Initial Growth

The new settlement did not go well at first. It attracted unruly elements,
while fever and typhoons threatened life and property. Crime was rife.
The population rose from 32 983 (31 463 Chinese) in 1851 to 878 947
(859 425 Chinese) in 1931. The Chinese influx was unexpected because it
was not anticipated they would choose to live under a foreign flag.

The Chinese asked only to be left alone and thrived under a liberal British
rule. Hong Kong became a centre of Chinese emigration and trade with
Chinese communities abroad. Ocean-going shipping using the port
increased from 2 889 ships in 1860 to 23 881 in 1939. The dominance of
the China trade forced Hong Kong to conform to Chinese usage and to
adopt the silver dollar as the currency unit in 1862. In 1935, when China
went off silver, Hong Kong had to follow suit with an equivalent
'managed' dollar.

Hong Kong's administration followed the normal pattern for a British
territory overseas, with a governor nominated by Whitehall and nominated
Executive and Legislative Councils with official majorities. The first
non-government members of the Legislative Council were nominated in
1850, and the first Chinese in 1880 (Singapore-born lawyer Ng Choy);
the first non-government members of the Executive Council appeared in
1896, and the first Chinese in 1926 (Sir Shouson Chow). In 1972, the
long-standing arrangement that two electoral bodies - the Hong Kong
General Chamber of Commerce and the Unofficial Justices of the Peace -
were each allowed to nominate a member to the Legislative Council, was
discontinued.

The British residents pressed strongly for self-government several times
but the UK government consistently refused to allow it, saying the
Chinese majority would be subject to the control of a small European
minority. A Sanitary Board was set up in 1883, became partly elected in
1887, and developed into the Urban Council in 1936.

The intention, at first, was to govern the Chinese through Chinese
magistrates seconded from the mainland. But this system of two parallel
administrations was only half-heartedly applied and broke down mainly
because of the weight of crime. It was completely abandoned in 1865 in
favour of the principle of equality of all races before the law. In that year,
the Governor's instructions were significantly amended to forbid him to
assent to any ordinance 'whereby persons of African or Asiatic birth may
be subjected to any disabilities or restrictions to which persons of
European birth or descent are not also subjected'. Government policy was
laissez-faire, treating Hong Kong as a market place open to all and where
the government held the scales impartially.

Public and utility services developed - the Hong Kong and China Gas
Company in 1861, the Peak Tram in 1885, the Hongkong Electric
Company in 1889, China Light and Power in 1903, the electric tramways
in 1904 and the then government-owned Kowloon-Canton Railway,
completed in 1910. Successive reclamations began in 1851 - notably one
completed in 1904 in Central District, which produced Chater Road,
Connaught Road and Des Voeux Road; and another in Wan Chai between
1921 and 1929.

Public education began in 1847 with grants to the Chinese vernacular
schools. In 1873, the voluntary schools - mainly run by missionaries -
were included in a grant scheme. The College of Medicine for the
Chinese, founded in 1887 with Sun Yat Sen as one of its first two
students, developed into the University of Hong Kong in 1911 and offered
arts, engineering and medical faculties.

After the Chinese revolution of 1911, which overthrew the Manchu
Dynasty, there was a long period of unrest in China and many people
found shelter in Hong Kong. Agitation continued after Chinese
participation in World War I brought in its wake strong nationalist and
anti-foreign sentiment - inspired both by disappointment over failure at the
Versailles peace conference to regain the German concessions in
Shantung (Shandong), and by the post-war radicalism of the Kuomintang.

The Chinese sought to abolish all foreign treaty privileges in China.
Foreign goods were boycotted and the unrest spread to Hong Kong,
where a seamen's strike in 1922 was followed by a serious general strike
in 1925-26 under pressure from Canton. This petered out, though not
before causing considerable disruption in Hong Kong. Britain, with the
largest foreign stake in China, was at that time a main target of
anti-foreign sentiment, but it was soon to be replaced by Japan in this
odious role.

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