HISTORY OF MILITARY VOLUNTEERS IN H.K.
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statue now in Victoria Park at Causeway Bay which, up to 1941, stood in Statue Square, beside the Hong Kong Club in the centre of the city.
Continuing with our survey, the period from 1893 up to the outbreak of war with Germany in 1914 was one of great activity for the Hong Kong Volunteers. It was one in which a great many important persons in the local community joined the Corps and when, reading between the lines, it was not only the 'done thing' to join the Volunteers but might be remarked upon if one did not. Pressure came from the Governor himself. When the Volunteer Reserve Ordinance of 1910 was in passage, Sir Frederick Lugard ended his statement by saying "I think that every young Englishman in this Colony ought to join the Volunteers, and every Englishman who is no longer young ought to join the force which I hope will at once be enrolled when this bill has been read a third time."14
The Volunteer Corps' annual inspection reports for the period are available in Hong Kong. They were printed for tabling at Legislative Council, itself an indication of an important activity. They make interesting reading and show the vitality of the Corps and its impact on Hong Kong European polite society and on the Establishment.15 As stated, the Governors of the time took a keen interest in the Corps and it was Sir Mathew Nathan himself (Governor 1902-07 and formerly an officer of the Royal Engineers) who is credited with inspiring the formation in 1906 of the Mounted Troop—known irreverently as "Mathew's Mounted Mugs"16—and the institution of the Volunteer Reserve Association which was eventually embodied by Ordinance in 1910. Another, more temporary, inspiration in 1899 had been the calling out of the Volunteers to assist the Regulars in repelling an expected attack on Kowloon by New Territories' villagers in arms against the British take-over, and their part in the occupation of the Kowloon Walled City later in the same year.17
Much of this resurgence in the popularity of the military—a phenomenon which is usually held to be un-British—
14 Han., 1910, p. 91.
15 See S.P., 1894-1908.
16 Vol, 1954, p. 50.
was
17 See S.P., 1900, pp. 637-638, Y.B., 1940, p. 23, and Vol, 1954, p. 43.
HISTORY OF MILITARY VOLUNTEERS IN H.K.
157
statue now in Victoria Park at Causeway Bay which, up to 1941, stood in Statue Square, beside the Hong Kong Club in the centre of the city.
Continuing with our survey, the period from 1893 up to the outbreak of war with Germany in 1914 was one of great activity for the Hong Kong Volunteers. It was one in which a great many important persons in the local community joined the Corps and when, reading between the lines, it was not only the 'done thing' to join the Volunteers but might be remarked upon if one did not. Pressure came from the Governor himself. When the Volun- teer Reserve Ordinance of 1910 was in passage, Sir Frederick Lugard ended his statement by saying "I think that every young Englishman in this Colony ought to join the Volunteers, and every Englishman who is no longer young ought to join the force which I hope will at once be enrolled when this bill has been read a third time."14
The Volunteer Corps' annual inspection reports for the period are available in Hong Kong. They were printed for tabling at Legislative Council, itself an indication of an important activity. They make interesting reading and show the vitality of the Corps and its impact on Hong Kong European polite society and on the Establishment.15 As stated, the Governors of the time took a keen interest in the Corps and it was Sir Mathew Nathan himself (Governor 1902-07 and formerly an officer of the Royal Engineers) who is credited with inspiring the formation in 1906 of the Mounted Troop- known irreverently as "Mathew's Mounted Mugs"16 — and the institution of the Volunteer Reserve Association which was eventually embodied by Ordinance in 1910. Another, more temporary, inspiration in 1899 had been the calling out of the Volunteers to assist the Regulars in repelling an expected attack on Kowloon by New Territories' villagers in arms against the British take-over, and their part in the occupa- tion of the Kowloon Walled City later in the same year. 17
Much of this resurgence in the popularity of the military a phenomenon which is usually held to be un-British-
14 Han., 1910, p. 91.
15 See S.P., 1894-1908.
16 Vol, 1954, p. 50.
was
17 See S.P., 1900, pp. 637-638, Y.B., 1940, p. 23, and Vol, 1954, p. 43.
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