6. The British Superintendent of Trade agreed to Chinese demands to surrender the opium stockpiles
The British Superintendent, Charles Elliot, agreed to Lin’s demand that the opium held by British merchants be surrendered to the Chinese, telling the merchants that they would be paid for their financial losses. By mid-May, over 20,000 chests of opium had been surrendered to the Chinese, and Lin ordered the merchants who had been involved banned from China. The British ships then withdrew to Hong Kong, where a British garrison offered security. Lin had the seized opium destroyed, and Elliot found himself in hot water with the British government, who disavowed his promise for reparations to the merchants and his timidity in dealing with Lin.
The British government instead demanded that the government of the Daoguang Emperor make reparations to the merchants, whose property had been, in their view, under the protection of the British flag when it was illegally seized and destroyed. The British government considered the Chinese enforcement of Chinese law to be an act of war. Representatives of the merchants involved lobbied the government to send a military expedition to China to enforce British demands for reparations and to punish the Chinese government. In the spring of 1840 a British naval force of 16 warships, supported by more than two dozen other ships, departed for war with China.