[ { "id": 204409, "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-1962", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "32\n\nG. FINDLAY ANDREW\n\ntravelling for some days over the broad plains of the Kokonor and the first trade centre we reached was the small market town of Tangar. We both had to replenish our cash supply but unfortunately the smallest piece of silver the Scot had was an ingot of some ten taels weight. I took the problem along to the blacksmith smithy in the east gate of the small city. The smith took the ingot and nonchalantly tossed it on to the fire. When sufficiently heated he took it from the fire and laid it on the anvil and commenced to chisel off the required piece of about three taels weight. When old Jock saw the sparks begin to fly he got very excited and jumped in all directions trying to catch them under the firm impression that his precious silver was being dissipated before his very eyes. Of course in the large cities the cash shops had their own silver shears and it was only in the smaller centres that the blacksmith was called upon to act as the travellers' friend in such exchange transactions.\n\nIn the former Tibetan province of Amdo, on the Kansu Tibetan border lies the large lamasery of Labrang. In the days of which I write, the Living Buddha who presided over the destinies of this very large lamasery was Kia Muh Yang. He was reputed to be the owner of a mountain of silver which had been created by the molten silver offerings of the faithful being poured into one solid lump. Thus when the Buddha set off on one of his periodic journeys, all he had to do was to load pack animals with pieces hacked out from the side of his mountain and his finance problems were solved! In another connection, the same practice obtained in the neighbouring lamasery of Kumbum where the gold offerings were melted and poured down the roof of the temple that housed the sacred figure of Tsong Kaaba, the reformer of Lamaism whose birth-place the shrine marks. I wonder whether either the Silver Mountain or the Golden Roof exist to-day?\n\nThe handling of sycee had its own particular problems, perhaps the main one being the assessment of the standard of purity on which subsidiary currency exchange rates were fixed. I shall never forget my feelings when on a certain occasion I opened the boxes of a large consignment of silver which I had received from a Moslem war-lord. Inside was the queerest mixture imaginable of everything approximating to silver either in the form of ornaments or coins. There were bracelets, rings,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213887, "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": 239, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "213\n\nrelationship with Chen - they \"did not see eye to eye... [they] thrashed out their differences round the Council table which... they thumped.\"\n\nTo arrange the finance of the new Government, Sun decided to reorganize the province's currency. The new policy was a total abolition of the existing currency and the introduction of a brand new currency under a new government bank. Originally, the new bank was to have had a reserve of $10,000,000, but it turned out that the Canton government could only put up 30% of the original amount. As a government bank, it had the right to issue new currency, to control the treasury and the salt gabelle in Guangdong. The crucial thing it lacked, as shall be seen, was credit worthiness. The merchant's prediction proved correct. In response, the chambers of Commerce wrote a joint letter to Sun, stating that \"to cancel the existing currency (issued by the Bank of China in Canton) was equivalent to an act of sentencing them to the death penalty.\" Ending the letter, the chambers warned the government that \"if the creditability of the Government was shattered [by this incident], the new notes issued by the Provincial Bank of Guangdong may suffer too.\" The brand new currency issued by the new government bank, amounting to $1,500,000, depreciated sharply once it began circulation.\n\nIt was in March 1921 that Chen Jiongming secretly approached \"the leading Chinese merchants in Hong Kong,\" requesting them to form into an advisory council for the Guangdong Government, which was responsible for giving advice on the \"administration of the province in relation to civil and financial matters.\"\n\n**\n\nCoinciding with Chen's move, it was Liu Zhubo who submitted a confidential report to the Governor of Hong Kong on a scheme to finance a new government in Canton - \"the object of the proposed organization was to finance Chen Ch'iung-ming (Chen Jiongming) and enable him to sever [his] connection with Sun Yat-sen.\" According to Liu Zhubo's proposal, this new Canton government was to be modelled \"after the form of government of Hong Kong\" under the supervision of the Cantonese merchants. In Liu's words:\n\nThe Political ship of Canton - officiated, manned and navigated as it now is - is bound to strike rock... what the Chinese merchants in Hong Kong and Canton should do, and do at once, is to prepare and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215773, "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": 72, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "5\n\nalso study how the English system of law was introduced into a largely Far Eastern society and the extent of its impact.\n\nThe nature of the Calcutta administration\n\nLackadaisical attitude\n\nOne of the most glaring problems in the Straits Settlements was the failure of the Indian authorities to establish an effective form of government. This was due to its distance and lack of accessibility which cultivated an indifferent or disinterested attitude on the part of the Indian officials.21 The Indian government was far more interested in its Indian territories than in its possessions in the Malay Peninsular.22 This led to the administrative problems in the Straits Settlements. Owing to this indifference, the men sent from India were young and inexperienced who knew nothing of the problems in the settlements but were only too eager to return to India to reap bigger rewards and promotion.23\n\nLack of representation in Legislative Council\n\nAs the administration of the Straits Settlements was highly centralised in India, the governor of the Straits Settlements had very little authority and merely supervised administration.24 All important matters had to be referred to India for a decision and the governor had no executive or legislative power.25 All the legislation for the Straits Settlements was planned by the Indian government. As the Straits Settlements had no official representation in India, it could not block any legislation that could prove detrimental to the Straits Settlements.26\n\nThus it can be established that the 'roots of the transfer movement lay in the constitutional rearrangement in the Straits Settlements of 1830 and the [Indian] Charter Act of 1833. The system of government was unsatisfactory both for the governor and the mercantile community.'27\n\nThe petition of 1857: A critical evaluation of the complaints raised\n\nThe Currency Act 185528\n\nThe Currency Act is an example cited by the Straits merchants in", "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": 215777, "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": 76, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "were pledged to protect and three over whose external relations they had a right of control.\"55 Hall strongly claims that, 'the Malay States were in a state of chronic unrest, external and internal,56 and had become completely incapable of putting their house in order. Intervention, therefore, could not be avoided. There was indeed constant intervention, notwithstanding all the rules to the contrary and all the thunders of Calcutta and the East India House, '57\n\nHowever, in spite of Thio's and Hall's assertions, the truth of the merchants' complaint is not invalidated, because between 1824 and 1873, British rule in Malaya was indeed ‘inactive,258 as their official policy was still in accordance with Pitt's India Act. In several cases, the actions of the Straits Settlements government implied some form of intervention, or at least limited interference in the affairs of the Malay States, when they violated the policy of non-intervention; but even then, nothing more elaborate was undertaken than the occasional punitive expedition, which was not enough, in 'the interests of British commerce.'60 Insofar as this was concerned, it would appear that the Straits merchants did have a legitimate complaint to the House of Lords, because their statement would appear to have been bona fide and to hold a substantial amount of evidential truth. The influence of Pitt's India Act (that is, EIC non-intervention) remained until 1874, when a new law was passed, and the British took on an active, intervening role in the Malay states.\n\n59\n\nJudicial system!\n\nThe main complaints of the merchants were that the Law was administered by unprofessional persons, that is, the administration of justice was in the hands of local officers of government, civil or military servants of the EIC, and the 'impractical schemes [that] were propounded' (for example, the Currency Act, port dues and stamp duties). LA Mills renders a counter attack to this point; he argues that 'although there were delays in dealing with problems which caused the Straits Settlements to suffer at times, on the whole the results were not serious. Of the problems which arose between 1826 and 1867, very few were of importance, so that injury caused in the delay in settling them was not great. The population was small and generally law-abiding. The Straits Settlements had practically no foreign relations (the main task of the government was to watch Siam and Holland,\n\n63\n\n262", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215789, "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": 88, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "21\n\n* infra para. on Chinese secret societies and Indian convicts, for a more balanced understanding of the population behaviour at that time\n\n54 Indian Charter Act of 1833\n\n❝ the Charters of Justice, 1807, 1826, and 1855; Regina v Willians Esq., cf. Maxwell PB, 'The Law of England in Penang, Malacca and Singapore', JA, ns iii (1859) p 26 - 55\n\ncf. Thio Eunice, \"The Singapore Chinese Protectorate and Events and Conditions Leading to Its Establishment, 1823 - 1877' Journal of the South Seas Society xvi (1960); Tan DE, supra, Chap 6\n\n\"Hansard, 3rd series, vol cxlix, p 995\n\n*Thio, supra, p 47 - examples include gang robberies, collection of \"protection\" money from shopkeepers, or contributions in the nature of blackmail; Chiefs of secret societies were also known to hold their own Courts of Justice to settle disputes between members, even for serious crimes eg sometimes mutilated trunks of victims were found in the jungle or elsewhere, usually with the right or left hand chopped up into a certain number of parts and left hanging together by the skin\n\n*Thio, supra, p 51, 52 ; Buckley, supra, p 757 - in the petition, the European merchants had made suggestions to the Indian government on how to improve the situation but the EIC responded with indifference and 'sometimes without even the slightest acknowledgment of their having been made'\n\nThio, supra, p 52\n\n71 Thio, supra, p 53\n\n7\n\n74\n\nThio, supra, p 34\n\nThio, supra, p 77; Tan D E, supra, Chap 6 p 72, 73\n\n(for example, the Currency Act 1855)\n\n(for example, 1837 admiralty jurisdiction, 1848 insolvency jurisdiction, 1855 Charter of Justice etc.)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215941, "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": 240, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "174\n\nwhich the Police Commissioner handed over $20,000 without question when advised of the plot, though it was claimed that the bribe money came from the Shanghai triads leader Tu Yueh Sheng, then a refugee, albeit wealthy, in Hong Kong. Whatever the truth behind the story, it gained currency as it made the escape of General Yee and Admiral Chan Chak palatable to colonials by portraying it as an honourable act by the British to reward Yee for his assistance in saving them.\n\nIt was almost certainly also a smokescreen to disguise the removal from Hong Kong of something important to the British. MacDougall claimed in 1942 that he had not planned to go but had been persuaded at the last moment by senior government officials. MacDougall however was circumspect, careful not to betray sensitive information in an open letter. He could, however, say that during the last two years his work had 'become increasingly political in character. Officially neutral in the Sino-Japanese War, I had nevertheless behind the scenes consistently exerted what influence I possessed toward blocking and hampering the propaganda and other activities of the Japanese and the adherents of the Wang Ching Wei....I had worked very closely with Chinese organisations and did all in my power, consistent with the interests of the Colony, to aid them.' It should also be noted that he was not an officer of the colonial establishment but belonged to the Ministry of Information. He was to return to Hong Kong on liberation to reinstate the administration. While no high-profile officers escaped with the Chan Chak group, it is probable that some were carrying information. There were men from Army, Navy, and Air Force, and they were chosen for the mission, only one man being a \"guest.\"\n\n* xviii Major Goring was to spend much of the war attached to various strategic planning groups in the China theatre.\n\nThe extent of KMT activity in Hong Kong was considerable. Hong Kong was a sort of open house where all factions of Chinese politics from left to right could operate, as long as they were discreet. Overt acts of terrorism and subversion in other colonies, like the Malayan federation, were suppressed. The territory was also the port through which arms and armaments flowed into China. Technically this was in breach of the Hague Convention as Britain was supposed to be neutral, but there were ways of smuggling and circumventing the system. Baileys, the Hong Kong shipyard, built river gunboats that were outfitted with guns once they entered China. The same technology that enabled\n\nPage 240\n\nPage 241", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]