244
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
To everyone attending this Conference, a very warm welcome. That includes RAS members, staff of the Hong Kong Museum of History as well as members of the general public.
Way back in 1960, when our Branch was reconstituted, with a little stretch of the imagination, one can visualize RAS founding members standing in a group singing the refrain: Forty Years on when afar and asunder parted are those who are singing today ... Well the irony of it all now is that those 40 years are well and truly behind us.
If one checks the membership list at the back of Volume One (1960-61) of our Journal, although a mere handful of those founding members are still living in Hong Kong, most are decidedly ‘afar and asunder'. Virtually no one who joined our Society 40 years ago, sadly, still plays an active part in it today. Anno Domini has taken its toll.
On a lighter note Rudyard Kipling wrote:
Your glazing is new and your plumbing's strange But otherwise I perceive no change.
Those immortal words, one feels in one's bones, could almost have been written about the RAS. Certainly much of our educational technology is new and web sites and e-mail are beyond the ken and 'strange' to some of our vintage members. But basically many of our activities, such as visits and lectures, are conducted in much the same way as they were in 1960. Why have there been so few changes?
To a great extent it is because, although we did receive a handful of caustic comments as a result of the questionnaire we circulated in September 2000, by far the majority of our members are very satisfied with the activities of our Branch. Most want things to remain more or less as they are. There is no doubt demand and scope for a society such as ours to continue to serve the Hong Kong community.
Nonetheless we do, naturally, need to keep our ear to the ground. With advancing years, if changes are desirable, then we should make them. Consequently, as a result of the RAS questionnaire, we shall feel
244
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
To everyone attending this Conference, a very warm welcome. That includes RAS members, staff of the Hong Kong Museum of His- tory as well as members of the general public.
Way back in 1960, when our Branch was reconstituted, with a little stretch of the imagination, one can visualize RAS founding mem- bers standing in a group singing the refrain: Forty Years on when afar and asunder parted are those who are singing today ... Well the irony of it all now is that those 40 years are well and truly behind us.
If one checks the membership list at the back of Volume One (1960- 61) of our Journal, although a mere handful of those founding mem- bers are still living in Hong Kong, most are decidedly ‘afar and asunder'. Virtually no one who joined our Society 40 years ago, sadly, still plays an active part in it today. Anno Domini has taken its toll.
On a lighter note Rudyard Kipling wrote:
Your glazing is new and your plumbing's strange But otherwise I perceive no change.
Those immortal words, one feels in one's bones, could almost have been written about the RAS. Certainly much of our educational tech- nology is new and web sites and e-mail are beyond the ken and 'strange' to some of our vintage members. But basically many of our activities, such as visits and lectures, are conducted in much the same way as they were in 1960. Why have there been so few changes?
To a great extent it is because, although we did receive a handful of caustic comments as a result of the questionnaire we circulated in September 2000, by far the majority of our members are very satisfied with the activities of our Branch. Most want things to remain more or less as they are. There is no doubt demand and scope for a society such as ours to continue to serve the Hong Kong community.
Nonetheless we do, naturally, need to keep our ear to the ground. With advancing years, if changes are desirable, then we should make them. Consequently, as a result of the RAS questionnaire, we shall feel
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