[ { "id": 205604, "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": 146, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n141 \n\nbe noted below that one of the halls visited was established in the period 1912-13 (No. 3) and another about 1910 (see under No. 2).\n\nThe expansion of vegetarian halls in the second decade of this century is referred to, though with specific reference to the New Territories, in the Administrative Report for 1920 of the District Officer, North. He wrote:\n\nOne of the most remarkable features of the year has been the rapid growth of \"chai t'ong\"* or “vegetarian halls\". Five years ago these religious or quasi-religious establishments had practically no foothold in this district: now they are everywhere in parts within reasonable reach of the railway and main roads, Sha Tin, Tai Po, Fan Ling and Pat Heung, each have several and are asking for more. Their promoters or managers are extremely secretive as to the objects of these enterprises, but it is sufficiently clear that they are designed chiefly to attract the well-to-do of Hongkong, particularly the womenfolk and that the believer is not expected to come empty-handed. Pending a straightforward explanation of the sudden \"boom\" in these \"halls\" permission is being refused for all new establishments as well as for extensions to existing ones.\n\nThere is another entry in his 1921 Report:\n\nThe embargo on “chai t'ong\" continues in force. The revelations in a \"fung shui” case coupled with certain vague statements from the \"T'ongs\" regarding funerals of members seem to indicate that one of the objects of these institutions is to find good \"fung shui's\" for their supporters.\n\nThe same District Officer commented to his superiors:\n\nNominally they are places of retreat where the earnest-minded withdraw from their fellowmen and living on the simplest of food can meditate upon ‘the most Excellent “Way”.' But in practice they come nearer to a Thames-side hotel.\n\nAn unfavourable opinion was also expressed by the District Watch Committee, a statutory body of leading Chinese citizens in Hong Kong to whom the matter was referred for advice. It was also asserted that the then Government of Kwangtung had an equally unfavourable opinion and had in fact expelled them from its territory \"which, if true, would at once account for their phenomenal growth in ours\" he wrote.\n\n* Cantonese romanisation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205712, "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": 18, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "12\n\nT. C. CHENG\n\nuneventful one, and he was noted for his co-operative attitude towards Government policies. This at least had the merit of demonstrating that no hazard was likely to result from having a Chinese representative permanently on the Legislative Council. When his six-year term was up in 1890, he asked not to be re-appointed, and a very prominent \"local boy\", Dr. Ho Kai (later Sir Kai Ho Kai) succeeded him.\n\nDr. Ho Kai, born in Hong Kong in 1859, was the fourth son of the Rev. Ho Tsun-shin (alias Ho Fuk-tong) of the London Missionary Society. Having studied Chinese for several years, he was admitted to Class 4 of the Central School in 1870 at the age of 12. He was an extremely clever and hardworking boy for, according to the school record, he was already in Class 1, the top form, in September 1871. He completed his studies at the Central School the following year, and proceeded to Palmer House School, Margate, England. From there he entered St. Thomas' Medical and Surgical College and received the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery from the University of Aberdeen in 1879. In the same year, he was admitted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England by examination. He then turned to the study of law and was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in May 1879. He was Senior Equity Scholar, Lincoln's Inn, in 1881 in which year he passed the finals with flying colours and also married a charming English girl, Alice, the eldest daughter of the late John Walkden of Blackheath. On his return to Hong Kong in 1882 with his newly-wedded wife, he first practised medicine but was unsuccessful, because the Chinese at that time were not prepared to avail themselves of western medical treatment unless it was offered free. He then turned to the Bar and since 1882 had practised as a barrister in Hong Kong.\n\nUntil his death in 1914, Dr. Ho Kai rendered his services freely and ungrudgingly to the Hong Kong community. For many years he was a valuable member of many important committees, including the Standing Law Committee, the Public Works Committee, the Examination Board, the Medical Board, the Sanitary Board, the Po Leung Kuk Committee, the Tung Wah Hospital Advisory Committee, the District Watch Force Committee, the Architects' Advisory Board and the Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Technical Institute. For 26 years he was a Justice of the Peace and for 25 years he represented the Chinese community on the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205718, "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": 24, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "18\n\nT. C. CHENG\n\nwatchmen being paid for with subscriptions from the Chinese community.* In 1893 a District Watch Force Committee was formed with the Registrar General (Protector of Chinese) as Chairman, and from that time onwards up to 1941 many prominent Chinese leaders served on that Committee. Indeed, for many years, it was more or less a tradition for prominent Chinese who wished to render public service to the Colony to begin their public career with this Committee and then, in the case of those who had a knowledge of English, to proceed to the Sanitary Board (which was replaced by the Urban Council in 1935) and thence to the Legislative Council.\n\nFor some years Wei Yuk was more or less an unofficial liaison officer between Hong Kong and the Manchu Government, and the latter was indebted to him in no small degree for the assistance he rendered in bringing to justice Chinese criminals who had fled from Chinese territory to Hong Kong. He was so respected by the Chinese in South China that, following the successful revolution in 1911, when Admiral Li Tsun, Commander of the Chinese Imperial Naval Detachments of Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces, declared his surrender to the revolutionary forces directed by Dr. Sun Yat-sen's deputy, Hu Han-min from Hong Kong, Mr. Wei Yuk was asked to act as the guarantor of good faith on both sides!\n\nIn 1894, a fierce bubonic plague broke out in Hong Kong which accounted for over 2,000 deaths mainly in the oldest Chinese section of Hong Kong, viz., Tai Ping Shan (the present Po Hing Fong). In 1896 and subsequent years the plague recurred to a greater or less degree every spring. As there was little scientific knowledge of the plague and as there was no western treatment for this, Government decided to take drastic measures including the cleansing and disinfecting of infected areas, compulsory removal of the sick and house-to-house visitation carried out generally by the military. As it was very un-Chinese to allow sick parents or relatives to be removed from their homes to die in strange hospital rooms, and as the Chinese looked upon house visitation as interference and intrusion upon their privacy and personal liberty, they adopted an attitude of passive resistance and often hid away the dead and the sick. Wei Yuk was able to do\n\nSee chapter 4, \"District Watchmen\" of Regulation of Chinese Ordinance, No. 13 of 1888.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205719, "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": 25, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS\n\n19\n\nan outstanding job in these difficult times in enlightening the Chinese masses and in explaining to them the purpose of the Government measures. For these invaluable services he was later presented with a gold medal and a letter of thanks from the general public of Hong Kong.\n\nWei Yuk was also a far-sighted person, for it was he who first seriously pursued the idea of constructing a railway from Kowloon to Canton and thence to Peking. He spent large sums in furtherance of the scheme which failed, however, owing to the obstacles placed in its way by officials in China.21\n\nWei Yuk served on many Government and public committees. While not being noted for long speeches, he was always clear and precise in expressing his views and advice. He retired from public service in 1917 at the age of 68. For his invaluable services to the Colony, he was awarded the C.M.G. in 1908 and knighted in 1919. He died in 1922.\n\nWhen Sir Kai Ho Kai retired in February 1914, his place in the Legislative Council was filled by Lau Chu-pak, who was born in Hong Kong in 1866. He was a brilliant scholar at the Central School and in 1885 was the first boy to be awarded the Stewart Scholarship.22 After leaving the Central School, he was for a time chief clerk at the Hong Kong Observatory. Later he became a tea merchant and amassed a fortune. He was a generous benefactor of education and helped financially many poor children to complete their schooling. With Ho Fook, he was co-founder, in 1900, of the Chinese Merchants Bureau which was renamed in 1913 the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. Before he was appointed to the Legislative Council, he was for many years an active member of the District Watch Force Committee, the Sanitary Board, the Board of Education and the Council of the University of Hong Kong. He was Chairman of the Po Leung Kuk in 1903, a founder-director of the Kwong Wah Hospital in 1907 and Chairman of Tung Wah Hospital in 1909/1910. In January 1909 when a powerful committee was nominated, with the Governor Sir Frederick Lugard as Chairman, to raise funds to start the University of Hong Kong, Lau, Dr. Ho Kai and Wei Yuk were all members of the Committee.\n\nLau Chu-pak's concern in education was demonstrated in 1916 when he suggested, in a Legislative Council meeting, that the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205723, "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": 29, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS\n\n23\n\nmerchants in this Colony. In all necessary measures to that end, I know that I can rely upon the whole-hearted support of this Council\". At the same meeting, the Senior Unofficial member, Sir Henry Pollock, paid the following tribute to Sir Shouson Chow and Robert Kotewall; \"During the last seven months, in particular, we have felt indebted not only to Sir Shouson Chow but also to his Chinese colleague on the Council. We, Sir, behind the scenes, can appreciate perhaps more fully than the general public the work of the Chinese members of this Council during the period I have referred to”. \n\nOn 9th July 1926, Sir Shouson Chow was also appointed the first Chinese member of the Executive Council, following the death of Sir Paul Chater who had served on that Council since 1896.26 Although the appointment was made on personal grounds, it was evident that political considerations also came in, viz., to pacify anti-British sentiment in China and to further encourage the loyalty of local Chinese towards Hong Kong. \n\nSir Shouson Chow served on both Councils until 1930, when he resigned from the Legislative Council. He continued, however, to be a member of the Executive Council until he retired in 1936. He died many years after the war, in 1959, \n\nWhen Lau Chu-pak retired from the Legislative Council in 1922, he was succeeded by Ng Hon-tsz who was born in 1877 and was compradore to Shewan, Tomes, Ltd. He was a director of the Tung Wah Hospital in 1907 and was a founder of the Tsan Yuk Hospital. He was at various times a member of the District Watch Force Committee, the Sanitary Board and the Council of the University of Hong Kong. He served in the Legislative Council for only two years and died in 1923 while in office. After his death, Sir Henry Pollock remarked at the Legislative Council meeting held on 10th May 1923 that Mr. Ng had always been a \"wise, sound and faithful councillor”. \n\nMr. Robert Kotewall, who succeeded Ng Hon-tsz as a member of the Legislative Council in 1923, was born in Hong Kong in 1880. Educated at the Central School as well as the Diocesan Boys' School, he was a noted English as well as Chinese scholar and was a very good speaker. After a distinguished career in the Hong Kong Government until 1916, he turned to business and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205726, "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": 32, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "26\n\nT. C. CHENG\n\nin 1936 he was succeeded by Mr. (later Sir) Man-kam Lo. Sir Man-kam, born in 1893, was the eldest son of the late Lo Cheung-shiu, J.P., who was Chairman of the Tung Wah Hospital in 1915. He was also the son-in-law of the late Sir Robert Hotung. Sir Man-kam went to England to study law in his youth and later founded the solicitors' firm, Messrs. Lo & Lo, his partner then being his younger brother, M. W. Lo. He was appointed a J.P. in 1921 and served on the District Watch Force Committee, the Sanitary Board and many other Boards and Committees. He was Chairman of the Tung Wah Hospital in 1929 and was a member of the Legislative Council from 1936 to 1941. After the war he was appointed to the Executive Council and was knighted in 1948. Sir Man-kam was not only a brilliant lawyer but also a very conscientious and outspoken member of the Legislative and the Executive Councils in his time. His views and advice were always highly esteemed by the Government. He died suddenly in 1959.\n\nIn his book Via Ports, a recent Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Alexander Grantham, had this to say about Sir Man-kam: “Out-standing amongst them (i.e., Executive Council Members) was Sir Man-kam Lo, whose death in 1959 was a great loss to the Colony. He had a first class brain, great moral courage and a capacity for digging down into details without getting lost in them. I can picture him at a meeting of the Council when some difficult or controversial subject was under discussion. Another member would be expounding his views. From the glint in 'M.K.'s' eyes and the way his lips were moving, I knew he had something forceful to say. I could hardly wait for the previous speaker to finish and to hear 'M.K.' Then again, when a complex but dull matter was being dealt with by the circulation of papers, on which members would write their opinions, I would look to see what 'M.K.' had written and, as often as not, save myself the tedium of reading all the other minutes. He was invariably right to the point”\n\n28\n\nWhen Dr. Tso Seen-wan resigned from the Legislative Council in 1937, he was succeeded by Dr. Li Shu-fan who, born in 1887, received his early medical training at the Hong Kong College of Medicine and later at Edinburgh University. In 1964 he published his autobiography, entitled Hong Kong Surgeon and it is recommended that any one wishing to know more about the late", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206305, "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": 122, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE: 'THE CHINESE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF HONG KONG\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE*\n\nAn American political scientist, Lennox Mills, concluded after a period of research in Hong Kong that the District Watch Committee was 'in reality the Chinese Executive Council of Hong Kong'. Yet ‘legally', he continued, it is merely a committee of fifteen Chinese who meet under the chairmanship of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs to manage the District Watch Force\" — in 1941 a body of some 120 Chinese constables and detectives recruited and paid for by the Committee for the purpose of patrolling predominantly Chinese districts of urban Hong Kong Island and Urban Kowloon. The 1941 Committee contained the five names of the Chinese unofficial members of the Legislative and Executive Councils as well as a number of extremely rich and influential Chinese, all of whom sat on various interlocking committees and boards. The Committee, needless to say, because of its prestigious membership, exercised political power within the Chinese community: it was, therefore, a group listened to and cosseted by the government.\n\nThe purpose of this paper is to trace the development of the District Watchmen Force, a constabulary body, from its inception in 1866 and to show how its Committee of Management acquired over time prestige, status and power so that it became, as Lennox Mills wrote, 'the Chinese Executive Council of Hong Kong'.\n\nWhen the Island of Hong Kong was ceded to Britain in 1842, some Englishmen assumed its Chinese inhabitants were a chance collocation of poor peasants, piratical fishermen and unkempt\n\n* Mr. Lethbridge is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Hong Kong. He is the author of several articles on Hong Kong subjects. His \"Hong Kong under Japanese Occupation: Changes in Social Structure\" appeared in I. C. Jarvie and Joseph Agassi, Hong Kong, A Society in Transition — contributions to the study of Hong Kong Society (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969) pp. 77-127. Another article, on the Tung Wah Hospitals 1870-1970, will appear in Contributions to Asian Studies, Vol. I, 1971. His \"Hong Kong Cadets, 1862-1941\" appeared in the 1970 Journal, Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206307, "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": 124, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "118 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nreception of mandarins passing through the Colony, negotiated the sale of official titles, and formed an unofficial link between the Chinese residents of Hong Kong and the Canton Authorities”. Such evidence is not conclusive, but it seems plausible to assume that by the 1860s Chinese in Hong Kong had acquired some experience in managing their own affairs typical behaviour in other Overseas Chinese settlements and had acted with some secrecy so as not to alarm the colonial authorities. \n\nWhat was, in effect, the first District Watch Committee was formed after a meeting of the Chinese community held on 1 February, 1866. Presumably this was a meeting of the Kaifong leaders, the more prosperous shopkeepers and merchants. According to the Registrar General's Report for 1867, after much discussion, the Community of the Five Districts to the west of the Parade Ground, agreed to elect a certain number of their body to act as Watchmen, whose pay should be disbursed by themselves and be collected by men especially appointed for the purpose'. It appears they agreed among themselves to send a petition to government asking for permission to organise a force of Chinese watchmen. In this petition they claimed a rumour had reached them that the roughs of Canton intended to celebrate the approach of the Chinese New Year by making a descent upon Hong Kong 'with the object of committing extensive robberies under cover of a conflagration'. Their intention, they wrote, was to protect their families and aid the police. \n\nThe rumour of a possible criminal foray from Canton was treated with some scepticism by government officials, but the suggestion of a district watchmen force, organised and paid for by the Chinese themselves was readily accepted by the Governor, Sir Richard MacDonnell, and became embodied in the Victoria Registration Ordinance, No. 7 of 1866. As Norton Kyshe affirms : 'This may be taken as the origin of the system now known as \"District Watchmen”. \n\nIt seems reasonable to infer that the Chinese notables present at this meeting used the rumour of a foray from Canton to camouflage their real desire — their own Chinese police force. They wanted an amalgamation of the numerous private watchmen and street guards already employed by merchants, shopkeepers, householders and Kaifong. At that date — 1866 — the regular", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206308, "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": 125, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n119\n\npolice were commonly reputed to be corrupt, inefficient, drunken and lazy. The police force, mainly composed of European and Indian policemen with a small contingent of Chinese, was officered by European inspectors and sergeants and controlled at the top by a European Captain Superintendent of Police, often at loggerheads with the Registrar General, the 'Protector of Chinese'. The main duty of the regular police was to protect the central business district of Hong Kong, where most of the great European firms clustered, and the docks and wharves on which the prosperity of commercial Hong Kong depended. Principally, though, the regular police were there to overawe the Chinese lumpenproletariat, composed in European eyes of the sweepings of Kwangtung Province. The Chinese residential and commercial areas on the fringes of the core central district were more arbitrarily policed—and policed of course by aliens, most of whom as ex-Indian sepoys, ex-soldiers or ex-British policemen were unable to speak Cantonese.11 Chinese merchants, therefore, thought there would be advantages in maintaining a force of district watchmen Chinese to a man—selected, vetted, paid for, controlled, and if needs be, dismissed by the Chinese community.\n\nThe establishment of a body of Chinese district watchmen by the Registration Ordinance of 1866 was at first strongly opposed by some officials. In 1866 Sir Richard MacDonnell reported to the Secretary of State that the scheme was 'working admirably'12; but two years later the Chief Justice, Sir John Smale, laid on the table of the Legislative Council a memorandum inveighing against the inefficiency and corruption of the Force and suggesting that, to avoid the constant friction between the Superintendent of Police and the Registrar General, the district watchmen should be embodied in the Police Force under one head13. Soon after the Chief Justice's animadversions were made public in the Legislative Council, MacDonnell was forced to set up a commission to inquire into the working of the regular police as a result of a number of police scandals. In his memorandum setting out the reasons for holding such an inquiry, MacDonnell also asked the members of the commission to 'report as to the expediency of continuing to maintain, with Chinese co-operation and pecuniary aid, an auxiliary force of District Watchmen, and to ascertain whether the latter body has", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206309, "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": 126, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "120 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nrendered any useful service to the Colony, also whether, as at present controlled, there is any real danger to be apprehended from allowing such a force to be maintained'14 \n\nThe commission concluded that district watchmen performed a useful service for the Chinese community. The system was thus left unchanged and the statutory control of the Registrar General was not tampered with. The Regulation of Chinese Ordinance, No. 13 of 1888, reaffirmed the principle that 'every such watchman shall be under the control of the Registrar General'. Thus the link forged in 1866 between the Registrar General and the District Watch Force was maintained intact until the radical change in the nature of the force brought about by the District Watch Force Ordinance of 1949, which ended the life of the Chinese Committee of Management and the system of voluntary subscriptions. \n\nOsbert Chadwick in his 1882 report on the sanitary conditions of Hong Kong recommended that the duty of enforcing cleanliness should be added to the duties of the district watchmen and that, if necessary, their numbers and pay be increased. Chadwick also informs us that 'the idea was suggested to me by the Chinese'15. Chadwick, the son of the great Edwin Chadwick, recognised the importance of maintaining a body of police auxiliaries, for such watchmen could be detailed to work on tasks not normally undertaken by regular police and used where the presence of European police would engender hostility or lack of co-operation. The Chinese notables also recorded their satisfaction with their own force and in a petition asking for the registration of Chinese partners in Chinese business firms claimed they could weed bad elements out of the force because only Chinese could understand the workings of the Chinese community16. Soon the district watchmen were performing a variety of tasks17—acting as census enumerators, providing guides for census officials, tracing runaway girls for the Po Leung Kuk, intercepting young girls brought into the Colony for purposes of prostitution, engaging in detective work for Chinese welfare societies, and generally just keeping the peace in the Chinese quarters. The Head District Watchman became a figure of some importance and his salary placed him far above the run-of-the-mill Chinese artisan or labourer. Inevitably, there were reports of district watchmen receiving 'tea money' but there is no reason to suppose they were any more...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206310, "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": 127, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "The District Watch Committee\n\n121\n\ncorrupt than regular police18: Chinese could at least understand the rationale of the tariff and no doubt accepted it as a normal condition of life in their time.\n\nIt was, however, J. H. Stewart Lockhart19, the occupant of the combined posts of Registrar General and Colonial Secretary at the end of the century, who perceived the strategic importance of a Chinese advisory council for the colonial government and who, at the same time, helped strengthen and expand the network of committees and boards on which prominent Chinese sat. In 1891 Lockhart took a decisive step: he recommended that twelve Chinese gentlemen, including such influential Chinese as Dr. Ho Kai (Ho Ch'i), Wei Yuk (Wei Yü), and Ho Fook (Ho Fu), should be appointed by government to form a far stronger committee20 than the informal body that had supervised the Force since its inception, so as to improve co-operation between the force and the Registrar General's Department. As Lockhart stressed in his report for 1891, 'it is hoped with the aid of the Committee the efficiency of the District Watch will be increased, and that the advice of the gentlemen forming the Committee will be of great assistance to this office in dealing with the affairs of the Chinese community'. The following year he was pleased to note that ‘its advice on several important questions connected with the affairs of the Chinese community has been of great help to this Department'. Lockhart saw the Committee, then, as a key advisory body for his own department and, it follows, for the colonial government in general. In this, it appears, he was strongly supported by the rich compradore, Wei Yuk, an unofficial member of the Legislative Council and a collaborator of Lockhart's. Wei Yuk had urged that a new committee should be nominated and that this reorganised committee should be given official recognition, backing and status.22 I have been unable to ascertain the names of the members of the Committee before 189123 but I suspect that many must have been nonentities in the eyes of the Registrar General and prominent Chinese local worthies and local leaders rather than Chinese conspicuous for great wealth, prestige and power24.\n\nIt is not possible to reconstruct Wei Yuk's reasoning at this date; nevertheless it is plausible to surmise that Wei Yuk understood that the tighter the connection between the Committee of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206312, "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": 129, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "The District Watch Committee\n\n123\n\nDistrict Watch Committee. In 1920 the post of Advisor (Ku Man) was created and the first occupant — and it would seem the only one — was the distinguished Sir Boshan Wei Yuk, the founding father of the Committee.\n\nBy the end of the nineteenth century, relations with the Police had improved. In 1897 the district watchmen on duty in Victoria were placed on police beats and subjected to the supervision of police inspectors and sergeants on patrol duty. This was done on the recommendation of the Captain Superintendent of Police, F. H. May (a Cadet Officer like Lockhart), who remarked in his annual report for that year that 'the object was to improve the efficiency of this very useful auxiliary Police Force, and to bring them into closer touch with the Police'. The reputation of the regular police had improved by that date and the Committee concurred with the innovation. The efficiency of the District Watch was further raised by the secondment in 1918 of a European police officer27 to take charge of and train the detective staff, a practice that continued until 1949. As a result of this change, the number of convictions obtained by the district watch detective force tended to rise from year to year. The force became steadily more professionalised, especially its detective branch. The Secretary for Chinese Affairs claimed in 1922 that 'the connection with the Regular Police has been effectively used to the advantage of both sides, and without interference with the essential character of the District Watch'; and in 1924 he wrote 'the Captain Superintendent of Police was on occasion present by invitation at the Councils of the Committee, and it is satisfactory to note the close co-operation between the two forces'. However, the force did not increase markedly in size over time — there were only 48 watchmen in 1891 and 120 in 194128 — although the area patrolled and the urban population both increased over this period. In 1910 it was found necessary to extend patrols further as the Chinese population spread up to the higher levels of the town; in 1913 the Committee was obliged to raise money for District Watchmen's Quarters in Kowloon; and by 1925 the districts of Yaumati and Mongkok were being patrolled; and by 1930, Shamshuipo. The rate of voluntary subscription was also raised slightly29.\n\nThe District Watch was a Chinese and not a European police force and its duties were more diverse than those normally", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206313, "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": 130, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "124\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\ndevolving upon the regular police by law or custom. As early as 1868, the Registrar General reported that the Head District Watchmen from their age and authority are often accepted as arbiters of perplexing disputes'. Clearly, these extra-police duties increased year by year, for in 1935 the Secretary for Chinese Affairs wrote 'it is not generally realised that in addition to their normal ordinary police duties the District Watch carry out a great deal of useful investigation in purely civil cases, wages and family disputes'. Watchmen were also active in counting the number of children at vernacular schools, controlling queues during periods of acute water shortage, gathering information about family budgets, and in the more general task of making known to the Chinese public the policies of the government30. Primarily, of course, the members of the force spent most of their time in apprehending shoplifters, thieves, pickpockets and loiterers in those districts where there were Chinese shops. Their special anti-pickpocket squad, a plain-clothes unit, helped to control an offence once very common in Hong Kong. This was what the subscribers expected them to do31, for the subscribers were nearly all shopkeepers and merchants, members of the propertied and moneyed class in Hong Kong. The District Watchmen, armed and uniformed, must have been a conspicuous sight in the Chinese quarters of the town before the war, well-known as individuals to the citizens in the districts they patrolled. In most cases the watchmen spoke Cantonese like the majority in the urban areas, whereas Chinese regular police were often recruited from Shantung32 and spoke another dialect. The police constables from Shantung, given the complexities of Chinese provincial and dialect differences, were comparative strangers -- tall, muscular men from the North.\n\nThe day to day running of the force was left mainly in the hands of the Head District Watchmen and their aides, the Assistant District Watchmen, and later to the European officer seconded from the police; and all clerical work was done in Chinese in the office of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, which became the headquarters of the force. The Committee met formally once a month, though extraordinary meetings were often held. But when the Committee did meet, it usually had more important matters to discuss than the routine doings of the force. The Committee of Management, since its advice was solicited by the Secretary for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206314, "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": 131, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "The District Watch Committee\n\n125\n\nChinese Affairs, spent most of its time in session discussing social and economic problems. In 1913, for example, among subjects discussed at its deliberations were the regulation of Chinese theatres, the prohibition of the circulation of foreign notes and silver, and means for the more effective regulation of Chinese householders; in 1914 the prohibition of all new Chinese restaurants in the Central District, the licensing of singing girls, and the classification of boarding houses (emigration houses and hotels); and in 1915 the restriction on the numbers of clubs and societies, the appointment of midwives, the question of payment of wine and spirit licenses, and the question of new legislation for money loan associations33. It is not surprising, then, that the Secretary for Chinese Affairs was pleased to write in 1918 that 'the loyal advice and assistance of this important Committee (which deals with every kind of question affecting the Chinese community) continues to be of the greatest value to Government'. The stabilising role of the Committee is also made clear by its activity during periods of intense crisis in the Colony. Thus the Committee was extremely active during the period of ebullition following from the 1911 Revolution in China; it also helped to prevent violence during the short time when diplomatic relations between China and Japan were strained in 1915; it played a part in bringing to an end the bitter seamen's strike of 1922 and the strike and boycott of 1925-192634. It was a Committee, as Lockhart probably intuited it would become, that allowed the Chinese to 'regulate' themselves within the fairly broad limits set by government,\n\nThe committees of the Tung Wah Hospital, the Po Leung Kuk, the District Watch Force, together with those of some other associations such as the Lok Sin Tong and the Chung Sing Benevolent Society35, formed a system. The system was, in terms, of prestige, influence and power, an hierarchical one. The Tung Wah Board of Directors was usually recruited from ex-committeemen of the Po Leung Kuk; and the District Watch Committee always contained a very large number of former members of the Po Leung Kuk and the Tung Wah Hospital. The District Watch Committee thus formed the apex of a pyramidal and hierarchical structure, at the base of which were local-based associations such as Kaifong, and also district and clansmen associations, and guilds of employers36. But the prestige", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206321, "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": 138, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "132 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nand workers. In one case, a District Watch Inspector arrested a member of the Secret Strike Party (the so-called Labour Commission) carrying illegal dispatches to union members, a fact duly noted in the Secretary for Chinese Affairs' report for 1925. \n\nIt is difficult to see how the Hong Kong government could have coped as well as it did with periods of economic recession after 1918, with years of labour unrest, with the rising tide of nationalism emanating from Nationalist China, without the strong support of the Committee, whose members between them sat on most of the ten other official Chinese committees and boards. The members of the District Watch Committee were strongly entrenched in the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and the Chinese Clubs and they played a significant role in the Chinese Manufacturers' Association. They also occupied important positions in district associations, benevolent societies, guilds of employers and business associations. The power and influence of the Committee ramified down through such associations, so that the few were able to exercise political control over the many62. Thus the power of the Committee was diffused through many associations, helping to maintain what no doubt the government would call 'sensible attitudes' among the Hong Kong-born Chinese, the group that formed the vertebra of the Colony. \n\nThe District Watch Committee was re-established after the return of the British administration in 1945, the Committee containing the same names as in 1941. No further nominations were ever made. A hundred and one District Watchmen reported for duty in 1945-6 and carried on with their normal duties: patrolling streets, conducting enquiries in connection with boarding houses, guilds, and the protection of women and girls, and making general investigations on behalf of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs. In addition, the force assisted the rice controller in checking black marketing in government supplies; they were also put on static guard duties at various premises requisitioned by government. But the pre-war system of soliciting private subscriptions for the upkeep of the force was abandoned in 1945: henceforth it was financed entirely by the government; and government soon decided that the strength of the force should gradually be reduced to about fifty men, which would be sufficient to deal with the special requirements of the Secretariat for Chinese", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206322, "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": 139, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n133\n\nAffairs, and so recruitment for the force was suspended and vacancies caused by death or retirement were not filled.\n\nIn 1948 the Secretary for Chinese Affairs wrote that 'even before the outbreak of the Pacific War it was becoming evident that this system of raising money (i.e., by voluntary subscriptions) would have to be abandoned. Plans for the reorganisation of the Force were under consideration at the time when the Japanese invaded the Colony'. By the District Watch Ordinance, No. 15 of 1949, the force became the direct responsibility of government and the pay and terms of service were brought into line, rank for rank, with those of the Police Force. The Committee was not mentioned in the new Ordinance, and the names of its surviving members were no longer given in the Civil Service Lists.\n\nThe reasons for this change were never made clear by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs. But it seems reasonable to conclude that the utility of the force declined once the regular police became more professionalised. There was probably some resistance within government and the community to the idea of a few prominent Chinese controlling a private police force and, on occasions, putting it to their own use. It could also be argued that since the returned Governor, Sir Mark Young, had promised a far greater participation of the many rather than the few in public life, the need for a small body of rich Chinese to act as a key advisory body was seen as not quite 'democratic' in the new Hong Kong; moreover, a few prominent Chinese, members of the Committee, had been a little too prominent in the organisations set up by the Japanese. For these and other reasons, then, the District Watch Force and its Committee after eighty-three years of life and service to the public came to an end in 1949.\n\n—\n\nAn analysis of the District Watch Committee terminates in a number of broader sociological enquiries: the role of associations in Overseas Chinese communities and the nature of leadership in such societies. It is not my intention to pursue such comparative questions in this short and mainly descriptive paper; but of course some comparisons should be suggested. The system that evolved in Hong Kong was not imposed on the Chinese by a colonial government; there were no Congrégations or Kapitan Chinas in Hong Kong63 nor, for that matter, did secret societies supply leaders as they did in Malaya at one stage.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206324, "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": 141, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n135\n\n4 The first census of the Island in 1841 gave a population of 5,650. In 1844 the population was given as 19,009. See Historical and Statistical Abstract of the Colony of Hong Kong, 1841-1931, Hong Kong, Noronha, 1932. The validity of the first census has been questioned by G. R. Sayer in his Hong Kong: Birth, Adolescence, and Coming of Age, London, Oxford University Press, 1937, p. 104.\n\n5 The China Review, vol. 1, 1872/73, p. 333.\n\n6 Ibid., p. 334.\n\n7 E. J. Eitel, Europe in China, The History of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Kelly and Walsh, 1895, p. 282. The Man Mo Temple stands at the western end of Hollywood Road. It was originally a shrine patronised mostly by fishermen before 1841. For a description of the temple see Charles J. H. Halcombe, The Mystic Flowery Land, London, Luzac and Co., 1896, ch. xxvii. The temple was run by a committee appointed by the Five Districts and the committee used to hold an annual ceremony at Mount Davis for the dead... in celebration of the gods of literature and war: see the Hongkong Government Gazette (henceforth cited as the Gazette), 12 February 1879, p. 52. The properties of the Man Mo Temple were transferred to the Tung Wah Hospital by the Man Mo Temple Ordinance, No. 10 of 1908. Before the committee of the Tung Wah Hospital was organized, the Man Mo Temple Committee appears to have been recognised as representing the opinions of respectable Chinese.\n\n9 J. W. Norton Kyshe, History of the Laws and Courts of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Noronha and Co., 1898, vol. 2, p. 86. See also the reports of the Registrar General for 1866 and 1867 in the Gazette.\n\n9 Ibid., p. 86.\n\n10 In 1867 the police force consisted of 89 Europeans, 377 Indians (chiefly Bombay sepoys) and 132 Chinese, many of whom were employed as marine police. See Eitel, op. cit., pp. 445-6.\n\nAs late as 1893 there were only two European policemen who could act as proper interpreters and only five who could speak some Chinese. See the Report of the Commission on the Po Leung Kuk, Hong Kong, Noronha and Co., 1893, p. 81.\n\n12 Correspondence on Hong Kong Gambling Houses, London, H.M.S.O., 1869, p. 21.\n\n13 Eitel, op. cit., p. 447.\n\n14 Gazette, 6 January 1872. The Police Commission set up by MacDonnell was not unanimous: broadly it agreed to recommend an Anglo-Chinese police force. The recruitment of Chinese police had been strongly advocated by Dr. Legge, as most likely to bring good understanding between the government and respectable Chinese', G. B. Endacott, History of Hong Kong, London, Oxford University Press, 1958, p. 160.\n\n13 Osbert Chadwick, Reports on the Sanitary Conditions of Hong Kong, London, H.M.S.O., 1882, p. 42.\n\n16 'Registration of Chinese Partners', Hong Kong Sessional Papers (henceforth cited as Sessional Papers), No. 43 of 1901, p. 22. The text reads: 'Head and District Watchmen employed to patrol the streets by day and by night, are to be recommended by the Chinese themselves, because they know whether they are trustworthy or not. If these men, however, should fail to maintain their good character and should be found to be unfit for the post by the Chinese residents of the district to which they belong, they should be dismissed at any time, in order that they may have something to fear'. The translation is clearly a bad one.\n\n17 In 1883, the Registrar General, Frederick Stewart, used the district watchmen to conduct an enquiry into all Hong Kong schools. In the 1897", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206325, "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": 142, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "136 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\ncensus 13 of the 76 Chinese enumerators were district watchmen; in the 1901 census 5 out of 107 were. In the 1906 census the 120 enumerators were shown round the blocks (census sub-divisions) by district watchmen. They also gave help in the 1911 census, and in the 1921 one the bulk of the force was placed at the disposal of the commissioner of census, who wrote 'each Chinese watchman engaged was in charge of two sections; they helped clear up misunderstandings and kept a check on enumerators'. The Committee was thanked on many occasions by government for its public service; it was praised for the help it rendered to the police during the riots which occurred in 1894 during the great epidemic of plague. The Committee did all it could to help its sister organizations the Tung Wah Hospital and Po Leung Kuk. Thus district watchmen were always employed on special duties at the Tung Wah Hospital during outbreaks of plague and the Chinese Public Dispensary Committee used Watchmen to prevent the dumping of bodies in the streets. The Po Leung Kuk's two principal detectives were serving district watchmen at the turn of the century. Co-operation was easy because most members of the District Watch Committee had served or were serving on the committees of the Tung Wah Hospital and Po Leung Kuk. In 1895 head district watchmen were paid $240 a year, assistant head district watchmen $180 and watchmen from $84 to $96. \n\n18 For examples of police corruption in nineteenth century Hong Kong see numerous references in Norton-Kyshe, op. cit. \n\n19 After a distinguished academic career at Edinburgh University, J. H. Stewart Lockhart became a Hong Kong Cadet in 1878; Registrar General in 1887; Colonial Secretary in 1895. In 1902 he was appointed first Civil Commissioner of Weihaiwei and retired from this post in 1921. Among his numerous publications there are several of sinological value. See particularly: 'Contributions to the Folklore of China', China Review, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 352-353 and vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 37-39; also 'Some Chinese Folk-lore', Folk-lore, vol. 14, 1903, pp. 292-298. Lockhart was local secretary in Hong Kong of the International Folk-lore Society. \n\n20 In 1892 new rules were drawn up under Ordinance No. 13 of 1888, with the advice of the Committee, for the regulation and guidance of the watchmen. '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': See Report of the Registrar General for 1892. Lockhart also persuaded two Chinese newspapers—the Tsun Wan Yat Po and the Wai San Yat Po—to publish weekly lists of cases brought before the magistrate by the District watchmen for the information of subscribers to the District Watchmen's Fund. Lockhart realised that publicity was good for the Committee: he saw that they got it. The report of the Registrar General/Secretary for Chinese Affairs always contained a section on the District Watch and news about members was given: deaths, resignations, appointments, etc. \n\n21 Wei Yuk (1849-1921) was the son of Wei Kwong, compradore to the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China. He was educated at the Government Central School in Hong Kong and in 1867, at the age of 18, became a pupil at the Leicester Stoneygate School and in 1868 of the Dollar Institution, Scotland. He returned to Hong Kong in 1872 to become assistant compradore in the Chartered Mercantile Bank. He succeeded his father on the latter's death in 1879. Wei Yuk married the eldest daughter of Wong Shing (Huang Shêng). He was the fourth Chinese to be appointed to the Legislative Council, the other three being Ng Choy (Wu Ting-fang), Wong Shing and Ho Kai. He was knighted in 1919. During his public career he served on all the commissions appointed by government to inquire into matters affecting the Chinese. Ho Fook (1863-1926) was the younger half-brother of Sir Robert Ho Tung, reputed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206326, "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": 143, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "The District Watch Committee\n\n137\n\nto be the richest man in Hong Kong. When Ho Tung retired as chief compradore to Jardine, Matheson's in 1900, Ho Fook succeeded him. Ho Fook's assistant was Ho Kom Tong, another of Ho Tung's brothers. The members of the District Watch Committee were members of a small circle of businessmen, often related through ties of blood or marriage. When the Tai Yau Bank was established in 1914 with a paid-up capital of $6,000,000, the proprietors were named as Lau Chu Pak, Ho Fook, Ho Kom Tong, Lo Chung Shiu and Chan Kai Ming. Lau Chu Pak was compradore to A. S. Watson and Co., chairman of the Po On Commercial Association and chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce; Chan Kai Ming was manager of the Opium Farm; and Lo Chung Shiu, assistant compradore to Jardine, Matheson and Co., was Ho Fook's brother-in-law. All were or became members of the District Watch Committee.\n\n22 T. C. Cheng writes that Wei Yuk 'was very much concerned about law and order among the Chinese masses because in those early days riff-raff and political refugees from South China continued to come into Hong Kong. Thus it was at his suggestion that the District Watch Force was founded in 1888. Mr. Cheng appears to be mistaken about the date and is no doubt referring to the ordinance of that year, no. 13 of 1888 rather than to its proper date of origin. Wright and Cartright, Feldwick, and Professor Woo all state that the Committee was formed on Wei Yuk's suggestion. See: T. C. Cheng, 'Chinese Unofficial Members of the Legislative and Executive Councils of Hong Kong up to 1941', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 9, 1969, pp. 17-18; Arnold Wright and H. A. Cartright, Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong, Shanghai and other Treaty Ports, London, Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Co., 1908, p. 109; W. Feldwick, ed., Present Day Impressions of the Far East and Prominent Chinese at Home and Abroad, London Globe Encyclopedia Co., 1917, p. 576; Professor Woo Sing Lim, The Prominent Chinese in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Five Continents Book Company, 1939, p. 4.\n\n23 Unfortunately all the records in the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs were destroyed or lost during the Japanese occupation and hence anyone trying to reconstruct the history of the District Watch must work mostly from scraps of information found in government publications, newspapers, books.\n\n24 My guess is that a large number were traditional Chinese merchants from the Five Districts operating on a relatively small scale. The Committee after 1891 represented the views of a more westernised and modernised elite with a knowledge of modern business techniques and modern financial manipulations. Dr. Ho Kai, for example, played the stock exchange with great success and speculated in many fields, particularly land development. He was, properly speaking, a financier although his occupation is often given tout court as lawyer. He had also qualified in medicine at Edinburgh but gave up the practice of medicine soon after his return to Hong Kong in 1882 because of Chinese resistance to western medicine.\n\n25 In 1903, for example, the Committee opposed the re-introduction of the night-pass system but suggested other remedial measures (see Index to Correspondence (General Register) 1894-1904, Hong Kong, Noronha and Co., 1909, p. 100). In 1909 'at the request of the District Watchmen Committee, children who are hawking without a licence are on their first offence sent to the Registrar General who cautions their guardians. This procedure seems to have proved effective in each case' wrote the Registrar General in 1909. It is worth noting that both Registrar General and Committee wanted to end the night-pass system and were opposed by the Captain Superintendent of Police, who was unsuccessful. As for hawkers, very few Chinese regarded them as a serious menace although colonial administrators", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206327, "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": 144, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "138 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nwith a passion for tidiness disliked them intensely. In this case, I suspect, the Registrar General bowed to the will of the Committee. \n\n26 There was a marked tendency for the committees of such associations to grow very large in size-so many affluent Chinese wanted their names recorded as committeemen, and to donate money, without of course doing any committee work. Professor Freedman supplies an explanation for this phenomenon in Singapore: 'Since office-holding occupies a strategic position in the formation of social status, it is not surprising that the structure of associations seems adapted to this function. This adaptation is clear in two features: the elaboration of offices, such that many positions are made available, and the institutional arrangements for filling the offices with the well-to-do', Maurice Freedman, Chinese Marriage and Family in Singapore, London, H.M.S.O., 1957, p. 95. \n\n27 In 1903 the proposed scheme of detectives under the control of the Committee was not approved; but permission was given at a later date, apparently during the First World War and probably because of the shortage of European policemen. \n\n28 In 1938 there were 5 Head District Watchmen, 6 Assistant Head District Watchmen, 26 detectives and 103 uniformed men. The position was approximately the same in 1941. \n\n29 In 1902 the rate paid by Chinese shops was increased slightly and in 1924 it was increased by another 1/4 per cent. \n\n30 Butters writes that the figures which appear annually regarding the cost of living in the report of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs are based on information obtained from the District Watch Force. At my request figures were furnished from the same source showing the cost of living of an ordinary labourer': H. R. Butters, Report on Labour and Labour Conditions in Hong Kong, Sessional Papers, No. 3 of 1939, p. 137. Applications from guilds and trade unions to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs for permission to hold 'sing songs' were granted conditionally on a district watchman attending the meeting to see that nothing unlawful transpired. See Butters, p. 126. The watchmen were always regarded as a source of information about the Chinese population. When the commission on chair and jinricksha coolies attempted to discover whether there was a secret union of public transport workers, the first people they contacted for information about the matter were district watchmen. See Report of the Commission on Chair and Jinricksha Coolies, Sessional Papers, No. 47 of 1901, p. 56. \n\n31 The Registrar General in his report for 1868 made this quite clear: 'the chief object of the Chinese paying these watchmen is to drive away thieves, the cardinal evil of a shop-keeping population, And it is thought that the watchmen succeed, not only in arresting actual offenders, but also in keeping away those who live by pilfering'. \n\n32 These constables were recruited mostly from Weihaiwei, a territory leased to Britain on 1 July, 1898. \n\n33 These facts are taken from the reports of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs for the respective years. \n\n34 See above: note 33. \n\n35 The Lok Sin Tong was an association established by officials and village gentry in Kowloon about 1879 to perform charitable works in the surrounding district. See James Hayes, 'Old ways of Life in Kowloon: The Cheung Sha Wan Villages', Journal of Oriental Studies, vol. viii, 1970, p. 167. The Chung Sing Charitable Society, originally known as the Chung Sing Opera Society, was founded around 1917 by a leading merchant, Tsang Foo. This charity also maintained a free school.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206328, "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": 145, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n139\n\n36 In 1917 there were 31 guilds for employers only (in trades such as silk, sandalwood, wicker furniture and copper), 35 skilled craftsmen guilds (sandalwood workers, masons, tinsmiths, etc.) and 5 guilds with mixed membership (employers and workers). There were also 17 district societies, such as the Heung Shan (Hsiang-shan) resident merchants association and the General Commercial Association of the Tung Kun (Tung-kuan) merchants resident in Hong Kong. See the list of exempted and registered societies in the Gazette, 27 April 1917.\n\n37 Wei Yuk was appointed in 1891 and served until his death in 1929. He resigned several times in order to allow a newcomer to join the Committee but was soon re-appointed. Lau Chu-pak was appointed in 1902 and served until his death in 1922. Sir Shouson Chow was appointed in 1917 and was still a member in 1949, the year of the demise of the Committee.\n\n38 During the years 1929 to 1931 and in 1936 the Committee met four times a year at Government House. Lennox Mills states that members had the right to a guard of the District Watch Force on the occasion of weddings and other festivities'. The Secretary for Chinese Affairs tells us in his report for 1936 that through the kindness of His Excellency the Committee was able to meet the members of the Mui Tsai Commission on the occasion of their first visit to the Colony, 'All members attended and there was a valuable discussion with frank interchange of views'. When the Governor, Sir Henry Blake, left the Colony in 1903 on the day of his departure he inspected the District Watchmen. Clearly, everything was done by the government to give prestige and éclat to the Committee and the force.\n\n19 T. C. Cheng, op. cit., p. 18.\n\n40 Of the Chinese land population in the 1901 census 227,615 returned themselves as natives of Kwangtung Province, 179,296 of this number belonging to the Kwong Chau Prefecture, 28,844 came from Tung-kuan hsien, 28,587 from P'an-yü hsien, and 27,221 from Nan-hai hsien. The situation was substantially the same in the censuses of 1911, 1921 and 1931. In 1911, for example, 311,992 out of 350,418 Chinese in Hong Kong, exclusive of the New Territories, spoke Cantonese,\n\n41 Op. cit., pp. 399-400.\n\n42 Heung Shan, present-day Chung Shan, is the arid county on the west side of the Pearl River, stretching down to Macau. It was the Heung Ha, the Cantonese term for the province, district or village from which each person derives his ancestry, of many prominent Chinese, including Ng Choy (Wu Ting-fang), Yung Wing (Yung Hung), Wong Shing (Huang Shêng), and Sun Yat-sen. Many Chinese merchants in Hong Kong came from this county; for example, Wei Yuk, Ma Ying-piu (founder of the Sincere Company), M. Y. San (before 1941 the largest biscuit manufacturer in China), Tsang Foo, Look Poong-shan (founder of the Bank of Canton). Su Chao-cheng, organiser and leader of the Seamen' Strike in 1922, came from this county; in 1928 Su was elected to the Central Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party. The anarchist, Liu Ssu-fu, was also born there. In 1938 the Chung Shan Commercial Association had a membership of over 4,000 in Hong Kong.\n\n43 In 1905, for example, at least seven members of the Committee were compradores to important western firms; one was manager of a native bank; another of a prosperous pawnshop; a third ran a large export firm. Ho Kai was primarily a financier rather than an entrepreneur. See on this point the Chinese speculator Marie-Claire Bergère, \"The Role of the Bourgeoisie' in M. C. Wright, ed., China in Revolution: The First Phase 1900-1913, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1968, p. 236.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206538, "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": 86, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "80\n\nHENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE\n\n8 E. T. C. Werner, Autumn Leaves: An Autobiography, Shanghai, 1928, pp. 487-8. Werner, a student interpreter, studied Chinese in Peking in 1884. With him were two Hong Kong cadets -- Henry Francis May and Thomas Sercombe Smith. May became Governor of Hong Kong and Smith Puisne Judge in the Straits Settlements.\n\n6 E. H. Parker, John Chinaman and a Few Others, London, 1903, p. 210.\n\n7 Ibid., p. 211.\n\n8 Lockhart's preface to A Manual of Chinese Quotations, 1st edition, 1893, p. iii. Lockhart also states: 'my attention was first called to the Ch'êng Yu Kao by my late teacher Mr. Ou-yang Hui.... I commenced to translate it under his guidance.'\n\n9 A report of Ho Kai's speech is given in one of a series of articles called Old Hong Kong by 'Colonial', published by the South China Morning Post (June 17, 1933-April 13, 1935). Mimeographed copy, University of Hong Kong Library,\n\n10 See, for example, T. O. Ranger, ‘African Reactions to the Imposition of Colonial Rule in East and Central Africa', in L. H. Gann and Peter Duignan (eds.), Colonialism in Africa 1870-1960, Cambridge, England, 1969, vol. 1, pp. 293-324; Lord Hailey, An African Survey, 2nd edition, London, 1945, pp. 527-8; and also J. D. Legge, Britain in Fiji 1858-1880, London, 1958, especially his ch. ix, 'Native Authority Systems'.\n\n11 For a more detailed account of Lockhart's design see my article, \"The District Watch Committee: \"The Chinese Executive Council of Hong Kong\", Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xi, 1971, pp. 116-141.\n\n12 Hong Kong Sessional Papers (cited henceforth as Sessional Papers), no. 26 of 1896, pp. 425-427.\n\n13 T. H. Whitehead (1851-1933). See obituaries in the Times of 17 May, 1933, and in the South China Morning Post of 18 May, 1933. He was from 1883 to 1902 manager of the Hong Kong office of the Chartered Bank. Whitehead, a great imperialist, was a member of the Royal Empire Society, the Fellowship of the British Empire, and the China Association. The Times speaks of him as a typical Scot, of rugged energy and determination, and of great intellectual force.... In the domestic politics of Hong Kong Colony he took an active, not to say aggressive part.... In his retirement he was active in promoting emigration to the Empire, especially of boy scouts.\n\n14 Sessional Papers, no. 26 of 1896, p. 431.\n\n15 Ibid., p. 428.\n\n16 Ibid., p. 429.\n\n17 Most of the clerks in the Registrar General's Office were recruited from Queen's College. 'In March 1900, at the Queen's College Prize Giving, the Hon. Stewart Lockhart, C.M.G., said: \"I do not know what the Government would have done if it had not had the College to turn to when it wanted a staff at work in the New Territory, and I cannot give them any higher praise than to say they are carrying on their duties in a manner worthy of the College in which they received their education.\" See Gwenneth Stokes, Queen's College, 1862-1962, Hong Kong, 1962, p. 66.\n\n18 Norton-Kyshe, op. cit. vol. 2, p. 461.\n\n+3\n\n19 See 'Extracts from a Report from Mr. Stewart Lockhart on the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong', Sessional Papers, no. 9 of 1899.\n\n20 Ibid., p. 198.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214375, "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": 233, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "199\n\nTHE DISTRICT WATCH FORCE\n\nSHEILAH HAMILTON\n\nIn general the Force now appears to the Police to be an unwelcome anachronism, to the Chinese population to perpetuate a valued tradition, and to all civil servants not serving in the Secretariat of Chinese Affairs (as well as some who are) as an imperfectly comprehended mystery.\n\nIn the 1960s the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, Mr John C. McDouall, described the District Watch Force in the above terms. This telling statement by the Government official in charge of the District Watch between 1957 and 1966 illustrates the opposing views held about the 'Force' by various sections of Hong Kong society. Indeed, the solo use of the word 'Force,' without its more familiar qualification, 'Hong Kong Police', would have been an anathema to many members of the Hong Kong Police Force whose officers considered that they, and only they, represented the true 'Force.' This 'them and us' notion neatly illustrates the problems faced by the District Watch Force throughout its long history.\n\nIn 1971 the sociologist Henry Lethbridge contributed a paper about the District Watch Committee to the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and, seven years later, it was reproduced as a chapter in his book Hong Kong: Stability and Change.2 Although these early works included the District Watchmen and their duties, their main thrust was the political significance of the District Watch Committee rather than a commentary on the work of the lowly Watchmen and, in the years that followed, the contribution of this band of local private security personnel has received little attention. This paper examines the birth and development of the District Watch Force, a group of Chinese men who may be regarded as comprising the first organised body of Chinese private security personnel employed in Hong Kong. More specifically, it explores the interaction between the Hong Kong Government and the District Watch Force.3\n\nThe District Watch Force existed, in fact if not in name, for more than a century between 1866 and 1970. During this period it", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214386, "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": 244, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "210 \n\nincrease in offences of a less serious nature was reported in 1884. Yet another possible reason for the brief presence of the District Watchmen as sanitary workers may be found in Chadwick's own words since he stated that the need for proper checking was most important 'whilst the new conditions are being introduced.' \n\nIn light of the foregoing it is interesting to note that in October 1885 a short Rule appeared in the Government Gazette relating to the transfer of District Watchmen. This was a Rule, made by the Registrar General under Section 14 of Ordinance 7 of 1866, whereby 'The Registrar General shall be empowered to transfer the Watchmen of the various Districts including the Chief Watchmen, from time to time as may seem to him expedient.' It is unclear from the wording of the rule whether this transfer referred merely to the movement of District Watchmen from one location to another or whether it legitimized the transfer of the Watchmen from one kind of duty to another. If the latter, this may have been intended to refer to the transfer of the District Watchmen from security work to sanitary duties. If this was the intention it is peculiar that the timing of the publication of this Rule coincided with the end rather than the beginning of the District Watchmen's involvement in sanitary duties. \n\nPerhaps the reason for their removal from sanitary duties was not recorded and what is most important in the context of this study is that it was a successful, if short lived, attempt to transfer a group of people from the private sector to the public domain and change their working conditions in a major way. We have seen that the District Watch Force was created for a very specific reason, namely to provide proper protection for a particular ethnic group within Hong Kong society which was not being served by the public police. Since official enquiries into the efficiency of the Hong Kong Police Force had confirmed the latter's shortcomings in 1872, there can be little doubt that in the early 1880s a need still existed for the District Watch Force as a security force. Additionally, the Chinese business folks almost certainly still preferred having their own people patrolling their streets rather than members of the Police Force. Perhaps in 1883 the merchants employing the District Watchmen were neither strong enough nor motivated enough to refuse to co-operate in Chadwick's scheme. After all the District Watch Committee was not formed until nearly a decade after Chadwick's report was published and thus the power exerted by this Committee in", "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": 214388, "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": 246, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "212\n\nThe following year the Government exercised its authority by withdrawing the $2,000 grant which had been awarded annually to the District Watch Force since 1870. The purpose of this small grant was to augment the contributions from the Chinese merchants for the running of the Force. However, Mr A. M. Thomson, the Acting Registrar General, considered that, because of the large surplus which the Committee had accumulated by 1893, there should be no need to resume the grant until 1905. The background to the distribution of this grant is of interest since it shows once again the interaction between the District Watch Force and the Hong Kong Government. During the years 1870-1873 an annual grant of $1,600 was paid to the 'Native District Watchmen' from a Miscellaneous services vote.18 In 1874 this amount was raised to $2,000 p.a. and remained listed as a miscellaneous expense until 1879. However, an important administrative change occurred the following year when the annual grant payable to the District Watch Force became a Police expense and remained as such until it was withdrawn in 1894.\n\nIncreased Government Influence\n\nIn mid-1897 the control exerted by the Government over the District Watch Force increased still further. Francis May, the Captain Superintendent of Police who had become a member of the District Watch Committee in 1894, had recommended that the District Watchmen on duty in Victoria between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. should be placed on Police beats and be 'subjected to the supervision of Police Inspectors and Sergeants on patrol duty.' In his Annual Report for 1897 May took pleasure in informing its readers that this scheme had been introduced in June 1897 'to improve the efficiency of this very useful auxiliary Police Force, and to bring them into closer touch with the Police.'\n\nAs time went by the number of the District Watchmen increased gradually. Before the creation of the District Watch Committee the number had remained static with six Head District Watchmen and thirty-seven or thirty-eight District Watchmen. In 1892 and 1893 this grew to forty-two and fifty-seven District Watchmen respectively and the following year the addition of a further five District Watchmen and a detective bought the total number to sixty-nine men. In 1895 four new posts of Assistant Head District Watchmen were created and by 1903 the Force had grown to eighty-two men including six Head District Watchmen.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214389, "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": 247, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "213\n\nWatchmen and six Assistant Head District Watchmen. In 1900 the Force became even more entwined with the Government when the latter, after several years of deliberation, finally granted a site for a Central Watch-house on the Taipingshan Resumption Area and promised a contribution of $1,000 towards the cost of its construction. Whilst this house was intended to accommodate the Watchmen of Districts 3, 4, 5 and 6, the premises were to include quarters for two European sergeants. When the building was completed in August 1902, far from being merely a house to accommodate the Watchmen, the quarters on the top floor were described as being 'sufficient for the accommodation of one married European Police Sergeant or for two unmarried Sergeants, who will be placed there by the Captain Superintendent of Police.' In 1903, two years earlier than anticipated by Mr A. M. Thomson, the allocation of an annual Government Grant of $2,000 was resumed and remained in force until 1936 when it was reduced to $100 p.a. because this was 'considered sufficient.'\n\nIn 1904 a further thirteen District Watchmen's posts were added and the reasons behind this increase illustrate, once again, the influence which the Hong Kong Government exerted over this force of supposedly private security men. According to the section of the Registrar General's Report of 1904 dealing with the performance of the District Watch Force, 'During the year 1904 the Force had been increased by thirteen men consequent on an understanding come to with the Government by which a piece of land in the Eastern part of the town was given as a site for a District Watchmen's House on condition that the number of the Force was increased.' Stripped of the convoluted language, this meant that the District Watch Committee had to agree to the employment of more Watchmen if they wanted the extra space. The cost of building the quarters in Stone Nullah Lane near Wanchai Market was to be $4,000 and a contract to that effect was drawn up. In the same annual report the Registrar General noted rather critically that the condition of the Force during the year was not quite satisfactory. Because of the difficulties in attracting and retaining good men, a pay rise was introduced in August 1904 which brought the pay scale into line with that of the Chinese Police. Problems concerning remuneration were nothing new. In April 1897 an allowance of $2 per month was awarded to each Watchman because of the high price of rice but even this was insufficient to entice good quality men into the Force during 1901. By 1908 the total number of personnel in the Force ex-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214391, "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": 249, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "215\n\nthy Murphy was seconded from the Police to take charge of the twenty-three detectives in the District Watch Force. The official report of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs for that year enthusiastically noted that 'His work at once had the effect of inspiring the men to greater energy and of fostering co-operation with the Regular detectives' and 'A marked improvement in this department may confidently be expected under the new system.' In 1919 Sergeant Murphy, a Cantonese speaker, had sixteen years experience in the Hong Kong Police. The following year Murphy was promoted to sub-Inspector but despite his promotion he remained with the District Watch Force until January 1922 by which time he had attained the rank of Inspector. Of course detectives had existed in the District Watch Force before 1918. As early as 1894 a single detective appeared in the Registrar General's Annual Report. In 1910 the annual bill for allowances to 'Chief District Watchmen and detectives' amounted to $514 but it was not until 1911 that detectives' wages were listed as a separate item amounting to $1,212.\n\nTroubled Times\n\nIn 1922 the colony reeled from the disruption caused by a massive seamen's strike which spread to involve Chinese men and women in other occupations including the Governor's own domestic servants. The Governor, Sir Reginald Stubbs, commissioned Mr A.G.M. Fletcher, CBE, to investigate the background of the strike and to determine why the intimidation tactics of the strikers had been so successful. The resulting report together with a long covering letter from the Governor were forwarded to the Secretary of State in mid-March 1922. Stubbs was highly critical of the leading members of the Chinese community including members of the District Watch Committee who, he claimed, had not been of the 'slightest use' in either 'calming the fears of the ignorant populace' or obtaining information which would have enabled the Government to deal with intimidation. It was Stubbs' opinion that the information departments of both the Police and the Secretary for Chinese Affairs should be 'drastically reorganized.'20 Fletcher had harsh words for the District Watchmen and considered them to be 'entirely useless' when it came to collecting information about the causes of intimidation since the Watchmen 'must have had the amplest evidence available.' Whilst agreeing with Fletcher in principle, Stubbs downplayed the deficiencies of the Watchmen citing their lowly status as a probable reason for their poor performance. Given the critical tone", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214392, "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": 250, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "216\n\nof these two documents, we might have expected a complete overhaul of the workings of the District Watch Committee and, indeed, the running of the Force itself. That these changes did not happen is due in no small part to differences in personalities at the top of the Hong Kong Government.\n\nIn late August 1922 Claud Severn, the Colonial Secretary who was also the Officer Administering the Colony, wrote to Winston Churchill regarding the remedial action taken by Government following the strike.22 The Acting Governor noted that an investigation into the running of the regular Police Force had found the calibre of some of the men working in the 'Chinese Police Force' to be decidedly wanting in the loyalty stakes. As a result of the inquiry a total of fifty Chinese sergeants, constables and detectives were either dismissed, ordered to retire, reduced in rank or otherwise censured. Severn noted that the situation regarding the District Watch Force was 'somewhat delicate' and one which he had discussed at length with the Secretary for Chinese Affairs. Both Severn and Edwin R. Hallifax, the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, recommended that, contrary to Governor Stubbs' proposal, no reorganization of the District Watch Force should be attempted. Severn stressed that any 'enquiry and action would necessarily be a matter for the [District Watch] Committee, which shows the greatest reluctance to carry the subject any further.'23 There can be no doubting the considerable power and influence exerted by the District Watch Committee at this time since the Acting Governor was worried that any 'action taken \"by order\" would certainly create unnecessary and serious trouble and might put an end to the Force, a result which is to be deprecated, since the District Watch Force is ordinarily of the greatest value to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs.' Without mentioning Timothy Murphy by name, Severn concluded his letter to the Secretary of State by noting that the District Watch Force was under the charge of ‘a very efficient Inspector of Police.' Thus, Stubbs' suggestion that the District Watch Force should be revamped was discarded. It would have been most informative to know how Governor Stubbs reacted to this news when he returned from leave on 18 November 1922 but unfortunately this was not recorded in accessible official documents.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214393, "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": 251, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "Closer Liaison with the Hong Kong Government \n\n217 \n\nIn the early 1920s, due ostensibly to the increase in population and rapid development of the colony, it was decided to increase the number of District Watchmen and also develop closer liaison with the regular police. During 1924 an additional twenty men were added to the establishment of the District Watch Force bringing it to 122. At the same time a police sergeant was detached from normal police work and placed in charge of the 'regular duties and non-detective members of the Force.' With the benefit of hindsight it is not unreasonable to suggest that the decision to develop more formal contact with the regular Police was due, at least in part, to decisions at the highest level to regulate the District Watch Force following the criticisms associated with its performance during the seaman's strike. However, despite this closer association with the Hong Kong Police, the official reports of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs continued to stress that the essential character of the District Watch Force had in no way been sacrificed.' A police officer of inspectorate rank continued to be in charge of the detective branch of the Force and continuity was achieved by having the same inspector as liaison officer. Still closer association with the regular Police Force occurred around 1922 when the District Watchmen started attending the Police Training School and were also armed. Since 1889 there had existed special provision under successive Arms and Ammunition ordinances for District Watchmen to be exempt from requiring licences in the same way as the Police and the Military. During 1925 some additional changes occurred within the Force with particular reference to their employment in Kowloon. Work commenced on new quarters in Yaumati at an estimated total cost of $25,000 and the Chinese shopkeepers in Yaumati and Mongkok were asked to contribute to the funds of the Force in the same way as their opposite numbers on Hong Kong island. This amounted to 1% of the rental and raised a total of $2,500 during the last three months of 1925. The image of the Force was the subject of discussion during early 1925 and its own members petitioned the Committee for a change in the 'archaic nature of the uniform' which the Watchmen believed was an impediment to younger men joining the Force. The fact that this petition was shelved until the return of the permanent Chairman illustrates the ultra-conservative nature of the Committee and, whilst the detective branch was praised in official reports, the Secretary for Chinese Affairs considered that 'the uniformed branch left much to be desired.' In the 1926 departmental...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214394, "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": 252, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "218\n\ntal Annual Report we read that 'Arrangements have now been defi-nitely made to alter the uniform to one of a more modern pattern.' The inclusion of the word 'definitely' suggests that this was a thorny issue and the change in the style of uniform had not met with universal approval from all members of the Committee.\n\nThe policy of having a police officer seconded to supervise the uniformed branch of the Force had been short-lived and the Annual report of 1926 deplored the lack of a police officer for this duty. It appears that in future years the police officer seconded to oversee the detective force was also expected to act as liaison officer between the Police and the entire District Watch Force. In November 1927 the control of the detective branch of the Force was taken over by sub-Inspector Kenneth Andrew who, like his predecessors, spoke fluent Cantonese and continued to be associated with the Force until June 1936. By the mid-1920s the number of men serving in the District Watch Force had reached 122 and their success in bringing cases to the Police Court continued to rise. In the years between the establishment of the District Watch Committee and the mid-1920s the number of arrests/convictions never exceeded 415 but we can see how this figure increased dramatically during the fifteen year period 1925-1937.\n\nArrests by District Watchmen 1925-1939\n\n \n Year\n Arrests\n \n \n 1925\n 371\n \n \n 1926\n 467\n \n \n 1927\n 606\n \n \n 1928\n 848\n \n \n 1929\n 737\n \n \n 1930\n 845\n \n \n 1931\n 867\n \n \n 1932\n 1,084\n \n \n 1933\n 1,274\n \n \n 1934\n 1,236\n \n \n 1935\n 1,322\n \n \n 1936\n 1,546\n \n \n 1937\n 2,067\n \n \n 1938\n 1,214\n \n \n 1939\n 1,228\n \n\nI corrected \"3937\" to \"1937\" as it appears to be a typo.\n\n becomes just the corrected text as per rule 12.\n\nThe final output is:\n218\n\ntal Annual Report we read that 'Arrangements have now been defi-nitely made to alter the uniform to one of a more modern pattern.' The inclusion of the word 'definitely' suggests that this was a thorny issue and the change in the style of uniform had not met with universal approval from all members of the Committee.\n\nThe policy of having a police officer seconded to supervise the uniformed branch of the Force had been short-lived and the Annual report of 1926 deplored the lack of a police officer for this duty. It appears that in future years the police officer seconded to oversee the detective force was also expected to act as liaison officer between the Police and the entire District Watch Force. In November 1927 the control of the detective branch of the Force was taken over by sub-Inspector Kenneth Andrew who, like his predecessors, spoke fluent Cantonese and continued to be associated with the Force until June 1936. By the mid-1920s the number of men serving in the District Watch Force had reached 122 and their success in bringing cases to the Police Court continued to rise. In the years between the establishment of the District Watch Committee and the mid-1920s the number of arrests/convictions never exceeded 415 but we can see how this figure increased dramatically during the fifteen year period 1925-1937.\n\nArrests by District Watchmen 1925-1939\n\n \n Year\n Arrests\n \n \n 1925\n 371\n \n \n 1926\n 467\n \n \n 1927\n 606\n \n \n 1928\n 848\n \n \n 1929\n 737\n \n \n 1930\n 845\n \n \n 1931\n 867\n \n \n 1932\n 1,084\n \n \n 1933\n 1,274\n \n \n 1934\n 1,236\n \n \n 1935\n 1,322\n \n \n 1936\n 1,546\n \n \n 1937\n 2,067\n \n \n 1938\n 1,214\n \n \n 1939\n 1,228", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214395, "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": 253, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "(Source: Annual reports of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs)\n\n219\n\nThe 1928 Annual Report of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs stressed that it was 'gratifying to note that close co-operation exists between the District Watch Force and the Police Force. This was certainly a considerable improvement from the situation which existed a mere decade earlier when District Watchmen had been specifically excluded from searching passengers who arrived at or left Hong Kong by ship.24\n\nIn 1930 a new Ordinance, No. 23 of 1930, was passed entitled the District Watch Ordinance and, although its provisions differed very little from Chapter IV of the 1888 'Regulation of the Chinese Ordinance,' it is useful to repeat the justification given by the Attorney General at the first reading of the new Bill since it illustrates the apparent high regard in which the Force was held at this time: 'It has been decided that this very valuable Force should have an Ordinance of its own and the name of the Committee had been changed from The District Watchmen's Committee to the District Watch Committee as more suitable and as preferred by the Committee themselves.'25 Only when the replacement Bill was read for a second time do we see that a new ordinance was a necessity since other parts of the \"Registration of the Chinese Ordinance' were considered to be of no further use in the interests of the Colony generally.' Along with the new ordinance, a new pay scale was introduced in 1930 and the establishment of the District Watch Force rose to 133 which enabled the patrols to extend to Shamshuipo.\n\nDuring the next few years more Watchmen were recruited and by 1934 the full strength of the Force was 140. Not only did they attend the Police Training School, they participated in revolver courses organised by the Police. 1933 was particularly glorious for the Force since every one of the 131 District Watchmen who took part in the revolver course passed.26 Although the District Watchmen had considerable success in bringing suspects of minor crimes to Court, they were much more than a duplicate Police Force, even though they did assist the Police in dealing with serious crimes such as the riots of 1894 and Communist infiltration in 1929. We have seen that as early as 1883 they were engaged in sanitary duties and in 1899 'during the outbreak of plague in the summer months 8 District Watchmen were employed on special duty at the Tung Wah Hospital.' In the censuses of 1896 and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214397, "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": 255, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "221\n\nthe 1866 Ordinance allowed them. The non-confrontational attitude identified in the pre-1920 Chinese merchant class by Ku Hung-ting,1 coupled with a pragmatic belief that half a bowl of rice is better than none, could also explain why the merchants were prepared to go along with the Government's decision. Whilst they would have preferred to have complete control over their security force and did not relish having their businesses scrutinized more than was already the case, a limited degree of control was preferable to none.\n\nThe 'hijacking' of the whole of the District Watch Force for three years 1883-85 to work on non-security sanitary duties following Osbert Chadwick's Sanitary Report has been discussed at length and this change in direction of the Force need only be mentioned again to emphasize the point that, whilst the Chinese merchants may have been paying for this Watch Force, the latter's duties could be, and were, decided by the colonial authorities. The fact that the Chinese merchants continued to fund this scheme during these years whilst the Government contributed a mere $1 per person per month illustrates the lack of a level playing field in this particular game between the colonial power and the local community. Although it is possible that some Chinese people in Hong Kong may have wanted improvements in their sanitary conditions, it is by no means certain that this number would have been substantial. Even if some Chinese residents placed great store on improved sanitary conditions, it is unlikely that the local merchants would have wanted this to be done at their expense particularly if this sanitary work stopped their security force from performing their duties.\n\nThe years following the creation of the District Watch Force showed how certain ultra-conservative factions within the European community would have preferred the District Watch Force to disappear or, failing that, at least be merged with the regular police. That this did not occur is a testament not only to the Chinese merchants who stood their ground but also to some of the first young Cadet officers who were more open-minded than their less enlightened colleagues. With the introduction of the 1888 ‘Registration of the Chinese Ordinance,' the establishment of the District Watch Committee in 1890-91 and the appointment of the Captain Superintendent of Police as a member of the District Watch Committee in 1894, Government influence became even more effective and continued to grow during the twentieth century. Furthermore, the addition of duties such as the house-to-house checks\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214398, "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": 256, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "222\n\nin 1913 under the Registration of Chinese Ordinance was a further example of Government's imposing its will on what was originally a private commercial concern. It is even possible that the reason for Government's introduction of the annual subsidy of $2,000 to augment the fees collected from the merchants was not entirely altruistic since this provided an additional area of Government control, albeit one which was camouflaged as generosity. What was awarded could also be taken away.\n\nHowever, it should not be thought that the District Watch Committee was a mere rubber stamp and exerted no influence of its own. We need only consider the correspondence between Claud Severn and the Home Government in 1922 to see how seriously, in later years, this Committee was regarded by seasoned Hong Kong administrators.\n\nAnother reason why the District Watch Force is important is because it provided a precedent. Some of the Chinese merchants, notably those who founded the Nam Pak Hong, undoubtedly used the District Watch Force as a blueprint for the establishment of the Nam Pak Hong's own security force in 1868. Cynics may say that civil servants cherish precedents since they provide an escape clause should things go wrong. Thus, it may be argued that the Hong Kong Government would have relished the precedent of official control over the District Watch force since this provided the Government with a ready-made vehicle for controlling the private security men who worked as detectives in the Tung Wah Hospital and the Po Leung Kuk.28 Finally, it must never be forgotten that the Hong Kong Government depended on the Chinese merchants for the prosperity of the colony. It was through their work and their taxes that Hong Kong flourished. The Government could not afford to alienate this group of people and it is possible that the need for their continued goodwill was considered by Governor MacDonnell when he agreed to the creation of the scheme in 1866.29", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 } ]