Chapter 8 Kennedy (1810~1883)

Kennedy (1810~1883), an Irishman, served in the British army for a long time, and later turned into an administrative officer, and then worked in the British Colonial Department.Kennedy served twice as Governor of British Zambia.He also held administrative positions in Canada and Africa.He was 62 years old when he became the Governor of Hong Kong. Kennedy had experience in colonial rule, he was good at conciliating during his tenure, he respected Chinese gentry and businessmen very much, and he was good at communicating.He required all government officials to learn Chinese, and set up an examination committee to regularly assess the Chinese proficiency of officials at all levels.

During Kennedy's tenure, Hong Kong's business continued to develop, and the business district gradually moved from east to west, and the so-called Kennedy Town emerged.The urban area is located in what is now the West Ring Road.At that time, it had its own characteristics. After a hundred years, its appearance is basically the same as that of other areas in Hong Kong and Kowloon. When Kennedy arrived in Hong Kong to take office, the Supreme Court justice was still represented by Barr.Like the former Governor McDonald, Barr also played a small joke on Kennedy when he disembarked. When Kennedy took office, a solemn swearing-in ceremony was held as usual.On the day of taking the oath of office, Kennedy recited the oath given to him by Acting Justice Barr to express his loyalty to Queen Victoria.The civil and military officials of the Hong Kong government listened solemnly. When the governor read the sentence "loyalty to the descendants of Princess Lyfia" in the oath, he felt that this oath seemed a bit different from the usual way of saying it, so he stopped immediately. Come down and ask if there is anything wrong with this oath.This question made all civil and military officials baffled.Barr also remained silent, and the master of ceremonies present replied that this was proposed by the acting justice.It means that there is nothing wrong with it.After listening to Kennedy, he continued to read. After reading, he kissed the "Bible" and completed the procedures for taking the oath of office.

During the solemn swearing-in process, the seventh Kennedy suddenly interrupted his reading and asked the people around him whether there were any mistakes in the words of the oath.Unexpectedly, more than ten days later, the Governor suddenly convened a meeting of the Legislative Council, and Kennedy announced to all the members on the spot that it had been confirmed that the oath he read earlier was indeed wrong, and that he requested a provisional legislative procedure so that he could re-enter the Legislative Council. swear.Therefore, the governor read it again according to Barr's re-drafted oath, and then he had completed the legal oath of allegiance procedures.

When McDonald took the oath, Barr was late, and the responsibility can be said to be entirely on him.Barr cannot be entirely responsible for Kennedy's oath-breaking incident.Why didn't the Governor read the solemn oath beforehand?Because of Barr's frequent dereliction of duty, he caused troubles for the two governors. As a result, he couldn't even be the deputy justice, so he had to resign. Kennedy's investigation found that the main reason for Hong Kong's economic downturn was the so-called "blockade" of Hong Kong by the Qing government.This not only objectively hit the smuggling trade condoned by the Hong Kong government, but also had a great negative impact on Hong Kong's commerce and re-export trade.

Regarding the "blockade" of the Qing government, Kennedy's predecessor McDonald had spent a lot of energy. He had negotiated with the Qing government many times, but there was no concrete result. In the period of McDonald's, in 1867, there was a very worth mentioning event, that is, the Qing government and the Hong Kong British authorities had a dispute over the issue of tax inspection.The cause of the incident is that Hong Kong has gradually become a commercial transshipment center along the coast of China. Foreign merchant ships are constantly flowing between China’s treaty-open ports and Hong Kong. The ships owned by the Chinese living in Hong Kong are the same as foreign merchant ships, and they can move freely without restriction. Many businessmen took advantage of this opportunity to smuggle opium, rice from Thailand and Vietnam, and other commodities into the mainland of China, which greatly damaged the Qing government's financial gains.As early as 1685, the Qing government set up customs offices in coastal areas such as Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu to manage foreign trade and collect customs duties.Customs taxation in Hong Kong and neighboring regions is under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Customs.In response to the smuggling situation that occurred in 1867, Guangdong Customs stipulated that all Chinese sailing ships sailing from Hong Kong to non-commercial ports must first pay taxes.

In November 1867, the Qing government took tough measures to strictly check passing ships.A ship transporting opium was stopped by Guangdong Customs of China outside Hong Kong for inspection, and the ship and its cargo were detained.When Hong Kong governor McDonald heard of this, he immediately lodged a strong protest to the Chinese government, and the British government also expressed strong opposition.As a result, the corrupt Qing government had to return the goods and ships. A few months later, the Qing government sent a fast cruiser to towed a row of customs barge checkpoints, moored in the waters off Hong Kong, at the exit of Hong Kong's Jishuimen on the west, and Tung Lung Chau on the east, and set up a customs office. Non-stop inspections, all Chinese sailing ships sailing from Hong Kong must be stopped for inspection, and all those carrying goods destined for non-commercial ports must pay taxes according to regulations.

This move of the Qing government certainly affected Hong Kong's shipping industry.In this regard, McDonald's has repeatedly protested to the Qing court.However, because the smuggling of goods from Hong Kong to various parts of the mainland was very rampant at that time, which affected the tax revenue of the Chinese customs, and the plan to block the Hong Kong port was implemented with the support of other countries, so the Qing government also stiffened. McDonald's protests have been ignored.At that time, Hong Kong foreign businessmen called the action of the Qing government "blockade of Hong Kong".

In 1869, the Suez Canal opened to traffic, and the traffic between Europe and Asia was smoother than before. Ships from the United Kingdom could reach Hong Kong in about two months.In that year, the average number of foreign ships in Hong Kong Port reached 107 per day.The number of foreigners in Hong Kong has increased sharply, reaching seven or eight thousand.Hong Kong's business is becoming more and more prosperous, and smuggling and tax evasion are more frequent. In 1871, Guangdong Customs established permanent customs offices in Kap Shui Mun, Kowloon City, Fo Tau Chau, and Cheung Chau to collect taxes and arrest smugglers.

Kennedy saw clearly the seriousness of this problem, summed up the experience and lessons of his predecessors, and was determined to make a breakthrough on this problem. He knew that the actions of the Qing government did not violate international norms, and it would be difficult to achieve the desired effect by using force as before, not to mention that the British government at this time was not willing to use force against China for the local interests of Hong Kong. Therefore, on the one hand, he continued to keep in touch with the Qing government, expressing his willingness to resolve existing problems through negotiations;

During his second year in office, an incident arose that made him feel like a colonist.Fishermen on China's Ryukyu Island were forced to land in Taiwan after encountering a typhoon. After landing, they clashed with local residents, causing casualties.This was originally China's internal matter, but the Japanese government negotiated with the Qing government as the spokesperson of the Ryukyu boat people. After being reprimanded, they became furious and brazenly sent troops to attack Taiwan in 1874. This sudden incident immediately caused the Qing government to be in a hurry and had no time to care about it.

Kennedy knew that at this time, the Qing government urgently needed the mediation of the great powers, especially Britain, which had strong power in the Far East. As soon as the incident happened, he put pressure on the Qing government many times to force it to make concessions and proposed to quickly lift the "blockade" of Hong Kong.The Qing government did not immediately respond to his request. On December 15, 1873, some businessmen falsely claimed that the Chinese Customs was "interfering with the sailing trade" near Hong Kong.Kennedy immediately appointed the chairman of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, the Director of the Harbor and the Registrar-General to form a three-member committee to investigate this "incident".On April 28 of the following year, the investigation report commissioned by him came out, arguing that the Chinese Customs had indeed engaged in serious "interference".Subsequently, he strongly demanded that the Qing government immediately withdraw the Chinese customs checkpoints moored in the sea around Hong Kong. Under such pressure, the Qing government, which asked the British government to mediate the Sino-Japanese dispute, had to loosen its previous position and agreed to negotiate with the Hong Kong British government on this matter. After long-term negotiations, in September 1874, the Qing government finally agreed to Kennedy's request and lifted the seven-year "blockade". Kennedy is a fellow student of the former Governor-General MacDonald and an alumnus of the same school.They have all worked in Britain's overseas colonies for a long time, and they have held the same position successively in the same place.McDonald's first, Kennedy second.Whether there is a recommendation from McDonald's is unknown. Kennedy is taciturn and not good at communicating with others.But he was good at thinking and quickly understood the main problems facing Hong Kong.He is determined to start with the most important thing, first governing Hong Kong's policing.He saw that with the opening of Hong Kong, more and more people poured in from all directions. On the one hand, it stimulated Hong Kong's economic development, but at the same time, it also caused a series of social problems.The most serious of these is that Hong Kong's social security has been severely impacted.Theft and looting are on the rise, various criminal activities have begun to take shape, criminals have begun to form groups, and triad societies have begun to form, causing great harm to Hong Kong residents.However, the police force in Hong Kong is very limited, the quality of the police officers is extremely poor, and the police activities do not get the cooperation of the majority of Hong Kong residents. Kennedy first reorganized the existing police force, increased police salaries, and solved the difficulties in the work and life of police officers.This approach has the support of most people, including senior officials of the British Hong Kong government, who generally believe that this move is long overdue. Kennedy expanded the police force and boldly employed Chinese as the Hong Kong police to solve the serious shortage of Hong Kong police.However, his method of using Chinese as the police encountered great resistance.The strongest opposition is the police and military.A British police officer in the Hong Kong government made it clear that he disagreed with the expansion of the Chinese police force.He believed that the Chinese could not be good police officers, and the commander of the British Army in Hong Kong also publicly stated that joining the police force with Chinese was of no use. He advocated recruiting police officers from the West Indies. In their view, the social problems in Hong Kong are mainly the problems of the Chinese from the Mainland. If the Chinese are allowed to serve as the police, it will inevitably lead to a situation of collusion between the police and the robbers, which will be even more difficult to deal with. After investigation, Kennedy believes that in Hong Kong, if you want to solve any problem, without the participation and cooperation of the majority of Chinese, nothing will be possible.He resisted all opinions and insisted on implementing this policy. At the same time, Kennedy also reiterated the "Deportation Ordinance" promulgated by the British Hong Kong government in 1854: all captured criminals, if they are not natives of Hong Kong, will be deported if the British Hong Kong government believes that they cannot be accommodated in Hong Kong.This method has also been opposed by all walks of life. The British government also believes that this method is too simple, which is likely to cause adverse social consequences and put the British government under too much pressure.But Kennedy once again insisted and pushed his claim. Through hard work, Kennedy gradually established his own political image. The Chinese make up the vast majority of Hong Kong residents, and they are the main force in the construction and development of Hong Kong.Hong Kong cannot do anything well without the support and participation of Chinese residents.Kennedy, who was old in the accidents of colonial rule, understood this truth well.During his tenure, he was good at appeasing the Chinese society and was famous in history.Kennedy invited Chinese businessmen to attend many celebrations of the Governor's Mansion, and he did not forget to invite Chinese upper class to participate in various social activities. He tried to narrow the distance between Europeans and Chinese by increasing contacts.On the part of the British, he made a decision to require the government officials to be familiar with the situation in China and understand the Chinese society. When Hong Kong was first opened as a port, the British divided the island into different regions, allowing people of different races to live together separately.The central part of Hong Kong Island and the mid-level area are European residential areas, the east and west ends are Chinese living areas, and the Happy Valley area is a place for upper-class Chinese and foreigners to hunt and race horses.The British Army and Navy stationed in Hong Kong occupied a large area of ​​land in the center of the city. At that time, Hong Kong was not only a commercial port, but also a large military camp, and the Chinese residents were especially isolated from the military camp. In the early days of the opening of the port, Hong Kong’s urban construction was very simple. The main street was Queen’s Road. At that time, it was just a small path near the sea. Crowded, dirty, chaotic.Social security is bad, pirates are rampant, and plagues are spreading.In summer, there are often typhoons, and countless people die every time. In winter, there are fires, and houses are often destroyed.Whenever a merchant ship berths, lonely sailors gather in groups, drink alcohol on the street, blatantly make trouble, and more merchant ships abduct people, pack cigarettes and gather for gambling, and smuggling is rampant. For Europeans, the city of Victoria is barren, remote and backward, lacking allure and sense of history.At that time, Hong Kong did not attract the British aristocrats like India, nor did it have the opportunities for adventure like Shanghai.It is only a stepping stone for the aggressors to plunder and invade China and Asia, not a place for personal enjoyment.Therefore, most of the Europeans who came to Hong Kong back then were mediocre, incompetent people without creativity, or dignified and conservative middle-class people.Happy Valley, the Governor's Mansion and the Hong Kong clubhouse are their only social places, and life is very boring. At that time, most of the Chinese who came to Hong Kong were keen on fame and fame. They were either compradors worshiping foreigners, feudal scholar-officials who were old-fashioned and worshiping money, or overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia.They have a certain amount of capital and business skills, they will plan carefully, and they are very harsh on the exploitation of employees.These people gradually developed into big owners. In the 1860s, due to the economic recession, they bought many closed foreign businessmen, and their wealth and power gradually expanded. In the 1870s when Kennedy was in power, Chinese businessmen gradually surpassed foreign businessmen. above.The establishment of Tung Wah Hospital and the establishment of Po Leung Kuk, etc., have shown the role of Chinese in social welfare undertakings, and Kennedy has to look at them differently. Due to the racial discrimination policy of the British Hong Kong government over the years, the Chinese and foreign business communities have almost drawn a clear line between the Chu River and the Han Dynasty.Apart from wanting to own the natural harbor of Victoria, the British are not willing to pay attention to the development of Hong Kong itself.The Hong Kong government's attention is only focused on infrastructure, commercial trade, shipping safety, and events in the European circle of life, and there is no concept of Hong Kong's overall social welfare. For ordinary lower-class Chinese, there was basically no industry at that time, and even handicrafts were pitifully few.The Chinese who make a living by selling their labor force mostly make a living by moving.Workers from different places often have disputes in order to find a living. The Hong Kong government and the police generally ignore the disputes and fights in these communities.That is to say, before the seventh governor, the British rarely interfered with the way of life of the Chinese community. Starting from Kennedy, some people in the British Hong Kong government realized the power of the Chinese and social problems, and tried to change the situation of isolation between China and the West. During his next term as Hennessy, the first Chinese appeared among the members of the Legislative Council. People Wu Tingfang.Some people have analyzed that starting from the period of Kennedy's rule, "a ruling class composed of Chinese and foreign bourgeoisie and colonial bureaucrats began to take shape." This argument is not unreasonable. During Kennedy's tenure, Hong Kong Britain had plans to expand its territory to the New Territories and nearby islands, but the time did not come. On August 15, 1874, a fishing boat registered in Hong Kong went fishing on Lamma Island.At that time, the jurisdiction of the British authorities in Hong Kong was limited to the main island of Hong Kong, as well as the tip of the Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island on the opposite bank.As for the area around Lamma Island and Lantau Island, they are still under China's jurisdiction and have not been ceded.According to the regulations for the protection of coastal naval forces of the Qing government, fishing boats going out to sea must have a boat license from the Guangdong Water Patrol, otherwise they will be punished as piracy if they go to sea without permission.Therefore, the fishing boats from Hong Kong went to Lamma Island to fish, but were intercepted by the Chinese Navy, and the boat photos were checked.This Hong Kong fishing boat could not produce a boat license registered in Guangdong Water Patrol, so the navy accused them of cross-border fishing and asked them to obtain a new boat license, otherwise the fishing boat would be confiscated.The fishermen refused to accept and clashed. The Chinese navy shot and wounded three fishermen, and the fishermen fled back to Hong Kong. At the end of August, at the meeting of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, non-official member Rowett questioned the injury of three fishermen.Rowett questioned whether the waters around Lamma Island and Lantau Island were under the jurisdiction of Hong Kong, and whether preventive measures had been taken for the above-mentioned incidents. At that time, the Colonial Secretary of the Hong Kong Government replied that he had been instructed by Governor Kennedy and had consulted the Attorney General about the fishing injuries. Lamma Island and Lantau Island were not within the jurisdiction of the Hong Kong Government, so there was no way to negotiate with the other party. Since the occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841, Britain has had ambitions for Kowloon and the surrounding islands on the opposite bank. In 1874, although Hong Kong British obtained a large area of ​​land on the Kowloon Peninsula including Stonecutters Island from the Qing government twice by illegal means, they still coveted the islands around the sea and the land behind the mountains of Kowloon. read.It just so happened that Hong Kong-registered fishing boats went fishing on Lamma Island, and the Qingshui patrol boat pointed out that Lamma and Lantau were both outside Hong Kong, and Hong Kong fishing boats were prohibited from fishing. ambition.From then on, the British navy and army stationed in Hong Kong proposed their so-called defense plan for Hong Kong and handed it over to the Governor, declaring that Hong Kong Island is isolated in the sea, and that if it is to be effectively defended, it is necessary to expand and occupy the surrounding islands.They drew up a so-called specific plan on how to expand Hong Kong's borders in order to meet the needs of defense.The specific content of this secret plan was the initial draft of the so-called "extending the boundary of Hong Kong" clause that later became a fact. In September 1874, the most destructive typhoon in history hit Hong Kong Island. Hundreds of houses along the coast were instantly destroyed, many ships sank, and more than 5,000 people were killed. Be a prisoner in a prison ship on the water. The big storm on September 22 was called the "Jiaxu typhoon disaster" in Hong Kong's history, because it was the 13th year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, and it fell on August 13 in the lunar calendar.The storm hit Hong Kong head-on. The anchor chains on the bow and stern of the prison ship moored near Stonecutters Island were broken by the strong wind. personnel. This disaster happened during the Kennedy period, but the origin of the disaster should be traced back to the fifth Governor-General Robinson. In 1862, Governor Robinson of Hong Kong approved the construction of an isolated prison on Stonecutters Island, but it took time to build the prison. In order to prevent prisoners from Victoria Prison from escaping, before the new prison was built, a cargo ship was specially converted into a water prison to house the so-called prison. Severe prisoner.At that time, a total of 300 prisoners with sentences of more than five years were transferred to the floating prison, which was later increased to 600. On February 10, 1863, Stonecutters Island Prison was completed and opened. 600 prisoners serving a sentence of more than five years were transferred from the water prison to Stonecutters Island Prison. Stonecutters Island Prison can accommodate 1,000 prisoners. Since the original Victoria Prison was always overcrowded, although the Stonecutters Island Prison was completed and opened, the Stonecutters Island Water Prison has not been cancelled. A group of serious criminals in Victoria Prison have been transferred to escorted to the boat.When the big storm happened, the ship was full of prisoners, so it caused a catastrophe.The prisoners who were imprisoned in the former Victoria Prison on Old Bailey Street were lucky to escape the catastrophe of the typhoon and were safe and sound.Afterwards, these prisoners felt both lucky and scared. Whenever they looked at Old Bailey Street from the prison, they felt that this street was a street with a long life. Afterwards, the prisoners and family members who visited the prison called this street "Longevity Street". ". In 1874, after the "Jiaxu Storm" blew up the prison ship on the water and caused a tragedy, the Hong Kong British authorities planned to expand the Victoria Prison. The impact on traffic is huge, because there is only one straight road from here to the Central Market. Once Old Bailey Street is closed, the access of residents along Caine Road will be blocked.Therefore, the prison expansion plan was shelved.