[ { "id": 204630, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 111, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "98\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\nrested with the senior members of the WONG Wai Chak Tong, as it does today. It controls the old defence bureau which is rented out and the proceeds added to the association's funds. Very little information is at present available concerning its history beyond the fact that it existed in the Ch'ing period*1 and that it had a close connection with the members of the Tong, who were its principal patrons and sponsors.\n\nTwo other instances of communal enterprise remain to be mentioned. There was, before the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, an organisation of local leaders known as the Kaifong##, which is now represented in most things by the Cheung Chau Rural Committee. The Kaifong had an informal constitution and its leaders were generally those persons who were already playing a leading part in the affairs of the four old district associations. The Kaifong had a general concern in Cheung Chau affairs whereas the district associations may be said, in the best sense, to have had a sectional interest.\n\nThe history of the Kaifong is less easy to trace than that of the associations, very likely because it was a less tangible body. However, it seems to have existed before 1898 because the land registers list a club house or kung soA which was described as public property. This must have been built and administered by somebody and the Kaifong is the most likely candidate. In the early part of this century the building probably housed a school and is known to have served as a headquarters for the town's watchmen.* These were both likely activities for a Kaifong, and it is probable that it ran these and other central services before the British lease. Presumably, too, it administered CHOI Leung's Fong Pin hospital, which the registers describe as an asylum* and as public property. But whilst I am satisfied that there was a Kaifong on the island before 1898 which organised various functions on behalf of the whole community, there is, as yet, no information as to the date of its origin, though there is one clue which takes its history back another twenty years at least.*2\n\nThis was the provision of what are still known, to-day, as kaifong junks or kai to*. These are cargo vessels which are managed by prominent persons for a group of financially interested", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205411, "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-1967", "page_number": 173, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "166\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nheld office for many years on the main advisory bodies representing the Chinese community in the Colony, including the District Watchmen's Committee, the Tung Wah Hospital Committee, the Chinese Public Dispensaries Committee and the Po Leung Kuk.15\n\nSir Show-son CHOW's son, Mr. CHOW Yat-kwong, J.P. has kindly given permission for members to visit the house in the New Village which contains the family's ancestral hall,\n\nIII. THE Hung Shing Temple And AP LEI CHAU\n\nThe Hung Shing Temple, The Hung Shing Temple at Ap Lei Chau, judging by the temple bell, dates from the 18th century.16 It appears to have been enlarged in 1847 and some wall-tablets show that it was given a major repair in 1888. The present building dates from that time or earlier. Its origin is uncertain because it is not clear who built it in the first instance. Records show that the Ap Li Chau land population was \"no more than two or three families of Hakka grass cutters\" before 1841, so that we must look elsewhere for the builders. It could have only been built and supported by the joint efforts of the local (i.e. Aberdeen) land people and boat population. The former only amounted to a few hundreds before the British came, but the boat population was probably as considerable before 1841 as after, e.g. 415 boats and 2,243 persons at the 1856 census18 and 424 boats and 4,130 persons in 1866.19\n\nThe temple is interesting in that it has old-style flagpoles still standing in front of the building. Old prints frequently show this kind of pole; but though a few bases can still be seen nowadays in Hong Kong, Macau and the New Territories these could be the only ones left with the poles and their basket-like tops still in place.\n\nAp Lei Chau before 1911. The present land settlement on Ap Lei Chau was founded in the early decades of British rule. By the mid-1860's there were 60 houses there, which implies that several hundred residents were living on the island at that time.20 By 1897 the number of residents was 1,123 rising to 1,437 at the Colony Census of 1911.21 This population gained its livelihood to a great extent from concerns directly associated with the fishing industry, such as boat-building yards, ship chandlers and rope and sail works, and from provision shops and general stores that also catered for the fishermen's daily needs.22 There was very", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "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": 206285, "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": 102, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "96\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nWong Shing, newspaper editor and manager of the London Mission press; and Cheung Achew, a wealthy carpenter.29 The Rev. Ho Fuk Tong and his family lived at the nearby compound of the London Mission Society. In time this area around Peel, Graham, Gage Streets and Hollywood Road became a centre for Parsee and Indian merchants, as well as European brothels. Some of the old families stayed on, but the opening up of the area bounded by Wyndham, Wellington and Pottinger Streets by the Dents provided a needed location for the houses of the better Chinese. After the Peak was developed in the 1870s and 1880s, the wealthy Chinese moved up to Mid-levels occupying the mansions of the Europeans who moved to the Peak.\n\nOf the individuals who had their family residence in the former Middle Bazaar area were two who were on the organizing committee of Tung Wah Hospital, Wong Shing and Ho Asek alias Ho Fai Yin #alias Ho In Kee. Ho Asek first appears in Hong Kong records in 1849 when he purchased a lot in Tai Ping Shan. At the time he was compradore of the opium firm of Lyall, Still and Company. It failed in 1867 and Ho Asek embarked upon his own business ventures under the firm name of Kin Nam. According to a newspaper account, he was subject to a $2,000 “squeeze” from the mandarins during the second Sino-British War.30 He traded extensively in opium as well as rice, and in 1871 held the gambling monopoly from which within a year he realized a $28,000 profit. In an action brought against him in 1871, he testified that he operated with a capital of $200,000.31 In 1868 two of his employees were brought before the court on a charge of extortion. In the evidence presented it was stated that about September 1866, some influential Chinese started a system of subscription or unofficial taxation to support district watchmen. The city had been divided into two sections, East and West. The West District was superintended by Tam Achoy and Ho Asek, \"a most respectable and honest trader”. A shopkeeper resisted the pressure put upon him to contribute and brought the charge of extortion against two of Asek's employees who had been collecting for the scheme. The court gave judgment in favour of the defendants.32 Ho Asek was still a member of the Kai Fong Committee in 1872. He died in Pang Po (likely Ping Po+), Shun Tak District in 1877. His wife was granted letters of administration on his estate, but she being blind, gave her power", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206306, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 123, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "A\n\n# THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n117\n\nquarrymen a lawless and potentially dangerous class of people. But Chinese on Hong Kong Island, like their fellow countrymen in Hsin-an hsien (a county which then comprised the future British Kowloon Peninsula and New Territories) formed a socially well-organised community, knit together by ties of family and kinship and involved, apart from the boat people, in wider forms of social organisation such as the clan and the lineage3. They were constrained by the type of in-built social controls found typically in any rural Chinese community. On the other hand, immigrant Chinese arriving after 1842, who came mostly from Canton and the delta counties, formed a purely urban population, lacking roots and sentiments of belonging: they had necessarily few attachments at first to their new area of residence. Congregated in the mushrooming city of Victoria and soon outnumbering the old, established Chinese population of the island, they were not subject to any in-built system of social control. The new population of urban Chinese from Kwangtung Province, like newly arrived Europeans, were faced with the problem of maintaining public order and protecting their families and properties. The better-off Chinese merchants and traders were soon compelled to employ their own guards and some householders and shopkeepers engaged their own street watchmen, either paid for by the individual householder or collectively by subscription.\n\nBy the 1850s Hong Kong Chinese had developed not only their own associations, such as Kaifong, but even a rudimentary system of self-government, if the evidence is to be believed. A note in the China Review claims, for example, that in 1851 the shopkeepers of Sheung Wan (i.e., the area of the Chinese 'Bazaar', west of the European central district) 'repaired the Man-mo Temple, elected a Committee, and therein afterwards decided all cases of any public interest5'. The same writer also claims that in 1857 'the U-lan-shing-ui (a sworn mutual aid association) united Tai-ping-shan, Sai-ying-pun, Sheung-wan and Chung-wan under one public committee, and these four districts were called the Sz-wan or four circuits'. Eitel states (but cites no authority) that around 1851 the Committee of the Man Mo Temple 'now rose into eminence as a sort of unrecognised and unofficial local-government board (principally made up by Nampak-hong or export merchants). This Committee secretly controlled native affairs, acted as commercial arbitrators, arranged for the due", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 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": 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": 206320, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "The District Watch Committee \n\n131 \n\ntoo sharply between them all. High government officials, such as the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and the Colonial Secretary, were likely to meet this cluster of Chinese constantly, if not at formal meetings, then socially, ceremonially, ritually. It follows that before the war Hong Kong had an oligarchical political structure in that a small number of entrenched and established Chinese shared political control over a largely immigrant and migratory population together with a small number of officials and taipans.\n\nThe pre-war European community in Hong Kong had no official committees of its own, although Europeans tended to predominate on certain committees such as the Labour Advisory Board and the Licensing Board60. Thus Europeans lacked the equivalent of the eleven officially recognised all-Chinese committees, the names of which were enshrined annually in the Civil Service List. The government felt no need either to sponsor or promote a system of counter-balancing European committees because of course the administration was controlled at the top by European colonial civil servants and only a few thousand Europeans were resident in Hong Kong.\n\nBut it is of some significance that in the face of growing Chinese working-class intransigence in the 1920s, illustrated by the spate of strikes, beginning with the mechanics' strike of 1920 (the first major industrial strike in Hong Kong) and culminating with the great strike and boycott of 1925-26, Europeans set up their own 'district' associations. The Kowloon Residents' Association was formed in 1922 and the Peak dwellers, the leading European residents, formed theirs a little later in the same year like the European residents on Cheung Chau, a favourite summer station with missionaries; and in 1925 the Mid Levels residents also formed an association. None, understandably, was given statutory or official recognition by government. Such associations were unnecessary for the District Watch Committee was hyper-active during these turbulent years and as keen to protect the European minority and thus help sustain the economy as were Europeans themselves. The Committee worked hard to bring the general strike and boycott to an end by mediation with strike leaders and holding talks with interested parties in Hong Kong and Canton, the strikers' base; and the District Watchmen were active in preventing intimidation of shopkeepers, fokis, artisans", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 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": 206517, "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": 65, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART\n\n59\n\nent Chinese he was largely instrumental in reorganizing the District Watchmen Force (a body of watchmen paid for by voluntary subscriptions from the Chinese community) and he obtained the appointment of twelve leading Chinese gentlemen as a supervising committee; he remodelled the Po Leung Kuk (a voluntary association concerned with the welfare of girls and young women); and he helped in the reformation of the Tung Wah Hospital and strengthened its committee of management.11 He was active, then, in setting up a number of official Chinese committees, linked to government through their special relationship with the Registrar General's Department, of which he was head. The Registrar General in all cases was ex officio chairman of the committees.\n\nLockhart's views on the importance of the Chinese element in the population are to be found in a trenchant report he submitted in 1894 to the Governor, Sir William Robinson, 'on the subject of a petition addressed to the House of Commons praying for an amendment of the Constitution of the Crown Colony of Hong Kong.' This petition from Hong Kong taxpayers to the House of Commons owed its origin principally to the imposition upon the taxpayers in 1891 of an additional military contribution of £20,000 a year, a decision that irritated and excited particularly the European business community. In 1894 T.H. Whitehead,13 Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council and leader of the business faction, was granted six months' leave of absence from the Council and he took with him to England a petition signed by 363 members of the community — (in Lockhart's words) ‘284 British, 10 Anglo-Chinese, 3 American, 4 Portuguese, and 47 British Indians.' The petitioners sought the election of representatives of British nationality in the Legislative Council; freedom of debate for the Official members with power to vote as they desired; complete control in the Council over local expenditure; the management of local affairs; and a consultative voice in questions of an Imperial character.\n\nWith great dialectical skill Lockhart took the petition to bits and exposed the vacuity of its arguments. In his memorandum to the Governor he averred: 'Most of the taxes fall almost entirely on the Chinese. The only tax to which the British and other residents as a whole are subject in the same manner as the Chinese is the tax of 13 per cent levied on the rateable value of house", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207900, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 288, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n273 \n\njudging a Chinaman's respectability. Hence it regards the Committee as a mouth piece of the people\". However, rabid critics of the Committee in the foreign population claimed membership on the Committee did not necessarily confer respectability or responsibility. It was claimed that \"it is undignified on the part of the Government to treat with the often illiterate managers of a Hospital fund as if they possessed official powers over their fellow countrymen\". (C.M. Dec. 3, 1875). The Governor Sir Arthur Kennedy was charged with extending to \"men whose positions were of the humblest nature, a sort of patronage which vastly inflated their self-conceit.\" (C.M. Nov. 8, 1875). \n\nThese criticisms, however, in no way affected the prestige status given to the Tung Wah Directors by the Chinese community. It recognized the men it elected as those who had fulfilled the achievement standards accepted by the community, \n\nIn time the exclusive prestige value of the Committee was diminished by Government appointment of Chinese representatives on the Legislative Council and the reorganization of the District Watchmen's Committee into a status group. See H.J. Lethbridge, \"The District Watch Committee: \"The Chinese Executive Council of Hong Kong'\", JHKBRAS 11 (1971), pp. 116-141. \n\nThe Tung Wah Committee became responsible on behalf of the Chinese Community for being host to visiting Chinese high officials. A number of the Directors had themselves acquired an imperial degree and hence were of a sufficiently elevated rank to mix socially with their guests. Several of the Directors later entered Chinese government service holding office in the diplomatic corps. \n\nYou will note in some of the museum's old photographs of the Tung Wah functions and in the reproduction of the pictures of the first Committee members that some are dressed in Mandarin costume, wearing the feathers and buttons of the appropriate degree. These they had purchased rather than earned through the literary examination system. Sometime the degree was awarded in recognition of some particularly generous contribution for the welfare of the people of China. Whatever the reason for the degree its recipient was given social deference. Those who had acquired such honours conferred status upon the Tung Wah Committee as a group. \n\nThough in Hong Kong today the Tung Wah Hospital Directorship is not so exclusively the status group of the Chinese community, it is still recognized as a mark of achievement to be sought after.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209384, "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-1982", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "19\n\nwelfare director, one women's section director, and adds two new subcommittees, one sanitation director and one football instructor. The same kinds of subcommittees are found in an additional three committees (those for Blocks #16, #19, and #23) but Block #19 has two additional categories of junior police call (three members) and security (nine members), and Block #16 adds that of hygiene. Block #17's MAC has recently formed subcommittees for recreation, general affairs, women's section, and public relations.\n\nWhat do these committees do? Are there any differences with the subcommittee descriptions given earlier? Take, for example, the recreation subcommittee. The MACs of Lok Fu Estate may participate in two kinds of recreational activities, those organized through the District Office and planned for the estate as a whole and those organized by the block itself. The latter are much less common, as many committees do not have enough enthusiastic members to do the organizing nor do they have sufficient funds to pay for the expenses. Picnics are popular in the summer and fall, however, and the residents of many blocks are enthusiastic about outings to local temples to eat vegetarian food. One committee provides summer activities for its resident young people (such as camping trips, chess playing sessions, and table tennis) and a few committees have obtained basketballs and footballs for residents to use. The women's section subcommittee of one block's MAC provides a special service by seeing to the needs of old women living in the block. For example, it helps to pay the electricity bills for those in need and gives general assistance to these older women. The functions of the other subcommittees are generally the same as described.\n\nOne special subcommittee, that for security, is characteristic only of public housing estate Mutual Aid Committees. There, multiple entrances and exits make security a problem. It is true enough that private housing units also have security problems, often serious ones, but in my experience they rarely have patrol teams, relying instead on gates, an occasional watchman or two, or a company-hired professional security team. In the public housing estates, the security subcommittee is usually the one responsible for the neighbourhood security patrols, the regularly-rotating groups of committee members and residents who patrol", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209385, "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-1982", "page_number": 42, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "20\n\nJANET LEE SCOTT\n\nthe halls and the entrances of the blocks, watching for intruders and generally keeping an eye on the safety of the building. The majority of public housing estates have set up some kinds of patrol, or have had patrols in the past until the setting up of gates made them unnecessary (Scott 1980:38). While these neighbourhood security patrols are extremely common in other estates, there are very few at Lok Fu.\n\nWhy is this? There are a number of possible reasons, beginning with the smaller size of these blocks. Lok Fu Estate is designed on the older Mark I and Mark II structural designs which accommodate fewer people to start with, and recently, a number of blocks have been losing residents to newer estates elsewhere, or to home ownership schemes. In addition, the conversion of many blocks has meant fewer units, and therefore, fewer resident families. Fewer residents suggests fewer problems to many people, and so residents of some blocks do not see the need for a patrol. In addition, the H-shape of the Mark II blocks with outside balconies makes it easier to spot intruders, and makes residents feel safer. It should also be remembered that Lok Fu Estate has a Neighbourhood Police Unit in Block #13, and all the MAC officers are acquainted with its director. In fact, all the chairmen but one stressed again and again how safe and peaceful life was in the blocks. Another reason, one probably more to the point, is that residents of most blocks are simply no longer enthusiastic about patrolling, and they are not willing to give money to pay for the service, even if earlier in the committee's history they had supported such a team. The result has been half-hearted attempts to form patrols, and numerous failures.\n\nFor example, one committee had planned to establish a patrol team, but both interest and funds were insufficient to support it. Committee officers then decided that it would be more effective to hire a watchman for the front gate, but residents would not give money for that either, so up to now nothing has been accomplished. A similar lack of funds (and authority) prevented another committee from starting a patrol team. \"The MAC organizations were mainly set up in 1973, assisted by the City District Office, because public order was very bad at that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209649, "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-1982", "page_number": 306, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "284\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nsympathy of all right-thinking Chinese who have not been slow to express their profound abhorrence of the action'. This was certainly true of the Chinese elite. A deputation of forty leading Chinese, including Legislative Councillors, the Director of the Tung Wah Hospital and members of the Committee of the Po Leung Kuk and the District Watchmen's Committee, waited on the Governor two days after the crime to testify to the loyalty of the community and their profound horror at the outrage.\n\nThere is little evidence to show how far such sentiments were widely shared by the rest of society. The only surviving Chinese newspaper made no comment and did not even carry a report of the incident.10 The police intercepted a letter from the landlady of the place where Li had been living in which she mentioned casually that her lodger had fired at the Governor 'and most unfortunately missed him'. At least one man saw a good omen in the affair; an Indian shopkeeper when told the news reportedly smiled and said, “Very good joss. That means there will be prosperity for Hong Kong.”\n\nAny deterrent effect of the sentence passed on Li did not last for long. Four months later the Hong Kong government made a further attempt to outlaw the use of coins minted in Canton by persuading the Tramway company to refuse to accept them. Agitators convinced the public that this was an insult to the new Republican government and a boycott of the tramway began in November, accompanied by widespread intimidation and violence directed against those using the trams and Europeans in general. In December the emergency powers under the Peace Preservation Ordinance were once again brought into force by proclamation.12\n\nOn\n\nLi Hon Hing only served six years of his life sentence.13 On 18 June 1918 Sir Henry May informed the Executive Council that he proposed to pardon the prisoner and order his release from prison. No reason is given in the Minutes of the Council for this act of clemency.19\n\nN. J. MINERS", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "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": 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": 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": 214403, "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": 261, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "13 \n\n227 \n\nControl', Yeoh describes in detail how, in the late 1880s, the Chinese population in Singapore hindered the advance of Western sanitary methods by refusing to comply with the many regulations introduced by the Municipal Branch. ibid., pp. 119-125.\n\nGovernment Notification No.223, HKGG, 23 June 1883, pp.538-544.\n\n14 Yeoh, op. cit., p.110.\n\nElizabeth Sinn, Power and Charity: The Early History of the Tung Wah Hospital, (Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1989), p.152.\n\n16 Registrar General's Report for 1891, Hongkong Government Legislative Council Sessional Papers, No.19/92, p.241. Henceforth HKGLCSP.\n\n17 Ibid., p.257.\n\n18 Colonial Estimates for 1870-1873, (Hong Kong, Noronha), Miscellaneous expenditure.\n\n19 \"The matter is important enough for the District Watch Committee to have authorised the extension of their system of watchmen by opening a new station in Kowloon.' Hongkong Hansard, 9 October 1913, p.71.\n\n20 Stubbs to Churchill, 18 March 1922: CO129/474, p.221.\n\n21 Ibid., (enclosure).\n\n22 Between 1912 and 1925 Claud Severn administered the colony on ten separate occasions during the absence of Governors Sir Francis May and Sir Reginald Stubbs. Hong Kong Civil Service List for 1935, pp.46-47.\n\n23 Severn to Churchill, 22 August 1922: CO129/476, p.96-98.\n\n24 E.R. Hallifax, C.Mcl. Messer and R.O. Hutchison, 'Report on the searching of passengers on arrival at and departure from Hongkong', 17 March 1917, HKGLCSP, No.8/17, p.44.\n\n25 Hong Kong Hansard, 6 November 1930, p.235.\n\n26 Police Report for 1933, Administrative Reports for 1933, p.K12. It was not only", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 } ]