[ { "id": 204780, "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-1964", "page_number": 83, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "72 \n\nJ. W. HAYES \n\nbe shown for inspection to prove ownership at the land settlement which followed the British lease and, though opinions differ on this point, many old villagers have said that their deeds were handed in to the Government and not returned. This would, in part, account for their being in very short supply today, at any rate throughout the area with which I am familiar; that is the islands and the Sai Kung and Clear Water Bay districts. Following widespread enquiry over a number of years, I am convinced that another factor of great importance in explaining their scarcity is the Japanese occupation of the Colony in 1941-45. Many villagers say that their papers were destroyed at that time, in many cases by themselves, since they feared the questions which might result if the Japanese authorities got their hands on them. The less they knew the better, was the prevailing view, and therefore many families destroyed their papers, to our present loss.\n\nFortunately, to set against this background of loss and decay, there are the valuable records of the land settlement carried out within a few years of the lease of the New Territories to Britain in 1898. These consist of records of a ground survey, carried out mainly to a scale of thirty-two inches to the mile, in which individual lots are set down and numbered, and their ownership listed in an accompanying schedule certified as correct by an officer of the Land Court.2 These constitute a modern \"Domesday\" of all titles to land in the leased territory. Their usefulness to the historian is obvious and apart from their intrinsic value as a contemporary record they provide many clues to the past and enable detailed checks to be made on some of the persons and organisations whose names appear on commemorative tablets and others dated items such as furniture and fittings, which are to be found in the many temples which dot the countryside.\n\nThere are also the recollections of elders, particularly those over eighty years of age, who were young men at the time the territory changed hands. The memories of the oldest men are sometimes good and when this is the case they can do a great deal to fill in the bare bones of the land records and the genealogical trees. Since certain changes overtook the region within the first decade of British rule,3 their testimony is of the greatest importance to a realisation of manners and attitudes and an understanding of the system of civil and military administration which obtained", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205157, "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": 113, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "108\n\nA. L. Y. CHUNG\n\nThe practice of ordering a number of Hanlins to become Recorders of the Emperor's Deeds found its origin in an edict by the Emperor K'ang-hsi in the first year of his reign (1662). He ordered two officials selected from the Academy, one Manchu and one Chinese, to attend him in monthly shifts.29 They were to record his actions both in the Manchu and the Chinese languages. Their writings were to be sealed in secret, and even the emperor himself was not permitted to see them.30 This may be regarded as the beginning of the Ch'ing Record Office and the first time the Manchus had set up this typical Chinese institution.\n\nOn the face of it, it was rather paradoxical for an autocratic monarch to devise a method whereby his own actions were recorded in black and white. The likely explanation is that the emperor strove to impress his people with his adherence to enlightened ideas. The Confucian precept of good government was that the monarch should live up to the moral standards prescribed for him by past sages. Officials and people would look up to him for example. Thus, if the emperor was moral and diligent, the Confucians maintained, the Empire would be at peace, with or without the application of the legal system. The Emperor K'ang-hsi therefore hoped to implant in his people's minds the impression that his actions were enlightened enough to be favourably judged by posterity. They would then be of the opinion that he had played well his part as a Confucian monarch. Moreover, the system of recording the emperors' actions had been practised for centuries. The emperor thought it desirable to follow the revered Confucian tradition.\n\nHowever, in the practical application of the system, the emperor seemed to be quite vexed by this \"spying duty\" of his own officials. He gradually departed from the strict observance of the system and thought out pretexts to circumvent its liberal tone. Using yet another Confucian idea that attendance on parents was natural and filial, he commanded the record officials not to follow him when he daily visited his mother in the Inner Court.32\n\nIn 1679, the emperor's doubts about the contents of these records were revealed by his inquiry whether any personal inventions and prejudices had been added to them. The record officials replied that the records were to be examined jointly by the twenty-two members together and that none of them would record official memorials privately. This, however, still did not", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211511, "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": 228, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "204\n\nCanton three days later. Rev. Mr. Kollecker informed the German Consul. After investigation no evidence was found to confirm the report.\n\n\"The Christians in Canton were to celebrate the wedding of one of the most respected Christians of Canton. Deacon Wong* of the Barmen Mission in Tung Kun was also there. There appeared the Christian Dr. Sun, recently of the College of Medicine. He was very excited and told the Christians they would not be able to celebrate the wedding that day. The surprised questions of the guests caused him gradually to convey the news that in the evening a revolution was planned and he was one of the leaders. The revolutionaries planned to overwhelm Canton and make it a stronghold. Later they would march to the north and overthrow the ruling dynasty. After that Sun left the wedding party. The guests had not caught their breath before a court servant appeared and asked for Dr. Sun. Some four hundred vagabonds had arrived from Hong Kong who would be the core of the army of the Reform party. On the same boat were weapons and gunpowder packed in boxes. The government received news of it and immediately made enquiries. After a short while they found traces of the revolutionaries. They rounded up those they could get hold of. After a few days the authorities discovered hidden weapons of the Reform party. These were found in a house where a German and an Englishman had lived recently. Nothing could be found out about the German, but the Englishman, known as Mr. Quick, had been involved in a recent revolution in Honolulu and had to leave there for that reason. Both foreigners were able to escape. The enquiry which followed uncovered several Christian members of the American Mission who were implicated in the plot. Sixty involved persons were beheaded, among them were two Christians. The American Consul intervened on behalf of a third Christian because a missionary had pledged himself for his good conduct, but he was quite embarrassed by it, because the suspect escaped and could not be found. Governor Ma, one of the highest officials of Canton, died. It was suggested that he himself had been one\n\n* Deacon Wong must have been Wong Him-ue:1(1847-1907), who after establishing and serving a congregation at Tung Kun City, came to Hong Kong in 1898 and established the Rhenish Mission congregation (Lai Yuen Ui) now located on Bonham Road. He was the son of Wong Yun (1817-1914) a member of Gutzlaff's Chinese Union and later assistant in the Rhenish (Barmen) Mission, Wong Him-ue was the younger brother of the Rev. Wong Yuk-cho (1843-1903), pastor of the To Tsai congregation, Hong Kong. He was well-acquainted with Sun Yat-sen and a supporter of the revolutionary cause.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212602, "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": 156, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "136\n\nThe charming English custom of dressing for dinner is ill adapted to the perspiring tropics.\n\nWhen the walla-walla boat took me out to the coaster anchored in the harbour, I found she was even smaller than the ship I had come on from Shanghai, and slower. The run to Singapore, which the larger ships cover in a little over three days, again took a week. It is true we had to make a considerable detour to avoid the extensive belt of mines laid round the Singapore harbour, and we were kept waiting outside pending permission to enter.\n\nWhile anchored there, I was astonished to observe a launch, flying the Japanese flag, and towing a string of fishing craft, steam in over the minefield. On enquiry I was told that Singapore could not do without fish. It later transpired that many of the fishermen were Japanese naval officers in disguise, and that there was little they did not know about the British minefields. Only a few months previously, while undergoing cross-examination in court, a Japanese consular official detained on a charge of espionage had swallowed poison to avoid having to give evidence; but, presumably in the interest of the breakfast table, the Japanese fishermen continued to receive the benefit of the doubt. The big talk of the moment was the scandal of the bribes which had been paid on large contracts for the construction of the new concrete pill-boxes, which were being erected around the island. It was alleged that the quality of the concrete supplied was sometimes little better than plaster, and that some of the leading British firms were implicated. It was all a trifle disturbing.\n\nThe further you got from Shanghai and the nearer to India the worse the plumbing. In Shanghai, American influence had overcome British conservatism with happy results. In the foreign home there was generally a bathroom to each bedroom, and the fixtures were as pleasing to the eye as in use. Stainless steel vied with coloured plastic and the right use of glass to gratify the visitor. In Hongkong the standard lagged a bit. In Singapore it was a long way behind. The bathroom floor might be mere wood, and the walls just homely white tiles. No incentive here to dawdle in delectable contemplation. Even in the famous Raffles Hotel, a barrack descended from earlier times, the bathroom, though no doubt sumptuous enough by English standards, left much to be desired. If I remember rightly it even contained a primeval article of furniture called a \"wash-hand stand”.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213442, "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": 38, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "CHOK HUNG vs. LI FUI CHOI\n\n\"No enquiry has ever been made to ascertain what Chinese law is. It is an extraordinary fact that the Court of this Colony, in which the Chinese live and trade as freely as Englishmen and citizens of other countries, should do with regard to the Chinese what it would never dream of doing with regard to Frenchmen or Germans or Americans; and not only that, but that it should be entirely in ignorance of Chinese law on any subject which concerns the family life and family law of those who form the bulk of its inhabitants, which is so often before the Courts—its marriage law, and the rights of property it gives; its law applicable to children. We are in the dark as to the law of majority, as to the customary law of China generally, and above all as to its law of succession. The attitude of the Court has been to let the troublesome question wait until it is definitely raised by the parties. I myself have been guilty of this, though I have rebelled more than once or twice.\n\nPage 20\n\nDuring the last half century, there have been three such enquiries, of which the results have been published. I refer, of course, to the Report of the Committee appointed in 1948,1 Greenfield's article on marriage,2 and the report and recommendations on the same subject by the Attorney General and Secretary for Chinese Affairs in 1960.2 The latter two publications do not deal with any Chinese customary law of marriage particularly obtaining in the New Territories, but the first does deal with certain aspects of Chinese customary law peculiar to the New Territories.\n\nIf a search is made of the law reports, only two cases will be found where the particular Chinese customary law obtaining in the New Territories was considered. Prima facie, that is a remarkably small number for 57 years of law reporting, and it is worthwhile probing the reasons for this dearth of case law.\n\nFirstly, the Chinese much prefer to compose their disputes or to refer them to extra-judicial arbitration than to a court of law.**\n\nSecondly, in deference to this general desire of the litigants, the District Officers arranged for the bulk of the disputes which came before them, in their Small Debts Courts or when they sat as Assistant Land Officers to decide summary land cases, to be settled out of court, most", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214997, "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": 93, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "49\n\n'I am a Christian, Sir.'\n\n'Very good,' replied the officer, 'I hope I am one too.'\n\n'But I am a Presbyterian, Sir, and at the Depot there were others of that religion, and we could have a service together. In my hut now there are no Presbyterians, and all are wicked.'\n\nMutinies did, however, occur, not only amongst service personnel of the Allies, but also amongst the various Labour Corps. Some were court-martialled and punished in various ways, i.e. hard labour, penal service, imprisonment or even death.\n\nIn September 1917 some British soldiers stationed at the base camp at Etaples, south of Boulogne, caused trouble and rebelled. Word of this spread to some unwilling Chinese and Egyptians, working at Boulogne, who then stopped work unloading supplies and went on the rampage. Field Marshal Haig ordered this to be quelled and, as a consequence, 27 unarmed strikers were shot dead, 39 wounded and 25 imprisoned.\n\nOn 10 October 1917, in a serious shooting incident in the Fourth Army area, 5 Chinese labourers were killed and 14 wounded. The inquiry into this incident came to the conclusion that this was due to the CO not appreciating the standard of discipline required to be maintained between his officers and British NCOs as regards the treatment of labourers.\n\nOn 16 December 1917, a mutiny, as a result of bullying by British NCOs, was reported amongst 21 Company CLC at Fontinettes. The armed guard fired on the mutineers, killing 4 and wounding 9. A Canadian soldier was also killed. The next day, a British infantry platoon forced the Chinese to resume work and, after the ringleaders were jailed, normality was restored on 23 December.\n\nOn Christmas Day 1917, labourers of 151 Company CLC conspired to kill their Sergeant Major, a \"half-caste\", as he had been an extortioner and had forced the men to work too hard. Two hundred men of the Royal Welch Fusiliers rounded up some of the mutineers whilst others had fled to near the HQ of 5 Corps at Locre. On Christmas Day, D. H.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216398, "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-2003", "page_number": 157, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "107\n\nto the submarine was so great that a major salvage operation probably would be necessary.\n\nMost unfortunately too no more survivors were to come to the surface from the sunken vessel.\n\nAt 1300 hours on the 13 our ship sent her Chaplain, The Rev. F. Freeman, MA, and Royal Marine band across to MEDWAY. An hour later HERMES weighed for Wei-Hai-Wei where she anchored in Four Funnel Bay at 1643 hours. The summer base of the Royal Navy was that close to the scene of the accident.\n\nThe entire fleet mourned the very sad loss, and amongst their fellow submariners the mood was sombre.\n\nA memorial service was held on Sunday, the 14th.\n\nOn Monday, 15th June 1931 a Court of Inquiry was opened. The President was a submariner of note, and the recently appointed Flag Captain in SUFFOLK, Geoffrey Layton.\n\nIt transpired that while steaming in a south-westerly direction, course 235 degrees, at 1212 hours on Tuesday, 9th June H.M. Submarine POSEIDON had come into collision with the Chinese cargo steamer YUTA, Captain T. Iyeishi, steaming in a north-westerly direction on course 42 degrees magnetic. In other words, the two ships had been about to cross at right angles to each other. The sea was calm and visibility about six miles, position 37.49.5N 122.16E which, as suggested above, is just to the east of the easter point of the Shantung peninsula.\n\nS.S. YUTA was on passage from Shanghai to Newchwang with a cargo of 27,000 bags of flour and carrying no passengers.\n\nAt the time of the collision, several crew members in the submarine had jumped off her into the sea. One able seaman, J.E. Halsall, seeing his opportunity actually had had the presence of mind to take hold of a loose bight of cable hanging from the bow of YUTA and had climbed onboard to safety. Of the remainder, and as related, six men had escaped from the wreck of whom one died.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]