was that, while the foreign community remained silent on the subject, the Chinese residents came forward of their own accord and requested the organisation of a distinctly Chinese Municipal Council for their own particular benefit, and obtained a Police of their own and a consultative voice as to the management, by the Registrar General, of Chinese affairs. As to a British Municipal Council, it has to be noted, that the history of this period emphatically contradicts one great objection to it, which Sir G. Bonham formulated by asserting that out here in the East there is no leisured class and that men of standing possess neither time nor inclination to devote to the interests of the public. The long continued and varied activity in purely public affairs, displayed during this period by individuals like J. Dent, Ph. Ryrie, J. Whittall, W. Keswick and others, and most particularly the large share of attention and time which the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce devoted to questions of general policy, gives the lie to the assertion that the commercial men of this Colony are unwilling to sacrifice their time and their strength to the management of communal affairs.
As regards the general attitude of the Chinese community, it seems that, in proportion as the leading Chinese residents learned, towards the end of this epoch, to understand the principles of British communal liberty, there appeared among them a tendency to retire into their own shell, deliberately refusing any identification with the European community. The persistent refusal to adopt European costume or English ways of living, the uniform aversion to participation in local politics coupled with a deep-seated anxiety to keep on good terms with Chinese Mandarindom even when it blockaded the port to throttle their trade, the steady increase of Chinese joint-stock companies from which foreign investors were jealously excluded, the readiness of secret combination to retaliate against unpopular Government measures by a general strike,—all these symptoms of Chinese clannish exclusivism, natural enough in people whose just liberties have for centuries been invaded by despotic rulers, clearly indicate that on the Chinese side there is, as yet, no
