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treated as a neutral, and ignored,' apart from numerous stray bullets which hit it accidentally. However, eventually "more than a hundred bandits" decided to come and kidnap the missionary's wife, and hold her for ransom. The missionary at this point gave up and fled for shelter to Hong Kong. Were these "bandits” a gang of opportunistic thieves and robbers who had come out of the mountains to take what they could in confused times, or one of the antagonists attacking a neutral in an attempt to fill the "war-chest? Clearly, "bandit attacks" were generated by, and cannot always be safely distinguished from, inter-village warfare.
From all this evidence, it can be assumed that inter-village warfare in the mid-nineteenth century was endemic in the Hong Kong region, and that the evidence for the serious outbreak at Sham Chun given above merely fits the wider pattern.
NOTES
P.H. HASE
1 "The Archives of the Basel Mission", Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 28, 1988, pp. 203-207.
2 It is Basel Mission Archive document A1-9, NR. 31, Quarterly Report, Lilong Station, 1875. I am indebted to Mrs. E. Gilkes for assistance in translating this document.
3 The markets in the area in the Ming are listed in the 1688 County Gazetteer. "Kim Hau Market" is mentioned in the list of villages → this market may, therefore, already have been abandoned by 1688.
4 Enclosure C in Item 59 "Despatch, Governor Sir Matthew Nathan to Mr. Lyttelton”. Jan. 11, 1905, in Eastern No. 88 Confidential: Hong Kong 'Correspondence Relating to the Proposed Canton-Kowloon Railway', printed for the Colonial Office. 1907, p. 87 mentions "61 large and 232 medium-sized shops" there, plus, presumably some smaller places.
5 Lilong (F) was the main Basel Mission station in San On (X) District. It lies close to the railway to the north of Sham Chun.
6 Tsoi Uk Wai.
7 Of Wong Pui Ling.
8 At Nam Tau on the coast of the Pearl River.
9 For the she hok (*, "Community School"), see D. Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories, Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1986, pp. 130, 136-138, 222 (n. 16-17), 223 (n. 18).
10 The documents are in File CSO208/1902(Ext) (no title), Public Records Office, Hong Kong,
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treated as a neutral, and ignored,' apart from numerous stray bullets which hit it accidentally. However, eventually "more than a hundred bandits" decided to come and kidnap the missionary's wife, and hold her for ransom. The missionary at this point gave up and fled for shelter to Hong Kong. Were these "bandits” a gang of opportunistic thieves and robbers who had come out of the mountains to take what they could in confused times, or one of the antagonists attacking a neutral in an attempt to fill the "war-chest? Clearly, "bandit attacks" were generated by, and cannot always be safely distinguished from, inter-village warfare.
From all this evidence, it can be assumed that inter village warfare in the mid-nineteenth century was endemic in the Hong Kong region, and that the evidence for the serious outbreak at Sham Chun given above merely fits the wider pattern.
NOTES
P.H. HASE
1
"The Archives of the Basel Mission", Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 28, 1988, pp. 203 -207.
It is Basel Mission Archive document A1-9, NR. 31, Quarterly Report, Lilong Station, 1875. I am indebted to Mrs. E. Gilkes for assistance in translating this document.
3 The markets in the area in the Ming are listed in the 1688 County Gazetteer. "Kim Hau Market" is mentioned in the list of villages → this market may, therefore, already have been abandoned by 1688.
1
1
Enclosure C in Item 59 "Despatch, Governor Sir Matthew Nathan to Mr. Lyttelton”. Jan. 11, 1905, in Eastern No. 88 Confidential: Hong Kong 'Correspondence Relating to the Proposed Canton-Kowloon Railway', printed for the Colonial Office. 1907, p. 87 mentions "61 large and 232 medium-sized shops" there, plus, presumably some smaller places.
६
Lilong (F) was the main Basel Mission station in San On ( 2 ) District. It lies close to the railway to the north of Sham Chun.
Tsoi Uk Wai.
7
Of Wong Pui Ling.
X
At Nam Tau on the coast of the Pearl River.
For the she hok (*, "Community School"), see D. Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories, Hong Kong, Oxford University press, Hong Kong, 1986, pp. 130, 136-138, 222 (n. 16-17), 223 (n. 18).
The documents are in File CSO 208/1902 (Ext) (no title), Public Records Office, Hong Kong,
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