Esing Bakery incident

Esing Bakery incident

Esing Bakery, from The Illustrated London News (1857)
Date	15 January 1857 (1857-01-15)
Location	Victoria, British Hong Kong
Cause	Arsenic poisoning
Casualties
300–500 taken ill, predominantly Europeans
Deaths	0 at the time of the event, 3 from long-term consequences
Arrests	57 Chinese men
Accused	Cheong Ah-lum and 9 others
Charges	"Administering poison with intent to kill and murder"[1]
Verdict	Not guilty

The Esing Bakery incident,^{[n 1]} also known as the Ah Lum affair, was a food contamination scandal in the early history of British Hong Kong. On 15 January 1857, during the Second Opium War, several hundred European residents were poisoned non-lethally by arsenic, found in bread produced by a Chinese-owned store, the Esing Bakery. The proprietor of the bakery, Cheong Ah-lum,^{[n 2]} was accused of plotting the poisoning but was acquitted in a trial by jury. Nonetheless, Cheong was successfully sued for damages and was banished from the colony. The true responsibility for the incident and its intention—whether it was an individual act of terrorism, commercial sabotage, a war crime orchestrated by the Qing government, or purely accidental—both remain a matter of debate.

In Britain, the incident became a political issue during the 1857 general election, helping to mobilise support for the war and the incumbent Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston. In Hong Kong, it sowed panic and insecurity among the local colonists, highlighting the precariousness of imperial rule in the colony. The incident contributed to growing tensions between Hong Kong's European and Chinese residents, as well as within the European community itself. The scale and potential consequences of the poisoning make it an unprecedented event in the history of the British Empire, the colonists believing at the time that its success could have wiped out their community.

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