develop enormously for a time, whilst the war itself raged at a distance.
The principal benefit of a lasting character that Hongkong derived from this second war with China consists in the acquisition of the Kowloon Peninsula. The first official suggestion of the great importance attaching to Kowloon appears to have originated with a naval officer. On 2nd March, 1858, four months before the conclusion of the Tientsin Treaty, Captain W. K. Hall, of H.M.S. Calcutta, forwarded to the local Government copy of a letter addressed by him to the Earl of Hardwicke. In this letter. Captain Hall represented that the present opportunity of obtaining the cession of Kowloon Point and Stonecutters' Island should not be lost, especially as another Power might occupy these vantage points to the great detriment of Hongkong. Captain Hall argued that the Kowloon Peninsula would afford much needed sea-frontage for commercial building lots and additional barrack accommodation; that the British occupation of Kowloon would remove the danger with which the mercantile shipping, anchored during the typhoon season in close proximity to the settlement of lawless Chinese vagabonds at Tsimshatsui, was threatened; that H.M. Naval Yard ought to be transferred to Kowloon and its present side utilized for barracks; and that Stonecutters' Island would be useful for a quarantine establishment and for the strengthening of the defences of the Colony. It seems that General Ch. van Straubenzee at once took up Captain Hall's suggestion and reported to the War Office (in March, 1858) that he had forwarded to Lord Elgin a recommendation to include among the claims to be made at the conclusion of the war the cession of Kowloon Peninsula. Lord Elgin, who never did anything for Hongkong that he could help and did not even take the trouble to conceal his aversion to the Colony, refused to entertain the suggestion of the annexation of Kowloon. He said he had no instructions on the subject. Accordingly the Treaty of Tientsin (June 28, 1858) left Hongkong in the exact position in which it was under the Treaty of Nanking. Sir J. Bowring, however, drew the
