Foreign colonies in China

The flags of the Commissioner of Liu Kung Tau / Weihaiwei were Union Jacks not Blue Ensigns.

It is known that the badge of Liu Kung Tau was a dragon on a yellow disc, but the details of the dragon are not known. The dragon from the 1887 flag of the Inspector General of Customs has been used as being probably similar.

The flag for the first commissioner was described as being for Liu Kung Tau, which was an island in the Bay where the Commissioner's Residence was situated. He was a Military Commissioner, also responsible for Civil Administration, but replaced by a purely Civil Commissioner in 1902, when it was decided that Weihaiwei was not a suitable site for a naval base.

On 1st December 1902 he wrote to the Colonial Office. Government House, Port Edward, Weihaiwei.

The design of the flag hitherto used by the Commissioner of this Dependency is a dragon on the Union Jack and is in my opinion quite unsuitable. I have therefore to request that the Crown Agents may be instructed to have made for the use of the Commissioner two new flags, the device of the Mandarin Duck being substituted for the Dragon, which is as you are aware the national emblem of China and not appropriate in the case of a British Dependency.
J.H.Stewart Lockhart.

The Mandarin Duck design (they are both ducks), which was part of the Seal, was approved by King Edward VII at some time in 1903, (MO 46124/03).

In 1902 the Junkmen of Weihaiwei applied to have the Chinese pennants which they flew, stamped "Issued by British Authorities" to correspond to the practice of the Russians in Port Arthur, and the Germans in Kiao Chao. The Commissioner could see no reason why it should not be done.

Source: [National Archives (PRO) ADM 116/1063B and MT 9/739]
David Prothero, 18 April 2005

The flag was probably used from 1899-1902.

1898. Leased to Britain by China for 25 years. Consisted of the island of LiuKung