[
    {
        "id": 208028,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1977",
        "page_number": 67,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "The Return Journey \n\nA JOURNEY TO YENAN 1946 \n\n51 \n\nA 'political' question arose about our return trip. The 18th Group Army had, as previously mentioned, a Chungking office and extra staff were needed for this. Would we be willing to transport 40 passengers in our otherwise empty trucks from Yenan to Chungking? The questions the request raised are obvious: being a pacifist organization we did not, on principle, carry troops or military supplies. What complication would this raise with the KMT Government in Chungking? Or the Hsi-an Command? I asked if a message could be transmitted to FAU Headquarters in Chungking putting the problem and asking for instructions. Meanwhile the Unit Headquarters in Chungking had received the same request from the 18th Group Army Office there and they had asked for a message to be transmitted to me, telling me of the request and saying in effect 'Use your own judgement'. In the event neither message was received. Yu Chin-lung and I used our own judgement and we set out on February 22nd with our 40 unarmed passengers under Major Chiang and including two young women comrades. \n\nThere was some alarm and excitement when we reached the 'border'. The outpost sentries waved us on, but did not inform their colleagues in the main guard house that we were coming. No doubt someone then shouted that there was a motorised attack by the 8th Route Army; there was a smart turnout of machine guns, rifles, etc. into defensive postures and magazines were slapped into place. We stopped the trucks and Yu Chin-lung and I walked down the road endeavouring to preserve a becoming Quaker calm and hoping no one was enthusiastic about target practice. It seemed a long 50 yards. Documents were produced for ourselves and Major Chiang produced his, and after tea and apologies on both sides we went on. \n\nAs we came down out of the hills to the Yellow River plain the weather broke and snow swirled down. If this had come a day earlier it would have been most difficult since the road was so rocky and full of pot holes that a snow covering would have led to accidents. \n\nIf we had maintained a low profile coming up, we positively crouched on the way back after crossing the border. I slipped into Hsi-an on my own and called at the Methodist Mission for any letters. Meanwhile Yu Chin-lung had got the trucks loaded on the train and we set off for Pao-chi through the night. Two young",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 208030,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1977",
        "page_number": 69,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "A JOURNEY TO YENAN 1946\n\n53\n\nit helped prevent disappearance of vital parts of the trucks (and also the precious cargo) and one did not have to contend with the intelligent West China bed bugs which were liable to infest the inns.\n\nReturn to Chungking\n\nComing through the passes and down into Szechuan the first signs of spring appeared, the delicate pale green of the young willow leaves and the rich red earth contrasting with the dry, dusty, harshness of the Shensi countryside. Most of our passengers had not, one gathered, been to Szechuan before and were seeing all this fabled richness of the province for the first time. Crossing the Fu River ferry at Mienyang brought us into the plains and we came next to Ching Mo Kuan (Green Pines Pass) where the main customs and control station for Chungking was situated. This was another place where we had anticipated difficulty, especially if the negotiations had taken a turn for the worse since we left Yenan two weeks before. We pulled up near the barrier and everyone stayed in the trucks. We kept the engines running while Yu Chin-lung and I took our documents for checking to the duty officer. When asked what passengers we had we truthfully replied \"Forty members of the 8th Route Army\" which he solemnly wrote down and then chopped our pass. We were in the trucks and handing this to the sentry before the officer could report to higher authority. So, much relieved, we drove on to Chungking, off-loaded our passengers outside the city and then returned, via the upper ferry, to our South Bank base. Distance covered about 3200 kilometres in a travelling time of 32 days and, apart from our initial crash, no accidents, and few roadside repairs.\n\nThree days after our return we were again entertained by the 18th Group Army and General Chou En-lai personally thanked us for what we had done. Later we were invited to send medical teams up into the Border Region working directly with the medical authorities there. The FAU/FSU continued after Liberation and the last member left China in 1952.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 208295,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1978",
        "page_number": 19,
        "title": "RAS-1978",
        "content_text": "PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1977\n\n(Covering the period April 1, 1977-March 20, 1978)\n\nIt is my pleasure tonight to report to you on the year's activities and progress of our Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. During this eighteenth year since the Society was resuscitated we have continued to organise a regular programme of lectures and occasional tours drawing on both local talent and the expertise of visiting scholars, and I begin with a short resumé of these events, so that newcomers particularly may gain some idea of the range of our interests.\n\nIn April Mr. Geoffrey Emerson, a local historian of the Japanese Occupation, gave an illustrated talk about the Stanley Internment Camp during the 1942-45 period: a camp where many local residents at the time were forced to live by the Japanese authorities. Several of the persons thus interned attended the talk and some interesting discussion arose. The talk will be published in the 1977 Journal for it is based on original research. Also in April Michael Stevenson spoke on the Chinese Press from his long knowledge as a journalist and particularly his more recent work for the Sing Tao Group of newspapers and as a public relations consultant.\n\nIn May, Tony Reynolds, Head of the Department of Industrial Engineering at Hong Kong University, and member of the Friends Ambulance Service in West China between 1941-46, described his fascinating experiences as convoy leader for a load of medical supplies allowed by the Nationalist Government to be taken to the Shensi-Kansu-Ninghsia Region occupied by the 8th Route Army—the first since 1941. This talk which also gives Mr. Reynolds' impressions from meetings with Mao Tze-tung, Chou En-lai and Marshal Chu Te will appear in the 1977 Journal too.\n\nThe first of two lectures in June was concerned with the History and Music of the Cheng, the Chinese 16-stringed zither, delivered by Professor Liang Tsai-ping who has performed and lectured in both Europe and the U.S.A. as well as Asia; and the second with political and other changes in the Far East in the last ten years, given by Tony Lawrence, for nineteen years Far Eastern Correspondent for the B.B.C. In July Brian Peacock, Curator of the",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593",
        "rank": 0
    }
]