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1861), and by the ceremony of handing over Kowloon Peninsula to the British Crown (January 19, 1861), the leading spirits of the war period bade farewell to the Colony. Before the close of January, 1861, the expedition had departed and when the small force left in occupation of Canton city (until October 21, 1861) likewise left for Europe, the social life of Hongkong resumed its ordinary aspects. Club life, however, encountered during this period some lively disturbances. The Hongkong Club had been established to promote the interchange of good feeling among the representatives of the Civil Service, the Army and Navy, and the mercantile community, and to receive strangers visiting Hongkong. Nevertheless it happened occasionally, and in the years 1859 and 1860 with distressing frequency, that persons were blackballed who from their social or official position had a claim to admission. This caused much animated dissension. In April 1860, the Club Committee made a rule, requiring cash payment in the case of naval officers, which might have remained harmless, but when a public paper indiscreetly discussed the matter and stated that this rule had been occasioned by an enormous amount of bad debts burdening the Club finances, a little tempest arose. The naval officers on the station assembled in full force (April 18, 1860) and demanded of the Committee the names of naval officers, whose bills remained unpaid, with a view to their liquidation. When the Committee refused to give up the names, the naval officers withdrew from the Club in a body, the military officers also threatened to withdraw, and dissensions dragged on till the close of the year, when the dispute was at last amicably settled (December, 1860). A fresh disturbance of Club life arose, in 1864, in connection with the riots between sailors, soldiers and police. The Volunteer Corps was called out to take the place of the military in patrolling the streets. It so happened, on the evening of 14th September, 1864, that the Volunteer Corps, on returning from patrol duty, was made to fall out in front of the Club. Some of the members of the Club invited their friends among the Volunteers to join them in some