Author(s): Frank Welsh

History

In 1842 a barren island was reluctantly ceded by China to an unenthusiastic Britain. Hong Kong, grumbled Palmerston, will never be a mart of trade. But from the outset the new colony prospered, its early growth owing much to the energy and resourcefulness of opium traders, who soon diversified in more respectable directions. In 1859 the Kowloon Peninsula was sold to Britain, and in 1898 a further area of the mainland, the New Territories, was leased to Britain for 99 years - the arrangement from which the present difficulties spring.