[ { "id": 207039, "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-1974", "page_number": 110, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "104\n\nMICHAEL SMITHIES\n\nhome of the Lao royal family and the small royal palace at the foot of the Phu Si or central hill sets the modest tone of the town. Its temples are so numerous that it would be impossible to detail each one, and unrewarding, for many are extremely simple, testimonies to the faith of an unaffected and devout people.\n\nThe most splendid is undoubtedly Vat Xieng Tong, originally approached from the Mekong river up a broad stairway. It is the largest temple in area and the compound has a number of interesting buildings; the vihara has high curving roofs coming down very low to the sides and surmounted by an elegant dort xoi fa (flowers pointing to heaven), the many-pronged symbol of the universe, each point tipped with a tiered parasol, that is to be found on nearly every Lao temple roof. The carved portico is striking and the inside of sober simplicity; the altar has a large antique Lao Buddha statue and the ceiling is coffered and painted. The runnels with decorative dragon-head spouts used in ordination ceremonies are kept in many temples in Luang Prabang and there is a good example in Vat Xieng Tong. At the back of the altar, on the outside wall, is a mosaic representing the tree of life, and nearby a small chapel to a Lao hero, Sri Sawai, is entirely covered with charming mosaics on a red background. There are a number of other chapels in the grounds, as well as a small building for a prayer drum. The most opulent of these is undoubtedly the building containing the royal funeral carriages; the carving and gilding is almost overwhelming on the outside, and if the inside of the building is simple, the objects it contains are not; the royal funeral carriages are masterpieces of carving which, until the present king changed the tradition of burning them after the cremation of the monarch they had borne, used to disappear without trace.\n\nAlong the main street going towards the Phu Si is Vat Sene, with a three-tiered roof in the Lao style. The entrance is elegant and raised on octagonal columns and the walls are decorated gold on a red background. Nearby is Vat Pak Khe, one of the most unusual temples in Luang Prabang, with Siamese style frescoes inside and on one of the entrances are supposed to be represented Dutchmen and on a window Venetians. Certainly the objects of the panel carver's attention are European and the style of the dress dates from two to three centuries before the founding of the temple in 1861. Father de Leria visited Vientiane between 1642 and 1647 and his information is recorded in Father Filippo de Marini's book", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207473, "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-1975", "page_number": 241, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n233\n\nMail for prisoners came in well by our standards in 1944, and the record was established in a Red Cross message dated January 1944 to a man from his wife in Australia which he received in May. At the other extreme one letter from a wife in Stanley Civil Internment Camp and dated 4 September 1944 addressed to her husband was delivered in Bowen Road at the end of October 1944. The husband died in our hospital on 27 October 1943 and of course his death had been reported at once to the Japanese. All in hospital were now allowed fifty words on their outgoing cards irrespective of destination once a month. In October 1944 six of our patients and staff handed in through me forty-word messages to their families on the offer that these would be broadcast by the Japanese. Replies were invited. These messages were returned to me as lacking in drama. The contents were, like all such messages devoted to personal and family affairs and could be of no possible interest to anyone except the recipient. I never heard that any messages submitted for broadcasting were received at home.\n\nSeveral times during 1944 I re-classified for Saito all our patients under certain heads; first there were those fit to return to camp; next came those with visual defects, the result of dietary deficiencies but generally physically fit; the third showed patients unfit for military service by reason of age, wounds etc. Those not included in the lists were under treatment with a reasonable prospect of restoration to fitness for camp, fitness for camp being judged in all cases as being unlikely to come to harm by such a move. The first category of patients, numbering fourteen were having no treatment and needed special accommodation only; in the second case we advised that patients could go to camp into special accommodation so long as they received eight mg thiamine by injection every second day and were seen by our ophthalmologist every two months (we had produced this list with great care some months earlier). In the third category there were 94 names including 24 Canadians, Portuguese and 1 Dutchman. A series of drafts left hospital for camps and our staff was likewise reduced by 10 R.A.M.C. and R.A.D.C. in April. Japanese policy became clear when on 19 November 1944 Saito notified me of their intention to reduce the total of patients and staff in Bowen Road to 200, and a final draft of 9 staff and 46 patients left for camp on 22 November.\n\nOur men were better adjusted to their diets, but some of those admitted from camp were showing serious signs of undernourishment.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210794, "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-1986", "page_number": 145, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "128\n\nD.L. MICHALK\n\n1940 and 1941. Troops trained on Hainan included part of the 18th Division which was later landed at Kota Bharu and which pushed southward along the Malayan east coast, the 5th Division which was landed at Singora and Patani in Thailand, the Guards Division which was lent to the XV Japanese Army for the early part of the invasion of Thailand and Burma, and then reverted to the XXV Army to support the advance of the 5th Division (Wigmore, 1957). In fact, the 5th Division was shipped in troops transports from San Ya in December, 1941, to the Thai peninsula (Wigmore, 1957).\n\nAnother attraction for the invaders was the rich mineral resources of the island. Industrialists quickly developed a large, open-cut mine at Shi Lu Shan to provide the much-needed iron ore for the Japanese war effort. This necessitated construction of ports at Ba Suo and Yu Lin, and a railway link to transport the annual ore production of 2 million tonnes to these ports. To achieve the development targets demanded by Tokyo, Chinese were indentured and mustered into work-camps. Later Australian and Dutch soldiers captured in Indonesia were transported to a camp at Ba Suo to help with the work (Wigmore, 1957).\n\nA total of 267 Australians from the 2/21st Australian Infantry Battalion (or Gull Force as it was known) and 233 Dutchmen captured at Ambon were transported in the \"Taiko Maru\" to Hainan, arriving at Ba Suo in October, 1942. Conditions at the camp were harsh, and only 110 Australians remained when liberated by American forces on August 26, 1945. The opening of Hainan to foreign tourists enabled ten former Australian prisoners to return to Hainan in 1985 specifically to seek information on the fate of ten Australians who escaped from the camp and joined Communist forces in guerilla campaigns against the Japanese army (Nelson, 1985).\n\nLiberation and isolation\n\nAfter the defeat of the Japanese, the KMT regained control of the island, and when Chiang Kai-shek retreated from the mainland to Taiwan more than 100,000 of his loyal soldiers fled to Hainan. This meant that although the \"People's Republic\" was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211885, "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-1989", "page_number": 300, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "275\n\ntossing about. Great blame is therefore due to those who saw it for not describing what they saw, and to those who ought to have been on the lookout for not seeing it.\n\nJust before dark we saw another ship in the distance, quite disabled, or rather nearly so, and laid to. We steered close under her stern, and found the crew all right, and preparing to set her to rights. She was a Dutchman from Cape Town, bound for Batavia, Every sail in her was blown to rags and gone, except two spankers which helped to keep her steady. Yet she laboured fearfully. Instead of being thankful that we were not so badly off, the captain kept laughing at the poor fellows, and saying how mortified they must feel to see us going on so well under the circumstances.\n\nOn Sunday as they were clearing the wreck away, a lot of the upper rigging fell on the new yard that had been put up, and snapped it off as clean as possible, to add to our troubles. I expected no other, and am only surprised it did not give way during the storm. It will take two days to \"scarf\" the pieces together and put it up again, and even then it may not stand.\n\nI do not know how long it will be now before our journey will end. I am almost disheartened about it. Three months gone, and not yet got to St Paul's Island or Amsterdam, in the Indian Ocean. As to you ever hearing from me again, it seems out of the question altogether. This storm will have put us by very considerably and no mistake. I dare say you all very much wonder you have not heard before, but I have only this consolation, that it is not my fault. I am continually thinking of home, and picturing in my mind all the pleasures of the country in May and June, while here I am tossed on the ocean, in the depth of winter, where the cold is enough to freeze anybody, with everything damp and cold. No more going round the Cape for me while my name is John Fryer, if I can avoid it. It is worth a pound a day to put up with all the inconveniences, and were it not for the thought of what I am going to do, I could not endure it at all. It is now dinner time, three o'clock, so I must now stop.\n\nThursday, June 6th\n\nSince my last entry our circumstances have been much on the improve. Yesterday we got the topsail yard up, and the sail bent. The old yard\n\nPage 300\n\nPage 301", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211895, "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-1989", "page_number": 310, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "285\n\nJuly 17th\n\nOnce more on board ship and seated at the cabin table, I am endeavouring to recall to mind a few reminiscences of Batavia, which I trust may prove interesting to all who read them. I will begin where I left off, and tell you that the sea being rather rough, we got a good drenching before reaching the shore in the boat. I had on my light suit which I had up to that time worn but little. The sea water has done it but very little injury. In fact it was so hot that long enough before we reached the town it was dry throughout.\n\nIn we pulled, among the crowd of shipping, and at last reached the entrance of the Canash. This is a canal about two miles long, reaching from the town to the sea. It was full of small ships and boats. As we neared the lower town, the sides were covered with green trees and bushes. I really felt quite like a prisoner released after a long confinement, and it was a treat to hear the birds sing once more.\n\nWe passed the Dutch fortifications, and then stopped at the custom house, where our effects were taken note of, and we were allowed to enter the town. They are very strict as to who they let into the town, as we could easily see, for we were well overhauled.\n\nWe went a short way along the road till we came to a Dutch store, where the captain went in and we stayed a short time. We there met the captain of the ship which we passed the day after the storm. He had been in some days, and that rather vexed our captain. He was a smart little Dutchman, and quite the gentleman. I had a few minutes chat with him.\n\nThen we took a carriage and went up into the town. The carriages are like an English Chaise, and only room for two. Of course they are open, and have an open place behind so as to have a cool breeze right through. The horses are all about the size of very small donkeys, and as thin as possible. There are two to every carriage, and they can hardly move along. You cannot hire one for less than three and a half rupees, or 5/10; but you can keep it for six hours for the money. The drivers are Malays, and wear the \"basin\" kind of hat I spoke of before. They have to keep the whip constantly going.\n\nWe drove through the town which in the European parts is very neat", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214965, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 61, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "PROUDFOOT, W.J.: Notes from Biographical Memoir of James Dinwiddie, LL.D, embracing his account of travels in China as a member of Macartney's Embassy, Edward Howell, Liverpool, 1886.\n\nWALEY, A.: The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes, Allen and Unwin, London, 1958.\n\nWONG, J.Y.: Deadly Dreams: Opium and the Arrow War (1856-1860) in China, Cambridge University Press, 1998.\n\nWOODWARD, N.H.: Teas of the World, Collier Macmillan, London, 1980.\n\nThis paper was presented at the \"International Conference on Lin Zexu, the Opium War and Hong Kong,” held at the Hong Kong Museum of History in December 1998.\n\nAmong his many other accomplishments, Dr. S. M. Bard, OBE, ED, is also a historian.\n\nHis published works include the following: In Search of the Past: A Guide to the Antiquities of Hong Kong (Urban Council Hong Kong 1988); Traders of Hong Kong: Some Foreign Merchant Houses, 1841-1899 (Urban Council Hong Kong 1993); and Garrison Memorials in Hong Kong: Some Graves and Monuments at Happy Valley (Antiquities and Monuments Office, Hong Kong: Occasional Paper No. 4, 1997).\n\nSome scholars prefer to divide the Wars into the Opium War, 1839-1842, and the Arrow War, 1856-1860.\n\n* A Dutchman, Dr Cornelius Decker, advocated 40-50 cups a day.\n\nPortuguese Princess Catherine is credited with introducing tea to Britain when she married King Charles II.\n\nA story is told of German Radio, during the 2nd World War, which announced that due to shortage of tea in Britain, the British were ready to sue for peace, not having access to their 5-o'clock tea. It only served to amuse the British, for the Germans got the time wrong!", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 } ]