Queen Elizabeth II 25th Anniversary Coronation First Day Cover, Hong Kong postmarked on June 2, 1978.
Hong Kong
This Coronation Anniversary issue of Hong Kong, released on 2nd June 1978, was designed by G.L. Vasarhelyi, and incorporates line engravings of the Queen's head from a portrait by Peter Grugeon. Mr Grugeon, an elder among portrait photographers, is a Fellow of both the Institute of Incorporated Photographers and of the Royal Photographic Society. He was commissioned in 1975 to take the official formal portraits of the Queen and Prince Philip, and later for the official Jubilee Portrait, in Imperial State Crown and Parliamentary Robes. More recently he has photographed Prince Charles, and in February 1978, on the occasion of his 18th birthday, Prince Andrew.
Hong Kong comprises a collection of territories and islands totalling 403 square miles, on the east side of the Pearl River estuary. Although a centre of population long before, it first attracted large scale Chinese immigration in the Sung dynasty, and its name (meaning 'incense port') dates from the 15th century when it began shipping incense to the Yangste Valley.
In the 19th century, prompted by a growing shortage of silver, the Chinese government attempted to stop the British peddling opium to its nationals, but were defeated in the notorious 'Opium War' of 1839-42, and forced to cede Hong Kong Island. Chinese resentment of foreign rule and the high-handedness of the British Governor provoked a second war from 1856 to 1860, as a result of which Britain acquired Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island. The extensive 'New Territories' were added on a 99 year lease in 1898.
The population expanded greatly early this century from refugees fleeing feuding warlords and the Japanese invasion of China, but fell dramatically under Japanese occupation during World War Two. The success of the Communist Party in 1949 again produced numerous refugees, mostly those from privileged backgrounds and those resistant to monolithic authority, and the Colony renewed its economic growth. Domestic industry (especially textiles) now accounts for 75 percent of total exports, but Hong Kong is also an outlet for mainland Chinese goods, and the Chinese are consequently not pressing for restitution of their territory.
