony, thus saving themselves a demurrage of $ 5 per Chest per
month, which they would have to pay were their opium on board a
receiving ship .
The Retail Trade in opium amounts to some 250 Chests a month.
Some of this goes unbroken to the West Coast, and is paid for in sugar
and sycee ; but much of it to the adjoining districts which supply
our migratory population, who remit it home in lieu of money.
This colonial traffic , wholesale and retail , amount to perhaps
$100,000 a month, passing through several hands , in and belonging to
the Colony.
The modification of the opium monopoly has done much good .
Wholesome competition is kept up amongst a number of licensees . The
refining of opium here , and the remittance system have sprung up since
the above change . An abolition of the tax altogether would be yet
farther improvement.
(73476) 115
Heretofore the monopoly checked the retail trade . The farmer
was his own refiner and, looking as a monopolist for his own price ,
kept the drug, raw and prepared, at a higher price here than it was
sold at Cumsingmoon.
The two great houses make sacrifices to discourage a larger
sale of opium here . Whenever native smugglers carry hence a large
quantity, the great houses glut the Colonial Market at a reduced rate .
The opium so sold follows the smuggler to his port , and he finds he
has lost by his trip to the Colony. This manoeuvre not only dis-
courages him but upsets operations here. It is practised to prevent
an open traffic; prices would otherwise be laid down for the said
Houses, and they could only look out for a moderate proportion of
the clearances. As it is , they keep the traffic to the coast, where
they have no competitors.
Were it not for this, the coasters , along a certain line , would
bring us sugar and carry away not opium alone , but piece goods.
Opium is sold at Namoa for dollars , and the whole vicinity thence
supplied; the sugar- growing districts are discouraged, as above
shown, from seeking the drug here , although the navigation is easy
for piracy has greatly decreased, since the destruction of the fleets
last year. This is the grand local obstruction to the opium trade
of the Colony; still the two houses who inflict this evil on it do
no more than make a legitimate use of their capital . Steam and
other causes have considerably broken up the monopoly enjoyed by
them, till a few years ago; and the extension of Steam communication
to Shanghae and will of course work further change .
Hongkong can never have a legitimate Junk trade, worth a name ,
until the clauses of the Supplementary Treaty limiting the Junk Trade
be abrogated . Trade, as above , between the sugar districts and this
Colony is at present punishable , under the Treaty, as far as the
native is concerned , with death and confiscation of goods . The Junk
trade is , at present , too insignificant to awaken the jealousy of
the Chinese Government ; were it important our Treaty justifies their
interference with it at once .
Thus the influence of two great houses deprives this Colony of a
share in the Opium Trade , and the Supplementary Treaty renders it
illegal to have any Junk Trade , save with ports , where we do not want
it , as our own ships frequent them, and our own Merchants conduct the
traffic . But even were Opium legalised and the invidious clauses
annulled, we never could have a Colonial Trade in any but the coarser
produce of China , for the reasons given in the introductory letter,
viz: that they would not bring at their own risk the more precious
cargoes which our ships go to the chief outlets of trade to carry.
- no
The present Junk Trade is quite irregular and adventitious
estimate can be made of its value or extent .
As a whaling station , Hongkong has been visited by many ships in
1848 , 1849 which feared to go to the Sandwich Islands or the Pacific
Ports , lest their crews should desert to California: and although
this cause maybe held extraordinary, still persons , competent to speak,
maintain that whalers will continue to seek Hongkong rather than
(73476) 116
Shanghae , where the dangers of the river are to be feared, and there
is less suitable tonnage and a worse market for oils, than at
Hongkong.
The storage of piece goods is increasing rapidly here - Canton
has not of course the same security from fine and other risk . The
River Steamers established in the last two years facilitate our
selling goods by muster. The proprietor of Storage here is conse-
quently saved his Godown rent and landing charges which amount to 4
mace of Silver per picul on Indian Cotton , and, his bargain being
made upon the muster, his goods are forwarded securely and expedi-
tiously to Canton. There must be in this a good to the Colony which
any serious fire or disturbances at Canton would considerably
increase .
As to California and the West Coast of America - 10,000 tons of
shipping were wholly or partly loaded for the above destination be-
tween 1st January and 30th of June 1850 ; of these 6,842 tons were
British and but 1 , 156 American.
The exports were chiefly coarse silks , lacquered ware - floor
matting , camphor- trunks , fire works, sweetmeats , tea, sugar , molasses ,
wrought granite , wooden houses, planed lumber, and nicknacks of all
sorts.
Much of the sugar was loaded here the molasses is packed here -
sweetmeats and fireworks are manufactured here as are also , and to
a considerable extent camphor wood articles; all of which is to the
employment of much labor. But the cheapness of stone - cutting here ,
and the great want of stone ready cut for building in California, a
sandy region, promise a considerable market in this article , which
is readily taken, freight free , as ballast; and cannot be laid down
so cheaply from any greater source as from this. At present
California imports bricks round Cape Horn from Liverpool and New
York.
For the supply of the Californian market, we may speculate on
the possibility of our having here some establishments of Pongee
weavers; but the inducement to a Chinese to emigrate must be strong:
there is a better chance of the dyers and printers of the coarse
silks coming here , as the duty on dye stuffs would be saved in a
free port. But the sugar despatched hence is the most satisfactory
export, as the great probable staple of exports from China to the
West, and as an article usually exchanged with opium; while the
repacking of it here is a farther advantage to the Colony. Fokien
sugar could be laid down here at 10 or 12 per cent cheaper than
Canton sugar, either in coasters , or foreign vessels coming down in
ballast .
The Chinese population about to spring up on the west coast of
America must not be forgotten , and for this Hongkong will be the
Chief Port of supply.
Two thousand Chinese have already left China for the West Coast ;
the dearth of labor felt from Valparaiso to Lima and the Mexican sea
will vastly swell this number . The Chilian Government give a bounty
(73476) 117
of $ 30 a head on all healthy Chinese , and exceeding 30 years of
age landed at any of their sea ports .
In conclusion , Hongkong, is a useful outport to our general
trade , a refuge under temporary difficulties , and a check on the
insolence or treachery of China . It is a better position than
Chusan and as good as any we could have chosen on these shores.
The Chinese shopkeeper , artisan, or coolie now starts fair
without exaggerated hopes of gain or fears of oppression . The
summary administration of Justice , besides being cheap , is after
the liking of a Chinese , and contrasts most favourably with the
unsatisfactory mediation of the Attornies as in vogue a few years
ago. Artisans have benefited much by the Californian demand and
the coolie population is on a better footing . The large gangs
thrown out of employ on the completion of the larger buildings have
dispensed, and vagabonds are fewer . The graver class of felonies
has been abated , although its proximity to the mainland and the
Islands around it still leaves the Colony with heavy bills of Crime .
In fine the Colony appears to have found its actual level ; is
gradually working round to its properuuses ; and may therefore be
pronounced to be prospering, with sufficient promise of improvement .
December 30th, 1850 .
DOCUMENT NO . 23
Minutes by A. Blackwood and Earl Grey on a Despatch from
Sir S. G. Bonham to Earl Grey , 24 April 1849, No. 41 , on
the Suppression of Piracy CO 129/29
In 1845 a proposal was submitted to Her Majesty's Government
by Sir John Davis to fit out two cruisers for the suppression of
piracy in the vicinity of Hong Kong, the Chinese Merchants having
offered , if he would do so , to bear the greater part of the expense .
Lord Stanley authorized Sir J. Davis to carry this Scheme into
effect.
In June 1846 Sir J. Davis reported that the Chinese Merchants
had withdrawn from their offer to bear a share in the expense of
these Cruisers, and that in consequence he had defrayed out of the
Colonial Revenue the expense of building and fitting out one Cruiser
to be employed against Pirates .
When this proposal was communicated to the Admiralty Lord Grey
expressed his serious doubts whether as a permanent measure the
employment of a Cruiser of this description , would be expedient ,
and also whether any vessel employed on this service ought not
rather to be commanded by an officer of Her Majesty's Navy regu-
larly commissioned, and acting under the direct authority of the
(73476) 118
I
Admiralty. The Treasury having sanctioned the expense , and the
Admiralty having concurred in the views taken by Lord Grey, Sir
J. Davis was informed that Her Majesty's Government sanctioned the
employment of the Cruizer as an experiment , and the Governor was at
the same time furnished with the correspondence which had passed
between this Office and the Admiralty on the subject of placing this
vessel , if the result of her employment were successful , under the
orders of that Board.
Early in July 1847 Sir J. Davis reported that in pursuance of
his orders from home he had handed the Gunboat over to the Senior Naval
Officer in China as a tender to that Admiral , but that after a year's
experience , the principal objection to her was her small size which
made it impossible to place a Commissioned Officer in charge of her .
Circumstances at that time drew the attention of the local
Government to the necessity of improving the Water Police of the
Colony, and it was determined to increase that force , and discontinue
the Cruizer . It was calculated that this arrangement would save
£800 per annum, and the suppression of piracy be " equally if not
better attained " . The Boat used by this Police Force was a captured
Pirate Boat fitted up for her new service . She was lost in the
Typhoon of the 31 August last.
(A. BLACKWOOD) 1
1
1
11
TO HERMAN MERRIEVALE
1
Transmit a copy to the Admiralty at the same time referring to 1
1
the former correspondence on this subject , and saying that the pro-
1
tection of British commerce from pirates in the neighbourhood of 11
Hongkong is a service which ought not in my opinion to be undertaken 1
by the Colonial Government, whatever may be the description of
vessels employed I consider it to be indispensable that they would
be considered as forming part of Her Majesty's Naval forces and
should as such be furnished by the Admiralty and act under their
Lordship's orders. At the same time I have to call the attention
1
of their Lordships to the extreme importance of their adopting the
measures which they may consider most likely to be effectual for the
1
complete suppression of piracy in the waters of Hongkong. 1
1
f
GREY 1
1
1
T
1
(73476) 119
DOCUMENT NO . 24
Dispatch from Sir Hercules Robinson to Duke of Newcastle ,
No. 71 , 11th May 1864 , forwarding a Report on Piracy by
Captain U. S. Nolloth , R.M. 30th April 1864
CO 129/98
No. 71 11 May 1864
My Lord Duke ,
I have the honour to transmit for your Grace's information copy
of a communication which I have received from Captain Nolloth R. N. ,
the Senior Naval Officer of the Hong Kong Division of the China
Station, enclosing copies of recent reports received by him relative
to Piracy, and commenting on the prevalence of the evil in the
immediate waters of Hong Kong.
2. These papers prove beyond all doubt the menacing boldness
of the Pirates who infest this neighbourhood. They show that not
only is a species of blackmail levied upon the fishing and provision
boats and other native craft frequenting our market , but that most
daring acts of piracy have lately been perpetrated under circumstances
of great atrocity upon European vessels within sight almost of this
Harbour . They confirm also the opinion which I communicated to
your Grace in my letter of 21st May last written when I was in
England, that some more efficient system of suppression, than that
followed at present by the Naval Authorities, must be adopted before
the waters of this Colony and the approaches to them can be effect-
ually secured against such disgraceful depredations.
3. At present upon a piracy being reported a Gun Boat , when
one is available , is sent out in pursuit of the offenders. But so
much time is lost that the particular pirates sought for are rarely
overtaken. The se know as well as possible when and where they will
be looked for and arrange their plans accordingly. And the
sufferers finding how seldom their losses are recovered become
apathetic , so that as pointed out by Captain Nolloth, many cases of
piracy occur in this neighbourhood of which no information whatever
reaches the Government.
4. The course which in my opinion should be followed has
already been indicated in my letter before referred to . One Gun
Boat or perhaps even two should be kept perpetuall y cruising either
under sail or steam in the immediate vicinity of Hong Kong. The
Pirates would then never know at what moment they might be surprised ,
and I have no doubt that by such a measure the neighbouring waters
within a certain radius might eventually be rendered comparatively
secure . Captain Nolloth concurs entirely in this opinion but the
means at his disposal at present would not enable him to give effect
to it.
5. It appears to me that the cost of the Police of the Hong
Kong waters and the approaches to them fairly devolves upon the
Colonial Revenue , provided it can meet the Charge : but that if it
(73476) 120
cannot, the duty should be undertaken by the Imperial Government,
as the existence of such a state of things as I have described in
the immediate neighbourhood of a British Colony, and even within
British waters , reflects discredit upon the British name and rule .
6. The cost of a Gun Boat fully mounted and equipped would
amount , I was informed when in England , to about £4,500 a year ,
including a fair supply of coal . Whether the Colony could bear
this additional burden at present or not will depend upon the
decision which your Grace may arrive at upon the question of
Military Contribution as submitted in my Despatches Nos . 30 and 35
of 9th and 12th ultimo .
7. In the first of these Despatches I pointed out
(1) That the estimated available balance at the close
of this year would be entirely absorbed in the
completion of the various public undertakings at
present sanctioned by your Grace and in progress
(2) That new public works could only be undertaken for
the future out of the proceeds of new land sales and
(3) That the ordinary revenue of the Colony for next
year could not be estimated at more than £ 115,000
while the ordinary expenditure amounted to £105,000 ,
leaving a margin of only £ 10,000 to meet all
contingencies .
8. I accordingly asked in the second Despatch above referred
to , not that the Military Contribution demanded for next year should
be remitted , but that time might be allowed for paying it until a
portion of the large amount now being invested in the mint should
be recovered .
9. If this application be granted I think that £4 , 500 of the
probable surplus of £ 10,000 estimated for next year could not be
better expended that in the hire of a Gun Boat from the Admiralty,
and a second vessel might be obtained in like manner whenever the
finances of the Colony admit of it. Should however my appeal for
time be refused this additional burden could not be met , and the
suppression of piracy in the neighbourhood must either be undertaken
by the Imperial Government , or be left , as at present, in a great
measure unperformed .
10. In the event of the Colony being in a position to undertake
the duty I would recommend that the Admiralty should place a Gun
Boat properly equipped at the disposal of the Colonial Government
for this special purpose , the admiralty being relieved of all the
expense of the arrangement by an annual payment . If the vessel
were placed under the orders of the Naval Commander - in- Chief , in the
same manner as all other men of war on the station , efficiency would
be secured , and all difficulties would be got rid of as regards
triennial relief and discipline as well as jurisdiction , that of the
Colony being much too limited to meet the object in view. At the
same time an order from the Admiralty would be sufficient to place
( 73476) 121
the vessel as regards destination and daily duty at the disposal of
the Governor; and an arrangement that , if it become necessary under
an exigency of the public service to remove the vessel , reasonable
notice should be given and that the expense of it should then fall
upon the Imperial Government, would be quite sufficient to ensure
the vessel not being needlessly withdrawn by the Commander- in- Chief
for Imperial purposes.
11. I enclos a copy of an unoffi lette upon this subje
e cia r ct
which I receiv from Admira Sir James Hol p e when I was in Engla ,
nd
ed l
and which he has allow m t m u o . It will be seen from
ed e o ake se f
it that he sugge the arran which I have recom above ,
sts gemen mende
and menti i i w v t w d b h d when
ons nstances n hich essels ere etached y im
in comma o t s , in a simil m f t s u
nd f his tation ar anner or he pecial se
of the Milit a .
ary uthoritie
s
There are at present several Gun Boats laid up in ordinary here , I
but I am advised that such vessels are ill adapted for Colonial
purposes, as they are very deficient in accomodation, and their high
pressure engines require constant repair .
I have the honour to be
My Lord Duke ,
Your Grace's most obedient servant
HERCULES Gh. ROBINSON
1
The Nolloth Report
H. M. S. Princess Charlotte ,
Hong Kong, 30th April 1864
Sir,
I have the honour to transmit in compliance with Your
Excellency's request copies of recent reports relative to piracy ,
received from Officers in Command of Gun Boats attached to the
Hong Kong division of the China section.
2. Cases of minor importance and unsuccessful pursuits of
pirates of which I have required verbal reports only, have occurred I
within the period embraced . 1
3. During the 2 years which I have served as Senior Naval
Officer here , numerous instances have come to my knowledge of the
boldness of pirates in the immediate waters . The Cantonese are
considered the most enterprising and cruel of the pirates on the
coasts between this and the Chusan Islands , and the best informed
regarding the character and movements of European vessels. European
vessels are seldom attacked by others than the Cantonese , and
there is reason to believe that it is with Cantonese and Hong Kong
pirates alone that Europeans and Americans have become associated .
(73476 ) 122
4. On one occasion a boat with a family belonging to
Victoria was seized in this harbour and the father allowed to return
from the pirates ' haunt - about 14 miles from Hong Kong to procure
ransom for the captives, when the matter having been reported to me
by the released man, a Gun Boat was sent during the night and cap-
tured 3 men each of whom was condemned to 10 years ' penal servitude .
5. At an earlier period Your Excellency may recollect that
a pirate junk which had captured and burnt a European vessel close
outside this harbour under circumstances of great atrocity was
recognised shortly afterwards cruizing among the shipping at the
anchorage and that the circumstance having been reported to me by
the master of the destroyed vessel G then in a Chop-boat under medi-
cal treatment for his wounds - she was seized and handed over to the
police and her crew of 5 men hanged .
6. With reference to daring acts of piracy within the waters
of this Island I would point Your Excellency's attention to the case
of the Danish vessel " Chico " here rendered, by which it will be
seen that in January last a European vessel was plundered and burnt
at one of the entrances of the harbour and that the master and chief
mate were murdered and others of the crew wounded who had been left
below by the pirates in the belief that they had been suffocated
by the stinkpots thrown from the hatchway.
7. The " Haughty" has this day returned to this port from an
unsuccessful search for pirates who had carried off a boat ( with
her crew) in the Lyemoon passage to this anchorage releasing the
latter after a fortnights ' confinement in a place unknown to the
captives a short distance from Hong Kong. In this case as in
every other whether a Gun Boat has been successful or not in her
special object several reports of recent piratical acts were made
to the Lieutenant in Command by fishermen and others of whom en-
quiries had been made relative to the particular case .
8. There cannot be a more convincing proof of the frequency
with which piracy is committed with impunity in these waters , than
the fact that along the coast and in the actual waters of this
island, fishermen and other seafaring people whose pursuits often
bring them together in numbers although they are frequently sep-
arated, are in the habit of subscribing to pay native junks - them-
selves generally if not always pirates - for protection .
9. In conclusion I may observe that undoubtedly many cases
of piracy occur in this neighbourhood of which no information what-
ever reaches us. The natives never take the trouble of reporting
illegal acts from which they have not themselves suffered and I
believe even the sufferers themselves seldom take any steps unless
they believe there is a great probability of recovering their
losses . On one occasion a passage vessel which had been attacked
just outside the harbour anchored here , among numerous native craft,
(73476) 123
in the evening, with several killed and wounded persons, but it was
not until the next day at 10 a. m. that the Police became accident-
ally informed of it.
I have etc.
( Sgd. ) U. S. NOLLO TH
Captain and Senior Officer of the
Hong Kong Division of the China
Station.
His Excellency
The Governor &C . &C. &C. ,
Hong Kong.
The Nolloth Report had 23 enclosures of which 3 are given here .
British Consulate
Amoy, 2nd January 1864
Sir,
For many months past the Chinese Authorities here have been
continually representing to me the increased number and daring
of piratical vessels in this neighbourhood and urging me to move
H. M. Naval Authorities to take measures to free the neighbouring
coasts of these pests which have on several occasions followed
native craft and captured them even within the islands forming
the bounds of the outer harbour of this port . At first I paid
little regard to these representations as it did not appear to
me that our own interests were materially interfered with even
indirectly and I did not consider that it was at all incumbent
on H. M. Vessels of War to afford protection to Chinese subjects
which the latter have a right to look for at the hands of their
own authorities.
Lately however I have had reason to believe that the
depredations of these pirates were indirectly affecting British
interests. Chinese merchants in the habit of dealing with
foreigners have frequently been to me to state that they could
not purchase goods for conveyance to neighbouring ports, or
bring produce from them on account of the great risk of their
being captured by pirates; and I am inclined to believe that
the depression of trade complained of by foreigners at this port
may lately have been partly owing to this reason . On some
occasions too I have heard that masters of British vessels have
been deterred from going into anchorage in the coast in conse-
quence of seeing piratical vessels there, or have left such
anchorages on account of the arrival of heavily armed West Coast
Boats that they have deemed it imprudent to pass the night with
at anchor. These hindrances to the free navigation of the
neighbouring coast must I imagine be a source of great incon-
venience and even of positive danger in this monsoon.
(73476) 124
Under these circumstances I think it right to convey to you
for your consideration an application for assistance just made
by the local authorities of this Port . They offer to send one
of their own cruizers in company with you if you see fit to
proceed on an expedition against these outlaws; or if you con-
sider that the change of success by the Gun Boat going alone to
send a Marine officer of fitting rank and experience on board
the " Haughty " with linguists , coast pilots and any other people
you may think necessary.
I have to add in conclusion that the increasing foolishness
of the pirates in this neighbourhood innnot caring to avoid
foreign merchant vessels as they formerly did ( together with some
other circumstances that have come to my knowledge ) lead me to
believe that they must have some Europeans amongst them. If my
belief is well founded there can be no doubt that ere long they
will not only avoid foreign vessels but will seek opportunity of
attacking the more defenceless of them.
I am etc.
(Signed) W. H. PEDDER
Lient. Wells commanding H. M. G. B. " Haughty"
Senior Naval Officer
Amoy.
Letter of Proceedings
H. M. Gun Boat " Grasshopper " ,
Hong Kong 24th March 1864
To Captain U. S. Nolloth,
Senior Officer. this followed a Piracy Report
by W. Quin Capt. Superintendent
of Police 21 March 1864
sir,
In pursuance of your orders of the 22nd inst. relative to
some piratical junks which had fired into and pirated a Hong
Kong fishing boat . I have the honour to inform you that having
received on board an interpreter with two of the Chinese informers
I proceeded in the Gun Boat under my command towards the Island
of Fooniang, managing to arrive there after dark so as not to
be seen. On searching the harbour and creeks I received informa-
tion that the junks in question had been there two or three days
back, but had now left, I therefore proceeded at 10 p.m. towards
Mirs Bay, and at midnight arrived close to the village of Typoong
where the piratical junks were supposed to be lying, a large fire
was now lit on the hills abreast of the Gun Boat being evidently
a signal of our approach and three fishing boats informed us
that the pirate junks were lying aground a short distance off.
I therefore ordered the boats to be lowered and proceeded to-
wards the junks, but their crews had taken the alarm, and before
( 73476) 125
we could get alongside they were some distance up the hills ,
chase was given but no prisoners could be captured - the junks
were recognised by the informers , but the inhabitants denied any
knowledge of them saying they had only arrived the day before ,
and were pirates, they also said that the crews did not belong
to their village , this information I considered to be untrue as
it is a piratical " Hakka " village , and in the Gun Boat " Opossum "
I had on a former occasion visited this place , and destroyed two
Junks having nine guns on board and which had attacked and
pirated two Portuguese lorchas, which fact was confirmed by the
greater proportion of the lorchas ' gear being in the junk when
taken. Yesterday, the 23rd inst. I went through the village ,
which has very rich shops containing everything required for
fitting out a fleet of junks and also a great number of men .
I burnt two of the piratical vessels, and succeeded in
towing the third to Hong Kong, though with much difficulty, the
swell being heavy and the hawsers continually carrying away.
I have &C. ,
( Signed) CHARLES F. WALKER,
Lieutenant Commanding
" Grasshopper " Gun Boat
Police Department ,
Victoria Hong Kong,
19 April 1864
Cheong Chong Foo - master and owner of a boat employed
between Kowloon and Victoria in carrying firewood · residing at
the city of Kowloon but not belonging to that place reports
that at 3.0 a.m. on 1st inst. when sailing from Sai Goong near
Kowloon City with a crew of 4 men and a cargo of wood in the
Lyemoon Pass when off Shawkiwan, he was piratically attacked by
a Dai -loong boat containing 20 men who came alongside boarded ,
took possession put the crew under hatches and sailed off to a
place unknown to informant , who with the crew were released on
the 14th inst. and arrived at Hong Kong on the evening of the
15th inst . Boat and property valued at $100 . Cannot identify
any of the pirates don't know their whereabouts . Pirate boat
armed with guns and muskets can identify if seen .
Signed W. Quin
Capt . Superintendent
[But Lt. Wells had to report had no success having searched
all inlets and harbour of Mirs Bay and Rocky Harbour etc. &c.
25th April 1864 to Capt. Nolloth. ]
(73476) 126
DOCUMENT NO . 25
British Policy regarding Piracy in Hong Kong waters after
the Governor of Hong Kong had ceased to be Plenipotentiary
and Superintendent of Trade .
Dispatch from Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell to the Earl of
Carnarvon , No. 19, 14 April 1866 and reply. CO 129/112
No. 19 Government House ,
Hongkong, 14th April 1866
Sir,
I have hitherto refrained from replying to your dispatch No. 2
of the 26th December last relative to the prevention of Piracy in
the China seas and more especially relative to the measures which
the authorities here might take for controlling that evil within
the limits of the Colony. I had thought it probable you might send
me consequent on the letter of the 26th January addressed by Lord
Clarence Paget to Sir Frederic Rogers, and of which I received a
copy from Admiral King soon after my arrival here .
2. As however, two mails have come in since then without any
further communication from you on the subject, and as the letter
addressed to Sir Frederic Rogers expresses an opinion that certain
final arrangements had better be deferred till receipt from Hong
Kong of information as to the intentions of myself and Council , I
do not feel at liberty longer to postpone some notice of your
communication.
3. That dispatch refers amongst other matters to the possi-
bility of placing at the disposal of this Government one or more
Gunboats to be built and maintained wholly or in part at the expense
of the Colony, and to be employed within the Hong Kong jurisdiction
or its immediate neighbourhood .
4. I consider that circumstances have greatly modified the
views which seemed feasible when you did me the honour of discussing
this subject with me in London, because it is obviously impossible
for me to recommend an additional annual charge on the Colony of
some 50,000 dollars , when I have been obliged to report the financial
condition of the Colony as so critical that I must soon both diminish
the expenditure and increase the taxation • steps which I am actually
engaged in carrying into effect.
5. Therefore , if it be contemplated still that the Colony
should defray half the annual cost of two highly effective gunboats
a most wise and useful expenditure if practicable - it is necessary
to obtain the requisite funds by additional taxation or defer the
project till it be ascertained whether the Mint will realise the
profits once expected from that establishment .
(73476) 127
6. Again so far as the agency of the Legislative Council
and Public Opinion is necessary for engaging the credit of the
Colony in the maintenance of one or more gunboats the fact that
Admiral King has new independent instructions to commission two
more gunboats at Hong Kong " to be employed in the suppression of
Piracy in that neighbourhood " render very ineffective an appeal for
Colonial funds to carry out what is being at least accomplished in
part by the Admiralty.
7. I therefore do not consider that I am at this moment in a
position to propose to my Council any plan for the expenditure of
Colonial funds in the maintenance of armed vessels and although at
some future and possibly not very distant period , circumstances may
justify a very different view, yet just now I am convinced that to
press for any such contribution from the Colony would lead to much
unpleasantness which had better be avoided.
8. I need scarcely say however, that there is a very wide
field for useful action offered in the improvement of our Police ,
Registration of vessels administration of justice and many other
important points having a close connection with the suppression of
Piracy and crime . I have already got together much useful informa-
tion on these points, and when transmitted I trust that the position
and duties of Hong Kong in relation to Piracy will be better
understood.
9. It is necessary to draught a new ordinance in regard to
Registration , to remodel the Harbour Master's office , to adapt the
Police Force to new duties to constitute a fresh tribunal for trial
of Piracy cases. All these matters are being proceeded with and
I may add that it is my intention to forward to Sir Rutherford
Alcock at Pekin, such information as I hope , if there be no reason
to the contrary to induce the Chinese Government to aid in the only
effective way they can, viz. , by a direct pecuniary contribution to
the maintenance of several additional British gunboats . The figures
which I can adduce prove clearly the injustice of throwing almost
entirely on the British Flag and the British Exchequer the police
duties of the China seas.
10. It is possible that the American, Russian, Spanish, Dutch
and French squadrons in China seas might in proportion to the
respective strength of each be induced to contribute to some plan
of combined operation; but direct primary aid, and the pressure ,
when necessary, of a Chinese mandarin to give legal sanction to
action taken in Chinese waters constitute apparently the most
effective co- operation which we can expect from the Chinese.
I have the honour to be ,
Sir,
Your most obedient servant
RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL
Governor
(73476) 128
Reply by the Earl of Carnarvon.
Governor Sir R. G. MacDonnell Downing Street
10th August 1866
Sir,
I have under my consideration the dispatches noted in the
margin which you have addressed to my predecessor on the subject
of Chinese Piracy; and the various suggestions contained as well
in those dispatches as in your correspondence at Canton .
In one of those Dispatches you allude to a proposal recently
under the consideration of Her Majesty's Government for the re-
mission of £10,000 per annum, out of the military contribution now
required from the Colony of Hong Kong and the maintenance at the
expense of the Colony of a certain Naval force for the suppression
of Piracy, no decision has been hitherto communicated to you upon
that proposal because none has till now been adopted in the absence
of that report which you were instructed to furnish by Mr. Cardwell's
Dispatch of the 26th of December last .
The scheme is one which I should gladly have entertained . But
the communications which I have now received from you and a corres-
pondence which had already passed between this Department and the
Admiralty convince me that it must for the present be abandoned .
The full military contribution of £20,000 per annum , will therefore
continue payable by the Colony to the War Department and will of
course be transmitted for that purpose to the Crown Agents at the
usual periods.
It will then fall upon the Local Government and Legislature ,
without endeavouring to interfere with operations beyond the range
of their territorial jurisdiction to provide that its Harbour
regulations , its Land and Water Police , and its Courts of Justice
are thoroughly effective for the prevention and punishment of
piracy within the limits of their jurisdiction and to secure that
neither the City nor port of Victoria nor, as far as possible , any
other port over which the Hong Kong Government has authority shall
be made a point of departure for piratical expeditions or a market
in which pirates may purchase arms or supplies or exchange
information .
It is to these points that the responsibility of the Hong
Kong Government will now be confined, and it is on them that the
efforts of the Government should be concentrated. I need hardly
add that Her Majesty's Government deem it of the highest importance
that the Colony should perform its duties in these respects , in
such a manner as to furnish an example to the Chinese Government
and a fitting support to the commerce on which its own prosperity
depends .
I have read with much interest and have communicated to the
Foreign Office your correspondence with Sir R. Alcock and
Mr. Robertson .
(73476) 129
The proposal that the Government of China should pay to that
of Great Britain a species of subsidy to be applied towards the
suppression of piracy has been formerly considered in this country
and was held liable to serious objections . But it would appear
from recent Dispatches that the Chinese Government are about to
charter a certain number of steamers and employ them upon the service
in concert with the British vessels engaged iniit .
You appear to be perfectly aware that the proposal that none
but Government vessels should be allowed to carry arms in the Chinese
seas is impracticable for the present . But it may be worth con-
sidering whether vessels carrying arms without a licence obtainable
from the Government of China, Hong Kong, or Macao , or in excess of
the quantity allowed by that license , might not be subjected to some
severe penalty.
I wish you also to consider the necessity of imposing some
stringent restrictions on the export of arms. I am aware that any
such restriction may interfere in some degree with the facilities
of trade which Hong Kong at present enjoys . But if it be found
that such restrictions would conduce to the suppression of an
intolerable evil , the temporary and partial inconvenience which this
would cause in the Port of Victoria must of course be accepted as
one of the occasional evils attaching to the advantage of the position
which it occupies in relation to Chinese Commerce .
I have to add that Lord Stanley will communicate with Sir
R. Alcock in regard to the suggestion that the Chinese Authorities
should require junks carrying arms for self-defence to take out
licences for doing so .
I have etc. ,
CARNARVON
(73476) 130
V. THE GROWTH OF THE ENTREPÔT TRADE
Some indication of the difficulty of obtaining accurate and precise
information regarding the trade of Hong Kong has already been
mentioned above . The main questions , and it is easier to ask the
questions than to find the answers , relate to : - the proportion of
the entrepôt trade between China and the West which was enjoyed by
Hong Kong, as compared with that of the Treaty Ports ; the spread
of the entrepot trade from that between China and the West to the
Far East as a whole ; the passenger traffic ; trade with Chinese
overseas communities; the carrying trade and development of ship-
ping; and the growth of Chinese participation in and ownership of
import and export firms .
It has already been pointed out that Hong Kong's prosperity
was not merely a function of the physical trade entering and leav-
ing its harbour ; it rested also on the Island being the head-
quarters of the principal Far Eastern commercial firms and upon its
specialised markets and its ability to offer specialised commercial
and professional services .
The first document given in this section , No. 26 , is a table
of shipping, population , and migration from 1842 to 1930 taken from
the Hong Kong Government Historical and Statistical Abstracts ,
1932. Figures for subsequent years are readily accessible in
Government publications . The Chinese Passengers Act of 1855 ,
given as Document No. 27 , is included because Hong Kong's prosper-
ity was partly built upon the vast flow of Chinese migration . The
overseas Chinese communities in the Pacific area, the West Indies ,
Australian Colonies , in South- east Asia and Indian Ocean , clung to
their Chinese way of life and the resulting demand for Chinese
products was met largely by Chinese merchants in Hong Kong, the
Nam Pak Hongs , and contributed in no small degree to the rise of
the Chinese merchant class in Hong Kong. Documents 28 and 29 give
evidence of this increasing prosperity of the Chinese , which inci-
dentally had the social result in Hong Kong of bringing the Chinese
into districts which had before been solely occupied by Europeans .
Document No. 30 is a report by the Governor , Sir William des Voeux
on the economic prospects of Hong Kong in 1889. Document No. 31
is a report in 1891 on the declining junk trade and reflects the
increasing importance of the British carrying trade .
In Document No. 32 , are given five estimates of Hong Kong trade
extracted from official Government Reports for the years 1868 , 1888 ,
1898 , 1919 and 1938 , chiefly those of the Harbourmaster's Department
and the Imports and Exports Department . Figures for the year 1919
are given because statistics of Hong Kong trade were first accur-
ately compiled in that year following legislation which made it
(73476) 131
obligatory on the merchants to supply the necessary information .
Of the extracts from the Reports printed here those of 1868 , 1888
and 1898 give examples of the rough approximations used before 1919 .
That of 1938 has been added to show the situation up to the Second
World War. Document No. 33 gives extracts from the statistical
tables prepared by the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs to show
trade between Hong Kong and China.
DOCUMENT NO . 26
Table of Shipping , Migration and Population . 1841-1930
This Table is taken from the Historical and Statistical
Abstracts of the Colony of Hong Kong 1841-1930 . Third
Edition, printed by Norohna & Co. , Government Printers,
Hong Kong 1932.
SHIPPING MIGRATION POPULATION
Tonnage Left Entered Non- Chinese Total
Year Number Chinese
1842 ... ... 12,361 ...
1843 ... ... ... ... ...
1844 538 189,257 454 19,009 19,463
1845 672 226,998 1,043 23,114 24,157
1846 675 229,255 .. 1,386 20,449 21,835
1847 694 229,465 1,406 22,466 23,872
1848 700 228,818 ... 1,502 22,496 23,998
1849 902 293,465 ... 1,210 28,297 29,507
1850 883 299,009 ... 1,305 31,987 33,292
1851 1,082 377,084 1,520 31,463 32,983
1852 1,097 433,383 1,541 35,517 37,058
1853 1,103 477,053 1,481 37,536 39,017
1854 1,100 443,354 ... ... 1,643 54,072 55,715
1855 1,736 604,580 14,683 ... 1,956 70,651 72,607
1856 2,091 811,307 14,130 ... 2,479 69,251 71,730
(Whites ) (Coloured)
1857 1,070 541,063 ... ... 1,411 75,683 77,094
Non- Chinese
Entered and Cleared Chinese
1858 1,975 1,354,173 15,810 ... 1,462 74,041 75,503
1859 2,179 1,164,640 10,217 ... 1,661 85,280 86,941
1860 2,888* 1,555,645 15,183 ... 2,476 92,441 94,917
1861 2,545 1,310,383 12,840 2,167 2,986 116,335 119,321
1862 2,720 1,344,710 10,421 7,398 3,034 120,477 123,511
1863 3,657 1,806,881 7,908 7,193 3,149 120,701 124,850
1864 4,558 2,064,372 6,607 6,778 3,630 117,868 121,498
1865 4,445 2,134,164 6,849 6,026 4,007 121,497 125,504
1866 3,783 1,891,281 5,115 9,253 3,616 111,482 115,098
* Inclusive of Canton and Macao River Steamers .
(73476) 132
SHIPPING MIGRATION POPULATION
Non-
Year Number Tonnage Left Entered Chinese To tal
Chinese
1867 4,879 2,376, 320 4, 283 9,866 3,636 113, 835 117, 471
1868 4,095 1,974, 299 8, 704 10, 752 No Estimate made of population
1869 4, 426 2, 256, 049 18, 285 16 , 203 7,699 114, 280 121,979
1870 4,791 2,640, 347 12,992 16,618 8,754 115 , 444 124, 198
1871 ? 3, 235, 701 9,501 19, 754 No Estimate made of population
1872 6,099 3,795, 566 27, 721 23, 773 6, 421 115,564 121, 985
1873 4,675 3,273, 119 28,768 25, 355 No Estimate made of population
1874 4,356 3,034 , 036 31,866 32, 319 11 "1 11 " "
1875 5, 201 3,893, 687 48, 152 38,602 11 11 0 11 "1
1876 5,751 4,359, 616 46,350 42, 390 8,976 130, 168 139, 144
1877 5, 701 4,850, 896 39, 741 48, 746 No Estimate made of population
1878 6, 131 5, 209, 437 38,653 47,882 11 #1 11 "
1879 5,503 4,964,339 33,529 50, 542 11 11
1880 5, 775 5,078 , 868 50, 324 51, 011 "1 " "1 11 "
1881 6, 412 5,686, 488 70, 625 52, 983 9,712 150, 690 160, 402
1882 6, 880 6,337, 024 78, 864 61 , 905 No Estimate made of population
1883 6, 785 6,882, 381 57,438 74, 722 11 11 11 n 11
1884 6, 601 6,961,758 51, 247 73,767 11 ་ 11 11
1885 6,827 7,699, 099 57, 517 80, 773 11 ་་ "1 "1
1886 8,448 9,080, 390 64,522 88,704 10,412 171,290 181, 720
1887 8, 152 9, 169, 534 82,897 92, 375 10, 522 175, 410 185,962
1888 7,581 9, 006, 677 96, 195 98 , 195 10, 692 179, 530 190, 222
1889 7,588 8,971, 990 47,849 99, 315 10,832 183,650 194, 482
1890 8, 219 9,771, 743 42, 066 101 , 147 10,972 187, 770 198, 742
1891 8,707 10, 279, 043 45, 162 105, 199 10, 494 214, 320 224, 814
1892 8, 974 10, 294 , 152 52, 143 97,971 10,590 221, 072 231,662
1893 8,758 10,537, 859 82, 366 108, 644 10, 686 228, 038 238 , 734
1894 8,452 10, 469, 232 49, 023 96, 095 10, 782 235, 224 246,006
1895 9, 089 , 11, 525, 586 73, 138 112,685 10,828 237, 670 248, 498
1896 9,352 12, 333, 396 66,822 119, 468 12,709 226, 710 239,419
1897 9, 944 12, 124, 599 62,831 115 , 207 13,700 235, 010 248, 710
1898 11,058 13 , 252 , 733 60, 432 105 , 441 15, 190 239, 210 254, 400
1899 10, 905 13, 437 , 147 61,075 110 , 448 15,822 243, 490 259,312
1900 10, 940 14, 022, 167 83, 643 121,322 14, 778 247,900 262,678
Census
1901 10,807 14,599 , 141 65, 774 129,030 20,096 280, 564 300,660
1902 12, 461 16 , 275, 998 71, 711 129,812 18 , 524 293, 300 311,824
1903 14, 489 19, 018 , 411 83,384 140, 551 18,581 307,050 325, 631
1904 16,976 19 , 333, 096 76, 304 149, 195 18 , 900 342, 306 361,206
1905 18, 103 19, 778 , 176 64, 341 140, 483 17,977 359,873 377,850
Census
1906 16, 397 19, 833, 666 76, 725 134, 912 21, 560 307, 388 329,038
1907 18,096 20, 381, 421 105, 967 145,822 18 , 550 395 , 818 414, 368
1908 19, 604 20, 104 , 795 71 , 081 157,809 19, 786 401, 713 421 , 499
1909 18,714 20 , 171 , 755 77,430 144 , 821 20,479 408 , 409 428, 888
1910 17, 557 20,966 , 504 111, 058 149, 564 20,806 415 , 180 435, 986
1911 19, 644 20, 490, 520 135, 565 149,894 18,893 445 , 384 464, 277
1912 21,010 21,614,995 ... ... 21, 163 446, 614 467, 777
1913 21,867 22,939, 134 142, 759 166,921 21 , 470 467,644 489 , 114
1914 23, 740 22,069, 879 76, 296 168,827 20, 710 480, 594 501 , 304
(73476) 133
SHIPPING MIGRATION POPULATION
Non-
Year Number Tonnage Left Entered Chinese Total
Chinese
1915 23 , 051 19 , 561, 318 68, 275 109,753 13,390 495 , 840 509, 160
1916 23, 303 19, 106, 690 117,653 72, 405 13, 390 514, 620 528 , 010
1917 21,959 17, 329 , 841 96, 298 98,232 13,500 521,600 535, 100
1918 19,997 13, 982, 966 43, 830 74, 109 13, 500 548,000 561,500
1919 21, 275 18, 474, 996 59,969 136 , 020 13,600 584, 500 598, 100
1920 21, 498 21, 576 , 139 105, 258 122, 438 14, 682 615, 625 630, 307
1921 24, 697 24, 359, 720 156, 011 159, 064 14, 798 610, 568 625 , 166
1922 24, 272 26, 635, 557 98,393 143, 547 16,000 622, 300 638,300
1923 25,341 32, 392, 530 120, 224 121, 102 17,000 650, 900 667,900
1924 30, 240 35 , 471 , 671 129,859 30, 194 18,000 677,500 695, 500
1925 20, 389 29,727,264 140 , 534 91, 622 19,000 706, 100 725, 100
1926 15 , 204 26,983, 190 216,527 128, 661 19,000 691,000 710,000
1927 27, 235 33, 794 , 775 285, 593 181, 100 19 , 100 721 , 200 740, 300
1928 28,279 34, 447, 479 257, 162 187, 847 19 , 300 747,400 766 , 700
1929 29,052 36 , 867 , 745 227,523 185, 390 19, 400 783,500 802,900
1930 28, 374 37, 909 , 385 188 , 900 223, 136 19, 400 819, 400 838,800
DOCUMENT NO . 27
An Act for the Regulation of Chinese Passenger Ships .
18 and 19 Victoria , cap 104. 14th August 1855
Whereas abuses have occurred in conveying Emigrants from Ports
in the Chinese Seas : And whereas it is expedient to prevent such
abuses : Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and
with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal ,
and Commons , in this present Parliament assembled, and by the
Authority of the same , as follows:
I. In the construction of this Act the Term " Chinese
Passenger Ship " shall include every Ship carrying from any
Port in Hong Kong, and every British Ship carrying from any
Port in China or within One hundred Miles of the Coast thereof,
more than Twenty Passengers , being natives of Asia; the Word
" Colony" shall include all Her Majesty's Possessions abroad
not being under the Government of the East India Company; the
Word " Governor " shall signify the Person for the Time being
lawfully administering the Government of such Colony; the
Term " Legislature of Hong Kong " shall signify the Governor and I
Legislative Council or other Legislative Authority of the same
for the Time being; the Word " Ship " shall include all sea-
going vessels ; the Terms " Master " and " Commander " of any Ship
shall include any person for the Time being in command or
charge of the same; the Term " Emigration Officer " shall
include every Person lawfully acting as Emigration Officer ,
Immigration Agent or Protector of Emigrants , and every Person
( 73476 ) 134
authorised by the Governor of any British Colony to every
Person lawfully exercising Consular Authority on behalf of
Her Majesty in any Foreign Port .
II . It shall be lawful for the Legislature of Hong Kong,
by any Ordinance to be by them enacted for that purpose , to
make Regulations respecting Chinese Passenger Ships , and , in
the case of British Ships , respecting the Treatment of the
Passengers therein while at Sea, and until such enactment , the
Regulations contained in Schedule ( A) to this Act annexed shall
be in force : Provided always , that no such Ordinance shall
come into operation until Her Majesty's confirmation of the
same shall be proclaimed in Hong Kong by the Governor himself .
III . It shall be lawful for the Governor of Hong Kong to
declare , by Proclamation for the Purposes of this Act and of
the said Regulations , what shall be deemed to be the duration
of the Voyage of any Chinese Passenger Ship , and by such
Proclamation to alter the Scales of Dietary , Medicines , and
Medical Comforts contained in the aforesaid Schedule ( A) .
IV. No Chinese Passenger Ship shall clear out or proceed
to sea on any voyage of more than Seven Days Duration until
the Master thereof shall have received from an Emigration
Officer a Copy of the aforesaid Regulations , and a Certificate
in the form contained in Schedule ( B) to this Act annexed , or
in such other form as may be prescribed by the said Legisla-
ture , which Copy and Certificate , with any documents to be
attached thereto (hereinafter designated as Emigration Papers , )
shall be signed by the said Emigration Officer , or until the
Master shall , with two sufficient sureties , to be approved by
the said Emigration Officer, have entered into a joint and
several bond in the sum of one thousand pounds to Her Majesty,
Her Heirs and Successors , in the Form contained in Schedule C
to this Act annexed , or in such other Form as shall be
prescribed by the said Legislature .
V. The said penal Sum of One Thousand Pounds shall be
due and recoverable notwithstanding any Penalty or Forfeiture
imposed by this Act or by the aforesaid Regulations , and
whether such Penalties or Forfeitures shall have been sued for
and recovered or not.
VI . It shall be lawfu for the Comma of any of Her
l nder
Maje Ships of War , or for any Emigr Offi , Custo
sty' ation cer m
Hous Ofs f icer , o r B r i tish C o n sul , t o e n t er a n d s e a rch any
e
Chine Pass Ship (being a Briti Vesse or withi
se enge sh l n
Brit Juri r ) so long as such Ship shall have any
ish sdic
Pass t i f f -
on Boarodn, and or orty ight ours fter e h a ,
eng ward
and in ecrasse s u ch S h ip s h all b e e n gaged o n a v o yage o f m osre
than Seve Days Durat , to requi the produ of the
n ion re ctio
Emig Paper of such Ship , and to exami a n perso o
rat s ne ll ns n
boar oifonthe same , in order to ascer whet
her
the
d ta n
Prov of this Act and of the Regui lati
afore have
isio sa d
been compsn with ; and any Perso who refnuss o to ali l ow ,
lied n es
(73476) 135
attempts to avoid, or obstructs any such Entry, Search, or
Examination , or who knowingly misleads or deceives any Person
lawfully making any such Search or Examination , or who , being
the Master of the Ship or having the Emigration Papers in his
Custody, fails to produce the same when required as aforesaid ,
shall be deemed guilty of a Misdemeanor .
VII . In case of any Neglect or Refusal to comply with any
of the Provisions of this Act or of any of the Regulations
aforesaid , or to perform any Stipulation in any of the
Contracts made with the Passengers , the Master of the Ship ,
and any other Person who may have been guilty of or have aided
or abetted such Neglect or Refusal , shall each be deemed for
each Offence guilty of a Misdemeanor.
VIII . If any Chinese Passenger Ship clears out or proceeds
to sea on any Voyage exceeding Seven Days in Duration without
such Emigration Papers as aforesaid , or if the Emigration
Papers of any Chinese Passenger Ship are forged or fraudulently
altered , such Ship shall , if she is a British Ship , or if, not
being a British Ship , the Offence is committed and the Ship is
seized in Her Majesty's Dominions or in the Territories of the
East India Company , be forfeited to Her Majesty.
IX. Every Person who commits or aids or abets in commit-
ting any Act or Default by which any Passenger Ship may become
liable to Forfeiture shall be liable to a Penalty not exceed-
ing One hundred Pounds for each Offence .
X. It shall be lawful for any Commissioned Officer on
Full Pay in the Military or Naval Service of Her Majesty, or
any British Officer of Customs , or any British Consul , to
seize and detain any Ship which has become subject to Forfeit-
ure as aforesaid , and bring her for Adjudication before the
High Court of Admiralty in England or Ireland , or any Court
having Admiralty Jurisdiction in Her Majesty's Dominions or in
the Territories of the East India Company , and such Court may
thereupon make such Order in the Case as it thinks fit , and
may award such Portion of the Proceeds of the Sale of any
forfeited Ship as it thinks right to the Officer bringing in
the same for Adjudication , or to any Persons damaged by the
Act or Default which has rendered the Ship liable to
Forfeiture .
XI . No such Officer as aforesaid shall be responsible ,
either civilly or criminally , to any Person whomsoever , in
respect of the Seizure or Detention of any Ship that has been
seized or detained by him in pursuance of the Provisions
herein contained , notwithstanding that such Ship is not brought
in for Adjudication , or , if so brought in , is declared not to
be liable to Forfeiture , if it is shown to the Satisfaction of
the Judge or Court before whom any Trial relating to such Ship
or such Seizure or Detention is held that there are reasonable
Grounds for such Seizure or Detention ; but if no such Grounds
are shown, such Judge or Court may award Payment of Costs and
(73476) 136
Damages to any Party aggrieved , and make such other Order in
the Premises as he or it thinks just.
XII . It shall be lawful for the Court before which any
Ship liable to Forfeiture under this Act is proceeded against
to impose such pecuniary Penalty as to the same Court shall
seem fit , in lieu of condemning the Ship , and in such Case to
cause the Ship to be detained until the Penalty is paid, and
to cause any Penalty so imposed to be applied in the same
Manner in which the Proceeds of the said Ship , if condemned
and sold by Order of the Court , would have been applicable .
XIII . All Misdemeanors and other Criminal Offences
punishable under this Act shall be dealt with, tried , and
judged of in the same Manner as Misdemeanors and other Offences
punishable under the Merchant Shipping Act , 1854 , and all the
Rules of Law, Practice , or Evidence applicable to the last-
mentioned Misdemeanors and Offences shall be applicable to
Misdemeanors and other Offences under this Act .
XIV. Any Court , Justice , or Magistrate imposing any
penalty under this Act for which no specific Application is
herein provided may , if it or he thinks fit , direct the whole
or any part thereof to be applied in compensating any Person
for any wrong or Damage which he may have sustained by the Act
or Default in respect of which such Penalty is imposed , or in
or towards payment of the Expenses of the Proceedings ; and
subject to such Directions or specific Application as afore-
said , all Penalties recovered in the United Kingdom shall be
paid into the Receipt of Her Majesty's Exchequer in such Manner
as the Treasury may direct, and shall be carried to and from
part of the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom; and all
Penalties recovered in any British Possession shall be paid
over into the Public Treasury of such Possession and form part
of the Public Revenue thereof .
XV. [(Written Declarations of Commanders Consuls etc. to
be prima facie evidence . )]
XVI . This Act may be cited for any purpose whatever under
the Name of the " Chinese Passengers Act , 1855. "
XVII . This Act shall come into operation as soon as it
shall have been proclaimed in Hong Kong by the Government
thereof, or if not so proclaimed , on the First Day of January
next ensuing.
SCHEDULE ( A)
Regulations respecting Chinese Passenger Ships
Note The wilful and fraudulent Breach of any of these
Regulations by the Person in charge of any Chinese Passenger Ship
is punishable by forfeiture of the Ship , and every Person concerned
in such Breach is liable to a fine of One Hundred Pounds for each
Offence .
(73476) 137
I. No Chinese Passenger Ship shall clear out or proceed to
Sea on any Voyage of more than Seven Days Duration without a
Certificate from an Emigration Officer; and such Certificate shall
be in the Form provided by the Chinese Passenger Act , 1855 .
II . No Emigration Officer shall be bound to give such a
Certificate in respect of any Chinese Passenger Ship till Seven
Days after receiving Notice that the Ship is to carry Passengers ,
and of her Destination , and of her proposed Day of Sailing, nor
unless there are on board a Surgeon and Interpreter approved by
such Emigration Officer.
III . After receiving such Notice the Emigration Officer shall
be at liberty at all Times to enter and inspect the Ship , and the
Fittings , Provisions, and Stores therein , and any Person impeding
him in such Entry or Inspection , or refusing to allow of the same ,
shall be liable to a Fine of not more than one hundred pounds for
each offence .
IV. The Emigration Officer shall not give his Certificate
unless he shall be satisfied : -
(1) That the Ship is seaworthy , and properly manned , equipped ,
fitted , and ventilated ; and has not on board any Cargo likely
from its Quality , Quantity , or Mode of Stowage , to prejudice
the Health or Safety of the Passengers :
(2) That the Space appropriated to the Passengers in the
' Tween Decks contains at the least Twelve Superficial and
Seventy- two Cubical Feet of Space for every Adult on Board ;
that is to say, for every Passenger above Twelve Years of Age ,
and for every Two Passengers between the Ages of One Year and
Twelve Years:
(3) That a space of Five Superficial Feet per Adult is left
clear on the Upper Deck for the Use of the Passengers :
(4) That Provisions , Fuel , and Water have been placed on
board, of good Quality, properly packed , and sufficient to
supply the Passengers on board during the declared Duration of
the intended Voyage , according to the following scale :
Dietary Scale
Rice lbs 1 per diem
Salted Provisions
Wholly Pork; or 2/3 Pork and 1/3 Fish ;
or 1/3 Pork, 1/3 Beef, and 1/3 Fish 11 do .
Salted Vegetable or Pickles 11 टे do.
Water, Imperial Quarts 3 do.
Firewood 11 2 do.
Tea ozs 1/3 do .
(5) That Medicines and Medical Comforts have been placed on
!
board according to the following Scale :
(73476) 138
Scale of Medicines and Medical Comforts:
For every 100 Passengers , and in like proportion for any greater or
less number .
Calomel 3 ozs Extract of Colocynth ,
Blue Pill 2 ozs compound 1 02
Rhubarb Powder 2 Ozs Carbonate of Ammonia 1½ ozs
Compound Jalap Assafoetida 1 oz
Powder 12 OZS Camphor 1호 OZS
Ipecucuanha Powder 12 OZS Camphorated Liniment 16 ozs
Opium 2 ozs Catechu 2 ozs
Dover's Powder 2 ozs Prepared Chalk 2 ozs
Magnesia 2 Ozs Tincture of Opium 8 ozs
Epsom Salts 6 lbs Turpentine 16 OZS
Chloride of Lime 20 lbs Jeremie's Opiate 2 oz Phial
Tartar Emetic 4 Drams Aromatic Spirits of
Senna Leaves 8 ozs Hartshorn 4 oz Phial
Blistering Plaister 8 ozs Cholera Pills in
Sulphur Sublimed 16 ozs Phial 12 Drams
Sulphur Ointment 12 ozs Cubebs Powder 4 lbs
Linseed Flour 4 lbs Sweet Spirits of
Country Soap 24 OZS Nitre 16 ozs
Castor 011 6 Bottles Copaiba 16 OZS
011 of Peppermint 2 ozs Sulphate of Copper 2 OZS
Adhesive Plaister, Sulphate of Zinc 1 OZ
spread 2 yards Lunar Caustic 4 Drams
Simple Ointment 16 OZS Lime Juice 36 Quarts
Ringworm Ointment 16 OZS Rum or
Quinine 2 ozs Brandy 36 Quarts
Antimonial Powder 02
Instruments &c.
1 Set of Amputating and 1 Silver Catheter
other Surgical Instru- 1 Spatula
ments ( if there be on 1 Dressing Scissors
board any Person compe- 1 Infusion Box
tent to use them) 1 Quire of Country Paper
1 One Ounce Glass Measure 1 Penknife
1 Minim Glass Measure 2 Metal Bed Pans
1 Pestle and Mortar 2 Trusses for Hernia, Right
(Wedgwood) and Left
1 Set of Weights and Scales 2 Small Syringes
(Grains in Box) 4 Ounces Prepared Lint
1 Set of Common Splints 2 Pieces Cloth for Bandages
1 Set Bleeding Lancets
༥. The Master of any Passenger Ship being a British Ship and
proceeding on a Voyage of more than Seven Days Duration shall ,
during the whole of the intended Voyage , make issues of Provisions ,
Fuel and Water, according to the aforesaid Dietary Scale , and shall
not make any alteration , except for the manifest advantage of the
Passengers , in respect of the Space allotted to them as aforesaid ,
or in respect of the Means of Ventilation , and shall not ill- use
the Passengers , or require them ( except in case of Necessity ) to
(73476) 139
help in working the Vessel ; and shall issue Medicines and Medical
Comforts, as shall be requisite , to the best of his Judgment , and
shall call at such Ports as may be mentioned in the Emigration
Officer's Clearing Certificate for fresh Water and other Necessar-
ies; and shall carry them without unnecessary delay to the
Destination to which they have contracted to proceed .
VI . The Emigra Office shall not give his Certif
ti n r icate
until he shall have muo stere the Passenge , and have ascertai
d
to the best of his power that they unders
rs whith t a ned
ta d er hey re
going, and compre the Natur of any Conn tract o f S e rvice which
he e
they have made ; hendshall also take care that a sCopy of the Form of
such Contra , or an Abstra o their Substa , signed by him-
ct ct f nc
self , is appes nded to the said Certificat . If eany of the
Passe are in bad Health , or insuff e provid w
nge ic nt ed ith
clothi r, s or if the Contra are unfai , ie
or liyf there is reason to
ng cts r
suspec that Fraud or Violen h b practi in their Collec
t ce ave een sed -
tion or Embark , he may detain the Ship , and , if he shall think
ation
fit , may order all or any of the Passen to be re - landed .
gers
SCHEDULE ( B)
Emigration Officer's Certificate & c .
I hereby authorise the Chinese Passenger Ship
to proceed to Sea for the port of in
; and I certify that the said Ship can
legally carry Adults , and that there are on board
Passengers , making in all Adults , viz. ,
Men, Women, Male Children ,
and Female Children , such Children being between the
Ages of One and Twelve Years ; that the Space set apart and to be
kept clear for the use of such Emigrants is as follows : - On the
Upper Deck, Superficial Feet , being (here describe the
Space) ; that the Ship is properly manned and fitted , and that the
means of ventilating the Part of the Between Decks appropriated to
Passengers are as follows , (here describe the means of ventilation ) ;
that the Ship is furnished with a proper Quantity of good Provisions ,
Fuel , and Water for Days ' Issues to the Passengers accord-
ing to the annexed Dietary Scale , and with a proper Quantity of
Medicines , Instruments , and Medical Comforts according to the
annexed Scale of Medical Necessaries ; that I have inspected the
Contracts between the Emigrants and their intended Employers ( the
Terms of which are annexed to this Certificate ) , and consider them
reasonable ; that no Fraud appears to have been practised in
collecting the Emigrants ; and that there are on board a Surgeon
( and Interpreter ) approved by me , and designated ( respectively
and) (The Master of the Ship is to put
into and for fresh Water
and Vegetables .
(signed)
Emigration Officer .
Dated this Day of 18
(73476) 140
These Scales must be those prescribed by the Regulations in
Schedule A. In case the Ship has been authorized to proceed
without an Interpreter omit the Part between the Brackets, and add
" and that the Ship has been authorized to proceed without an
Interpreter " . The Part between the Brackets is to be inserted or
not , as may be required .
SCHEDULE (C)
[(Gives the form of the Bond to be entered into by the Masters
of Chinese Passenger Ships , as required by Paragraph IV of the Act . )]
PROCLAMATION
By His Excellency Sir John Bowring, Knight , LL . D. , Governor
and Commander- in - Chief of the Colony of Hong Kong and its depend-
encies , and Vice-Admiral of the same , Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary ,
and chief superintendent of trade of the British subjects in China .
Whereas by an Act of the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain
and Ireland passed in this the Eighteenth and Nineteenth years of
Her Majesty's reign , entitled an Act for the regulation of Chinese
passenger ships , under the third clause thereof it is enacted , that
" it shall be lawful for the Governor of Hong Kong to declare by
proclamation for the purposes of this Act , what shall be deemed to
be the duration of the voyage of any Chinese passenger ship : "
Now therefore I , Sir John Bowring, Governor as aforesaid , by
this my proclamation issued for that purpose , do declare that the
following shall be the rule of computation by which the length of
the voyage of any ship carrying Chinese passengers from Hongkong
to the several places hereinafter mentioned shall be computed , for
the purposes of the Act above referred to ; that is to say: -
Passage from Hongkong to the undermentioned places for ships
propelled by sails.
In the months
October April to
to March September
(both inclusive)
California or West Coast of America,
North of the Equator 100 days 75 days
West Coast of America, South of the Equator 120 11 120 11
Sandwich Islands 75 56
New Caledonia, New Hebrides , Feejee Islands ,
100 11 100 11
Tahiti , Society or Friendly Islands
Sydney, Melbourne or South Australia 60 80 11
Western Australia 45 60 11
Van Diemen's Land 65 11 80 11
New Zealand 75 90 ་
Manila 20 20 "
Singapore 20 11 45 11
Batavia 30 11 60 "
(73476) 141
In the months
October April to
to March September
(both inclusive)
Ceylon 45 days 70 days
Madras or Calcutta 50 11 75 ་
Bombay 60 ་ 80 11
Mauritius or Bourbon 60 "1 80 11
Cape of Good Hope 65 11 85 11
West Indies or East Coast of America 147 11 68
Great Britain or Europe 162 11 84 11
Siam 20 11 45
Given under my hand and seal of the Colony , at the Government
Offices , Victoria , Hongkong , this 26th day of January, in the Year
of Our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty- six, and in the
nineteenth year of Her Majesty's reign .
By His Excellency's Command ,
( Signed) W. T. MERCER,
Colonial Secretary .
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN
DOCUMENT NO . 28
Extract from a Dispatch from Sir John Pope Hennessy to the
Earl of Carnarvon , ordered to be printed by the House of
Commons , No. 426 , August 1881 relating to the Economic
progress of the Chinese
Government House ,
Hong Kong ,
27th September , 1877
My Lord ,
From the last census returns which accompanied the Blue Book
for 1876 , transmitted in my dispatch of 28th July , it appears that
since the former census in 1872 , the population of Hong Kong has
increased from 121,985 to 139 , 144. This increase of 17 , 159 in
four years is mainly due to an increase in the Chinese population
which now accounts to 130 , 168 .
2. In his Report of 12th February, 1877 the Acting Registrar-
General says : " The European and American community is larger by
247, but this is almost solely attributable to the number of
Portuguese who have made Hong Kong their residence since the partial
destruction of Macao by typhoon and fire in 1874. Nearly every
other nationality shows a decrease , especially amongst male adults .
(73476) 142
There are now 86 British , 12 German , 12 American and 10 Danish male
adult residents less than in 1872 " .
3. It thus appears that whilst the Chinese and Portuguese
are increasing in number, the British, German and American residents
are gradually diminishing in number. Nor is this confined to a
mere change in the relative proportions of the various nationali-
ties . The British , German and American mercantile firms are as a
rule restricting their operations , whilst the Chinese merchants are
steadily extending their business. In today's shipping list I
see, as consignees of British steamers now loading in Hong Kong
Harbour, Mr. Kwok Acheong, and the firms Hop Kee , Fook-Mow-Loong
and Kwong-Lee-Yuen . Not long since all the steamers of the
Shanghai Steam Navigation Co. were purchased by the " China Merchants
Steam Navigation Company" and they are now worked under Chinese
management .
4. Advancing up the harbour from the West , one sees ware-
houses that a few years ago were in the midst of a European district
and belonged to British or German houses now in the occupation of
the Chinese . Not many months ago, Mr. Lowcock, a member of my
Council , and one of the partners in the eminent house of Gibb,
Livingston & Co., said that his firm contemplated retiring from business ,
and selling their spacious godowns to a Chinese merchant .
5. In connection with this commercial progress of the Chinese
in Hong Kong, there are some facts that cannot fail to interest your
Lordship . In the first place neither the British consumer nor the
British manufacturer appears to lose by it . The Chinese merchants
allege that they can put Chinese goods on the English market in
larger quantity and at lower prices than their English competitors ;
and they also allege that they can afford to sell British goods
cheaper to the natives in Hong Kong and in China than the other
traders . However that may be , there is no doubt of the fact that
though the number of British , German and American houses in Hong
Kong may be diminishing, the value of the general Hong Kong trade to
the British consumer and the British manufacturer is increasing.
6. In the second place , while Chinese warehouses, shops and
temporary residences are becoming more numerous every year, what are
called the family houses of the Chinese are not being built in this
Colony . Such houses as Mr. Choa Mah- Soo occupied in Labuan or
Mr. Ho Ah Kay Whampoa, and other rich Chinese occupy in Singapore ,
and which are to be seen in Malacca, Penang and Saigon , are not to
be found in Hong Kong.
7. The wealthy Hong Kong Chinaman has a temporary abode close
to his stores , but his family house is at Macao or Canton . In
another despatch , I will give further particulars on this point , and
endeavour to suggest a remedy for what is certainly a serious
political evil .
8. I have touched on this subject now in connection with two
interesting reports of Mr. Price the Surveyor General , copies of
which I enclose for Your Lordship's information . The first is
(73476) 143
dated 8th May 1877 , and refers to the restriction , imposed by Order
in Council on the extension of Chinese premises in Hong Kong.
Owing to the desire of Europeans to sell , and of Chinese to pur-
chase , houses and building sites , Mr. Price recommended partial
relaxation of the existing rule .
9. Three proposals came before the Surveyor General for the
sale of European property to Chinese for shops and dwellings . Two
of those proposals by Mr. Chater for converting certain European
buildings on Queen's Road Central into Chinese structures , and for
building Chinese houses in Duddell St. , were recommended for my
approval by Mr. Price ; but he suggested I should not sanction the
sale for Chinese purposes of certain property which Messrs . Douglas
Lapraik & Co. desired to dispose of. In other words , he recommen-
ded that no permit should be issued for Chinese buildings anywhere
above a line running along Upper Wyndham St. , Hollywood Road,
Aberdeen St. , the back of the lots facing Caine Road , Bonham Road
and High Street .
10. I approved of his recommendation , though entertaining
some doubt as to the policy of not allowing Messrs . Douglas Lapraik
& Co. , to sell property for Chinese purposes . I am disposed to
think the line Mr. Price has now drawn cannot be maintained very
long, in justice either to the Chinese who want to buy property or
to the Europeans who want to sell it .
11. I also lay before Your Lordship an extract from the
minutes of Council of 23rd May , and a copy of a memorandum of the
Registrar General , Mr. Cecil C. Smith , in the subject , which was
considered by the Council at the same time as Mr. Price's first
report .
12. Mr. Price's second report ( a copy of which with its
enclosure I have the honour to transmit ) is dated 20th September
1877, and it shows that the houses proposed to be erected for the
Chinese in what was formerly a European district of the town of
Victoria are in keeping with the proportions and design of the
neighbouring buildings .
13. In sending me the plan (a tracing of which is enclosed
for Your Lordship's information ) , Mr. Price says " The Governor will
notice that as regards style , it compares favourably with the best
European houses , and that it will in no way detract from the
appearance of the neighbourhood " .
( Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY,
Governor.
(73476) 144
DOCUMENT NO . 29
Extracts from a speech by the Governor , Sir John Pope
Hennessy, to the Legislative Council , 3rd January 1881 ,
on the subject of the Census Returns and the Progress
of the Colony. Hong Kong Government Gazette ,
4th June 1881
The following report , extracted from the Daily Press , is
republished for general information .
His Excellency ·- Gentlemen , you are aware , that , under instructions
from Her Majesty's Government, the census was taken in this Colony
on the 3rd of April last . The former census was taken at the end
of 1876. It was submitted to Sir Arthur Kennedy a few days before
he left the Colony for Queensland , and it became my duty to make a
brief report upon it. It is unusual , almost unprecedented , for
the same Governor to have to make reports upon two successive
censuses . A census is generally taken every ten years , but it
happens that only four years and four months have elapsed since
the last census in this Colony . But apart altogether from what
may be unusual in official procedure , I find, looking at the
returns I am now about to lay upon the table , that there is some-
thing unusual in the important facts they disclose . A comparison
of the census of 1881 with the census of December 1876 , shows an
amount of real progress and substantial prosperity in the short
space of four years such, as I believe , can only be equalled in the
Australian Colonies , and which is, perhaps , unprecedented in any
of the Crown Colonies .
In putting these census returns before you , and in moving, as
I shall do at the end of my statement, that they be printed , I
desire to give every member of the Council an opportunity of making
any remarks he may think fit upon them. They will enable the
Council to answer three questions. They will enable you to decide
how far the Colony of Hong Kong has really fulfilled the objects
for which it was established; they will enable you also to deter-
mine whether it is true , what you have all heard said so often ( out
of Hong Kong, or by unobservant residents in it ) , namely , that
there are no trades and manufactures whatever in this Colony; and
these returns will also enable us to decide a question much dis-
cussed here now, - whether the recent transactions in land , the
important sales and transfers of land , that have taken place of
late , are speculative , or whether they are really bona fide the
result of healthy commercial progress , and a matter of necessity.
With respect to the latter point , I am placing upon the table
a return which has been prepared in the Survey Department in conse-
quence of a minute of mine , in which I directed attention to the
publication in the Daily Press of the 11th May, 1881 , of a statement
of transactions in landed property in Hongkong, and called upon the
proper officers to have that return checked and verified .
Accordingly that return , which , no doubt , you have all seen was
transmitted to the Acting Surveyor- General . He has now furnished
(73476) 145
us with an authentic statement of the transactions , from the Land
Office books , that have taken place in the transfer and sale of
property from the first of January last year to the 11th of May
this year . To be brief , I think , on the whole , he corroborates
what appeared in the Daily Press , and the summary he gives at the
end is to this effect : Total value of properties bought by
Chinese from foreigners , $ 1,710,0366 ; total value of properties
bought by Chinese from the Government , $ 17,705; total value of
properties bought by foreigners from foreigners , $216 , 750; total
value of properties bought by foreigners from the Government,
$5,060; total value of properties bought by foreigners from
Chinese , $16,450 .
Now, this large item of $ 1,710,000 on the transfer of property,
almost entirely for commercial purposes , to the Chinese community
since January last year , is undoubtedly an event of great import-
ance. Is it speculative , or is it justified by the returns I am
now laying on the table ? In the first place , what do we learn
from the census returns of the Registrar- General ? We find that
the population has risen from 139 , 144 in 1876 to 160,402 in 1881 ,
showing in four years and four months , an increase of 21,258 , and
of this increase the Chinese population account for 20 , 532. The
Registrar-General adds , that the European and American community is
larger by 273; that the increase is among the British, Portuguese ,
Germans and Italians , and is that of women and children; that the
male adult population of Europeans and Americans has decreased .
This fact is of interest , because , whilst , taking the male adult
British subjects , there has been a very slight decrease from 342 to
336 , there has been an increase in the number of women and of boys
and girls . So, too , with the Portuguese ; there is a falling off
from 418 adult males in 1876 to 384 at present , but an increase in
the women and children . So too , with the Germans; there is a
falling off in the adult German population , and in the American
population , and in the French population, but in each case there is
an increase in the number of women and children . This fact , I say,
is of interest, because the tropical Colony where European children
flourish cannot be very unhealthy . The vitality of a foreign child
is a delicate test of climate , and I believe we can point to this
particular item in the census returns as affording some indication
that Hongkong is growing more healthy - (Hear, hear ) . And now,
proceeding to the question of the 20,000 additional Chinese , we
have to consider this: -- Has the increase in the various mercantile
occupations of the Chinese been such as to justify the remarkable
transfer of landed property I have referred to? The census returns
furnish us with an opportunity of testing how far in the harbour of
Victoria itself the means we have of commercial movement --- that is,
the transference of goods from steamer to steamer, from steamer to
shore , and vice versa , how far that has been facilitated since the
year 1876. From the returns , I find that that movement is conduc-
ted by steam launches , cargo boats , and sampans . The steam
launches have increased from 8 in 1876 to 37 in 1881 , the cargo
boats from 494 to 656 , and the sampans from 1,357 to 2,088 . So
far for the machinery that we have in our harbour for conducting the
commercial movement of the Colony; it has substantially increased .
The returns I am laying before you are identical in form with the
( 73476) 146
returns prepared in the time of Sir ARTHUR KENNEDY , and probably
his predecessors , and amongst these returns there is one which
answers the question I have been asking , and that is a return of
the occupations of the Chinese adult male inhabitants of the
Colony . On analysing that return , I find that the following are
the changes that have taken place since the last census with
respect to Chinese merchants and other Chinese directly concerned
in the trade and commerce of the Colony .
The Chinese Trading hongs , -- that is, the Nam-pak hongs and
other wealthy merchants who now send the manufactures of England
into China , have increased from 215 to 395. Chinese traders
have increased from 287 to 2, 377; Chinese brokers , from 142 to
455. Taking the Chinese engaged in dealing in money ; -- the
Shroffs have increased from 40 to 208 ; the Teachers of shroffing
have increased from 9 to 14 ; the Bullion dealers , who do not
appear in any former census , are now returned at 34; the Money
Changers , 111 in 1876 , still remain at 111 , but in 1876 there were
no Chinese Bankers returned , and now we have in this census 55
Chinese Bankers. The piece- goods dealers have increased from 78
in 1876 to 109 , and cotton and yarn dealers from 38 to 58. This
is of interest , not merely to Manchester, Bradford or Leeds : these
Chinese merchants of Hongkong are now facilitating an Indian trade
with China, healthier , and with a safer future , than the trade in
that drug which a few years ago was the only considerable commercial
link between British India and China. Since 1877 , the quantity of
Bombay yarn received in Hongkong has steadily risen from 21,000
bales to 61,000 . The increase in the value of this trade from
$1,706 , 913 in 1877 to $ 5, 251 , 246 in 1880, has been coincident with
an increase in our imports of raw cotton from Bengal and Rangoon
from 33,000 bales in 1877 to 86,000 in 1880. Our opium trade
shows no such tendency to increase . In 1880 , we imported 87,747
chests , as against 88,428 in 1877. Mr. F. D. Sassoon tells me
that the value of our total trade with India last year was
$67,772,937 , the value of the opium being $ 58 , 248 , 235. Though the
trade in other goods than opium is but one- sixth of the total
Indian trade , yet it is so rapidly developing, that I look forward
with confidence to the time when it will outstrip , and , perhaps ,
enable the Indian Government to curtail , the trade in opium. Tea
merchants have increased from 26 to 51 , rice dealers from 95 to 128 ,
coal dealers from 16 to 20 , firearms dealers from 15 to 20 , timber
dealers from 15 to 107 , drapers from 101 to 156 , and foreign goods
dealers from 167 to 191. Compradores have increased from 77 to
95, ship compradores from 67 to 113, and ship charterers from 7 to
41. Looking to the increase I have pointed out in the ordinary
machinery for commercial movement in the harbour , to this remark-
able increase of the mercantile community, and to the well- known
magnitude of the mercantile transactions of our Chinese merchants ,
it seems clear that this large expenditure , since January 1880 , of
$ 1,710,000 by Chinese for commercial property was a necessary
expenditure .
There is another question that we may fairly ask. It has
often been said, and there is hardly a directory or guide to
Hongkong in which you do not see it recorded , that Hongkong has no
(73476) 147
local manufactures whatever . Is that true ? Well , on turning to
the census returns , I find many local Chinese manufactures in this
Colony . Bamboo workers have increased from 93 in 1876 to 121 in
1881 ; Boat builders , from 48 to 110 ; Carvers , from 59 to 70;
Cigar makers , from 21 to 31 ; Engineers from 10 to 121 , and Gold
beaters from 41 to 60. Glass manufacturers appear for the first
time ; there are now 16 in the Colony, and I believe at this moment
the glass manufactory to the west of the town is capable of turning
out such glass as some of the European storekeepers here are them-
selves prepared to sell ; and when a service of glass may get
injured , they can now send to our local glass manufactory and get
tumblers to replace those broken in the set . I find image makers
have increased from 10 to 15 , lantern makers from 50 to 63 , leather
box makers from 39 to 53, lemonade and soda-water makers from 28 to
30. Watch manufacturers did not appear in the former census ;
they now number 13. Oar makers have increased from 30 to 43 .
Opium dealers have declined from 108 to 103, but that is not
coincident with any decline in the revenue the Government of Hong-
kong derives from the monopoly of prepared opium, which was
$ 132,000 in 1877 , but was sold in 1879 for $ 205,000 a year . Paper
box makers have declined from 21 to 10 , and rattan workers from 596
to 448. Rice-pounders have increased from 954 to 1,083 . Of
rifle makers we have five in the Colony . Sail and rope makers
have increased from 100 to 141 , and sandal-wood dealers and workers,
from 74 to 76. Workers in sapanwood have declined from 96 to 20 ,
and though there is apparently a decline in the number of sauce
manufacturers from 49 to 41 , there has been an increase in the
quantity of sauce manufactured. I may mention , that a short time
before the late Mr. KWOK ACHEONG died , I went with him and two or
three other Chinese gentlemen interested in the factory at Yau-ma-
ti , to examine the factory, which was in a more or less rude state ,
the buildings not being then completed . I was glad to see what
they were doing . In addition to making soy, they made ketchup for
the European market, and they had also a manufactory for preserving
fruits . Now, the ketchup is sent in hundreds of barrels every year
direct to a well- known house in London , that well - known storeman
whose good things most of us have , from time to time , enjoyed . He
sends out thousands of little bottles of Hongkong ketchup to
Chinese as well as to European storekeepers here , so that , in short,
the ketchup we consume as English ketchup is manufactured by Chinese
in Hongkong, sent to England , and this famous manufacturer and
storekeeper in England returns it to us for retail . I am bound to
add , that the latest advices are that the peculiar article which is
produced by the Chinese manufacturer at Yau-ma- ti was regarded at
the recent sales in London as the best in the market , and our little
local manufactory is very successful . I find immediately follow-
ing this we come to the soap manufacturers ; they do not appear in
the last census , and they are now only 7 in number . There also
appears , for the first time , one spectacle -maker. We have Chinese
sugar refiners ; they have declined from 25 to 15 , and tanners from
7 to 1. Tobacco manufacturers have increased from 44 to 96 .
Tooth- powder makers appear also for the first time ; they number 57.
Umbrella-makers have increased from 97 to 169 , vermilion manufac-
turers and dealers from 111 to 123, and Weavers , who appear for the
(73476) 148
first time in our census , number 6. It is, therefore , clear that
we have in this Colony numerous local manufactures which have every
prospect of extending.
But apart from the question of such manufactures , there are in
this Colony, as you all know, various industries employing Chinese
artizans . Carpenters have increased from 2,510 to 2,923, black-
smiths from 690 to 708, pewter- smiths from 60 to 173, tinsmiths
from 88 to 172, and braziers from 488 to 864. Masons show a
falling off from 845 to 542. Rice-pounders have increased from
954 to 1,083, and in stone - cutters there is a large increase , --
from 449 to 1,439 . The number of tailors now in the Colony , who
work with sewing machines mostly, amounts to 1,857. It is an
interesting fact , that for these tailors drill is imported into the
Colony from England ; they make it up with their sewing machines ,
and the made clothes are then exported to New Zealand and Australia.
In that way Chinese cheap labour , even without leaving the atmos-
phere of China , is , to a certain extent , successfully competing
with Australian and English manufacturers of clothes .
There are certain special occupations of the Chinese which are
worth noting, as they indicate the prosperity of the natives . We
have the birds ' nest sellers , who have increased from 12 to 35, the
sharks ' fins dealers , from 9 to 15, bean curd sellers , from 93 to
107 , jadestone dealers , from 8 to 18 ; but cinnamon dealers have
fallen from 8 to 7. Ses samum oil dealers appear for the first
time , and number 3, and ginseng dealers also appear for the first
time and are 4 in number. Joss-paper sellers have increased from
30 to 47, Joss-house keepers , from 17 to 41 , and chair coolies ,
from 859 to 980.
In addition to those who are concerned in our commerce and
trades , there is a certain amount of professional life amongst the
Chinese , as shown by the census returns . We had in 1876 , 198
Chinese doctors ; now we have 333 .
I also had the opportunity of consulting the Chinese on another
proposal . There came to me a resolution from the Chamber of
Commerce , in which the Chamber proposed that the Government should
adopt a system of registering all the sleeping partners in Chinese
houses of business . They showed that it was exceedingly difficult
to find out who had money in a Chinese trading concern , and recom-
mended that the natives should be compelled by law, and under
adequate penalties , to register every person who had a share , no
matter how small , in a Chinese business . The Chamber of Commerce
added that they had no desire to apply this system to the European
houses, but wished it to be confined solely to the Chinese .
Acting on my usual principle , I mentioned it to some of the leading
Chinese bankers and others , but they pointed out that the Chinese
system of trading would be completely upset by it -- that there is
an extraordinary net-work of investments in this Colony, as in any
other community of Chinese , and that it would interfere seriously
with Chinese trade , and , in fact , tend to prevent the influx of
(73476) 149
Chinese into the Colony. Accordingly, I declined to accede to the
proposal of the Chamber of Commerce .
Well , gentlemen , it is upon such questions as these that I
have been able to give to the Chinese community positive assurances
to the effect that I would make no distinction between them and the
other British subjects in the Colony . The mere fact of doing that
which was , after all , but a negative exercise of the functions of
the Government has gained for the Government the confidence of the
Chinese community , and they have come to the Colony for the last
three years in large numbers . They are settling here , buying
property, and what they are doing is , no doubt , of great interest
to us all .
I must say it is of interest to me as the Queen's Representa-
tive , not merely because I see Her Majesty's Chinese subjects
prosperous, but because what is going on in Hongkong tends to render
prosperous men of our own race from England, Ireland , and Scotland
in this Colony . I rejoice , also , to see that this prosperity is
shared in by the Armenians, the Parsees, and other subjects of the
Empress of India; as well as by the Portuguese , the Americans , the
Frenchmen, the Germans , and the other foreigners who here enjoy the
commercial advantages of an Anglo- Chinese Colony and the protection
of the British flag .
My honourable friend the Attorney General has seen the West
Indian Islands . He and I have seen Englishmen full of enterprise
and ability there , but we have seen , too , many of them bankrupt
planters , broken- down merchants . Why? Because the native com-
munity they had to work with was not like the community of this
Colony . Here you find a community industrious and temperate , with
a natural aptitude for commerce . But it is not merely Chinese who
are making money . The Europeans are making money also . And as
we watch the transfer of business houses in this Colony , and see the
Chinese trader coming closer, day by day, to the manufacturer of
England , it is a deeply interesting fact to note , that , with the
growing prosperity of the place , there arises a demand for British
enterprise , for enterprise that the Chinese mind, with its unrival-
led trading instincts and natural commercial skill , cannot at
present supply . I refer to our local Companies founded by
Europeans . Is there any one here who can say that in any other
Colony there are public Companies more prosperous than the public
Companies of Hongkong? Take them all in all , the public Companies
founded by the enterprise and ability of our European merchants in
this Colony , and at this moment eminently prosperous , -- our Dock
Company, Sugar Companies , River Steamer Companies , Insurance
Companies , our Gas Company and our local European Bank. What
Eastern Company is more flourishing than the Hongkong and Shanghai
Bank? Well , the success that has attended these Companies arises,
no doubt , in the first instance from the enterprise of those who
originated them, but we must not forget the fact that they are
worked in the midst of a Chinese community, and it is impossible to
separate the prosperity of our fellow countrymen from the prosperity
of the natives of the Colony .
(73476) 150
There is one other consideration which I may venture on this
occasion to point out to you . It is this, -- that of all the
colonies in Her Majesty's Empire , this is, perhaps , the most
interesting in what may be called the foreign policy that is forced
on the Government . We are close to an extra-ordinary Empire .
This little Colony has with the Empire of China the most intimate
commercial relations . What should be the duty of this Colony to
the Chinese? Apart from the general principle of doing justice
to all , I have to look to the interests of England and the instruc-
tions of Her Majesty on this subject , and there is no doubt , the
interests of England are gravely involved in having this Colony
maintain friendly relations with China. The Chinese have at the
moment, and have had for many years , a great deal of internal
content . And what is the consequence? Throughout China now,
there is a development of industrial resources and a production of
wealth which cannot fail to benefit the British manufacturer and
British shipowner . China is an essentially progressive nation ,
cautious and slow, but , I say, eminently progressive . It is not
progressive in certain respects , no doubt; for instance , not in
that way one sees sometimes depicted in Punch where children assume
to lecture their parents , and where the rising generation expresses
contempt for grey hairs. That is a species of progress we do not
see in China. His Honour on my right will also , perhaps , have
noticed in some of the commercial cases before him, that there are
some practices sanctioned by our bankruptcy law in which one would
be sorry to see China making progress in the case in which the term
is sometimes used in Western nations and the United States . I was
much struck the other day on reading some evidence printed by order
of the Congress of the United States with respect to the Chinese
who had gone from Hongkong to San Francisco . There I find the
evidence of the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce , a gentleman
apparently of large business transactions . He speaks of having
transactions amounting to millions of dollars with the Chinese .
But what he says is , in effect , this , " I find I can have these
business transactions with the Chinese in San Francisco with
perfect safety. I take no bond or security from them. Large
sums of money and goods to a considerable amount pass. If " it
were a countryman of my own or any other foreigner, I would have to
adopt a different system. " In short , he says, -- " I attribute the
commercial prosperity of the Chinese in San Francisco to their great
commercial probity . " Another leading American merchant of San
Francisco , in his evidence , say, -- " The Chinese pay their debts
ten times more promptly than our white men ; they are clear-headed,
" shrewd, intelligent , and capable of managing business on a large
scale; this is especially true of the "hong merchants of Hongkong" .
Those commercial qualities make China a safe progressive
country, and make it the duty and interest of a trading Colony like
this, and a commercial Empire like England , to be at peace with
China. I would push this principle of peace to the extent of not
worrying them with advice . They will understand, in course of
time , that there is something to be learned , especially in physical
science , from Western nations. But, above all , we should avoid ,
either in dealing with the Queen's subjects in this Colony, or in
our relations with the Empire near us , any attempt to force on the
( 73476) 151
Chinese institutions which are unsuited to them, and some of which
we , in course of time , may, perhaps , discover are unsuited to
ourselves . Those are the principles by which I have endeavoured
to guide my four years ' administration of this Colony, and now, in
submitting to you these returns , which correspond with the period
of that administration , I can only express the hope , and I do it
with every confidence , that , when the next census is taken , all
classes in this Colony will be as prosperous as they are today .
The motion that the papers be printed was passed .
DOCUMENT NO . 30
Extracts from a Report on the Condition and Prospects of
Hong Kong by His Excellency Sir G. William Des Voeux ,
Governor, & c.
Sir G. William Des Voeux to the Right Honourable Lord
Knutsford , Secretary of State for the Colonies . (also
presented to the Hong Kong Legislative Council .
Hong Kong Sessional Papers for 1889. )
Government House ,
Hong Kong,
31st October , 1889
My Lord,
...
SHIPPING
40. With regard to the tonnage statistics contained in the
Colonial Secretary's Report , it may be noted that the aggregate
--
tonnage of vessels entering the Port of Victoria during 1888
6 , 400 , 410 tons -- shows a slightly falling off from the returns for
1887 6,401 , 837 tons . In view ( 1 ) of the diminished export of
tea from China in consequence of the competition of India and
Ceylon ; and ( 2) of the serious checks given to Chinese Emigration
in the United States and the Australian Colonies , with the contrac-
tion of trade thereby occasioned, -9 it might have been expected
that the shipping returns would have been much more seriously
affected. But though, probably as the result of these causes , the
tonnage of European vessels fell from 4,607,914 to 4 , 536 , 442 tons
it will be seen that that of junks rose from 1,793 , 923 to
1,863,968 tons , so that the decrease of trade in one direction was
almost entirely compensated by increase in another. It should be
noted that the shipping returns of this Colony are very far from
merely indicating the entry of steamers for the purpose of coal-
supply, as is probably the case with the greater portion of the
large tonnage returned by some of the Mediterranean Ports . For
Hongkong is the terminus not only of the whole of the junk trade
( in 1888 1,863 , 968 tons ) and of nearly all of the European and
(73476) 152
American sailing ships entering, but also of many lines of Ocean
steamers including 3 trading to America, 2 to Australia, 1 to
Calcutta , 2 to Europe ( the Austrian Lloyds and Florio Rubattino)
and others to Manila , Borneo , Siam, and the Coast Ports of China ;
while of the steam- ships of the other great lines , the P. & 0. ,
the Messageries Maritimes , the German Lloyds , the " Ocean " , " Glen " ,
" Shire " , and " Ben " Lines which proceed onwards to Shanghai or
Japan , there are very few which do not leave here on the outward
voyage , and take in on the homeward, a considerable portion of
their cargo .
VARIOUS STATISTICS
51. The following statistics furnished to me by Mr. WODEHOUSE ,
Acting Treasurer , may prove of interest : -
30th September, 1879. 30th September, 1889 .
Total amount of Deposits Current
and Fixed in the European Banks
in Hongkong $7,068 , 600 $23,882, 000
Ditto ( Estimated ) in Chinese
Banks ... 15 , 000 , 000
Total amount in the Savings Bank 211,000
Notes in Circulation with bullion
in reserve of all Banks 4,776, 856 9, 100 , 826
Market value of all registered
Companies in Hongkong 39, 380 , 000 63,921 , 700
69. Another of the leading features of the most recent
history of the Colony is the number of joint- stock enterprises
undertaken almost entirely with local capital to which, it may
be noted, Chinese have , for the first time , begun to make consider-
able subscriptions in common with Europeans . Since the beginning
of 1888 , 35* Companies have been formed, with capital already paid-
up aggregating $ 9 , 508 , 475, for land investment , manufacture , and
trade in Hongkong and for mining and planting enterprises in the
Malay Peninsula, Borneo , and Tongking . So strong has been the
tendency towards joint- stock investment that the shares of most of
the Companies have been insufficient in number for the demand ; and
it may be mentioned as showing the amount of capital available for
the purpose that within two months of this year the sum of
$4,890,000 was paid into the Hongkong **and Shanghai Bank in connec-
tion with the shares of one Company.
There are 10 other Companies registered in Hongkong of which I have
been unable to ascertain the paid-up Capital , making a total of 45 .
** The Hongkong Land Investment Company, Limited . Capital $5,000,000 of
which $ 2,500,000 has been paid- up together with $ 1,250,000 premium on
the 2nd issue . The sum of $ 1,140,000 paid for shares not allotted was
returned to the applicants.
( 73476) 153
70 . As far as is known all , or nearly all , of these Companies ,
especially those whose field of operations is in Hongkong , have
good , some of them excellent , prospects of success . There can
moreover be little doubt that land in Hongkong will eventually be
even more valuable than now. But it remains to be seen whether
property in either land or shares is at present worth the high
price to which it has been advanced by speculative purchase . It
may indeed be taken as certain that in very few instances can the
profits within the next year or two afford a fair interest on
present outlay ; and hence probably arise the signs of reaction
which are now beginning to show themselves . If this depression of
values should continue , it would no doubt cause much distress among
those who have been speculating beyond their means ; but any
general injury is not at all likely to be other than temporary ;
and in a Colony having so many solid elements of prosperity it may
be taken as certain that , in the absence of calamity , the wound
will be very quickly healed .
71. Though the absence of any Custom House and of any
returns * of Imports and Exports , precludes any certain estimate of
the amount of trade , it may be gathered from the above remarks in
connection with " Shipping" that the enormous commerce of the Colony
is in a condition of healthy progress . We may have not yet felt
the full effects of the restrictive measures against Chinese in the
United States and Australia , and of the decline in the Chinese Tea
Trade ; but there is good reason to think that any contraction from
these causes is being rapidly compensated in other directions .
But while commerce pure and simple , is , and must be for a long time
to come , the principal element of our prosperity ; it is , I think,
from manufacture that may be hoped the greatest progress of Hongkong
in the future . We can readily have abundant and cheap supplies of
raw materials ; and there is available , to a practically unlimited
extent , the cheap labour of China ; while we have also , what is
absent there , the advantage of general confidence that enterprise
will not be unnecessarily hampered and mulcted of its legitimate
reward. Already we have seen established in the last few years
sugar refineries which are doing an exceedingly large and apparently
prosperous ** business ; we have moreover ship and boat building
yards , rope works , ice works (now doing large export trade ) and
some 30 minor industries enumerated in the Blue Book. But con-
siderable as is the aggregate of manufacture already , it is in all
probability inappreciable by comparison with what it would shortly
become if there were to be any important reduction of the price of
coal , which as being almost exclusively obtained from distant
countries is at present very costly ( $ 8 to $ 16 per ton ) ; and such
* There are at present strong objections on the part both of Europeans
and Chinese to any provision for such returns , partly because they
would involve a certain restriction upon the complete freedom of trade ,
and partly on other grounds , arising from our vicinity to China.
** The Shares of the China Sugar Company which own one of these refiner-
les, not the largest , are now quoted in the market at 130 per cent.
premium.
( 73476) 154
a reduction may, I think , be regarded as only a question of time .
Enormous and as yet completely undeveloped coal deposits are known
to exist in China and other neighbouring countries; and there is
abundant evidence that the progressive party among the Chinese are
beginning to awaken to the advantage of utilising their mineral
wealth. Indeed unless all of the various movements, there and
elsewhere , for the production of coal in the neighbourhood , should
prove abortive , it may be expected that the only element needed for
rapid progress in manufacturing enterprise will in no long time be
supplied .
72. To render more complete the information derived from the
above account of events and observations on statistics , and in
order to enable a fuller appreciation of the condition and progress
of the Colony, it may be well to give , however imperfectly , some
idea of its outward appearance from a contrast of the present with
the past .
73. There must be some still living who saw the island before
the British occupation . If one of them, having been absent during
the whole interval , were now to return , even the extremely salient
and beautiful features of the natural landscape would scarcely
enable him to identify with the Hongkong of today what he would
remember as a bare rock , with a fisherman's hut here and there as
the only sign of habitation , and a great sea- basin only very rarely
disturbed by a passing keel .
74. For now he would see a city of closely built houses
stretch for some four miles along the island shore , and rising ,
i g
tier oven r tier , up the slopes of the mountain , those on the
upper levels intersp with abundan foliage -- ; while on the
ersed t
opposit peninsu of Kowloon , which was (until very recently ) an
uninhab e l a
waste of undulat red rock , he would now see in
ited ing
the distanc prevale verdure ; in the foregro and along the
e nt und
whole sea board numerou houses together with docks , * great ware-
s
houses and other evidenc of a large and thriving populati .
e on
Again , the silent and deserte basin has become a harbour so covered
* * d
with shippin , that even if he has been round the whole world , he
g
could never before have seen so much in a single coup d'oeil . At
o m a
anchor r oving re ome 0 o s 4 t 5 0 O c ean s t eamers , i n cluding s h ips
of war ; large Europea and America sailing vessels , and hundreds
n n
of sea- going junks ; while in the space interve and around are
ning
There are several docks -- one of them a dry dock constructed entirely
of granite which can take in, the largest vessels now afloat in the
world, except perhaps the two recently built for the White Star Line.
In the Kowloon warehouses of the Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown
Company, all in immediate contiguity and for the most part under one
roof, may be seen at any time merchandise worth over half a million
sterling.
** The tonnage return of Hongkong shows it to be the 3rd port of the
British Empire , and therefore ( with the possible exception of New York,
of which I have no statistics ) the 3rd in the world. The aggregate
burthen of shipping is greater than that of all the British possessions
on the Continent of America , or than that of the four leading Colonies
of Australia.
(73476) 155
many thousand boats , for the most part human habitations , with
steam-launches* rushing in all directions .
75 . Going ashore our visitor would see long lines of quays
and wharves , large warehouses teeming with merchandise , shops
stocked with all the luxuries as well as the needs of two civili-
sations ; in the European quarter a fine Town Hall , stately Banks ,
and other large buildings of stone ; in the Chinese quarters
houses , constructed after a pattern peculiar to China, of almost
equally solid materials , but packed so closely together and
thronged so densely as to be in this respect probably without
parallel in the world; ** and finally he would see streets stretch-
ing for miles abounding with carriages ( drawn for the most part
not by animals but by men ) , and teeming with a busy population , in
the centre of the Town chiefly European , but towards the West and
East almost exclusively Chinese .
78 . Hongkong has indeed changed its aspect ; and when it is
remembered that all this has been effected in Her Majesty's reign ,
and indeed during a space of less than fifty years , on ground in
immediate contact with the most populous Empire in the world , by
a comparatively infinitesimal number of an entirely alien race
separated from their homes by nearly the whole earth , and, unlike
their countrymen in Australia and Canada , living in an enervating
and trying climate ; and when it is further remembered that the
Chinese , whose labour and enterprise under British auspices have
largely assisted in this development , have been under no compulsion ,
but have come here as free men , attracted by liberal institutio ,
ns
equitable treatment , and the justice of our rule ; when all this is
taken into account , it may be doubted whether the evidences of
material and moral achievement , presented as it were in a focus ,
make anywhere a more forcible appeal to eye and imagination , and
whether any other spot on the earth is thus more likely to excite ,
or much more fully justifies pride in the name of Englishman .
I have the honour to be , My Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient ,
humble Servant,
( Signed ) , G. WILLIAM DES VOEUX .
* Apart from those belonging to British and Foreign War Ships , there are
98 Steam- launches in the Harbour.
** It is believed that over 100,000 people live within a certain district
of the City of Victoria not exceeding square mile in area. It is
known that 1, 600 people live in the space of a single acre .
(73476) 156
DOCUMENT NO . 31
HONGKONG
Extracts from the Report on the Junk Trade for 1891
Laid before the Legislative Council by command of His
Excellency the Governor , on the 22nd February , 1892 .
Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1892
No. 20 Harbour Department ,
Hongkong,
11th January, 1892
Sir,
In continuation of former correspondence , I have the honour to
furnish herewith statistics of the Junk trade .
2. These remarks and statistics are not included in the
"Annual Report " in which being a document usually for publication
it might be considered inexpedient that they should appear.
3. The favourable geographical position of this Colony
renders it a great distributing centre ; the large trade focussing
here reaches its terminal markets partly in coasting steamers and
partly in junks . Of the 2,753 European constructed vessels
visiting the port in 1890 , fifteen hundred and twenty- eight or con-
siderably more than half and this half nearly double the size in
tonnage , ship for ship , of the other moiety , were vessels visiting
the port twelve times or less , i.e. , craft bringing trade acting as
feeders to the Colony not as distributing agents that necessary
part being performed by the remaining 1,235 smaller vessels plying
to the port more than 12 times in the year . In the same year
23,343 junks in foreign trade with a total tonnage of 1,786,038 ( or
roughly speaking half the figures shown in paragraph 3 of the Annual
Report those quoted there being the total in and out ) assisted in
the distribution of trade from this centre , taking the totals of
the Report of 93 millions tons about two- thirds or 6 millions were
the feeders and one- third or 34 millions the distributors assisted
by 3 million tons of junks . The European vessels being for the
most part steamers of course carried by far the largest portion of
the trade . The Year 1890 was a bad one for the rice trade as was
also 1891 and in the first named the number of small European
steamers competing with junks became very marked and has not
decreased .
4. In the year 1890 , eight thousand two hundred and nineteen
European constructed vessels with a total of 9,771,741 tons passed
through the port giving employment to 46,686 junks aggregating
3,572 , 079 tons in foreign trade and 9,082 junks making up
332,473 tons in local trade , i.e. , the ports of the island .
5. In 1891 , the corresponding numbers are European vessels
8,707 measuring 10,279,043 tons or an increase of 488 ships with
507,302 tons and junks in foreign trade 45 , 403 with a total tonnage
(73476) 157
of 3, 263, 118 tons or a decrease in numbers of 1,283 junks represent-
ing 308,961 tons at the same time [ Table 1 ] the junks in local trade
run up to 11,930 equivalent to 463 , 537 tons or an increase over the
previous year numbering 2,848 junks aggregating 131,064 tons . It
is not credible that the increase of the local traffic satisfac-
torily accounts for the increased volume of trade and the decrease
of the foreign junk trade .
6. Attention is now invited to a comparative statement for
the past five years of Licensed Junks and Licensed Fishing Junks ;
the numbers and the revenues derived from the junk trade are as
follows : -
Total
Total Special Revenue
Total Total
Licence Permit for
Year Junks Junk
Fees Fees Licensed
licensed Revenue
$ $ Junks
$
1887 2,424 8, 198 619.75 8,817.75 19,997.75
1888 2,570 8, 018 604.75 8,622.75 19,761.25
1889 2,692 7,785 569.25 8,354.25 19,402.00
1890 2,977 9,387 569.00 9,956.00 22, 397.75
1891 3, 332 10 , 091 730.25 10,821.25 22,602.50
7. Special Permits are the monthly renewals of licences
exempting the holders from reporting on each separate occasion of
arriving taken out by licensed junks when in the waters of the
Colony . Fishing junks under 100 piculs are further allowed to
take these licences every six months only. The average for the
three years 1887-1889 inclusive , it will be seen, is licensed
vessels 2,562, the revenue derived directly there from in licences
$8,000.25 and in permits $ 597.75, a total of $8,598 out of a grand
total of $ 19 , 720 .
8. For the average of three years 1887 to 1889 inclusive
and the years 1890 and 1891 the proportions are therefore as
follows: -
Revenue Total
Licensed
for Junk
Junks
Do. Revenue
187-189 2,562 8,598 19,720
190 2,977 9,956 22,397.75
'91 3,332 10,821.25 22, 602.50
9. The proportion of revenue derived from unlicensed junks ,
therefore , it will be seen , by no means increases pro rata as that
from licensed junks , taking the years , 1890 and 1891 as examples
the tonnage returns also bear this out . It may be said as more
junks are licensed there are fewer unlicensed ones to take out
(73476) 158
Anchorage Passes , Clearances , &c . , but comparison of the years of
1889 and 1890 disposes of that theory .
10. In 1890, 285 more vessels were licensed than in 1889 ,
the revenue increased $ 3,000 , and the foreign junk trade rose
154,748 tons , and the local 49 , 103 directly , no doubt , due to an
increase in European tonnage of 799,751 tons .
11. In 1891 , with an incr
ease of half a million tons , 355
more junks were lice w a gain to the Trea
nsed i t h sury of $ 204.75 , a
decre i t f j t
ase n he oreign unk rade of three hundred thousand tons
and an incre in the local junk trade of 130,
as 000 or a net loss
of 170,0 t e , to say noth
00 ons ing of the money thereby put out of
circu .
latio
n
12. That there was no loss to the carrying trade , of course ,
is patent rather a gain to steamers , but hitherto gain to both
ships and junks has gone on side by side with profit to the
Colonial Treasury from both; consolidating the earnings of one or
other means proportionate loss to the revenue .
13. In the years under revie the cond
w ition have been the
same ; a stead incre in Ocean borne traff , sbad rice trade
y ase ic
( takin the years throu ) , and incr
g gh easin competiti from small
steam vesse , but under ordin c g the oinncre o t
ls ary ircumstan ase f he
great sourc of suppl the Ocean trade was scuefsf t o p r e serve
e y ici n
the equil . In the 3rd quart o 1 , inde t
eed as is shown
ibriu er f 891
m
in lette No. 529 dated 15th Octob , not alone was the rice trad
r er e
good , but a ficti i h b g t
tious mpetus ad een iven o the junk trade by
the quarr o t C C
els f he hinese ustom Houses , native and foreign .
...
17. The only controllable causes of the depression of the
junk trade are the suppression of the system of espionage estab-
lished by the Chinese Customs in Hongkong, and the preservation of
the neutrality of British waters .
I have the honour to be , Sir,
Your obedient Servant ,
W. C. H. HASTINGS ,
Acting Harbour Master , &c .
Honourable W. M. GOODMAN,
Acting Colonial Secretary,
&C. , &c. , &C.
(73476) 159
TABLE I
COMPARATIVE SHIPPING RETURNS FOR 1890 AND 1891
1890 1891 Increase Decrease
Ships Tonnage Ships Tonnage Ships Tonnage Ships Tonnage
European
constructed
vessels 8, 2199, 771, 741 8 , 707 10 , 279 , 043 488 507, 302 ...
Junks in
foreign
trade 46 , 686 3, 572, 079 45, 403 3, 263, 118 ... 1, 283 308 , 961
Junks in
local trade 9,082 332, 473 11, 930 463, 537 2,848 131 , 064 ... ...
DOCUMENT NO . 32
(a ) Extracts from the Harbour Master's Annual Report for
1868 from the Hongkong Government Gazette , 20th March , 1869
Harbour Master's Department ,
Victoria, Hongkong,
25th February, 1869
Sir,
I have the honour to enclose the undermentioned Annual Returns
of the Shipping and other matters concerned with the Marine
Department of this Colony , for the year 1868 .
...
SHIPPING
2. The Returns for the year under this head will enable the
Government to arrive at a better conclusion as to the increase or
decrease of the trade of Hongkong than has hitherto been the case .
The Registry of trade in European bottoms is still kept separated
from that in Chinese craft, each being under different legislation .
But in the ordinary Board of Trade Returns , Nos . I - VI inclusive ,
the Native trade is exhibited under the common term " Foreign " .
...
5. The Foreign Arrivals show a large excess , but is entirely
due to the increased activity of the junk trade ( treated separately)
the foreign trade having diminished by 215 vessels and 73, 576 tons .
...
7. It is evident from these comparisons that , although there
is an increase of 29 British ships and 17,477 tons of cargoes from
(73476) 160
Great Britain , trade under the British flag would appear on the
whole to have diminished .
8. There is a point worthy of consideration and which so
long as Hongkong remains a Free Port will always obtain , that is ,
the inability of this Department , as at present constituted , to
arrive at the quantity, quality and value of Imports and Exports .
An increase to the Harbor staff would enable me to collect this
information , but as such a course would materially interfere with
the now absolute freedom of the trade of the Colony , I hesitate to
suggest the adoption of any measures tending to such a result .
But in consequence of this want , the Government can never be in a
position to know the actual trade of the place , for vessels arriv-
ing, although only partially laden , are entered as " with cargoes "
in contradistinction to those in ballast only .
JUNK TRADE
9. In my last report I was enabled to point out the probable
success of the addition of the " Harbor and Coasts Ordinance " to the
laws of the Colony . In the year under review it is convincingly
shown that what in 1867 was but an interesting experiment is now a
great reality .
10. The increase of Arrivals in 1868 on 1867 amounts to
4,670 vessels and 142,996 tons . This is a result which the
warmest supporters of the novel measure could scarcely have antici-
pated . I always felt that Chinese traders would soon perceive the
real object and bent of examining and registering all native craft
visiting the Port and that directly they saw it clearly, all ill
grounded fears would vanish and they would carry on their business
with greater confidence than ever.
11. During the year the Governm h r t f
ent as educed he ees
collect from junks . Firstly , by classif all trading and
ed ying
fishing vessels , and secondl , by reducin the fees on Anchora
y g ge
Passes to one half their previou amount . This measure which is
s
attende by serious loss to the Revenue , has had a good effect on
d
the trading and fishing populat .
ion
12 . In my Report of the 1st September last , on the Junk
Trade , I remarked on the decrease of the local or home trade of
the Colony , that is , in vessels plying between the outstations and
villages of Kowloon and Victoria. The same decrease is now per-
ceptible , but there are so many means of transport in small sam-
pans , of which this Department can take no account , that the
diminution is more apparent than real .
13. During the last year the Chinese Government established
Customs ' Stations in the near vicinity of the Colony, the existence
of which , it was thought , would tend to check the native of this
place , but this does not as yet appear to be the case . Occasional
complaints have been made that vessels were improperly boarded and
their owners subjected to illegal exactions , but it is most likely,
that these robberies were committed by persons who , under pretence
(73476) 161
of being Revenue Officers , took the opportunity of levying squeezes
on junks as they passed from the protection of Colonial waters to
their destination .
14. In May last an Ordinance ( No. 2 of 1868 ) was passed
enabling His Excellency in Council to frame orders for the gradual
disarming of all native vessels . A commencement was made on the
fishing craft which had been represented to this Government as
being the fruitful source of Piracy . Stinkpots being weapons more
of offence , than of defence , no vessel was to be permitted to carry
them. Through the medium of this Department the provisions of the
Ordinance were being stringently adhered to , and fishing vessels
were deprived of their arms , but it was soon observed that many of
the more important of those vessels deserted the Colony and on the
matter being enquired into , it was found that this Government alone
was acting up to the spirit and intention of the understanding come
to on this subject with the Canton Authorities . The Order in
Council was consequently repealed and the fishing trade has again
resumed its former briskness .
15. The work of this branch of the Department has materially
increased during the year, there having been 40 , 122 documents
issued in 1868 as against 36,713 documents issued in 1807 .
16. It is satisfactory to notice the decrease of Piracy . Α
North German barque was attacked near Hoi Nam and 14 attacks on
Junks have been reported during the year as against 29 reported in
1867.
17. The schooner Victoria and the launch Blanche will , when
completed , greatly augment the efficiency of this Department .
The junk has been useful and in her much valuable service has been
rendered , but from her inferior sailing qualities , the uncertainty
as to the time of reaching the place of destination and eventual
return to the harbor is so great that the outstations have not been
visited as frequently as they should be . It is essential to the
proper performance of the Police duties of the Colony that such
vessels as those in progress should be at all times , if not actually
cruising , at least ready for the performance of any duties which
may devolve on them. At present the Government is compelled , even
in most trivial instances , to call on the Navy for assistance and
although this is always most willingly accorded , it must occasion-
ally happen that there is not a Gunboat available for the service
required .
18. The Colony will henceforth be freed from this disadvan-
tage and will be able to act at all times in its jurisdiction
whenever circumstances shall render it necessary.
EMIGRATION
19 . 4,421 more Chinese have left Hongkong during the year
under review than appeared to have left in 1867. This is partially
caused by a large number of laborers being required for the con-
struction of railways in the United States , and also from the check
(73476) 162
which has been placed on vessels hence to Bangkok. These vessels
do not now carry Chinese indiscriminately, but clear in the usual
way. Formerly they cleared with 20 passengers and afterwards took
in others when beyond the harbor limits .
20. But one vessel carrying 252 hired emigrants to Surinam
was dispatched during the year. This was owing to the cheapness
of rice , & c . The planters in Dutch Guiana are extremely desirous
to obtain this class of labor and spare no pains or money to en-
courage Chinese to embrace their offers . A free passage back at
the end of their five years ' service is now offered or should be
emigrant desire to remain, he receives a bonus of $ 60 and a piece
of ground .
21. It has been prominently brought to the notice of this
Government by the Government of Victoria that the Dayspring , an
English vessel of 393 tons which left here for Melbourne in May
last with 99 Chinese passengers , had arrived at the latter place
having disease of a scorbutic nature on board, from which a number
of the passengers had died . This vessel left here after the usual
examination of the ship , provisions , and medical comforts which
such vessels invariably undergo , by a Government Marine Surveyor,
Medical Inspector of Emigrants and myself . In addition to her
passengers she had a cargo consisting almost entirely of edibles .
She appears to have been 22 days longer on the passage than is
calculated for at that time of the year and consequently provisions
and water ran short . But the Master had access to the hold where
he might have obtained the former and for the latter he could have
replenished at any island that he neared , but he appears to have
shewn himself most reckless as to the requirements of his passengers
and proceeded on his voyage despite the advice of a European pas-
senger who was on board . Want of proper food , which appears to
have deteriorated from the length of the voyage , the deficiency of
water, undue attention to cleanliness and the absence of healthy
exercise , all conduced to nurture the disease . The Authorities at
Melbourne dealt with the Master for a breach of the Chinese
Passengers ' Act .
22. An Italian vessel has lately arrived at this Port from
Havana on board which a disease of a similar character manifested
itself, but attended with much more serious consequences. The
Consul held a lengthy investigation into the case , when it was
shewn that no blame attached itself to the Master, Officers , or
Crew.
...
I have the honor to , Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
H. G. THOMSETT, R. N.
Harbor Master.
To the Honorable J. Gardiner Austin,
Colonial Secretary .
(73476) 163
(b) Extracts from the Harbour Department Annual Report
for 1888. Hongkong Sessional Papers 1889.
Harbour Department ,
Hong Kong ,
8th March, 1889
Sir,
I have the honour to forward the following Annual Returns for
this Department for the year ending 31st December , 1888 .
...
SHIPPING
2. The total trade of Hong Kong for the year 1888 is repre-
sented by 63, 967 vessels measuring 12,996 , 396 tons . (This is an
advance of 174 vessels and 357,702 tons on the average for the
previous 3 years , and is 359 vessels more , but 28 , 939 tons less
than in 1887. )
3. This vast amount of trade is apportioned as follows : -
per
No. tons
cent
British 5, 121 6, 474, 343 49
Foreign 2,460 2,532 , 334 19
Junks in Foreign Trade 47,567 3,703, 707 29
Total 55 , 148 12, 710 , 384
Junks in Local Trade 8,819 286 , 012 2
Total 63,967 12,996 , 396
4. Compared with 1887 there has been a decrease of British
tonnage amounting to 342, 705 tons; and an increase of Foreign
tonnage , exclusive of Junks , of 179,848 tons ; also an increase of
Junks , exclusive of local trade , of 143,781 tons , and a decrease of
Junks employed in local trade of 9,863 tons .
5. The countries with which the decrease of British tonnage
is most apparent are : ·
Coast of China and Formosa 190,977 tons
Cochin-China 123, 894
Continent of Europe . 104 , 201 "1
Australia 22, 178
6. The Principal increase appears with the following
countries: -
British Columbia 22, 173 tons
Great Britain 121 , 066 "1
Japan 40, 918 11
(73476) 164
7. The principal decrease , that with Coast of China and
Formosa , may be partly accounted for by the fact that, during the
year several steamers trading on the Coast , which were formerly
under the British flag, were transferred to the German flag. The
decrease under the heading of Contin ent in Europ e is partl y conse-
quent on this trade being carried more in Foreign bottoms . But it
is most largely due to an alteration in the system of classification
adopted in this Report . In former Reports , the vessels of the
Peninsular and Oriental Company calling at Brindisi and Marseilles
en route were classed under the heading of " Continent of Europe " ,
while now they are classed under " Great Britain " . With Australia,
the decrease must be put down to the altered circumstances of trade
consequent on the suppression of Chinese Emigration to the
Australian Colonies .
8. During the year , 3,660 steamers arrived , being a daily
average of over 10, 7 of which were " Ocean going " . They represented
a total tonnage of 4,416,000 , over 68 per cent . of them were under
the British flag .
9. The statistics show an increase in the Junk trade over
last year, with the Coast of China and Formosa of 103,497 tons , and
with Macao of 40,284 tons . There is a decrease however of
9,863 tons in the local trade .
10 . On the 31st Decem t w 9 s -l i t
ber here ere 1 team aunches n he
Harbo , of these , 41 were licens for the convey of passen ,
ur ed ance gers
42 were privat owned , and 8 were the proper of the Coloni
e ty al
Gover
nment . Tlhy
ere were , in addition , 6 launches , the property of
the War Depart .
ment
EMIGRATION
11. During the year 1888 , 96 , 195 Emigrants left Hongkong, of
these, 72, 744 ( 65,976 males , 5 , 109 females, and 1 , 659 children ) were
for the Straits Settlements; 18,275 ( 18 , 119 males , 95 females, and
61 children ) were for San Francisco ; 1,972 ( 1,942 males , 3 females ,
and 27 children ) were for the Australian Colonies . Owing to the
restrictions placed on Chinese Emigration by the various Governments
in the Australian Colonies , Emigration there has been practically
stopped since the month of May, 1888 .
12. The subject of abuses connected with Chinese Emigration
has lately received much attention . That abuses do exist there
can , I think, be little doubt , but I question much if they exist to
the extent which some suppose . Frequent cases of so- called " kid-
napping" are reported, but, except in the case of women or children ,
my impression is that in a large number of these reported cases , the
so- called " kidnapped " coolie is a rogue, who , having agreed to
emigrate and received a " bounty" for so doing, either escapes from
the vessel as she is leaving the harbour , or gets some of his
friends to report that he has been taken away against his will in
the hopes that he may be taken out of the ship before leaving , or
traced and sent back from the port for which he has sailed , in
either case , if he is successful , he will be ready to try his game
(73476) 165
on again sooner or later . The jumping overboard of " kidnapped "
coolies from outward bound Chinese passenger ships , of which a good
deal heard a short time ago is one of the symptoms of abuses in
which I do not believe . It is a curious fact that few if any of
these individuals are ever heard of after jumping overboard, though
they are seen to be picked up by boats which appear to be waiting
for them . It is more than probable , I think , that in nearly all
these cases , could they be clearly traced , it would be found that
this " kidnapped one " was really either a " Bounty Jumper " or else a
thief who had got on board surreptitiously and remained as long as
he could , with a view of seeing what there was to be picked up ,
and who, having done all he could in the time at his disposal ,
cleared out by jumping overboard at a suitable spot where his
friends would be waiting to pick him up in a boat .
13. Cases of forged contract passage tickets have come under
my notice , also cases of Emigrants going on board after the medical
inspection by the Health Officer and the issue of the Emigration
Officer's Certificate . During the past year, on one occasion
under the latter circumstances I detained the vessel until the
number on board corresponded with the number passed by the Health
Officer and certified to by me . A claim was made for compensa-
tion for this detention , but it was not persisted in . As one
precaution against fraud , every ticket is now numbered as the
owner passes before the Health Officer and Emigration Officer's
Deputy on board . A further proposed precaution is to have the
tickets printed on specially prepared paper in order that forger-
les may be readily recognized , but no means adopted by the
Government will prove wholly effectual , unless we have the active
co- operation of the Agents or Charterers and the Master of the
vessel towards the prevention of abuses .
14 . The presen system of the Emigra going on board at
t nts
any time after their passin at the Harbou Office and before the
g r
sailin of the vessel , and while the vessel is lying in the Roads ,
g -- and
in a great measu o t t p , - since the office
re pen o he ublic rs
crew are so fully employ in their other duties as to make it
ed -- is
imprac for them to attend to coolie coming and going
ticabl s
conduc e
to abuses , and I think that the best remedy would be
iv
found ine the establ of a Govern Emigra Wharf along-
is men ment tion
side which vessel woh u l d t
t a k e o n b o a r d t h e i r E m i g rant at the last
s
momen before sailin , the wharf being closed to the s public after
t g
the Healt Offic and Emigra Offic had passed throug the
h er ti er h
gates to go on board for the fionnal inspec of the Emigra ,
t i o n
after this inspec . n tTsh
and the vessel leavin immedi i s
g ately tion
metho would doubtl cause some little delay in gettin the
d ess g
vessel off , and for that reason is open to object , I think
ion
howev b m t c f b t
er that the evil would e ore han ompensated or y he
good which would accrue .
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS ( OPIUM) OFFICE
25. This is the first complete year of the establishment of
this Branch , and I have to report that it is working satisfactorily .
Monthly statistics are rendered , it will therefore not be necessary
( 73476 ) 166
to go into details here , a table is added to this report which
shows that the total amount of opium reported through the office
during the year was as follows: -
27
Imported 71, 512 chests
40
27 11
Exported 71, 139
40
(Exclusive of through cargo . )
27
The fraction is explained by the fact that one " broached " chest
40
was landed here containing 27 instead of 40 balls , and was exported
in the same condition , 21 , 310 permits were issued from the office
being 384 Landing, 10,958 Removal , 9,498 Export , and 470 to Chinese
Customs hulk.
26. In addition to these , a Memo : of Exports for the day is
sent for the convenience of the Chinese Customs ' Commissioner to
the Kowloon Customs ' Office .
27.From the summary of Exports it appears that apart from
the through cargo , Shanghai took from the Colony 37 per cent . , viz . ,
26,673 chests , Canton came next with 16 per cent . , and then Amoy
and Swatow.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
R. MURRAY RUMSEY, R. N. ,
Harbour Master, & c .
The Honourable FREDERICK STEWART, LL. D. ,
Colonial Secretary,
&C. , &C . , &c .
(c) Extracts from the Harbour Department Annual Report
for 1898. Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1899
Harbour Department,
Hongkong,
22nd February , 1899
Sir,
I have the honour to forward the Annual Report for the
Department for the year ending December 31st 1898 .
( 73476) 167
SHIPPING
3. A comparison between the years 1897-1898 is shown in the
following Table : -
Comparative Shipping Return for the Years 1897 and 1898 .
1897 1898 INCREASE DECREASE
Ton-
Ships Tonnage Ships Tonnage Ships Tonnage Ships
nage
British 6, 783 8, 268, 766 7,456 8,705, 648 673 436, 882 ... ...
Foreign 3, 161 3,855, 833 3, 602 4, 547, 085 441 681, 252 ... ...
Junks in
Foreign
Trade 57, 803* 3,441, 295* 58 , 936 3, 626, 754 1, 131 185, 459 ...
Total 67, 747 15,565 , 894 69,994 16,879, 4872, 2471 , 313, 593 ... ...
Junks in
Local
Trade 9,546 372, 280 9, 635 386, 293 89 14, 013 ... ...
Grand Total 77, 293 15, 938 , 174 79, 629 | 17, 265 , 780 2, 336 1, 327, 606 ... ...
NETT 2, 336 1,327, 606 ... ...
* Including 18,968 Conservancy and Dust Boats measuring 401, 274 tons.
Including 18, 700 Conservancy and Dust Boats measuring 409,840 tons .
TRADE
7. The year 1898 was marked by a large deal in rice and coal
and by the introduction of the trade in Bulk 011 from Langkat
(Sumatra) .
A demand for rice in Japan created a market which was largely
availed of, and the returns for the first half of the year show
that 469,000 tons were reported by ships entering, which was over
100,000 tons more than during the whole of 1897 , and of which the
bulk was en route for Japan . The import continued in a lessened
degree during the second half and at the end of the year 747,000
tons had been reported , being more than double what it was in 1897 .
Coal in the first half year showed an increase of 120,000 tons
and by the end of the year 817,967 tons had been reported as
arriving, being an increase over 1897 of about 36%.
Bulk oil , which made a large stride in the first half year,
fell off in the second half, but the year shows an increase of
19,580 tons. Case oil was practically the same as in 1897 .
Sugar and flour show a considerable increase , and the Import Return
closes with a nett increase over 1897 of 645 , 428 tons of cargo
reported .
(73476) 168
In exports , a nett increase of 552 , 072 tons of European-
constructed shipping reported an increase of 137,979 tons of cargo .
The transit return gives an increase of 167,860 tons.
There can be no necessity for me to again refer to the fact
that we are entirely dependent for the above figures on gratuitious
information compiled together without any special staff or machinery.
8. Using the classification adopted in previous years we
find that the total import trade of 1898 was represented by
35, 005 vessels aggregating 8,453 , 983 tons , carrying 5,958,465 tons
of cargo , of which 3,938,143 tons were discharged in Hongkong.
Similarly, the export trade of 1898 was represented by 34,989
vessels , aggregating 8,425,504 tons , carrying 3,006 , 474 tons of
cargo, and shipping 493 , 651 tons of bunker Coal .
Comparing the above with 1897 we get the gratifying result
that in 1898 the Import trade of the Colony was increased from all
parts of the world, and that this increase amounted in the aggre-
gate to 659,833 tons of cargo discharged . Further , we find that ,
during the same period and by the same means , others were benefited
also , for the cargo in transit was advanced by 167,860 tons .
9. During the year 11,058 vessels of European construction ,
aggregating 13, 252 , 733 registered tons , carried 8 , 143 , 656 tons of
cargo made up as follows : -
Import cargo 3,388 , 489
11 2,241 , 194
Export
Transit 11 2,020, 322
Bunker Coal shipped 493 , 651
8 , 143, 656
The total number of tons carried was therefore 61% of the
total registered tonnage , or 80% exclusive of River steamers , and
was apportioned as follows : -
Imports
British Ships 1,939, 956
Foreign do . 1,448 , 533
3,388 , 489
Exports
British Ships 1 , 196 , 521
Foreign do . 1,044, 673
2,241 , 194
Transit
British Ships . 1, 189 , 460
Foreign do . 830,862
2,020, 322
Bunker Coal --
British Ships 280, 473
Foreign do . 213 , 178
493 , 651
Total 8, 143 , 656
(73476) 169
IMPORTS
EUROPEAN- CONSTRUCTED VESSELS
1897 1898 Increase Decrease
Ton-
No. Tonnage No. Tonnage No. Tonnage No.
nage
Steamers 3,071 4 , 262 , 283 3 , 338 4 , 750 , 148 267 487,865 ... ...
River Steamers 1 , 5471 , 694 , 077 1 , 975 1,768 , 489 428 74 , 412
Sailing Vessels 356 107,280 226 121 , 065 ... 13,785 130
Total 4,974 6,063, 640 5 , 339 6 , 639 , 702 695 576,062 130 ...
Nett 565576 , 062 ... ..
Imported tons 2,743 , 061 3,388, 489
As follows:
Articles 1897 1898 Increase Decrease
Beans 11,092 11, 092
Bones 500 500
Coal 601 , 544 817,967 216, 423
Cotton Yarn and Cotton 30, 581 36, 611 6,030
Flour 85,904 103 , 544 17,640
Hemp 43, 360 55, 160 11,800
Kerosine (bulk) 47, 782 67,362 19,580
Do. (case) 60, 346 59, 115 ... 1,231
Lead 5,496 4, 200 ... 1,296
Liquid Fuel ... 2,150 2, 150
Opium 2, 531 2,638 107
Pitch 1,700 ... 1,700
Rattan 2,920 6, 441 3, 521 ...
Rice 361 , 130 747,395 386 , 265 ...
Sandalwood 3,459 2,055 1,404
Sulphur 2,040 535 1,505
Sugar 211 , 777 267, 422 55, 645
Tea 5,929 6,554 625 ...
Timber 64,862 46,599 18,263
General 1,211,700 1, 151 , 149 ... 60, 551
Total 2,743, 061 3,388 , 489 731,378 85,950
Transit 1,852 , 462 2,020, 322 167,860 ...
Grand Total 4, 595 , 523 5,408 , 811 899, 238 ...
Nett 813,288
(73476) 170
EXPORTS
1897 1898 Increase Decrease
Ton-
No. Tonnage No. Tonnage No. Tonnage No.
nage
Steamers 3,067 4 , 263 , 453 3 , 319 4, 728 , 952 252 465, 499 ... ...
River Steamers 1 , 548 1 , 690 , 644 1,970 1,765, 555 422 74, 911 ...
Sailing Vessels 355 106,862 230 118,524 ... 11 , 662 125 ...
Total 4, 970 6, 060, 959 5 , 519 6,613 , 031 674 552, 072 | 125 | ...
Nett 549 552, 072 | ... ...
Exported tons 2, 103, 215 2,241, 194
1897 1898 Increase Decrease
Bunker Bunker Bunker Bunker
Strs . Strs. Strs. Strs .
Coal Coal Coal Coal
Steamers 3 , 067 422 , 257 3, 319 467,729 252 45, 472
4 River Steamers 1 , 548 23,742 1 , 970 25, 922 422 2, 180 ...
Total 4, 615 445, 9995, 289 493 , 651 674 47, 652 : | :
Nett 674 47, 652
RIVER TRADE
Imports, Exports and Passengers
Year Imports Exports Passengers
1897 146 , 603 90,544 988, 046
1898 164, 769 131, 127 1, 144 , 639
(73476) 171
JUNKS
Imports
Foreign trade , 29 , 466 measuring 1,814 , 281 tons
Local trade , 4,810 11 194, 291 11
Total 34, 276 11 2,008,572
Imported 689 , 251 tons as under : -
Tea 2,338 tons
011 1,468 "1
Rice 4,595 11
Earth and Stones 134, 658 "T
General 546, 192 "1
Total 689, 251 "
Exports
Foreign trade , 29 , 470 measuring 1,812, 473 tons
Local trade , 4,825 192, 002 "
Total 34, 295 2, 004, 475 11
Exported 774 , 069 tons as under: -
Kerosine 23,931 tons
Rice and Paddy 284, 747 11
General 465 , 391 "
Total 774, 069
10. A review of the junk trade of the Colony may not be with-
out interest at the present time .
In the early day of the Colony's history Piracy in its
neighbourhood was more or less common; in his Annual Report for
1865 the Harbour Master says " There can be little doubt but that
every armed junk becomes a pirate when an opportunity offers " , and
in 1868 , after the introduction of the " Harbour and Coast "
Ordinance , he says " Formerly there was good reason to suppose that
piratical vessels were fitted out in this harbour, Free Trade
amongst junks had become Free Licence and these piratical pests of
our waters had unmolested ungress and egress at all hours of the
night and day " .
Ordinance No. 6 of 1866 " The Harbour and Coast Ordinance " ,
which came into force on 1st January 1867, made provision for the
regulation and control of junks; most of its provisions have been
(73476) 172
re-enacted from time to time since , and the regulations now in
force are for all practical purposes the same as in 1867 and are
briefly as follows : -
Junks are divided into two classes: -
( 1) Unlicensed Junks and
(2) Licensed Junks .
These classes are again divided into : -
(1) Trading Junks and
(2) Fishing Junks.
Unlicensed Junks
Unlicensed Junks are required : -
( 1 ) To anchor in certain places called " Anchorages for
Junks " and from which they may not remove without
permission .
(2) To report their arrival .
(3) To give notice of intended departure .
(4) Not to leave at night .
Licensed Junks
Any junks, on complying with certain conditions as to giving
security, & c . may be granted a license by the Harbour Master,
either for trading or fishing, for which a fee is paid , the maximum
being $20 a year.
She then obtains the following advantages : -
(1) No restriction as to place of anchoring.
(2 ) On payment of a fee of 25 cents she is granted a
Special Permit , good for one month, absolving her from
reporting each arrival and intended departure .
(3) If a Fishing Junk, she is granted a permit , on pay-
ment of a fee of 25 cents , allowing her to leave during
certain hours of the night and early morning.
In 1867, 20, 787 Trading Junks of 1,367,702 tons entered , and
20,443 of 1,353 , 700 tons cleared . In addition 1,444 Fishing Junks
were licensed during the year and the greater number of these came
in or left daily during the winter months .
In 1898 , 29 , 466 Junks of 1,814,281 tons entered and 29,470 of
1,812, 473 tons cleared , also 5,379 Fishing Junks were licensed .
In 1868 , Customs Stations were established in the vicinity of
the Colony by the Viceroy of Canton , primarily for the collection
of Opium " Lekin " and Opium " duty " , but this soon became extended ,
and a levy of lekin and duty on all imports and exports was made at
these stations ( see Sir JAMES RUSSELL'S report 1886 ) , and in 1869
(73476) 173
the Harbour Master reported " I think the decrease in tonnage in
Junks can reasonably be attributed to the existence of these
Stations ( Customs ) and to the activity of the cruisers attached to
them " .
In 1874 a Commission , which had been appointed to enquire into
" complaints made against the action of the Chinese Maritime Customs
in the neighbourhood of the Colony and the alleged detriment to
trade arising from such action " , submitted their report. They
found in the course of their investigation " that a most vexatious
system of blockading is kept up at all the entrances to the harbour
by a number of boats in the employ of the Hoppo of Canton , the salt
farmer, and the collector of the lekin tax, and that these craft
continually make use of and encroach into the waters of the Colony
and actually capture junks therein " .
The proceedings of these blockaders , which were gravest in
character were the stopping of junks, proceeding on distant
voyages with cargoes of lawful merchandise laden in the Colony , and
compelling them to go to Canton and pay duty on their cargo a
practice which was carried on extensively; and further, the
seizure of junks bound to the Colony from ports in Formosa and
elsewhere and the taking of these to Canton to be mulcted in heavy
sums, or possibly to be condemned and sold .
The Commission advised that , Her Majesty's Government should
endeavour " to prevail on the Government of China to remove
altogether the Customs Stations and Cruisers from the neighbourhood
of the island , and to arrange that duties be collected only at
those ports or places at which there exists an export or import
trade , and that should the Chinese Government refuse to remove the
Stations and cruisers altogether , it might be urged upon them to
remove these to a greater distance than they are at present , say,
not nearer in any case than ten miles from the entrances to the
harbour" .
Whatever may have been the cause , it appears that after 1875
the junk trade , as represented by the Harbour Master's returns ,
began to improve , and in his report for 1877 the Harbour Master
said " It was the general opinion , and I shared in that view, that
the blockade would have a tendency to check the trade and conse-
quently prosperity of the Colony , but in the face of the figures
which these returns exhibit, I am unable any longer to see that
the effect of the blockade has been so detrimental as it was
thought it would be " . The figures referred to shewed in 1878 an
increase over 1877 of 1 , 186 junks entering, and the Harbour Master
attributed some of this increase to more correct records being
kept , in consequence of an additional outstation at Yaumati .
However, there were still complaints of the seizure of native craft
carrying so- called " contraband " .
From 1877 to 1887 the junk trade , according to the Harbour
Master's Reports , fluctuated between 1,600,000 and 1,800,000 tons
entered yearly . The highest figures ever attained previously
being 28, 340 junks of 1,871,810 tons entered in 1872 .
(73476) 174
In 1887 as a result of the Commission which sat in pursuance
of the Chefoo Agreement ( 1876 ) , and the additional Article to the
Agreement ( 1885 ) the collection of duties on goods imported and
exported in junks, devolved upon the Foreign Collectorate of the
Chinese Maritime Customs , and the Customs Stations round Hongkong
were placed under the direction and supervision of a European
Commissioner (Mr. F. A. MORGAN) .
It cannot, I think, be denied that , even since this change was
just made, causes of complaint have at times arisen, and I am persuaded
that causes of complaint will continue to arise if the Customs
officers are vigilant and zealous , the difference from the old
state of things being that , vigilance and zeal will be the disturb-
ing causes, instead of rapacity and dishonesty. The only real
panacea is the removal of the primary cause , viz . , the Customs
Stations themselves.
A careful consideration of all points of the question which
occur to me draws me to the conclusion that , inconvenient though it
is, and contrary to the usual manner of nations , we have up to the
present no right to object to these Stations ; I do not think we
have any legitimate grievance against the Chinese Government because
it endeavours to prevent junks trading to Chinese Ports with what
it declares to be contraband , or to smuggle dutiable goods , no
matter where the cargoes have been obtained , always provided that
this does not lead to a violation of our territorial waters and that
vessels and goods to and from Hongkong are not subjected to any
other charges beyond what has been fixed by Treaty.
At the same time I consider that we allow our hospitality to
err, even to indiscretion , and we put a weapon in their hands to be
used against us, when we allow a Chinese Customs establishment in
our midst, for there can be little doubt that by this means our
prestige suffers in the eyes of the natives , and what perhaps is of
more practical importance , an intimate knowledge can be obtained in
the Colony of trading transactions , which, perfectly lawful and
harmless so far as our Free Port is concerned , may in China be
subject to those Rules appended to the Tariff, which restrict the
import of certain descriptions of goods except under special
conditions .
But whatever may be said of the present practice of closely
investing our port with Customs Stations on all sides and in its
midst , it must be allowed that, with the exception of the latter ,
all these Stations are in Chinese territory , and their closeness
may be excused on the ground of the geographical position of the
base of operations of those whose business theirs is to watch .
The small island of Hongkong with its 50,000 or 60,000 junks annu-
ally coming and going, over five - sixths of which trade to and from
the Sun On and West River and Canton Districts and all of which
radiate to all points of the compass within an hour or two of
leaving this Free Port , offers some reason for the Chinese Govern-
ment pressing home its revenue protectors as close as they can .
That reason disappears , however, with the extension of British
territory, and the protector's line should fall back simultaneously
(73476) 175
with this extension , and China should protect her revenue in the
same way as any other country does , namely , at her ports of entry
and clearance instead of reversing the practice of civilization and
protecting it at the Foreign Ports to which she exports and from
which she imports.
How far the existence of these Customs Stations has interfered
with our junk trade in the past is problematical , and the only
solution to be arrived at is by inference , since all direct proof is
wanting. There can be no question as to China's undoubted right to
collect her Customs revenue somewhere , in her own territory or
waters , and it is impossible to say that our junk trade would have
been larger if she had collected her Customs duties at the ports of
origin and destination of the goods , instead of at intermediate
stations close on our border .
In 1884 our junk tonnage was 49% of the European tonnage , in
1897 it was only 28% and , if certain Licensed Junks which are
engaged by the Conservancy and Dust Contractors and which have only
taken into our returns during the last few years , were omitted , the
decrease would be even more marked .
On the other hand , our returns show an increase of European
ocean- going tonnage since 1889 of 25.33% while the Customs returns
show an increase in the number of junks trading to and from Hongkong
and passing the stations , of 30.37%, and it is very probable that
the Customs returns are far more accurate with regard to junks than
our own , the circumstances of a Free Port , added to the difficulty
of distinguishing and identifying native craft , together with the
well-known proficiency with which Chinese lie without hesitation ,
renders the task of keeping an absolutely correct return of some
50,000 or 60,000 junks annually almost impossible with a staff of
two Junk Inspectors in Victoria and no one at the outstations whose
sole duty it is , and I am forced to the conclusion that a number of
these junks come and go without leaving any trace on our records .
In 1897 as in 1877 more correct returns would in all probability
account for a further apparent increase in the junk trade , but this
correctness cannot be arrived at without additional staff and
expenditure .
In 1893, this Department began to try to gauge the amount of
cargo tons represented by the registered tonnage of the Shipping
frequenting the Port . There is no special staff or machinery for
this and its correctness or otherwise depends on reports and returns
made direct from the Shipping or through its Agents .
In 1893 the amount of cargo discharged from European ocean-
going shipping was given as 2,717,910 tons . In that year Junks
exported 845, 177 tons. In 1897 the European cargo was 2,596 , 458
and Junks exported 684 , 320. Assuming for the moment that the cargo
exported by junks was entirely made up of that discharged from the
ocean- going European ships , these junks distributed 31% in 1893 ,
and 26.3% in 1897 , showing no great decrease , particularly as owing
to the decreased importation of rice , 1897 was a bad year for junks .
(73476) 176
But the Customs returns furnish a still better fact from
which to draw our inference , namely the value of the trade in junks
between Hongkong and China . In 1888 this was Hk. Tls . 33 , 495, 526,
in 1893 it was 39 , 938,740, and in 1897 it was 39,991,611 giving an
increase of 19% in the 10 years to put against an increase of 25%
in the register tonnage of European ocean- going shipping during the
same period.
Value of Junk trade Hongkong
and China
Ocean-
Exports to
Year going Imports from Hongkong Hongkong Total
European
Tonnage Foreign
Native Native
Goods
Produce Produce
Hk . Tls.
1888 6, 973, 483 15, 636 , 853 3,476, 200 14 , 328 , 473 33 , 441 , 526
1889 6,016 , 908 12 , 894 , 763 3,711 , 707 14 , 194 , 598 30, 801, 068
1890 6,392,575 17,960 , 229 3,453, 432 14 , 840 , 669 36, 254 , 330
1891 6,081 , 407 13 , 297, 933 3,376, 619 17,016 , 926 33, 691 , 478
1892 6,968, 236 13 , 468 , 368 3, 113, 192 17, 290 , 632 33, 872, 192
1893 7,320, 753 17, 663 , 217 3, 338 , 377 18,937, 126 39,938 , 720
1894 7, 193 , 855 15 , 326 , 749 3,438 , 540 19 , 665, 908 38,431 , 197
1895 8, 211 , 496 21 , 585 , 595 3,455, 730 22,678 , 090 47,719 , 415
1896 8,971 , 432 21 , 124 , 268 3 , 482, 122 22, 565 , 590 47, 171 , 980
1897 8,739,878 13,027 , 228 3,939 , 890 23, 024 , 493 39,991 , 611
Still another test that can be applied is this . In 1893 (the
first year that we collected the cargo returns ) European tonnage
discharged 2,717,910 tons of cargo and the value of the foreign
goods exported from Hongkong to China by junk, according to the
Customs return, was Hk. Tls . 17,663 , 217 or in the ratio of 1 ton to
6.4 Hk. Tls . , in 1896 the ratio had risen to 1 ton to 8 Hk. Tls. ,
but it dropped in 1897 1 ton to 5 Hk . Tls . , owing, in the opinion
of the Commissioner of Customs , to transit privileges favouring at
that time shipments in European bottoms instead of in junks .
Whether or not there should be a fixed ratio between total
European tonnage and the total junk tonnage frequenting the port ,
is , I think, very doubtful , because , in the first place , junks are
not the sole distributors , except to non - treaty Ports with which
it is probable trade does not expand rapidly, and, in the next
place , the European tonnage is not solely employed in the carriage
of goods to be distributed from Hongkong as a centre , for a not
inconsiderable portion of the cargoes is in transit to more distant
ports.
In 1893 the cargo discharged in Hongkong from ocean- going
ships amounted to 74% of the registered tonnage arriving, and the
transit cargo was 36%, in 1897 the cargo discharged was only 59%
while the transit cargo had gone up to 42%.
( 73476 ) 177
More probable does it appear that , if the junk trade has any
fixed relation to anything it is to the quantity of rice imported
from Cochin China and Siam. The bearing which this has on the
junk trade will be very clearly seen from the annexed diagram which
is prepared from the information contained in the Customs return .
I have the honour to be , Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
R. MURRAY RUMSEY, Rtd . Comd . R. N.
The Honourable J. H. Stewart Lockhart , C. M. G.
Colonial Secretary.
(d) Extracts from Hong Kong Administration Reports 1919
TRADE AND INDUSTRIES
(a) Trade
Detailed and accurate statistics of imports and exports are
now collected and published by the Imports and Exports Department .
The rough statements hitherto included in these reports are
therefore discontinued .
Imports
The number and tonnage of ships of European type construction
carrying cargo for import and transit, compared with 1918 , were as
follows: -
1918 1919 Increase Decrease
No. Tonnage No. Tonnage No. Tonnage No. Tonnage
Steamers 3 , 337 4 , 864 , 643 4 , 5717 , 237 , 3331 , 234 2 , 372 , 690 ...
River
Steamers 3, 660 2 , 028 , 674 3 , 550 1,917, 236 ... ... 110 111 , 438
Sailing
Vessels 6 13,466 4 5, 356 ... ... 2 8, 110
Total 7,003 6 , 906 , 783 8 , 125 9 , 159 , 9251 , 234 2 , 372, 690 112119 , 548
Net Increase 1 , 1222, 253 , 142 | ...
Exports
The corresponding figures relating to ships of European type
of construction , shipping bunker coal , are as follows : -
(73476) 178
1918 1919 Increase Decrease
No. Tonnage No. Tonnage No. Tonnage No. Tonnage
Steamers 3, 332 4 , 862 , 038 4, 560 17, 219, 802 1 , 228 2, 357, 764 ... ...
River
Steamers 3, 657 2 , 028 , 0853 , 551 | 1 , 928 , 221 ... 106 99,864
Sailing
Vessels 3 7,396 4 5,356 1 ... 2,040
Total 6,992 6, 897 , 519 8 , 115 9 , 153, 379 1 , 229 2, 357 , 764 106 101 , 904
Net Increase 1, 123 2, 255, 860 ...
1918 1919 Increase Decrease
Bunker Bunker Bunker Bunker
No. No. No. No.
Coal Coal Coal Coal
Steamers 3, 332 357, 109 4 , 560 850 , 386 1 , 228493, 277 ...
River Steamers 3,657 52, 322 3, 551 53,439 ... 1,117 106
Total 6,989 409 , 431 8 , 111 903 , 825 1 , 228 494 , 394 106 ...
Net Increase 1, 122 494 , 394 ...
The River Trade , compared with 1918 , is shown in the following
Table: -
Year Imports Exports Passengers
1918 362, 146 399 , 458 1,410 , 400
1919 323, 536 328,369 1,373 , 947
The following Table shows the Junk Trade of the Colony for the
years 1918 and 1919 : -
Imports
1918 1919
Junks Tons Junks Tons
Foreign Trade 11 , 698 1,501 , 757 10, 353 1, 248 , 389
Local Trade 12, 290 1,561 , 890 4,686 206, 326
Total 23,988 3,063, 647 15, 039 1,454 , 715
(73476) 179
Imported 558,509 tons as under: -
Tons
Cattle , 1 , 608 head 189
Swine , 8,460 head 498
General 545, 641
Earth and Stones 12 , 181
Total 558,509
Exports
1918 1919
Junks Tons Junks Tons
Foreign Trade 11,741 1,470, 609 10,357 1, 349, 744
Local Trade 13 , 027 627,425 4,823 211 , 488
Total 24, 768 2,098 , 034 15, 180 1,561 , 232
Exported 794 , 566 tons as under: -
Tons
Kerosine , 2 , 385,000 cases 68,710
Rice and Padi 142, 262
Coal 192,869
General 390, 765
Total 794, 566
The imports and exports of certificated opium during the year
are as follows : -
Malwa Patna Benares Total
Chests Chests Chests Chests
Import --
Export 10 10
Ten chests of certificated opium were exported to Kwong Chow
Wan .
Three hundred and seventy- one ( 371 ) chests of Persian opium
were imported during the year , and 8 chests were exported to
London , 13 chests to Singapore , and 350 chests to Formosa.
(73476) 180
Eight hundred and sixty-nine ( 869 ) chests of uncertificated
Indian opium were imported : 374 chests for the Macao Opium Farmer,
and the remaining 495 chests for the Government Opium Monopoly .
The table below shows the total imports and exports since
1911: -
1919 19 18 1917 1916 1915 1914 1913 1912 1911
Chests Chests Chests Chests Chests Chests Chests Chests Chests
Stock in
hand on
1st Jan. 253 799 977 1, 3032, 2564, 580 5,560 7,587 7, 123
Imported
during the
year 1, 290 1, 259 1,657 1, 706 1,873 3,059 9 , 10812, 361+ 21, 286
Total 1, 543 2,058 2, 6344 3, 009½ 4, 12947, 640 14, 66819 , 948 28, 409
Boiled by
Opium
-- --
366
Farmer 667 1, 113 761
Boiled by
Government 377 539 352 365 340 413
}
Spurious
Opium
destroyed 1 13 17 19 2
|
Missing or
stolen 1 4 2 9 --
|
Exported
during the
year 837 1, 2651, 469 1, 667 2, 469 4,9114 9, 419 13, 2644 | 20, 061
Total 1, 214 1, 805 1,835 2,032 2,826 5, 383 10, 088 14, 3884 20, 822
Stock
remaining
on
31st Dec. 329 253 799 977 1, 303 2, 256 4,580 5,560 7,587
Emigration and Immigration
Fifty-nine thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine ( 59 , 969)
emigrants left Hongkong for various places during the year 1919,
(43,830 in 1918 ) . Of these, 25, 303 were carried in British ships ,
and 34, 666 in Foreign ships .
One hundred and thirty- six thousand and twenty ( 136,020)
returning emigrants were reported to have been brought to Hongkong
from the several places to which they had emigrated either from
this Colony or from Coast Ports, as against 74, 109 in 1918. of
these , 92,385 arrived in British ships , and 43 , 635 in Foreign
ships.
(73476) 181
Statement of Number of Emigrants to Straits Settlements ,
1910 to 1919 , compared with Total Chinese Emigration
No. of Emigrants Total No.
to of
Straits Settlements Emigrants
1910 76,705 111, 058
1911 100 , 906 135, 565
1912 84, 024 122,657
1913 102 , 353 142,759
1914 44, 974 76,296
1915 41, 278 68,275
1916 82, 797 117,653
1917 63,292 96, 298
1918 8,019 43, 830
1919 11 , 638 59,969
(b) -- Industries
(1) Under European Management
Engineering and Shipbuilding -- The figures are as follows for
the years 1918 and 1919 : -
1918
Taikoo Dockyard
and Eng. Co. , Ltd. 2 vessels of 3,456 gross tons and 1,700 I. P. H.
Hongkong and
Whampoa Dock
Co. , Ltd. 6 11 11 5,489 11 "1 5,810 "
W. S. Bailey & Co. 6 11 150 11 11 200 "1
Kwong Tuck Cheong 2 1,723 11 11 11 900 "1
Lau Sum Kee 1 1,030 11 M 480 "1
Total 17 vessels of 11,848 gross tons and 9,090 I. P. H.
1919
Taikoo Dockyard
and Eng. Co. , Ltd. 6 vessels of 22 , 311 gross tons and 14 , 450 I. P. H.
Hongkong and
Whampa Dock
Co. , Ltd. 9 11 11 17,415 11 " 11 13,975 11
11 " 700 11 " 11 1,75 0 11
W. S. Bailey & Co. 8
11 948 11 11 11 800 11
Kwong Tuck Cheong 2
Total 25 vessels of 41,374 gross tons and 30,975 I.P.H.
Sugar Refineries 1919 was a good year. Demand from China 1
was consistent , at steadily advancing prices, with the exception of
a period of one to two months during the summer, when heavy
(73476) 182
speculation destroyed all confidence in the market . During the
latter part of the year the incidence of the Japanese boycott
threw an unusually heavy demand on all other sources of supply ,
thus adding a stimulus to an already brisk demand for Hongkong
Refineds . As a matter of interest , prices of raw sugar in Java
rose from f. 13 in January to f . 42 at the end of December.
India and the Persian Gulf, in common with markets the world
over, have felt the pinch of a general shortage of supply , and
there were demands from all sources for Refineds , much in excess of
Hongkong's capacity for export .
Yarn -- The quantity of Yarn imported into the Colony during
1919 was greater than during any of the war years , and the market
on the whole kept very steady .
Yarn prices dropped slightly at the commencement of the year
and reached their lowest in April /May, when 10s . Yarn was sold at
$ 190 per bale . The price then advanced and at the end of the year
business was done at over $260 . Yarn of higher counts, say 20s . ,
rose from $ 260 to $365 .
The total quantity of Indian Yarn imported during the year
amounted to 142,000 bales , and 22,000 bales were brought forward
from the previous year.
Clearances were very good and totalled 147,000 bales , leaving
a carry over of 17,000 bales.
Speaking generally, the year has been a profitable one for
both merchants and dealers .
Cotton -- Liverpool Cotton in January was quoted at 20.04d .
per lb. for spot and during the end of the month it receded a few
points and steadily declined until about the end of March it was
quoted at 15.86d . for ready and 13.61d . for forward. It then
rose steadily , with very few set- backs , until the end of July when
it was quoted at 21.44d . for spot , 21.71d . and 21.79d . for
September/October respectively. It again declined and during
September it touched as low as 17.60d . for spot . After reaching
this point it again firmed up and steadily advanced to 27.50d . at
which it was quoted at the end of the year .
The year opened with Exchange at 3/4 . It declined slowly
until by the beginning of March it reached 3/03 . It then reacted
and has steadily risen with a few fluctuations until at the close
the year T/ Ts . on London were quoted at 4 / 10ź .
Trading has been rendered somewhat difficult by the various
alterations in the value of the Rupee which in January was equival-
ent to 1/6 and rose at the end of the year to 2/53 .
Rope Making -- The demand for Manila Cordage was fairly good
but the total turnover showed a falling off from that of the
( 73476) 183
previous twelve months . The high rates of exchange and freight
which ruled throughout the year affected considerably our exports
to gold standard countries .
Cement Manufacture The demand continued good during the
year and tonnage was more plentiful . The high exchange again
interfered to a very large extent with exports to gold standard
countries . On the whole the turnover compared favourably with the
last three years .
(11) Under Chinese Management
Tin -- This trade showed a decrease as compared with that in
1918 . Imports from Yunnan during the year amounted to about
6,800 tons and from Kwangsi to about 200 tons as against 12 , 500 tons
and 200 tons respectively in 1918. From Java 320 tons were impor-
ted and from the Straits 2,000 tons .
During the year about 250 tons were exported to Japan ,
4,200 tons to Shanghai and other China Coast Ports , and 900 tons to
Europe , Canada, and the United States of America .
Rattan and Fibre Furniture During 1919 the value of rattan
and fibre furniture exported from this port increased from $ 10,000
to $380,000 . The value of Rattan Canes exported was about
$200,000 and that of Rattan Core and Seagrass was $400,000 and
$80,000 respectively .
Native Tobacco -- This trade was a little better than that in
1918 .
Tinned Goods -- The volume of business done during the year
showed a slight increase over that done in 1918 .
Samshu ) The volume of business was about the same as that
Vinegar ) in 1918 .
Knitted Vests and Socks -- The volume of business increased
by 10%, and prices went up about 5%.
Leather and Hides -- The trade in these articles showed a
slight increase .
Ginger and Preserves -- There was a falling off of about 40%
in this trade .
Soy 19 During 1919 this trade showed a marked improvement , the
total exports having increased to 4 , 400 casks from 400 casks .
This was due to the improvement of shipping conditions .
Paper Owing to large imports from America, prices in 1919
Iwent down about 10%. Imports from Japan declined about 20%, and
the total imports into this port by about 60%.
(73476) 184
Vermilion -- This trade was about the same as that in 1918 .
Lard -- This trade showed a great increase in 1919 as the
result of great demand from Europe and South America.
(c) 63 Fisheries
A considerable proportion of the boat population of Hongkong
supports itself by deep- sea fishing, in which pursuit a large
number of junks are engaged . The villages of Aberdeen , Stanley,
Shaukiwan , and also many in the New Territories , are largely
dependent upon this industry for their prosperity . Fresh water
fish is imported from Canton and the West River . There are
oyster beds of considerable value in Deep Bay.
(e ) Extracts from Hong Kong Administration Reports 1938
Commerce
The trade of Hong Kong is that of an entrepot a place
where goods are imported primarily for exportation . As a busi-
ness centre the Colony handles the trade between South China and
the rest of the world, and consequently the mercantile community
is much larger than is necessary for handling local needs . At
present , when the South China market is to a large extent cut off
by military operations , many firms have been compelled to reduce
their overhead expenses and to draw upon reserves .
From its position as the centre of an entrepot trade Hong
Kong has grown to be a very important banking centre . Trade con-
ditions demand a highly organized system of exchange banking.
The banks established are , therefore , pre - eminently Exchange Banks
which also perform the ordinary functions of domestic banking.
There are about thirty- four banks in the Colony. Marine insurance
companies are also numerous .
Hong Kong is one of the world's large ports , possessing a
fine natural harbour seventeen square miles in extent . Cargo is
handled both in mid- stream and at wharves which give access to
modern warehouses .
Shipbuilding, which is dealt with more fully in Chapter VI ,
is one of the Colony's most important trades , employing, in
commercial establishments and in the Royal Naval Dockyard, many
thousands of Chinese under the supervision of European experts .
Cement, sugar refining and rope-making are old established
industries . Recently there has been considerable development of
knitting and weaving , garment-making and rubber- shoe manufacture
which has received an impetus by reason of duty- free admission to
British countries under Imperial Preference .
For practical purposes the Colony of Hong Kong can be con-
sidered to be a " free port " . The only import duties imposed are
on liquors , tobaccos , perfumed spirits , and light hydrocarbon oils .
(73476) 185
Preferential rates of duty are extended to Empire brandies and
tobaccos . An ad valoren licence fee is charged on first registra-
tions of motor vehicles which are not of British Empire origin .
The Hong Kong trade returns do not distinguish between imports
for consumption and imports for re- export or between exports of
Hong Kong, Chinese and non - Chinese origin , and it is not possible
to differentiate the various items of trade accurately . Trading
conditions have changed radically in various directions since the
outbreak of the Sino-Japanese hostilities in 1937. Before that
date the visible trade of the Colony fell into four broad
categories : -
(a) Imports for consumption in Hong Kong ( including raw
materials for certain industries ) and exports of Hong Kong
origin .
(b) Chinese external trade passing through Hong Kong, 1.e. ,
Chinese goods re- exported to non - Chinese countries and non-
Chinese goods re- exported to China .
(c) Chinese coastal trade , 1.e. , goods imported from one part
of China and re - exported to another.
(d) Non-Chinese entrepot trade , i.e. , goods imported from a
non-Chinese country and re - exported to another non- Chinese
country .
By an examination of the individual items of trade it was pos-
sible to make an approximate estimate of the values of the
respective items , and these , prior to July , 1937 , were roughly as
follows : -
One third of the imports into Hong Kong was of goods
intended for retention in Hong Kong, coming from Chinese and
non-Chinese countries in the proportion of one to three; and
a tenth or less of the exports was of goods originating in
Hong Kong ( e.g. refined sugar , rubber shoes etc. ) . Re-exports
constituted two- thirds of the imports and nine- tenths of the
exports. Of them 10 per cent , consisted of " Chinese coastal
trade " , 20 to 25 per cent . consisted of non - Chinese entrepot
trade and the remainder , nearly 70 per cent , was made up of
goods passing between China and the rest of the world via
Hong Kong.
It is common to speak of Hong Kong's trade as being almost
wholly concerned with China , but the above figures make it clear
that such a part of it as is concerned with China alone is less
important than that which is not concerned with China at all . The
latter consists of such items as the trade in rice from Siam and
Indo-China to Japan and the Philippines , the trade in wheat flour
from North America to Siam and the trade in Japanese manufactured
articles to Indo - China , Siam, Malaya and the Netherlands East
Indies .
(73476 ) 186
The latter half of the year 1937 shewed , in spite of the
general decline in China's trade , a considerable increase in the
proportion of that trade passing through Hong Kong. The propor-
tion of China's imports credited to Kowloon increased from 3% in
July, 1937 , to 45% in January, 1938. The proportion of China's
exports returned as going to Hong Kong increased from 12% in July,
1937 , to 41.3% in January , 1938. At the same time the absolute
amount of Hong Kong's trade with China also increased .
This state of affairs with regard to the Colony's China trade ,
accompanied by a steady increase in general trade , continued during
the first three quarters of 1938. In October of that year an
abrupt downward movement in all trading figures was shewn as the
Japanese extended their operations to South China. As a result
of the military occupation of Canton and the closure of the Pearl
River the normal trade routes between the Colony and the South
China delta regions were almost entirely disrupted, and at the
close of the year there were no signs of any early appreciable
resumption of the South China trade . In the first nine months of
1938 the import and export trade with South China averaged $ 70.9
millions in each quarter. In the final quarter of the year the
total was $32.6 millions .
In terms of the analysis of Hong Kong's trade before the
Sino -Japanese hostilities, given above , the position at the end of
the year was that , though categories ( a ) and ( d ) were only
indirectly affected , categories (b ) and ( c ) had, with the exception
of air transport and minor attempts at avoiding the Japanese block-
ade of the Pearl River delta, come to a virtual standstill .
The total visible trade of the Colony during the year 1938
totalled $1,130.1 millions ( £69.9 millions ) as compared with
$ 1,084.4 millions ( £66.9 millions ) in 1937, and $803.3 millions
(£50.6 millions ) in 1936. Imports of merchandise in 1938
increased by 0.2% as compared with 1937 , and by 36.6% as compared
with 1936. Exports increased by 49.5% as compared with 1936 .
The following is a list of the appendices to this chapter
with general observations on the statistics shewn therein : -
A. Total Value of Imports and Exports of Merchandise
Statistics of imports and exports for the years 1935-
1938 reveal a progressive increase of trade in terms of local
currency ( imports from $ 364.9 millions in 1935 to $ 618.1
millions in 1938 , and exports from $ 271.0 millions in 1935 to
$511.9 millions in 1938 ) . Imports and exports in 1934 were
higher than in 1935 in terms of local currency -- the 1934
totals being $415.9 millions ( imports ) and $ 325.6 ( exports ) ,
but, owing to higher currency values in 1935, the sterling
totals were greater in that year.
( 73476) 187
B. Percentage of Total Imports Provided by Empire and
Foreign Countries
During the period 1934-1938 , the share of Hong Kong's
total import trade supplied by British Empire countries has
varied between 13 per cent . and 17.2 per cent . ( the latter
being the 1938 figure ) . The United Kingdom is the largest
Empire supplying country ( 9.1 per cent. of Hong Kong's total
import trade in 1938 ) , the share of other Empire countries in
the same year being Australia 2%, India 1.9%, Malaya 1.2%,
" other Empire countries " 3%.
The percentages of Hong Kong's total import trade sup-
plied by the various non - Empire countries has varied only
slightly during the period 1934-38 , with the exception of
Japan, the share of which country has decreased from 8.8% in
1934 , and 12.8% in 1936 to 3% in 1938. The shares of other
non-Empire countries in 1938 were as follows : - China 37.7%,
U. S. A. 8.8%, Netherlands East Indies 6.6%, Germany 6.3%, Siam
5.9%, French Indo - China 5.6%, " other foreign countries " 8.9%.
C. Percentage of Total Exports sent to Empire and Foreign
Countries
During the period 1934-1938 , the share of Hong Kong's
total export trade shipped to British Empire countries has
varied from 13.9 per cent . to 19.7 per cent . The total in
1938 was 16.3 per cent . British Malaya is the largest Empire
purchasing country ( 7.2 per cent . of Hong Kong's total export
trade in 1938 ) , the share of other Empire countries in the
same year being United Kingdom 4.1%, India 1.6%, and " other
Empire countries " 3.4%.
The percentages of Hong Kong's total export trade sup-
plied to the various non - Empire countries has varied within
narrow limits during the period 1934-1938 , the only country
where a marked difference is apparent being Japan to which
country 3.5% of Hong Kong's total exports were shipped in
1934 , 5.1% in 1936 and 0.6% in 1938. The percentages taken
by other non- Empire countries in 1938 were as follows : China
45.1%, U. S. A. 10.2%, French Indo - China 4.5 %, Macao 4.1%, Siam
3.1%, " other foreign countries " 16.1%.
D. Quantities and Values of Principal Articles of Imports
During the Year 1937 and 1938
The principal commodities imported into Hong Kong ( 1938
values being given in brackets ) are as follows : -
Food Stuffs ($ 152, 441,000 )
Piece -goods ( 79,833 , 000)
Oils and Fats ( 78 , 223 , 000 )
Metals ( 48 , 144 , 000)
Chinese Medicines ( 19,593 , 000 )
Fuels ( 17 , 273,000)
( 73476) 188
Machinery. ( $17 , 136 , 000)
Dyeing Materials ( 16,086,000 )
Paper and Paperware ( 14,743,000 )
Vehicles ( 14, 140, 000)
The above-mentioned commodities also figure as the
principal exports from Hong Kong, as most imports into this
Colony are destined for China and adjacent markets .
E. Quantities and Values of Principal Articles of Exports
During the Years 1937 and 1938
Exports of Chinese produce from Hong Kong to Europe , the
United States of America and other markets were well main-
tained in 1938 and in some instances there were considerable
increases , notably in tea, wood oil and bristles as a result
of trade being diverted to Hong Kong from Yangtse ports during
the first nine and a half months of the year as a result of
Sino-Japanese hostilities . The export trade was very
seriously curtailed subsequent to the closure of the Pearl
River on the 13th of October . The values of principal
exports of Chinese commodities from Hong Kong in 1938 were as
follows: -
Wood 011 $39,762, 205
*Tin $16,318 , 553
Tea $12,080 , 814
Wolfram Ore $14, 252, 838
* Firecrackers $ 4,647,436
*Peanut 011 $ 3,920, 453
Hides $ 3,672, 228
Feathers $ 2,359,284
* Preserved Ginger . $ 2,187,654
Exports of Hong Kong manufactured goods under Imperial
Preference were well maintained in 1938. The Trade Returns
do not differentiate between exports of locally manufactured
goods and re- exports of similar imported goods . It is there-
fore impossible to give approximate exports of locally
manufactured sugar, cement , rope and woven cotton and arti-
ficial silk cloth because exports under these headings include
considerable quantities of imported goods re- exported to
adjacent markets . In the case of many other classes of goods ,
however, there is little import trade and the export figures
may be taken to represent mainly the export of locally manu-
factured goods . The following export of Hong Kong made goods
in 1938 has been assessed on this basis : -
*No te -- Chinese tin is refined in Hong Kong before export . The item
firecrackers includes locally made firecrackers as well as
firecrackers imported from South China and Macao . The item
peanut oil includes locally manufactured peanut oil as well as
peanut oil imported from North China. Preserved ginger
exported from Hong Kong is manufactured here from ginger
imported from South China and sugar imported from Dutch East-
Indies.
(73476) 189
Canvas Rubber Shoes $6,675, 542
Singlets $5,019 , 924
Shirts $2, 168 , 543
Socks $ 1 , 121 , 172
Other wearing apparel $3, 426 , 077
Electric Torches $2,900 , 261
Electric Batteries $2, 189, 923
Hats $ 1,068 , 113
DOCUMENT NO . 33
Tables of statistics of Trade between Hong Kong and China
1864-1940 compiled from the publications of the Chinese Imperial
Maritime Customs and after 1911 , of the Chinese Maritime Customs .
The statistics are taken from " Returns of Trade at the Ports
of China open by Treaty to Foreign Trade for the year .... Part I
Foreign Trade . Published by order of the Inspector General of
Customs.
The title of this publication changes over the years but
figures for China's trade with Hong Kong are provided each year and
can be abstracted without difficulty.
(Document No. 33 is . continued on page 191 )
( 73476) 190
TABLE A
VALUE EXPRESSED IN HAIKWAN TAELS
% of Trade
with Hong
Imports Exports Total Chinese Total Chinese Value of
Kong to
Year from to Haikwan
Total
Hong Kong Hong Kong Imports Exports Chinese Tael
Trade
Hk Taels Hk Taels Hk Taels Hk Taels
1864 9,462,401 7,997,274 48,590,756 54,006,509
1865 26,397,077 9,921,163 65,207,609 60 ,C54,634
1866 30,462 , C53 9,977,546 76,930,781 56,161,807
1867 23,787,756 8,119,094 71,637,190 57,895,713
1868 15,672,685 8,970,289 73,318,634 69,114,733
1869 21,427,637 12,309,160 76,469,713 67,143,988
1870 19,771,066 11,441,519 72,289,531 61,682,121
1871 25,376,627 12,505,499 80,414,709 74,860,550 6/6
1872 23,264,157 13,440,943 78,066,431 83,719,887 6/73
1873 27,713,652 8,739,140 76,800,836 77,540,919 6/5
1874 23,667,334 11,304,031 67,241,288 66,712,868 6/49
1875 27,525,119 12,747,010 69,993,827 68,912,929 6/21/5
1876 27,371,681 14,477,235 72,390,898 80,850,512 5/112/5
1877 27,601,643 15,255,766 76,066,703 67,445,022
1878 27,444,636 14,979,101 73,188,166 67,172,179 5/11/
1879 29,641,379 16,402,856 84,796,488 72,281,262 5/7213
1880 30,253,085 16,608,720 81,639,703 77,883,587 5/98
1881 31,189,895 17,661,418 93,883,635 71,452,974 5/6+
1882 29,063,006 16,487,573 79,504,243 67,336,846 31.02% 5/8
1883 29,090,873 18,851,904 74,954,138 70,197,693 33.03% 5/7
1884 30,770,453 17,239,750 74,330,282 67,147,680 33.93
1885 35,268,197 15,869,987 89,406,883 88,200,018 33.12 5/31
1886 34,889,671 22,552,676 89,310,480 77,206,568 34.52 5/08
1887 57,761,039 31,393,189 102,263,669 85,860,208 46.88 4/8
1888 69,840,746 33,551,518 126,826,643 92,401,067 47.23 4/10
1889 63,371,081 35,186,644 113,140,643 96,747,736 46.96 4/8
1890 72 ,C57,314 32,930,551 128,758,290 87,144,480 48.63 5/24
1891 68,155,959 37,707,661 136,010,846 100,947,849 44.67 4/11
1892 69,816,916 40,701,434 137,422,672 102,853,525 46.05 4/44
1893 80,890,964 48,290,259 153,326,886 116,632,311 47.85 3/114
1894 82,424,351 50,793,504 162,102,911 128,104,522 45.35 3/23
1895 88,191,240 54,774,489 179,946,960 211,623,419 44.23 3/34
1896 91,356,530 54,053,060 143,293,211 131,081,421 42.43 3/4
1897 90,125,887 60,402,222 212,234,994 163,501,358 40.06 2/11
1898 97,214,017 62,083,512 218,745,347 159,037,149 42.17 2/10
1899 118,096,208 71,845,558 273,756,065 195,784,832 40.45 3/C
1900 93,846,617 63,961,634 222,129,473 158,956,752 41.41 3/14
1901 120,329,884 71,435,103 277,139,735 169,656,757 42.92 2/11/6
1902 133,524,169 82,657,375 325,546,311 214,181,584 40.05 2/71/5
1903 136,520,453 89,195,605 336,853,134 214,352,467 40.95 2/7213
1904 141,085,010 86,858,017 357,444,663 344,060,608 38.19 2/10215
1905 148,071,198 81,452,643 461,194,532 227,888,197 33.31 3/01/10
(73476) 191
% of Trade
with Hong
Imports Exports Total Chinese Total Chinese Value of
from to Kong to Halkwan
Year Total
Hong Kong Hong Kong Imports Exports Chinese Tael
Trade
Hk Taels Hk Taels HK Taels HK Taels
1906 144,936,957 82,740,427 428,290,287 236,456,739 34.25 3/32
1907 155,642,016 97,226,434 429,071,662 264,380,697 36.47 3/3
1908 150,252,300 92,107,963 409,554,653 276,660,403 35.32 2/8
1909 150,471,229 96,919,388 430,048,606 338,992,814 32.17 2/716
1910 171,465,974 108,722,925 476,553,402 380,833,328 32.68 2/816
1911 148,249,335 103,669,742 482,576,127 377,338,166 29.30 2/84
1912 147,801,363 103,384,165 485,726,080 370,520,403 29.34 3/08
1913 171,636,099 117,128,661 586,290,431 403,305,546 29.18 3/04
1914 166,498,763 93,399,758 572,057,970 345,280,874 27.90 2/8
1915 148,436,189 104,169,938 477,064,005 418,861,164 28.19 2/7/
1916 153,347,624 119,485,650 535,268,426 481,757,366 26.82 3/31
1917 158,602,488 115,842,946 577,381,339 462,931,630 26.38 4/316
1918 162,191,816 116,988,021 577,643,803 485,883,031 26.25 5/316
1919 153,631,544 131,495,296 679,529,544 630,809,411 21.76 6/4
1920 159,313,335 136,462,043 799,960,206 541,631,300 22.05 6/9/2
7
1921 231,138 , C80 152,875,077 932,850,340 601,255,537 25.03 3/1116
1922 239,347,671 169,995,691 975,034,183 654,891,933 25.11 3/9
1923 248,083,456 175,796,691 948,633,920 752,917,416 24.91 3/54
1924 243,919,357 173,162,926 1,039,102,156 771,784,468 23.03 3/715
1925 176,311,082 114,714,974 965,090,593 776,352,937 16.71 3/58
1926 124,472,673 93,802,031 1,144,646,971 864,294,771 10.87 3/18
1927 212,592,777 169,679,878 1,034,030,490 918,619,662 19.58 2/916
1928 226,077,171 182,123,992 1,210,001,728 991,354,988 18.54 2/11/6
1929 214,481,099 173,580,754 1,281,321,291 1,015,687,318 16.90 2/7 층
1930 218,369,933 158,018,135 1,328,231,986 894,843,594 16.93 1/10/
1931 218,170 , CCC* 148,312,000* 15.71 1/616
Imps . Exps .
1932 60,473,984 75,665,481 1,062,617,331 492,988,989 5.71 15.35 1/114
Value of
the
dollar
Values in Standard Dollars
13
1933 48,287,308 120,954,464 1,358,978,165 612,292,722 3.55 19.75 1/26
1934 29,638,663 101,001,027 1,038,978,938 545,733,321 2.86 18.85 1/48
1935 20,359,397 94,892,671 924,694,798 576,298,382 2.20 16.47 1/54
1936 17,754,509 106,546,843 944,523,218 706,790,915 1.88 15.08 1/28
1937 19,077,601 162,903,595 956,233,801 838,796,918 2.00 19.42 1/26
9
1938 24,589,195 243,395,311 893,499,695 763,731,464 2.75 31.87 10 % pence
1939 35,416,158 222,098,624 1,343,018,373 1,030,358,498 2.64 21.56 6 pence
1940 146,972,221 367,502,131 2,044,364,630 1,976,071,291 7.15 18.60 3 pence
* net figures
(73476 ) 192
TABLE B
VALUES GIVEN IN HAIKWAN TAELS
Imports of Exports of Native Goods
Total Total
Year ΤΟ ΤΟ
Foreign Native Imports Exports
Foreign Chinese
Goods Goods from to
Countries Ports
Hong Kong Hong Kong
1870 21 , 375, 847 2,703 , 351 24, 079, 198 11 , 391 , 560 2,030,204 13, 421 , 764
1871 25, 376, 627 3,392, 159 28,768 , 786 12, 505 , 499 2, 339, 093 14, 844, 592
1872 23, 264, 157 3, 256, 126 26, 520, 283 13, 440, 943 3, 140 , 279 16, 581, 222
1873 27,713, 652 3,318, 685 31, 032, 337 8,739, 140 3, 240 , 660 11,979 , 800
1874 23, 667, 332 2,995, 200 26,662, 632 11, 304, 031 4 , 126 , 488 15, 430, 519
1875 27, 525, 119 3,502, 066 30,027, 185 12, 747,0 10 3,419, 775 16, 166, 785
1876 27,817 , 984 3,050, 299 30,868 , 283 14, 144, 156 1,899, 524 16,043, 680
1877 27, 601, 643 2, 986 , 591 30, 588 , 234 15, 255 , 766 2, 375, 923 17, 631, 689
1878 27, 444, 636 4,836, 989 32, 281, 625 14, 979, 101 2,800 , 045 17, 779, 146
1879 29,641, 379 5,590, 994 35, 252, 373 16, 402, 856 3, 515, 641 19,918 , 497
1880 30, 253, 085 5, 206, 153 35, 459, 238 16 , 608 , 720 4, 188 , 375 20, 797,095
1881 31 , 189, 895 5, 163 , 094 36, 352, 989 17,661 , 418 4,072, 289 21, 733 , 707
1882 29,062,006 5,056, 494 34, 119 , 500 16, 487, 573 3, 976, 782 20, 464, 355
1883 29,090, 873 4, 798, 263 33,889, 136 18 , 851, 904 3,871, 509 22, 723, 413
1884 30, 770, 453 4, 970, 911 35, 741 , 364 17, 239, 750 4,082, 698 21, 322, 448
1885 35 , 268 , 197 5,618, 078 40, 886, 275 15, 869 , 987 4, 329, 797 20, 199 , 784
1886 34,889 , 671 5,591 , 206 40, 480,877 22, 552, 676 4 , 293 , 920 26, 846, 596
1887 57, 761 , 039 9, 257, 169 67, 018 , 208 31, 393, 189 6, 223, 742 37, 616, 931
1888 69,840, 74611, 251 , 549 81,092, 295 33, 551 , 518 7, 714, 694 41, 266, 212
1889 63, 371,081 11 , 227, 155 74,598 , 236 35, 186, 644 8 , 261 , 561 43, 448, 145
1890 72,057, 314 12, 267, 081 84, 324, 395 32, 930 , 551 8,589 , 955 41, 520, 506
1891 68, 155, 95913,048 , 070 81 , 204 , 029 37, 707, 661 7, 435,046 45, 142, 707
1892 69,816, 916 10, 883, 118 80, 700 , 034 40, 701, 434 7,572, 351 48, 273, 785
1893 80, 890, 904 5,822, 5821 86,713, 546 48 , 290, 259 2,247, 005 50 , 537, 264
1894 82, 424, 351 5,730, 5762 88, 154, 927 50, 793, 504 2, 226 , 052* 53,019,556
1895 88 , 191, 240 5,685,0623 93,876,302 54 , 774 , 489 | 2 , 331 , 517* 57 , 106,006
1896 91 , 356 , 530 6,532, 7334 97,889 , 263 54, 053,060 3,338 , 201* 57, 391, 261
1 including 2, 484, 205 from Macao * All to Macao
2 including 2, 292 , 036 from Macao
3 including 2, 229, 332 from Macao
4 including 3,050, 611 from Macao
(73476) 193
NOTES ACCOMPANYING THE ORIGINAL TABLES
I. Table A is compiled from an annual table giving statistics of
trade between China and listed countries , in which Hong Kong
is included .
From 1864 to 1880 an asterisk note against the name Hong
Kong reads " The imports from Hong Kong come originally from
Great Britain , America, India, the Straits and other countries ".
Up to 1867 , a second note relating to the Imports into
China from Hong Kong reads : -
" In addition to the Imports given here which are the
imports entered at the Treaty Ports , a quantity of opium
is annually smuggled into the South of China by Chinese
who buy it at Hong Kong. As the portion consumed in
Hong Kong is comparatively trifling , the quantity which
finds its way into China without appearing in these
customs returns must be nearly equal to the quantity by
which the Hong Kong importation exceeds the entries at
the Treaty Ports . That excess was in 1865, 20 , 390 pe culs ,
of an estimated value of Taels 9 , 175, 500; in 1866 ,
16,834 peculs of an estimated value Tls . 7,743, 600 ; in
1867 , 25, 582 peculs of an estimated value Tls . 12,023, 500 .
A large quantity of rice is also annually imported
into Hong Kong, and afterwards re- exported to places in
China, of which only a small portion is entered at the
Treaty Ports . The sales in Hong Kong in 1865 , as
reported by the " China Overland Trade Report " , were
3, 199 , 000 peculs , of an estimated value of Tls . 7 , 197, 725,
in 1866 , 3,721 peculs of an estimated value of
Tls . 7,907,000 , and in 1867 , 2 , 514 , 000 peculs , of an
estimated value of Tls . 5,185,000 " .
In 1868 and subsequent years , this latter paragraph about
rice was omitted . Also in 1868 the wording of the note
regarding opium was amended to omit the reference to smuggling .
It reads : -
" In addition to the imports entered at the Treaty
Ports, to which the values given in the above table are
of course confined, the South of China is largely
supplied with opium and other articles purchased by
Chinese at Hong Kong. As the quantity of opium consumed
in Hong Kong is comparatively trifling, the quantity
brought into China without appearing in these customs '
returns must be nearly equal to the quantity by which
Hong Kong importation exceeds the entries at the Treaty
Ports.
(73476) 194
That excess was in 1868 , 15 , 622 peculs value
Tls. 7,029 , 900; in 1869 , 32 , 652 peculs value
Tls . 16,097,841 ; in 1870 , 36 , 228 peculs value
Tls . 17,051,340. "
In 1871 , this note was further amended . Estimates of
the excess of importation of opium into Hong Kong over that
entering at the Treaty Ports were dropped and replaced by a
new table giving further detail about Hong Kong trade with
China . This table , from which Table B above was compiled,
was given annually from 1871 to 1896. The note reads : -
" In addition to the Imports entered at the Treaty
Ports to which the values given in the above tables are
of course confined , the South of China is largely sup-
plied with Opium and other articles imported from Hong
Kong in Native vessels . For further information about
the trade with Hong Kong see note on Page ..... "
In 1881 , the general note about the origin of Hong Kong
imports was amalgamated with that about opium and other
articles being supplied to South China from Hong Kong.
The combined note reads : -
" The Imports from Hong Kong come originally from,
and the Exports to the Colony are further carried on to
Great Britain , America , Australia , India , the Straits and
other countries . In addition to the Imports entered at
the Treaty Ports , to which the values given in the above
Table are of course confined , the South of China is
largely supplied with opium and other articles imported
from Hong Kong in Native vessels . For further informa-
tion about the Trade with Hong Kong see Note on page ....
and about opium see Note on page ..... 11
In 1889 the wording was again modified to indicate the
origin of imports received from Hong Kong . The note reads : -
" The Imports from Hong Kong come originally from,
and the exports to that Colony are further carried on to
Great Britain , America, Australia, India , the Straits and
other countries . In addition to the Imports to which
the values given in the above table are confined , the
South of China is supplied with opium and other articles
imported from Singapore , Siam and other Foreign places ,
in Native vessels . For further information about the
.... "
Trade with Hong Kong see note on page .....
In 1893 the phrase " and Coast Ports of China " was added
to the list of countries to which exports from China to Hong
Kong are further carried .
(73476) 195
In 1897 the last sentence " For further information about
11
the Trade with Hong Kong see note on page ..... was omitted,
and the annual estimated of the full Hong Kong trade with
China from which Table B has been compiled , came to an end.
In 1904 , the words " Continent of Europe " and " Japan "
were added to the list of countries forming the origin and
terminus of Hong Kong's trade with China .
In 1913 the note was simplified by cutting out the
reference to Hong Kong supplying South China with opium etc.
and reads: -
" The Imports from Hong Kong came originally from,
and the Exports to that Colony are further carried on to ,
Great Britain , the continent of Europe , America , Japan ,
Australia, India , the Straits etc. and Coast Ports of
China. "
II . Notes to Table B
In 1882 , when the figures from which Table B has been
compiled first appeared, they were headed by the following
explanation: -
" The values of the trade , with Hong Kong given in
the table on pages .......
.... [ ( 1.e. Table A) represent only
that portion of the Trade of China with foreign countries
( italics ) which passes through Hong Kong; with this
exception that the opium imported into Shanghai is
carried to the credit of India . The whole ( italics )
trade carried on by Foreign vessels between Hong Kong
and the treaty Ports (with the exception just mentioned)
is given below.
In 1887 and onwards the words " with this exception that
the opium imported into Shanghai is carried to the credit of
India. " were omitted .
In 1893 the wording was amended to read: -
" The values of the trade with Hong Kong for 1892 ...
given in the Table on pages ....... [ ( 1.e. Table A above )]
represent only that portion of the trade of China with
Foreign countries ( italics ) which passes through Hong
Kong. In 1893 , the direct ( italics ) trade with Hong
Kong and the Treaty Ports is classed as Foreign . The
whole ( italics ) trade between Hong Kong and the above
Ports is given below. " ( 1.e. Table B) .
In 1897 the attempt to give a fuller picture of China's
trade with Hong Kong was dropped , and the figures, from which
Table B has been compiled , ceased.
(73476) 196
VI . CURRENCY AND FINANCE
At the time of the founding of Hong Kong, British currency policy
in the colonies aimed at stability and uniformity based on sterling
and the use of British coins, or other coins at established
parities . But as an entrepôt , Hong Kong necessarily had the
closest economic links with mainland China , and hence Chinese
habits in currency matters almost immediately began to dominate the
Island's commercial practice . The early currency proclamations in
the Colony were therefore largely inoperative and in practice the
silver standard prevailed , though it was not until 1862 , after
nearly 20 years , that the Government bowed to the inevitable and
based the currency officially on silver .
The first document in this section No. 34, is the Currency
Proclamation of May 1st , 1845 establishing parities for various
coins of Britain , China , India and the American republics . This
proved almost immediately to be a dead letter , and in a dispatch to
the Secretary of State , Document No. 35, the Governor,
Sir Hercules Robinson, explained at some length why the currency
should be based on the silver dollar . He went even further and set
up a Mint to provide the Colony's with its own silver coins . This
proved to be a costly failure , because the Chinese continued to
conduct cash transactions in the traditional way; they did not
accept coins at their face value , but by weight and an estimate of
their fineness , and they therefore had little incentive to incur a
minting charge to convert silver bullion into coins . In Document
No. 36 , Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell gave an account of Chinese
currency habits to explain the failure of the Mint project .
Hong Kong was caught in the depreciation of silver which came
in the last quarter of the 19th century, and a table of silver
depreciation is given in Document No. 37. The Report of the
Hong Kong Currency Committee of 1930 , Document No. 38 , reiterated
the view that the Hong Kong currency should remain closely linked
with that of China and went no further than to suggest that a
scheme should be prepared to go over to the gold standard if China
made this change . In November 1935 China abandoned the silver
standard , and in December of the same year, the Hong Kong
Government passed a Currency Ordinance , setting up arrangements for
a managed currency . Document No. 39 gives this Currency
Ordinance , together with a brief extract from the Administration
Reports for the year 1936 summing up the changes made by the
ordinance . The close link with China made it undesirable to bring
Hong Kong within the sterling area, and it remained outside until
the end of the Second World War .
(73476) 197
Hong Kong played an important role in supplying capital to
China in the form of Government loans or loans for the construction
of railways . Two documents illustrative of this side of Hong Kong's
entrepôt function have been included in this section for convenience .
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation prospectus , Document
No. 40, is taken from the " China Mail " of 28th July , 1864 , though
the prospectus itself is dated 3rd August, 1864. The second
Document No. 41 , is an agreement for a loan for the construction of
the Chinese section of the Canton-Kowloon Railway. This concession
was obtained in 1898 , but little was done until 1907 when the agree-
ment was made between China and the British and Chinese Corporation
Ltd. , the latter being jointly controlled by Jardine , Matheson &
Co. , and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation . British
capital for Chinese Government loans or railway construction was
supplied largely from Hong Kong through the agency of the British
and Chinese Corporation .
DOCUMENT NO . 34
A Proclamation for Regulating the Currency . May 1st, 1845
WHEREAS, on the 29th day of March, 1842 , a Proclamation was
issued at Hongkong by Sir Henry Pottinger , Baronet , Our
Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent of the Trade of British
Subjects in China , in the terms following, that is to say: -
"With reference to the desirable object of preventing dis-
putes and laying down some defined system regarding the
Circulating Medium in this settlement , His Excellency
Sir Henry Pottinger, Bart, Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary and
Chief Superintendent of the Trade of British Subjects in China ,
is pleased to promulgate the following brief Rules , which are
to be considered applicable to all common Bazaar Purchases , and
Barter, Hire , & c . , & c . , but not to interfere with, or affect,
what may be , termed Mercantile Transactions , and are to be in
force on the Island of Hongkong pending the Gracious Pleasure
of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain . "
" 1st . The following Coins are to be deemed legal
Tenders: - Spanish, Mexican , and other Dollars and
their component parts , Company's Rupees and their
component parts , Cash, or the Copper Coin current
in China. "
" 2nd. Dollars of whatever denomination or device , and
whether whole or chopped , are to circulate at par
with reference to each other, always providing
that they be of the proper weight and standard. "
(73476) 198
" 3rd. Two and one quarter Company's Rupees shall be con-
sidered equal to one Dollar .
One Rupee and two Annas ( or half a quarter ) equal
to half a Dollar, and three - quarters of a Rupee
( or twelve Annas ) equal to one quarter of a
Dollar. "
" 4th . Twelve hundred Cash ( 1200 ) Copper Coin shall be
equal to one Dollar .
Six hundred ( 600 ) to half a Dollar .
Three hundred (300 ) to quarter of a Dollar .
Five hundred and thirty- three ( 533 ) to one
Company's Rupee .
Two hundred and sixty- six (266 ) to half a Rupee .
One hundred and thirty- three ( 133 ) to one quarter
of a Rupee . "
" 5th . Any other Coins , whether British or Foreign , not
enumerated in the preceding Rules , are not to be
deemed a legal Tender , but they can of course be
sold or otherwise bartered in the Bazaar, accord-
ing to their intrinsic value . "
" 6th. Cash Copper Coin at the rate laid down in the 4th
Rule , will be sold to any individual requiring it
in sums of not less than fifty Dollars , on
application to the Treasurer and Secretary to
Her Britannic Majesty's Superintendent of Trade . "
" God save the Queen . "
And Whereas, on 27th day of April , 1842 , a further Proclamation
was issued by Our said Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent of
the Trade of British Subjects in China , in the terms following
that is to say: -
" The Letter , of which a Copy is hereunto annexed , having
been addressed to me by the Mercantile Firms who have signed
it, on behalf of themselves and others , I do hereby direct and
proclaim, in conformity with their application , that pending
the gracious pleasure of the Queen of England , the Mexican and
other Republican Dollars shall be taken as , and considered to
be , the Standard , in all Government and Mercantile transactions
at Hongkong and other places in China in the occupation of
Her Majesty's Forces, unless at the time of such transactions
taking place it should be expressly specified to the contrary. "
" And I do further announce , that the present Proclamation
is not to be taken in any way or shape as affecting the
provisions of the one which I promulgated on the 29th day of
last month, relative to the Circulating Medium in the Island of
Hongkong. "
" God save the Queen.
(73476) 199
And Whereas , by our Letters Patent , bearing date the 5th day
of April , in the Sixth Year of our Reign , we did erect and consti-
tute our Island of Hongkong and its Dependencies into a separate
Colony, to be known and designated as the Colony of Hongkong; and
by Our Instructions to Our Governor of the said Colony, we did
then direct and ordain that he should not propose or assent to any
Legislative Ordinance whatever , whereby any " Bills of Credit or any
other Paper Currency, or any Coin, save only the legal Coin of the
Realm , may be made or declared to be a legal Tender , without special
permission from us in that behalf first obtained . "
And Whereas it hath been represented to Us , by the Lords
Commissioners of Our Treasury , that doubts have arisen with
reference to the terms of the said hereinbe fore recited
Proclamations of the 29th day of March, and the 27th day of April ,
1842, respecting the legal sufficiency of Tenders of Payment within
Our said Island and its Dependencies , in British Coins; and it is
expedient that such doubts should be removed , and that the
Regulations regarding Standards of Value and Tenders of Payment
within Our said Island should be assimilated to those of Our other
Possessions abroad .
Now, there fore , We , by the advice of Our Privy Council , have
thought fit to declare and ordain, and by the advice aforesaid , We
do hereby declare and ordain , that from and after the date of the
publication in the said Island of Hongkong of this Our Proclamation ,
the said hereinbefore recited Proclamations issued on the 29th day
of March, and 27th day of April , in the Year 1842 , as aforesaid,
shall be revoked and annulled .
And We do further declare and ordain , that from and after the
date of the Publication , as aforesaid, of this Our Proclamation , the
several Coins hereinafter specified , being perfect Coins , and of
full and proper weight and value , shall , in like manner as the
Gold , Silver , and Copper Coins of the United Kingdom, be and con-
stitute a legal Tender of Payment within Our said Island of
Hongkong and its Dependencies , at the several respective rates ,
and as equivalent to the values undermentioned , that is to say,
The Gold Mohur of the East India Company's Territory , coined
since the 1st day of September , 1835 , at the rate of Twenty-nine
shillings and two pence Sterling Money of the United Kingdom.
The Dollar of Spain , Mexico , or the South American States , at
the rate of Four shillings and Two pence Sterling.
The Rupee of the East India Company's Territory, coined since
the 1st day of September , 1835, at the rate of One shilling and Ten
pence Sterling; and the Half Rupee , Quarter Rupee , and Eighth of
Rupee pieces , in proportion .
The Cash, or Copper Coin , Current in China, at the rate of Two
hundred and eighty- eight Cash, for One shilling Sterling.
(73476) 200
And we do hereby further declare and ordain , that Tenders of
Payment in the said Coins , being, as aforesaid , perfect Coins , and
of full and proper weight and value , as well as in the Gold , Silver ,
or Copper Coins of the United Kingdom , or any or either of them,
according to the several relative rates and values hereinbefore
specified, shall be deemed and taken within Our said Island of
Hongkong and its Dependencies , to be a sufficient and lawful Tender ,
in satisfaction and discharge of all Debts , Contracts , and Engage-
ments whatsoever for the payment of money: Provided always never-
theless , and We do further ordain and declare , that nothing herein
contained shall be deemed or taken to render it compulsory on any
person to accept at any one payment a larger Amount in Silver Coins
of the United Kingdom of lower denomination than One shilling, or in
the Half, Quarter, or Eighth Rupee pieces hereinbefore mentioned ,
than the equivalent to Twenty shillings Sterling Money; or a larger
Amount in Copper Coins of the United Kingdom, or in the Chinese
Copper Coins before -mentioned, than the equivalent to One shilling
Sterling Money.
By Her Majesty's Command,
J. F. DAVIS
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN
DOCUMENT NO . 35
Dispatch from Sir Hercules Robinson to Duke of Newcastle ,
on the subject of the Currency . March 9th , 1861
CO 129/80
Confidential Government Offices , Victoria,
Hongkong, 9th March 1861 .
My Lord Duke ,
In compliance with the desire expressed in Sir C. Lewis '
confidential Dispatch of 3rd November last, I have the honour to
submit to your Grace my view on the subject of the currency of
Hong Kong .
2. The currency of the Colony is supposed to be regulated by
the Queen's Proclamation of 1844 , but this Proclamation , for the
reasons which I will explain , has from the date of its publication
been a dead letter as regards all mercantile transactions , and it
has now for some years been equally inoperative as regards the
transactions of the local Government .
3. The Proclamation was apparently founded on the supposition
that gold either was or might be made the standard of value in
Hong Kong . Acting on this assumption it sought to assimilate the
(73476) 201
currency of the place to that of other British Colonies , and made
provision for the concurrent legal circulation of certain foreign
coins and coins of the East India Company, with the coins of the
United Kingdom at certain fixed rates specified in the denomination
of British sterling.
4. The legal effect of the regulations thus established was
supposed by the Home Authorities to be that thenceforth all
pecuniary contracts and engagements entered into at Hong Kong and
its Dependencies in the terms of the Sterling currency of the
United Kingdom might be discharged with any of the coins specified
in the Proclamation at the rate respectively assigned to them. And
that " agreements at Hong Kong to pay a certain amount of ' dollars '
might be discharged by the payment of gold sovereigns at the rate
of 4 dollars 80 cents , or if Rupees , at the rate of 44 cents , or of
British shillings at the rate of 24 cents . "
5. In the adoption of these provisions the exceptional con-
dition of the Colony without agriculture or manufactures
producing nothing either for consumption or exportation , would seem
to have been overlooked . Hong Kong is a mere rock from whence are
directed the operations of a large portion of the vast foreign trade
carried on outside it. Here is not to be found in connection with
that trade either the buyer or the seller the producer or the
consumer; and the Colony has not and never had , I conceive , any
pretensions whatever to establish an isolated system of currency at
variance with that of the great Empire on the confines of which it
is established . I believe it is not too much to say that if it had
been possible to enforce the Proclamation referred to on the
mercantile community and such a step had been attempted, it must
have proved fatal to the very existence of the Colony as a commer-
cial entrepôt .
6. The mercantile community, however, has never recognised
the Proclamation or governed themselves in the slightest degree in
their mutual transactions by its conditions . Silver remains the
standard of value . All accounts , except those of the Government
Departments , are kept in dollars and cents ; and the sole instrument
of commerce and medium of exchange both here and at all the open
ports in China , except Shanghai , is now the dollar current by
weight - the weight almost universally specified in all contracts
being " dollars weighed 7.1.7 " ; which means Dollars weighing at the
rate of 1,000 to 717 Taels weight or equivalent to 415.74 grains
troy each.
As regards the transactions of the Colonial Government the
Proclamation may be said to have remained in force until 1854 up to
which time I find , the greater portion of the revenue was paid into
the Treasury in British Sterling money, entailing thereby inconve-
nience to the local Government , and serious loss to the public
servants . Early in that year, however , it was decided by the Chief
Justice in a trial before the Supreme Court " that when contracts
were made in dollars payment must be made in such coins and not in
those specified in the Queen's Proclamation of 1844 " . This
decision was in effect tantamount to a repeal of the Proclamation .
(73476) 202
From time to time the local Government made the necessary verbal
alterations to secure the payment of all rents , taxes , licences ,
and other dues in Dollars ; and the result now is that (with the
exception of a few fines and fees , and such- like receipts , altogether
unimportant in amount , but specified in the old Ordinance under
which they are levied in terms of Sterling money ) the whole of the
public revenue is received in Dollars at 4/2 . The payments from the
Treasury are in like manner made in dollars at the same rate . Thus ,
I find that out of a revenue of £94,000 received during the year
1860, only £1,600 was received in sterling, and of this amount
£1,200 was received in payment of fractional parts of a dollar for
which under the present system there was no other legal tender .
8. The financial transactions of the Imperial Government here
are mostly confined to payments on account of the Naval Military and
Consular Services . The Government Chest is supplied with Dollars by
the sale of Bills on London or India and by the importation of
specie . All pay and allowances though specified in Sterling are
issued from the Commissariat Chest in Dollars at 4/2 , and almost all
contracts entered into distinctly stipulate that payment is to be
made by the Government in Dollars , and consequently under the
decision of the Chief Justice they cannot be liquidated in any
other coin . Occasionally it is stipulated that contracts shall be
paid for in Bills on London especially in the hire of Transports ,
and other Naval contracts , but the price of these Bills in the
market at the exchange of the day is of course taken into account
in the terms of the contract . The Home Government are rarely
receivers of money here except from the Post Office to which I will
presently allude , and occasionally for the sale of damaged
Commissariat and Ordnance Stores when one of the conditions of sale
is invariably that payment is to be made in Dollars .
9. All these circumstances combined have gradually led to
the total withdrawal of the Sovereign from circulation here . It is
now a mere fancy coin which is not even kept by the Banks ; and if
their customers require any on returning to Europe , the Banks have
to send to the money changers or gold workers to purchase them.
Sovereigns occasionally find their way here in considerable numbers
from Australia, occasionally with gold dust which is imported
largely, in the same way as American Eagles are brought with gold
ingots from California, but these coins are merely imported as so
much merchandize , and on their arrival here are with the uncoined
gold indiscriminately thrown into the melting pot, and converted
into gold leaf for export to India.
10 . In reply therefore to one of the questions specially
referred to me in the Dispatch under acknowledgment I have to
report that if the existing Proclamation were worked persons in the
possession of Sovereigns at the time would have no fair claim to
indemnity because as I have shown all contracts - Governmental as
well as private - are made in Dollars and it is a mistake to
suppose that such obligations can be discharged in either gold or
silver , - gold having practically been demonatized by the Chief
Justice's decision of 1854 .
(73476) 203
11. Here I may observe on the manner in which the Colonial
Government accounts are at present kept that nothing could well be
more inconvenient and complicated . The Revenue as has been
observed , is almost all paid in Dollars , but it is brought to
account in terms of sterling money . The Estimates and
Appropriation Ordinances are made out in sterling, but the
Contracts for Supplies and Public Works are all made in Dollars ,
and the whole expenditure is paid from the Treasury in Dollars
while it is charged in the accounts in Pounds , Shillings and
Pence . I am not aware of any one advantage that is gained by all
this trouble and confusion; I therefore recommend that whether
Her Majesty's Government may decide to continue or withdraw the
existing Proclamation in either case permission be at once given to
keep the accounts of the local Government in Dollars and cents in
the same way as the accounts of every Foreign and Mercantile
Establishment in China are kept . I find that both the Legislative
and Executive Councils of the Colony have already unanimously
recommended this change .
12. As regards the Proclamation I am of opinion that it
should forthwith be revoked because in the first place it is
wholly inoperative , secondly , because the systematic evasion of it
which circumstances have forced on the local Government is
calculated as Mr. Arbuthnot has pointed out , to bring discredit on
the functions of Government , and above all because of the insecure
foundation upon which the present practice rests , inasmuch as the
legality of the judicial decision of 1854 may I think fairly be
questioned , and as another Chief Justice now presides over the
Supreme Court it might at any time be reversed . No time could be
more favourable for making the change . I would therefore , as soon
as the necessary arrangements can be made , withdraw the existing
Proclamation and substitute for it another declaring the Dollar of
Spain , Mexico and the South American States of full and proper
weight and value the only legal tender . A local ordinance should
at the same time be passed declaring that whenever British sterling
money has been specified in any former Ordinance whether as payments
to be made to or by the Government , such sums shall be received at
or paid from the Treasury in Dollars and cents only at the rate of
4/2 to the Dollar . I am thus brought to the consideration of what
coin should be the legal tender in payment of sums less than one
Dollar , but before recommending the course which I think should be
adopted in this respect I must first explain the existing order of
things .
13. There is no fixed rule established amongst the European
and American community by which small payments are made . There are
small quantities of British and Foreign silver and copper coins in
circulation and these pass at different rates according to the
caprice of the receiver in each case . Thus in one place if the
Dollar be worth 4/8 , one shilling and two pence will be required for
a quarter Dollar ( 25 cents ) , while in another one shilling and a
half-penny will be accepted . Payments of this kind between other
than Chinese are however very few, as may be imagined when I
mention that the Manager of the Principal Bank here informed me
that £ 5 worth of small silver and copper coins is sufficient each
(73476) 204
month to settle all such payments in his Bank, fractional parts of
a Dollar being always paid to Chinese at the Bank in broken silver
by weight . The reason of this is that every mercantile Establish-
ment and private family here has a Chinese servant called a
Comprador by whom all domestic monetary transactions are settled .
This man (who acts as a sort of banker and generally is required
to find security) presents his account either in dollars or in
cash which are converted into Dollars at the market rate , and
receives payment generally by an order on a Bank for an even sum.
The absence of any settled well - regulated currency for making
change in domestic circulation has rendered it very difficult for
Europeans to superintend their own household affairs , and the
comprador system which is a very ruinous one , has therefore hither-
to been almost a necessary evil . Wages , market and retail transac-
tions , in short all payments whatever below a Dollar between
Chinese are settled in cash- and this coin may therefore for all
practical purposes be considered as the subordinate currency of the
Colony .
14 . The cash or " tsie " - the only coin issu
n ed by the Chinese
Governme
nt is made from an alloy of copper iron and tutenague . It
is circular nine - tenths of an inch in diamete and has a square
r
hole in the centre by which the pieces are strung in parcels of a
hundred for the convenie
nce of counting and also of carrying . It
is cast and not stamped or minted . The obverse bears the name of
the province in which it is cast in Manchu writing on the right
side of the square hole , and the Manchu word for money on the left .
On the reverse are four Chinese characte , those above and below
rs
the hole giving the Emperor' name ( as T'au Kwang , Kien Lung etc. )
s
and the words " tung sau " signifyi
ng current money on the left and
right of it . The weight of each piece should be 57.98 grains or
one ounce , ( tsien ) , and hence it is called by the same name , but
modern pieces weigh from 62 to 64 grains each . The value of the
coin as fixed by Governme is th e t h o u sandth pa rt of a tael's
nt
weight of silver at which rate about 700 would be equal to a
dollar ; -
but through the rapacity of the Provinci
al Governors
( there being Mints in most of the Province ) or the fraud of the
s
workmen employed , the coin has for many years been debased in the
coarsest manner with iron dust and sand ; and the price of it in
the Canton market at present is about 1358 each for a tael , or 970
for the American Dollar . The cash thus made by the Governme
nt is
not issued to the Public but only to the Imperial troops , and the
issue is made to them at the market rate except that in every 100
taels 5 are issued at the rate of only 1,000 cash - thus causing a
slight loss to the recipien . The value of the cash in the Canton
ts
market is fixed daily by the money brokers who meet in conclave and
determine the price , which as far as I can learn appears to fluc-
tuate above the intrinsic value of the coin accordin to the supply
g
of it in the market .
15. I forward with this despatch specimens of the cash issued
by the Chinese Government in each reign since the commencement of
the present dynasty in A. D. 1644 , an inspection of which will at
once show the manner in which these coins have been depreciated
especially during the present reign .
(73476) 205
16. By the existing Proclamation Chinese cash are made a legal
tender to the extent of the shilling sterling at the rate of 1200
for one Dollar but as 970 of even the present depreciated Government
cash are equal to one Dollar , the Proclamation has in this respect
as in others been a nullity .
17. Until very lately, however, a number fully equal to that
specified in the Proclamation has passed in the Colony for a
Dollar in consequence of the large quantity of spurious cash which
has been in circulation throughout China for years , not withstand-
ing the strong measures taken by the Government to suppress the
illicit manufacture of it, by awarding death as the punishment for
forging. The established rule amongst the shop - keepers of the
Colony until lately has been to accept cash in payment , provided
each string did not contain more than a certain number of forged
cash, but sometimes the proportion of the forged cash rose to one
half and even seven tenths . This mixture of which I forward a
specimen , went by the name of " current cash " and from 1200 to 1300
have usually been considered equal to a Dollar . The forged cash
have however been gradually deteriorating in quality, and at last
became so bad, owing to the operation of a gang of forgers who
established themselves on the opposite shore of Kowloon , that the
shop-keepers were obliged in self-defence some months since to come
to an agreement not to accept in payment any but Government cash,
which last alone now pass current here at the same rate as in
Canton 1.e. at present 970 to the Dollar .
18. Such changes as these in the domestic currency of the
country bear with peculiar hardship upon the poorer classes . For
the sellers of commodities being fewer in number and generally more
intelligent than the purchasers , take care whenever a fall takes
place in the value of the cash, if they have not already anticipated
it , to raise the price of their commodities at once; but when as
lately the cash rises in value the old prices are maintained as long
as possible and until they are forced down by competition the
effects of which wholesome principle are slower in China than in
any other part of the world, in consequence of the combinations
which exist amongst the members of all trades and guilds . Thus for
example complaints have been made to me , and I believe with truth
that the prices of all commodities in the market here in cash are
the same now as before the recent increases in the value of that
coin of nearly 25%, and I have in consequence been urged to adopt
the short- sighted expedient of fixing as at Macao by legislation
the prices of all articles in the market .
19. As regards therefore the suggestion referred to in the
Despatch to which I am replying that Chinese cash should be
declared a legal tender at a fixed rate I need only , I think,
observe that the existing Proclamation does so and that it is a
dead letter - and I think that considering the circumstances under
which alone this coin is issued by the Chinese Government, which I
have fully described any similar regulation must prove similarly
inoperative .
(73476) 206
20. The remedy which I recommend is that the Colonial
Government should coin and issue cash at the rate of 1000 to the
Dollar and that such coin be made a legal tender to the amount of
one Dollar . The new British cash should resemble the Chinese cash
in appearance have a square hole in the centre for the convenience
of stringing and weigh not less than one ounce ( 57.98 grains ) .
The Shroffs and Compradors connected with the Banks whom I have
consulted place great importance upon the weight being as near as
possible one mace . The coin might be made of bronze , or of an alloy
of copper and some other cheaper metal ; and the intrinsic value of
it should be so much below the rated value of 1000 to a Dollar as
would cover the expense of coinage , and prevent any possible fluc-
tuations in the market price of the metal contained in the coin
withdrawing it from circulation . These points being provided for I
think considering the eccentric People with whom we have to deal it
would be desirable that the new cash should if possible be intrin-
sically worth less than the cash issued by the present Chinese
Government - and at first I would recommend that it should be made
as much superior to that now being issued as could be done without
loss . I have been unable to ascertain the value of the metal con-
tained in 970 cash of the present Emperor, but I assume that as no
coin can pass current for less than its intrinsic value the market
price of the metal cannot at all events be greater than one Dollar
and that no difficulty will therefore be experienced in issuing
from the Treasury here 1000 British cash for the Dollar at least
equal to the present Chinese issue . I must however leave the
question of value to be decided by competent authorities at Home
after an analysis of the specimens enclosed; and I have arrived at
the conclusion after comparing the price of copper , tin , coals and
skilled labour in the two places , as well as the greater value of
money here , and the consequent profit on remitting it , that the
coins should be manufactured in England and sent out here .
21. I enclose a drawing of the design for the coin with the
inscriptions in English and Chinese which I would recommend should
be borne upon it. I feel little doubt but that such a coin would
supplant the Chinese cash amongst the population of Hong Kong and
the entire neighbourhood from whence the market supplies of the
Colony are drawn - and I feel satisfied that by the Government
retaining the issue in its own hands and limiting it to the quantity
necessary for the purpose of change and also by limiting the amount
for which it would be a legal tender , the value of the coin would
be sustained on a level with that of the Dollar according to the
rate assigned to each by law.
22. If there fore Her Majesty' Governme approve my recomme
s nt nd-
ation I would suggest that 20 millions cash be forthwit ordered in
h
England and sent out here . I do not think that less than this
quantit would be sufficie to commenc with conside t t
y nt e ring hat he
populat o t C n w exceeds 100,000 and that it would allow
ion f he olony op I have not overlook the
but 200 cash ( or 20 cents ) er head . ed
questio of weight . The weight of 20,000,0 cash each weighin a
n 00 g
mace (or one tenth of a tael of 579.84 grains troy ) would be about
74 tons . The rated value would be 20,000 Dollars . The freight on
74 tons from England to Hong Kong at 12 Dollars ( £2-10-0 ) per ton
(73476) 207
would amount to 888 Dollars or nearly 4 % on the rated value . The
insurance may be rated at 14%. The two together amounting to 6 per
cent ; but this addition to the cost of the cash would be more
than covered by the profit on remitting money to England which is
seldom less than ten per cent .
23. The Dollar and the cash would as at present perhaps be
found sufficient to carry on after a manner all monetary transac-
tions in the Colony; but I should also at the same time strongly
urge the issuing of two other coins to make the system complete .
One a copper coin to be called a cent , and to be a legal tender to
the amount of a Dollar , at the rate of 100 to a Dollar. The
other a silver coin to be called a ten cent piece , and to be a
legal tender to the amount of 2 Dollars , at the rate of ten for one
Dollar. I think the cent especially desirable because without it
all fractional parts of a Dollar , which in Government, Banking and
mercantile accounts , never descend below a cent , would have to be
entered in cents and settled in cash which would be both burthen-
some and inconvenient . I do not think that the intrinsic values of
these coins which would circulate chiefly among Europeans would be
a matter of much consequence so long as they were below their rated
value to an extent that would cover the expense of their coinage
and insure their remaining in circulation . The quality and weight
of the cent might be the same as that of the East India Company's
cent coined in 1845, a few of which are in circulation and which in
size and weight is found to be a convenient coin . As regards the
weight of the ten- cent piece the Chinese authorities whom I have
consulted consider it desirable that it should be made by means of
alloy as nearly as possible one tenth of the Dollar in weight or
41.6 grains . I agree in this opinion ; but as the English six
pence weighs only 44 grains the ten cent piece would require more
alloy than the English standard .
24. I enclose drawings of the cent and ten cent piece showing
what I consider would be appropriate inscriptions for each in
English and Chinese . I would suggest that the Colonial Government
should only make use of these coins in the same way as the cash in
the payment of sums below a Dollar and that they be sold to the
Public at the Treasury only in exchange for Dollars and I consider
that the limitation of their quantity and the limited amount for
which they will be a legal tender will ensure their passing current
at all times at the rate assigned to them by law.
25. These coins like the cash should for the same reasons be
manufactured in England , and the following quantity of each would
be required to commence with, namely ,
1,000,000 cents $10,000
100,000 ten cent pieces $10,000
26. I assume that the total expense of the coinage will fall
on the Colony and the profit , if any, be allowed to the Colony;
but it will be seen that the object I have kept in view in my
recommendations has not been to make any profit for the Colony , but
simply to establish, without loss , a subordinate currency to the
(73476 ) 208
Dollar on sound principles - a measure which cannot fail I think to
give a great impetus to the trade and prosperity of the Colony . It
will also I believe prove a great boon to soldiers and Europeans
with small means, as well as to the poorer class of Chinese by
lowering the prices of all the necessaries of life .
27. Concurrently with the withdrawal of the existing
Proclamation the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury
would have to issue instructions as to the rate at which the Dollar
should be paid to the Naval and Military Services . Upon this sub-
ject I would only observe that while I admit that it would not be
fair to charge to the Soldier or Sailor the loss on the course of
exchange which is now and has been for some years so adverse to
England . I do not think that the expensiveness of the place forms
(as has been urged ) any ground for issuing to those services the
Dollar at 4/2, or any rate below the par founded on the average
relative value of gold and silver in the European market . It has
been calculated from a comparison of the relative value of the
sovereign and Dollar here and of Bills of Exchange in England , that
money is more valuable here than in England by about 7 per cent .
If therefore the currency of the place had been British sterling,
sovereigns could only have been raised here by the sale of
Government Bills at about 21/5 but they would nevertheless have
been issued at 20 /-; and this loss on exchange which is merely an
accident of the condition of trade is fairly chargeable to
Government who on the other hand profit by raising sovereigns in
Australia and other Colonies where the Exchanges are favourable to
the mother country. But to issue the Dollar here which costs 4/72
at 4/2 if the true par be 4/4, on the ground of the expense of
living here would simply be equivalent to issuing on the same
account the sovereign ( costing 21/5) at the rate of 19 / - instead of
20/-.
28. The Military and Naval Services may I think fairly claim
to receive their pay and allowances in the currency of the place to
which they are sent on duty, and the expense of the place is a very
fair ground for increasing the pay and allowances , but I think it
better for many reasons that this increase should be given in the
shape of an actual addition instead of by the issue of Dollars below
their real value . I would recommend therefore that after a consider-
ation of all the circumstances of the case a China rate of pay and
allowances be established , and that if possible it be announced in
Dollars , the currency of the place , instead of in sterling which has
to be converted into Dollars at a given par and which must always
give rise to unpleasantness and dissatisfaction .
29. The withdrawal of the existing Proclamation would be a
good opportunity for accomodating the Post Office receipts to the
general currency of the Colony . The Postal revenue belongs to the
Imperial Government and a proportion (one penny in each half ounce
letter) is allowed to the Colony to pay the expenses of the local
establishment . The Postal rates are fixed by Treasury warrant in
sterling and so long as the Proclamation of 1844 remains unrepealed ,
sterling money cannot be refused if tendered at the Post Office .
There is, however, so little British sterling money in circulation
(73476) 209
and the saving that would be effected by obtaining it is a matter
of so little moment to the merchants whose Post Office accounts
are settled monthly, that two thirds of the revenue of the Office
is received in Dollars at 4/2 . From the Dollars so received the
Colonial share is deducted and paid into the Treasury in Dollars
at 4/2 - and for the balance of the Dollars a Bill is drawn on
London in sterling for the amount calculating each Dollar at 4/2
the rate at which it was received is purchased and remitted to
England; the profit on the Dollars about 12 per cent being given
by the Imperial Government to the Colony . The sterling money being
received at the Post Office - there being no way in which it can be
disposed of without loss - is paid into the commissariat chest
where it accumulates and will I suppose have eventually to be
remitted to England . Thus the Colony derives the profit on the
Postages paid in Dollars and the Imperial Government bears the loss
on these paid in sterling which appears to me to be by no means an
equitable arrangement .
30. I would suggest as a remedy that the Colony be allowed
to provide postage stamps and that the postal rates be inscribed
on them not in sterling but in cents at the rate of 4/2 to the
Dollar; ( thus a /6 rate will be 12 cents ) that the use of these
stamps be made compulsory . The practical result of this would
simply be that all postages would be paid in dollars at 4/2
instead of only a large proportion of them as at present; and the
whole of the Imperial share would then be remitted home by the
Colony in Bills of Exchange free from all loss . The expense of
the stamps would fall on the Colony, and the Colony would derive
the profit on remitting the Imperial share as long as the exchange
continued unfavourable to the mother country. The Colony should
therefore bear the loss on remitting if the Dollar ever were worth
in exchange less than 4/2 -- as in 1849 when it fell to 3/11
equivalent at a par of 4/2 to 5 per cent premium sterling - and I
do not think it an impossible contingency that the balance of Trade
may again become as formerly unfavourable to China now that so
many new ports have been opened which may become consumers of
imports but have no exports suitable to foreign trade to give in
exchange .
31. I will now as briefly as possible recapitulate my
proposals in the order in which they should be carried out.
1st. I recommend that the Treasury instruction requiring the
Colonial accounts to be kept in pounds and shillings be
forthwith withdrawn , and the accounts at once kept in
Dollars and cents .
2nd . that as soon as the necessary arrangements can be made
the Proclamation of 1844 be revoked and another sub-
stituted for it declaring the Dollar and its parts the
only legal tender in Hong Kong .
3rd . that a local ordinance be at the same time passed con-
verting all items of either revenue or expenditure
calculated in former ordinances in pounds , shillings and
pence into Dollars at the rate of 4/2 . And that in all
(73476) 210
subsequent Legislation money calculations be expressed
in the currency of the place .
4th . that concurrently with the publication of the
Proclamation and ordinance referred to , the undermentioned
coins be issued at the Treasury to the Public in payment
of sums below a dollar and in exchange for Dollars to
all who may desire to purchase them.
A cash · a coin composed of some cheap alloy - weighing
as nearly as possible 58 grains and representing one
thousandth part of a Dollar . The coin to be a legal
tender up to a certain amount only, ' say one Dollar ' .
A cent a copper coin representing one hundredth part of
a Dollar , and a legal tender up to the same amount as the
cash.
A ten cent piece - a silver coin weighing 41.6 grains
representing one tenth part of a Dollar - and a legal
tender up to the amount of two Dollars .
5th . that the Home Government cause the coins specified above
to be procured in England at the expense of the Colony
and that the following quantities of each be sent to
commence with -
20,000,000 cash $20,000
1,000,000 cents $10,000
100,000 ten cent pieces $ 10,000
These would have to be followed by constant
additional supplies the extent of which can be determined
hereafter . As there is a profit to the Colony on all
payments which can be made in England, the insurance ,
freight, shipping charges , and every expense on these
coins should be paid in England. And in the hope that
Her Majesty's Government will sanction these proposals
and to avoid any delay on the score of funds , I have
ordered the sum of £8,000 in Bills at six months to be
forthwith remitted to the Agent General for Crown
Colonies .
6th. that concurrently with the passing of the new Proclamation
the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury shall
issue instruction as to the rate at which the Dollar is
to be issued to the Military and Naval Services serving
in China; or if possible , what would be far better, a
China rate of pay and allowances for those services be
announced in Dollars , in the same manner as the pay and
allowances of the troops serving in India are fixed in
rupees .
7th. that the postal receipts be accommodated to the currency
of the Colony by the issue of postage stamps and by the
(73476) 211
payment here of the British rates in Dollars at 4/2 . If
legislation be necessary to effect this , and that it be
within the province of the local legislature ( a point
which I must leave to be decided by the Law Officers at
Home ) provision might be made in the local ordinance
already referred to in the 3rd recommendation .
32 . These arrangements are I conceive all that would be
necessary to reduce the present confusion to order . They can be
carried out without expense to the Imperial Government or loss to
the Colony . And all those whom I have consulted - Bankers and
merchants as well as Chinese - agree that they would be favourably
received by all classes of the community.
I have the honour to be ,
My Lord Duke ,
Your Grace's most obedient servant ,
HERCULES ROBINSON
DOCUMENT NO . 36
Dispatch from Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell to the Earl
of Carnarvon , No. 172. 13 December 1866 on the subject
of the failure of the Hongkong Mint CO 129/116
No. 172 Government House ,
Hong Kong, 13 December 1866 .
My Lord ,
I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of the Report
presented by the Commission of Enquiry, which as stated in my dis-
patch No. 136 of the 13th October, I had appointed to enquire into
the prospects of the Mint . That Report was delayed by various
causes to an unexpectedly late period but nevertheless reached me
in time to have it forwarded by last mail . I reflected however
that the main object of the Enquiry had been to place before
Her Majesty's Government such a complete analysis of the circum-
stances affecting the progress of the Mint hitherto and likely to
influence its future prospects , as might enable your Lordship to
give me definite instructions , as to continuing or discontinuing
the present heavy expenditure connected with it . I therefore felt
that it might greatly assist your Lordship to know the opinions of
the leading Bankers here on the statements and arguments used in
the Report .
2. The Banks as the great dealers in coin and bullion must
necessarily be the principal sources of supply to the Mint and it
may be assumed that when they can use the Mint with profit they
will do so but not otherwise . It was therefore expedient to
(73476 ) 212
give them an opportunity of expressing their views in their own
language and I thought it so important that should do so that I
have detained the Report for that purpose .
3. Accordingly I requested Mr. Kresser the Manager of the
leading local Bank, The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank - to obtain in
such manner as he thought most expedient the opinions of his
colleagues , and I now enclose copy of his reply, and of letters
from the Managers of the Oriental , the Comptoir d'Escompte and the
Chartered Mercantile Banks . I regret however that persons neces-
sarily so familiar with the laws regulating the supply and demand
for coin and bullion in this part of the world have not been more
liberal in imparting detailed information . Yet even so , as will
presently appear , that which they do give is highly important .
4. I likewise transmit copy of a letter addressed by
Mr. McKenzie to my predecessor Sir Hercules Robinson , who took so
prominent a part in establishing the Mint . Sir Hercules attached
so much importance to that letter that he favoured me with a copy
in time to lay it before the Commission of Enquiry which I was the
more anxious to do as he mentioned having already semi - officially
transmitted it to your Lordship's Department .
5. That letter adverts amongst other things to some calcula-
tions of the Auditor General Mr. Rennie forwarded in my dispatch
No. 103 of the 27th August. I therefore submitted it to Mr. Rennie
whose explanations and remarks I also enclose , as I consider them
well founded and deserving your Lordship's attention .
6. The sums already sunk in building, establishing and main-
taining the Mint and its staff enter so prominently and frequently
into the general argument that I have procured from the Auditor
General a reliable return of that expenditure . I have myself gone
very carefully into the details , which shew $ 445,709 as the sum
expended, but other items due in England and alluded to in the
return raise it to at least $ 450,000 up to the commencement of this
month.
7. On the other hand it is right to shew the apparent profit
made by the Mint. This Mr. Rennie puts at $ 10 , 321 diminished by
the conversion into subsidiary coinage of dollars for which the
Colony was receiving six per cent, and also by the additional loss
of eight per cent on money borrowed to meet current expenses ,
whilst that subsidiary coinage lies unavailable in the Treasury
thus reducing the nominal profit to almost nothing .
8. Of all the enclosed documents that which gives the most
continuous and best resume of the entire subject is unquestionably
the Report of the Commission appointed by myself . It treats
seriatim the seven propositions submitted by me for its considera-
tion , the whole of which had more or less direct reference to the
probability of the Mint being rendered a paying concern - that
being the question, whose solution is of most immediate interest in
the present financial state of the Colony .
(73476) 213
9. The first question as to the practicability of increasing
the coining and melting power of the establishment so as to ensure
its becoming profitable , if supplied with sufficient silver, may be
regarded as disposed of in the affirmative , it being really only a
question of sinking more capital in the concern , as machinery in
every way suitable and sufficient is procurable for money .
10 . T
he second propo is reall the main subj
ect of
sitio y
enqui v . wheth i t M n b m all suffi
ry iz er f he int e echanica cient
,
there is reaso p o t P ll
nable rospect f he ublic suppy lying it with On
enoug silve to keep it in succ
h r essfu 1. e . paying operatio .
that , the all impo p o i , t h C olm h o o u n o nho
rtant nt e missi lds t pe
that unles unde rare
s r and excep circoun unlik to
tiona mstan e l y
recur , or if recu l c
rring , not likely to be of long deusration - can it
be expec that the Publi will pay a seig for conve o
te c norag rsion f
silve coid n or bullion into Hong Kong dollars . eThe Commiss
r ion
furth c t n
er oncludes hat either the Governmen nor the general
Publi can purc t
c has bullion and profitab coin it here , to whic I
h
may add that if the e Governm were to ll ay
y in a stock of bullio
for such purpo i w e n t n
g
se t ould enerally suffer a heavy loss thereby in
inter w n p p
est hich o robable rofit could repay .
11. The Commission likewise regards as chimerical all attempts
of the Government by any amount of coinage to force Hong Kong coins
to such a premium as might eventually render its manufacture
profitable . I need scarcely say that I only suggested that theory
for consideration because , having been held by many others, an
Inquiry to be complete should include it .
12. The possibility of improving the position of the
Government in such operations by increasing the producing powers of
the Mint is also negatived by the Commission , as the Chinese market
ordinarily offers no premium of two per cent for silver either in
large or small quantities , merely because it may be moulded into
the shape of Hong Kong dollars . Nevertheless , if varying
Exchanges or other circumstances , as admitted by the Commission ,
may occasionally render minting profitable , it is clear that the
more perfect the machinery and staff available for reaping such
brief harvests , the more profitable would the Mint be and in fact
ability to avail itself of those rare occasions would be its only
chance of profit , as it might have only two or three weeks wherein
to earn its year's expenses .
13. As to profit from subsidiary coinage it is clear, as
those coins contain twenty per cent alloy, they would in that way
return one hundred dollars for eighty, only that the Colony
un fortunately cannot easily get rid of the one hundred dollars so
manufactured . In fact I now pay eight per cent for dollars
borrowed for current expenses , whilst the Treasury vault actually
holds at this moment more than $ 100,000 of subsidiary coins . The
Commission has therefore prudently abstained from estimating the
profit derivable from this source , till the limit of the market for
that branch of the manufacture can be ascertained .
(73476) 214
14. Finally whilst the report of the Commission gives no
hope whatever of the concern paying its way either through public
support or as a Government speculation, it gives scarcely more
encouragement , when it suggests negotiations between Her Majesty's
Government and the Authorities of China, and Japan with a view to
changing the ancient usage of those countries and inducing them to
except the British dollar from the present ultimate destiny of all
foreign coins , viz . a common extinction of individual character in
the Imperial melting pots. Such recommendation does however
afford a good practical commentary on the comparisons instituted
between the Hong Kong and the Indian Mints . All that can be
attained by the proposed uncertain negotiations for the Hong Kong
Mint - and which it seems is regarded as essential to its success
is at once secured for Indian Mints by the market for rupees
afforded by the 150 millions ruled directly or indirectly by the
Indian Government. To make the Hong Kong and Indian Mints
parallel cases it would be necessary to make me Emperor of China as
well as Governor of Hong Kong.
15. Supposing however such negotiations successful , and that
China consented not to melt British dollars and even to make coins
not " shoes " and bars - the legal currency of the Empire , what
probability is there that those coins would be minted for China at
Hong Kong and not at Peking or some other Chinese city? Moreover
if such negotiations be commenced , who can foresee their ter-
mination and who can look forward to any practical issue suf-
ficiently early to guide the action of this Government , till the
attainment of a victory over the ancient habits and prejudices of
the most prejudiced nation in the world? Is it reasonable because
we have built a Mint to insist that our neighbours who have no
interest in the speculation shall foster and protect its prodúce ?
How much better if the negotiations had preceded the building.
16. I would next invite your Lordship's attention to the
enclosed opinions of the leading Bankers on the probable fortunes
of the Mint and regret much that the fruits of their great prac-
tical experience hold out no more cheerful prospect than the
Commission of Enquiry appointed by myself .
17. Of the four Bankers , one ; the Manager of the Oriental
Bank " quite agrees with the Commission " . The Manager of the
Chartered Mercantile Bank, thinks , as does the Commission , that to
make the British dollar pass in China is hopeless without the aid
of the Chinese Government . The Manager of the Comptoir d'Escompte
says that there is no hope for the Mint unless the Hong Kong
Dollar be made more tempting by containing more silver than other
dollars or by forcing it on the population of the neighbouring
Ports and Straits , extreme measures which he justly pronounces
" impracticable " and " impossible " .
18. Mr. Kresser Manager of The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank
concurs generally with the Commission and also declares a fore-
knowledge of what must necessarily be uncertain , viz . the circum-
stances regulating the course of Sterling and Indian exchanges to
be requisite to prognosticate the success of the Mint but points
(73476) 215
out circumstances in which occasionally the ruling exchanges might
render minting temporarily profitable .
19. On the other hand Your Lordship can oppose Mr. McKenzie's
letter to the views of the Commission , framed after long protracted
and anxious consideration and to the opinions of the Bankers whose
profession it is to study the course of exchange and all possible
profitable dealings with coin and bullion .
20. That letter embodies in a convenient shape the florid
talk which may be harmlessly indulged in by gentlemen who have no
responsibility and are not called on to provide funds to meet the
expenditure essential for any costly and protracted experiment ,
whose solution they desire . It is not perhaps important if
Mr. McKenzie pronounces the " financial success of the Mint a
question apart " he merely thereby puts himself out of court
altogether in an enquiry where financial failure is the principal
difficulty that meets Her Majesty's Government and myself . It
would however be very absurd in me and the Commission to waive
aside that consideration and " bid it pass " with all the grand
indifference to paltry objection , which induces Mr. McKenzie to
pronounce " financial success " a condition over which the " Government
can have no control " whilst he designates those who differ from
him " Colonial Croakers " .
21. And here I may pause for a moment to enquire who had the
greatest interest in promoting the successful operations of the
Mint. I presume it is not those whose connection with the Colony
is severed , but those who remain and have to make good by increased
taxation the deficiency caused by financial operation such as is
now under trial . Perhaps no one has more direct interest in that
s
succes than mysel f, as its absence entails on myself the
immediate responsibility and personal odium of increasing taxation
to replace funds absorbed by the Mint .
22. Mr. McKenzi however thinks the latter could succeed if
e
" properl adminis " and if it had " fairpla " whilst through ,
y tered y out
though guardin himself by saying he is not competen to speak on
g t
the efficie of the Staff , he conveys the idea that its inferio
nc r-
ity is one cay use of the Mint's failure and that it is unequal to
its duties , asserti that the Governm s do its duty by
ng ent hould
providi an effecti staff as well as requisi m . Bo th
ng ve te achinery
the Staff and machine however were sent from England under the
ry
direct superin of Her Majesty Governm , and though there
tendanc 's en
was unavoid much elocal experie to acquire t on the part of the
ably nce
former , and they have at least learned the folly of expecti
Public support unless the Public can profita use the Minnt.
g I
bly
will venture to say that it would be extreme d for Her
ly ifficult
Majesty Governm to replace the superio officer of the exist-
's ent r s
ing staff with advanta a I entirel agree with the remarks of
ge nd y
the Commiss o Enquiry on that subject .
ion f
23. Machinery originally supplied was utterly insufficient,
and for that reason when I invited Mr. McKenzie to visit the Mint in
my company last September and saw the superiority of a French Press
(73476) 216
then newly put up I suggested to Mr. Kinder ( the Master of the
Mint) the expediency of making a requisition for additional
machinery of the same class . He made that requisition and it was
then that the propriety of incurring the requisite expense caused
enquiry into the general prospects of the Mint in order to procure
information for Your Lordship before sanctioning such outlay.
Hence it appears that this Government anticipated Mr. McKenzie's
suggestions and was as anxious as he to secure " fairplay " to the
Mint although at the same time it did not overlook fair play to
the Colony - a matter apparently wholly beneath Mr. McKenzie's
notice .
24. It may be also useful to know also that Mr. McKenzie's
allusion to " the alleged disinclination of the Chinese in the
Colony for the new dollar " has no foundation in fact . On the con-
trary they apparently slightly prefer it , and at least are quite
willing to take it and do take it for what it is worth, in fact
they must do so as it is a legal tender , but they have no decided
preference for it , notwithstanding that it is the coinage of a
powerful " state of recognised good faith " , and its mintage is
carried on under the eyes of the Community . I am sorry to say
that, despite such advantages , the Chinese are nevertheless
insensible to any allurements of financial sentiment and exhibit
no preference except for the greatest weight of silver and would
seek that even in coins produced by " an anarchical state like
Mexico " .
25 . Mr. McKenzie is equally inaccurate in another assertion ,
which is greatly calculated to mislead. He refers to the large
quantity of silver sent to the Mint on its first opening, attracted
by the Government concession of coining free of seignorage for one
month, and states the " several millions of Mexican dollars were
at once sent in " . The tendency and, probably, the object of such
an assertion is to attribute a pre ference, imagined by the writer, on
the part of the loyal population here for the British dollar as
British . Indeed very much of the loose reasoning and sanguine
calculations of those who originated the Mint, is based on sentimen-
tality of that description , which pictures a Briton carrying a
dollar like a Union Jack, around the world .
26. Even Mr. Kinder , after residing here for months was
infect ed with the same spirit and has more than once officially
represented to me that as it had become impossible for the Public
or the Banks to send silver to the Mint without loss the Government
should supply it . The success of the Mint and the honor of the
British Government depended in his eyes on keeping the furnaces lit
and the presses at work whether at a loss or not .
27. I confess that I was in dread to go to extremes for the
purpose of feeding the Mint and even borrowed money for its
operations , nevertheless though I knew that I was not acting
wisely I was loth to leave any stone unturned to enable the Mint
to tide over what many regarded as a temporary depression and ill-
luck. I have however recorded during these transactions my
opinion that I was not doing right and that the operations of the
(73476) 217
Mint were never meant to be guided by sentimental feelings but by
calculations of profit and loss ; whilst as to the honor of
Great Britain it was not involved in the matter , and if it were ,
the Imperial Government could better afford to look after it than a
small community already reduced to insolvency by its previous
expenditure on the Mint .
28. I must not however forget to point out that not only was
there no outburst of loyalty in sending several millions of Mexican
dollars to the Mint with a view to obliterating the " anarchical
stamp " , but several millions were never sent (unless secretly by
Mr. McKenzie ) ; about one million and a quarter were offered . Of
these nearly 150,000 were sent directly or indirectly on the part
of this Government , whilst of the remainder I am sorry to state
there was scarcely one " clear " dollar as almost all were chopped
and injured , light in weight or for other reasons not easily got
rid of. That description of silver was sent to the Mint at its
first opening because there appeared then a chance of assaying and
accounting into good dollars , free of all cost , some 100,000 ounces
locked up in depreciated coin . In this instance therefore , as in
all others , selfish calculation of profit and loss was the motive
in influencing the customers of the Mint and most convenient
motives they are , because they make it possible to gauge beforehand
the utility of establishments whose success depends on the Public
finding profit in using them.
29 . I admit that it is very dishear to find that there
tening
is an immens stream of silver constan flowin into and out of
e tly g
this Colony and that neverth none of it can be turned through
e l e s s
the Mint . t c
Since he ommenc o f he resent year , accordin to
t p
ement g
the return receive from Mr. G. Sharpe , the gentlem who prepar
s d an es
the fortni s o b i a export for each
ghtly ummary f ullion mports nd s
mail - there has been importe into Hong Kong ( includi Canton
d ng
import ) at least 29 million of dollars and 11 million dollars of
s s
40 millio o s , indepe o 1
Bullio , or altoget
n h ns f ilver nd t f 0
millio i g - e r
and nevert n a dollar has feon r months
ns n old heless ot
gone to the Mint except that which I have procure for it .
d
30. I may add that if the importations of silver had been
twice as large , the chance of turning them through the Mint would
not have been increased thereby unless pure bar silver could have
been purchased 22% below par . It is at present quoted at 9 per
cent premium above the dollar - taking the latter at 90 - being the
proportion of pure silver which it contains out of 100 parts .
Sycee cannot therefore be profitably purchased for the manufacture
of dollars which manufacture involves a cost of 2 per cent for
seignorage , per cent premilling charges and say per cent for
loss of interest & c . & c or a total cost of 2 per cent unless the
price of sycee falls to at least 96 taking its intrinsic value at
984 and that of the dollar at 90 which values finally regulate
prices, whatever fluctuations may " ad interim" affect them.
31. Nevertheless the probability of soon converting Bullion
into the more convenient form of dollars without loss is increasing,
and with a view to facilitating the operation I yesterday in
(73476) 218
Executive Council passed a resolution lowering, until further
notice , the charge for seignorage from 2 to 1 per cent . I propose
also, the moment any Bullion is premilled and essayed , to issue for
each amount Treasury Certificates , payable in 30 days, or sufficient
time to cover the Minting period . These certificates will be
negotiable securities and the silver be thus rendered available to
the owner even during the process of minting.
32. I do not anticipate any very great result from these
increased facilities to the Public , but they will help , and at
least , will give increased experience . I have further a wish to
meet Chinese views so far as to adopt their own standard of weight
and fineness , and issue for general use coins representing Taels of
pure Sycee . I enclose a rough speciman of one manufactured by
Mr. Kinder, which at least shows the weight and thickness of such a
coin and if the Chinese Government would employ the Mint in con-
verting their silver into such taels instead into the present
unwieldy shoes of silver in use through the Empire great advantage
would result to the general interests of commerce , as well as to
the Mint.
33. I now approach the most important consideration viz . what
action Her Majesty's Government should take on the information thus
supplied . It is clear that the Commission of Enquiry and the
Bankers all form very desponding views of the prospects of the Mint
unless the Chinese Government can be induced to adopt the British
dollar which I fear is not very likely . The adoption of a tael
piece seems more probable and even then its coinage in Chinese
mints would in all likelihood be the final result.
34. Nevertheless the Commission and the Bankers and the
general Community would view with great regret the early closing
of an Establishment on which so much money has been expended . The
feeling is natural and personally I quite sympathize with it , but
as I have already more than once observed the question is not to
be decided by mere feelings and wishes .
35 . The Com
missio reports success improbabl and public
suppor not to be hopedn for unless under those rare e and fortunate
t
combin on which it would be unwise to calcul except for
at ons at
few and i brief period . These premis lead irrevo e to one of
s es c a
two conclu . 1st . that the Mint if not expect blty o be profit-
sio s ed
able should bn e closed at once , the expense attendi its closin
g
ng
being the same now as in severa years hence , whilst instead of
l
there being any saving by deferr it , there is on the contra
ing ry
the certa of the additi cost of maint the expens
inty onal ainin ive
estab durin the interv . g
2nd . that , if the Mint be kept
lish g al
open , itsmeensttabl and machi s b m
nery hould e aintained t
a a
ishme
greatl increa strnetng , so as to enable it to take advant
y se th age
of the brief perd iods when minting may become profitabl to the
Public . e
36 . Nevertheless the Commission hesitates to recommend either
of those alternatives for they do not advise increasing the Mint's
mechanical power and nevertheless they do advise keeping the
( 73476) 219
establishment open . That advice would therefore entail a
continuance of the present costly expenditure , without affording
any additional chance of recouping it when an occasion might
offer.
37. I therefore disagree with a conclusion that so obviously
contradicts the premises . I cannot moreover but feel when this
colony is without funds to meet its liabilities , and is actually
obliged to give up the construction of roads , and even the drainage
of a portion of the town, as well as to abandon other works of
public utility in consequence of the pressure occasioned by the
large capital already sunk in establishing the Mint , whilst fresh
taxation to a considerable amount has recently been imposed to
meet the current expenditure it would appear extremely hard to
insist on this Community continuing a large annual expenditure on
an undertaking whose success is pronounced by most competent
parties to be extremely improbable if not altogether hopeless .
38. In the interests of the Colony I can only say that
further colonial expenditure on the Mint appears most undesirable
and that the establishment , if closed at all , should be closed as
soon as practicable . If however Her Majesty's Government takes a
different view and considers that the Colony should continue to
expend a large portion of its income , between 60,000 and $70,000
per annum on the Mint, I have only to request that such decision
should be clearly conveyed to me as an instruction from Her
Majesty's Government, and I shall not fail to exert myself to the
utmost to give full effect to it , for most heartily shall I rejoice
if the forebodings of the Commission and the Bankers be disproved
by future results .
39. On the other hand though I consider it unfair to impose
on the small community residing here further expense and taxation
to solve a problem of no more interest to Hong Kong residents than
to Her Majesty's subjects in Shanghai and Japan, or even in
Lombard Street . I cannot but feel that as the establishment of the
Mint was really as much if not more an Imperial than a Colonial
suggestion , and as the Colony has now expended 450,000 dollars in
carrying out that suggestion , Her Majesty's Government on whom must
devolve the conduct of future negotiations with China may fairly be
expected to do something in their turn for a scheme , which certainly
is not and ought not to be regarded as one to be worked out at the
sole expense of the inhabitants for the time being of this small
Island .
40. Whilst I therefore must respectfully suggest the unfair-
ness of compelling the residents of Hong Kong to defray all the
cost of solving the interesting problem in Political Economy, I
would venture to hope that Her Majesty's Government for a period at
least sufficient to test the views of the neighbouring Governments
and thoroughly work out the experiment will consent to maintain the
establishment at Imperial expense and place it in a condition
enabling it to reap every advantage from favourable chances when
they do occur .
(73476) 220
41. Mr. Kinder reports the average working power of the Mint
to be 50,000 dollars daily, as he has been enabled , during his long
season of repose , to test the English presses more thoroughly and
to put them together more perfectly, and has discovered that they
can turn out as many though not so well finished dollars in the
day as the French press or an average of 15,000 dollars each .
That discovery ought to have been sooner made , and its accuracy is
not so reliable as might be wished because Mr. Kinder's sanguine
temperament has already led him more than once to anticipate and
promise too much . I now enclose his explanation of the impaired
working powers of the English presses, which apparently amounts to
no more than that the bearings of the machinery were originally
roughly finished and subject to heating, a defect cured by use , a
result which I should have supposed ought to have been foreseen and
its cause understood earlier .
42. There is however ample space for ten or twelve more
presses, and, at a comparatively trifling cost , the milling power
of the Mint might be sufficiently raised . It should however be
borne in mind that no scheme can be successful which does not con-
template a milling and coining power of nearly 200,000 dollars per
day, when required .
43. Therefore nothing more is needed for a full trial of the
experiment except a further outlay, which it is evident this
Colony cannot afford , but which can easily be defrayed if Her
Majesty's Government so wish , from the Colonial contribution at
present paid for Military protection and which might be temporarily
suspended . I therefore earnestly hope that in de ference to the
strong feeling of the Community and the opinions both of the
Commission and the Bankers Her Majesty's Government may decide on
not closing the mint without a further and more complete trial with
such favourable aid as may be procurable from neighbouring Foreign
Powers .
I have the honor to be,
Your Lordship's most obedient servant,
RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL
Governor.
DOCUMENT NO . 37
A Table showing the Depreciation of the Silver Dollar in
Hong Kong between 1870 and 1930. The Table is constructed
from information given in " Historical and Statistical
Abstracts of the Colony of Hong Kong 1841 - 1930" . Third
Edition Printed by Norohna & Company , Government Printers ,
Hong Kong . 1932 .
(73476) 221
The rate shown is that existing at the end of the year.
1900 2/1 and 1 sixteenth
1870 4/4
1901 1/10 and 5 sixteenths
1871 4/4층
1902 1/7 and 1 sixteenth
1872 4/4
1903 1/8 and 15 Sixteenths
1873 4/12
1874 4/14 1904 1/118
1875 3/118 1905 2/08
1906 2/3 and 3 sixteenths
1876 4/1
1907 1/9 and 13 sixteenths
1877 3/108
1908 1/8 and 13 sixteenths
1878 3/69
1909 1/9 and 3 sixteenths
1879 3/98
1880 3/9 1910 1/10
1911 1/10 and 7 sixteenths
1881 3/8
1882 3/78 1912 2/1
1883 3/8 1913 1/11
1884 3/6+ 1914 1/88 - 1/9
1885 3/48 1915 1/11
1886 3/3 1916 2/43
1887 3/1 1917 3/0
1888 3/02/2 1918 3/44
1889 3/11 1919 6/2
1890 3/5 1920 3/2
1891 3/1 1921 2/6
1892 2/8 1922 2/23
1893 2/3 1923 2/31/2
1894 2/0 1924 2/4
1895 2/18 1925 2/422
1896 2/1 and 7 tenths 1926 1/11
1897 1/11 and 11 sixteenths 1927 2/0
1/11 and 9 sixteenths 1928 2/0 and 5 sixteenths
1898
1899 1/11 and 7 sixteenths 1929 1/8층
1930 1/18
1931 1/0 ( average over the year )
1!
1932 1/3룸
11
1933 1/44
་་
1934 1/6 3/16
11
1935 1/11 5/16
1936 1/3 3/16
DOCUMENT NO . 38
Report of the Currency Committee . July 14 , 1930
Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1930
Your Excellency,
We , the Currency Committee appointed by Your Excellency's
predecessor, the Hon . Mr. W. T. Southorn , C. M. G. , Officer
222
(73476)
Administering the Government , have the honour to submit for Your
Excellency's consideration the following report : -
INTRODUCTORY
GENERAL
1. We were appointed on the 28th of April , 1930 , to make
investigation with a view to supplying answers to the following
questions , which represented our terms of reference :
(a) Is the present currency the most advantageous for
the purposes of the trade of this Colony?
(b) In what respects , if any, is the present currency
situation in the Colony unsatisfactory?
(c) If the situation is unsatisfactory in what way can
it be remedied?
(d) Is the premium on notes over silver detrimental to
the prosperity of the Colony? If so can it be controlled
and by what means?
(e) Is the linking of the currency with silver advantageous
to the Colony? If so can it be more closely linked?
( f) Is it desirable in the interests of the Colony that
the value of the dollar be stabilised? If so can any
effective steps be taken to that end?
2. We issued in the newspapers a general invitation to the
public to put forward their views and support them, if required, by
oral evidence ; we regret however to have to record our disappoint-
ment that this advertisement evoked only the most meagre response ,
and the opportunity thus offered was not availed of at all by
advocates of a stabilised currency . We also issued individual
invitations to persons who , we considered, were specially qualified
to shed light on various aspects of the subject , and who were repre-
sentative of all interested sections of the community. We received
the written views of many of the principal merchants ' and bankers '
associations both Chinese and European in the Colony . We have also
had before us the report of the Straits Currency Committee of 1903 ,
of the Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance of 1926 , and
of the recent Kemmerer Commission in China . In all we have heard
ten representative witnesses orally and held nine meetings .
3. All written evidence we have received, and all memoranda
previously written on the subject , to which we have had occasion to
refer in this report , are printed as annexures in Part III . The
minutes of those meetings at which oral evidence was heard form
Part IV. To complete the data before us , and for ease of reference
we have appended in Part II all relevant Hong Kong ordinances and
extracts from the supplemental Charters of the Chartered Bank, as
well as a copy of the Order- in- Council by which the present currency
system of the Colony is established .
(73476) 223
HISTORICAL
4. Whilst Hong Kong was still a settlement under Her
Majesty's Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent of the Trade of
British Subjects in China, a heterogeneous collection of coins con-
sisting of Spanish , Mexican and other dollars , East India Company's
rupees and copper Chinese cash was proclaimed the circulating medium.
5. Shortly after the island was constituted a Colony , Mexican
and other Republican dollars were on the 27th of April , 1842 , pro-
claimed the standard currency of the Colony in all Government and
Mercantile transactions .
6. On the 1st of May, 1845 , by proclamation the gold , silver
and copper coins of the United Kingdom, as well as Company's coins ,
were admitted to circulate side by side with silver dollars . This
system persisted for some years , but as Government accounts were
kept in sterling and revenue was received in coins of all kinds ,
its inconvenience led first of all in 1853 to an abortive proposal
to oust dollars in favour of a sterling currency , and finally in
1863, to a proclamation whereby Mexican dollars and other silver
dollars of equivalent value that might from time to time be
authorised became the only legal tender of payment.
7. It is interesting to note that about this time the coming
of a new Hong Kong dollar was undertaken in Hong Kong, but lapsed
after about $ 2,000,000 had been minted . This type of dollar is
now obsolete and so rare as to be considered a curio . A new type ,
the British Trade dollar, afterwards came into popularity and its
coinage was undertaken in India and London .
8. The present currency of the Colony was established by an
Order- in-Council proclaimed in 1895 , which we have reprinted in full
in Part II , and which explains fully the nature of the legal tender
coins . It is noteworthy that the Mexican dollar is made the
standard , to which the British or any other dollar should conform
if it is to be accorded equality of status . The Order- in - Council
is noteworthy also as ordaining that , in the absence of express
agreement to the contrary, in all contracts and transactions involv-
ing liability to pay money , payment should be made in the standard
coin of the Colony .
9. There are practically no restrictions on the minting of
British dollars by any one who is willing to pay the seigniorage .
It is estimated that in all about 230,000,000 British dollars have
from time to time been minted , many of which must by now have gone
into the melting pot . Mexican dollars are not now minted , but are
held as deposits against the issue of notes , and China must have
absorbed a vast number of them. Of Mexican dollars also a large
proportion must by now have been melted down . When the British
Silver dollar was re -admitted into free circulation towards the end
of 1929, its minting and importation into the Colony were resumed,
and it is estimated that 24,000,000 of these have come in since that
time , as well as $ 6,000,000 Mexican from Shanghai . It is estimated
that another 10 , 000 , 000 - 15 , 000 , 000 British dollars may arrive in
the near future . The total amount of coined dollars of various
(73476 ) 224
kinds deposited in the custody of the Hong Kong Government against
note-issue by the three issuing banks was $ 57,600,000 at the end of
April , 1930. There are also subsidiary coins issued by the Hong
Kong Government in circulation sufficient in amount for the purposes
required . The nominal amount of these in circulation at the end of
the year 1929 was $17,914,370 and their market value stood prac-
tically at par; the amount of subsidiary coins in stock at the
same date was about $ 1,800,000 .
BANK NOTES ISSUED IN HONG KONG
10. We have reprinted in Part II the Hong Kong Ordinances
governing the ordinary and excess issue of notes by The Hongkong
and Shanghai Banking Corporation and the Mercantile Bank as well as
those portions of the Charter and Supplemental Charters of the
Chartered Bank , which govern the note issues of that institution
and the security there for . The latest date up to which these banks
are at present empowered to issue notes in the Colony is the 12th of
July, 1939. We would invite particular attention to the require-
ment in the case of The Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation of
the deposit of an amount of coin never less than one- third of the
total issue in circulation , a practice also followed by the Chartered
and Mercantile Banks in regard to their Hong Kong issues , and also
to the fact that The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and
the Chartered Bank have the option of securing a part of their issues
by a deposit of bullion . Another significant feature of the system
of note- issue in Hong Kong is that The Hongkong & Shanghai Banking
Corporation enjoys an authority , not shared by the other banks of
issue , whereby it may exceed its statutory limit to any amount by
the deposit of an amount of coin or bullion equivalent to the value
of the excess notes issued . The effect of this is that when the
limits of the other two issuing banks have been reached any large
emergency demand may only be met by The Hongkong & Shanghai
Banking Corporation .
11. The privilege of issuing notes in the Colony was granted
to the Chartered Bank in 1853 , to The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking
Corporation in 1866, and to the Mercantile Bank in 1911. The under-
standing or convention, by which notes became accepted in all bank-
ing, mercantile and revenue transactions almost as the sole medium of
exchange apart from subsidiary coins , is said to date from about 1890
onwards; it subsequently became in fact a tacit agreement not to
observe too strictly the terms of the Order- in -Council of 1895. The
acceptance of this convention was almost universal and any attempt to
depart from it by meeting obligations with coin tended to be sup-
pressed by reciprocating in kind . The total daily average amount
of notes of the three issuing banks in circulation during the month
of April 1930 was over 914 million dollars .
HISTORY OF THE SO- CALLED PREMIUM ON NOTES
12. The phenomenon of the local bank note or promise to pay
becoming capable of purchasing a greater quantity of another currency
than the number of silver dollars which it promises to pay could pur-
chase has been a recurrent attribute of Hong Kong currency in a
greater or less degree for at least thirty years ; but the percentage
(73476) 225
of this premium caused no serious inconvenience till 1908 when on
it rising to 34% a move was suggested to remedy it by an unlimited
Government note issue , as had been attempted in the Straits some
years previously. At the suggestion of the Secretary of State for
the Colonies this project for a Government note issue was abandoned,
and the difficulties were solved for the time being by granting in
1911 the Mercantile Bank the privilege of note issue . During the
war and post-war periods , when the price of silver was high , the
problem did not arise ; but after 1926 , when silver declined in
value , the divergence became marked , until in September, 1929 , it
represented a difference of 20%. The course of the premium is
traced by Professor Robertson , Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Breen in their
memoranda in Part III . Mr. Breen also gives an account of the
attempts made to remedy a situation , which was becoming more and
more difficult to handle , as the continued fall in the value of
silver tended to aggravate the premium in so far as the rate of
exchange in the Colony lagged in following silver on the downward
course . Subsequent action by Government to assist in remedying
the situation by reducing the stamp duty on bank notes to the extent
of requiring not more than 1% per annum on $ 45,000,000 of the
aggregate bank note - issues of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking
Corporation is evidenced by the correspondence with the associated
non-issuing banks , ( printed in Part III ) , which culminated in
Government Notification No. 625 of 1929 , ( also printed in Part III ) .
The premium still persists however to quite an appreciable degree
as silver keeps dropping.
REPLY TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE FORMING THE TERMS OF REFERENCE
(a) Is the present currency the most advantageous for the purposes
of the trade of the Colony?
13. We have found it difficult to keep our treatment of this
question separate from that of questions ( e ) and ( f ) , and our
answers to these questions must be read as complementary one to
another. We have assumed that by " present currency " is meant
generally the currency established on a silver basis by the Order-
in- Council of 1895 , and that there is no immediate reference in the
question to the tangible shapes which this currency has taken , the
disadvantages and unsatisfactory features of which are dealt with
in our reply to question (b ) . We note also that the scope of the
question is limited to trade , -- a term which we understand as
connoting the business of financing, manufacturing , buying and
selling goods , -- and does not extend except indirectly to the
individual or collective interests of any other persons than
traders .
14. Prefacing so much, we have from the evidence received , to
reply to the first question in the affirmative , so long as China
uses a currency based on silver.
15. Our view in this respect has the support of all the
evidence taken by us except that of two witnesses . One of these ,
who is Professor of Economics at Hong Kong University, favoured a
change to a gold basis even if China remained on a silver basis ,
being inclined to discount the disabilities to trade which a change
(73476) 226
to gold would involve ; the other, who is Chief Manager of a ship-
building firm in the Colony, considered the present currency
unsatisfactory because of the effect the fluctuations in the price
of silver had in making it difficult to estimate sterling costs in
his business , or to keep a firm offer open for the length of time
required between tendering and acceptance , and also to finance ships
after construction ; he advocated therefore some measure of
stabilisation , though he would not go so far as to say we should
depart from the silver basis before China did so .
16 . It may be apposit here to recapi
e tulate ve r briefly the
--y
argumen u w t b p
ts pon hich raders oth ast and present (see
especi t h e m e m o randa o f M e s s rs . M a c k ie a n d R u s sell Nos . 34 and
ally
35 in Part III ) , --- rely to show how any attemp to base the
t
currenc on any other metall
y ic standard of value than that used in
China would be harmfu to the trade and thus indir
l ectl to the
general welfar of the Colony .
e They are as follow : - y
s
(1 ) Hong Kong is not a producing but a transit centre ; its
exports and imports are almost entirely on China's account ;
the trade which it handles is in reality China's trade . In
spite of the fact that all countries from which imports come
and to which exports go are not on a gold basis , and that
there is a great improvement nowadays in the speeding up of
communications between the Colony and China , it still is of
the utmost importance that the Colony's currency should con-
form as closely as possible to that of China , and that
unnecessary exchange transactions be eliminated .
( 11 ) The ill - effects of any divergence are amply shown when
a high premium exists on Hong Kong exchange and drives
business past the Colony to Shanghai . It naturally follows
that these ill - effects would be accentuated by making a
clean break between the two currencies .
(111) If Hong Kong had a currency based on gold with China's
currency still remaining on a silver basis , merchants fear
that the financing of trade would tend to gravitate towards
China , where a direct exchange transaction could be effected
and bargains struck readily to the exclusion of Hong Kong
as an intermediary . Trade might thus pass the Colony, and
a centrifugal movement might set in , which in the long run
would adversely affect the prestige and prosperity of the
Colony.
( iv) We do not attach much weight to certain other objec-
tions which were mentioned to us . For instance , some
feared that Chinese merchants , being traditionally
accustomed to handle silver, might prefer to continue to
do so , and move their businesses elsewhere rather than
adjust their methods to the new currency . Again it has
been stated that there is the possibility in the event of
a marked appreciation of the price of silver that the
Colony would forfeit a great portion of its silver token
coinage to the melting pot .
(73476) 227
(b) In what respects if any is the present currency situation in
the Colony unsatisfactory?
17 . We have concluded , and are supported in our conclusion
by all the evidence before us , -- that the currency system of the
Colony suffers from the following faults : -
(1 ) There is in fact a fluctuating premium on the bank-note
over the silver dollar in exchange .
(11 ) The silver dollar is itself a most inconvenient medium,
being difficult to handle , carry and store .
18 .
Some witnesses have also expressed dissatisfaction with
those provisions of the currency system by which the privilege of
note issue is delegated to the somewhat arbitrary control of private
banking institutions .
(c) If the situation is unsatisfactory in what way can it be
remedied?
19 . As regards remedies for the premium we deal with these
fully in our reply to question ( d ) .
20 . As regards remedies for the inconvenience attending the
use of the silver dollar we consider that this inconvenience might
be lessened to some extent , and at the same time the further minting
of British dollars stopped , if more advantage were taken of the
means that already exist of issuing notes against deposits of bar-
silver in Hong Kong or in London . In general the practice of issu-
ing notes against bar- silver seems to us preferable to issuing them
against silver dollars . We realise however that many coins may
still be needed as currency and that there would be difficulty in
disposing of those already minted without loss of the cost of making
and importing them . We do not favour any attempt to prohibit the
minting or importation of British dollars , as such action might
simply tend to raise the premium on the note , until some exchange
corrective in the form of silver bars is provided .
21 . As regard the contro of note issue by privat bankin
s l e g
instit we have more to say on this topic when we come to dis-
utions w
the premiu . w
Those ho re issata d
cuss the remedi f
es or m isfi d ith
the system of issue by privat banks have suggest to us as e altern
e ed a-
tives , either that Governm should take over the whole note issue ,
ent
or that it should exerci a much more direct contro than it does at
se l
presen over the issuin banks . We have given carefu consid
t g l eratio
to their views , but have conclud that much of their dissat n
ed isfact
f
arises rom a m isappr r egardi t h e o b ligati o f t h e n o i
te- o n
e ensi ng on
issuin banks . Althohugh o tes were never legal tender , but were
non
g
to the curren , and althou t
primar
il
a conven a
ient ppendage cy gh he
law neveyr contem that they should suppla
nt
silver dollar , it
s
pla d
has come about thatte a demand for curren
cy s
i in fact a demand for
notes , to supply which in practic entails a purchas of gold by a
e
bank of issue . Conseq whaet the party of demand regards prima
uently
facie as an obliga in regard to curren b , from the point
tio cy ecomes
of view of the party nof supply nothing more or less than an exchange
(73476 ) 228
operation , which can only be optional . We doubt whether in the
special circumstances of this Colony , from which a large quantity
of notes must continually be drained into the hinterland of China ,
such an obligation could be placed even on Government as a note-
issuing authority .
22. We cannot moreover see that in the circumstances of this
Colony a Government note - issue would have any advantages over a
properly controlled private note - issue . On the contrary it might
involve Government , and indirectly the taxpayer , in the risks of
heavy losses due to fluctuations in the value of silver and
securities , risks which bankers , being daily engaged in them, are
more competent both to anticipate and cover . A Government note-
issue again would involve Government in heavy initial expenditure
in laying down notes and building treasuries to hold the reserves
against them, and in a constantly recurring charge for the staff
of a special note department .
(a) Is the premium on notes over silver detrimental to the pros-
perity of the Colony? If so , can it be controlled and by what
means?
23. We find , and are supported in our finding by all the
evidence , that the premium, as a fluctuating and uncertain factor,
tends to drive trade past the Colony, and is thus detrimental to
its prosperity .
24 . The causes from which the premium arises are fully dis-
cussed in various memoranda printed in Part III . Briefly
summarised they are as follows : -
There is a chronic excess of " invisible " exports consist-
ing of Chinese emigrants ' remittances from abroad , which lead
to large purchases of gold all round by the banks . Presumably
cover in the shape of sales of gold is wanting, and thus the
market becomes one - sided . It might have been expected that
relief would have been obtained by the resumption of the import
of silver dollars , but the difficulties attending their use for
inter-bank commitments are still considerable , even though
since October last year it was agreed between banks to accept
them freely. Prior to that date by tacit understanding
between banks they were not accepted at all , and consequently
no actual exchange corrective existed . The British dollar is
current to any large extent only in Hong Kong and its costs
through seigniorage and interest are approximately 5%; more-
over since the only way of disposing of it elsewhere is by
melting it down , to meet the loss hereby incurred , another 3%
might have to be added to its cost . Consequently, in com-
parison with the uncoined metal , the silver dollar possesses
grave disadvantages , in that its import and export points are
widely removed .
27 . As regar t p and mean of contr this
ds he ossibili s ol
premi , we consi that if the itsysu banks here were lti
o nggiv
e
um de ing
out notes freel inr excha for legal silv c , the exch
y nge er oins ange
level of Hong Kong curr
ency must approxima to silv p
er arity
, but ,
te
(73476 ) 229
as we have already indicated , the inconveniences attendant on the
use of silver dollars discourage the banks of issue from accepting
any more of them than is absolutely necessary for their business .
If it is assumed that silver parity is maintained in Shanghai , the
local quotation for taels day by day against a parity of roughly
Tls . 72 accurately indicates the extent of the premium here , but in
spite of large imports of British dollars the expected effect of
removing the premium or restoring a normal tael rate has not
followed . An exchange corrective therefore has still to be found .
28 . We might here refer in passing to the use of sycee in
Shanghai , and remark how in spite of its disabilities this medium
functions within certain limits as an exchange corrective . The
exchange level in Shanghai cannot remain for long too high above
the laying-down cost of silver ; and again , opposite but natural
forces are immediately put in action should the exchange level
tend to move too far below the actual value of silver . It may be
assumed roughly that , when exchange in Shanghai is quoted at 42%
below silver , a point has been reached at which it begins to be
profitable to ship sycee and sell it for its silver content . We
have previously shown that the export point of the British dollar
does not arrive until our exchange falls to over 3% below the price
of the silver content of the dollar . Bearing in mind then that as
a circulating medium British dollars have a very limited use , and
in settlement of inter -bank commitments are far from being acceptable ,
it occurs to us to put forward the suggestion that some scheme might
be agreed upon among the banks whereby bar - silver might be utilised
in the place of minted coins in inter -bank settlements . All
indications seem to show that there is a glut of silver dollars in
the Colony , and if some such scheme for the use of bar -silver could
be agreed upon among the banks the loss on seigniorage might be
avoided , and it might then be possible to prevent the further indis-
criminate minting of British dollars , for minting which permission
might be granted by Government only in special circumstances when
the note reserves or the Colony's requirements demand a further
supply . We do not consider that outside interests should be
allowed the latitude permitted under the present system of saddling
Hong Kong with superfluous coins in order to gain an immediate
profit , a practice which incidentally aggravates the problem for
the Colony if and when stabilisation has to be effected .
29 . To give effe t t m o r , and prov
ct o hese easures f eform id
for that elas in the curr whic is nece to meet tehe
tici ency h ssar
grow need of tty he Colon , we have arriv at the cyonc ,
in s y e lu i
afte g our exam of all aspe of the d case , that soms e
on
r ina cts
read may tbi eoncalle for in the restr now impo upon
just s
the notem-einstsu bank . d Admi the poi w
ctioof no
e n s t e issu ed
ing s tted r e
poss by bank invo a seri ly re on thei part
esse s lves ous spon r
to Gove d s i boi
r
, whic repr
h esen
the inte
r st e public , and we
flitthy
make the nmfeonltl prop tthser wite ss
h ome iffide d . As
owin osal efor n
the law stan atg pres the exte e of note issu is licmei by
ds en nt e te
the amou of the capi t of the bank conc . Only The d Hong
nt tal erne kong
and Shan Bank Corp may issu notd es in excess of
g h a i n g
i limi , and thet o r a e . We
the stat
utor t nioonnly under onerous conditi
o
thin the pry limi shou be less arbi and snhsou b
k e s crib t ld trar ld e
subj t p ed revi , prov a t y t b o
ect o eriodic sion ided lways hat he anks f
al
(73476 ) 230
issue fully cover their notes by the deposit in the Colony of
bullion or silver dollars to the extent of at least one - third , the
balance being covered by approved securities deposited entirely
under Government control . The public would thus be adequately
safe -guarded .
30. As the root of the difficulties in connection with the
premium is to be traced to an excess of inward remittances , it is
obvious that the recent lowering of the rate of interest allowed
by banks on deposits should also in the long run tend to remedy
the situation . But owing to the unprecedented fall in silver ,
overseas Chinese have been induced to make excessively large
remittances to Hong Kong with a view to getting the benefit from
an expected rise in exchange , and it may be some time there fore
before the action of the banks will make itself fully felt.
(e) Is the linking of the currency with silver advantageous to the
Colony? If so can it be more closely linked?
31. We consider that we have supplied sufficient answers to
these questions in our remarks in reply to question (a ) , where we
imply that as long as China links her currency to silver so long
must it be advantageous to the Colony to do likewise . In the pre-
ceeding paragraphs we have indicated the means by which a closer
' link may be forged .
(f) Is it desirable in the interests of the Colony that the value
of the dollar be stabilised ? If so can any effective steps be
taken to that end?
32 . It is concede on all hands that stabilis in curren
d at on , a cy
matter is an ideal which it is most desirabl to atti a i n nd if it
s e
could be realise here to the extent to which it has been effected
d
elsewh , all the problem connect with the Colony' currenc
ere s e s y
would automat disapp . Thed only justif for adheri
ng
ically e ar icatio
to the existin silver currenc is , as we have already fully n
g y
explai , the fact that Hong Kong is yoked to South China both
ned
geogra and commer , and in the last resort the questio
phical cially n
become a li
cho yce of evils : whethe the Colony should face the loss
s r
of trade , which is apprehe if it adopts a gold basis , or whether
nde
it should continu to be buffd eted by the fluctuation attendant on
e s
the use of silver as a basis for its currency .
33. We would here emphasize that stabilisation could not be
effected at any arbitrary figure but would have to be determined by
the value of silver at the time when the change is made , as present
holdings of silver must be sold for what they will obtain in the
new currency in order to finance that currency . We are not pre-
pared to hazard an opinion as to the sterling price our silver
dollar on finally being disposed of would fetch , were stabilisation
to be agreed upon, but undoubtedly the price would be much lower
than the exchange value of our currency at the time the decision to
stabilise was taken . Any attempt therefore to fix arbitrarily the
sterling value of the dollar at a higher rate must involve a serious
loss , which neither a Government nor any private individual would
(73476) 231
be prepared to suffer. It is obvious that , during the period of
transition towards stabilisation and for long afterwards , trade and
commerce will suffer severe dislocation , but how far- reaching the
effects may be , or how quickly the Colony would recover, can only
be a matter for conjecture .
34. As regards the future of silver we do not feel confident
to express any definite views . But though we fully realise the
uncertainties and risks of the situation in this respect , we would
deprecate any over-hasty action to effect stabilisation at a figure
that subsequent movements in the price of silver might prove to
have been ill - advised and disastrous to the best interests of the
Colony . In this connection it may not be out of place to repeat
the evidence given by American interests before the Royal Commission
on Indian Currency and Finance in May 1926 , when with regard to the
effect of the price of silver on the world's production it was
stated that , should the price of silver fall to 50 U.S. gold cents
per ounce , 20 % of the world's production would be made unprofitable ,
whilst a fall to 33.1 /3 cents per ounce would make 58 % unprofitable .
It was also pointed out at the same time that the reduction of out-
put would probably not follow immediately on the decline of prices.
These remarks might well be taken in conjunction with the views of
the Chairman of the Shanghai British Chamber of Commerce , who in
February last in a letter addressed to the Chinese Minister of
Commerce and Industry, Nanking, made the following statement : -
" The present stocks of silver in Shanghai would be
insufficient to finance China's trade , were such trade
normal " .
35. Finally since China has now worked out through the agency
of the Kemmerer Commission a complete and detailed scheme , whereby
in more propitious circumstances she may make the change to a gold
standard currency, we consider that it is of the utmost importance
that Hong Kong, as being unable herself to exercise any control
over the price of silver, should be in a position to anticipate such
a move on the part of the last remaining user of silver on a large
scale . Although we cannot see that China will be able to take this
step in the immediate future and although we are rather disposed to
regard China's desire for a gold standard for the time being as a
pious hope , since any such scheme in the nature of things must
entail the reorganisation of her political and fiscal machinery and
the obtaining of large financial credits from outside , nevertheless
Hong Kong should not be found unprepared for such an event in China ,
or she might find herself a holder of much cheapened silver , a
situation too disastrous to contemplate .
36. We recommend therefore that all available data should as
soon as possible be placed before expert opinion with a view to the
formulating and having in readiness a feasible scheme worked out in
detail whereby the transfer of the Colony's currency from a silver
to a gold basis may be effected as smoothly and with as little
trouble and expense as possible , in case a sudden change- over be
forced upon the Colony.
(73476) 232
37. Alth it is prem at the pres stag to indi
ou atur en e cate
what gold - curr gh unit shou b ea b H t
ency ld e dopted y ong Kong , our close
busi
nes relation with China require us to stress the advisab
of thiss Colo a s a mone u i ili
ny dopting tary nit dentica with that of outry
neig , foll t h e x s e i n t h r el b y C a
hb ow n e a mple t i s s pect nada
with roeugras t t iU g
rd o he nited States of America .
38 . In conclu w d t a t , since our terms of
sion e esire o dd hat
refere confin our enquir primar to a consid of the
nc ed y il era io
effect eof the Colony curren upon ty r a d e , we have retf r a
n
ined
s 's cy
purpos from commen o t h of reside a o
ely ting n he ardships nts nd thers
financ intere in the Colony , who are losing heavil owing
ia ly sted y
to the ul nprece fall in the price of silver , but we trust that
dented
the omissi m n b c as implyi a l o s
on ay ot e onstrued ng ny ack f ympathy
with these suffer .
ers
39. We desire to express our thanks to our Secretary ,
ìír. T. Megarry, of the Hong Kong Cadet Service , for the capable way
in which he performed his many and arduous duties , and also to
Miss V. R. Harrison , for her assistance in the secretarial work .
We have the honour to be , Sir,
Your Excellency's most obedient servants ,
C. McI . MESSER, Chairman
M. J. BREEN .
C. CHAMPKIN .
CHAU YUE TENG.
A. H. FERGUSON.
V. M. GRAYBURN .
R. H. KOTEWALL .
LI TSE FONG.
C. G. S. MACKIE .
D. 0. RUSSELL .
T. MEGARRY,
Secretary .
14th July, 1930 .
H. E. SIR WILLIAM PEEL, K. B. E. , C.M. G. ,
Governor, etc.
HONG KONG
(73476 ) 233
DOCUMENT NO . 39
The Hong Kong Currency Ordinance, No. 54 of 1935
An Ordinance to make provision for the Establishment and
management of an Exchange Fund and to amend the law relat-
ing to Legal Tender in the Colony and to the Notes issued
by certain banks . 6th December 1935 .
Be it enacted by the Governor of Hong Kong, with the advice
and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows : -
1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Currency Ordinance ,
1935 .
2. In this Ordinance
" Foreign exchange " means all currencies other than Hong Kong
currency and includes sterling and other Empire currencies .
" Note- issuing Bank " means the Chartered Bank of India , Australia
and China, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and the
Mercantile Bank of India .
" Bank notes lawfully issued " means Notes issued in the Colony
by any of the note - issuing banks ( a ) before the commencement of this
Ordinance in accordance with the provisions of The Hongkong and
Shanghai Bank Ordinance , 1929 , The Mercantile Bank Note Issue
Ordinances , 1911 and 1929 , or the Charter of Incorporation of the
Chartered Bank of India , Australia and China , or any Supplemental
Charter of that bank, and (b) between the commencement of this
Ordinance and the 13th day of July , 1939 , in accordance with the
above mentioned provisions as modified by this Ordinance .
3. As from the commencement of this Ordinance all bank notes
lawfully issued shall be legal tender in the Colony to any amount
and any liability, whether incurred before or after the commencement
of this Ordinance , to pay silver currency may be discharged in such
notes and in particular every bank note lawfully issued shall be
deemed to be the currency of the Colony for the purpose of any
promise to pay printed on any such note .
4. Each note - issuing bank shall surrender to the Treasurer
on demand all silver coin and silver bullion which it was required
by the aforesaid Ordinances or Charters or otherwise immediately
before such demand to deposit against its note issue .
5. (1 ) The Treasurer is authorised to issue to note- issuing
banks for the purpose laid down in this section certificates of
indebtedness in the form in the Schedule .
(2) The Treasurer shall issue in exchange for silver coin and
silver bullion surrendered in accordance with section 4 certificates
to the face value of the notes covered by such silver .
(7347C) 234
(3) For the purpose of raising funds to pay for
(1) Silver surrendered under section 7 of this
Ordinance ; and
(11) foreign exchange or gold purchased in accordance
with section 6
it shall be lawful for the Treasurer to issue further certificates
to any note - issuing bank, and to require such bank to pay to him
for the account of the Exchange Fund referred to in section 6 the
face value of such further certificates .
6. ( 1 ) There shall be established a fund to be called " the
Exchange Fund " which shall be under the control of the Treasurer
and shall be used for the purpose of regulating the exchange value
of the currency of Hong Kong. The control of the Treasurer shall
be exercised in consultation with an Exchange Fund Advisory Committee
of which the Treasurer shall be ex officio chairman and of which the
other members shall be appointed by the Governor.
(2) There shall be paid or transferred into this fund all
silver coins or silver bullion surrendered to the Treasurer under
section 4 or under section 7 of this Ordinance . There shall be
paid from the Fund the sums payable in respect of silver surrendered
under section 7 of this Ordinance .
(3) The Fund , or any part of it , may be held in Hong Kong
currency or in any other currency or in gold or silver or may be
invested by the Treasurer in securities approved by the Secretary of
State; and the Treasurer may for the account of the Fund buy or
sell such currency or gold or silver or securities accordingly.
Any such purchases or sales of currency shall be for immediate
delivery. The Treasurer may borrow for the account of the Fund
either in Hong Kong or elsewhere on the security of any asset held
by the Fund or of the general revenue of the Colony : Provided that
the aggregate amount of borrowings outstanding at any one time shall
not exceed thirty million dollars or, if held in foreign exchange ,
the equivalent at the current rate of exchange .
(4) The accounts of all transactions of the Fund shall be
submitted at such times and in such manner as the Secretary of State
may from time to time direct .
Every person holding, whether on his own account or on
account of any other person any British Dollars , líexican Dollars ,
Hong Kong subsidiary silver coin , or silver bullion exceeding in
amount or value ten dollars other than the silver coin and silver
bullion referred to in section 4 shall surrender the same within one
month of the commencement of this Ordinance to the Treasurer , who
shall pay for the coin in Hong Kong currency at its face value and
for the bullion at the rate of one hundred and twenty eight cents
per fine ounce .
8. Every person who contravenes any provision of this
Ordinance shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for
(73476 ) 235
any period not exceeding one year, to the forfeiture of the coins
and bullion in question and to a fine not exceeding twice the value
of such coin and bullion .
9. Nothing in this Ordinance shall affect the holding of
silver by any person under licence from the Treasurer and the
Treasurer may by licence authorise any person to hold silver, in
quantities covered by the licence , which in the opinion of the
Treasurer is reasonably necessary for such person's business .
Passed by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, this fifth day
of December, 1935 .
H. R. BUTTERS ,
Deputy Clerk of the Councils .
The Currency Changes of 1935
Extract from Administration Reports , Hong Kong, 1936 ,
Chapter XI , Para 2
2. The Currency of the Colony which had hitherto been based
on silver and governed by the Order in Council of 2nd February 1895 ,
underwent some very important changes towards the end of 1935.
Prior to that time it was , like that of China , on a silver basis .
The unit of currency is the Hong Kong dollar , divided into 100 cents .
The standard coin was the silver British dollar and the exchange
value of the Hong Kong dollar , subject to rather wide variations ,
from time to time , the reasons for which are discussed in the Report
of the Hong Kong Currency Commissioners , 1931 , fluctuated with the
price of silver . On the 15th October, 1934 , the Chinese Government
departed from the strict silver standard by imposing a variable
export duty on silver, but Hong Kong remained on the silver standard
until November , 1935 , when the Chinese Government definitely
abandoned the silver standard , nationalising all silver and pro-
hibiting export . Following that , the Hong Kong Government , on the
9th November , 1935 , prohibited the export of silver , and on the 5th
December 1935 , a Currency Ordinance was passed calling in silver
coin from circulation , and setting up the machinery which now con-
trols the exchange value of the Hong Kong dollar . Briefly, this
consists of an Exchange Fund, with power to buy and sell foreign
exchange , which has taken over the silver formerly held against
their issues by the note - issuing banks , in return for certificates
of indebtedness against which the fund may hold bullion , foreign
exchange , or approved securities .
(73476) 236
DOCUMENT NO . 40
China Mail - 28/7/1864
The Hongkang and Shanghai Banking Company ( Limited )
Capital $5,000,000
In 20,000 Shares of $250 each
To Be Incorporated By Charter
Provisional Committee
Hon . F. Chomley, Esq . , (Messrs . Dent & Co. )
A. F. Heard, Esq . , (Messrs . Augustine Heard & Co. )
Thomas Sutherland , Esq . , ( Superintendent , P. & O. S. N. Co. )
G. F. Maclean , Esq . , (Messrs . Lyall , Still & Co. )
Douglas Lapraik , Esq .
W. Nissen , Esq. , (Messrs . Siemssen & Co. )
H. B. Lemann , Esq . , (Messrs . Gilman & Co. )
W. Schmidt , Esq . , (Messrs . Fletcher & Co. )
Arthur Sassoon , Esq . , (Messrs . D. Sassoon , Sons & Co. )
Robert Brand , Esq . , (Messrs . Smith , Kennedy & Co. )
Pallanjee Framjee , Esq . , (Messrs . P. & A. C. Camajee & Co. )
Wm. Adamson , Esq . , (Manager, Borneo Company Limited )
Geo . J. Helland , Esq . , (Messrs . John Burd & Co. )
Rustomjee Dhunjeeshaw, Esq . , (Messrs . P. F. Cama & Co. )
Counsel
E. H. Pollard , Esq .
The Scheme of a Local Bank for this Colony with Branches at the
most important places in China, has been in contemplation for a very
long period .
The local and foreign trade in Hong Kong and at the open ports
in China and Japan has increased so rapidly within the last few
years that additional Banking facilities are felt to be required .
The Banks now in China being only branches of Corporations
whose headquarters are in England or India , and which were formed
chiefly with the view of carrying on exchange operations between
those countries and China, are scarcely in a position to deal satis-
factorily with the local trade which has become so much more
extensive and varied than in former years .
This deficiency The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company will
supply, and will in fact assume the same position with relation to
this Colony as the Presidency Banks of India , or the Banks of
Australia in their respective localities .
The Establishment of a Mint in Hong Kong, providing an adequate
supply of proper currency, will render a local Banking medium
(73476) 237
essential to carry out its operations , and the almost certain dis-
appearance of the existing Compradoric system ( so far as money is
concerned ) will also ensure Banks becoming in course of time the
exclusive medium for the transaction of the monetary operations
connected with trade .
For the anticipated success of this enterprise there are there-
fore ample grounds ; and the great prosperity which has attended
the working of other local associations in China clearly shows that
the largest profits are obtained by those Public Companies which
possess an interested local body of Proprietors or Shareholders
whose support naturally forms a chief element of remunerative
success .
The Bank will commence operations simultaneously in Hong Kong
and Shanghai and as the importance of its business at the latter
place must be very great , it is intended to establish a local Board
of Directors there for more effectually meeting the work. As
circumstances render it advisable the Bank will establish Branches
at other places .
In the distribution of Shares , Hong Kong and Shanghai will
equally participate . Shares will also be reserved for the other
ports in China and Japan and for persons residing elsewhere , who are
directly interested in the China Trade .
Applications for Shares must be addressed until further notice ,
to the Provisional Committee , care of
Messrs . Dent & Co. ,
Shanghai , 3rd August , 1864.
DOCUMENT NO . 41
Canton -Kowloon Railway
AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE WAIWUPU ( BOARD OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF
THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT) AND THE BRITISH AND CHINESE
CORPORATION , LIMITED, FOR THE ISSUE AND REGULATION OF A
LOAN FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A RAILWAY FROM THE CITY OF
CANTON TO THE BOUNDARY OF THE KOWLOON LEASED TERRITORY
UNDER BRITISH CONTROL, (HEREINAFTER CALLED THE RAILWAY) .
THIS AGREEMENT is made at Peking on the 23rd day of the first month
of the 33rd year of Kwang Hsu , corresponding to the 7th day of
March 1907 , and the contracting parties are : -
The WAI -WU- PU acting under the authority of an Imperial Decree ,
of the one part , and the British and Chinese Corporation , Limited ,
(hereinafter called the CORPORATION ) of the other part .
(73476) 238
WHEREAS a preliminary agreement was made on the 28th March ,
1899, between H. F. Sheng, Director General of the Imperial Chinese
Railway Administration acting under the authority of the Tsung-Li
Yamen , of the one part , and the British firm of Jardine , Matheson
and Company, for themselves and on behalf of The Hongkong andd
Shanghai Banking Corporation , representing as Joint Agents the
CORPORATION, of the other part , and it was part of the objects
thereof that the terms of another preliminary agreement signed by
the same contracting parties on the 13th May , 1898 , should be
thereby adopted as a preliminary agreement for the construction and
working of a Railway from the city of Canton to the boundary of the
Kowloon leased territory under British control subject , however , as
far as might be practicable , to the terms and conditions thereafter
agreed to in the final contract for the Shanghai -Nanking Railway
when signed and ratified .
Now it is hereby agreed by and between the parties hereto as
follows : -
ARTICLE 1
The Corporation agrees to issue , on behalf of the Imperial
Chinese Government , a sterling loan (hereinafter referred to as
" the Loan " ) for the amount of £ 1,500,000 on the terms and conditions
hereinafter contained . Imperial Chinese Government Bonds are to
be issued for the entire amount , similar to the Bonds of the
Shanghai -Nanking Railway , with the Railway as first mortgage
security therefor . The Loan shall be in one issue , and the price
agreed upon is 94% of the nominal value , subject to the other pro-
visions of this Article as hereinafter stated . The interest on
the Bonds shall be at the rate of 5% per annum on their nominal
value , payable half-yearly , on the first day of June and the first
day of December, and shall be calculated from the date of their
sale to the public .
The Loan shall be issued to the public as soon as possible
after signing this Agreement , but if at the date of signature
thereof, owing to an unfavourable state of the market rendering the
issue of the Loan and the payment of its proceeds to the Viceroy
of Canton impossible on the terms above named , then in case the
Corporation shall thereafter, at such time as the Chinese Government
may decide within a period not exceeding eight ( 8 ) months , issue the
Loan and pay the proceeds thereof to the Viceroy deducting and
retaining six ( 6 ) points from the rate at which the Loan is actually
issued to the public , whatever that rate may be , ( i.e. if the issue
price be 101 the Viceroy will receive 95 and so on ) .
Subject to the provisions of Article 16 , the duration of the
Loan is fixed at fifty ( 50) years commencing from the date of the
signature of this Agreement , but no interest shall be paid on any
Bonds which may be redeemed or cancelled under the terms hereinafter
mentioned after the redemption or cancellation thereof .
On the face of each of these Bonds shall be expressed the value
thereof in the sum of £ 100 or in such different amounts as the
Chinese Minister in London in consultation with the Corporation may
sanction .
(73476) 239
It is understood that the Chinese Government may hereafter , in
its discretion , appoint a Director General of the Railway upon whom,
in such case , will devolve all the powers , functions and respons-
ibility, herein attributed to the Viceroy of Canton (hereinafter
called the Viceroy) .
ARTICLE 2
The proceeds of the Loan are to be used in the construction
and equipment of the Railway, and in paying interest on the Loan
during the course of construction .
The Railway, being the first mortgage security for the Loan ,
shall be built and equipped under the direction of the Viceroy, in
accordance with the provisions of Article 6 hereinafter, and shall
be built as economically as possible in accordance with the best
modern system.
It is understood that the Viceroy will secure all the necessary
land for the Railway, and will give the necessary instructions to
expedite and facilitate the work of construction . The Railway will
be built in the first instance as a single line , but provision will
be made , with the approval of the Viceroy, and whereas necessary to
meet traffic requirements , for the eventual construction of a double
line .
If, during the time of construction , the proceeds of the Loan ,
together with the accrued interest thereon , payable by the Corpora-
tion , should , after the deduction of the sums necessary for the pay-
ments of interest on the Loan , be insufficient to complete the con-
struction of the Railway, the amount of the deficiency shall either
be provided from the Chinese Government's own resources or by a
Supplementary Loan to be hereafter issued by the Corporation , the
interest and other conditions of which Supplementary Loan shall be
arranged when the time arrives , having due regard to the conditions
of the money market .
When the Railway is complete if there is a surplus from the
sale of Bonds , the said surplus shall be at the disposal of the
Chinese Government either to redeem the Bonds in accordance with
the terms of this Agreement as hereinafter stated , or to be placed
on deposit with The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation for
the purpose of paying interest on the loan , or for other purposes
beneficial to the Railway, in regard to which the Viceroy will
communicate in due course with the Corporation .
In all matters relating to the construction of the Railway it
is expressly agreed that particular heed shall be paid to the
opinions and habits of the Chinese people , and that when practicable ,
Chinese shall be employed in positions of trust and responsibility
in connection with the Railway.
In regard to earthwork, or such other work as Chinese are
competent to perform , contracts shall be entered into for such work
with Chinese , under the sanction of the Head Office , and the work
(73476 ) 240
itself shall be carried out in accordance with plans and specifica-
tions of the Engineer- in- Chief and under his supervision .
Detailed plans and estimates of cost , whether of the respective
sections of the Railway, or of any alterations of the same , are to
be submitted for the approval of the Viceroy, by the Engineer- in-
Chief through the Managing Director.
ARTICLE 3
The Loan shall be secured by mortgage declared to be now
entered into in equity by virtue of this Agreement , and shall , as
soon as possible hereafter be secured by specific and legal first
mortgage in favour of the Corporation upon all lands , materials ,
rolling stock, buildings , property and premises , of every descrip-
tion purchased or to be purchased for the Railway, and on the Rail-
way itself, as and when constructed , and on the revenue of all
descriptions derivable there from .
The provisions of this Article in respect of the mortgage , are
to be construed and treated as equivalent in purport and effect to
a mortgage customarily executed and delivered in England to a
Trustee for the purpose of securing Loans and Bond Issues upon
Railway properties in foreign countries .
ARTICLE 4
It is hereby agreed that in six ( 6 ) months after this agree-
ment is signed , the Corporation shall provide the amount necessary
to proceed with the detailed survey of the Railway, and for pre-
liminary construction work if necessary, whether this amount comes
from the sale or hypothecation of the Bonds , or from advances made ,
provided that Bonds for the required amount shall have been executed
and delivered to the Corporation . If, after expiration of eight
(8 ) months from the date of the ratification hereof , the work of
construction shall not have been begun on the Railway, this Agree-
ment is to become null and void , but if failure to commence con-
struction be due to any cause of force majeure , a reasonable exten-
sion of this time limit shall be arranged between the Viceroy and
the Corporation .
Of the proceeds realised from the sale of the Bonds , after
deducting so much of them as may be required to be kept in England
for the purchase of materials and the payments of contracts there ,
or for repayment of advances , such amounts as may be estimated and
certified to by the Engineer- in -Chief to the Viceroy through the
Managing Director, as being actually required for the construction
of any particular section of the Railway, may be ordered by the
Viceroy, after consideration , to be transferred to Hong Kong to be
kept in The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, and placed to the credit
of the construction account of the Railway for the exclusive purpose
of constructing the Railway in the manner herein provided for under
the supervision of the Head Office and the Viceroy .
On each occasion of a remittance being made to China, the amount
realised in Sycee will be reported to the Viceroy , and any portion
(73476) 241
which may not be required shall be placed at interest. Similarly ,
the balance in England shall be placed at interest , to be allowed
at the usual rate .
The accounts of the money spent from time to time in England ,
and of the money transferred to the credit of the construction and
other accounts for use in China , are to be submitted quarterly to
the Head Office for report to the Viceroy for the information of
the Waiwupu , and for his further report to the Board of Revenue ,
and the Board of Commerce , for record therein , after such accounts
have been approved and signed by him .
ARTICLE 5
As to the form of the Bond , it is to be agreed upon by the
Viceroy or by the Chinese Minister in London and the Corporation ,
as soon as possible after the signature of this Agreement, but if,
hereafter, the money markets in London or other countries require
any modification of the form of the Bond , except in anything that
affects the amount of the Loan and the liability of the Chinese
Government, which are not to be touched at all , such slight
modifications may be made to meet the views of the money markets
by the Corporation in consultation with the Chinese Minister in
London .
Any modifications are to be reported at once by the Corporation
to the Viceroy for the approval of the Waiwupu .
The Bonds are to be engraved entirely in the English language ,
and shall bear the facsimile of the signature of the Viceroy and of
his seal of office , in order to dispense with the necessity of
signing them all in person , but the Chinese Minister in London shall ,
previous to the issue of any Bonds , put his seal upon each Bond with
a facsimile of his signature , as a proof that the issue and sale of
the Bonds are duly authorised and binding upon the Chinese
Government .
Such Bonds are to be numbered consecutively , and as many Bonds
as may be needed are to be properly engraved under the supervision
of the Corporation , and after they are sealed by the Chinese
Minister in London , as hereinto fore provided , are to be counter-
signed by the Corporation .
All expenses for the engraving safe deposit , and sale of the
Bonds are to be borne by the Corporation .
ARTICLE 6
When the work of construction is ready to begin, the Viceroy
will establish a Head Office at Canton for the construction and
management of the Railway . This Office will be under the direction
of a Chinese Managing Director ( appointed by the Viceroy ) with whom
will be associated a British Engineer- in - Chief and a British Chief
Accountant . These British employees shall be proposed and
certified as competent for their posts , by the Corporation , and
shall be approved by the Viceroy; if their services should prove
(73476 ) 242
unsatisfactory to the Viceroy , he shall request the Corporation to
dispense with their services and to nominate their successors , and ,
in the event of the Corporation desiring to remove them for good
cause , it shall do so in consultation with the Viceroy . It is
understood that the duties performed by these employees are intended
to promote the mutual interests of the Chinese Government and the
Bondholders respectively, and it is therefore agreed that all cases
of difference arising there from shall be referred for amicable
adjustment between the Viceroy and the Representative of the
Corporation . The salaries and other terms of agreement of the
Engineer- in -Chief and the Chief Accountant shall be proposed by the
Corporation , for approval by the Viceroy; and the amount of their
salaries etc. , shall be paid out of the general accounts of the
Railway .
For all important technical appointments on the Railway Staff,
Europeans of experience and ability shall be engaged , and wherever
competent Chinese are available , they shall also be employed . All
such appointments shall be made , and their functions defined , by
the Managing Director and the Engineer- in -Chief in consultation ,
and shall be submitted for the Viceroy's approval ; similar pro-
cedure shall be followed in the case of Europeans employed in the
Chief Accountant's department . In the event of the misconduct ,
or the incompetency of European employees , their services may be
dispensed with by the Managing Director , after consultation with
the Engineer- in- Chief, and subject to the sanction of the Viceroy.
The form of agreements made with European employees shall conform
to the usual practice .
The accounts of the receipts and the disbursements of the
Railway's construction and operation , shall be kept in Chinese and
English in the Department of the Chief Accountant, whose duty it
shall be to organise and supervise the same , and to report thereon
for the information of the Viceroy through the Managing Director ,
and of the Corporation . All receipts , and payments , shall be
certified by the Chief Accountant and authorised by the Managing
Director .
For the general technical staff of the Railway the necessary
arrangements shall be made by the Managing Director in consultation
with the Engineer- in - Chief , and reported to the Viceroy in due
course .
The duties of the Engineer- in- Chief shall consist in the
efficient and economical construction and maintenance of the
Railway, and the general supervision thereof in consultation
with the Managing Director . He shall always give courteous con-
sideration to the wishes and instructions of the Viceroy , whether
conveyed directly or through the Managing Director , and shall
always comply therewith, having at the same time due regard to the
efficient construction and maintenance of the Railway.
A school for the education of Chinese in railway matters shall
be established by the Managing Director , subject to the approval of
the Viceroy .
(73476 ) 243
ARTICLE 7
Under the provisions of Article 6 of this Agreement the
properties covered by the first mortgage security hereby created
include the Railway , its property and equipment , and the mortgage
is to be executed by a deed in the form contemplated by the said
Article . But subject to the guarantee and mortgage thus given by
the Chinese Government, it is hereby declared that this Railway is
in fact a Chinese property .
All land that may be required along the whole course of the
Railway within survey limits , and for the necessary sidings ,
stations , repairing shops and car sheds , to be provided for in
accordance with the detailed plans now made , or hereafter to be
made by the Engineer- in - Chief, and approved by the Viceroy , shall
be acquired by the Viceroy at the actual cost of the land , and
shall be paid for out of the proceeds of the Loan.
The title deeds of the land for the Railway and all other
lands shall be free from all encumbrances and entanglements and
shall , from time to time , as soon as secured , be registered in the
name of the Railway.
Notices of all purchases of lands for the Railway within the
survey limit ( together with corresponding title deeds ) are to be
transmitted by the Railway Head Office under the direction of the
Viceroy to the local Agent of the Corporation for record and pre-
servation in its office in Hong Kong, and for the purpose of
establishing the first mortgage security until the time when the
same are to be returned to the Viceroy, as hereinafter in this
Article provided .
All lands , the title deeds of which are lodged with the Cor-
poration as part of the first mortgage security of the Loan , shall
not be disposed of in any way by hire , lease , or sale , to any
party, for any purpose whatsoever, without the written consent of
the Viceroy , except only in the event of the Imperial Chinese
Government failing to pay the interest or principal of the Bonds ,
and then in accordance with the powers in the deed of mortgage .
The lands thus bought shall be free from all encumbrances ,
liabilities and entanglements , and shall be conveyed by full and
sufficient deeds of assignment according to Chinese law, all of
which are to be kept and recorded in the Hong Kong office of the
Corporation , and are to be held by it as a first mortgage security
for the Bonds under the provisions of this agreement , until such
time as principal and interest of the Bonds , together with all
indebtedness , shall have been paid off, when the same shall then be
returned to the Viceroy , except only in the case of the Imperial
Chinese Government's failure to pay the interest or principal of
the Bonds and consequent realization under the powers of the mort-
gage security .
For the proper protection of the first mortgage security the
Chinese Government undertakes that until the Bonds shall have been
redeemed , no part of the lands comprised in the mortgage security
(73476) 244
or the Railway with its appurtenances shall be transferred or given
to another party, or shall be injured , and that the rights of the
first mortgage shall not be in any way impaired , unless with the
consent in writing of the Corporation , which shall only be given if
in the opinion of the Corporation the interests of the Bond- holders
will not be affected .
And further, that until the interest and principal of the Loan
and all the indebtedness shall have been paid off, or unless with
the express consent in writing of the Corporation , the Chinese
Government or the Viceroy shall not again mortgage the above
properties to another party whether Chinese or foreign .
During the period of this Agreement no special taxes shall be
levied by the Chinese Government on the Railway , its appurtenances ,
or earnings : but all taxes at present payable , such as land tax ,
as well as any taxes which the Chinese Government may hereafter
institute , such as stamp duty, etc. , and which may be applicable
generally to all commercial transactions in China , shall also apply
in the case of the Railway and its operations .
ARTICLE 8
It is agreed that if the half-yearly interest on the Bonds is
not paid on any due date thereof , or if the principal of the Loan
be not paid in accordance with the amortisation schedule hereto
attached , the whole Railway with all its appurtenances herein mort-
gage to the Corporation for the Bond-holders , shall be handed over
to the Corporation to be dealt with by it according to law in such
manner as will ensure the proper protection of the interests of the
Bond -holders , provided , however, that if the failure to make payment
at any one date be due to causes beyond the control of the Chinese
Government , and if the Viceroy request the Corporation to postpone
the taking over of the Railway for a reasonable period of grace ,
the question shall be amicably discussed and decided between the
Viceroy and the Representative of the Corporation . When the whole
Loan and the interest due thereon and all the indebtedness shall
have been paid off , the Railway with all its appurtenances in good
working condition shall revert to the possession and management of
the Chinese Government according to the provisions of this Agreement .
ARTICLE 9
As remuneration for all services rendered by the Corporation
during construction of the Railway, the Corporation shall receive
the sum of £35,000 half of which shall be paid when the construc-
tion work is half completed , but not later than eighteen ( 18 ) months
after commencement of construction , and the other half upon comple-
tion of the line . This amount shall be regarded as a commutation
of all commissions to which the Corporation and its Agents would
properly be entitled , and of payments of all services rendered in
the construction and equipment of the Railway , in respect of the
present Loan; but in the event of any branch lines being decided
upon by the Chinese Government for construction in connection with
this Railway, and if the Chinese Government decide to build the same
by issue of a foreign Loan and not from its own resources , then the
(73476 ) 245
Corporation shall have the first option of tendering for such Loan ,
and a further payment , proportionate to the amount of such supple-
mentary Loan , and calculated at the same rate as the commutation
hereinabove mentioned , shall be made to the Corporation as commuta-
tion of its commission for all services in respect of construction .
In return for this commuted commission , the Viceroy is
entitled to require the Corporation to superintend the purchase of
all materials required for the construction and equipment of the
Railway, which shall be purchased in the open market at the lowest
rate obtainable , it being understood that all such materials shall
be of good and satisfactory quality . At equal rates and qualities ,
goods of British manufacture shall be given preference over other
goods of foreign origin . Invoices and inspector's certificates
are to be submitted to the Viceroy.
With a view to encouraging Chinese industries , Chinese Govern-
ment and other materials are to be preferred , provided price and
quality are suitable .
No commission shall be allowed to the Corporation on the pur-
chase of materials except as above provided . All trade discounts
or rebates , if any , are , during construction , to go to the con-
struction account, and after completion , to the credit of the
Railway .
ARTICLE 10
In the construction of the line , in the working of the Rail-
way, and in the performance of the different kinds of business
connected with the Railway, no interference or obstruction by
Chinese or foreigners will be permitted . The Chinese Government
will provide protection for the Railway while under construction
or when in operation , and all the properties of the . Railway , as
well as Chinese and foreigners employed thereon , are to enjoy the
utmost protection from the local officials .
The Railway may maintain a force of Chinese police with
Chinese officers , their wages and maintenance to be wholly defrayed
as part of the cost of the construction and maintenance of the
Railway . In the event of the Railway requiring further protection
by the military forces of the Imperial or Provincial Governments ,
the same will be duly applied for by the Head office and promptly
afforded , it being understood that such military forces shall be
maintained at the expense of the Government or the Province .
ARTICLE 11
All receipts and earnings of the Railway shall be regularly
paid in to the Railway's account with The Hongkong and Shanghai
Banking Corporation , and on such funds , whether on daily balance
or on fixed deposit , the Bank's usual rate of interest shall be
allowed .
All expenses of working and maintaining the line shall be paid
from the receipts and earnings , and any remainder thereof shall be
(73476) 246
charged with the service of the Loan . If, after payment of these
expenses , and making due provision for payment of interest at 5%
per annum on the Bonds , and for repayments of principal due in
accordance with the amortisation schedule here to attached , there
remain surplus funds unappropriated and properly available for
other purposes , such funds shall be at the disposal of the Chinese
Government to be used in such manner as the Viceroy may decide ,
provided always that after completion and opening of the line to
traffic the amount sufficient for regular payments of interest and
repayments of principal shall be deducted from such surplus funds ,
if any, and shall be deposited with The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank-
ing Corporation six months before the date at which such payments
fall due .
In the event of there being no surplus funds available as
aforesaid from the earnings of the Railway, the amount required for
payments of interest and repayments of principal , shall be provided
in accordance with the conditions of Article 14 hereinafter .
ARTICLE 12
The Corporation are hereby appointed Trustees for the Bond-
holders , and in any future negotiations respecting these Loans , or
matters arising in connection therewith , which may take place
between the Viceroy and the Corporation , the Corporation shall be
taken as representing the Bondholders, and as such, empowered to
act on their behalf. In view of the fact that the Corporation's
responsibility to the Bondholders continues after construction ,
whereas , as stated in Article 9 , its commuted commission for
services rendered is limited to the period of construction , and the
Corporation is not thereunder entitled to any further remuneration
during the period of the Loan, the Corporation shall receive as
remuneration for its services and responsibility in acting as
Trustees for the Bondholders , the sum of £ 1,000 per annum, such
remuneration to commence from the date of issue of this Loan and to
terminate upon its complete redemption .
ARTICLE 13
All materials of any kind that are required for the construc-
tion and working of the Railway, whether imported from abroad or
from the provinces to the scene of the work, shall be exempted from
lekin so long as such exemption remains in force in respect of other
Chinese Railways . The Bonds of this Loan , together with their
coupons and the income of the Railway, shall be free from imposts of
any kind by the Government of China.
ARTICLE 14
It is agreed that during the time of the construction of the
Railway, the interest on the Bonds and on any advances made by the
Corporation is to be paid from the proceeds of the Loan . The
accruing interest from any proceeds of the Loan not used during the
period of construction , and the earnings derived by the Chinese
Government from the working of any sections of the Railway as they
(73476 ) 247
are built, are to be used to make up the amount required for the
payment of the said interest , and if any deficiency remains it is
to be met from the proceeds of the Loan .
When the construction of the Railway is wholly completed , the
interest on the Bonds is to be paid , from the income or eamings
of the Railway received by the Chinese Government, every half-year
on the first day of June and the first day of December.
It is hereby agreed that the amount required for the payment
of interest and the repayment of principal , together with a sum of
one -quarter of one per- cent on such amounts , to cover commission
to The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation , who are hereby
appointed Agents for the entire service of repaying the Loan shall
be paid to them fourteen ( 14 ) days before the due dates in Hong
Kong or in Canton (at the option of the Viceroy when settling
exchange ) in local currency sufficient to meet such payments in
sterling in London , exchange for which shall be settled with he
Hong kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation , the Viceroy having the
option of settling exchange at any date or dates within six (6 )
months previous to any due date for the repayment of interest and
principal .
The Chinese Government unconditionally undertakes , and hereby
promises , to pay the principal of the Loan and the interest on the
Loan on the due dates fixed therefor . If, at any time , the earn-
ings of the Railway , together with funds available from the pro-
ceeds of the Loan, are not sufficient to meet the interest on the
Bonds and the repayment of capital in accordance with the amortisa-
tion schedule here to attached , the Viceroy shall devise means for
supplying the deficiency , and should his inability to do so appear
probable , he shall memorialise the Government to take measures to
make up the deficiency from other sources , and thus be ready to pay
off the indebtedness , so that the required amount may be placed in
each case at least fourteen days previous to the due dates of such
payments , in the hands of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking
Corporation.
ARTICLE 15
The Corporation may, subject to all its obligations , transfer
or delegate all or any of its rights , powers , and discretions , to
its successors or assigns , but the Corporation , which is a Corpora-
tion formed under English law, shall not transfer its rights under
this Agreement to any other nation , or people of any other national-
ity, except British or Chinese . Similarly , the Chinese Govern-
ment's rights and authority under this Agreement shall not be trans-
ferred to persons of other nationality .
It is further understood that the Chinese Government will not
build another line competing with this Railway to its detriment .
ARTICLE 16
The term of the Loan , as stated in Article 1 , shall be fifty
years . Repayment of principal shall commence after the expiry of
(73476 ) 248
12½ years from the date of the Loan and shall be completed in 37½
years by yearly payments to The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking
Corporation as Agents for the service of the Loan , acting for the
Corporation under the terms of this Agreement , in accordance with
the amortisation schedule here to attached .
If, at any time after the expiry of 12½ years from the date of
the Loan , the Imperial Chinese Government should wish to redeem the
outstanding amount of the Loan , or any portion of it , not yet due
under the provisions of the amortisation schedule hereto attached ,
not less than six months ' notice shall be given in writing by the
Viceroy to the Representative of the Corporation , declaring the
number of additional Bonds so required to be redeemed , whereupon
the Representative of the Corporation shall immediately proceed to
make such arrangements as may be necessary and usual for the
redemption of the number of Bonds specified , which, when duly
redeemed after payment by the Imperial Chinese Government of the
proper amount due thereon , shall be cancelled and delivered to the
Viceroy .
All Bonds thus redeemed, in excess of the amount specified in
the amortisation schedule here to attached , before the expiry of 25
years from the date of the Loan , shall be paid for with a premium
of 21% over their face value , ( i.e. £102 . 10 will be required to
pay for £ 100 ) , but after 25 years Bonds may be redeemed over and
above the amounts specified in the schedule without premium upon
notice being given in the manner above specified .
As soon as the Loan has been completely redeemed , this Agree-
ment shall become null and void and the mortgage shall be cancelled .
ARTICLE 17
If, during construction , any proceeds of the sale of the Bonds
are lying unused and bearing interest on their deposit whilst the
construction of the Railway is going on , such interest is to be
credited to the general account of the Railway in order that the
Railway may enjoy the full advantage thereof.
It is also agreed that , if the Corporation shall think it
expedient before the sale of any of the Bonds to advance any money
for the work, such advances , together with the interest thereon not
exceeding a charge of 6 % per annum, shall be deducted from the pro-
ceeds of the sale of the Bonds .
ARTICLE 18
The junction of the sections of the Railway from Canton to the
Boundary of the Kowloon leased territory under British control , and
from the said boundary to the port of Kowloon respectively, and the
subsequent joint working of the two sections , shall be arranged by
agreement between the Viceroy of Canton and the Governor of Hong
Kong.
(73476) 249
ARTICLE 19
This Agreement is signed under the authority of an Imperial
Edict dated " which has been oficially
communicated to the British Minister in Peking by the Waiwupu .
ARTICLE 20
This Agreement is executed in quintuplicate in English and
Chinese , one copy to be retained by the Viceroy, one by the
Waiwupu , one by the Board of Commerce , one by the British Minister ,
and one by the Corporation , and should any doubt arise as to the
interpretation of the Agreement the English text shall be accepted
as the standard .
Signed at Peking by the contracting parties this 23rd day of
the first month of the 33rd year of the Emperor Kwang Hsu , being
the 7th day of March nineteen hundred and seven .
Seal of Wai - wu- pu
Signature of Tang Shao - yi
Witnessed by Canton Viceroy's Delegates ,
Tao- tais Kung and Hu .
For the British and Chinese Corporation , J.O. P. Bland ,
Representative in China .
Witnessed by
Messrs Jardine , Matheson & Co. , Joint
Agents
and H. S. Cardner, Agent , B. & C.
Corporation.
H. & Sh . Bkg. Corporation
(73476) 250
VII . CONSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS AND THE INFLUENCE
OF MERCHANT OPINION
The constitution of Hong Kong was set out in the Hong Kong
Charter of April 5 , 1843 , document No. 42, and came into operation
on the establishment of the Colony on June 26 , of the same year .
It followed crown colony constitutional precedent , with executive
and legislative councils , but gave the governor over- riding legis-
lative and executive power. Document No. 43 gives the Instructions
to Sir Henry Pottinger , the first Governor , and shows how the
constitution as set out in the Charter was implemented in practice .
There was no attempt to force the Chinese into an English mould ,
and it was originally intended to set up a separate administration
for the Chinese to permit them to live under their own law but this
was found impracticable . Document No. 44 illustrates some of the
arguments used in this connection .
The merchants very early demanded a voice in the administration,
largely because of resistance to taxation . In the absence of
customs duties and direct taxation , Sir John Davis was forced to
raise a revenue from farms , licences and monopolies and rates, which
were a source of restriction and irritation . Document 45 gives a
Memorial from the Hong Kong merchants to the Secretary of State ,
August 13 , 1845 , protesting against taxation and asking for some
degree of self - government in local concerns , and the reply of
Glastone who was temporarily acting as Colonial Secretary. The
1847 Select Committee on the China Trade of ( given earlier , document
No. 20) supported their case and in 1850 two unofficials members ,
both prominent merchants , were , for the first time , appointed to the
Legislative Council . The merchants secured a third member in 1857 .
The first Chinese member was appointed provisionally in 1880 , and
Document No. 46 is a dispatch from Sir John Pope Hennessy to the
Colonial Secretary urging the representation of Chinese interests
on the Legislative Council in view of their increasing participation
in the trade of the Colony. The development of Shanghai with its
largely self - governing municipal council led to much agitation on
the part of the merchants in Hong Kong for similar powers .
Sir George Bowen, Governor 1883-85 , put up a scheme of reorganisa-
tion of the Council in 1883 by which the Chamber of Commerce and
the Bench of Unofficial Justices of the Peace each secured the
right to nominate a member, and document No. 47 gives a dispatch
from the Secretary of State agreeing , with some modifications , to
Bowen's proposals .
The last document , No. 48 , given in this section is the 1894
Petition of the Merchants , Bankers , Professional men , Traders ,
Artisans and other Ratepayers and Inhabitants of Hong Kong to the
House of Commons asking for greater self- government and the replies
(73476) 251
of the Marquis of Ripon and Joseph Chamberlain . As a result of
this Petition , two unofficial members , both holding important
positons in the commercial and economic life of the community,
were nominated by the Governor to the Executive Council in 1896 .
Further agitations for more self- government have taken place ,
particularly during the period of the First World War , but no sub-
stantial change in the principle of retaining official majorities
in the Councils has been made , though the numbers of unofficial
members have been increased .
DOCUMENT NO . 42
The Hong Kong Charter
A Commission for erecting the Island of Hong Kong and its
dependencies into the Colony of Hong Kong and for the
establishing a Legislative and an Executive Council in the
Said Colony and for granting certain powers and authorities
to the Governor for the time being of the Said Colony
CO 381/35
Victoria , by the Grace of God , of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland , Queen, Defender of the Faith , - To all to
whom these Presents shall come Greeting: Know Ye - that We of
our special grace , certain knowledge , and mere notion , have thought
fit to erect and do hereby erect our island of Hongkong and its
dependencies , situate between twenty- two degrees nine minutes and
twenty- two degrees twenty- one minutes north latitude , and the one
hundred and fourteenth degree six minutes and the one hundred and
fourteenth degree eighteen minutes east longitude from the
meridian of Greenwich, into a separate Colony, and the said island
and its dependencies is hereby erected into a separate Colony
accordingly, to be known and designated as " The Colony of Hongkong " .
And we do hereby further grant , appoint , and ordain that the Governor
for the time being of the said Colony , and such other persons as are
hereinafter designated , shall constitute and be a Legislative
Council for the said Colony: And we do hereby direct and appoint
that , in addition to the said Governor , the said Legislative
Council shall be composed of such Public Officers within the said
Colony, or of such other persons within the same as shall from
time to time be named or designated for that purpose by US , by any
Instruction or Instructions or warrant or Warrants , to be issued
by US for that purpose under Our Signet and Sign Manual , and with
the advice of Our Privy Council , all of which Councillors shall
hold their places in the said Council at our pleasure : And we do
hereby grant and ordain , that the Governor for the time being
of the said Colony, with the advice of the said Legislative
Council , shall have full power and authority to make and enact all
such Laws and Ordinances as may from time to time be required for
the peace , order , and good government of the said Colony of
Hongkong: and that in the making all such Laws and Ordinances ,
the said Governor shall exercise all powers and authorities , and
that the said Legislative Council shall conform to and observe all
such rules and regulations , as shall be given and prescribed in
( (73476 ) 252
and by such instructions as We , with the advice of Our Privy Council ,
shall from time to time make for his and their guidance therein :
Provided , nevertheless , and we do hereby reserve to Ourselves , Our
Heirs and Successors , Our and their right and authority to disallow
any such Ordinances in the whole or in part , and to make and
establish from time to time , with the advice and consent of
Parliament, or with the advice of Our or their Privy Council , all
such Laws as may to Us , or them, appear necessary, for the order ,
peace , and good government of our said island and its dependencies ;
as fully as if these presents had not been måde : And whereas it is
expedient that an Executive Council should be appointed to advise
and assist the Governor of Our said Colony of Hongkong for the time
being in the administration of the government thereof -- We do
therefore , by these Our Letters Patent , authorize the Governor of
Our said Colony for the time being to summon, as an Executive
Council , such persons as may from time to time be named or
designated by Us , in any Instructions under Our Signet and Sign
Manual , addressed to him in that behalf : And we do hereby authorize
and empower the Governor of Our said Colony of Hongkong for the
time being, to keep and use the Public Seal appointed for the seal-
ing of all things whatsoever that shall pass the Seal of Our said
Colony: And We do hereby give and grant , to the Governor of Our
said Colony of Hongkong for the time being, full power and authority,
in Our name and on Our behalf, but subject nevertheless to such
provisions as may be in that respect contained in any Instructions
which may from time to time be addressed to him by Us for that
purpose , to make and execute in Our name , and on Our behalf , under
the Public Seal of Our said Colony , grants of land to Us belonging ,
within , the same , to private persons , for their own use and benefit ,
or to any persons , bodies politic or corporate , in trust for the
public uses of Our subjects there resident , or of any of them: And
We do hereby authorize and empower the Governor of Our said Colony
of Hongkong for the time being, to constitute and appoint Judges ,
and, in cases requisite , Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer ,
Justices of the Peace , and other necessary Officers and Ministers in
Our said Colony , for the due and impartial administration of justice ,
and for putting the Laws into execution, and to administer , or cause
to be administered , unto them such Oath or Oaths as are usually
given for the due execution and performance of offices and places ,
and for the clearing of truth in judicial matters : And We do
hereby give and grant unto the Governor of Our said Colony of
Hongkong for the time being, full power and authority, as he shall
see occasion , in Our name , and on Our behalf to remit any fines ,
penalties , or forfeitures which may accrue , or become payable to
Us , provided the same do not exceed the sum of fifty pounds sterling
in any one case , and to respite and suspend the payment of any such
fine , penalty , or forfeiture , exceeding the said sum of fifty pounds ,
until our pleasure thereon shall be made known and signified to such
Governor: And we do hereby give and grant unto the Governor of Our
said Colony of Hongkong for the time being, full power and authority,
as he shall see occasion , in Our name and on Our behalf to grant to
any offender convicted of any crime , in any Court , or before any
Judge , Justice , or Magistrate within Our said Colony, a free and
unconditional pardon , or a pardon subject to such conditions as by
any Law or Ordinance hereafter to be in force in Our said Colony
(73476) 253
may be thereunto annexed , or any respite of the execution of the
sentence of any such offender , for such period as to such Governor
may seem fit: And We do hereby give and grant unto the Governor of
Our said Colony of Hongkong for the time being, full power and
authority , upon sufficient cause to him appearing, to suspend from
the exercise of his office , within Our said Colony, any person
exercising any office or place , under or by virtue of any Commission
or warrant granted , or which may be granted, by Us , or in Our name ,
or under Our authority , which suspension shall continue and have
effect only until Our pleasure therein shall be made known and
signified to such Governor : And We do hereby strictly require and
enjoin the Governor of Our said Colony of Hongkong for the time
being, in proceeding to any such suspension , to observe the directions
in that behalf, given to him by Our Instructions under Our Signet
and Sign Manual , accompanying his Commission of appointment as
Governor of the said Colony : And in the event of the death or
absence out of Our said Colony of Hongkong of such person as may be
commissioned and appointed by Us to be the Governor thereof, We do
hereby provide and declare Our pleasure to be , that all and every
the powers and authorities herein granted to the Governor of Our
said Colony of Hongkong for the time being, shall be , and the same
are , hereby vested in such person as may be appointed by Us , by
Warrant under Our Signet and Sign Manual , to be the Lieutenant-
Governor of Our said Colony: or in the event of there being no
person upon the place commissioned and appointed by Us to be
Lieutenant- Governor thereof, then Our pleasure is , and we do hereby
provide and declare that , in any such contingency, all the powers
and authorities herein granted to the Governor or Lieutenant-
Governor of Our said Colony , shall be , and the same are , hereby
granted to the Colonial Secretary of Our said Colony for the time
being, and such Lieutenant- Governor , or such Colonial Secretary, as
the case may be , shall execute all and every the powers and
authorities herein granted , until Our further pleasure shall be
signified therein : And we do hereby require and command all Our
officers and ministers , civil and military, and all other the
inhabitants of Our said Colony of Hongkong, to be obedient,
aiding, and assisting to such person as may be commissioned and
appointed by us to be the Governor of Our said Colony of Hongkong,
or, in the event of his death or absence , to such person as may,
under the provision of these Our Letters Patent , assume and exercise
the functions of such Governor: And We do hereby reserve to Us ,
Our Heirs and Successors , full power and authority from time to
time to revoke , alter, or amend these Our Letters Patent , as to Us
or them shall seem meet: In witness whereof, We have caused these
Our Letters to be made patent .
Witness Ourselves , at Westminster , the fifth day of April , in
the sixth year of Our Reign . - ( 1843) .
By the Queen Herself,
Edmunds.
(73476) 254
DOCUMENT NO 43
Extracts from a Dispatch from Lord Stanley , Secretary of
State for War and the Colonies , to Sir Henry Pottinger.
No. 8, 3 June 1843 , dealing with the function and purpose
of Hong Kong and the problems of its administration .
CO 129/2
Sir,
1. Referring you to my dispatch of 6 April , No. 1 , to the
documents which accompanied it and to my private letter of the same
date , I proceed to fulfil the design which in that letter I
announced , of conveying to you such further instructions as might
be necessary for your guidance in the administration of the
government of the Island of Hong Kong.
2. Throughout the widely extended Colonial Possessions of
the British Crown are to be found systems of Law and of Government
so dissimilar and indeed so strikingly contrasted with each other
that it might appear an almost hopeless attempt to lay down any
rules applicable to the administration of Public Affairs in them
all . For , these distinctions are not the result of arbitrary
rules but flow inevitably from the inherent and indestructable
differences of physical structure , of national origin , of
Geographical locality, of national products and of languages which
separate each colony or group of colonies from the next . Still
in the midst of all these varieties , there are some general
principles which apply to the case of every Colonial Settlement
whether originally founded by the Queen's subjects or acquired by
H. M. Arms . An attempt was accordingly made under the direction of
one of my predecessors , Lord Glenelg , to exhibit those general rules
in a connected form in a volume of Printed Rules and Regulations .
I transmit to you a copy of that volume ( and I hope to send you a
new and much amended edition of it) . ...
3. Great as are the contrasts and the anomalies already
existing among the various Colonial Dependencies of the British
Empire , there is no case which forms so remarkable an exception to
ordinary rules as that of the Island of Hong Kong . It is a small
Island geographically and until now practically an insignificant
appendage to the vast Empire of which the policy and Institutions
have no counterpart amongst those of other nations of the world .
It is occupied not with a view to Colonization but for diplomatic
commercial and military purposes. And it is governed by an
officer, who is at once , to negociate with the Emperor of China or
his officers , to superintend the trade of the Queen's Subjects in
the seas, rivers and coasts of the Empire , and to regulate all the
internal economy of the Settlement itself. Hence it follows that
methods of proceeding unknown in other British Colonies must be
followed at Hong Kong, and that the rules and regulations mentioned
in the preceding paragraph must in many respects bend to exigencies
beyond the contemplation of the framers of them.
(73476) 255
4. of innovations of this kind the most material will arise
in the person and in regard to the duties of the Governor himself.
As Governor , you will correspond exclusively with Her Majesty's
Secretary for the Colonies , but as Superintendent of the British
Trade and as the Diplomatic or Consular officer of the British Crown
accredited to the Chinese Government you will correspond exclusively
with H.M. Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs . This a dis-
tinction which however expressed in words will perhaps be found
to raise many difficult questions , when actually reduced to
practice . Your various functions will , probably , not admit of
that absolute disconnection from each other, which this distinction
assumes and occasions will occur in which local Diplomatic and
Commercial Interests will be so involved with each other for you
confidently to determine to which of H.M. Secretaries of State
you ought to report your proceedings and difficulties or to apply
for instructions .
5. ... It is almost superfluous to add that in every such
case the most unreserved intercourse and communication will take
place between myself and the Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs and that the decision which will ultimately reach you will
be the result of our joint deliberations and will express our
concurrent judgment .
6. With regard to Legislation you will see that the General
Commission or Charter for the Government of Hong Kong invests
the Legislative Council with power limited only by the terms of
the Royal Instructions and by the general principle that no law
be made repugnent to the Law of England . ... The general rule
which I have quoted is ambiguous but it has been so long and so
universally in use , that still greater ambiguity would have arisen
from the attempt to substitute new and precise expressions . In
general , however , the words " repugnant to the Law of England " are
to be understood as prohibiting all local enactments which would
interfere with operation of any British Statute extending to the
Island and as prohibiting all enactments not conceived or founded on
principles of the Law of England .
8. Your attention and that of the Legislative Council of
Hong Kong will thus be inevitably drawn to many topics of great
difficulty and compass. To dispose of them aright will require
not only a large experience of such affairs , but also considerable
skill in the technical business of legislation . Yet as you will
at first be destitute of the aid of any adequate legal advisers
it may seem impossible for you to escape the dilemma of commencing
with much defective and crude legislation or of postponing the
measures which I have enumerated until local interests shall have
grown up , greatly fettering your freedom of action and obstructing
the introduction of sound principles of Local Government .
9. To relieve you to the utmost of my power from this
embarrassment , I transmit to you a series of Colonial Enactments
on analogous topics selected from the recent best considered
precedents which the records of this office afford . ...
(73476) 256
10. With regard to Courts of Justice , the great object which
you will have in view, in the infancy of the Colony will be simpli-
city and promptitude . A single judge for all causes Civil and
Crim inal in whic h any Euro pean is directly engaged or indirectly
concerned , will be amply sufficient .
11. In Hong Kong there could be no Code of Laws , British or
European , to which the course and people at large could refer as
possessing any authority before the British occupation of the
Island. Hence it may be necessary to provide that the Law of
England is to be in force there , But that general rule
unqualified by exceptions would create many more difficulties than
it would remove. The usual solution of this difficulty is
probably as inconvenient as any which could be found. It consists
in qualifying the declaration that the Law of England shall be in
force , by an exception almost as general namely, that no part of
that Law shall be considered in force which may be inapplicable to
the local circumstances of the Colony and its inhabitants . The
question of applicability then comes to be in the first instance , a
judicial question , to be decided in the Courts in each particular
case as it arises . If any judicial decision appears to the local
Legislature unsound or inconvenient , they have the power of prevent-
ing, by a Declaratory Law, any similar adjudication in any other
case.
12. But in Hong Kong a question will arise which the preceding
remark must entirely fail to answer or touch . There will of course
be in the Island a large body of Chinese persons to whom the Law of
England would be a rule of action and a measure of right equally
unintelligible and vexatious . In the rigour of abstract constitu
tional principles this is a difficulty to which no allowance could
be made . But no man whose duty it is to consider such questions
for practical and substantial purposes could content himself to
oppose to the claims of the inhabitants of Hong Kong the maxims to
be gathered from the mere text of the British constitution . As
in India the Laws and Customs of the Native population are maintained
in their favour under the British Rule , so in Hong Kong it will be
necessary that for the government of the Chinese residing there , the
Laws and Customs of China should supersede the Laws and Customs of
England . The practical difficulty will arise where Chinese and
Englishmen are parties to the same contract or are partakers in the
same crimes . ... Leaving to the Courts and to the local Legislature
of the Settlement the solution , as they arise , of these problems of
mixed jurisdiction , and of conflicting Laws, it is enough for my
immediate purpose to lay down the few following rules .
13. It should then be understood that even with regard to the
Chinese inhabitants no rule or law can be recognised which would
derogate from the Queen's sovereignty over the Island or which
would ascribe any participation in that sovereignty to the Emperor
or the Government of China . It is further necessary that the right
of succession to immovable property and whatever regards the aliena-
tion of it , should be regulated by English and not by Chinese Laws.
Neither must any English subject be held amenable within the Island
of Hong Kong for any imputed crime to any Chinese Tribunal or
Chinese Law. Again if there be any Chinese Law repugnant to those
(73476) 257
immutable principles of morality which Christians must regard as
binding on themselves at all times and in all places , the enforce-
ment of any such Law even against the Chinese , must not be permit-
ted within the Queen's dominions although the sentence should be
pronounced by Chinese judges .
14. ... It will not be easy for you to raise a revenue by
direct contributions . The objection to such payments is felt in
all Colonies with peculiar force and is hardly to be overcome by
the authority and influence of a Popular Legislature .
...
16. The Land Revenue will probably be an available resource
of great importance , if well husbanded and managed , from the
commencement . In any towns which may be built , plots of ground
might be let on building leases . I do not prohibit taking fines
for such leases , but care must be taken that in all cases a
fair amount of annual rent should be reserved , as I look to this
as one of the most secure and permanent , and in the peculiar
case of Hong Kong, the least objectionable sources of revenue .
I should be disposed to apply the principle of leasing rather
than selling if possible even to country lands . In a Colony of
such limited extent , if trade should materially increase there can
be but few spots which may not in the course of years command a
high marketable value . ... The principle that Land is not to be
given gratuitously to any person or under any pretext cannot be
too strongly insisted on or too rigidly enforced .
17. But the Land may be made to yield another source of
revenue . Whatever tract may, probably, be required hereafter for
public uses , should be dedicated to such uses from the
Commencement . ...
18. Further, with a view to Revenue or to the relief of the
Government from the demands and charges of particular localities
it would be of great importance to introduce , as early as practic-
able the custom of raising rates on the buildings in any town,
for defraying the charges of Municipal Government and Police
throughout all their various details and subdivisions , confiding to
the Householders , as far as may be possible , the power and the
obligation to assess themselves and each other and to expend what
may be so levied.
19. Economy in the expenditure of the local revenue is , I
need hardly add , a duty of the utmost importance . [ Following the
practice of Parliament , the plan is ] before the commencement of
each year , to pass in review before the Legislature , first an
estimate of the proposed expenditure for the ensuing year , and then
a statement of the Ways and Means by which provision is to be made
for that expenditure . To this is to be added a recapitulation of
the actual as compared with the anticipated results of the financial
operations of the year that has just elapsed . The whole should
then be published for the information of all whom it concerns , and
the Estimates as voted by the Legislature should be adhered to by
the Government with the utmost attainable exactness .
(73476) 258
20. It is necessary that you should be distinctly apprized
that H.M. Government expect that the local Revenue will be adequate
to defray the charge of the local establishments and all the
expenses of the Government of Hong Kong. Experience assures us
not only that this is practicable , but that if the Settlement is
supported by drafts on the English Treasury, the expenditure will
be increased far beyond what is necessary and reasonable and will
in fact become incapable of any definite limitation . But I do
not forget that the whole subject of expenditure rests at present
in the utmost possible obscurity. ... For the present, therefore ,
I can merely inculcate in the most general terms , the necessity
for a strict observance of an enlightened frugality in every
branch and Department of the local Government .
21. It is peculiar to your situation not only to be the
founder of a Settlement which must , from its infancy be rapidly
advancing in populousness , wealth and importance , but to find your-
self at the head of a Colonial Government with no precedents for
your guidance and with no officers acting under you, to whose
experience in this Branch of the Public Service , you can resort
for aid. ...
.. But H.M. confidential advisers have the most ample
reason to acknowledge that in the services which you have hitherto
rendered to the Queen , you have entitled yourself not to a lenient
consideration of your measures , but to the most cordial approbation
of them, nor do I doubt , that as Governor of Hong Kong you will
entitle yourself to a tribute of respectful applause as well
merited as that you have earned in the discharge of the other
momentous duties which Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to
confide in you.
I am &c. ,
Stanley.
DOCUMENT NO . 44
Letter from H. Addington , Permanent Under- secretary of
State at the Foreign Office to Sir James Stephen ,
Permanent Under-secretary of State at the Colonial Office,
March 22 , 1843 relating the question of a separate
administration for the Chinese in Hong Kong. CO 129/3
No. 7 re
James Stephen , Esq. - Foreign Office .
March 22, 1843.
Sir,
I have laid before the Earl of Aberdeen your letter of 22nd .
of February upon the subject of the exclusive jurisdiction claimed
by the Chinese Government over Chinese residing in Hong Kong; and
în reply I am to request that you will acquaint Lord Stanley that
(73476) 259
Lord Aberdeen is fully sensible of the great inconvenience and
embarrassment which are likely to result from an acquiescence in
the demand of the Chinese Government .
At the same time however it is not to be denied that a no
less degree of inconvenience and embarrassment might be anticipated
from the refusal of Her Majesty's Government to recognise such a
pretension .
It is unquestionably a matter of the first importance both as
regards individuals , and as regards the preservation of friendly
relations between Great Britain and China , that British subjects
residing in the dominions of the Emperor of China should be wholly
exempt from the jurisdiction of Chinese authorities in questions
involving punishment of any kind whatever . The main ground on
which importance is attached to this point , is distrust of Chinese
Law, and the apprehension , not ill - founded that especially in
cases of homicide , the Law of China would not discriminate
between wilful and accidental offenders , but would inflict capital
punishment without reference to considerations which, according to
British Law , would mitigate the punishment of the offence . But if
the British Government rest their claim to the exemption of British
subjects from the criminal jurisdiction of China on such grounds ,
it would be difficult to resist the claim of the Chinese Government
to a similar exemption of Chinese subjects from the criminal juris-
diction of the British Courts . The Chinese Government could hardly
be expected to place greater reliance on British Courts or on
British Law , than the British Government is willing to place on
Chinese Courts or on Chinese Law. If therefore Her Majesty's
Government insist upon the exemption of British subjects ... from
Chinese jurisdiction in criminal matters there appears no alterna-
tive but to grant similar exemption to Chinese subjects residing
in Hong Kong . It must be admitted however that a distinction may
be drawn between Chinese who have their permanent domicile upon the
Island , and those who only resort to it for purposes of trade , and
whose position most closely corresponds with that of British subjects
in Chinese Ports .
If the latter class were alone concerned , Lord Aberdeen
apprehends that under all the circumstances of the case , the easiest
mode of obviating embarrassment would be that a Chinese Officer
should reside in Hong Kong, and should exercise criminal jurisdiction
over the subjects of the Emperor of China in the same manner as
the British Consuls in the Port of China will exercise criminal
jurisdiction over British subjects . The way in which this arrange-
ment would be carried into effect might be the same in both cases .
As in the Chinese Ports the Chinese Police apprehending a British
subject on a criminal charge , would immediately transfer him to
the custody of the British Consul , so in Hong Kong the British
Police apprehending a Chinese subject on a criminal charge , would
immediately transfer him to the custody of the Chinese officer on
the Island . ... Such an arrangement being strictly reciprocal
would appear preferable to that suggested by Sir Henry Pottinger,
which would at once involve the deportation of the Chinese
offender by the British authorities : and Lord Aberdeen with
(73476) 260
Lord Stanley's concurrence , will be disposed to call Sir Henry
Pottinger's attention to the expediency of settling the jurisdic-
tion over Chinese subjects , properly so called , upon this footing.
With regard however, to the class of Chinese permanently
domiciled on the Island , Lord Aberdeen concurs with Lord Stanley in
considering that there may be some difficulty in making the Chinese
Government understand that the cession of the sovereignty of the
Island made in the Treaty of Nanking, carries with it a cession of
sovereignty over the Chinese people established on the Island ,
both previously, and subsequently to the territorial cession .
There is however, an expression in the letter of the Chinese
Plenipotentiaries of 13th September , which may perhaps be taken
advantage of in order to solve the present difficulty . The
passage is " As for those who are willing to hire themselves out
as servants to the English , these may just follow their own con-
venience and inclination . " Lord Aberdeen would submit to
Lord Stanley whether it might not be possible to take advantage
of this expression , and by requiring from the Chinese settlers
in Hong Kong a renunciation of their allegiance to the Emperor of
China, and a recognition of the absolute supremacy of England as
a condition of their being allowed to remain on the Island , such
a case of " hiring " might not be made out as to entitle the
British authorities to require that they should be allowed to
follow their own " convenience and inclination " , and at all events
to divest the Chinese Government of any pretension or desire to
interfere on their behalf.
Lord Aberdeen would be disposed , with Lord Stanley's con-
currence , to direct Sir Henry Pottinger to meet the embarrassment
occasioned by the Chinese claim in this manner.
There is still another mode of obviating the difficulty, and
which might be pressed on the Chinese authorities with reference
to their letter of the 27th of September . The leading idea in
that letter is , repugnance to submit the Chinese to British Law.
But Lord Aberdeen believes that the natives of the territories
under the Government of the East India Company are still in a
great degree , if not entirely , subject to laws which existed in
the country previously to its coming under the sovereignty of
Great Britain ; and if that is the case , there seems no reason
why the Chinese in Hong Kong should not continue subject to
Chinese Law, not indeed administered in the name of the Emperor of
China, but still to all intents and purposes the same law as that
by which their conduct was regulated previously to the cession
of the Island . Sir Henry Pottinger might therefore state to the
Chinese authorities that Her Majesty's Government are perfectly
willing to agree that the Chinese who are permanently domiciled
on Hong Kong should continue subject to the Chinese Law; and
Lord Aberdeen is not aware whether there would be any insurmount-
able objection to Sir Henry Pottinger further stating that
(1 ) Pottinger had suggested the extradition of Chinese criminals
to the Chinese mainland for trial by Chinese Magistrates at
near-by Kowloon .
(73476 ) 261
Her Majesty's Government would willingly receive , at all events in
the first instance , one or more judicial authorities selected by
the Emperor of China, who should administer in the name of the
Queen, the Law of China in cases where the Chinese subjects of the
British Crown are concerned, and whose maintenance would be
provided from the Revenues of the Island and would not be a charge
upon any province of the Emperor's dominions. ...
I am,
sir,
your most obedient and humble servant
H. M. ADDINGTON
DOCUMENT NO . 45
Memorial from the Hong Kong Merchants to the Secretary
of State for the Colonies , August 13 , 1845 and the reply
CO 129/13
THE RIGHT HONORABLE
LORD STANLEY
H.M. PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES,
&C. &C &C
MY LORD ,
THE period has at length arrived , when as Owners of land and
property at HONGKONG, we can no longer refrain from addressing
ourselves direct to H. M. Government, in the confident hope , that a
plain statement of facts will induce H. M. Advisers , to sanction a
material modification of the System , which has hitherto been in
operation , occasioning results alike injurious to the interests of
the mercantile Community, and the real and essential interests of
the settlement .
It will scarcely be necessary for us , in the first place , to
submit , that shortly after the Island was first ceded , or taken
possession of by H.M. Plenipotentiary in China , in the early part
of 1841 , a public sale of land was held , at which it was stipulated ,
that the " terms and tenure of all property would hereafter be
defined by H. M. Government " .
But in a letter of H. M. Plenipotentiary, dated 17th June , 1841 ,
copy of which is hereunto annexed , an expectation was held out ,
that the lands would be granted in fee simple , for one or two years
purchase at the rates paid at the public sale ; or that they should
be charged only with a nominal quit rent , if that form of tenure
continued to obtain ,
(73476) 262
This suggestion on the part of H.M. Plenipotentiary,
originated in the well known fact , that the very limited quantity .
of ground , available for building purposes on the proposed site
of the present Town of Victoria, was the occasion of great
competition, and the eventual payment of a Scale of Rent , which
that officer na turally and truly apprehended , would , if enforced ,
be detrimental to the progress and prosperity of the settlement .
During the time which intervened between the occupation of
the Island by H.M. Government , in March 1841 , and the Treaty of
Nankin , in June 1843 , a period of upwards of two years , the Local
Government of Hongkong used every endeavour , both by facilities
temporarily offered to early occupants of land , and the threat of
penalty of forfeiture of their purchases to all who did not
commence building , to induce the British Merchants to remove from
Macao to the new Settlement , and nothing was, up to that date ,
said or done , to induce holders of land to apprehend , either that
the promises of H. M. Plenipotentiary would not be strictly ful-
filled , or that they would be placed in a more unfavourable
situation , than parties similarly circumstanced in other British
Colonies.
Large sums were consequently expended in the erection of
Dwellings and Warehouses in the New Town of Victoria, to an extent ,
which would have rendered it injurious to all , and ruinous to many,
to be compelled to abandon their property ; and it was not until
the early part of 1843 , that it was notified: " That H.M. Government
did not see fit to recognise sales or Grants of land, that had
been made by or under any Authority whatsoever, up to the period
of the exchange of the ratification of the Treaty of Nankin " .
But as H.M. Government must have been well aware , that the
Colonists had acted with perfect reliance on the good faith and
Justice of their Government , this order was so far qualified , that
on 23rd August 1843 it was notified :
" That an Enquiry should be instituted into the Equitable
claims of all holders of land to a confirmation either
permanent or temporary of their Titles , so far as they could
be confirmed consistently with a just regard to the interests
of Society at large . "
In the early part of 1844 we were , for the first time , made
acquainted with the terms on which the Crown Lands were to be held ,
and Sir Henry Pottinger , then Governor of the Island , published
the forms of the Leases required to be executed .
The conditions of these Leases were universally considered so
unusual , and so certain in their operation to be ultimately
injurious , not only to the holders of Land , but to the future
welfare of the Colony, that we were compelled to protest most
solemnly against them in a correspondence with the Governor , dated
in March 1844 , from which correspondence we beg to subjoin the
following extract :
(73476) 263
"We may be allowed to point out to Y. E. , that an
adherence on the part of Government to the proposed terms of
Lease would be eventually the means of placing those , who
first commenced improving their property in Hongkong , and
who from the sums already expended cannot withdraw from the
occupation of their Buildings without ruinous loss , on most
unfavourable terms , compared with others , who have the option
of resorting to places where land can be bought , or rented ,
on much more moderate conditions ; and we submit , that it
can never be the wish or intention of H.M. Government to
place the early occupants of Land in such a position " .
No redress has however been granted; and disregarding the
future prosperity of the Settlement , in the desire to raise a
comparatively large temporary revenue , the Local Government has
persisted in forcing unusually hard conditions on the Land holders ,
who had been led into a large expenditure of money, owing to their
faith in the promises , under which the Land was originally sold ;
(promises , which were at any rate tacitly acknowledged by the
Government , and not repudia ted until after the lapse of 3 years) ;
while at the same time it is no exaggeration to state , that had
the existing regulations been promulgated before , instead of
after the outlay of their funds , not one British Merchant would
have been found willing to become a resident in the Colony.
We have deemed it necessary and due to ourselves , to enter
thus at length into some account of the formation of the Colony
and its progress hitherto , with the view of shewing: First , the
nature of the inducements under which we were led to abandon our
Residences at Macao and Canton , where both House rent and Taxation.
are very light; which we may illustrate by the fact , that the
Ground rent alone of most of the eligible sites in Hongkong is
(without including rent or interest of money) a heavier charge ,
than all payments , rent inclusive , required of the Tenants of
Houses in Macao;
And Secondly, To prove that the very onerous terms , on which
we have been compelled to occupy our property in Hongkong , have
been forced on us , not only against our urgent remonstrances , as
a question of justice and equity, but in opposition to what we
have always considered and represented to be the true interest of
the Colony.
Since the enforcement of these Leases , the measures of the
existing Government of the Island have still further aggravated
the evils under which we have been suffering , by making in a place,
nominally declared to be a free Port , every description of commerce
and Trade a Subject of Taxation , or source of revenue , or of
Monopoly sold to the highest Bidders , thus driving away, instead
of encouraging Trade in an infant Settlement : and lastly we have
now to complain of the promulgation of an ordinance , which we
submit to be unconstitutional and illegal , empowering Government
Assessors arbitrarily to value all Household Property , with the
view of raising a new tax , ostensibly for payment of a Police
force , there being no Municipal Body of any kind in the Colony to
(73476) 264
determine whether such tax be necessary , or equitably levied and
appropriated .
The result of the System actually in operation for the last
two years ; commencing with the proceedings in Land Sales and Leases
under the administration of the first Governor , and continued by the
financial arrangements of his Successor , is sufficiently exemplified
in the present state of the Colony: for owing to the heavy rents
and unsatisfactory tenure of property, the continued arbitrary
taxation and impediments to Trade of all kinds , and the entire
want of confidence , as well on the part of the Foreign Community
in China , as of the Chinese themselves , as to the establishment
of a better course of policy, there is , at this moment , after
4 years occupation of the Island , scarcely one foreign Resident ,
except Government Officers , and those British Merchants and
Traders who commenced Building before the enforcement of the
Leases ; there are no Chinese Merchants , or even Shop keepers , with
any pretension to property ; there is neither an import or export
Trade of any kind; and as will be seen by the public papers , even
now, when many private Dwellings are temporarily occupied by the
Civil and Military Officers of Government , pending the completion of
the Public Buildings , several Houses have been untenanted for months
past; and the value of all property is daily on the decrease .
It is necessary to bear in mind , that the Trade of this part
of China has long been accustomed to flow through other Channels ,
that the Island of Hongkong has no natural productions , or consumers
of imports , beyond the mere wants of the Colonists themselves , and
is even dependent for its daily supply of food on the main land ;
and that a place so circumstanced , especially in a Country like
China , proverbially averse to sudden change , can only be expected
very gradually to acquire a Trade by facilities and encouragement ,
instead of being subject to ceaseless and heavy taxation , charges ,
from which places in its vicinity are moreover exempt .
We must therefore , hope we shall not be deemed presumptuous in
submitting to H.M. Government our urgent entreaty, that they will be
pleased to direct the abolition of the Opium Farm, Auction Duties ,
and other harrassing Taxation recently imposed , which have already
had the effect of deterring many Chinese from settling in the place ,
and driven away several , who were already established , and been in
fact utterly destructive of our incipient Trade . If this be not
conceded , many of the European Residents will also be compelled to
quit a place totally without Commerce , but more heavily taxed , in
Ground rents alone , than any other part of China , and remove to
those Ports where the Trade is actually carried on, abandoning
properties on which many have expended their whole fortunes .
We further venture to suggest that the system adopted in other
colonies may reasonably be extended to this distant settlement ;
and that it is hoped Government will be pleased to authorise the
formation of a Municipal Body, vested with the usual power of
deciding on the appropriation of the monies raised for Local
purposes .
(73476 ) 265
We cannot in conclusion refrain from urging , that such a
settlement as Hongkong was never actually required by the British
Merchants; and that it has become even less so since the opening
of the five Chinese Ports , where the Foreign Residents are free
from all taxation , and where the rent of Land and Houses is
generally very moderate .
We submit therefore , that it will be found as inexpedient in
principle , as under existing circumstances we consider it would be
unjust in practice , to call on the Civil part of the Community for
any large proportion of the expenses of a Colony which is held
rather as a Military and Naval Station, giving Great Britain the
Command of these Seas , and as the Residence of a few Merchants ,
occupied in extending British Commerce along the Coast of China ,
and keeping up an active correspondence with the rest of the World,
than a place which under any circumstances can be expected to
possess an extensive Trade , or afford any considerable revenue
towards the payment of its own expenses .
We have the honor to be ,
MY LORD,
Your Lordship's most obedient and humble Servants,
VICTORIA , 13th August , 1845 .
Hughesdon & Co. Macvicar & Co.
George R. Barton M.D. Fox, Rawson & Co.
N. Duus. Turner & Co.
Burd, Lange & Co. Lindsay & Co.
John Cairns . Gibb , Livingston & Co.
Henry Holgate . Jamieson , How & Co.
M. Ford & Co. W. & T. Gemmell & Co.
L. Just, Sen: Fletcher & Co.
L. Just , Jun : per. pro . Murrow & Co.
D. Lapraik. Chas . W. Murray.
J. D. Porter R. Oswald & Co.
Geo: Duddell . Thos. Ripley & Co.
J. Palmer Dirom, Gray & Co.
Chas . W. Bowra . Holliday , Wise & Co.
Saml : Jno : Cooke . Robt. Strachan .
Jardine Matheson & Co. John Carr.
Dent & Co.
(73476) 266
Dispatch from W. E. Gladstone to Sir John Davis , being the
reply of the Secretary of State to the Petition of the
Hong Kong Merchants
Sir J. Davis Bart . 7 March, 1846
Sir ,
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Dispatches of the
20th , 26th and 30th August Nos . 114 , 117 and 121 .
In the first of these Dispatches you transmit the Draft of an
Ordinance for the construction of Drains &c . in the town of
-
Victoria - and for the imposition of an assessed Rate on Property
to defray the expense and in the other two you enclose the
Copies of a Correspondence which has passed between yourself and
the Merchants of Hong Kong, together with a Memorial from them to
Lord Stanley complaining of the terms on which Lands in the Colony
have been disposed of , and protesting against the imposition of any
assessed Tax as unconstitutional and illegal .
With respect to the terms on which Lands have been disposed
of , there appears to be nothing new in the present representation
and as the subject has been already exhausted both in
Sir H. Pottinger's Dispatches of March and May 1844 and Lord
Stanley's answer of 19 November 1844 , and in your own Correspondence
with the Mercantile Body , it would be superfluous in me to review
the discussion . I content myself, therefore , with expressing my
concurrence in the general reasoning on this subject adopted by
Lord Stanley as well as by Sir H. Pottinger and yourself . In
regard to the imposition of Rates the Mercantile Body may mean
that as such Rates are in this country levied by Municipal Bodies
and not by the Imperial Legislative , it is unconstitutional and
illegal that they should be levied in Hong Kong by the Colonial
Legislative . But whether this be or be not the first construc-
tion of their language , in the proposition itself which they have
advanced , I can by no means concur . The circumstances of the
Town of Victoria and of the Colony of Hong Kong generally are so
different from any state of Society existing in this Country or in
any British Colony, and they are likewise as yet so imperfectly
developed , that it would be impossible perhaps at any time ,
certainly at present , to apply to them principles or to introduce
into the m Institutions which elsewhere are recognized and
established . I see no objection , therefore to the principle of
the Draft Ordinance which you have submitted - but as the question
of the Drainage of Towns has lately attracted much attention in
this Country, I submitted that Draft to the Health of Towns
Commission -- and I now enclose for your information a Copy of the
observations which they have made on it .
Your local knowledge and that of your Council will enable you
to judge more correctly and confidently than myself whether any ,
and which , of the suggestions of the Commission can be care fully
embodied into the Hong Kong Ordinance . The only observation
that I have to add is , with reference to your Dispatch, that as
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the rate imposed by the Ordinance is to be made by the Commissioners
to be appointed under it , it appears to me that the Collector or
Collectors of the Rates should be appointed by the Commissioners
and not by the Governor .
The merchants in their letter to Lord Stanley, I observe , not
only protest against the proposed Taxation for draining the Town of
Victoria, but also against the Opium Farm, Auction " Duties , and other
harassing Taxation recently imposed " as deterring the Chinese from
settling and being destructive of the Incipient Trade . And they
denounce as unjust the requiring the Civil part of the Community to
pay any large proportion of the expenses of a Colony held rather as
a Military and Naval Station than as a place of Trade .
It appears to me that in this representation the Mercantile
Body have altogether mistaken the object of Great Britain in the
Occupation of Hong Kong. That occupation was decided on solely
and exclusively with a view of Commercial interests , and for the
benefit of those engaged in the Trade with China. As a Naval or
Military Station except for the security of Commerce , Hong Kong is
unnecessary. It would , therefore , be impossible for me to hold
out to the Merchants settled in the Colony the expectation that
H.M.'s Government will propose to Parliament that it should
permanently impose on Great Britain the whole or the principal
portion off the expense of an Establishment from which those
engaged in the Trade with China are to be denied the principal
benefit , nor , consequently, can I accede to their request that the
Opium Farm, Auction Duties , or other taxes which have received the
sanction of H.M.'s Government should now be taken off.
W. E. GLADSTONE
DOCUMENT NO . 46
Dispatch from Sir John Pope Hennessy to the Secretary of
State for the Colonies No. 4 January 19, 1880 regarding
the appointment of a Chinese Member of the Legislative
Council . CO 129/187
No. 4 Government House ,
Hongkong,
19th January 1880 .
The Right Honorable
Sir Michael Hicks Beach , Bt . , M.P. ,
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies ,
&C. &C. &C.
Sir,
Referring to my Despatch No. 114 of 13th December , 1879 ,
announcing the departure from the Colony of Mr. H. B. Gibb , I have
(73476) 268
the honour to report that I have provisionally appointed
Mr. Ng Choy to be an unofficial member of the Legislative Council .
2. Mr. Ng Choy is a Chinese British subject , having been born in
Singapore . His education was completed in England , and he was
called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in Hilary Term , 1877. The
Chief Justice tells me that he got a good private fortune from his
father and by his marriage . Sir John Smale also concurs with me
in saying that there is not a more honorable and straightforward
gentleman in the Colony than Mr. Ng Choy.
3. In addition to those qualifications , I have not been insensible
to the fact that the time had come for placing on the Legislative
Council some person who would fairly represent the interests of the
Chinese Community of Hongkong .
4. As long ago as the year 1855 , Governor Sir John Bowring
suggested a plan by which lot holders rated at a certain amount
should be allowed to elect five unofficial members of Council , and
he referred to the justice and policy of associating the Chinese
residents with the action of the Government, as at Singapore , where ,
at that time , they had been admitted to the Magistracy .
Mr. Labouchere called for detailed explanations of the scheme , and
finally decided that it was better , in a Crown Colony such as this ,
to adhere to the system by which Unofficial Members of Council are
provisionally appointed by the Governor on his own responsibility,
after due enquiry and consideration , and the names submitted to
the Secretary of State for Her Majesty's decision .
5. The ownership of property has changed so much since Sir John
Bowring's time , that the majority of the body of electors he
suggested would now be Chinese . Indeed , not many years after
Sir John Bowring's proposal was made , Governor Sir Hercules Robinson,
as I had occasion recently to mention ( Despatch No. 122 of the
26th of December 1879 ) , said : - " The Chinese constitute 98 per cent
of the population , and probably contribute nearly a similar propor-
tion of the revenue " And , in another passage , Sir Hercules
Robinson said , " The Chinese have made Hongkong what it is . " ·
6. As regards the Magistracy Mr. Ng Choy is the only Chinese
gentleman whose name appears in the list of our Justices of the
Peace , but that was done because it was thought desirable to have
the four or five members of the English Bar who resided in Hongkong
included amongst the thirty or forty visiting Justices of the Gaol .
7. But whatever might have been the theoretical merits of
Sir John Bowring's electoral scheme , I am clearly of opinion that it
would not work as well as the system by which the Governor of the
Colony is primarily responsible for provisional appointments to the
Council .
8. In exercising in this instance , the duty imposed upon me by
Her Majesty's Commission and the Royal Instructions , I have had
the advantage of considering the views of the wealthy and well - to-
do Chinese subjects of The Queen, as to how far Mr. Ng Choy may be
(73476) 269
fairly said to represent the Chinese Community of the Colony. On
this point I have the honour to enclose for your information a
document which was placed in my hands about a month ago , in which
the leading Chinese of Hongkong - writing on behalf of their own
community recommend Mr. Ng Choy to me as a Gentleman of high
standing and well qualified to represent their interests in the
Legislative Council .
9. You will observe that these gentlemen refer to their Memorial
addressed to you , which I transmitted in my Despatch , No. 5 , of
the 19th January, 1879. In that Memorial they say: -
"We beg humbly to submit that the Chinese residents
exceed the foreign residents more than ten times in number
and the amount of taxation borne by the Chinese Community
also exceeds by far the amount borne by the foreign Community.
Henceforth it would be but fair to allow the Chinese
Community a share in the management of public affairs of the
Colony " .
10. When, in May, 1879 , I reported having provisionally
appointed Mr. Gibb to a Seat on the Council , I said : -
" In recommending this appointment I have had to consider
the fact that the four Unofficial Members of Council in
Hongkong belong to the European Community exclusively, - and
that the time has undoubtedly come when the forty thousand
Chinese Subjects of The Queen who have been born under the
British flag, and the wealthy and enterprising Chinese
Community generally ought to have , as at Singapore , some one
of their body on the Legislative Council . But this question
is raised in the address to you from the Chinese Merchants ,
transmitted in my Despatch No. 5 , of January, 1879 , and no
-
doubt will not escape your attention . "
11. As to Sir John Bowring's suggestion that we might follow in
this Colony the example set in Singapore , I need hardly remind
you of the advantage to the public Service in that Colony that
followed the appointment of Mr. Hoo Ah Kay Whampoa , in 1869 , to
a seat on the Legislative Council . As I have known and
corres ponded with W. Whamp oa for the last twelve years , I may
venture to make this comparison between him and Mr. Ng Choy.
He is an older and more experienced man , but has not the same
knowledge of England , and of our language and literature , that
Mr. Ng Choy has . In fact, Mr. Ng Choy is an accomplished
English scholar , and a man of general culture . Mr. Whampoa is
a naturalized British Subject ; Mr. Ng Choy is British- born
subject. They are equally loyal to The Queen, and are both
thoroughly identified with the interests of England in the East .
By their good example and by their influence , they both
contribute in no small degree to the formation of a sound
Anglo- Chinese Community in their respective Colonies .
(73476) 270
12. Having care fully considered the whole question , I have no
hesitation in recommending you to submit Mr. Ng Choy's name to
Her Majesty for a Seat in the Legislative Council .
I have the honour to be , Sir ,
Your Most Obedient Humble Servant ,
J .. POPE HENNESSY
DOCUMENT NO . 47
Dispatch from Earl of Derby to Sir George Bowen , relating
to the reform of the Legislative Council , 7 August , 1883
CO 129/209
No. 158
Governor, Downing Street
Sir George Bowen , 7 August , 1883
Hong Kong.
Sir,
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch
No. 62 of the 14th of May, proposing certain alterations in the
constitution of the Executive and Legislative Councils of Hong Kong .
2. After full consideration of the circumstances of the Colony,
I am of opinion that an Executive Council of seven Members would be
unnecessarily Large , and that the office of Treasurer , which is
generally united with another office , and has a salary of only nine
hundred and sixty Dollars a year, should not be exercised as confer-
ring a seat in that Council .
In other respects I approve generally , your proposals with
regard to the Executive Council , and the necessary Instrument shall
be prepared for adding the present Registrar General to the Council
thus raising the number to six.
3. Turning now to the Legislative Council , I have the
honour to inform you that the question whether the officer commanding
Her Majesty's troops should be a Member of that body in a Crown
Colony has of late been repeatedly under consideration , and it
has been deemed preferable that in the absence of any strong and
special reasons , that officer should not have a seat in the
Legislative , and accordingly in Malta and the Windward Islands,
the Officer commanding the Troops has recently ceased to take
part in Legislation , and now only sits in the Executive Council .
4. I may explain that a principal reason for this decision
has been the fact that the officer commanding Her Majesty's
Military forces is not under the same obligation as is incumbent
(73476) 271
upon the Civil officers to support the measures of the Government;
and if he should feel it his duty, acting in accordance with his
own judgement, to speak or vote against any such measure , the
opposition of an officer holding so high a position would be made
undesirably prominent . It has therefore been thought expedient
that the Colonial Government should have the advice of the
Commanding Officer in the Executive Council , but that he should not
take part in the proceedings of the Legislative Council .
5. I have much pleasure in adding that I am well aware that
if Her Majesty's Government had not decided that the officer
commanding Her Majesty's Military forces ought not to sit in the
Legislative Council , the personal qualifications of General Sargent,
who at present holds the command would have strongly recommended
him for the discharge of that function.
6. It should further be understood that neither he nor his
predecessors in the command have been omitted from the Council
through inadvertence , but that the Senior Military Officer has
never been expressly designated as one of the ordinary Members .
It appears that by the earliest Royal Instructions , the
Governor was empowered to appoint three Members of the Council ,
and that he exercised this power in 1843 in favour of General
D'Aguilar , then commanding the Troops; but this officer's name
does not appear in the Blue Book as a Member of Council after 1844;
and the subsequent commanding Officers appear not to have been so
appointed up to 1859 when the Instructions were revoked .
In 1855 however Colonel Caine ; the Lieutenant Governor, was
appointed personally by Warrants under the Sign Manual , but it
does not seem that any subsequent commanding Officer has sat in the
Legislative Council .
7. I concur in your opinion that it is not desirable in
principle that the Chief Justice should sit in a Colonial Legisla-
ture unless in any case a sufficient number of qualified persons
cannot be otherwise obtained , and I also fully agree with you in
thinking that the existing arrangement should not be disturbed
while the present Chief Justice continues to hold his office .
8. I further approve of your recommendation that the Surveyor
General , who is at present an unofficial Member, should be trans-
ferred to the official side of the Legislative Council , and as you
have already been instructed by my telegram of the 19th of April
that the Registrar General is to have a seat in the Legislative
Council as well as the Treasurer , the number of officials will be
raised to six, in addition to the Governor .
9. I now proceed to consider your proposals with regard to
the unofficial Members , and while I agree that it is desirable to
apply to Hong Kong the principle , which I have lately approved in
the case of Mauritius , of allowing some of the unofficial Members to
represent the public opinion of the Colony as expressed by some of
its leading business institutions , I think it desirable in order
(73476) 272
to maintain the present proportion of official to unofficial
Members , that the number of unofficial Members should not be so
large as you have proposed .
10. Instead therefore of six, I propose that there shall be
five unofficial Members , one at least of whom shall be a Member
of the Chinese community. I have no objection to the mode in
which you propose to provide for the selection of some of the
unofficial Members , but as the total number will be only five it
will be necessary that the Chamber of Commerce should recommend only
one Member.
11. It has lately become the practice to designate in the
Royal Instructions only two or three offices for seats ex- officio
so as to allow of the selection for the remaining official seats
in the Legislative Council , of those office holders who at the
time may appear to be personally or in respect of their duties to
be best fitted to be Members .
This practice will be followed in the additional Instructions
now in course of preparation and by applying the same practice
to the Executive Council the locum tenens of the Registrar General
or Surveyor General will be excluded unless provisionally appointed
by the Governor under Article IV of the Royal Instructions of the
9th of April 1877. Your suggestion in paragraph 7 ( c) of your
Despatch will thus be carried out .
12. I approve of your proposals for an annual Session of the
Legislative Council , and for weekly meetings of the Executive
Council .
13. As regards Dr. Stewart's position in the Legislative
Council , to which you allude in the 7 paragraph of your Despatch ,
I was aware that he could not take his seat as an official Member
under the existing Royal Instructions , and before the receipt of
your Despatch, amended Instructions had been prepared with a view
to their being la id before Her Majesty at the first Meeting of
the Privy Council , but the consideration of your Despatch has
unavoidably postponed this action .
14. It will probably be convenient before the New Additional
Instructions are acted upon , that Mr. Price should formally resign
the seats which he now holds in both Councils , and be re- admitted
under these Instructions of which the Draft shall shortly be
communicated to you.
15. I shall be glad to learn at an early date the names of
the gentlemen whom you would propose for the unofficial seats in
the Legislative Council .
I have
etc. , etc. , etc. ,
DERBY
273
(73476)
DOCUMENT NO . 48
Petition of the Merchants , Bankers , Professional men ,
Traders , Artisans and other Ratepayers and Inhabitants of
Hongkong to the House of Commons ; sent in June 1894
and replies . CO 129/263
To the
HONOURABLE THE COMMONS of the
UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND IN
PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED
THE HUMBLE PETITION of the Undersigned
Merchants , Bankers , Professional Men ,
Traders , Artisans , and other Ratepayers ,
inhabitants of the Crown Colony of
Hongkong.
RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH: -
1. The Colony of Hongkong, situate in the China seas , at
the south- eastern extremity of the great Empire of China , is one of
the smallest , but by no means the least valuable or important , of
Her Majesty's possessions outside of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland.
2. It is a little over 50 years since the Colony was founded
on a barren rock, the abode of a few fishermen and pirates .
Today it is a City and Settlement with upwards of a quarter of a
million inhabitants ; a trade estimated at about Forty millions of
pounds sterling per annum, and a revenue of some Two millions of
dollars , wholly derived from internal taxation . Hongkong is a
free port , through which passes upwards of Fourteen millions of
tons of shipping per annum, and it ranks amongst the very first in
the list of the great seaports in Her Majesty's dominions. It is
the centre of enormous British interests , and is an extensive
emporium of British trade in the China seas , and , while it remains
a free port , it is destined to expand and develop , and to continue
to be the centre of vast traffic and of constant communication
between Europe , the Australian Colonies , the United States , and
Canada on the one hand , and China, Japan , the Philippine Islands ,
British North Borneo , Java, Indo - China , Siam , the Straits , and
India on the other.
3. Hongkong has attained to its almost unequalled commercial
position , through the enterprise , skill , and energy of British
Merchants , Traders , and Shipowners; through the labours of
Her Majesty's subjects who have spent their lives and employed
their capital on its shores; through the expenditure of many
millions of dollars in Roads , Streets , and Bridges ; in buildings ,
public and private ; in extensive Reclamations; in Docks , Piers ,
and Wharves ; and last , but not least , in Manufactures of great and
increasing value . The prosperity of the Colony can best be
(73476) 274
maintained by the unremitting exertions and self- sacrifice of your
Petitioners and the valuable co- operation and support of the Chinese ,
and only by the continuance of Hongkong as a free port .
4. Notwithstanding that the whole interests of your
Petitioners are thus inextricably and permanently bound up in the
good Administration of the Colony, in the efficiency of its
Executive , and the soundness of its Finance , your Petitioners are
allowed to take only a limited part or small share in the
Government of the Colony, and are not permitted to have any really
effective voice in the management of its affairs , external or
internal . Being purely a Crown Colony, it is governed by a
Governor appointed by Her Most Gracious Majesty the QUEEN , and by
an Executive and a Legislative Council . The former is composed
wholly of Officers of the Crown , nominated and appointed by the
Crown; the latter consists of Official Members , selected and
appointed by the QUEEN, and five Unofficial Members , two of whom
are nominated by certain public bodies in the Colony, while the
other three are selected by the Governor, and all are appointed
by Her Majesty.
5. The Executive Council sits and deliberates in secret .
The Legislative Council sits with open doors , and its procedure
appears to admit of full and unfettered discussion, but there is
virtually no true freedom of debate . Questions are considered ,
and settled , and the policy to be adopted by the Government in
connection therewith is decided in the Executive Council . They
are then brought before the Legislative Council , where the
-
Government the Official Members being in a majority - can secure
the passing of any measure , in face of any opposition on the part
of the Unofficial Members , who are thus limited to objecting and
protesting and have no power to carry any proposal which they may
consider beneficial , nor have they power to reject or even modify
any measure which may in their opinion be prejudicial to the
interests of the Colony.
6. In the adjustment and disposal of the Colonial Revenue
it might be supposed that the Unofficial Representatives of the
tax-payers would be allowed a potential voice , and in form this
has been conceded by the Government . But only in form, for in
the Finance Committee , as well as in the Legislative Council , the
Unofficial Members are in a Minority , and can therefore be out-
voted if any real difference of opinion arises .
7. Legislative Enactments are nearly always drafted by the
Attorney General , are frequently forwarded before publication in
the Colony or to the Council for the approval of the Secretary of
State , and when sanctioned are introduced into the Legislative
Council , read a first , second , and third time , and passed by the
votes of the Official Members , acting in obedience to instructions ,
irrespective of their personal views or private opinions .
The Legislation so prepared and passed emanates in some cases
from persons whose short experience of and want of actual touch
with the Colony's needs , does not qualify them to fully appreciate
the measures best suited to the requirements of the Community .
(73476) 275
8. Those who have the knowledge and experience are naturally
the Unofficial Members, who have been elected and appointed as
possessing these very qualifications , who have passed large
portions of their lives in the Colony, and who either have perma-
nent personal interests in it , or hold prominent positions of
trust which connect them most closely with its affairs , and are
therefore the more likely to have been required to care fully study
its real needs, and to have thoroughly acquainted themselves with
the methods by which these are best to be met. On the other hand
the Offices occupied by the Official Members are only stepping
stones in an official career ; the Occupants may be resident for a
longer or a shorter period in the Colony, and for them to form an
opinion on any question which arises , different from that decided
upon by the Government in Executive Council , is to risk a conflict
with the Governor , and they are therefore compelled to vote on
occasions contrary to their convictions.
9. Your Petitioners humbly represent that to Malta, Cyprus,
Mauritius , British Honduras , and other Crown Colonies , more liberal
forms of Government than those enjoyed by your Petitioners have been
given; Unofficial seats in the Executive Council ; Unofficial
majorities in the Legislative Council ; power of election of Members
of Council ; and more power and influence in the management of purely
local affairs; in none of these Colonies are the Commercial and
Industrial interests of the same magnitude or importance as those
of Hongkong. Your Petitioners , therefore , pray your Honourable
House to grant them the same or similar privileges .
10. Your Petitioners fully recognise that in a Colony so
peculiarly situated on the borders of a great Oriental Empire , and
with a population largely composed of aliens whose traditional and
family interests and racial sympathies largely remain in that
neighbouring Empire , special legislation and guardianship are
required. Nor are they less alive to the Imperial position of a
Colony which is at once a frontier Fortress and a Naval Depot , the
head quarters of Her Majesty's Fleet , and the base for Naval and
Military operations in these Far Eastern waters; and they are not
so unpractical as to expect that unrestricted power should be given
to any local Legislature , or that the QUEEN's Government could ever
give up the paramount control of this important Dependency. All
Your Petitioners claim is the common right of Englishmen to manage
their local affairs and control the Expenditure of the Colony,
where Imperial considerations are not involved .
11. At present your Petitioners are subject to Legislation
issuing from the Imperial Parliament , and all local legislation
must be subsidiary to it. Her Majesty the QUEEN in Council has full
and complete power and authority to make laws for the Island , and
local laws must be approved and assented to by the Governor in the
name of the QUEEN , and are subject to disallowance by Her Majesty
on the recommendation of Her Principal Secretary of State for the
Colonies.
12. Your Petitioners recognise the necessity and propriety of
the existence of these checks and safeguards against the abuse of any
(73476) 276
power and authority exercised by any local Legislature , and cheer-
fully acquiesce in their continuance and effective exercise , but
respectfully submit that , subject to these checks and safeguards ,
they ought to be allowed the free election of Representatives of
British Nationality in the Legislative Council of the Colony;
majority in the Council of such elected Representatives ; perfect
freedom of debate for the official Members , with power to vote
according to their conscientious convictions without being called
to account or endangered in their positions by their votes;
complete control in the Council over local expenditure ; the
management of local affairs; and a consultative voice in questions
of an Imperial character.
Your Petitioners therefore most humbly pray your
Honourable House to move Her Most Gracious
Majesty the QUEEN to amend by order in Council
the constitution of this Crown Colony, and to
grant to your Petitioners , and to the inhabitants
of Hongkong in all time to come the rights and
privileges hereinbefore mentioned.
(Signed by 362 Merchants, Bankers , Professional
Men , Traders , Artisans , and other Ratepayers ,
inhabitants of the Crown Colony of Hongkong)
Dispatch from the Secretary of State , the Marquis of
Ripon , to Sir William Robinson , No. 135 23rd August , 1894
replying to the Petition of the Merchants , Bankers , etc. ,
and inhabitants of Hongkong 1894 .
CO 129/263
HONGKONG DOWNING STREET,
No. 135 . 23rd August , 1894
SIR,
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch
No. 133 of the 5th of June last enclosing a petition addressed to
the House of Commons by various residents at Hongkong praying for
an amendment of the constitution of the Colony.
2. This petition was forwarded to you by Mr. WHITEHEAD,
Member of the Legislative Council , and though , among his colleagues
in the Council , Mr. KESWICK and Mr. BELILIOS have refused to sign
it, it bears the signatures of Mr. CHATER and Dr. HO KAI , both
Members of the Council , of Mr. JACKSON, Manager of The Hongkong
and Shanghai Bank, and of other leading residents . I am therefore
bound to assume that it is the matured conviction of at least a
considerable proportion of the most influential members of the
community that constitutional changes are desirable at Hongkong and
that for the present Crown Colony System should be substituted some
measure of self- government . It is my duty to examine the arguments
which have been brought forward , with care and attention ; and I should
(73476) 277
be wanting in courtesy if I did not give a full answer to a
petition , which is far- reaching in its scope , and which has been
strongly supported .
3. The petitioners have addressed themselves to the House of
Commons , as they have of course every right to do . From this it
is natural to infer that they consider that they have grounds for
discontent, which the Secretary of State is unwilling or unable to
remove , and that they wish to emphasise in a suitable and reasonable
manner the objections which they feel to the existing system .
4. They ask that , subject to Imperial checks and safeguards ,
they may be granted
(a) " The free election of representatives of British
nationality in the Legislative Council of the Colony " .
(b) "A majority in the Council of such elected
representatives . "
(c) " Perfect freedom of debate for the official Members
with power to vote according to their conscientious
convictions " .
(d) " Complete control in the Council over local expenditure . "
(e) "The management of local affairs . "
(f) " A consultative voice in questions of an Imperial
character. "
They quote the Colonies of Malta , Cyprus , Mauritius and British
Honduras as enjoying more liberal forms of government than that
under which they are themselves living at Hongkong. They lay
stress upon the commercial energy which has raised the Colony
to its present position of importance . They claim " the common
right of Englishmen to manage their local affairs and control
the expenditure of the Colony where Imperial considerations are
not involved " .
5. Hongkong, when 53 years ago it became a British posses-
sion , was inhabited , I understand , by some 7,000 to 12,000 Chinese
squatters and fishermen . According to the census of 1891 the
population, in round numbers , amounted to 221 , 400 , of whom
211,000 or more than nine- tenths , were Chinese . The Europeans
and Americans numbered 8,500 and nationalities other than
Europeans , Americans , and Chinese , 1,900 . The census further
analyses , as follows , the European and American population .
Out of the total of 8,500 , the resident civil population
amounted only to 4 , 200 the British military and naval forces
mumbered 2,900 , and the remaining 1,400 represented merchant seamen ,
police , and others.
Of the 4,200 individuals , who constituted the European and
American Civil population , 1, 450 only were returned as British .
(73476) 278
Of this number not more than 800 were adult males , and therefore
presumably not more than 800 of them would be entitled to vote .
6. I shall revert to these figures shortly in connextion
with the question of popular representation . Meanwhile it may be
deduced from them that under the existing form of government the
population of Hongkong has in half a century increased ( say)
twenty fold which is prima facie evidence , as you suggest in your
despatch , that the Colony has been well governed , but a further
deduction has also to be made , and that is that under the protection
of the British Government Hongkong has become rather a Chinese
than an European community : and the fact that the Chinese have
settled in the island in such large numbers has not only been one
main element in its prosperity , but also the most practical and
irrefutable evidence that the government , under which a politically
timid race such as the Chinese have shown every desire to live ,
must have at least possessed some measure of strength and of
justice . How far Hongkong is a Chinese settlement , how far the
Chinese have paid the taxes and contributed to the trade , is
touched upon in Mr. LOCKHART'S excellent memorandum which accom-
panies your despatch . He is clearly of opinion also that the
tendency is for the trade of the Colony to pass more and more into
Chinese hands .
I cordially welcome what is said in the petition as to the
skill and energy of the British merchants who have been or still
are residents in Hongkong, and I can testify with pleasure to
their public spirit . But the fact remains that the overwhelming
mass of the community are Chinese , that they have thriven under
a certain form of government and that in any scheme involving a
change of administration their wishes should be consulted and their
interests carefully watched and guarded .
7. The communities with which Hongkong is in the petition
unfavourably contrasted , as regards its mode of government , are
Malta , Cyprus , Mauritius , and British Honduras . Hongkong, it
seems to me , differs from all of these four dependencies of the
British Crown alike in degree and in kind . It is smaller than
any of them, it has no history or traditions , no record of old
settlement or of political usages and constitutional rights . It
has practically no indigenous population ; and , if I understand
right , it has few life - long residents , whether European or Chinese .
8. It is perhaps a fair account of Hongkong and its fortunes
as a British Colony , to say that 50 years ago it was taken by and
for the British Crown to serve Imperial purposes , and to safeguard
British trade in the Far East .
Holding a commanding position at the mouth of the Canton river ,
endowed by nature with a fine harbour , which has been care fully
kept as a free port , like the Sister Crown Colony of the Straits
Settlements , strongly protected by an Imperial garrison and British
ships of war , it has owed its prosperity to these advantages , as
well as to the policy of the Imperial Government , and to the fact
that , being strongly guarded , it has attracted a large Chinese
( 73476 ) 279
population who have found that under British rule their lives and
their property have been safe .
I should be inclined to judge not merely that it has prospered
as a Crown Colony but that it has prospered in great measure
because it has been a Crown Colony.
9. It may, however , be contended that while the Crown
Colony system was suited to the infancy of the Colony , it is now
time that a larger measure of self- government should be conceded .
I therefore propose very shortly to examine the separate
points as to which the petitioners suggest that some concession
should be made .
10. They ask in the first place for " the free election of
representatives of British nationality in the Legislative Council
of the Colony . "
The words are somewhat ambiguous . They may mean that the
voters should be of any nationality European , American, Asiatic
or Chinese , provided that the representatives for whom they vote
are of British nationality . The term British nationality again
may be taken to mean either British subjects of all nationalities
or simply persons who have been born or are the children of those
who have been born in the United Kingdom . I assume , however ,
that what the words are intended to convey is that the English ,
Scotch and Irish in Hongkong should elect representatives of
themselves to the Legislative Council . If this is the meaning
then it is obvious from the figures which have been given above
that considerably more than nine - tenths of the population will be
entirely excluded from the franchise , that Europeans who are not
of the category described , and Americans will be excluded as well
as Chinese , and that among those British residents who alone will
be , it is presumed , entitled to vote , the civil element , some
proportion of which moreover consists of Government officials ,
will be swamped by the military and naval element .
It may be said that the naval and military forces should be
de barred from voting on the ground that they are not resident in
the Colony, but the same objection would apply also , though
possibly in a lesser degree , to the civil population . Indeed ,
over and above any other arguments which can be urged against
representative government in Hongkong, it appears to me that the
transient character of the population is by itself a serious
obstacle .
11. Thc second claim is the complement or rather the
extension of the first . The petitioners ask not only that there
shall be elected representatives in the Council , but that there
shall be a majority of such representatives , in other words that ,
at any rate as regards legislation , the power shall be vested in
a very small section of the population , and that more than nine-
tenths of it shall be controlled by representatives of the small
remainder .
(73476 ) 280
12. The third demand is that the Official Members shall be
allowed to speak and vote as they please . It is a demand which is
familiar in the case of Crown colonies , but only one answer can be
given to it , viz . , that the paid servants of the Government cannot
be left free to oppose the Government . I should be surprised to
learn that the Officials themselves wished to be given this
freedom.
It is in fact not peculiar to the Crown Colony system ; it is
of the essence of all administration that the paid supporters or
components of a government should either vote for and when necessary
speak for the settled policy of the government or else resign their
places .
13. The fourth and fifth claims are to the effect that the
Council , or rather the elected majority in the Council , should
have complete control over local expenditure and the management of
local affairs .
There is point no doubt in these contentions , in that the
municipal institutions , which are to be found in Ceylon and the
Straits Settlements , do not exist in Hongkong, but the difficulty
at Hongkong is and must be to draw a line between matters which
might be entrusted to a municipal council and the business which
must be reserved for the Colonial Government . In saying this
I am aware that possibly or even probably a municipality would
not meet the aspirations of the petitioners , and that they may
place a wider construction upon the terms " local expenditure " and
" local affairs " than I have placed upon them.
14. One of the difficulties with which I am met in dealing
with this petition arises from the fact that the words employed
require to be more accurately defined before their meaning and
the intention with which they are used can be fully gauged .
The criticism especially applies to the last in the list of the
petitioners ' claims , viz . , that they should be given a consul-
tive voice in questions of an Imperial character . This sentence
seems to point to some kind of Imperial Federation, and it is
possibly written with reference to the military contribution
question which has not been without difficulty in various
colonies including Hong Kong. The subject raised is so wide and
so vague that it would be useless to attempt to discuss it . The
question of a general remodelling of the colonial system of Great
Britain for it would probably amount to no less - as it would
necessarily become part of any scheme for a Federation of the
Empire is a most interesting question; but one of too wide and
far- reaching a scope to be dealt with in regard to a single case
alone . But I may state simply that under the existing system
when questions arise which concern the various colonies , it has
been the endeavour of my predecessors in office , and it is my
own earnest endeavour , that the claims , the interests , and even
the prejudices of each colony shall be adequately set forth , and
fully and fairly considered .
(73476) 281
15. To sum up , the petitioners ask nominally that Hongkong
should be given self- government , and an elective system. In my
opinion the place and its circumstances are wholly unsuited for
what is proposed .
An Imperial Station with great Imperial interests , on the
borders of a foreign land , the nucleus of wide -reaching British
interests in the Far East , must , it appears to me , be kept under
Imperial protection and under Imperial control .
In saying this much I am assuming that self- government would
be worthy of the name , and that the elective system would include
all ranks of the community, but this is not what the petition
demands . Those who framed it and signed it would , I gather ,
desire to place the power in the hands of a select few, and to
constitute a small oligarchy , restricted by the lines of race .
To any such change I am opposed . I consider that the well - being
of the large majority of the inhabitants is more likely to be
safeguarded by the Crown Colony system - under which, as far as
possible no distinction is made of rank or race , than by represen-
tation which would leave the bulk of the population wholly
unrepresented .
I can therefore hold out no hope that Hongkong will cease to
be a Crown Colony .
16. It remains to consider whether any step can be taken
which , while not interfering with the Crown Colony system, would
slightly modify the existing constitution in the direction in which
the petition points .
There appear to be three practical suggestions which are
worthy of consideration
(a ) Increasing the number of unofficial Members of the
Legislative Council .
(b ) Introducing an Unofficial element into the Executive
Council .
(c) Creating a Municipal Council .
17. As regards the first of these three points , I am not
inclined to add to the number of the Unofficial Members without at
the same time increasing also the number of official Members, for
in a Crown Colony there must be a very distinct preponderance on
the official side , and that the natural result of evenly balancing
the numbers of officials and Unofficials is friction and irritation .
With this proviso ; there is , as far as I can judge , no strong
objection to increasing the numbers of the Council , except that
for practical working purposes the number is already sufficiently
large . If, however, an addition is made , it is difficult on
equitable grounds to resist the conclusion that another Chinese
representative should be appointed . On the other hand , this is
contrary to the wishes of the petitioners as far as I understand
(73476) 282
them; and Mr. Keswick who , in his interesting and temperate letter ,
which is enclosed in your dispatch, advocates the appointment of an
additional Unofficial member to the Legislative Council , strongly
deprecates " the addition to the Legislative Council of a second
representative of the Chinese " .
The balance of the argument therefore appears to be against
any change in the present number and composition of the Legislative
Council .
18. The second suggestion is that an Unofficial Member should
be appointed to the Executive Council . The suggestion is made by
Mr. Keswick, and you state in your dispatch that you have personally
no objection to it , and that the concession would be very popular
and not altogether impolitic .
I can well realise that the addition of a gentleman of high
standing and great local experience would be a gain to the
Executive Council , and I shall be prepared to sanction the proposal
if you still recommend it after further considering the following
points .
In none of the three Eastern colonies at the present time is
there any unofficial element in the Executive Council , and I am
not clear that the step would in all cases be actively beneficial ,
whereas I am quite clear that the existing system has on the whole
worked well , and that therefore there is no strong reason for
disturbing it .
In the next place I note that Mr. Keswick proposes that the
Unofficial Member should be of English birth . It must , however ,
be taken into consideration that it would be invidious and
inequitable to lay down that Chinese subjects of the Queen shall
be debarred from appointment to the Executive Council , and therefore
the possibility of the appointment being hereafter filled by a
Chinese gentleman must be reckoned with .
In the third place , you state that practically unofficial
assistance in the Executive Council " could always be obtained , if
the status quo were maintained " and you add that you " invariably
consult the Unofficial Members before bringing into Council measures
of purely local interest " . There is therefore not likely to be
much practical gain from the formal appointment of an Unofficial
Member of the Executive Council .
It has occurred to me that possibly, instead of making any
such appointment , some understanding might be come to that in the
case of discussion of specified local subjects , at any rate so
long as there is no municipality in existence at Hongkong, one or
more Unofficial Members should be summoned to take part in the
proceedings of the Executive Council , without giving them seats on
the Council for all purposes . This is a point on which I shall
be glad to have your opinion .
(73476) 283
19. With regard to the institution of a municipal council ,
I frankly say that I should like to see one established at Hongkong .
But there appear to be two practical difficulties in the way.
The first is the present crisis . I am not prepared to sanction any
important change of administration , until the future is tolerably
clear and until the necessary measures for protecting the health
of the Colony have been finally decided upon and brought into
operation . Then, in a clear field , it may be possible to create a
municipal body with some prospect of success .
The second difficulty, to which allusion has already been made ,
is that of separating municipal from Colonial matters . I am not
confident that that difficulty can be overcome , nor am I confident
that a municipality would be welcome to and work harmoniously with
the military authorities. Still it is possible that the Sanitary
Board might be developed into a satisfactory Municipal Council
controlling all or some of the revenue which is now derived from
rates . Whether any scheme of the kind is feasible I would ask
you carefully to consider at your leisure , and in the meantime you
are at liberty, if you see occasion to do so , to give publicity
to this dispatch .
I have the Honour to be , Sir,
Your most obedient , humble servant,
RIPON.
Dispatch from the Secretary of State, Joseph Chamberlain
to the Governor , Sir William Robinson . No. 119, 29th May
1896. Relating to the Petition of 1894. Hong Kong
Sessional Papers 1896 .
HONGKONG DOWNING STREET,
NO. 119 29th May, 1896 .
SIR,
I have had under my consideration the correspondence which has
passed in consequence of the petition for an amendment of the
constitution of Hongkong which was addressed to the House of
Commons in the year 1894 and on which my predecessor had not given
a final decision before he left office .
2. I should have been glad to be able to communicate with
you on the subject at an earlier date but , as you are aware , the
pressure of business at this Department has been exceptional for
some time past .
3. In his despatch of the 23rd of August , 1894 , Lord RIPON
stated that he could hold out no hope that Hongkong will cease to
be a Crown Colony. Neither can I hold out any such hope , for I
conceive that in the case of Hongkong, Representative Government
on whatever form of franchise it might be based , and with what-
ever supposed safeguards as to the Executive power would be wholly
out of place .
(73476) 284
4. There remain two practical points to be decided . The
first is whether the present constitution of the Legislative
Council should be in any way modified . The second is whether an
unofficial element should be introduced into the Executive Council .
5. On the first of these two points my view is as follows : -
I gather that the Legislative Council , as at present constituted ,
is large enough for practical purposes , and that an increase to
its numbers is hardly likely to add to its efficiency to any
appreciable extent . As Hongkong is to remain a Crown Colony no
useful purpose would be served , but on the contrary a considerable
amount of needless irritation would be caused by balancing evenly
the unofficial members and the officials . But having regard to
the fact that , in the absence of the Governor , the Officer Command-
ing the Troops will in future administer the Government , I consider
that it would be of advantage that he should be a member of the
Legislative Council , and if he is added to it , I am willing to add
one unofficial member to the unofficial bench . Who the latter
should be and what special interest , if any, he should represent ,
I leave to the Governor to determine . I may observe , however,
that the Chinese community is the element which is least represen-
ted while it is also far the most numerous , and that I should
regard as valuable any step which tended to attach them more
closely to the British connection , and to increase their practical
interest in public affairs .
6. As regards the second point , namely, whether or not an
unofficial element should be introduced into the Executive Council ,
I would observe that , whilst most of the larger Crown Colonies
possess one or more Municipal Councils , subordinate to the Colonial
Government , in Hongkong there is no such institution . Moreover ,
it seems impracticable to alter this state of things for this
reason among others : that the Colony and the Municipality would be
in great measure co - extensive , and it would be almost impossible to
draw the line between Colonial and Municipal matters .
This being so , in my opinion the most practical course is to
recognise that the Colonial Government is discharging Municipal
duties , and that on that account representatives of the citizens
may fairly be given a place on the Executive .
1°
I therefore propose that the Executive Council shall in
future include two unofficial members to be selected at the discre-
tion of the Governor . It is obviously desirable that they should , as
a rule , be chosen from among the unofficial members of the Legislative
Council , and the choice should , and no doubt will be , inspired by
consideration of personal merit , and have no reference to the
particular class or race to which the persons chosen belong.
8. You will receive in due course amended Royal Instructions
and in the meantime this despatch may be made public with an
intimation that the subject has been considered from every point of
view and that my decision is to be regarded as final .
I have the honour to be , Sir ,
Your most obedient , humble Servant ,
J. CHAMBERLAIN
Governor
Sir W. ROBINSON , K.C.M.G. ,
&C &C . &C
(73476) 285
1
VIII . EXTENSION OF THE BOUNDARIES
This section needs little introduction and has been included mainly
to round off the picture of the Colony. Documents 49 and 50 cover
the cession of Kowloon Peninsula by the Convention of Peking 1860 ;
the first shows Lord John Russell's nervousness in making terri-
torial demands on China , fearing that other countries might make
similar demands ; the second gives the terms of the perpetual lease
secured by Sir Harry Parkes , and Article VI of the Convention of
Peking 1860 has been added to show the conversion of the lease into
a cession .
The next document No. 51 is the 1898 Convention of Peking by
which the New Territories were leased for 99 years . An interest-
ing feature is the number of clauses safeguarding Chinese interests
in the area, the reason being that the British action was brought
about mainly by fear of the consequences of the Franco - Russian
alliance of 1893 , and not through fear of China .
DOCUMENT NO . 49
Dispatch from Lord John Russell to Earl of Elgin and
Kincardine April 25 , 1860 relating to the Cession of
Kowloon .
Secret No. 11 Foreign Office
April 25 , 1860
My Lord ,
I have received your despatch of 24th inst . submitting in
reply to my despatch No. 4 of the 18th inst . that any attempt to
obtain, as part of a new Treaty arrangement with China , if such
should be the result of Y.E.'s special embassy, the cession of the
Cowloon Peninsula might be attended with inconvenience , and that
the least objectionable mode of effecting that object would be to
obtain the cession by purchase in lieu of what may be deemed an
equivalent portion of the indemnity to be demanded from China .
The acquisition of the Peninsula would undoubtedly be a great
convenience as far as the interests of Her Majesty's Colony of
Hongkong are concerned; but if it were to form a precedent for a
demand of a corresponding concession on the part of any other
Power in some other quarter , the convenience would be too dearly
purchased .
(73476) 287
It may be also that even the modified form in which Y.E.
suggests the Peninsula might be acquired ( 1.e. as set against
indemnity, by purchase ) might be open to the same objection .
All therefore that I can say to Y.E. on this matter is that
Her Majesty's Government would gladly acquire possession of the
Cowloon peninsula , but must leave to your discretion the best
means of doing so , or even to abstain altogether from attempting
to do so , if it is likely in your opinion to lead to other demands
injurious to China and unfavourable to British interests .
I am, & c .
(Signed ) J. RUSSELL
DOCUMENT NO . 50
The Lease and Cession of Kowloon
(a) A Deed of Lease [Enclosed in a Dispatch from Sir Hercules
Robinson to Duke of Newcastle , No. 33 , 20 March 1860]
Between Laou , wearing a decoration of the first rank, a
Director of the Board of war , Censor of Right , Governor - General
of the Provinces of Kwangtung and Kwang- se , and commander - in - Chief
of the same on the part of the Chinese Government , and Harry Smith
Parkes Esq . , one of the Allied Commissioners for the Government
of the City of Canton on the part of the British Government to
hold in proof of the undermentioned agreement .
Whereas Tseem-sha - tsuy and its neighbourhood situated in the
subdistrict of Kowloon in the district of Sun- on , and consisting
for the most part of barren hills that cannot be cultivated , has
hitherto formed a place of resort for thieves and outlaws , who ,
availing themselves of the immediate proximity of Victoria , con-
stantly cross to Hong Kong and commit depredations in that
settlement to the serious injury of British subjects who can
obtain no redress against these marauders . · therefore Laou the
Governor- General and Harry Smith Parkes , the Commissioner, afore-
said , have agreed and determined that all that part of the Kowloon
Peninsula lying south of a line drawn from a point near to but
south of the Kowloon fort to the northern-most point of Stone-
cutter Island , together with that Island , as shown in the
accompanying map , shall be leased , as a preliminary measure , to
Harry Smith Parkes , the Commissioner aforesaid , acting on behalf
of the British Government , in order that the latter may exercise
complete control over the same , and take measures for the protec-
tion of the good population and the expulsion or punishment of
the bad, as well as for bringing the whole locality into order
and preventing it becoming a resort for thieves . It is further
stipulated and agreed that a rental of five hundred taels of
silver shall be annually paid for the same to the local Chinese
(73476 ) 288
authorities , and that no claim can ever be made by the Chinese
Government for the return of the said ground as long as the British
Government punctually pay to them the said amount of rent . And
this agreement will continue in force until , in due representation
to be made by the Governor - General Laou , aforesaid , to the Supreme
Government of China the commands of his Imperial Majesty shall be
received authorising the conclusion of other arrangements of a more
permanent character .
These done in duplicate , each of the parties aforesaid one
copy at Canton , this twentieth day of March in the year of the
Christian era 1860 ( in words ) being the 28th day of the second
month of the tenth year of the reign of the Emperor of Sheen fung.
True Copy
Signed: WM. M. COOPER
(b) Convention of Peace between Her Majesty and the Emperor of
China signed at Peking , October 24th 1860 .
ARTICLE VI
With a view to the maintenance of law and order in and about
the harbour of Hong Kong, His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of China
agrees to cede to Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and
Ireland , and to Her Heirs and Successors to have and to hold as a
Dependency of Her Britannic Majesty's Colony of Hong Kong that
portion of the Township of Cowloon in the Province of Kwangtung,
of which a lease was granted in perpetuity to Harry Smith Parkes ,
Esquire , Companion of the Bath , a member of the Allied Commission
at Canton , on behalf of Her Britannic Majesty's Government by Lau
Tsung-kwang, Governor General of the Two Kwang .
It is further declared that the lease in question is hereby
cancelled , that the claims of any Chinese to property on the said
portion of Cowloon shall be duly investigated by a mixed commission
of British and Chinese officers, and that compensation shall be
awarded by the British Government to any Chinese whose claim shall
be by the said Commission established, should his removal be
deemed necessary by the British Government .
Treaties printed in Hong Kong Government Notification .
No. 139 11th December 1860 and published in Government Gazette .
(73476) 289
DOCUMENT NO . 51
CONVENTION between Great Britain and China respecting an
Extension of Hong Kong Territory . Signed at Peking ,
9th June , 1898. [Signed also in Chinese]
[Ratifications exchanged at London , August 6 , 1898. ]
WHEREAS it has for many years past been recognized that an
extension of Hong Kong territory is necessary for the proper
defence and protection of the Colony.
ENLARGEMENT OF BRITISH TERRITORY, UNDER LEASE
It has now been agreed between the Governments of Great Britain
and China that the limits of British territory shall be enlarged
under lease to the extent indicated generally on the annexed map .
The exact boundaries shall be hereafter fixed when proper surveys
have been made by officials appointed by the two Governments . The
term of this lease shall be ninety-nine years .
JURISDICTION
It is at the same time agreed that within the city of Kowloon
the Chinese officials now stationed there shall continue to
exercise jurisdiction except so far as may be inconsistent with the
military requirements for the defence of Hong Kong. Within the
remainder of the newly- leased territory Great Britain shall have
sole jurisdiction . Chinese officials and people shall be allowed
as heretofore to use the road from Kowloon to Hsinan .
USE OF LANDING PLACE , NEAR KOWLOON , BY CHINESE
It is further agreed that the existing landing -place near
Kowloon city shall be reserved for the convenience of Chinese
men -of-war , merchant and passenger vessels , which may come and go
and lie there at their pleasure ; and for the convenience of move-
ment of the officials and people within the city .
RAILWAY
When hereafter China constructs a railway to the boundary of
the Kowloon territory under British control , arrangements shall be
discussed .
NO EXPROPRIATION OR EXPULSION OF NATIVES
It is further understood that there will be no expropriation
or expulsion of the inhabitants of the district included within
the extension , and that if land is required for public offices ,
fortifications , or the like official purposes , it shall be bought
at a fair price .
翼
(73476) 290
EXTRADITION
If cases of extradition of criminals occur , they shall be
dealt with in accordance with the existing Treaties between Great
Britain and China and the Hong Kong Regulations .
USE OF MIRS BAY AND DEEP BAY BY CHINESE SHIPS OF WAR
The area leased to Great Britain , as shown on the annexed map ,
includes the waters of Mirs Bay and Deep Bay, but it is agreed
that Chinese vessels of war , whether neutral or otherwise , shall
retain the right to use those waters .
RATIFICATIONS
The Convention shall come into force on the 1st day of July,
1898 , being the 13th day of the 5th moon of the 24th year of
Kuang Hsü. It shall be ratified by the Sovereigns of the two
countries , and the ratifications shall be exchanged in London as
soon as possible .
In witness whereof the Undersigned , duly authorised there to
by their respective Governments , have signed the present Agreement .
Done at Peking in quadruplicate ( four copies in English and
four in Chinese ) the 9th day of June , in the year of our Lord 1898 ,
being the 21st day of the 4th moon of the 24th year of Kuang Hsü .
(L. S. ) CLAUDE M. MACDONALD
(L.S. ) [Seal of Chinese Plenipotentiary]
(73476) 291
APPENDIX I
List of Governors of the Colony of Hong Kong
Capt . Charles Elliot Administrator Jan. - Aug. 1841
Sir Henry Pottinger Administrator Aug. 1841 -June 1843
Governor June 1843 -May 1844
Sir John F. Davis May 1844- Mar. 1848
Sir S. George Bonham Mar. 1848 -April 1854
Sir John Bowring April 1854-May 1859
Sir Hercules Robinson Sept. 1859. Mar. 1863
W. T. Mercer [Administered ]Mar . 1865-Mar . 1866
Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell Mar. 1866 -April 1872
Sir Arthur E. Kennedy April 1872 -Mar . 1877
Sir John Pope Hennessy April 1877 -Mar . 1882
W. H. Marsh [Administered] Mar. 1882 -Mar . 1883
Sir George F. Bowen Mar. 1883-Dec . 1885
W. H. Marsh [Administered] Dec. 1885. April 1887
Major - General N. G. Cameron [Administered] April - oct . 1887
Sir William Des Voeux Oct. 1887-May 1891
Major-General Digby Barker [Administered ] May-December 1891
Sir William Robinson Dec. 1891 -Jan . 1898
Major- General W. Black [Administered] Feb. -Nov . 1898
Sir Henry A. Blake Nov. 1898 -Nov. 1903
F. H. May [Administered] Nov. 1903-July 1904
Sir Matthew Nathan July 1904-April 1907
Sir Frederick Lugard July 1907-Mar . 1912
Sir Francis H. May July 1912 -Feb . 1919
Sir Reginald E. Stubbs Sept. 1919 - Oct . 1925
Sir Cecil Clementi Nov. 1925-Feb . 1930
Sir William Peel May 1930-May 1935
Sir Andrew Caldecott Dec. 1935-April 1937
Sir Geoffrey Northcote Nov. 1937 -May 1940
Sir Mark Young Sept. 1941 -May 1947
Sir Alexander Grantham July 1947. Dec. 1957
Sir Robert Black Jan. 1958
(73476) 293
APPENDIX 2
List of Secretaries of State for the Colonies
Secretary of State for the Colonies
Ministry Note : Secretary of State for war and
the Colonies until June 1854
Peel , Tory 1841-46 Lord Stanley Sept. 1841 -Dec . 1845
W. E. Gladstone Dec. 1845-July 1846
Russell , Whig 1846-52 Earl Grey July 1846. Feb. 1852
Derby, Tory 1852 Sir J. Pakington Feb. -Dec . 1852
Aberdeen , Coalition 1852-55 Duke of Newcastle Dec. 1852-June 1854
Sir George Grey June 1854- Feb . 1855
Palmerston, whig 1855-58 S. Herbert Feb. 1855
Lord John Russell Feb. -July 1855
Sir William Molesworth July-oct. 1855
H. Labouchere Oct. 1855 - Feb . 1858
Derby, Tory 1858-59 Lord Stanley Feb. -May 1858
Sir E. Bulwer- Lytton May 1858 -June 1859
Palmerston , Whig 1859-65 Duke of Newcastle June 1859-April 1864
Russell , Whig 1865-66 E. Cardwell April 1864.June 1866
Derby , Tory 1866-68 Earl of Carnarvon June 1866 - Mar. 1867
Disraeli , Tory 1868 Duke of Buckingham Mar. 1867-Dec . 1868
Gladstone , Liberal 1868-74 Earl Granville Dec. 1868 -July 1870
Earl of Kimberley July 1870- Feb . 1874
Disraeli , Tory 1874-80 Earl of Carnarvon Feb. 1874. Feb. 1878
Sir M. Hicks Beach Feb. 1878-April 1880
Gladstone , Liberal 1880-85 Earl of Kimberley April 1880- Dec . 1882
Lord Derby Dec. 1882 -June 1885
Salisbury, Tory 1885-86 Sir F. A. Stanley June 1885-June 1886
Gladstone , Liberal 1886 Earl Granville Feb. -Aug. 1886
Salisbury, Unionist 1886-92 E. Stanhope Aug. 1886 -Jan . 1887
Lord Knutsford Jan. 1887-Aug. 1892
Gladstone , Liberal 1892-94 Marquis of Ripon Aug. 1892 -June 1895
Lord Rosebery, 1894-95
Liberal
Salisbury, Unionist 1895-1902 J. Chamberlain June 1895-July 1902
Balfour, Unionist 1902-05 J. Chamberlain July 1902. Dec. 1905
Campbell-Bannerman , 1905-08 Earl of Elgin Dec. 1905-April 1908
Liberal
Asquith, Liberal 1908-16 Earl of Crewe April 1908-Nov. 1910
L. Harcourt Nov. 1910-1916
D 73476 /1 / Wt . P. 10104 K4 5/63 DL 294 S.0. Code No. 88-475*
MACAU
113°E 114-30 114-45
Ko
ng
(East River)
g
Tun
AICHOW
(West Ri
ve
ng r
FATSI Ko
23% -23°N
PINGSHAN
LUNGKONG
TAMSHUI
22-45 22-45
Kong
We
( st
BIAS BAY
KONGMO 0
S BAY
SUNWUI
22-30 22-36
ko
600 A
A
22-15 22-151
CHINA
SHANGHAI
TAIPEH
FORMOSA
HONG KONG
ΔΟ
BANGKOK MANILA PHILIPPINES
22°N 22°N
SAIGON
MALAYA SANDAKAN
SINGAPORE BORNEO
113°E 114-30 114-45
Drawn by C.L. S.C Crown Copyright Reserved
113-50' 114-20'
PENG CHAU
CHAU 0
NA NGO MEI CHAU
MIRS BAY
WONG WAN CHAU
PORT ISLAND
22-30 + 27-30
to
+
TAP MUN CHAU
SHEK NGAU CHAU
TAI TAN
1529
CHEK KENG
TAI LONG
PAK TAM CHUNG
LUN
TUN
TREE ISLAND
LEUNG SHUEN WAN CHAU
OR
Rocky HIGH ISLAND
Harbour
22°20 + -22-20
TER I BLUFF L
BASALT ISLAND
er Bay
STEEP I
NINEPIN GROUP
LUNG
NG ISLAND
SHI
15254000
500
FAN LAU
MILE SCALE OF MILES 4 MILES 2000 -OVER
2 3
Heights in Feet
REFERENCE 1000-2000
Railways
22210+ Roads,Footpaths 200-1000
Villages
Built up Areas
Rivers & Streams, Reservoirs 0-200
113° 50' Ferry Services
Drawn by Crown Lands Crown Copyright Reserved
T
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3 9015 01688 1693