3.8 Law and order

Maintenance of law and order was one of the most formidable tasks facing the Hong Kong authorities after 1841. Piracy menaced trade and every junk ran the risk of capture, and there were carefully planned attacks on selected vessels regularly. On land, robbery and burglary were commonplace.

Gambling houses and opium dens continued to flourish and were controlled by triad societies.

In view of this situation, soldiers were recruited as police in the early years.

In 1844, the Police Force was set up while a District Watch Force was also formed in 1866 to patrol the streets at night.

Moreover, the British forces in Hong Kong played a major role in maintaining law and order.

Various kinds of punishment including sentencing to death, imprisonment, deportation, flogging and parading around the city were employed to deter people from committing crimes.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

3.7 Escalation of the War

The war escalated because Britain was dissatisfied with the concessions that Elliot secured from China. Elliot's successor Henry Pottinger reached Guangzhou in August 1841 and immediately launched an all-out offensive, re-occupying Dinghai and taking Xiamen (Armoy), Zhenhai and Ningbo.

In June 1842, fortified by reinforcements, the British followed the Yangtze upriver to capture Zhenjiang (Chinkiang), and were encamped outside Nanjing (Nanking) by August.

The Qing government had no option but to succumb to further British demands.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

3.6 British occupation of Hong Kong Island

On 24 January 1841 the British warship "Sulpbur" sailed into Hong Kong waters and troops landed the next morning. Other warships followed on 26 January.

The British flag was raised and, amidst the booming sound of the gun salute, the formal occupation of Hong Kong Island was proclaimed in Britain's name.

The landing spot was later named Possession Point.

The site in Sheung Wan has now become the Hollywood Road Park. Possession Street is nearby.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

3.3 Lin Zexu and Kowloon Coastal Defence

After Commissioner Lin Zexu arrived in Guangzhou in 1839, he realised that he had to control the water between Tsim Sha Tsui and Hong Kong Island to prevent British ships from using this passage for their contraband opium trade.

He therefore relocated the headquarters of the Dapeng Brigade to Kowloon, and had two forts built at Tsim Sha Tsui and Kwun Chung (Yau Ma Tei) to stand guard over the harbour, protect Humen (the Bogue) and deprive the British of this vital east-west passage.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

3.2 Destruction of the Opium

Model showing the destruction of Opium

Opium smoking equipment including Lamp, Pipe, and Opium Poppies.

When Commissioner Lin arrived in Guangzhou in 1839, he ordered the foreign merchants to surrender their stock of opium and promise not to import any more of the pernicious drug into China. Altogether 20,283 chests of opium were surrendered from the barges moored off the Bocca Tigris.

On Lin's orders, this opium was destroyed in lime pits over a period of 23 days from 3 June 1839

Credit : History Museum of HK.

3.5 The first Opium War

In October 1839 the British Parliament passed the Bill of War against China by a slight majority after a heated debate. Arriving in June 1840, the British expeditionary force swiftly moved north to occupy Dinghai (Tinghai), then farther morth to the mouth of River Baihe, in threateningly close of events, the Qing government dismissed Lin Zexu and despatched Qishan (Keshen) to negotiate peace.

Qishan and Elliot jointly prepared a draft treaty after prolonged negociations, which in the end was not accepted by either government.

Hostilities were resumed the following February and Guangzhou fell to invading troops in May 1841.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

3.4 Conflict in Kowloon

Tension between Chinese and British escalated after Lin's destruction of opium at Humen in June 1839 and the killing of a Chinese Superintendent of Trade in China, Charles Elliot, led three British ships to Kowloon to purchase food.

Frustrated by failure to lift the Chinese ban on food provision, he ordered one of the ships to open fire.

After several hours' exchange of shelling, the British ships ran out of ammunition and withdrew.

This heralded a couple of skirmishes which constituted the prelude to the First Opium War.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

3.1 The Opium trade

Since Chinese tea was in great demand in Britain while its products were not popular in China, the early Sino-British trade was greatly in China's favour.

But Britain found the solution in opium grown in British India and shipped to China.

The annual import of 4,000 chests in the early 19th century multiplied to 35,000 chests in 1838.

The British trade imbalance with China was entirely reversed and immense sums of silver dollars drained out of China's economy. The scourge of opium addiction swept through China.

Estimates of the number of addicts ranged as high as 10 million, with serious repercussions on China's economy and its people's health.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

3.0 From trade to war

The three and a half centuries from the coming of the Portuguese in 1498 to the outbreak of the Opium War in 1840 witnessed the transition of Sino-Western relations from an era of peaceful trade to one of direct confrontation ending in the use of force.

The Opium War was the watershed of Hong Kong's history, demarcating the time when from a few scattered fishing villages and rural hamlets under the jurisdiction of Xim'an county it became a British colony, with all the cataclysmic changes that resulted.

Through this film it is hoped that the audience would re-live this chapter of history.

Credit : History Museum of HK.