ly a
few fishermen's huts. In order to make it a trading port and encourage
people to live there, the British Government spent large sums of money
year after year for its improvement and development, and through the
wise administration of the local Government every facility was afforded
for free trade. It is now a prosperous British colony with a
population of nearly half a million. But what have been the advantages
to Great Britain? Financially she has been a great loser, for the
Island which she received at the close of her war with China was for
many years a great drain on her national treasury. Now Hongkong is a
self-supporting colony, but what benefits do the British enjoy there
that do not belong to everyone else? The colony is open to all
foreigners, and every right which a British merchant has is equally
shared with everyone else. According to the census of 1911, out of a
population of 456,739 only 12,075 were non-Chinese, of whom a small
portion were British; the rest were Chinese. Thus the prosperity of
that colony depends upon the Chinese who, it is needless to say, are in
possession of all the privileges that are enjoyed by British residents.
It should be noticed that the number of foreign firms and stores (i.e.,
non-British) have been and are increasing, while big British hongs are
less numerous than before. Financially, the British people have
certainly not been gainers by the acquisition of that colony. Of
course I shall be told that it adds to the prestige of Great Britain,
but this is an empty, bumptious boast dearly paid for by the British
tax-payer.

From an economic and moral point of view, however, I must admit that a
great deal of good has been done by the British Government in Hongkong.
It has provided the Chinese with an actual working model of a Western
system of government which, notwithstanding many difficulties, has
succeeded in transforming a barren island into a prosperous town, which
is now the largest shipping port in China. The impartial
administration of law and the humane treatment of criminals cannot but
excite admiration and gain the confidence of the natives. If the
British Government, in acquiring the desert island, had for its purpose
the instruction of the natives in a modern system of government, she is
to be sincerely congratulated, but it is feared that her motives were
less altruistic.

These remarks apply equally, if not with greater force, to the other
coloni