RAS-2002 — Page 28

HONG KONG BRANCH

OF THE

ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY

REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE SOCIETY, 2002-2003

Introduction

Last year I started my Annual Report to the Society by stating that the outcome of the Society's work over the previous year had been, taking the year as a whole, broadly satisfactory. I am very glad to be able to start this, my second Annual Report, by reporting that the work of the Society over this last year has also been, on the whole, broadly satisfactory. While always wishing to avoid complacency, I find few areas today where the work of the Society seems to me to give cause for serious concern.

Finances and Membership

Over the year, our Membership has held up quite well. At the moment we have a total of 621 ordinary members of the Society, comprising 460 Annual Members and 161 Life Members. Of these 621, 494 are resident in Hong Kong, and 127 are resident abroad. We also have 20 Institutional Members, and 16 Student Members. Compared with last year, the total size of the Society has grown by about 21%. We are, clearly, at the moment able to replace those who leave us during the year with new Members. The overall size of the Society is, I believe, about right at the present: if the Society were to grow to a much larger size, then Members resident in Hong Kong might not be able to get onto tours and visits arranged by the Society.

Our Honorary Treasurer and Vice President will shortly be reporting on the state of our finances, and I do not want to steal his thunder here, and wish only to say that, as of today, the Society's finances are in a generally satisfactory state, and disclose no cause for alarm. I would, however, like to draw to your attention one or two points relating to the finances.

The first is that the annual subscriptions from Members, which, apart from the small amount of interest earned from our savings, is our

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