[ { "id": 204948, "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": 56, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "THE DIALECTS OF HONG KONG BOAT PEOPLE\n\n49\n\nof any living resident and they have no consensus on their own provenance. In chatting with my informants on this subject I found some agreement that Tung Kun District was their source plus much speculation and guesses ranging from 'some place up north' to 'maybe Fukien Province'. The northern origins are of course common to all Han Chinese and reflect no special knowledge on the part of the informant. The possibility of Fukien Province seems completely unsupported by the linguistic evidence, but in view of the fact that many Boat People are Swatow, Hoklo, or other obviously Fukien types2, it is more than possible that Fukien individuals have been absorbed by the Kau Sai group from time to time. However, there is evidence to indicate that some area reasonably close to Tung Kun District may well be the origins of this community.\n\nConcerning the Boat People, certain assumptions have been made elsewhere which do not seem valid or which should at least be held in abeyance until making a number of the studies of the type I will describe here. First, the Boat People, or sometimes those referred to specifically as the Tanka, are often treated as a homogeneous group which represents the remnants of the earliest inhabitants of the South China regions, assumed to descend from the non-Han tribes and to have been assimilated and acculturated as the Han peoples moved into this area. It is difficult to refute this point except with cultural and linguistic data which support Ward's (1965) point that the boat people's descent is probably neither more nor less non-Han than that of most other Cantonese speaking inhabitants of Kwangtung.1 It would be reasonable to assume that some Yao or other southern barbarian blood may still flow in local veins but probably to about equal degree in the Boat People as in the average resident of Kwangtung Province. With nothing very concrete to go on we would be in the same position if we discussed the amount of Pict blood in today's inhabitants of the British Isles.\n\nWhen we do not have complete historical evidence for origins of a group it is possible to get information from other sources, such as archeology, anthropology, and linguistics. However, with all these fields our results will be more reliable if we are dealing with an overall picture of structured data rather than extracted", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205202, "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-1966", "page_number": 158, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "152\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nThe only revision of these volumes since their publication in 1959 is the deletion of a postscript, which the author regards as premature at that time, on the communes.\n\nThe volume is attractively printed on good paper, with a sturdy binding. The paperback edition of these two works will be welcomed by the specialist who may have missed them in their first printing, and by the general reader who wishes a scholarly, jargon-free work on the impact on the family and village of the early years of Communist rule in China. Students will find here a model of sociological analysis, enhanced by the author's clarity of expression.\n\nUnited College\n\nThe Chinese University of Hong Kong.\n\nJAMES A. BEAUDRY\n\nA GUIDE TO THE ARCHIVES AND RECORDS OF PROTESTANT CHRISTIAN MISSIONS FROM THE BRITISH ISLES TO CHINA 1796 - 1914. Leslie R. Marchant. University of Western Australia Press, 1966. 134 pages. 35s.\n\nThis exceedingly handy and invaluable book has three main purposes. First, it provides a comprehensive guide to those Protestant missionary societies in the United Kingdom and Ireland which supported active mission work in China from 1796 until 1914. This in itself is a distinctive service, for these have never previously been listed together satisfactorily in a single publication.\n\nSecondly, the book gives a detailed list of the archives and records of the societies that have them. These collections are fully described in the entry of the particular societies having custody of them. In the case of transferred archives, the reader is referred from the donating or absorbed society to the appropriate present-time repository. This arrangement enables the researcher both to locate easily each society's records and to see the total list of holdings in each repository.\n\nThirdly, the book presents a “definitive list\" of the publications of each society. Again, this is a welcome service, for there has not previously been a complete index of missionary journals and periodicals published in the United Kingdom. This is useful for the researcher because certain gaps found in the archives can often be filled by these publications.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205203, "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-1966", "page_number": 159, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n153\n\nThe work contains a thoughtful and perspective-giving introduction, in which the author first explains in detail the purpose of the guide and the reasons for its particular scope (which justification appears both logical and reasonable). He then discusses nine groups of related records, both ecclesiastical and public, located in the British Isles that should also be considered by historians studying the impact of Protestantism in China. He explains the form of the guide itself and its arrangement of information in helpful detail. He also gives a useful brief account of the missionary societies themselves, of their development and administration, of how their home bases and field offices were organized and of the various functions of each. A word is given too on the different types of work, not all evangelical, done by the missionaries in China. Finally, the author gives his own sober estimate of the research value of the records.\n\nThe intimate involvement of the missionary in the political, social and economic life of China in the course of pursuing his different functions enhanced considerably the potential value of his reports to later researchers. The usually well-trained and observant missionary often packed his reports and letters with detailed information on a wide range of topics observed in diverse parts of China. These archives stand, therefore, as a rich repository of information which invites and deserves intensive study by scholars in several disciplines. One reason these materials have been under-utilized thus far is because scholars have been largely unaware of their respective locations, quantities and accessibility.\n\nMr. Marchant greatly rectifies this situation by providing the much needed guide.\n\nSTEPHEN UHALLEY, Jr.\n\nTHE CANTONESE SPEAKER'S DICTIONARY. Roy T. COWLES, Hong Kong University Press, 1965. 1339 pages, plus Romanization Key to Characters, Character Key to Romanizations, and Radical Index. HK$80.\n\nThis book is doubtless the most ambitious single item to appear in Cantonese lexicography. It represents many years of work on the part of the compiler plus the efforts of many others whom he credits for supplying help. With over 13,000 entries,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206350, "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": 167, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "A SHORT HISTORY OF MILITARY VOLUNTEERS IN HONG KONG\n\nJAMES HAYES*\n\nOn the occasion of the disbandment of the Hong Kong Volunteer Corps in May 1866, His Excellency, after expressing his thanks for time, exertions and money spent for objects so essentially Public, went on to express his belief that the spirit which originated the Volunteer movement would be found to exist fresher and stronger than before, if any real and urgent necessity were to arise for defending, by force of arms, the rights of the Crown, or maintaining the supremacy of the Law in this Colony. The Hong Kong Volunteers would doubtless in such emergency come to the front again more numerous and efficient than ever!\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\nThere have been military volunteers in Hong Kong for almost as long as there has been a Colony. Hong Kong was occupied in 1841 and the first volunteers were established thirteen years later, in 1854. However, the existence of a Volunteer force does not make Hong Kong unique. In this respect, as is shown below, it takes its place in the great movement which, in its modern re-incarnation, was created by patriotic fervour in the British Isles\n\n* Mr. Hayes is a member of the administrative branch of the Hong Kong Civil Service. He is a reserve officer of the Royal Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers) and has been Hon. Editor of this Journal since 1966.\n\n1 The Hongkong Government Gazette, 26th May 1866, G.N. No. 81.\n\nThe footnotes to this article are given at the foot of each page. The following abbreviations are used:-\n\nVol — The Volunteer, the current journal of the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force published annually since 1950. Y.B. = Year Book of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps 1934-40.\n\nS.P. = Printed Sessional Papers of the Hong Kong Government, being papers presented to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.\n\nHan. Hong Kong Hansard, being the published proceedings of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. These were printed in the Government Gazette and the Hong Kong Daily Press. There are bound annual volumes in the library of the Colonial Secretariat, Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206742, "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-1973", "page_number": 19, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "TRANSACTIONS OF THE\n\nCHINA MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY, 1845-6\n\nH. A. RYDINGS*\n\nThe connection between the China Medico-Chirurgical Society and the original China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society has been related elsewhere in the Journal (1). Until recently, however, it was not possible to learn much in Hong Kong about this predecessor to our own Society.\n\nNow the University of Hong Kong Library has obtained a Xerox copy of the Transactions of the China Medico-Chirurgical Society, from the original volume in the Library of the Royal Society of Medicine, one of only two copies recorded in the British Isles (2). This Xerox copy will be kept in the University's Hong Kong Collection. The volume runs to 80 pages, slightly smaller than those of this Journal, and the title page, here reproduced, gives the names of the officers and committee. Two names appear as Secretary because the first, Dr. B. Hobson, had to return to Europe for family reasons during his term of office (3).\n\nNot a great deal has come to light about most of these leaders of the medical profession in the early days of the Colony, though it has been possible to find out what each of them was doing in Hong Kong. Dr. Tucker, the first President, was Surgeon on H.M. Hospital Ship Minden, which arrived in Hong Kong on 7th June, 1843 from Chusan. He died on board the Minden on 10th Sept. 1845, whilst still holding the office of President, in which he was succeeded by Dr. Dill. Francis Dill was Hong Kong's second Colonial Surgeon, appointed to succeed Dr. A. Anderson in 1844 on a date so far unknown, but probably between 7th May and 25th June. He may also possibly be identified with the \"Mr. Dill, surgeon of the 'Atlas'\" mentioned in a letter of Dr. Robert Morrison dated March 19th, 1822 from Canton (4).\n\nThe Society's first Secretary, Dr. Benjamin Hobson, was in charge of the Medical Missionary Society's Hospital, first in Macao,\n\n* Mr. Rydings is Librarian of the University of Hong Kong and has been Councillor and Hon. Librarian of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society since 1965.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208113, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 152, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "136 \n\nW. J. HINTON \n\non sanitation and the care of a little system of hill tracks which might serve as a model to the New Territories. Their King is the District Officer South, the \"Lord of the Isles,\" but Kaifong and Residents Association alike show a praiseworthy spirit of independence, and a capacity for governing themselves; moreover, the injunction “Agree with thine adversary quickly\" is well understood and followed in China, even under British rule. \n\nBut we have drifted from geography into politics, like better men before us, and it would be well to pass back to the native community, through the terraced fields dotted with blue-clad figures bowed over the hoe, or shuffling along the narrow paths with a yoke of watering buckets, or cutting and pulling the beetroots, carrots, and cabbages. We will go back to the Eastern end of the village and then traverse its length, completing our brief survey by passing out to our waiting boat over the harbour, and so back to Hongkong. On the stage thus set, it may be that we or someone more competent may stage scenes from the life of the island folk from time to time. There is a strange and interesting feast in the Spring, well worth describing, and at the New Year when the whole fishing fleet lies at anchor in the bay, the little town is all alive. A sitting in the Court of the District Magistrate would be worth describing too, and a meeting of the City Fathers, the Kaifong. We must write, for lack of better witnesses, yet how true it is that those who know do not say, and those who say do not know! \n\nBut to our walk. There lies our little yacht that brought us from Hongkong, white and strange among the high-sterned junks with their brown mat sails. We have all the afternoon to wander, and half the night to lie in the Harbour before the tide turns and we must up anchor and away. \n\nStrolling through the Town \n\nWe have landed on the beach near the Temple of Kwan Yin and find ourselves among the Hakka people who inhabit this end of the town. Their small, sturdy figures are to be seen clustered about the well where the women are drawing water, or bending over the boats in the boat-building yard that slopes to the water's edge. There is material for a whole study in the types of boat and the methods of building alone, but we cannot stop to watch for more than a few minutes while the skilful ship's carpenters fix the ribs and planking of a brand new sampan. A word of greeting to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209855, "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-1983", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "92\n\n3.\n\n4.\n\nThese speak a different language from the other three races. They have a history of having migrated ages ago from the Yangtse valley, and economically are pioneers, opening up inferior lands, and doing all quarry work. They occupy the eastern and northern islands, and are often called \"Chinese Scotchmen”. For this reason Scottish regiments here are called “Hakka ping\" (Hakka soldiers). Nearly all regimental servants here, I believe, are Hakkas: formerly the Hakkas were anti-Manchu and often joined Triad Societies. As such, they gave vigorous assistance to the British in 1857-61, and the connection with the Army has been kept up.\n\nHoklos, a Cantonese nickname for the coast peoples of Northeast Kwangtung; it means \"men of Hok1\", meaning Fukien. Most come from the area around Swatow and Swabue. Their language is very widely different from both Cantonese and Hakka: as different as German from English. They are fishermen, grasscutters, limekiln and saltpan workers. Their major settlements are at Tai O, Pingchau, Cheung Chau, Taipo (by the District Officer's island), and probably others. They are migrating here steadily, and many appear in court for offences of all sorts. A major reason behind the migration is probably that the coastal areas from which they come are suffering erosion and losing soil: the collapse of the Hoi Luk Fung Soviet Republic is another factor: finally, piracy is no longer as profitable as it was.\n\nPolitical divisions\n\nThe Ladrones or \"Pirate Islands\" of which Hong Kong and its outlying islands are part were so named by the Portuguese pioneers of sea trade to the East. They are shared unequally between China, Britain and Portugal. In China they are administered by the nearest district magistrates, of Hoifung, Po On, Chungshan, Sanwui, and Toishan districts. Macao has only two or three nearby isles. The British Islands are divided between the District Officer, North, and the District Officer, South, so that the latter is sometimes called \"Lord of the Isles\". I had that job for nearly 3 1/2 years.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210442, "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": 49, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "30\n\nBARBARA E. WARD\n\nimportant centres by 1970.\n\nThe inshore fishermen were, and are, at once more numerous and more scattered. Certainly many of those who normally venture no more than about four miles from the coast at the furthest, do have their home bases alongside the deep-sea craft in the large, well-known fishing towns, but large numbers of them return to small traditional anchorages in the more than thirty fishing villages which are to be found on the coasts of the mainland and islands. The populations of these smaller fishing centres vary from a few dozens to a few thousands; the majority can be reckoned in hundreds.\n\nI first went to Hong Kong in the summer of 1950, less than a year after the victory of the Chinese People's Government in China. For obvious reasons it was not an appropriate time for a foreigner to undertake participant observation on boats that had constantly to traverse Chinese national waters and visit Chinese ports. Moreover, I am a bad sailor. These two considerations ruled out the deep-sea fishermen and the long distance carriers from the start. There remained two major categories of Boat People who usually stayed within British waters: the inshore fishermen and the people of the harbour.\n\nThe latter were, as I have indicated, an essentially urban population and exceedingly numerous; the former lived characteristically in the small floating settlements that fringed the rural areas. Because the basic field method to be used was participant observation, I chose for intensive study one such community of inshore fishermen. It lay, as it still lies, on one bank of a narrow strait between two small islands in the Port Shelter section of the eastern waters of the Colony. Its name was Kau Sai.\n\n2. KAU SAI: TOPOGRAPHY, LAND USE AND CHANGE\n\nThe inshore waters of Hong Kong are remarkably beautiful. In many ways reminiscent of the Western Isles, though without quite such a mountainous backdrop, the scenery combines the blue of the sea with the green of the hills in a particularly satisfying way. Drowned valleys give the mainland coasts their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211181, "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": 242, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "217\n\nA letter appeared in the Daily Press endorsing the idea of a contribution to the Imperial Institute. The correspondent claimed that a contribution from Hongkong could benefit both the donor and the project: \"If Hongkong can help to prevent (the institute) being a failure, it would be rendering an invaluable service to the Empire, and a double service to the Colony.\"\n\nThe double benefit, for Hongkong would be that of promoting the Colony's trade and of “getting us out of our mess.\" The mess, of course, was the inability of the community to express common agreement on a memorial. It was making the people of Hongkong look foolish.\n\nHe suggested to the proposer and the seconder of the park project that they withdraw their motions, for surely “they will not miss the chance that withdrawing their proposal would give them of making a friend of the Queen as well as remaining (signed) 'Friends of the Governor'.”\n\nAgain, the proposal met little response, but Hongkong's lack of interest did not materially impede the project. Other sections of the Empire were more liberal and enthusiastic.\n\nIn May, 1888, the Queen granted a charter of incorporation to the Imperial Institute of the United Kingdom, the Colonies and India and the Isles of the British Seas. A building was erected in South Kensington.\n\nIt served as a centre for scientific research and a bureau of economic resources for the Empire. In 1962 a new building was erected and the name changed to the Commonwealth Institute.\n\nHOW SPORT CAME TO THE VALLEY\n\nIt was usual for a planning committee to predetermine the agenda for public meetings in the Hongkong of the nineteenth century.\n\nIt was decided that at the public meeting on March 2, 1887, to plan Hongkong's observance of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214187, "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": 45, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "at the next station it wasn't Blanktown so Tsim turned to the Englishman again: 'I thought you said this train went to Blanktown?' John Bloggs replied: 'Look, don't look at me. I'm as surprised as you are!' \n\n'How can you expect foreigners to understand that sort of language,' asked Tsim laughing. \n\nCertainly English wit, delivered in a droll tone portraying a personal character, is firmly established in the British Isles. It is ingrained just as is English 'good sportsmanship.' Nevertheless it is not always easy for foreigners, even if they do speak good English, to understand. In fact the joke regarding junk bonds, with Monica Lewinsky bonds lacking maturity, Al Gore bonds lacking interest and Bill Clinton bonds lacking principle (al), is untranslatable because the necessary characters in Chinese do not have double meanings. \n\nEnglish wit can be clever and amusing. It includes gags about British Rail, watching soccer, the inclusion of the word 'knickers,' deadpan humour (recounted with mock solemnity and an emotionless face and manners), one-liner in-jokes, and witticisms with Brits poking fun at themselves and taking a deprecating view of their own society (Tse, 1997). The surname 'Carruthers' is sometimes used when telling jokes which, on its own, is usually sufficient to raise a smile. A joke, when told by an Englishman, is often preceded by the expression: 'Stop me if you have heard this one.' But the 'tribal custom' is never to stop the raconteur, \n\nMost Chinese dirty jokes are of the 'hard' variety but western smutty jokes also include those which women can listen to as well. For example English humour consists of vulgar postcards with off-colour jokes, which one still finds at the seaside (Orwell, 1945). There is the fat lady with the big bottom and many other cards some of which may border on the unprintable. British humour also consists of burlesque and caricature, where the character of a person is satirised and exaggerated. In turn, fantasy in humour can be imaginative and unrestrictive and farce highlights the ludicrous situation. \n\nThe Hong Kong necktie, designed in 1967 by Eric Cumine, a Eurasian architect with Scottish blood on his father's side, illustrates the \n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214545, "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": 403, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "372\n\nAN IRISH FANTASY\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nA wooden effigy of a Chinese man stands above the front door of a pub called The Chinaman in Rathkeale in West Limerick in the Republic of Ireland. It is claimed by the publican to be a portrait image of the Chinese captain of a powerful sailing ship, 'The Mikado' which had brought a valuable cargo of tea to Foynes some time before 1743, the year when local people got together to honour Captain Wongyu.\n\nThe story goes that some of the Chinese crew were drinking in a wine and spirit store when one of the Chinese crew rushed in from Foynes and announced that a pirate ship had entered the Shannon Estuary and the pirates were plundering towns and villages along the shoreline. Captain Wongyu mustered more than one hundred locals and, together with his crew, they marched against the pirates. In a quick but fierce skirmish the pirates were defeated and the people of the area showed their gratitude by erecting an effigy of him over the door of the building where it stands today. Captain Wongyu died in 1789, some twenty-six years later but did not forget the people of Rathkeale. He is said to have made provision for a sum of money to be sent to the poor of Rathkeale.\n\nThe statue depicts a Chinese man but with a marked European face and beard, wearing a mandarin-style summer hat, and a half-length blue robe over a faded orange robe. I would guess that it was carved by a European who had never studied a Chinese but had seen some 18th or 19th century illustrations. A quite small round [un-Chinese] gilded medallion or disc hangs or is sewn on to the blue robe high up just below his beard, bearing an unintelligible character or squiggle.\n\nIt makes a good story but the Chinese did not sail the seven seas during the 18th century and should a junk have reached the British Isles at that time it would have made headline news. Chinese did not import tea into Britain nor, I suspect, would there have been a great market for tea on the west coast of Ireland at that era. Finally, Mikado", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214982, "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": 78, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "34\n\nShiyi' who suggested that an army be sent to Europe for training and service with the Allies. He continued to promote China's participation hoping for future political and financial advantages which might accrue providing further expansion of his own empire of bureaucratic and financial interests.\n\nLord Inchcape, the chairman of the Port and Transit Executive Committee, had already suggested the formation of Transport Workers Battalions to assist in clearing ships' cargoes for speedy turn-around. Some considered that delays in this area resulted from dock-workers not working a full day or were too few in number to carry out the work. To placate the unions, their representatives were appointed to serve on the Committee. Ernest Bevin, the national organiser of the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Worker's Union [the Dockers' Union] considered that the port authorities intentionally created labour shortages as an excuse for employing non-union labour. After an agreement had been reached with the Government as to further representation by Union members to serve on the Committee, Ernest Bevin became a member of the Committee. However, because it was considered that agreement with the Unions would not be reached, as to the employment of foreign labour, it was decided to look elsewhere for additional manpower. Throughout the war, trade union pressure prevented the introduction of Chinese labourers to the British Isles.\n\nMany years previously, Chinese had travelled to work, under contract or treaty provisions in, for instance, the gold mines of South Africa. They were tempted to do so due to poor conditions in China and because of the comparatively high wages offered.\n\nRecruitment\n\nThe French pioneered the scheme to recruit Chinese to serve as non-military personnel, negotiations being conducted by government officers posing as civilians to protect the Chinese Government and its neutrality from controversy. The contract to supply 50,000 labourers was agreed upon on 14 May 1916 and their first shipment left Tianjin for Dagu and Marseilles in July 1916. In February 1917, in the Mediterranean the French steamship Athos was sunk with the loss of 543 Chinese lives, but this did not deter the Chinese from enlisting to serve with the French or British.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 } ]