[ { "id": 204345, "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-1961", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch ORASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n109\n\nbers, although poorer members may elect to pay $5 and well-to-do members may pay $40 or $100. The activities of the Association are in the hands of a Board of Directors of 35 members, of whom 15 are monks and nuns and 20 are laymen, the Chairman of the Board being the Abbot of the Po Lin Monastery, while the Vice Chairman is a prominent Buddhist layman. The directors hold office for two years and vacancies are filled through election at the annual General Meeting. The Association's office is at 15 Shan Kwong Road, Hong Kong, on the premises of the Tung Lin Kok Yuen MW (see above p. 44).\n\nTo disseminate the dharma, the Association has sponsored courses of nightly lectures on various sutras, delivered by an authority from the Sangha. These courses have been held three or four times a year, lasting two or three weeks each time, usually at the Tung Lin Kok Yuen. Attendance has run about 200 people.\n\nThe Association's welfare enterprises include four schools, a cemetery, and two clinics.\n\nThe Chinese Buddhist Free School, at 117 Wanchai Road, was established in October 1945. It is co-educational, and has an enrollment of 223. Though it is government-subsidized, pupils pay no tuition. Another school, also at the primary level, was opened during September, 1960 in the ground floor of a resettlement block at Wong Tai Sin (the use of such ground floor space for classrooms is encouraged by the Resettlement Department). Known as the Buddhist Boddhi Primary School, it accommodates 1,440 boys and girls, operates on a government subsidy, and charges the standard tuition fees.\n\nBy far the most impressive educational enterprises of the Buddhist Association, however, are the two schools on Eastern Hospital Road (near Causeway Bay). They began operation in September 1959 and comprise a primary school with 1,053 boys and girls (\"Buddhist Wong Cheuk Om Memorial School\") and a middle school with 321 boys and girls (\"Buddhist Wong Fung Ling College\" #+4) HK$350,000 of the construction cost was donated to the Association by two devout Buddhists, whose names the schools bear, while the other $650,000 was provided by the Hong Kong Government, $150,000 of this being in the form of a loan that the Association will eventually repay out of its portion of the school fees.\n\nThe Board of Directors of the Buddhist Association has full responsibility for and control over the operation of all these schools, although about 70 per cent of the operating costs, including teachers' salaries, are met by Government subsidy. The curriculum includes the study of Buddhism which, at the suggestion of the Hong Kong Buddhist Association, was accepted by the Education Department in 1959 as one of the optional subjects thereafter to be included in the Hong Kong School-leaving Certificate examination.\n\nUp until now Buddhists, unlike Christians and Moslems, have had no separate cemetery facilities. The Buddhist Association's cemetery, which occupies seven acres of land recently allocated by the Government on Cape Collison, opened early in 1961.\n\nM\n\nHK$3 a month \"t'ong fei\" added to the standard fees for subsidized schools of $5 and $32 a month.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204539, "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-1963", "page_number": 20, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "PROTESTANT CEMETERY IN MACAO\n\n15\n\ncemetery. Membership of the Board is open to the Consular Authorities in Macao of certain European Protestant nations, plus Protestant residents in Macao. In 1924 the Rev. John Galloway, a Canadian missionary, was appointed a Trustee; he still lives in Macao and it is to him that we are indebted for much of our information concerning the later history of these two cemeteries in Macao, the Old and the New. When the East India Company ceased operating in China in 1834, its property in Macao reverted to His Majesty's Government in England. But in 1870, it was thought wiser that the two cemetery properties in Macao should come under the ownership of one body, and the Old Cemetery property was transferred to the New Cemetery Trustees, under whose control it rests to this day.\n\nEntrance to the Old Cemetery. The door in the wall already mentioned gives entrance to the property which is on three levels; the highest or first level is a courtyard in which a simple chapel stands; the burial plots are on the two lower levels which we refer to as the Upper and Lower Terraces. A wide cement path leads down from the Chapel level to the Lower Terrace and a break in the left-hand wall on the way down gives access to the Upper Terrace. In the chapel are two wall memorials of interest; one is to a British merchant named Margesson who originally came from Surrey, and who was drowned on 17 June 1869 when the ship in which he was travelling struck a rock just a mile or two off the coast of Japan; the disaster occurred on a clear evening and in a perfectly calm sea, but the ship sank almost immediately with a big loss of life.\n\nThe other chapel memorial is to James B. Endicott who died of typhoid in 1870 after living for 35 years in Hong Kong, Macao, and Canton. He is actually buried in the Colonial Cemetery in Happy Valley, Hong Kong, but he has two daughters, an uncle, and many friends in the churchyard in Macao. Endicott was born in Danvers, Massachusetts, U.S.A. in 1814, and is a direct lineal descendant of John Endicott who sailed from the harbour of Weymouth, England, in 1628 in the ship Abigail on an adventurous voyage to the New World where he became the founder and first governor of the State of Massachusetts. James B. Endicott introduces us to the important American section of the foreigners who lived in Macao more than one hundred years ago, over fifty of whom rest in this cemetery.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204979, "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-1965", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "78 \n\nA. D. BLUE \n\non board at the time. A similar, but even more murderous case had occurred in 1858, on a river steamer between Canton and Hong Kong. As this was during the Second China War, and the attackers were definitely established to be Chinese soldiers in disguise, this case might be charitably described as an act of war.\n\nMost China coasters carried deck passengers, in addition to a dozen or so saloon passengers. In the emigrant trades, however, hundreds and even thousands of deck passengers were carried, and the emigrant ships were the greatest temptations to the pirates. The strategy was to get control of such a ship, take her to Bias Bay or Mirs Bay, both conveniently just outside Hong Kong territorial waters, and then make off ashore in Chinese territory with the money and valuables of the passengers. A few wealthy passengers might also be taken for ransom. An operation of this nature required careful planning and organizing ability, some knowledge of the ship's geography and routine, and some knowledge of navigation and engineering. In many cases it became known afterwards that some members of the gang had travelled on the ship previously, so as to make themselves familiar with it.\n\nA piracy of this kind required at least two dozen men, who boarded the ship along with the other passengers, with weapons concealed in their baggage. At a prearranged time a simultaneous attack would be mounted on the ship's key points—bridge, engine room, radio cabin, and saloon; often a meal time being chosen when everyone not on duty would be congregated in the saloon. While the ship was being taken to her destination under the supervision of a few pirates on the bridge and in the engine room, the others were robbing the passengers and broaching the most valuable cargo. As the destination was invariably Bias Bay or Mirs Bay, the piracy would take place as near there as possible, so as to reduce the time the ship was under pirate control and out of communication with Hong Kong.\n\nThe average coaster never had more than seven or eight European officers, and if the attack were well-timed they could all be immobilized in the first few minutes of the attack. There was usually little resistance from the Chinese crew, and a few men in the engine room and on the bridge were able to take the ship to its destination. There always seemed to be some pirates", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204981, "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-1965", "page_number": 89, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "80\n\nA. D. BLUE\n\nThe China Navigation Company's Sunning was pirated on 14th November 1926, on a passage from Shanghai to Hong Kong.3 The officers recaptured the ship shortly afterwards, and when they refused the pirates an armistice the latter set the ship on fire. By turning into the wind the pirates were smoked out, and forced to leave in one of the lifeboats. When the fire got out of control the officers and crew were forced to do the same, but were picked up by a Norwegian ship. When the destroyer H.M.S. Verity arrived, however, they returned to the Sunning and put out the fire with naval help. The Sunning was then towed to Hong Kong.\n\nThe Haiching piracy of 1929 was very reminiscent of the Sunning. The Haiching belonged to the Douglas Steamship Company of Hong Kong, and was pirated while on her way from Amoy to Hong Kong. There were two hundred and fifty deck passengers and four saloon passengers on board at the time, and the attack took place when passing Bias Bay, just a few hours before reaching Hong Kong. The third mate and a Sikh guard were killed in the first few minutes, but the wireless officer continued to send out messages for help. The pirates, unable to get control of the ship, set it on fire; and two lifeboats were burnt out before their resistance was broken. When British warships arrived, they helped to put the fire out, and then towed the Haiching to Hong Kong, where all the passengers were thoroughly screened. Three of them were charged with piracy and murder, but one was later freed through lack of evidence, while the other two suffered the death penalty. Captain Farrar of the Haiching was awarded the O.B.E. for his part in the case.\n\nFrom the pirates' point of view the Anking piracy of 1928 was much more successful than either that of the Sunning or the Haiching. It was probably the classic piracy of modern times on the coast. The Anking, also a China Navigation Company ship, with over 1,000 deck passengers aboard, was on her way from Singapore to Amoy and Swatow when the piracy took place. These passengers were either returning to China to retire, or for a holiday after working in Malaya for several years, and were likely therefore to be well supplied with money and valuables.\n\n3 The Sunning had also been pirated three years earlier, on 23rd October, 1923.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204984, "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-1965", "page_number": 92, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "PIRACY ON THE CHINA COAST\n\n83\n\nAnother case which might be said to have had political undertones was that of the China Navigation Company's Shuntien in June 1934. The Shuntien was the latest addition to the China Navigation Company's large fleet, and was making only her second voyage at the time. She was captured by some thirty pirates after leaving Tientsin for Chefoo, and was taken to the mouth of the Yellow River where she was beached on soft sand. The pirates then made off inland, taking five European and twenty Chinese passengers as hostages. Before leaving, they told the ship's compradore that the piracy was a reprisal for the Chinese Maritime Customs having stationed an extra customs cruiser in Shantung Bay, thus interfering with their smuggling operations. The Europeans returned a few days later, but nothing more was ever heard of the Chinese hostages.\n\nBias Bay, sixty-five miles northeast of Hong Kong, was notorious as the pirates' stronghold in the interwar years. Unfortunately, it was just outside Hong Kong territorial waters, and came within the jurisdiction of the Cantonese authorities, who were either unwilling or unable to co-operate with the Royal Navy against the pirates. The nationalist and anti-foreign feelings of the Cantonese probably contributed to this, as did the fact that the warlords of Kwangtung were suspected of being in league with the pirates. Whether this was so or not, it was definitely established that pirates based on Bias Bay committed nine major piracies between 1924 and 1926.\n\nAlthough the Navy was unable to suppress piracy on the China coast, so much of which took place almost on its own doorstep, the mere fact that naval ships were in the vicinity must have reduced its incidence. The pirates rarely boarded ships at Hong Kong, partly because of the strict naval and police control there, and also because passengers joining ships there were unlikely to have much money or valuables. In the case of the second Sunning piracy in 1926, it was definitely established afterwards that the pirates came on board at Amoy, and that their weapons were smuggled on board by stevedores. The lack of co-operation from Canton meant that the Navy was unable to follow up action at sea by punitive expeditions against the pirates' shore bases. The Kwangtung authorities had been much more co-operative in the first few decades after the cession of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205481, "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-1968", "page_number": 23, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "18\n\nMARJORIE TOPLEY\n\nwere usually financed from donations.15 According to Arthur Smith, a well-known writer about rural China in the nineteenth century, money was sometimes raised by making assessments on the land of different households.16 A common practice was to inscribe the names of donors and the amounts donated on a tablet to be placed permanently in the temple built with the funds raised. This is still the practice in overseas Chinese society today.\n\nThe main finances for popular temples commonly came from a few wealthy individuals however. Donors of large sums were likely to be made members of a temple's board of trustees and would have a say in the running and management of some of its affairs, an attraction to those seeking influence in a community. The State despaired that people gave generously to funds for popular temples but were niggardly about funds required for temples for Confucius.17 Rich scholars were said to have much control of popular temples, and since they were largely outside State control, they might have given more opportunities for personal power than the more directly politically-influenced State cults.\n\nManagement of temples to popular gods would be unlikely to involve scholars in ideological conflict. They did not usually, as in the ancestral cults, concern themselves with the strictly religious activities taking place inside, and the cults themselves, and the gods they served, were not \"owned\", so to speak, by any particular religious system. Worship of them was open to all and did not commit the individual to membership of a wider religious organization. The question of who organized the religious activities themselves will be considered presently.\n\nThe extent that organization of temples to popular gods was used by individuals of means to increase power and prestige would depend perhaps on the alternatives the community could offer in this respect. But there is much evidence that temple organization could become quite extensive and provide a means for regulating some aspects of a community's life. The most favourable conditions for such development were probably found in the multi-lineage. Some mono-lineages had temples to popular gods certainly, and the temple to the god surnamed TAM referred to earlier owned property. But it was, in fact, promoted by the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205744, "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-1969", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "44\n\nR. G. GROVES\n\nthat one could not bear to think of them.\"55 These apprehensions represent the core of arguments which were developed and embellished as the campaign to mount the resistance movement continued. They reached their highest point in a petition sent to the San On Magistrate some two weeks later. This alleged that, in an effort to control cholera, the Hong Kong Sanitary Board murdered Chinese who were ill by poisoning them with arsenic and then burned their houses down. The inflammatory potentialities of these charges — which appear to have been widely believed — are obvious. They were used frequently by leaders of the resistance in subsequent weeks.\n\nAs requested, leaders of the various districts within the Yuen Long marketing area assembled the next day at Yuen Long market. Pat Heung, Shap Pat Heung, and Kam Tin were each represented by four people. Ping Shan sent six representatives, Ha Tsuen three, and Tun Mun (Castle Peak), one. Of the twenty-two people who attended the meeting, thirteen were members of one or another of the three Tang lineages. Once again, a decision was taken in favour of resistance, although not without disagreement. Two days later, on 31st March, leaders from throughout the area convened again at Yuen Long. The previous decision to resist was reaffirmed and letters were sent to leaders within the Sheung U Division, asking them to attend a general meeting at Yuen Long the next day.56\n\nOn 1st April leaders from the northern part of the Sheung U Division made their way to Yuen Long. In addition to the Yuen Long leaders, representatives of the following Sheung U lineages were present: Liu (Sheung Shui), Pang (Mandarin: P’eng, Fan Leng), Tang (Tai Po Tau), and Man (San Tin). The ensuing meeting was characterised by long and heated debate. It ended with a decision to offer resistance on an inter-divisional basis. Whatever the others did, the Tangs were clearly determined that the occupation would be opposed. While the Yuen Long meeting was in progress a copy of a placard issued by the Yuk-on Hin (\"wish for peace\" library) of Ping Shan reached the Governor in Hong Kong. Its message was direct and to the point:\n\nWe hate the English barbarians, who are about to enter our boundaries and take our land, and will cause us endless evil. Day and night we fear the approaching", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205966, "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-1970", "page_number": 46, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "HONG KONG CADETS, 1862 - 1941\n\n41\n\nsioners was introduced for the Straits Settlements, Hong Kong and Ceylon Civil Services; and in 1882, a combined examination was instituted, successful candidates being given a choice of colonies, so that the members of these three civil services were now to some extent regarded as interchangeable. In 1896 the examination was joined to that for the Home and Indian Civil Services; and the Federated Malay States, which had retained the nomination system, was also included. This arrangement lasted until 1932, when Sir Ralph Furse, who believed in the policy of selection by interview, finally succeeded in obtaining for his office control over the selection of candidates for Ceylon, Hong Kong and Malaya. However, university men continued to supply the vast majority of the eastern cadetships even after that date; and the Dominions Office and Colonial Office List for 1939 informs us that 'whilst a university degree is not an absolutely indispensable qualification the candidates selected for Administrative appointments in the last few years have nearly all been in possession of a University Degree, usually with honours. The few exceptions have been in cases where a candidate has had some special qualification'.23\n\nThe Hong Kong cadet scheme underwent several internal changes over time, although the principle of recruitment from England by competitive examination remained unchanged until 1932. The first three recruits, who pioneered the scheme, were given quarters in the Central School House during their probationary period and learned their Chinese, which was Cantonese, from teachers recruited locally by Government. In 1872, Sir Arthur Kennedy established a Board of Examiners, charged with the duty of examining Government officers drawing a Chinese teacher's allowance, and with issuing certificates of proficiency in colloquial Chinese to European and Indian police constables; but before that date cadets had been examined by an ad hoc committee. To save expense, Sir Arthur Kennedy, Governor 1872 - 1877, stopped the recruitment of cadets from England, and in 1875 even suggested dropping the scheme altogether; but this was not accepted by the Colonial Office. The Secretary of State arranged in 1875 for Eastern cadets to remain in England usually for a year and study Chinese at Oxford under Dr. James Legge though, as we have seen above, there were no candidates for Hong Kong at this particular time. This arrangement proved", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206306, "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-1971", "page_number": 123, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "A\n\n# THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n117\n\nquarrymen a lawless and potentially dangerous class of people. But Chinese on Hong Kong Island, like their fellow countrymen in Hsin-an hsien (a county which then comprised the future British Kowloon Peninsula and New Territories) formed a socially well-organised community, knit together by ties of family and kinship and involved, apart from the boat people, in wider forms of social organisation such as the clan and the lineage3. They were constrained by the type of in-built social controls found typically in any rural Chinese community. On the other hand, immigrant Chinese arriving after 1842, who came mostly from Canton and the delta counties, formed a purely urban population, lacking roots and sentiments of belonging: they had necessarily few attachments at first to their new area of residence. Congregated in the mushrooming city of Victoria and soon outnumbering the old, established Chinese population of the island, they were not subject to any in-built system of social control. The new population of urban Chinese from Kwangtung Province, like newly arrived Europeans, were faced with the problem of maintaining public order and protecting their families and properties. The better-off Chinese merchants and traders were soon compelled to employ their own guards and some householders and shopkeepers engaged their own street watchmen, either paid for by the individual householder or collectively by subscription.\n\nBy the 1850s Hong Kong Chinese had developed not only their own associations, such as Kaifong, but even a rudimentary system of self-government, if the evidence is to be believed. A note in the China Review claims, for example, that in 1851 the shopkeepers of Sheung Wan (i.e., the area of the Chinese 'Bazaar', west of the European central district) 'repaired the Man-mo Temple, elected a Committee, and therein afterwards decided all cases of any public interest5'. The same writer also claims that in 1857 'the U-lan-shing-ui (a sworn mutual aid association) united Tai-ping-shan, Sai-ying-pun, Sheung-wan and Chung-wan under one public committee, and these four districts were called the Sz-wan or four circuits'. Eitel states (but cites no authority) that around 1851 the Committee of the Man Mo Temple 'now rose into eminence as a sort of unrecognised and unofficial local-government board (principally made up by Nampak-hong or export merchants). This Committee secretly controlled native affairs, acted as commercial arbitrators, arranged for the due", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206320, "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-1971", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "The District Watch Committee \n\n131 \n\ntoo sharply between them all. High government officials, such as the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and the Colonial Secretary, were likely to meet this cluster of Chinese constantly, if not at formal meetings, then socially, ceremonially, ritually. It follows that before the war Hong Kong had an oligarchical political structure in that a small number of entrenched and established Chinese shared political control over a largely immigrant and migratory population together with a small number of officials and taipans.\n\nThe pre-war European community in Hong Kong had no official committees of its own, although Europeans tended to predominate on certain committees such as the Labour Advisory Board and the Licensing Board60. Thus Europeans lacked the equivalent of the eleven officially recognised all-Chinese committees, the names of which were enshrined annually in the Civil Service List. The government felt no need either to sponsor or promote a system of counter-balancing European committees because of course the administration was controlled at the top by European colonial civil servants and only a few thousand Europeans were resident in Hong Kong.\n\nBut it is of some significance that in the face of growing Chinese working-class intransigence in the 1920s, illustrated by the spate of strikes, beginning with the mechanics' strike of 1920 (the first major industrial strike in Hong Kong) and culminating with the great strike and boycott of 1925-26, Europeans set up their own 'district' associations. The Kowloon Residents' Association was formed in 1922 and the Peak dwellers, the leading European residents, formed theirs a little later in the same year like the European residents on Cheung Chau, a favourite summer station with missionaries; and in 1925 the Mid Levels residents also formed an association. None, understandably, was given statutory or official recognition by government. Such associations were unnecessary for the District Watch Committee was hyper-active during these turbulent years and as keen to protect the European minority and thus help sustain the economy as were Europeans themselves. The Committee worked hard to bring the general strike and boycott to an end by mediation with strike leaders and holding talks with interested parties in Hong Kong and Canton, the strikers' base; and the District Watchmen were active in preventing intimidation of shopkeepers, fokis, artisans", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206510, "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-1972", "page_number": 58, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "52 \n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG \n\ngeneral and governors to send monthly to the Tsungli Yamen foreign newspapers, both those printed in Chinese and in foreign languages, so that we can have at our finger-tips knowledge of the situation between China and foreign countries, and so that we can become more fully acquainted with the way to reform abuses and put right our failings. \n\nA memorial from Prince Hui and others in reply was received at the travelling headquarters on 20 January 1861, and an edict was issued on the same day. As no English version of this edict appears to have been made, a translation of it follows.17 \n\nToday we have received a memorial from Prince Hui and others to the effect that they have deliberated on the memorial of I-hsin Prince Kung, and others on restoring normal conditions and on regulations for trade. According to what they said all the items recommended by Prince Kung and others have a close bearing on the circumstances and that this really is the situation. They request that we should act according to the original proposals. \n\nWe have already issued an edict appointing Prince Kung, Grand Secretary Kuei-liang, and Senior Vice-President of the Board of Revenue Wen-hsiang to be in general charge of trade with the various countries. We have also appointed Ch'ung-hou to be superintendent of trade for the three ports [Tientsin; Newchang; Chefoo]. Let Hsueh Huan continue to control trading arrangements at the five old ports as well as at the newly added ones. In their memorandum Prince Kung and others recommend that Canton and Shanghai should each send two men who understand spoken and written foreign languages to come to the capital on official service. Also that the superintendents of trade as well as the Manchu garrison commanders, the governors-general and governors, and the prefect of Peking ought to report monthly on native and foreign trade conditions at those ports and send the foreign newspapers of the various countries and should communicate [this information and newspapers] to the Board of Rites which will transmit it to the Tsungli Yamen. Let the princes and ministers instruct the Board of Rites to this effect and let the Board communicate these instructions. We also authorize young men to be selected from the Eight Banners to study foreign spoken and written languages; instruct the Russian language school's to draw up appropriate regulations and zealously supervise their lessons. Whenever anyone is able to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206559, "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-1972", "page_number": 107, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "# REVIEW OF HOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG\n\n101\n\npopulated areas which were used for portable purposes should be closed, that all private lanes and streets should be brought under government control and that back-to-back houses should be demolished as soon as possible.\n\nUnder such desperate circumstances, the government was obliged to take strong action and in the same year as the plague struck it passed, on an emergency basis, the Tai Ping Shan Resumption Ordinance. Under this statute the inhabitants from 8.5 acres of land in the worst affected area were evicted, their properties were resumed and demolished, and the area was laid out anew. The various works were completed by 1899 at a total cost of over HK$944,000. Two smaller schemes in the same locality were carried out in 1902 and 1903 at a cost of some HK$271,000; the total area involved in these schemes was about 0.7 acre.\n\nOther measures were introduced in 1894 in the Closed Houses and Insanitary Dwellings Ordinance under which the height of buildings was limited to between 25 ft. and 76 ft. depending on the length and width of the street. The Ordinance also gave powers of inspection to the Sanitary Board to ascertain breaches of the law against overcrowding, the standard of measurement being 30 sq. ft. of floor area and 400 cu. ft. of air space per occupant. Despite the apparent necessity for such measures the unofficial members of Legislative Council pressed for less restrictive clauses.\n\nIn 1895 there was a respite from the plague with only 44 reported cases, but in the following year over 1,200 persons were afflicted. Thereafter, the plague became an annual visitation, mainly in the torrid summer months, and persisted until 1907. Altogether, there were some 13,000 victims between 1894 and 1906 giving an average of over 1,000 a year.\n\nThe continued concern of the government over the insanitary condition of the Colony led to the appointment of a commission to look further into the matter and a report12 was duly submitted in 1898, the year in which the New Territories were leased from China. After a comprehensive survey of 3,095 houses in two health districts,\n\n11 Minute by the Principal Medical Officer on the Report of the Public Health and Building Ordinance Commission, Appendix A. p. 5 in the Blue Book Reports on Sanitation and Housing 1900-1907, Hong Kong, 1907.\n\n12 Report of the Commission to Inquire into the Existence of Insanitary Properties in the Colony, Hong Kong, 1898.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207307, "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-1975", "page_number": 75, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "THE GREAT PLAGUE OF HONG KONG\n\n67\n\ndisease to man remained a mystery and the two Japanese researchers could only conclude that the bacillus was drawn from the air by breathing.\n\nFurther investigations soon established a positive relationship between the incidence of plague first among rats and subsequently among man. On this account, Simpson reported in 1902 that “no success is likely to accrue from the adoption of any measure limited to dealing with plague in human beings and which does not take cognizance of the fact that plague in rats and mice also disseminates the infection. It does not serve any very useful purpose to remove the sick and cleanse everything in the infected houses and above the ground if the infection is being carried by plague-stricken rats from house to house or district to district by the subterranean movements of rats, whether this be effected by rat burrows or by sewers and drains. Both rat and human plague possess infective powers and each can spread the disease not only to its own species but also to the other”.*\n\nSimpson could offer no explanation as to the medium of infection although he did make a number of observations as to the conditions which appeared to favour the spread of the disease. In particular, he drew attention to the extremely crowded and insanitary conditions under which the majority of the Chinese population lived, the virtually unrestricted migration of thousands of people from infected areas in China to Hong Kong, and the fact that the colony served as a great emporium with hongs and godowns filled with stores and infested with rats.\n\nSimpson saw the solution to the problem by way of the strict enforcement of various preventive measures. Besides the already well-established procedures for the disinfection of houses, public latrines, and the like, he recommended in 1902 the appointment of medical men in every health district to register cases and find out causes of the disease. He also urged the strict control over the disposal of dead bodies in the street and harbour, and, to this end, suggested the enforcement of collective fines on all households in any street where a dead body was discovered. He further saw the necessity for the bacteriological examination of rats as part of an\n\n* First Memorandum from W. J. Simpson, M.D., to James Stewart Lockhart, Sanitary Board Office, 20th January 1902, p. 1 in Blue Book Reports on Bubonic Plague 1894-1907.\n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207308, "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-1975", "page_number": 76, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "68\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nintelligence service to pin-point danger spots and proposed the distribution of 100,000 hand bills publicising the causes and symptoms of plague, the destruction of rats and the addresses of places where sickness could be reported. Another recommendation was the establishment of a plague department with wide powers for the discovery, prevention and cure of plague including inoculation with a highly potent horse antiserum prepared at the Haffkine Institute in India.\n\nA final recommendation made by Simpson was a general improvement of sanitary conditions and stricter control over the design of tenement blocks which he described as follows:\n\n\"The rooms, as a rule, are far too deep, the object of this depth being to subdivide each room into a number of cubicles for the accommodation of families or lodgers. Though there may be windows at each end of the room, the great depth materially obstructs the light to take an example from the better class of buildings, many of the houses that are being erected are eighty feet deep without lateral windows and contain long, narrow rooms of fifty-five feet in depth, by twelve or thirteen feet in width, lighted in front by a window and also in the rear by another window which looks into a backyard of twelve feet. . . .”*\n\nFrom the recommendations made by Simpson arose the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance of 1903 which set new standards for the design and occupancy of buildings and which remained in force until 1935.\n\nBy 1904 a considerable amount of deductive evidence had accumulated to link the occurrence of plague to the fleas carried by rats. Dr. J. M. Howie of Changpoo, for example, was of the opinion that the main cause of plague was inoculation through the bite of fleas, lice and mosquitos. Dr. H. Dobson of Yung Kong also noted that the cases he had observed appeared to have been caused by \"the bites of insects (fleas), contamination of open wounds on legs or elsewhere (or) through food containing the germ.\" William Hunter, the Government Bacteriologist of Hong Kong also noted\n\n* Second Memorandum from W. J. Simpson to James Stewart Lockhart Sanitary Board Office, 20th March 1902, p. 15 in Blue Book Reports on Bubonic Plague 1894-1907.\n\n+ W. J. Simpson, Report on the Causes and Continuance of Plague in Hong Kong and Suggestions as to Remedial Measures, London, 1903, p. 31.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207779, "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-1976", "page_number": 167, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "152\n\nW. A. REYNOLDS\n\nengine. The petrol/gas changeover valve has the normal carburettor mounted above it and is controlled from the cab. The engine is normally started on petrol and then the valve slowly moved over so that a petrol/gas/air mixture is used and then gas/air only.\n\nOperating Routine\n\nThe daily fuelling, maintenance and starting procedure took two men about two hours of dusty and dirty work. Charcoal was bought in villages in stick form (rather larger than usually found in Hong Kong). It was then broken into pieces 1-1/4” size, sifted and put into bags. This was often done at the end of the day's run. If charcoal was good and cheap, 300 lbs or more would be bought. Consumption would be a 100 lbs, or so a day.\n\nIn the morning before starting the whole gas system was cleaned, the firebox door dropped, ash removed, cyclone emptied and bag filters removed, turned inside out and shaken (the dirtiest job!). All was then replaced, the hopper filled with the broken charcoal and all doors to the system made air tight. Any air leakage meant loss of power. The fire was started using a torch dipped in oil and brought up to heat using a hand wound centrifugal blower mounted on the tuyere. This could be 15-20 minutes work performed by the junior crew member while the driver took a quick breakfast. The engine was then started on petrol and changed to gas/air. Passengers were loaded aboard and the journey recommenced.\n\nEfficiency of Performance\n\nAs has been mentioned previously, the efficiency of the charcoal conversions improved with time and experience. The contributing factors were:--\n\n1. Raising the compression ratio of the engines. This was done by machining off the cylinder heads by (writing from memory) up to 0.030\" on the Chevrolets and 0.080\" on the Dodge trucks. The first truck on which this was tried was No. 38 and was christened \"Anne Boleyn\" in consequence. She was a well behaved lady after the operation.\n\n2. Fitting a manual advance/retard control to the ignition. Gas/air, with a slower burning rate than petrol vapour, requires the spark earlier in the cycle.\n\n3. General improvement in construction and air tightness of the gas systems.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207893, "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-1976", "page_number": 281, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "266\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\ncommunity. They resisted being sent to the temporary plague hospitals set up under the direction of European doctors. They feared that the bodies of dead relatives and friends would not be treated according to Chinese custom. The mood of the Chinese population became so hostile, almost breaking into open rebellion, that the Government finally permitted the Directors of Tung Wah Hospital to open a plague hospital in a recently built and as yet unoccupied pig and sheep depot in Kennedy Town. The attempt to force western medical treatment upon a Chinese population already aroused by the natural fear of the plague, further alienated the general population from any suggestion that western methods should be introduced into Tung Wah. The President of the Directors in that year was in the unenviable position of being also a member of the Sanitary Board whose duties it was to initiate and enforce measures to control the plague. His position with a foot in two camps provoked an attack upon his business premises while he was chairing a meeting at Tung Wah called to consider the protests of the Chinese community against the measures of the Government. Upon receiving the news of the attack, he hurriedly left the meeting, but his chair was no more outside the gates of the hospital than the hostile crowd which had gathered began stoning the chair bearers and rushed the chair turning it upside down with the unfortunate Chairman inside. He managed to crawl out and rush back within the safety of the Tung Wah gates. An Indian constable blew his whistle and a group of watchmen of the Hospital rushed out and the crowd dispersed. The incident reflects the strong feeling surging in the Chinese community against the measures taken by the Government in the plague crisis.\n\nThe Governor was not only recipient of hostility from the Chinese community but was also strongly criticised in the English press for the slowness with which Government undertook plague measures and for making concessions to the feelings of the Chinese regarding the treatment and care of plague victims. He may have been stung by these criticisms, for after the passing of the plague he took a very strong stand in demands made on Tung Wah to change its former policy of exclusive employment of doctors trained in traditional Chinese medicine.\n\nIn 1895 a Commission was appointed to inquire into whether the Hospital should be closed, or, if continued, what changes should be made. There was no question in official minds that it could", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208637, "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-1979", "page_number": 94, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n67\n\nLooking forward, as only Father Meyer can do, he buys a small pig and puts it down in brine, and now and then in addition to our cans of bully beef, we have a slice of salt pork.\n\nSome of us are anxious to get to Hong Kong for various reasons. Bishop O'Gara to see the dentist and Father Troesch, with his procuratorial instinct, to see about food supplies. Permission therefore being duly secured, the Bishop, accompanied by Fathers Benson and Norris, C. P., start out for Hong Kong on foot, as there isn't a car on the road, save occasionally Japanese army trucks or official cars. Father Troesch also succeeds in getting passes for two, and he and Father Meyer trek in to see what is to be seen and what is to be done. We are also rationing our Mass candles and wine.\n\nAfter saying Mass on the sixth at the Carmelite Convent, the Bishop comes up again to see us. With him is a Korean Seminarian from Rosary Hill. As a few of our members are ill, this seminarian is instrumental in securing the services of a Japanese doctor. He seemed rather kindly disposed, but could not do much under the circumstances, though he promised to have the sick men transported to Queen Mary Hospital. Accordingly, in the afternoon, a truck drew up in our driveway and Father Bauer, Brothers Michael and Thaddeus are put aboard. Bishop Valtorta and Father Toomey get permission to accompany them. Fathers Troesch and Meyer return with the news that Bishop O'Gara and Fathers Benson and Norris have been interned in Hong Kong! We may be next, but nevertheless today we again started our language classes.\n\nAnd now for a little retrospect as to what happened in Hong Kong after the 16th, when the writer returned to Stanley. We left the Japanese in complete possession of Kowloon and as their peace mission failed, they returned to prosecute the siege of Hong Kong. The shelling and bombing kept up, and within a few days, they had effected a landing on the Island at North Point, from which place they advanced towards the city and inland to Stanley. Later, other landings were undoubtedly made as they were soon in control of Aberdeen and Repulse Bay. The guns on Stonecutters Island had been silenced as were those on Mt. Davis. Bitter street fighting took place as the enemy advanced to Causeway Bay and through Wanchai. The central part of the city suffered little actual damage, although an occasional bomb or shell fell there. Later on, the worst damage inflicted on property was by the looters, who virtually stripped buildings of all their woodwork for fuel. In many instances.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208899, "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": 61, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS\n\n33\n\n14 Because of the exorbitant rents for such accommodation, temples in shop houses and flats in Hong Kong are few and far between. In Singapore and Malaysia, temples in shop houses are very common indeed, though they are becoming less so as the years pass and rents in urban areas rapidly rise.\n\n15 Occasionally such a temple may be a converted private house, as in the many examples in Lo Wai village, Tsuen Wan, but more often it is a purpose-built but inexpensive hut.\n\n18 Temples containing images of the Buddhist deities Di Zang Wang, Milofu, and Guan Yin are not necessarily specifically Buddhist, as all three of these deities nowadays are also extremely popular deities in folk religion temples.\n\n17 Mahayana is Northern Buddhism and Theravada or Hinayana is Southern Buddhism.\n\n18 \"Illegal\" is a Hong Kong term for buildings which have been built on Crown Land often by squatters without Government land control or planning permission, but which have been permitted to remain standing under sufferance. In practice, they are temporary structures put up without permission, occasionally ramshackle though more often they are well-built timber, weather-board, and corrugated iron buildings, clean and well-proportioned. (Illustration 17). Some have stood for such a length of time as to have been gradually converted to concrete and brick. All are labelled on the side in rough daubs of paint with the bureaucratic abbreviations and digits prefixed by \"TEM\" (= temporary) affixed by squatter control staff of the Housing Department.\n\n19 Demons are well known to Chinese to be unable to go around corners and must travel in straight lines, hence these inner doors to prevent the demons from entering the temple. The inner doors originally were opened exclusively for influential people.\n\n20 See also James Hayes' information at JHKBRAS 6 (1966): 129-130.\n\n21 In overseas Chinese areas, this kind of large street shrine is still very common and, in Singapore alone, some four to five hundred exist in all kinds of nooks and crannies. For a Hong Kong example, see JHKBRAS 14 (1974): 203.\n\n22 Chu is one of the 28 Constellations (= xiu).\n\n** See pp. 111-113 of the Hong Kong Government's publication Rural Architecture in Hong Kong (1979) for this pagoda.\n\n24 In Imperial times, such masts were always to be seen outside the local magistrate's yamen.\n\n25 Chinese bells have no internal tongue clapper, being tolled by an external blow with a wooden mallet.\n\n26 For the Evacuation of the Coast, see Lo Hsiang-lin and others, Hong Kong and its External Communications before 1842 (Hong Kong, 1963) Chapter VI.\n\n27 For background, see Jen Yu-wen's article \"The Southern Sung stone-engraving at North Fu-t'ang\" in JHKBRAS 5 (1965): 65-68.\n\n28 Government action is through the Chinese Temples Committee, serviced by the Trust Funds Section of the Home Affairs Department.\n\n29 Temples according to this Ordinance include Miao (廟), Si (寺), Buddhist and Daoist monasteries, Guan (觀) and Dao Yuan (道院), and nunneries An (庵).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210199, "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-1984", "page_number": 170, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "149\n\nthe repeal ordinance of 1894.23 Fear of being forced to close down business could be used to compel brothel keepers to register their inmates and submit them for medical examination, just as had been done in the past, without the need to rely on any other legal enactment or penalty. Since there is no documentation available it is impossible to trace the development of the new system of tolerated houses, but by 1923 a highly complex system of regulation had been elaborated. The system was so well established that when the Colonial Office asked for information in that year in order to reply to a parliamentary question a full account was sent to London.24 The Hong Kong government was quite open in describing its system of regulating prostitution and was obviously unconcerned or ignorant of the fact that the Secretary of State had ordered an almost identical system of control to be abolished thirty years earlier.\n\nThe administration described the arrangements as based on the recognition both of the impossibility of stopping prostitution but also of the need for a broad supervision to prevent abuse.25 The Secretary for Chinese Affairs (the official who had formerly been entitled the Registrar-General) kept a full list of tolerated houses, their mistresses and their inmates. Brothels were classified into those catering for Europeans (with subclasses of those with European, Japanese or Chinese prostitutes), brothels for Indians, and brothels for Chinese (subdivided into first class, second class and third class houses). The Secretariat fixed charges which the mistresses might levy on their girls for board and lodging. All those wishing to practise the profession had to attend before the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, bringing three photographs with them, and were closely questioned to ensure that they were entering the profession of their own free will. When the authority was satisfied on this point, and that the girl was over nineteen, she was given a card with her number, name and address, and photograph attached. One photograph was retained by the Secretariat and the other by the brothel mistress who pasted it in a record book kept in the brothel. The girl was also given a card informing her that she was free to leave the profession at any time and could appeal to the authorities for protection in the case of any ill treatment. If any client complained to the Secretariat that he had been infected with venereal disease by a licensed prostitute the girl would be instructed...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210432, "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-1985", "page_number": 39, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "20 \n\nCARL T. SMITH \n\nspecial section of the cemetery somewhat isolated had been set aside for the burial of Japanese. The Japanese had no cemetery of their own. When their numbers began to increase after the turn of the century, the practices associated with their graves created annoyance among expatriates who thought such customs were not appropriate in what they considered to be a cemetery set apart for the burial of Christians. \n\nAs the years passed some of the wealthy Chinese increasingly desired a proper place for the burial of their dead. There were cemeteries for the Chinese, but wealthy members of the community did not regard the conditions of burial in such as suitable to meet their needs. In 1901 the Cemeteries Committee of the Sanitary Board moved to set apart a piece of hillside between the Aberdeen Channel and Deep Water Bay for wealthy Chinese (China Mail, 12 July 1901). For some reason this site did not meet the needs of the group for whom it was intended, for in 1909 a correspondent to the Daily Press claimed that \"The question of proper cemeteries for Chinese has not been approached courageously at all. The authorities for some reason or other seem afraid of it. When the better class of Chinese recently sought a burial ground for their dead, they learned that the Government did not approve of the site suggested at Pokfulam, but no reason was given. Surely the better class of Chinese, whom the Government wish to settle here, have some claims for consideration and respect.” (Weekly Press, 17 April 1909) Their cause was presented to the Sanitary Board by one of its Chinese members, Mr. Lau Chu-pak. In his view, \"the better class of Chinese who had made Hong Kong their permanent home had not a decent cemetery in which to bury their dead, and the Chinese had no control on what were called Chinese Cemeteries. These cemeteries were simply tracts of barren land set apart by the Government for the burial of the Chinese dead of any class. The Government reserved the right of resuming the land and ordering the remains to be exhumed and buried anywhere else the Government might from time to time be pleased to direct”. (Weekly Press, 17 April 1909) \n\nIn February 1909 an application was made to the Sanitary Board by a wealthy Chinese to use some land near Inland Lot", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210433, "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-1985", "page_number": 40, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "21\n\n1415 as a place for private burial. The Board appointed a committee to investigate (Weekly Press, 20 February 1909). It reported back to the Board in April with the opinion that it was not advisable for land to be disposed of for isolated detached cemeteries. By way of concession it recommended that, “If, however, any Chinese of affluent circumstances wishes to have space reserved as a private graveyard, remission might be given for an area to be so reserved, and railed off, whether in an existing Chinese cemetery or on land adjoining such a cemetery at a rate of $2 per square foot, same as grave spaces in Class D of Chinese Cemeteries.” (Weekly Press, 3 April 1909).\n\nBut this arrangement did not fully satisfy those who wanted better accommodations for their dead. A satisfactory solution was finally arrived at in 1913 when land was set apart at Aberdeen (Aberdeen Inland Lot No. 78) for a permanent cemetery for Chinese permanently resident in the Colony. The cemetery was under the control of a Board of Management made up of recognised leaders of the Chinese community. Those who had resided in the Colony for eight years, and had subscribed $100 (later increased to $500) were entitled to graves; however, no more than four grave spaces were to be allotted for one coffin. Part of the problem of a satisfactory cemetery arrangement for wealthy Chinese was their wish to have a traditional horseshoe-shaped grave, a form which could use a great deal of space. The more area a grave included, the more important the person, and the greater the public statement of the wealth and position of the family.\n\nIn February 1909 the Sanitary Board considered an application from the son of a deceased Chief Interpreter of the Supreme Court for permission to exhume the body of his father that he might be reburied in a larger site in the same cemetery along with two sons, and two of his wives, who were to be exhumed from the cemetery for Chinese at Mount Caroline.\n\nThis request added fuel to the fire which was burning over the presence of Japanese Buddhist graves among those of Christians. One of the European members of the Board protested “against allowing our cemetery to be used for re-interment of bodies from", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210499, "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-1985", "page_number": 106, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "87\n\nin Kau Sai and elsewhere where a boat was known as well as on board, everyone knew who was master.“\n\n48\n\n47\n\nThe local term in most common use was Si t'au (lit: business head, affairs head). Widely used colloquially, perhaps rather more in reference than address, for the head of any kind of group or business concern, including the head of a household, it is a term the referent for which must by definition be unambiguous. Only rarely and, as we shall see, during the transition periods which occurred sometimes while active control was being more or less gradually relinquished by a member of one generation into the hands of his successor of the next, might there perhaps be some doubt among outsiders as to who really was the si t'au at any given moment. It is possible, as I shall argue later, that the very nature of living on board a sea-going boat puts a premium upon the clear-cut allocation of authority to one person.\n\nThe reader should note that the account of boats' masters in this and the two next chapters relates to their managerial role alone. Questions of the \"ownership\" of boats and gear are reserved for consideration in the later chapters on family structure as such. Partly for this reason, and partly also because of the existence of transition situations of the kind just mentioned and examined in detail below, it would be unwise to assume that the man listed as “owner” on the license issued annually by Hong Kong's Department of Marine was in fact the boat's master in the sense used here. Usually he was; but often there appears to have been a reluctance to change the name on the license book even long after a change in actual management had taken place. Often, too, there have been genuine errors, or carelessness, and sometimes, as we shall see, more subtle reasons for not wishing to register changes of \"ownership\". For our immediate purpose it is enough to observe that the boats' masters of this account are so called not because they were listed as \"owners\" on their boats' licences, but because they were referred to as si t'au and performed as such.\n\nOne further caveat must be entered: in respect of local fishing craft and certain other categories of vessel the Marine Department uses the word “master” in a quite specific sense to refer to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210701, "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-1986", "page_number": 52, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "35\n\nhis profession but no-one would ever know what he was going to do next. Francis did not try again though he remained in the public mind as a possible candidate. The Daily Press in an editorial in 1892 said that he would prove a valuable acquisition to the Council with his long and intimate knowledge of the colony and his legal attainments but the Government would probably think it desirable to have a merchant. Also (according to G.B. Endacott, Government and People in Hong Kong 1841-1962) Governor William Robinson regarded Francis as one of his principal opponents. However he maintained his interest in the reform of the Legislative Council and the introduction of representative government. In 1889 in a lecture on Crown Colonies he expressed a hope for an elected Council, and he was a leading member of the Hong Kong Association founded in 1893 for improving and popularising the Government. That was followed in 1894 by a petition to the Home Government for constitutional reform.\n\nFrancis did in fact achieve elective office, but on the Sanitary Board. That was set up in 1883 to supervise and control the practical sanitation of the colony (which left much to be desired). As its work involved interference with the private affairs of residents it was unpopular with property owners and with the Chinese generally. It could however only make proposals. Their implementation was a matter for the Government. Originally it consisted solely of official members but subsequently provision was made for nominated unofficial members, and two members elected by ratepayers on the special and common jury lists. The first election was held in June 1888 and there were four candidates including Francis who received 55 votes. The other candidates received 71, 43 and 18 votes respectively. The Daily Press hailed the occasion saying the day would be ranked as a day of note by the future historian of Hong Kong; for the first time the ratepayers of the Colony had been given a voice in the management of their own affairs. Prior to the election it referred to his legal knowledge, skill in debate and long and intimate knowledge of social conditions of all sections of the population and said that his presence on the Board should ensure some check on its servants. Granville Sharp in proposing him called him capable, conscientious and unselfish. He promised to be a watchdog for the public. He remained a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210703, "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-1986", "page_number": 54, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "37\n\nlegal ability and acumen in drafting regulations for dealing with the plague and its effects. A thoughtful touch by Francis was to offer coffee and cigars to the men of the Shropshire Light Infantry who helped with plague relief. The Hong Kong Telegraph in its obituary said that he directed and controlled everything and allowed his practice to suffer in the public interest. However, in September when the emergency was over, the Daily Press attacked the Sanitary Board, saying that its springtime of promise had drifted into a moribund condition of age, and the Permanent Committee saying that it was as absolute as practically to remove all control from the executive and demonstrated the difference between representative government and amateur despotism. In October, the Colonial Surgeon, giving evidence before a Retrenchment Committee that had been set up, alleged that the Board had done very little worth doing during the last six years. So far as the unofficial members of the Board were concerned, matters continued to deteriorate, and the last straw was the proposal early in 1895 to appoint another official member, the Medical Officer of Health, to it. Francis went so far as to say that he would be a Government spy. He and two other members threatened to resign. A Chinese member, Ho Kai, expressed the hope that they would not do so because that would be playing into the hands of enemies who wished to get rid of them. Francis and another member did resign and wrote to the newspapers to explain their reasons to the ratepayers. Their resignations were followed by others. At the next meeting of the Board, the Chairman said that they had all, especially Francis, who had devoted several months of his time absolutely to the work of coping with the epidemic, rendered valuable services to the colony, and it was resolved that the thanks of the Board be conveyed to them for the assistance they had rendered during their membership, especially to Francis for his untiring zeal and energy in coping with the plague epidemic in 1894. By this time, the Governor favoured the abolition of the Board. Despite that, he held a plebiscite in 1896 to ascertain whether the community wanted an official or unofficial majority on the Board. Francis took part in the plebiscite, and by 331 votes to 31 votes, the community indicated that it wanted an unofficial majority. However, the new Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, was not prepared to countenance that or to agree to the abolition of the Board, and it was reconstituted. Elections continued to be held.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210805, "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-1986", "page_number": 156, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "139\n\nNOTES\n\n'The son of a minor official of K'iungshan, Hai Jui left Hainan at an early age and after passing the superior examination in Beijing, rose rapidly to high office. Although severed at an early age from immediate connection with his native Hainan, Hai Jui continued to bear its interests actively at Court. He died in 1587 (Mayers, 1872).\n\n2\n\nDisappointed by his failure to receive promotion to the Board of Rites in Peking, Wang Hung-hui resigned his office as emissary in 1599 and returned with his family to Hainan. Before leaving, however, he gave the Jesuit, Father Matteo Ricci, letters of introduction to his Peking colleagues (Dunn, 1962).\n\nKnown as Lingnan Agricultural College, the College of Agriculture at Canton Christian College was an indigenous undertaking, and unlike contemporary colleges in Nanking and Peking, it was fostered and developed by the Cantonese and was not directly under western control. Today, Lingnan Agricultural College survives as part of South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou.\n\nWang Guo-xing became the first governor of the Li-Miao Autonomous region which was formed in 1952 (Lee, 1964).\n\nREFERENCES\n\nAnon., (1982a) “Hainan Island Mining and Mineral Survey Mission\", Australian Government Printing Service, Canberra.\n\nAnon., (1982b) \"Hainan Region National Economic Statistical Material — 1981\" Hainan Region Bureau of Statistics, August, 1982, p322.\n\nThe Bulletin (1983) “China's Island Economic Zone\", May 10, 1983 p124.\n\nChin, Mien-min (1962) “Hainan Island under the Chinese Communist Rule,\" Communist China, 2: 231-251.\n\nChina Daily (1981) “Ownership of land will not be altered\", November 4, 1981, published by Xinhua news agency.\n\nChina Daily (1981) “Hainan Island: a place worth investment”, December 4, 1981, published by Xinhua News Agency.\n\nChina Daily (1983) “Special measures for Hainan Island”, June 6, 1983, published by Xinhua News Agency.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211110, "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-1987", "page_number": 171, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "146\n\nThe Chinese desire to have a consul in Hongkong was tied to the much larger problem of the opium trade. Hongkong had a special place in the trade. As a free port immediately next to the Chinese mainland, it was an excellent base for smuggling opium into China.\n\nThe Chinese Government had for many years prohibited its importation. However, it reluctantly agreed to its legalisation by the Treaty of Tientsin in 1858. There was the hope that, if legalised, China could better control the trade.\n\nA heavy duty was levied on it, however, and to avoid payment, large quantities continued to be smuggled from Hongkong in Chinese junks.\n\nThe smuggling was difficult to control. Hongkong regarded it strictly as China's problem. It saw no reason why it should be responsible for its suppression.\n\nIt was the peculiar situation of Hongkong that made enforcement by the Chinese difficult. In Hongkong there were ample storage facilities for the drug. The processed opium could be purchased from the Government opium monopolists. There was little difficulty in putting it aboard a junk in Hongkong and delivering it to agents somewhere along the coast or in an inland waterway.\n\nTwo types of charges were levied on opium. There was the duty on goods imported in foreign vessels to the treaty ports. The Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs became responsible for collecting this.\n\nIn addition, there were provincial levies called likin. These varied from province to province and were subject to change at the will of the provincial administrators.\n\nThis is the background for the intermittent suggestion that a Chinese official be placed in Hongkong to supervise the collection of duties imposed by the Chinese upon goods shipped from Hongkong and thereby to check the blatant smuggling.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211357, "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-1988", "page_number": 73, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "49\n\nany age may be employed any length of time at any kind of work, however fatiguing or unhealthy\".' The only provisions relating to conditions of labour were in the Offensive Trades regulations under the jurisdiction of the Sanitary Board, but they only referred to cleanliness and sanitation in places of work. The only provision affecting employment was the prohibition of children under the age of ten from being employed in rag-picking or cleaning hair or feathers. There was no regulation of hours of labour. Some women and children worked twelve hours a day, Sundays included. Such an eighty-four hour week was in sharp contrast to agitation in Britain for a forty hour working week.\n\nMr. Bowley felt the time had arrived for Hong Kong to face these problems, though he admitted local opinion and conditions were not ready for the application of all the laws prevailing in Britain in this area. But as a first step he advocated that factories be licensed by the Sanitary Department and there be some regulations regarding hours and conditions of work, with women inspectors appointed to see the regulations were observed. The total prohibition of child labour was closely connected with the provision of schools if compulsory education was to be instituted. In England education had been compulsory for fifty years and free for eighteen years.\n\nBefore 1914 the Education Department in Hong Kong had no control over any school except Government schools and Grant schools. In that year registration of schools was made compulsory and certain elementary regulations were laid down regarding sanitation and the enforcement of discipline.\n\nA discussion of Mr. Bowley's proposals followed. On the subject of carrying loads to the Peak, a member stated that this was \"a disgusting sight.\" Mr. Schoffield saw it differently. He maintained that \"carrying loads up the Peak is about the healthiest exercise to which a child could be put in Hong Kong\".\n\nA member asked him, “If you were a little child would you like to carry heavy loads instead of going to school and enjoying yourselves as other children do? Would you like to see your mother carrying loads up the Peak?\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211635, "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-1989", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "25\n\nwhich is reserved exclusively for the occasion. The offerings must include red pork and two long stems of bamboo in leaf; these are laid out on special tables placed on small stools so that they do not touch the ground and be defiled.\n\nThe Jade Emperor's image has been noted on altars in nine temples in Hong Kong and in two in Macau. It is also to be seen on numerous altars throughout South-East Asia and in Taiwan. In Taiwan his image appears alone or with two or three attendants on a number of secondary altars and even on side altars. In Hong Kong he is the main deity in six of the nine temples and is the major deity on a secondary altar in the other three.\n\nThe most fascinating image of the Jade Emperor in Hong Kong is to be seen in the upper level hall of the Monastery of the Ten Thousand Buddhas in Shatin where he is flanked by two of his ministers. In a large number of temples in which he is the main deity the Jade Emperor is supported in this way by the two stellar deities, each in his own secondary altar flanking the main altar with the Jade Emperor. They are the Lord of the Northern Bushel and the Lord of the Southern Bushel, Nanpei Tou (jjdk-1-). There are also a number of images of attendants flanking the image of the Jade Emperor, and on occasions the Civil and Military Judges (Wenwu P'ankuan).\n\nHe is the main deity in a tiny temple near Shaukiwan on Hong Kong island, a tiny image in a small single-room temple occupied by one elderly lady, the temple keeper. The original occupants were refugees from Yunnan province in the early fifties, dead these many years. By the mid-seventies the temple was being kept spotlessly clean by the elderly lady who had been an amah to a long-departed English family. She explained that she had to earn her keep somehow, especially as her husband had already 'long time gone topside'.\n\nIn Penang people will tell you that the small red shrine outside their shop or house is dedicated to the Jade Emperor even though neither his name nor title is recorded anywhere.\n\nSupporting the Supreme Deity is a Board or Ministry of Thirty-Six Ministers, with duties to supervise junior celestial officials and clerks, whose images are rarely to be seen on altars though on temple murals all thirty-six are frequently portrayed. Their role is to control and run", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211763, "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-1989", "page_number": 178, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "13\n\n153\n\nPP.\n\n12 The inscription recording the rebuilding is at Faure, Luk and Ng, op. cit. Vol. I, 128-129, but it is unreadable through weathering, except for the heading and date.\n\n(4). Loe An-lim (羅安廉) (42), Qianren Wenxian (千人文献), ÑÍAL. [Collected Writings of Men of Past Ages], unpublished manuscript collection, Vol. 2, ff. 75a. (Copy in library of Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, Kowloon Central Library, Hong Kong). Lee An-lim was a villager of Sheung Wo Hang.\n\n(3) Lee An-lim, Qianren Wenxian, op. cit. ff 73-78.\n\n+\n\nAs honour board recording the donors to the 1920 repair has recently been found. It lists the donors by village. Every village in Ta Kwu Ling donated (except Ping Che, Chuk Yuen, Nga Yiu Ha, very probably included with their lineage brethren in Tong Fong, Law Fong, Ping Yeung), as did the villages close to the road both in the Sha Tau Kok area (Shan Tsui, Yim Tso Ha, Yim Tin, Wo Hang, Nam Chung, Luk Keng, Wu Shek Kok and Sha Tau Kok Market) and in the Sham Tsun area (Sham Tsun Market, Lo Wu, and Wong Pui Ling). Shek Wu Hui from further away also donated. See Win Wen Wei Pao (SCHEW) of 17 September, 1991.\n\nU¿÷\n\n16 Detail from the tablets commemorating the departed leaders of the monastery, and from information given by the recently deceased resident nun. The tablet of Kuk Shan Kit reads: 羅浮山寶積古寺監裤正宗第上三代主持上谷下山潔老和尚莲座. The tablet Kuk Shan Kit placed to commemorate his deceased predecessors names the \"ordained monks\" HIBA · MAZA\n\n+\n\nJ\n\n# and Ki£*, all of whom were dead by the date of erection\n\n+\n\n1\n\nof the tablet, and ✯, at that date still alive, as well as predecessors as rulers of this monastery\" ALLKILMINER and \"those monks who founded this monastery\", A WILDFORIKA BAIMM-\n\nL\n\n17 See P.H. Hase, “Notes on Rice Farming in Shatin', in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 21, 1981, pp. 196-206; D. Faure, The Rural Economy of Pre-Liberation China: Trade Increase and Peasant Livelihood in Jiangsu and Guangdong, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1989, pp. 46-57 and 212; and Hong Kong Annual Report: Report by District Commissioner, New Territories for Year Ending 31st March, 1950, Noronha and Co., Hong Kong, 1950, p. 5.\n\nTH The Ho clan of Tsung Yuen Ha descends from Ho Chan, the Earl of Tung Kuan in the early Ming, and the Ho family history (CBMGKR — a manuscript volume in the University of Cambridge Library) suggests this area was in Ho Chan's hands before the end of the Ming. It was certainly in Ho family control before 1393 when Ho Chan's family were proscribed. The Tang family has occupied the Lung Yeuk Tau villages, Loi Tung and Tai Tong Wu since the fourteenth century at the latest. A Tang clan also occupies Au Ha (PUF Aoxia) and Wang Kong Ha (Huanggangxia). I have not been able to discover if these two villagers are genealogically connected with the Loi Tung and Lung Yeuk Tau clan, although this is unlikely. The Man family has occupied Ping Che for **18 generations\", according to village elders, i.e. probably from the fourteenth century. The same family occupies Tong Fong, Heung Yuen Wai, and Lin Tong, Liantang), and a branch of it was resident at Man Uk Pin (**Man Family Houses\") before the present residents, the Chung (鍾) clan moved there in the early eighteenth century. The To clan has been resident at Chau Tin village for **500 years\". Local villagers consider that the Lei family has been resident at Lei Uk for as long as the To and Man clans have been at Chau Tin and Ping Che. All these clans are Punti, although sections of the Man clan at Tong Fong, and those at Heung Yuen Wai and Lin Tong, now speak Hakka. Shan Kai Wat (Lam surname, 林), Fung Wong Wu (Yip surname, 葉), and Law Fong (Law surname, 羅), are all included in the list of villages in existence in 1661 included in the 1688 Hsin An County Gazetteer, along with Au Ha, Tsung Yuen Ha, Ping Che (Ping Yuen 平遠), and perhaps Ping Yeung (坪洋) (Gazetteer, Ch. 3, f 12-13). Other Punti clans in the Ta Kwu Ling area (Wong, 黃, Chan, 陳, and Law, 羅, at Kan Tau Wai, and Hau, 侯)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212071, "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-1990", "page_number": 13, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "object of encouraging an active interest in East Asia, and in particular China, through the medium of lectures and discussions and by publishing an annual Journal”. These objectives must always be borne in mind and so it was particularly gratifying to see that the Hong Kong Standard thought we were worthy of space in their special 150th anniversary issue on the Foundation of Hong Kong, published late last year: I am grateful to Carl Smith for writing this article and to see that it brought forth many favourable comments. It is interesting to note that in spite of a 112 year gap in our history the influence of the Royal Asiatic Society is very much in evidence.\n\nThis evidence can also be seen in other areas. I would hesitate to call this Society a watchdog for the History of Hong Kong but nevertheless we are concerned about matters which could erode the historical heritage of our local community. For this reason the Council thought it appropriate to write to the Urban Council urging them to think again about the proposed charges for entering museums under their control; this is a new departure for the Urban Council and we will inform you in due course whether our representations make any headway. Again, whilst the Society does not have direct representation on the Antiquities Advisory Board, (a matter of some controversy), there are three members of the Council on the Board and we are therefore in some position to make our views known. We have also at their request written to the Government about the conservation and rescue programme for the area affected by the Airport and Lantau Port Study Areas.\n\nFinally I would like to turn to the future. Whether 1997 was on the horizon or not a Society such as ours needs to ensure that it continues to meet the aspirations of its members, have an active and interesting programme, a Journal which is worthy of the best, and that we are in a position to make our contribution within our objectives to the community at large. The Society was asked to comment by OMELCO on the Bill of Rights and we responded by emphasising the need for real freedoms, as opposed to paper ones and that such conditions in the Bill of Rights should also be included in or be in accord with the Basic Law when it comes into force: in particular, members of Council agreed on the need for freedom of academic research and that there should be no diminution of existing access to government and other records. We shall continue to watch developments, but if we are to succeed in continuing as a viable and active society we will\n\nxii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212138, "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-1990", "page_number": 80, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "57\n\nthem 'Persian monasteries' (Po-Ssu ssu §†). In order that the true origin of these so-called 'Persian monasteries' may be known, the monasteries in the two capitals are to be re-named 'Syrian monasteries' (Ta-ch'in ssu). The same change is to apply to the monasteries in other prefectures and districts.\n\nThis imperial decree seems to have been connected with a Nestorian mission from Mesopotamia which arrived in Ch'ang-an in 744, some months earlier, and received an impressive imperial compliment. We learn of this mission from the Sian tablet inscription:\n\nIn the third year [of the Tien-pao period], in the country of Syria (Ta-ch'in) there was the monk Chi-ho. Gazing at the stars he turned towards reformation; looking at the sun he came to do reverence to the emperor. The emperor decreed that the priests Lo-han, P'u-lun and others, seven in all, along with bishop Chi-ho, should cultivate merit in the Hsing-ching palace. The emperor then composed a motto for the monastery, and its name-board carried the dragon-writing. The precious ornament was like a gem or a kingfisher, and was bright with the vermilion glow of sunset clouds.'\n\nTwo separate sources, therefore, state that in 744 and 745 Hsuan-tsung showed interest in the official terminology of the Nestorian church in China. According to one source he ordered all Nestorian monasteries to be renamed; according to the other he supplied the Nestorian monastery in Ch'ang-an's I-ning ward with a sample of his calligraphy, in the distinctive vermilion ink reserved for emperors. Obviously the two accounts are connected. Chi-ho's mission, for whatever reason, resulted in a decision by the imperial authorities to have all Nestorian monasteries renamed 'Syrian monasteries'. The emperor also paid the Nestorian monastery in Ch'ang-an the compliment of personally writing out its new name, Ta-ch'in ssu § , 'Syrian monastery', for reproduction on the monastery's wooden name-board.\n\nThe change of name in 745 came at a time when the Chinese government was more than usually interested in western geography. Chinese armies had wrested control of the Tarim Basin from the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212199, "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-1990", "page_number": 141, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "118\n\n1 left by steamer for Canton, the great southern Chinese town, which sprawls along the shore of the Pearl River; and spent a few days on the Shameen mud-bank, just off the city, where the small British and French Concessions are. The Concessions were untouched; but, across the narrow creek that separates them from the shore, the city had suffered heavily from bombing, and from the fires which raged furiously in the congested native districts after each raid. One morning I crossed to the South bank and took the branch line to Samshui on the West river, where I caught the steamer for Wuchow in Kwangsi province.\n\nAlthough owned by a Chinese company, the small river steamer flew the British flag. That was a phenomenon common enough on the inland waters of China. The foreign flag protected the ship from being commandeered by the local war lord. Sometimes for months on end steam traffic, on this water-way or that, would be completely disorganised. The Chinese ships would be impressed to carry the troops of the various armies contending for power. It was only under a foreign flag that they could find the security which would justify their remaining in operation at all. The British government did not welcome this use of the British flag, and introduced regulations to control abuse of the privilege. In order to qualify for British registry a ship must at least carry a British captain and a British chief engineer, and must comply with the Board of Trade regulations in regard to safety measures. But even so, the Chinese owners would make every effort to obtain British registry for their ships, thus in one direction taking advantage of the treaties between Britain and China while, in the other, probably contributing to the Kuo Min Tang party funds, which were used to denounce the iniquities of those very same treaties. In order to comply with the letter of the regulations, the particular ship I now found myself on carried three British officers, whose aggregate age exceeded 200 years. They were, of course, mere figure-heads, the actual work being done by the Chinese officers and crew. These river-boats kept communications open and provided a measure of security for travellers - owing to the presence of British gunboats these small ships moving on inland waters were seldom attacked by bandits which otherwise would have been lacking.\n\n―\n\nIn Kwangsi the road system had been extended to connect Wuchow with the other large towns of the province and I left by car for Kweilin, the capital. An American aviator, who had been down to Hongkong on a shopping expedition, travelled with me as far as", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212325, "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-1990", "page_number": 267, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "244\n\nParsees. At one time, with a German Chairman and an American Deputy Chairman, the Board had no British members. The financial failure of Dent, in 1867, had the effect of freeing the Bank from dependence on any one enterprise and brought about more independent management control. Within months of setting up its headquarters in Hong Kong a branch was opened in London, and further branches were established in San Francisco (1875), New York (1880), Lyons (1881) and Hamburg (1889). By the 1880s The Hong Kong Bank had become banker to the Hong Kong Government, and to this day it is, in effect, the Central Bank of the Territory.\n\nWorld War I proved a difficult period, and its German directors resigned shortly after hostilities commenced. The Bank resumed its leading position in China and the Far East in the 1920s and 30s. Like the Chartered Bank, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank's branch in Shanghai operated without interruption all through the Cultural Revolution.\n\nToday 'Wardley' is the name of an investment company associated with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. In 1864, Wardley House (demolished in 1882 when its new bank building was completed) was the first premises of the Bank. William Henry Wardley was a staff member of Gibb Livingston. He started his own firm about 1850. Although the company was taken over by F.B. Johnson and James Bowman the name was retained. It stopped trading about 1861, before the Bank was established. But the name, Wardley, has been perpetuated.\n\nThe Mercantile Bank\n\nThe old Mercantile Bank can be traced back to October 1853, with the founding of the Mercantile Bank of Bombay. Within two months it had become the Mercantile Bank of India, London and China, a co-partnership of four Indian proprietors and four British. An office was opened in London almost immediately, and other offices, in 1854, in Madras, Colombo and Kandy. In 1855 branches started at Calcutta, Singapore, Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Comparing these dates with the Chartered Bank, Mercantile got off to a quicker start, although both banks were established in the same year. Mercantile had a branch in Hong Kong, for example, four years before Chartered.\n\nSkipping a century, in 1958 the name was shortened to ‘Mercantile", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212329, "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-1990", "page_number": 271, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "248\n\nwere still in darkness. Kowloon had to wait another 28 years before gas lights were turned on. The inhabitants there continued to depend upon candles and oil lamps.\n\nThe board of directors set up their office in London, and from there they engaged staff and ran the company. The first manager in Hong Kong was R.C. Whitty. It was he who erected the plant, which came from Britain, on the waterfront at West Point (near Whitty Street). It was the first gas utility in the Far East. Jardine's office, the Hong Kong Dispensary (A.S. Watson and Company), and the Hong Kong Hotel were the first buildings to be lighted by gas. Gas cookers and water heaters were still unheard of.\n\nThe first plant could manufacture 120,000 cubic feet of gas a day, and for 80 years coal was used as fuel. The Ma Tau Kok gasworks used to ring a brass bell at hourly intervals, like ships of old using the marine system of two, four, six, and eight bells over a four-hour period, for timing the charging and discharging of furnaces. This bell was a familiar sound to Ma Tau Kok residents.\n\nFor 90 years the company was managed directly from Britain. Then, in 1954, majority control was purchased by George Marden of Wheelock Marden. In 1982, the transfer of the company's corporate registration from England to Hong Kong made it a local firm. These moves brought about more effective management control.\n\nFor 100 years there were gas lights in Hong Kong. Today only four remain. These are situated at the head and foot of the broad granite steps, built between 1875 and 1889, which lead from Ice House Street into Duddell Street in Central. The lamps were installed at the turn of the century when they were lit manually. These steps and the four street lights have been gazetted as historical monuments. Once there were over 2,000 street gas lamps. But in spite of the loss of business, the Gas Company learned to adapt and emerged stronger than ever. In the late 1980s, it had over half a million consumers. After 1981, Towngas has been produced entirely from eight naphtha plants.\n\nHong Kong Electric\n\nThe first power station in Hong Kong was in Star Street, Wanchai,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212668, "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-1991", "page_number": 222, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "203\n\nNobody seemed to care.\n\nIn very short time we established ourselves. Patrols picked up stray Japanese and we asserted control over the Colony. Food, we soon discovered, was a black market commodity and could not be bought with money due to the fact that the Japanese had flooded the economy with forged bank notes. We had the answer to that one. The ships had brought in a supply of new currency.\n\nThe population was invited to take all its money to various points of exchange within a certain number of days. It was a common sight to see rickshaws with suitcases crammed with worthless money and, later, owners emerging from banks with somewhat slim wallets of new notes in exchange.\n\nI found the chief bartering medium for Hong Kong citizens was packets of cigarettes. Imagine what these packs looked like having passed from hand to hand in some cases for up to almost four years. A tablet of Lux soap would buy almost anything. I 'bought' a pair of leather, hand-stitched, snake-proof boots for one such tablet. I was amused to think we hadn't any snakes aboard ship.\n\nFood was the next problem. We had an abundance brought in by freighter but how to distribute it equitably was a headache. How this was finally resolved I didn't stay in Hong Kong long enough to find out.\n\nThe organisation that was put into force was fantastic. We had all our time cut out to stabilise the economy, to get the people back to work, and to restore law and order. One of the things we needed to do was find guns and munitions the Japanese had abandoned. We discovered a number of suicide boats. These were roughly made of plywood, packed with high explosive, but sea-worthy enough for one-way trips. Two of these were taken back to the United Kingdom to present to Belfast Naval Museum. We also had to re-establish the rather small police force and set up courts; medical supplies and clinics were, of course, needed.\n\nWe employed some young girls aboard ship to scrub and clean and to do other general tasks. They were paid a dollar or so for which they were grateful. The women I had in my charge were very cheerful and took a delight in watching soap bubbles. I gave each one a small piece of soap and, on completion of their duties, I allowed them to keep the...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213038, "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-1993", "page_number": 106, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "86\n\nwas to promote the responsibility of District Committees, by requiring their 'joint charge and control over the whole range of the labours carried on by their individual members.' The medical mission work in China was already distinguished by local financial support and greater reliance was being placed on the local committee for hospital management and administration. Given these factors, the reply of the LMS Board of Directors is understandable.\n\nThe Chinese subscribers, 21 of the richest men in Hong Kong, therefore guaranteed a sum of $2,000 per annum for the lady doctor's salary, but added a condition: that she be available to treat the women of the subscribers' families in their own homes. As well, she would be required to spend her first year learning Cantonese in Hong Kong (rather than in Canton, where LMS language training was established), so that she could mix socially with the Chinese ladies and introduce to them Western hygiene and health care. Negotiations took several months, agreement reached in February, 1903, the delays attributed by the LMS Hong Kong Secretary, Mr. Pearce, to the inability of Dr. Ho to arrange a meeting of the subscribers. More likely, since the subscribers' money was essential, the delay was tactical, Dr. Ho certainly having been able to arrange their support very quickly initially.\n\nFor Dr. Gibson, pursuit of the project was important, because he feared that the Tung Wah Hospital, having introduced some Western medicine and by now handling obstetric cases, would threaten the viability of the Alice Hospital and thereby, the mission enterprise in Hong Kong, saying:\n\n·\n\n+\n\nI feel confident that the Directors of the LMS do not wish that our Missionary Institution should be behind a purely heathen Institution in making provision for the relief of suffering.\n\n18\n\nHis vision was at all times expansionary, having set up a clinic in Kowloon in 1901, in order to bring Western medicine to a wider public. In the event, he was obliged to accept a lady doctor on terms other than he would have wished. The repercussions of this were to affect the development of the service offered by the new AMMH and lead to the resignation of the lady doctor in 1909. From that point, supervision was fragmented until 1925, when Dr. Annie Sydenham took over the maternity hospital.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213050, "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-1993", "page_number": 118, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "98\n\nwere well pleased with her qualifications. From 1 January, 1911, Dr. Perkins took over the supervision of government midwives. One can only assume that, although the position had been more or less promised to Dr. Sibree by the government's Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Gibson was able to gain the reinstatement of the AMMH. This was probably supported by the Legislative Councillor and Chairman of the Alice Hospitals, Dr. Ho Kai. Thus, the AMMH was again the provider, through its Lady Doctor, of the supervision of government midwives. That decision was clearly linked with the designation of the Medical Superintendent and Lady Doctor of the AMMH as members of the Midwives Board in the 'Midwives Ordinance', proclaimed in September, 1910.\n\nThe resistance of the District Committee and Dr. Gibson to the inclusion of extra Chinese subscribers on the maternity hospital's management subcommittee was overcome shortly after, when a proposal to add two subscribers was linked with a proposal to build a Training Institute for Nurses and Midwives. As well, the right of subscribers to nominate students for training was agreed. Finance was subsequently raised in the Chinese community for the project, which was opened in March, 1914.\n\nOutcomes and Implications of This Development Process.\n\nBetween 1903 and 1911, then, the first maternity hospital for Chinese women was built and training for Chinese midwives set up. That it happened at all was due to the convergence of interests of the LMS, the Chinese elite and the Hong Kong Government. The struggle for control in pursuit of sectional interests, Dr. Gibson versus the LMS District Committee, Dr. Gibson and the District Committee versus the Chinese subscribers, and the position of the LMS in relation to medical education, placed difficulties seen to be insuperable in the way of the Lady Doctor and the development of her service, as she was excluded from general medical work.\n\nIt is hard to reconcile the picture of Dr. Sibree as portrayed in the correspondence of her detractors as unable to adapt; lacking initiative; reluctant to state her case to the District Committee directly, rather going behind their backs to the LMS; and publicly denying any problem in her relationship with Dr. Gibson, with the strong figure she later appears. Dr. Sibree married Mr. C.C. Hickling, son of the Rev. C.H. Hickling, pastor\n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213464, "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-1995", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "27 \n\nThe Customary Law of the Sea-dwellers, the Tanka and Hoklo 154 \n\nThere has been even less chance of the customary law of the sea-dwellers receiving mention either in law reports or elsewhere for now as was the case fifty years ago they comprise only a little more than a tenth of the total population of the New Territories. 155 These sea-dwellers are, moreover, accustomed to a way of life free from bickering and litigation. The arduous demands made by the fishing activities on all members of the family result in a close-knit unit with the men in the dominant and the women in subordinate status. Even in a big family one person, usually the eldest male, is regarded as the house-holder and he manages the family assets which belong to all the members of that family. For example, the proceeds of each catch are made known to the whole family; part of those proceeds are allocated to daily expenses, purchase of equipment, debts and such like expenditure, part is placed on deposit to meet future contingencies and part is shared out to each family member to meet individual expenses. The latter sharing may be in equal parts or alternatively it may be on the basis of 1/200th or 3/100ths to each member of the family, man, woman or child, according to individual ability in the fishing operation.\n\nProperty \n\nThe sea-dwellers seldom possess land but if they do then by special privilege the eldest son assumes control of any house on land. Their property, of course, mostly consists of their boats and their fishing gear. If a family has among its number grown-up sons, then, providing the family business prospers or the initial capital can be borrowed, as many boats are built by fishermen of small fishing vessels, operating handlines and gill nets, as will enable each grown-up son to operate his own fishing boat independently. In the case of the bigger vessels, that is the mechanized trawlers and the tsam junk trawlers, if the family has crew in excess of its vessel or if excess funds are available then they build another new vessel adding it to the family's fleet. In such a large vessel several of the grown-up sons would live aboard and one of them would be appointed master by the householder. The income from the fishing operation of such vessel would be divided into equal shares and an extra half share allocated to the son acting as master of the vessel\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213876, "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-1996", "page_number": 228, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "202\n\nstate through the mandarinate and extended downward. Dependence on the favour of aristocratic protection found in Europe was represented in China by dependence on the favour of personified officialdom from the central extending all the way down to the localities. Accordingly, the rivalry within central officialdom would extend downward to their protégés in the local regions. The Cantonese experience can illustrate this point.\n\nAs such \"reform-minded\" officials such as Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong were competing for national influence, their protégés recruited in the provinces were also competing among themselves. After the opening of Shanghai and Tianjin, increasing numbers of men from Ningpo and Zhejiang were appointed compradores of western firms or advisors to the reform-minded officials. Even within the Cantonese group, some were more influential than others.\n\nIn terms of national influence, those Cantonese engaged in economic reforms always gained the upper hand from those engaged in legal reforms. As shall be seen, for those Cantonese engaged in economic reform (from Tang Jingxing to his nephew Tang Shaoyi, and through him to Liang Shiyi), they eventually advanced to positions in Beijing and monopolized the influential Board of Communications, which commanded huge economic resources in steamships, railways, mining and telegraph. This group of Cantonese was known as the Communications Clique. Their interests were vested in a China united under the central control of Beijing. This partly explains why Liang Shiyi and his clique were willing to finance Yuan Shikai's government after 1911, as well as his monarchical movement in 1916.\n\nThose Cantonese advisors such as Wu Tingfang and Ho Kai (He Qi) who were engaged in legal and diplomatic reforms, had not established their power base in Beijing and so eventually they based their influence in south China. After all, they were appointed Legislative Councillors in Hong Kong, the highest political posts that the Hong Kong Chinese could expect. They were sympathetic to the revolutionary activities in south China. As shall be seen, they sided with Guangdong in reform, in revolution, and in independence. Remarkably, both the Communications Clique and the \"legal-reform group\" turned out to be political patrons for competing groups of Cantonese merchants in Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213973, "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-1997", "page_number": 42, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "7\n\n(f) their relationship with the departments of Government and with each other; and,\n\n(g) the degree of control which ought to be exercised by the central Government, having regard to the Letters Patent and Royal Instructions\n\nThe wording reflects close secretariat scrutiny of what some thought to be, if not dangerous, then courageous thinking; there should be care not to conflict with established institutions, there should be no derogation from the existing constitution, and the word 'selection' reassured those who feared politically partisan votes. Public criticism of this was immediately heard, upon reading the related press release, from some of the members of the Urban Council who were jealous for their own prerogatives. The Urban Council, little changed from the Sanitary Board created in Queen Victoria's reign, was mainly responsible for environmental public health, recreation & amenities, and provision of cultural services in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon & New Kowloon; it had 12 members appointed by the Governor, and 12 elected on a single limited but anomalously colony-wide franchise (embracing ratepayers and members of 23 qualifying categories of sane, non-bankrupt adults of 21 or over with three years' residence), with a small number of senior official members. It provided excellent services through the Urban Services Department (USD), but its freedom of speech on matters outside its purview gave it a mixed reputation in some powerful circles.\n\nThe membership of the working party consisted of administrative officers from the middle ranks, considered \"promising\" but not yet authoritative. They were a contract officer with much local government experience in eastern Nigeria and Uganda, an officer with happy experience in the USD and of the Urban Council; the most senior Chinese officer, who had served with the British Army Aid Group against the Japanese and now worked in the SCA; and two other expatriates with various past postings including the NTA. Like Dickinson, all continued to perform their current duties, and remained surprised that with his determination they covered so much ground of consultation and discussion and (under pressure from leave entitlements) reported as relatively promptly as they did; that was on 23 November 1966, by which time the Cultural Revolution was spilling", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214383, "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-1998", "page_number": 241, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "207\n\nideas prevailed for many years amongst even the more enlightened Europeans. Since Chadwick did not identify the Chinese inhabitants who approved of the plan, it is not possible to determine from his report whether the proposed changes in the District Watchmen's duties had the backing of the Chinese merchants who paid for their services. However, what is indisputable is that a Notification appeared in the Government Gazette on 21 April 1883 about the formation of a Sanitary Board. Chadwick's crusade for the inclusion of a dedicated Sanitary Officer was ignored and the Board comprised the Surveyor General, the Registrar General, the Colonial Surgeon and the Sanitary Inspector. The Notice stated that the Sanitary Board would be assisted by the following staff:\n\n1 Coloured Watchman for the Peak District;\n\n2 Head District Watchmen for Western;\n\n12 District Watchmen for Western;\n\n2 Head District Watchmen and 12 District Watchmen for Central District;\n\n2 Head District Watchmen and 12 District Watchmen for Eastern District.\n\nThis was the entire District Watch Force.\n\nLess than two months after the publication of this Notification, an Ordinance was enacted on 1 June 1883 entitled \"The Order and Cleanliness Amendment Ordinance, 1883\" (No. 7 of 1883). This allowed the Governor 'to constitute a permanent Sanitary Board to exercise supervision and control over all matters connected with sanitation in the Colony.' Whilst the District Watchmen were not mentioned by name, the ordinance stated that the Governor could, from time to time, appoint and remove 'such officers as the Board may require for the purpose of carrying out the duties of the Board and the laws relating to sanitation.' Ten days later the 'Instructions' to the various groups of people involved in the 'Maintenance of Order and Cleanliness' were published in the Government Gazette. The Instructions to the Se-\n\n13\n\nof", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214387, "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-1998", "page_number": 245, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "211\n\nfuture years was missing in 1881, a point made by Elizabeth Sinn in her study of the Tung Wah Hospital15\n\nNew Legislation - 1888\n\nIn March 1888 \"The Regulation of Chinese Ordinance' (No. 13 of 1888) was introduced under the governorship of Sir William Des Voeux. Chapter IV of this Bill related to the District Watchmen and was entitled appropriately 'District Watchmen.' Despite the passage of more than two decades, the wording of the new ordinance was almost the same as the 1866 version referred to earlier. A few years later James H. Stewart Lockhart, who occupied the combined posts of Registrar General and Colonial Secretary, recommended the establishment of a board of prominent Chinese men to oversee the running of the District Watch Force. He appears to have been encouraged greatly in this endeavour by Wei Yuk, the rich comprador of the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China. Thus at the end of 1890, General Barker, the acting Governor, appointed a group of twelve Chinese gentlemen as a committee to co-operate with the Registrar General's Department in the administration of the District Watch fund. In his annual report of 1892 Lockhart, in his capacity of Registrar General, stated that the introduction of this Committee had been a resounding success. He also maintained that, not only had the Committee proved to be of great assistance in increasing the efficiency of the District Watchmen's Fund because of being able to exercise closer supervision, 'it has also by its advice on several important questions connected with the affairs of the Chinese community been a great help to this Department.' However, despite the creation of the twelve-man Committee, the Government's control over the District Watch Force did not diminish. On the contrary, Lockhart noted that 'New Rules were drawn up under Ordinance 13 of 1888, Chapter IV, Section 19, with the advice of the Committee, for the regulation and guidance of the District Watchmen, and approved by the Governor on Council. Copies of these rules have been distributed among the contributors of the District Watchmen's Fund, by whom more interest seems to be evinced in and more assistance asked from the Force than formerly.'17 The newly formed Committee was concerned about the state of the Force and during 1892 new pay scales were considered. As a result of these increases it was hoped that a 'better class of recruits' could be enticed to join the Force.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214774, "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-1999", "page_number": 189, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "153\n\never with me. I still have your photograph, signet ring and cigarette case. I will never lose them.\n\nSeventh. Eight officers move into the flat including a Chinese called Evans. In my room I have Captain Chippywood and Lieut Tressider. Ian Blair and Mathers of the Punjabis bring along some chapatties which go down well with butter and marmalade. Roy Haywood and Glasgow join us and spend a pleasant evening. Ken had been to Kai Tak on a working party and been roughly handled by a sentry but an officer apologised and gave him a tin of plums which he brings along.\n\nEighth. Shave my beard off and feel a new man. Florrie turns up and I get another good parcel. I had told her if she wanted to get a note to me to bore a hole in a bar of soap and put the note inside. She has made a good job of it. Poor kid, the Japs have turned her out of her home. I keep trying to stop her bringing me parcels but she tells me to mind my own business.\n\nNinth and tenth. A Jap general is due to arrive and after a two-hour wait on parade he arrives and goes in a few minutes. Florrie turns up again and I get within ten yards of her. She appears to be in tears. I get a note to her and tell her not to bring any more food but she just smiles and says she will be here again on Sunday. News bad, Japs having landed on Singapore Island. Things look grim.\n\nEleventh and twelfth. Another parade and we are kept standing for two hours and nearly freeze to death, several men pass out. One has to go to bed fully dressed to keep warm. Chippy keeps us constantly amused with his antics.\n\nThirteenth. Electricity is turned on and we find a bulb. What luxury. Still very cold and news still bad. Had slight attack of stomach poisoning. Give men a lecture on discipline as some troops in camp, not RAF, are getting unruly. GOC says he will hand control over to Japs unless men snap out of it. My men behaving very well. On the evening parade camp commandant says if I miss the others and says that perhaps in two months I shall be with them. Bitterly cold, difficult to keep warm.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215060, "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": 156, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "113\n\nTHE CELESTIAL MINISTRY OF TIME\n\n太歲\n\nKEITH STEVENS AND JENNIFER WELCH\n\nIntroduction\n\nBelief in a Celestial bureaucracy was universal throughout China, particularly within peasant and the less literate urban communities and it is still believed in by devotees not only within China itself but also in Taiwan and the Chinese communities throughout South-east Asia. The Celestial bureaucracy is headed by the Ruler of Heaven, the Jade Emperor, with the various functions of the officials of the celestial departments being performed within the confines of numerous ministries, though possibly the former term of boards might be better, ranging from the Ministries of Water, Finance and Literature to the Ministry of Public Works, each with the aim of protecting or doing good for mankind. One such ministry is the Ministry or Board of Time.\n\nTaisui\n\nThe President of the Celestial Ministry of Time, the deity Taisui is possibly better known in English as the Ruler of the Year and the God of the Sexagenary Cycle. He is generally thought of as the Supreme Ruler of the Year and of the Seasons. He is one of the fiercest gods in the pantheon who must be placated whenever ground is disturbed for any reason, and is well known as the deity who strikes down any who offend him. In popular belief he is thought of as demonic and, if not regularly placated, he is at least to be avoided. His cult is comparatively commonplace, though the manifold forms it takes in temples throughout China, as well as the disparate names and titles of members of the Ministry, make an interesting picture. Taisui is not only the President but is also the name of the Ministry itself.\n\nIt is accepted by most Chinese that a number of factors control human lives; these include geomancy and astrology. Geomancy, in Chinese fengshui, concerns location whilst astrology is concerned with the auspicious or inauspicious nature of dates and times, and involving the stellar deity Taisui in particular.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215526, "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": 303, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "253\n\n'106\n\nWestern side of Cheung Chau Island and about half a mile to the South-West of the village of Cheung Chau and containing about 5.19 acres, was authorized. This was the first cemetery designated on an outlying island and was later extended in 1921.107\n\n108\n\nIn 1912, two Chinese cemeteries were authorized. The first one was situated at 'New Kowloon Survey District 1 Lot Nos. 582 and 583,' very close to Sai Yu Shek Cemetery. The cemetery appeared in a 1924 map109 and was marked as 'Fukienese Cemetery.' In another 1940 HKGG Notification, the cemetery was also referred to as 'Fukienese Cemetery.' The second cemetery appointed, a Christian cemetery, was 'to be known as the Tsun Wan Christian Cemetery situate and being near Tsun Wan in Demarcation District No. 453 in the New Territories in the Colony of Hongkong, containing an area of 10,000 square feet,'111\n\nIn the following year, a site 'to be known as the Hau Pui Loong Cemetery situate and being near Hau Pui Loong in Kowloon in the Colony of Hongkong containing an area of about 19 acres' was appointed.112\n\nThe Chinese Permanent Cemetery in Aberdeen\n\nAlthough a number of Chinese cemeteries were authorized and appointed since the 1870s, these cemeteries were not intended for the upper and wealthier classes. By the early 20th century, the absence of what were considered proper and decent sites for these Chinese who wished to settle in Hong Kong was apparent. In 1901, the Cemeteries Committee of the Sanitary Board moved to set apart a piece of hillside between the Aberdeen Channel and Deep Water Bay for wealthy Chinese as a burial ground.113 However, for some reason, eventually this site was not appointed. Eight years later, the issue was presented again to the Sanitary Board by Lau Chu-pak, a member of the Board and one of the most prominent members of the Chinese community in the Colony,114 Lau said:\n\nThe better class of Chinese who had made Hong Kong their permanent home had not a decent cemetery in which to bury their dead, and the Chinese had no control on what were called Chinese Cemeteries. These cemeteries were simply tracts of barren land set apart by the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215527, "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": 304, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "254\n\nGovernment for the burial of the Chinese dead of any class. The Government reserved the right to resuming the land and ordering the remains to be exhumed and buried anywhere else the Government might from time to time be pleased to direct. 115\n\nA solution was finally arrived at in 1913 when a plot of land was selected in Aberdeen as the location of a Chinese permanent cemetery:\n\nHis Excellency Sir Francis Henry May had been graciously pleased to set apart a certain piece or parcel of ground situate at Aberdeen in the said Colony of Hongkong and registered in the Land Office as Aberdeen Inland Lot No. 78 for the purpose of a Permanent Cemetery for Chinese permanently resident in the said Colony..... 116\n\nThe cemetery was under the control of a Board of Management made up of recognized leaders of the Chinese community. It was stated that the Board should have absolute power in the management of the cemetery and in the control and disposal of the funds, subscriptions, donations, fees, charges, income, fines and all moneys collected or received in respect of or in connection with the cemetery. The erection of this permanent cemetery was an important step and an encouragement for the upper class Chinese residing in Hong Kong to recognize the place as their home.\n\nThe Problem of the Japanese Burials\n\nThe early 20th century saw a gradual increase in the Japanese population in Hong Kong. The population rose from 484 in 1901 to 958 in 1911. A decision to erect a Japanese chapel and crematorium was made by the government which required the removal of graves on a plot of Crown Land, to the North-East of I.L. [Inland Lot] 1021 in the Soo-kun-poo Valley. Although this crematorium was intended for the Japanese, the Japanese had no cemetery of their own. The earliest Japanese burials were found intermingled with Christians in the Colonial Cemetery before a special section of the cemetery was set aside for the burial of Japanese. When their numbers began to increase after the turn of the 20th century, the Buddhist practices associated with their graves and burning joss sticks in particular had created annoyance among the western communities in Hong Kong, who thought such customs were not appropriate in what they considered to be a\n\n121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215733, "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": 32, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "encouragement of scholarship in the field of Hong Kong Studies. We have long wished to undertake a more charitable role in this field. Action could only be begun, however, after we had achieved formal recognition of our status as a Charity by the Inland Revenue Department, which was completed about a year ago. Since then we have been very active in attempting to conclude a scheme by which our wishes could be met. I had hoped that this work would have been completed by today, so that I could present to Members a complete scheme for agreement, but, unfortunately, for various reasons, we have not quite got to that stage as yet. Jason Wordie has been the main force behind this work, and he will make a special report to Members on the present position shortly.\n\nWhat we want to do is to set up a Foundation, or Capital, Fund, the income from which can be used to fund scholarship in the field of Hong Kong studies.\n\nThe Fund would be detached from the Society's other accounts, and would be set up as an autonomous entity, with clear rules for disbursement and control under the oversight of a separate Management Board which would be formed from Members of Council and others. I hope that this Board can be set up within the next month. I hope to take the Chair of this Board for the initial year of its operation. The Management Board would be responsible for the financial management of the Fund (for which the Board would require professional financial advice), for the consideration of proposals for grants and for making such grants, for ensuring the quality of any work produced as the result of any grant so made, for ensuring that Council is properly kept in the picture as to the activities of the Fund (Council would retain the responsibility for setting policy for the Board), and for producing an Annual Report on the work of the Fund for presentation to the Annual General Meeting of the Society. Each year, the income from the Foundation Fund would be transferred to a Current Account from which disbursements could be made. Once the Fund has been set up, this Annual General Meeting would thereafter receive and approve the annual accounts of the Fund as well as those of the Society's general funds. We are still considering a name for the Fund: one possibility under consideration is to name it The Sir Lindsay and Lady Ride Memorial Fund, in memory of our founding Vice-President, who was later our Second President, as well as Hong Kong University's longest-serving Vice-Chancellor.\n\nxxiii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215747, "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": 46, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "# RESOLUTION\n\n# HONG KONG BRANCH\n\n# OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY\n\n# MARCH 21ST 2003\n\nAt the Annual General Meeting of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, held at the Hong Kong Club, on 21 March 2003, the following Resolution was adopted:\n\nResolved:\n\nThat the Society should, at the earliest opportunity, formally establish a Scholarship Fund, as a legal entity separate from the general funds of the Society, to allow the Society to make grants and disburse money for the purpose of sponsoring research in the field of Hong Kong studies, and of assisting publication of books in this field, subject to the Rules for the control and disbursement of such a Fund being agreed by Members, those Rules to include provision for the establishment of a Management Board to oversee the Fund, and for the Annual General Meeting of the Society to see and agree the audited accounts of the Fund year by year.\n\nThat the Hon. Treasurer of the Society be appointed Hon. Treasurer of the Scholarship Fund as well as Hon. Treasurer of the Society.\n\nThat the Society should, for the future, keep a cash reserve approximately equal to one year's routine expenditure, as assessed by the Hon. Treasurer of the Society.\n\nThat the present cash reserves of the Society being approximately HK$400,000 greater than one year's routine expenditure, HK$350,000 should be transferred from the general funds of the Society as soon as a Scholarship Fund has been formally and separately established into a Foundation Fund, so that the income from this sum so transferred can be devoted to the purposes of the Fund, subject to the sum transferred being kept as a Capital Sum, not to be spent, but only to be used for the purposes of generating income for the Fund.\n\nxxxvii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215774, "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": 73, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "their petition. Even before 1826, the Spanish silver dollar and local copper cent had been used widely by the Straits merchants in their trade and commerce, (even though in theory, in 1835, the rupee was the currency of account for official purposes until 1867).\n\nThe directors of the EIC, considering only the Indian Empire's interests,29 established a uniform rupee currency throughout its territories, which of course included the Straits Settlements. In 1854, a bill was introduced to the Indian legislative council 'to improve the law relating to the copper currency in the Straits,' which provided for a copper currency based on fractions of the rupee.30 According to the Currency Act, the Indian pice was to be made legal tender instead of the copper cent and the rupee was to be enforced as legal tender.31\n\nThis Act was fiercely objected to by the Straits merchants, and in response to the opposition, the directors ordered the act to be repealed in 1857. Mr Ballie (Secretary of the Board of Control of the EIC) argues that 'it was very natural that the governor-general should desire to establish a uniform currency throughout the whole of the territories subject to his authority'32 and that after the complaints made at Singapore, this grievance was redressed, and that therefore the petitioners did not have a right to complain.**\n\nPage 36\n\n33\n\n35\n\nThe 1867 Act legalised a currency which was already assured,” and by the time the transfer to the Colonial Office took place, the currency issue was virtually resolved. However, as it was a problem that could have been prevented instead of cured, I would accord little credit to the Indian government's role in this issue.\n\nPiracy and western laws\n\nThis was another arguable \"problem\" that was cited in the petition, and used as an example of the Indian government's inefficiency. Piracy was widespread in the Straits until the mid-19th century, and was a threat to the property and commerce of the merchants. The pirates that predominated in the 1830s and 1840s were pirates of the Sulu archipelago, Illanun pirates from Mindanao and Dyaks from North Borneo. Complaints were that 'no systematic measures of protection have ever been adopted or carried out by the EIC, who have been content to leave the service to be performed by the Royal Navy.”37", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215885, "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": 184, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "117\n\n(HK) Ltd; Jacobs Associations, USA and Environmental Management Ltd., 2000b). Preliminary Feasibility Study on Tunnel Alignment Option of Tseung Kwan O: Western Coast Road Final Report Volume 2- Drawings December 2000 Agreement No. NTE1/2000. Hong Kong.\n\nMeinhardt (C&S) Ltd (in association with Montgomery Watson (HK) Ltd; Jacobs Associations, USA and Environmental Management Ltd., 2001). Preliminary Feasibility Study on Tunnel Alignment Option of Tseung Kwan O: Western Coast Road Final Report Volume 3- Executive Summary March 2001 Agreement No. NTE1/2000. Hong Kong.\n\nOve Arup & Partners Hong Kong Limited (1999). Reprovisioning Working Paper December 1999 in Study on Minimization of the Impacts of Western Coast Road on Lei Yue Mun Village (commissioned by the Territory Development Department) Hong Kong.\n\nProvisional Kwun Tong District Board (1998). Environmental Improvement Committee Paper No. 40/98. Hong Kong, Kwun Tong District Office. (Chinese documents)\n\nTerritory Development Department (2002). Drawing No.: TKZ0314 dated 7 May 2002 in Further Development of Tseung Kwan O - Feasibility Study Appendix III. Hong Kong, NT East Development Office.\n\nPublic records available at the Public Records Office, Tsui Ping Road, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong\n\n(a) On military sites\n\nPlan of Proposed Site for New Barracks: Devil's Peak. CO129/305.\n\n\"Hong Kong, Survey of Devils Peak Shewing Proposed Site for Batteries &c. drawn to a scale of 1:1200 the sites of three batteries dated “13.5.99”, “surveyed by Lieut Bagnall Wild R E in Dec: 98.” (Hong Kong PRO control no. MM-0478)\n\n'Devil's Peak - Hong Kong - Survey of Sites for Batteries' (Hong", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215939, "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": 238, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "172\n\nthe Admiral himself. The Admiral, who had lost a leg in battle in his youth, removed his wooden leg in which he had hidden $40,000xiii and dived into the sea. Fortunately, his ADC was Henry Hsu Heng, the tall, athletic championship swimmer. Hsu helped the injured Admiral swim through the choppy waters, torn by shellfire, and alive with dangerous stinging jellyfish, until they clambered onto the rocks on Ap Lei Chau Island. Still under fire, the party was able to reach the relative shelter of the oceanward side of the island.\n\nLt Commander G H Gandy, commander of the flotilla, was to tell the story of how he had received orders to withdraw from Aberdeen because the boats were coming under heavy fire, but, as I had not got the two important Chinese personages aboard and had no news of them, and as also movement by daylight would be obvious to the enemy, I consulted with Mr FWK with whom I had been told by the Commodore to collaborate in the matter of escape from Hong Kong, and decided to wait.\" It was providential that he decided to honour his original orders, for at 17:30 hours, one of his men signalled that someone was swimming out to his vessel. It was one of the men from the Chan Chak party. The group was rescued. The boats proceeded to Mirs Bay, where on the orders of Admiral Chan they anchored at Peng Chau Island. Kendall went ashore, bringing back with him the local village elder, whom Admiral Chan interviewed. Learning that it was safe to proceed, the flotilla headed towards the mainland at Nam O in Guangdong, where the boats were scuttled. From this point Kendall led the party, linking up with KMT guerrillas, led by a man called Leung Wing Yuen who escorted them to safety. Later, when the communists consolidated their control over all guerrillas in the region, Leung, who had been honoured for helping the KMT Admiral, had to escape the region himself.\n\nIntelligence and politics\n\nWhy was so much effort taken to help a Chinese Admiral escape from Hong Kong when, at the same time British Generals were being rounded up and made prisoners of war? Admiral Chan Chak was of such importance to the British that they were prepared to organise an elaborate escape, involving what eventually became some seventy men, including 15 senior officers, at the very moment when all was lost in Hong Kong, Admiral Chan represented the Chinese National Government in Hong Kong. MacDougall acknowledged that his leaving", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216076, "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": 375, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "309\n\nDuring their drive north to eliminate the War Lords and unify China under the Republic, the Nationalist [KMT] forces entered Zhenjiang in March of 1927 and at the same time took over the Concession. Most westerners left for Shanghai whilst those who remained lived aboard hulks on the River or as close to the River as they could get. Even the British Consul was withdrawn to Shanghai where he continued to carry out his Zhenjiang duties. Eventually, in 1929, bowing to the inevitable the Zhenjiang Concession was finally retroceded to Chinese control and the treaty port, as such, was no more.\n\nGerald Yorke travelled to China in 1931 planning to spend a couple of years travelling around China and studying, to satisfy a childhood dream. Not long after his arrival, as Reuter's correspondent, he joined a party chosen by the Chinese Government to inspect the dyke systems of the Yangzi and Huai river valleys which had just been rebuilt as a result of the disastrous floods in 1931. During the tour with the party they departed from Shanghai and reached Zhenjiang early the next morning. They were greeted on the hulk by a band which played valiantly out of tune. After motoring through the town to a public garden they were entertained at a European luncheon. The weather was cold but presuming that any entertainment would be indoors an under-dressed Yorke froze in the open pavilion. A Shandong medicinal wine was served with the first course; appetising dishes came hot from the kitchen, all of which sat on the table waiting for the Chairman of the Provincial Reconstruction Committee to finish his welcoming speech. When the tepid lunch was over they were each given a pamphlet describing the flood protection work done and the reconstruction planned for the future, a perfect example of how provincial officials wasted their time and country's money by publishing, with their portraits next to the title-page, an account of rather more than they have done and of what they would like one to think they are going to do.\n\nThe afternoon was spent sight-seeing at the monastery on Silver Island [Jin Shan], with its hundred or so monks and its ancient fir tree in the outer courtyard. The tree had but one branch still alive, its trunk bound in iron and its base enclosed in marble - a symbol of the passing of classical Chinese culture. The monastic treasures were all displayed, the bronze vessel from the Zhou dynasty, a drum from the Han, and a jade belt belonging to a former statesman, possibly Ming. There was also a small hexagonal column inscribed with the Daode Jing, the Daoist classic which had surprised Yorke as he had not expected to see a Daoist classic in a\n\nPage 375\n\nPage 376", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]