ABSTRACT
Governing colonial territories was always a complex matter involving a number of different parties and interests, including the Colonial Office and individual Governors, who mainly wished to establish order in colonies at minimum cost. The task of Colonial Office was to mediate the competing interests, whilst itself ensuring that individual Governors operated with the general terms of government policy and the rule of law. One consequence of this process was that colonial rule in each colony was often the product of a different ‘mix’ of influences, factions within the ruling elite of each colony holding different ideas about how best to govern. The accepted or ‘standard’ story of Hong Kong’s, as Tsai reminds, is one of continuous growth and stability, with a politically apathetic Chinese population governed by benevolent British colonial rulers. Some of the Chinese population had fled to Hong Kong seeking to evade the Mainland authorities; others sought to exploit new opportunities for gain, including piracy and banditry.
