The Sea Road to the East, Gibraltar to Wei-hai-wei / Six Lectures Prepared for the Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial Office

by A. J. Sargent

Seventy years ago Hongkong was a mere rock, inhabited by a few fishermen; its sole value lay in its anchorage beyond the reach of Chinese troops. For two centuries the East India Company had traded on sufferance at Canton, but in 1834 its trade monopoly was abolished and the servants of the Company gave place to a British official. The Chinese failed to understand the change; they wished to treat our representative just as they had treated the merchants. In the end the foreign community was forced to leave Canton, and we despatched an armed expedition to support our claim to trade and to place the interests of British subjects on a secure footing. The war which followed is often styled the opium war; but the opium trade was only one item in the quarrel which involved recognition by the Chinese of international relations.

Our merchants, driven from Canton, and warned off from Macao by the Portuguese, who feared the Chinese and were jealous of our trade, took refuge in the roadstead of Hongkong, though the Chinese placed batteries on Kaulun and threatened to fire on the ships. In this way we first came to the island, which was ceded to us by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. In 1860, at the conclusion of 8 another war, we obtained full possession of the Kaulun peninsula, which we had already leased from the local authorities as being necessary for the security of the harbour. Finally, in 1898, we leased the New Territory at the back of Kaulun, amounting in area to about 370 square miles. This was just as necessary under present conditions as the peninsula of Kaulun had been in the past, since Victoria with its shipping would be at the mercy of long-range artillery mounted on the hills of the mainland. From the first the Chinese people, recognizing the value of the security given by British rule, flocked to the island; so that we now have over 300,000 Chinese residents in the island and peninsula, excluding the leased Territory, and on the native boats and junks, while the European population numbers only a few thousand. The Chinese seem to prefer our system of government to their own. Hongkong is not merely a fortress; it is a free port, except as regards the importation of alcohol, and one of the greatest commercial centres in the world; but without the Chinese its trade could not be carried on for a single day.

Let us now land and learn something of the city and its 9 inhabitants. We stroll along Queen’s Road, the main artery of the town from west to east, with its offices and shops and its general air of prosperity. Then we turn off into a street running upwards from the harbour; it is 10 Pottinger Street, named after Sir Henry Pottinger, the trainer of the treaty of 1842. The tall houses and narrow roadway remind us that there is very little level ground in Victoria and that space is valuable. We could judge this also from the general views of the Peak which we saw as we entered. Trade needs money, and there are various banks in the city; one of the finest buildings is that of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, which is well known in England and has a large branch in London. If we go into one of these banks we find that many of the clerks and cashiers are native Chinese. Here is the entrance to the 11 Hongkong and Shanghai bank and here is the back of the great block of fine buildings. The statue in the corner is that 12 of the late Queen Victoria, and the figures in the foreground are Chinese women carrying pigs in baskets. The whole of this area, with its open spaces, including a cricket ground, and the mass of buildings which we saw from the harbour, has been reclaimed from the sea. In one of the narrow 13 streets we may see something of native customs. It is New Year’s Day, a great festival among the Chinese; all over the ground there is a litter of crackers, and we may perhaps see them solemnly firing a huge cracker in front of some important house as a kind of New Year’s greeting. At a corner we come on a scene which reminds us of 14 London: the road is up and labourers are at work, but here they are Chinese. Down on the water front is another aspect of native life. Here we have a large 15 population living always in covered boats; there are millions of Chinese living in this fashion on the rivers and waterways of the mainland.

To see how the Europeans live we must leave the busier part of the town and climb up the hill. Down below, in the native quarter, the houses are crowded together and the air is close. Higher up are trees and gardens and 16 open spaces. Here is a view from Battery Path, on our way up. We end our walk at Government House, where 17 we see the inevitable Chinese gardener at work.

To get a view of the island we must take the cable railway to the very summit of the Peak. It is much cooler here and there are many European houses. Hongkong is on the edge of the Tropics and is wet and warm in summer, while the town of Victoria is shut off from the sea breezes by the surrounding heights. But the upper part of the ridge is open to the Southeast Monsoon winds blowing in from the sea, and so it is a healthy residence for Europeans not unlike the hill stations of India.

In the matter of health, the island in past years had not a good name. On the southeast coast is Stanley, 18 a primitive little village on a beautiful bay; here is the spot where the British troops first landed in 1840. Further west, behind a sheltering island, is Aberdeen, which was also occupied for a time. But both were found to be unhealthy and so the troops were withdrawn. Stanley is a mere fishing village, though the graves of the soldiers and their wives are there to remind us of the price which we pay for our Empire. Aberdeen is a little more important, as it possesses a dock. But its main industry is fishing; and 19 here we can see the fishermen, watched by an admiring crowd, dragging out a large rock fish, which will be towed alive, behind a launch, to the market at Victoria. The mass of the population of the island is concentrated in Victoria, which is greatly overcrowded. Much has been done for health by improved drainage, and the great reservoir at Taitam, in the southeast corner of the island, with the concrete channels for gathering the heavy rains on the hill slopes, provides an ample supply of good water; but the Chinese have peculiar ideas as to sanitation, and plague and epidemic diseases are frequent, so that Hongkong has drawbacks as a place of residence, especially for European children. Though the hill is cooler than the town, it is damp, so that many prefer the drier Kaulun district on the other side of the water. Here a new Victoria 20 is growing up with busy wharves and docks. Land is being reclaimed from the sea, and in the surrounding 21 hills we find granite quarries with abundant material for the building of docks and sea walls. On a small hill near the landing stands a curious tower, with masts and flag-staffs 22 around it. This is the observatory, which watches the weather and especially gives warning of the approach of the dreaded typhoons of the China seas. These are fierce whirling storms which sweep in, usually in the autumn, from the ocean to the south-east, and then curve northwards along the coast of China towards Japan, carrying ruin in their track. In 1906, the warning failed to come: many large steamers were sunk or driven ashore; trees were rooted up and buildings beaten to the ground, and enormous damage was done to the piers and quays on the 23 water-front. Here is the signal which is hoisted to give notice of the coming of a typhoon.

Behind Kaulun is the New Territory: a land of mountain and torrent, with here and there a broader valley 24 with fields of rice and sugar-cane. Here we see some of these rice fields on the route of the new railway. 25 Notice how the ground is flooded. The population, about 100,000 in all, is not very dense and is grouped in scattered villages. Here is a view of the picturesque country at the 26 back of Kaulun, with a cattle depôt in the foreground to remind us that the city must be fed from the surrounding 27 country. Here again we see a street in Tai-wo-shi and a group of villagers gathered round the village 28 well. Let us pay a short visit to Wun-yin, or “Pottery” village, for a glimpse of a native industry. We see a 29 potter at work, painting the little bowls, but he does not look quite the same as the ordinary Chinese of the 30 south. He is a Hakka, as is also this native woman, who does not seem in the least nervous in front of the camera. Neither is handsome, but they are very useful in Hongkong, since they do much of the hard manual work which is necessary in a great port. The Hakkas are immigrants, of a different race from the natives of the Canton district, and they have different habits. Among other peculiarities they do not bind the feet of their women.

In the New Territory we are already changing the face of the country. Water is being impounded in great 31 reservoirs for the supply of Kaulun, and a railway twists and burrows through the valleys and mountains, and connects at the frontier with the Chinese railway to Canton. So the Territory has a future of its own, but its real importance is as a protecting barrier to the harbour of Hongkong.

Hongkong is an excellent instance of the attraction which a free port, under a Government which gives security for life and property, and deals out even-handed justice, has for an industrious native race. The liberality with which the wealthier Chinese support public objects in Hongkong, such as schools and hospitals, is the best proof that they appreciate the methods and value of British rule.

The close connexion which has always been maintained between Canton and Hongkong, and the fact that the British Concession at Canton is an interesting survival from an earlier stage of our relations with China, justify us in paying a flying visit to that city before continuing our voyage northwards. So we board one of the small local steamers and pass up the broad river, with the old forts on its banks, which more than once have been bombarded by our fleets, until the growing crowd of native shipping tells as that we are approaching the great commercial 32 city. Here are junks and sampans packed together or moving slowly about the river, and huge shallow-draught steamers, resembling pictures of the old boats on the Mississippi, fifty years ago. We land at last on the 33 Shameen, the British settlement outside the walls. It was originally a mere mud bank, facing the main river and protected by a narrow creek at the back. Now it 34 is laid out as a European town, with open spaces, a church, and European houses and gardens. Here is a view of the 35 creek with the English bridge. Across the creek is a Chinese suburb, thickly packed with native houses, 36 and beyond are the high walls of the vast city with its million of turbulent people. We cross the bridge and make our way to the massive gates; if we are wise we shall take a guide with us. From the top of the old wall we look down over a sea of roofs, with here and there a fire lookout or a huge building, a pawnshop, showing above the general level. Hidden below is a mass of narrow and winding streets, and far away, in the very 37 midst of the city, towers the great Flowery Pagoda. Just below it is a building which we must visit, the old British Yamen, at one time the residence of our officials, though they now prefer the greater comfort of the Shameen. Here, in the heart of Canton, in the former palace of a high Chinese official, we established a British representative. It was a great change from the days when British merchants carried subservient messages to the city gates and the Chinese refused to interview or in any way recognize British officials. This interesting building is of great 38 significance in the history of our relations with the great Empire of the East. Here are two views of the Yamen; 39 we seem to be very much in the heart of China.