The Six-Day War of 1899
By Patrick H. Hase
“The leased area [the New Territories] was not seen as an economic advantage to the City (indeed, it was initially assumed that it would be a drain on the Colony’s finances), but it was seen as greatly strengthening the City’s security against attack.”[i]
For anyone who is quite serious about the New Territories, I highly recommend The Six-Day War of 1899 as a literary exploration. In this short and wonderfully written book, Mr. Patrick Hase tells a detailed account on the six-day war between the indigenous villages of the New Territories and the British colonial army in 1899. These six days were a pivotal time. Britain proclaimed the New Territories to be part of the Crown Colony.
Reading a colonial writing in post-colonial times elicits a sense of history that comes with feelings of conflicted loyalties. On the one hand, I sympathize with the villagers who dared waging a war against the British. They must have known the risks as even the Ch’ing army could not win. While the author explained various good reasons why the villagers waged an armed resistance, I think nationalist feelings motivated their participation (especially with the rank-and-file). With the benefit of hindsight, however, I am also glad that the villagers lost. I grew up in the New Territories under British administration. Hong Kong owes its success to the British.
The author takes pains to explain the underpinnings of imperialism. It remains a term that Chinese authorities often uses as political banter even now. British imperialism certainly had some unifying characteristics throughout the British colonies of the world. At the height of support for imperialist thinking, adherents believed that military expansion, and thereafter the governance of the colonies, ultimately benefited the colonial subjects. That if governance met the ideals of imperialism, Great Britain would bring forth civilization to peoples that could potentially be “raised” to meet the standards of the British middle class.
The chapter on colonial warfare is a vignette of classic, textbook tactics in conducting colonial battles. The author explains how the best military minds of Great Britain would conduct small-scale military campaigns in rough terrains. I think this chapter is worth a close reading. It is the key to understanding how British official Berger conducted the decisive battle in the Six-Day War that handed victory to the British. That is, despite the serious outnumbering of the British forces, and the very good military sense shown, by the villagers.
Surely, this book was itself written in post-colonial times. However, the sentiments were that of a former colonial official trained to administer Hong Kong affairs with a benevolent mindset. It required exceptional understanding of and sympathies with the people. The author’s commitment to Hong Kong, and particular to the indigenous population in the New Territories, comes through loud and clear. Yet at the same time he has not lost his roots as a British compatriot. He painstakingly communicates the various governing objectives and conflicting viewpoints amongst the then-governing officials that ended up effectively burying the truth of the Six-Day War.
Finally, as a historical account of a long-forgotten war, this book presents even-handedly the views and positions on both sides. Although there was no oral history available to explain the villagers’ stories, the author has extended significant effort in garnering evidence in genealogical records and artifacts with serious analyses and inferences.
This book brought me back to the beginnings of colonial Hong Kong, a time when people fought battles over raw ideals as well as practical survival. As I finished reading, I sighed, yearning for the era that has truly ended, more than twenty years since.
[i] Patrick H. Hase, The Six-Day War of 1899: Hong Kong in the Age of Imperialism, at 15.