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5 SIR JOHN POPE HENNESSY 1877-1882 Under the appeasing influence of Kennedy the agitations of the previous administration had subsided. An unusual calm had fallen upon the Colony and British and Chmese had settled down side by side to make hay while the sun shone. In these circumstances one might have expected that the continuance of so happy a state ofaffairs would have been assured,ifnot by extending Sir Arthur's term, at any rate by sending a second Sir Arthur to succeed the first. But, if the Secretary of State frowned on excessive exuberance , he was no less fearful of stagnation and accordingly, as the time for Kennedy's retirement drew near, he cast about for one who could be depended upon to keep things moving. There is no doubt that he was entirely successful. The choice fell on Sir John Pope Hennessy, then completing his tour as Governor of the Windward Islands. Like his two immediate predecessors Sir John was an Irishman. But just as Sir Richard Macdonnell and Sir Arthur Kennedy had differed widely in temperament, Sir John differed violently from both. For all his suavity of manner, Sir Arthur, no less than Sir Richard, was a strict realist. Like his predecessors Sir Arthur's conception of Hong Kong was of a place where an Englishman from the other side of the world could not only careen his ship without interference, but also dwell in peace and security ashore. If the natives from the neighbouring province cared to come in too, well and good-indeed their presence was perhaps necessa可 to the comfort and well-being ofthose from overseas-but they must behave themselves and conform to the law of the land. To outrage and violence there was but one answer: 但ogging， branding and expulsion. Sir John Hennessy had, or so he beheved, a more excellent way. To him the Chinese were not there simply on sufferance. To him it seemed that as considerable tax-payers they had a claim to be represented on the Council which voted expenditure. In his view the corollary of a ‘pa峙， was irresponsibility on the part of those outside. Had this not been frequent1y advanced in extenuation of the extravagances of foreign merchants cooped up in Canton in r877-r882 41 the old factory days? Believing even law-breakers capable of amendment, he set more store on the reform of the prison system and the creation of a prisoners-aid society 也an on the cat and branding iron. Believing prevention to be better than cure, he ardently favoured an extension of the educational facilities in the Colony. The schools were well enough, though what assurance was there that they would provide a preponderance of the Colony's future citizens, or even that their output would remain in ihe Colony at all? 1'0 th'e average British -merchant the rest of the trogrmme 叩peared strange indeed, and parts 圳…ned to order on madness. Even 0伍cials looked a little askance. and in the military authorities, this unconventional gentleman in the grey frock-coat and nonchalantly poised top-hat aroused instinctive suspicion. Onlookers predicted an inevitable c1ash. But Sir John, who had acquired some reputation in the pursuit of a similar policy in the West Indies, saw no reason for not applying it equally on the China coast. His first opportunity for doing so came when asked to give a ruling on a proposal to sell to a Chinese merchant certain premises within the Central district of the town, hitherto regarded, by custom, as the exc1usive reserve of Europeans. His reply, in the form of a resolution of the Governor-in-Council of 23 May 1877, permitted Chinese to own and occupy any buildings ‘along any pa前 of the Queen's Road and the business streets immediately adjoining up to a line drawn along Upper Wyndham Street, Hollywood Road, Aberdeen Road [sic], arid back ofthe lots facing Caine Road and Bonham Road and High Street'. A year or two later he announced to the Secretary of State with evident satisfaction that land in this section to the value of 1,700,000 dollars had passed from European to Chinese hands: c1early the decision was popular not only with a section of the Chinese but also with a section of the Europeans. But when he proceeded positively to put a stop to the branding of prisoners prior to banishment and the public flogging of offenders he found the British community strongly arrayed...

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