Links with other Overseas Branches of the RAS
From time to time we have established short-lived links with one or other of our sister branches of the Society, including the Korean Branch (established in 1900) and the Asiatic Society of Bengal (established in 1784); and since Mr. K. M. A. Barnett left Hong Kong I have been the Corresponding Member in Hong Kong for the main Society in London. At the last AGM a member asked if ties could be renewed with branches in the region. This has been discussed by the Council recently, and I have written to the Korean and Malaysian Branches asking for information on their activities and expressing an interest in maintaining contact. I was also invited to attend the bicentenary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in January 1984, but unfortunately the notice came late and no direct reply was given to my letter expressing willingness to go. (In this connection Members may have seen the rather distressing account of this venerable body in the Far Eastern Economic Review for 15/3/84). We will continue the effort to keep in touch.
Membership
Our total membership as at 29th February 1984 was 478, comprising 7 honorary members, 105 local life members, and 2 institutional members, with 75 overseas life members and 37 ordinary overseas members. Changes since last year at this time included 36 resignations, 2 deaths, 19 persons not sending subscriptions and 20 renewal notices returned by the GPO because the members were no longer at their notified addresses. Against this there were 29 new members. There was, as you will perceive, a marked reduction in total membership, mostly in local ordinary membership and mainly attributable to the doubling of the annual subscription from $50 to $100 in 1982. There had been an earlier loss of this kind when the subscription was raised from $30 to $50 in 1975. This is seemingly unavoidable in a busy place like Hong Kong with its many competing interests and claims on people's time, leading some members to say, in their letters of resignation, that they felt they did not take sufficient advantage of the Society's activities to warrant the increased cost. All the more reason, then, for us all to make a special effort to provide interesting programmes if we are to find new members.
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