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vi power in the world that has not possessions on the shores of the Pacific. Great Britain and the United States, Russia and France, Germany and Italy, Spain and Portugal, all vie with each other in the control of countries bordering on, or islands situated in, the Pacific basin. It requires no prophet's gift to see that the politics of the near future centre in the East and that the problems of the Far East will be solved on the Pacific main. Contests will be sure to arise and in these contests Hongkong will be one of the stations most important for the general strength of the British Empire. Here, even more than in its bearing upon the Asiatic problem, lies the real importance of Hongkong. Such is the position of this Colony in relation to the destinies of the Far East: Hongkong will yet have a prominent place in the future history of the British Empire.

The foregoing consideratons will commend the subject of this book to the attention of the general reader. As to its treatment, the endeavour of the writer has been to combine with the aims of the historian, writing from the point of view of universal history, the duties of the chronicler of events such as are of special interest to European residents in the East so as to provide at the same time a handbook of reference for those who take an active interest in the current affairs of this British Colony