HONG-KONG

BY DR. JAMES CANTLIE

THE Crown colony of Hong-kong consists of the island. of Hong-kong itself; of several small adjacent islands; and of the peninsula of Kowloon, about three square miles on the mainland of China, immediately opposite the main island. All except the last-named were ceded to Britain in the year 1841; but it was not until the year 1860 that Kowloon became part of the colony. The island, which gives its name to the colony, is in length eleven miles from east to west, and varies in breadth from two to five miles. It occupies an area in all of twenty-nine square miles.

Hong-kong consists of a chain of granite peaks rising abruptly from the sea to a height of over 1500 feet in several instances, and attaining an altitude of 1820 feet at the highest point-the "Peak." The name Hong-kong" in Chinese means "Fragrant Waters," a name bestowed upon it presumably on account of the excellent quality of the water and the abundance of the mountain streams. The granite of which it is composed forms part of the great granite stratum which extends throughout the province of Kwantung, of which Hong-kong is geographically a part. The granite is grey in colour, and presents the peculiar feature of undergoing gradual decay, causing it to crumble down and form a gravel of a reddish colour, which gives to the landscape, especially during the wet season, a bright red colour to those parts bare of vegetation. The vegetation natural to the soil is, how

ever, of the poorest description; consisting of a coarse grass, with dwarfish shrubs of but little pretension. Only during the early spring can there be said to be any attempt at profusion of verdure; it is during the spring that the azalea, which seems indigenous to the island, flowers. At that season the hill-slopes are covered with a fairly profuse blush of pink azaleas, affording for the space of some six weeks a pleasing, but all too short, evidence of tropical verdure. But although nature has done little to beautify the island, the Colonial Government, since the island has been acquired, has devoted laudable pains to make up for the defects in natural afforestation, by planting trees in profusion, so that now there is an arboreal clothing of no mean extent. The height attained by the imported trees is not, nor does it promise to be, other than disappointing; at the same time, although not robust, the plantations serve to beautify the island to a very marked extent.

The acquisition of Hong-kong was an act of political and commercial necessity, if the British meant to retain a hold upon the trade of China. The Chinese were, when they first began to trade with Western nations, even more exclusive than they now are, and it was only at the point of the bayonet, so to speak, that they were compelled to allow trade to be opened with them. Ever since the year 1613 had the British been attempting to acquire the right to traffic with the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire, and from that date onwards to the cession of Hong-kong there were constant bickerings, and occasionally open warfare, between the two peoples. But the British were not the first of the European nations to reach the fardistant land of Cathay. The Portuguese had not only found their way thither, but had acquired a foothold in China in 1557, and established themselves in Macau. Macau is a small peninsula jutting out from

the mainland of China at the mouth of the Canton River, and situated some thirty miles by sea from Hongkong. When the British began to trade with China they were anything but encouraged by the Portuguese, who looked upon them as formidable and powerful interlopers in what they considered to be their exclusive prerogative. It is the old East India Company that we have to thank for opening up the country. It was the merchants of this famous Company who first sent their ships to Chinese waters to barter goods with the natives; and after a few voyages thither the results were found to be so encouraging that they resolved in the year 1627 to open up trade with Canton by way of Macau. As strenuous opposition was offered by the Portuguese to this arrangement, the commander of a British ship, the London, determined to force the way to Canton himself. This he boldly did by sailing up the Canton River, bombarding the Bogue Forts on the way, and astonished the Cantonese by demanding an interview with the Viceroy. Thus was intercourse with Canton begun, but it took many weary struggles, and the waste of much powder and diplomatic wrangles, to teach the Chinese that the British were not to be thwarted in their desire.

It is impossible in the short space at my disposal to recount a tithe of the fights, the international ruptures, the dissensions, and the intrigues by which the trade was interrupted during a period of well-nigh two hundred years. It must be remembered that our relations with China began in the reign of James I.; and Oliver Cromwell, in the year 1654, concluded a treaty with King John IV. of Portugal, whereby the two countries had free access to all ports of the East Indies. About the time the British began to trade with China the ruling dynasty of the Empire was changed from the Ming to the present Tatsing or Manchu. These interlopers, small crofters from the Ultima Thule of

humanity, showed a rooted contempt for all persons engaged in trade. They would have no dealings with the "foreign barbarians," as the Portuguese and the British were styled, and so utterly did they despise them that they did not think it worth while to sweep them from their path. The Manchus permitted foreign traders to reside outside the city gates of Canton, but gave them to understand that they could not claim. equality with even the lowest of the Chinese coolies. They were not allowed to enter the city nor to travel inland, and were permitted to engage servants only from the outcast section of the boat population. So long as foreigners were content to trade on these humiliating conditions, the Chinese accepted their presence; but it was not possible, even in the hopes of making money, for self-respecting British subjects to stand the many insults heaped upon them, and when national pride began to show itself, the Chinese could not and would not tolerate it, and so troubles ensued. At long intervals British men-of-war visited the Canton River, and gave the Mandarins and the Viceroy a taste of their quality; but all to no good. The moment the ships departed the Cantonese authorities doled out more insults, more restrictions, and fresh "squeezes.' The Chinese insisted upon the superiority of their laws, and on several occasions British seamen, after being handed over to the Chinese, were strangled. It was not, in fact, until 1822 that the commander of H.M.S. Topaz took a stand against this form of legislation, and informed the Celestial authorities that the subjects of his Britannic Majesty could not be tried by native courts. Lord Napier was sent by the British Government in the year 1834 with instructions, of anything but a definite character, to negotiate with the Chinese; but he was outwitted, and after long and harassing interviews and correspondence, was conveyed out of Chinese waters and forced to seek refuge in Macau.

The cause of many, if not all these differences of opinion between China and Great Britain was to be found in the fact that there were two British factions at work. The East India Company's servants cared not for the prestige of their country so long as they could gather in the profits derived from the traffic in tea and silk; and they were willing, or at least instructed their ship captains and their agents, to give way at every point to Chinese requirements, however humiliating. The Chinamen would not understand the difference between merchants conducting irresponsible trade and the representatives of the British Government. They persisted in treating naval commanders and their vessels as merely merchantmen, and as the Emperor of China was the potentate of the entire universe, it was impossible for them to stand any attempt of these low-class traders to assume that their Headman," in other words their Sovereign, could be in any way recognised. Lord Napier was told that the Viceroy could hold no communication with "outside barbarians." Napier's mission, however, if it did nothing else, showed the necessity for some place of safety for British subjects in the neighbourhood of the Chinese coast; nay, more, it actually caused Napier to recommend that the island of Hong-kong was a place suitable for British wants. The further history of the relations of Britain and China is within the knowledge of most, and within the memory of many-how the British merchants in the late "thirties" were driven from Canton; how they, with their families and belongings, sought refuge in Macau; how the Portuguese, in consequence of threats from China, refused to shelter them; and how they had to take to their ships to preserve their lives from the fury of the Chinese authorities. They cast anchor in the roadstead of Hong-kong, which was then but a bare, inhospitable rock; on the opposite shore, on what is now Kowloon,