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
Printed and published by
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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 Unpublished Crown Copyright material in the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 .