[ { "id": 209028, "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-1980", "page_number": 190, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "158\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nYET ANOTHER LIBRARY\n\nIn his Korea, published by William Heinemann of London in 1904, Angus Hamilton has a good deal to say about John McLeavy Brown, C.M.G., LL.D., formerly Treasurer-General of that Kingdom and, when he wrote, Chief Commissioner of Customs, that is, of the Korean Customs.\n\nHamilton writes (pp. 85-86):\n\nIn his official life he represents a type of Englishman that is rapidly disappearing from our public services. His private life reflects the culture and the grace of an attractive personality. They say, in Seoul, that Mr. McLeavy Brown is more skilful as a diplomatist than as an administrator; and his brilliant conversational powers give some colour to the assertion. Upon arrival in Seoul, newcomers are apt to hear that \"Brown is a walking encyclopædia.\" He speaks, reads and writes with equal facility French, German, Italian and Chinese. It will be remembered that he is in the service of the Korean Government, a sphere of utility and activity which demands fluency in yet another language. His library attests the breadth of his culture; it numbers some 7000 volumes, and fills the walls of the rooms and corridors of his house at Seoul from floor to ceiling. Boxes of new books arrive by every mail. When he reads them it is difficult to conjecture. At night, as one strolls from the British Legation to the Station Hotel, the lights in his study window may be seen burning brightly. He is believed to sit up with his books very often until dawn. It would be typical of this silent self-contained man if he found in the pleasures of his library the antidote to much which takes place in Seoul.\n\nMcLeavy Brown appears in the contemporary Who's Who in the Far East 1906-7 published by the China Mail, Hong Kong, in June 1906, where he appears as 'ex-Head of Customs and Controller of Finance, Corea', having resigned in 1905 and gone on tour abroad in April following. He had been appointed a Student Interpreter in China in 1861 and was Acting Chinese Secretary in the British Legation at Peking 1871-72, resigning in 1872. He was later appointed a Commissioner in the Chinese Customs and appointed Commissioner-General of Customs, Corea.\n\nI am here less concerned with the man himself, despite his stature and later career which can be followed in the Dictionary of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209029, "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-1980", "page_number": 191, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n159\n\nNational Biography, but with the library mentioned by Angus Hamilton. What became of it?\n\nHong Kong, May 1982\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nA MISSING CHINESE LIBRARY\n\nOur Hon. Librarian, Mr. Rydings, has been following up the question posed in my Note on this subject that appeared in the Journal in the 1976 issue (Vol. 16: 284). The papers reproduced below will be of interest, and may also result in the still missing library being restored to wider public knowledge and use.\n\nHon. Editor\n\n30 July 1980\n\n(I) Letter to The Librarian, David Bishop Skillman Library,\n\nLafayette College, Easton, Pa. 18042\n\nDear Librarian,\n\nWilliam Edgar Geil\n\nPlease see the enclosed extract* from Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 16, 1976, p. 284. As Dr. Geil was one of your distinguished alumni, I am interested to know whether you can throw any light on the mystery of the missing books. It seems extraordinary if they have disappeared without trace, yet I can find no mention of them other than in the source quoted.\n\nAny help which you can provide would be much appreciated.\n\nYours sincerely,\n\nH. A. RYDINGS Librarian\n\nc.c.: Dr. J. W. Hayes\n\n* In order to compile his book Eighteen Capitals of China (Philadelphia and London; J.B. Lippincott Company, 1911) Dr. William Edgar Geil, the celebrated American traveller and author stated in his preface: (p.x) \"With the aid of viceroys, governors, Hanlin scholars, librarians, booksellers, we have gathered a large collection, out of which selections by leading scholars have been translated, and a few specimens are given, to let the readers see the old style of book. Local proverbs in themselves have never been brought together on our scale; and to choose from a mass of new material which would fill three volumes has been a difficult task.\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214927, "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-2000", "page_number": 23, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "submission to the Inland Revenue Department for charitable institutional status.\n\nAccommodation\n\nAgain we are grateful to our many good friends on whom we rely for accommodation. They include the Public Records Office, where our Journals and some of our archives are stored, the latter on permanent loan. We are also grateful to the City Hall where our lectures (which are run as joint functions with the City Hall) take place and again to PricewaterhouseCoopers who kindly allow us to hold committee meetings on their premises. A heartfelt thank you to all concerned.\n\nThe Council\n\nOther than those that have to be taken at AGMs, all-important Branch decisions are made in Council to whom our membership has delegated the running of our Branch. The latter functions completely autonomously from our Headquarters in London and separately from other Branches in Asia. Over the past year the RASHKB Council has comprised two Vice Presidents, Drs Elizabeth Sinn and Michael Lau. Other members have included Robert Nield, Julia Chan, Valery Garrett, Bob Horsnell, Tim Ko and May Holdsworth. It has also included Drs Patrick Hase, Joseph Ting, Peter Barker, Peter Halliday and Janet Lee Scott. The Reverend Carl Smith, our Honorary Vice President, and Sarah Parnell as Assistant Secretary, and her successor, Mary Painter, have been co-opted, non-voting members. We are grateful to everyone who sat on the Council and gave of his or her time.\n\nAcknowledgements\n\nHaving thanked Council and Activity Committee members, speakers and leaders of groups and various other persons, who have I failed to mention? Firstly we must thank HKBRAS members, Angus Forsyth and John Budge, for their valuable professional advice. Past Council member Geoffrey Roper still helps in various ways quietly behind the scenes as do some spouses of Council members. We value everyone's assistance. So many people and institutions have rendered help to us over the course of the year. It is quite possible that someone who deserves to be thanked has inadvertently slipped through the net.\n\nxxii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215200, "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-2000", "page_number": 296, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "260\n\nThe angels keep their ancient places:-\n\nTurn but a stone and start a wing!\n\n'Tis ye, 'tis your estranged faces,\n\nThat miss the many-splendoured thing. (Francis Thompson, O world intangible)\n\nAt the risk of being presumptuous, I do hope that the Journal's many and valued readers have not, themselves, missed the many-splendoured thing. It takes some working at but, by goodness, it's worth it!\n\nI have now read several of Han Suyin's books and learned a great deal more about her. Accordingly, I offer this short Note as a tribute to her life and achievements.\n\nOpposite is a recent photograph of Han Suyin and her husband, Vincent, which seems an appropriate postscript.\n\nHan Suyin and Vincent Ruthnaswamy, October 2000\n\nREFERENCES\n\nHan, Suyin. (1952). A Many-Splendoured Thing, London: Jonathan Cape\n\nHan, Suyin (1994). Eldest Son: Zhou Enlai and the Making of Modern China, 1898-1976, London: Jonathan Cape.\n\nIllustrated London News, The. 19 August, 1950.\n\nMorrison, Ian. (1942). Malayan Postscript, London: Faber and Faber.\n\nMorrison, Ian. (1943). Malayan Postscript, Sydney: Angus and Robinson Ltd.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215201, "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-2000", "page_number": 297, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "261\n\nMorrison, Ian. (1943). This War Against Japan, Sydney: Angus and Robertson Ltd.\n\nNew York Times, The. August 13, 1950.\n\nSouth China Morning Post, August 13, 1950\n\nSpectator, The. August 18, 1950.\n\nWaters, D.D. (2001). A Brief History of Realty Gardens and its Environs, unpublished\n\nWordie, Jason. (2001). A pillar of the society, South China Morning Post, Tuesday, March 20, 2001\n\nNOTES\n\nIllustration and Appendix 1 photos source: http://home.hiwaay.net/~oliver/splendoured.net\n\n2 Photo source: Teresa Kowalska\n\n3 Photo source: Malayan Postscript, p.44\n\n4 Photo source: Eldest Son, p.55\n\n5 http://english.cla.umn.edu/courseweb/1591/Students/HanSuyin/HanSuyin.html\n\n6 http://www.notsorry.com/hansuyin.html\n\n7 http://members.aol.com/dbryantmd/Page38.html\n\n8 Photo source: Eldest Son, p.374.\n\n9 Malayan Postscript, p.\n\n10 Photo source: Teresa Kowalska, http://www.asiawind.com/pub/forum/fhakka/mhonarc/msg02476.html", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215671, "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-2001", "page_number": 448, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "400\n\nIn researching the original Note, I came to a profound admiration for Ian Morrison. His newspaper reporting was erudite and he demonstrated a perceptive understanding of the issues involved. His two books; Malayan Postscript (1942) and This War Against Japan (1943) were equally perceptive. By all accounts the picture that Han Suyin painted of him in A Many Splendoured Thing; as being a gentle, kind and understanding man, is borne out by the facts. Alastair describes him as ...a cultivated and gentle man and no swashbuckler but (he) had an insatiable curiosity about events in Asia.' Accordingly, I offer this tribute to his memory. R.I.P.\n\nREFERENCES\n\nMorrison, Alastair (1993), The Road to Peking, Canberra: The Highland Press (for private distribution).\n\nPearl, Cyril (1967). Morrison of Peking, Sydney: Angus & Robertson Ltd.\n\nNOTES\n\nhttp://www.fechk.org/archives/achives historyconduit.htm\n\n2 See JHKBRAS Vol. 40: The Battle of Hong Kong: A Note on the Literature and\n\n3\n\nthe Effectiveness of the Defence, Lawrence Lai Wai Chung, pp. 115-136.\n\nSource: Alastair Morrison, personal communication and The Road to Peking, p. 151\n\nAll images, unless otherwise stated, courtesy of The Times of London.\n\nIan and Maria met in Shanghai and were married, in Hong Kong, in 1941. Maria was Steffi's sister (Colin's subsequent wife) Their first home was at the Cathay Building, in Singapore. After the War, they returned to Singapore and lived in Gallop Road. According to Alastair, the marriage was not a happy one (The Road to Peking, p. 151). After her husband's death, Mrs. Morrison and the children (who were seven and five at the time of his death) appear to have stayed on in Singapore, at any rate for a while, and then moved to Australia. According to Alastair Morrison, Maria 'died long ago.' The son, Nicholas (?), lives in the U.K. and visited Alastair in Canberra on his eighty seventh birthday", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216228, "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-2002", "page_number": 527, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "In camp Mary mentioned that 'sound travels fast.'\n\nAt six the next morning we had peace at last!\n\nי\n\nDid Nicholas try to abandon his wife?\n\nDid he say to the driver 'Now drive for your life'?\n\nDid he know that his Lorene had been left behind?\n\nI'm sure that he didn't - he's not that unkind!\n\nAngus hails from Scotland,\n\nwhere real men go bare, forsooth.\n\nIf he takes his kaftan off,\n\nall you'll see is - hair? The truth\n\nis only known to Bebe, his clever lawyer wife.\n\n(She's the one whose expertise is matrimonial strife!)\n\nNational Workforce gangs sit breaking stones;\n\nat the end of the day they must have aching bones.\n\nAh yes, that reminds me - Sir David, our knight,\n\nwould like to see Bhutan tourism more bright,\n\n461", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]