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358 attention of the Colonial Office to the importance of Kowloon, and in the following year (March 29, 1859) distinctly recommended its annexation by cession in the following words. 'The possession of the small peninsula opposite the Island is become of more and more importance. To say nothing of questions of military and naval defence, it would be of great commercial and sanatory value, while to the Chinese it is not only of no value, but a seat of anarchy and a source of embarrassment. I hope therefore that measures will be taken for obtaining a cession of this tract of land.' In October, 1850, the Downing Street Authorities urged this recommendation upon the consideration of the War Office in connection with the renewal of the war with China, and on March 12th, 1860, Mr. Sidney Herbert (then Secretary of State for War), agreeing with this proposal, dispatched to Hongkong a memorandum on the military occupation of Kowloon. Strange to say, on the very same day (March 12, 1860) Sir H. Robinson forwarded to Sir P. W. Bruce, at the urgent suggestion of Sir H. Parkes, a memorandum on; the civil occupation of Kowloon. Sir H. Parkes had been urging the Governor to take the peninsula on a lease which he, as Chief of the Commission in occupation of Canton, believed he could easily obtain from the Cantonese Viceroy Lao Tsung-Kwong. Sir Hercules was at first unwilling to ask for a lease because the charter of the Colony made no provision for such an arrangement. He shrank from asking the Chinese Government to grant, as a favour, ground which at the moment was needed for the prosecution of the war. Indeed a part of the peninsula had, with the Governor's sanction, already been informally utilized (since February, 1860) as camping ground. Nevertheless Sir Hercules forwarded Sir H. Parkes' proposition, to Sir F. Bruce on March 12th, 1860. The next day (March 13, 1860) a new advocate of the annexation of Kowloon, and one who afterwards claimed to have originated the idea, arrived in Hongkong, in the person of General Sir Hope Grant, G.C.B., the commander of the English expedition. His statement is as follows. 'On the opposite coast, and within three-quarters of