[ { "id": 207334, "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": 102, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "94 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nemployment; but few stayed with the department. Most took to their gypsy life again, once they had accumulated a few dollars, and left for either Shanghai or Singapore, or simply went to earth in Tai Ping Shan or Wan Chai until disinterred by the police, always on the look out for European destitutes. \n\nThere were always some troops on garrison duty in the colony or manning the various fortifications designed to repel a seaborne invasion. The garrison normally was small and numbered usually less than 1,500 men. But numbers fluctuated markedly at times. In March 1860, for example, over 14,000 troops (10,000 British and 4,000 French) were being drilled in a vast tented camp on two square miles of the Kowloon peninsula, leased from the Viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, and awaiting transportation to the theatre of operations in the north. A witness of these events wrote that 'the streets of Victoria were thronged by soldiers and sailors; commissaries and staff officers were to be seen everywhere; all as busy as mortals could be'.7 \n\nIt was a policy of the government and the military to keep troops if possible out of European Victoria—the central commercial district—and to confine their debaucheries to special areas of the colony. Thus five brothels were specially opened at Wan Chai in the 1850s when soldiers at that time were prohibited by their officers from entering the central districts of the city. For soldiers on outpost duties access to Victoria was difficult in any case: \n\nGarrison life at these outposts is usually melancholy; society is impossible, as the fortifications are eight miles by water from the city, and communication over the mountains is arduous. It is not a question of which is the better of the two, but which the worse, to be of the British Garrison Artillery or the Chinese Lighthouse Service.& \n\nThere were usually more sailors than soldiers ashore in Hong Kong, or afloat in the harbour, at certain times of the year. During the three winter months, the British China squadron was stationed in Hong Kong; in summer most naval vessels left Hong Kong for the north and other stations. The large number of sailors, who at times outnumbered the civilian European population, was supplemented by merchant seamen of many nationalities; for by the 1890s Hong Kong had become, after London, Liverpool, and Port Said, the fourth largest port in the world in terms of seagoing tonnage", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207353, "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": 121, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "THE EMPLOYMENT OF FOREIGN MILITARY TALENT: \n\nCHINESE TRADITION AND LATE CH'ING PRACTICE \n\nRICHARD J. SMITH* \n\nDespite China's persistent and often pronounced Sinocentrism, and her general distrust of aliens in the interior, the theoretically self-sufficient Middle Kingdom in practice had to make almost continual use of foreign military talents. This was true not only of conquest dynasties and periods when martial values were disesteemed.2 The expansive Chinese dynasties of Han and T'ang also employed barbarians in a great number of civil and military capacities. It has been estimated, for example, that at times more than half of the T'ang military posts were held by men of foreign origin.3 So pronounced was Tang Wu-tsung's appreciation for foreign administrative and military talents that he commissioned his minister, Li Te-yü, to compile the biographies of thirty foreigners from Ch'in to T'ang times who had rendered \"meritorious and loyal\" service to China. This two chuan work, no longer extant, bore the title I-yü kuei-chung chuan (Biographies of Foreigners Who Returned to Loyalty), emphasizing the idea that it was natural for outsiders to come to the fold of Chinese culture and offer their submission and service to the Middle Kingdom.4 \n\nWe do not know who the thirty individuals who \"left [their] distant lands and returned to China\" were, but there are several likely candidates. By looking briefly at a few representative foreigners in the Chinese military service, and examining the foreword to the I-yü kuei-chung chüan (preserved in Li Te-yu's collected works) and other evidence, we may gain some idea of the theory behind employing barbarian officers, as well as the circumstances under which they were engaged, the standards by which their loyalty was judged, and the means by which they were controlled. Such a survey provides the necessary backdrop for a discussion of Chinese policy toward foreign employees in the late Ch'ing period, when China faced unprecedented challenges both within and without.5 \n\nAlthough by 1860 at least a few Chinese had come to see that China was entering a new stage in her foreign relations, Chinese \n\n* Dr. Smith is Assistant Professor of History, Rice University, Houston, Texas.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208592, "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-1979", "page_number": 49, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "223\n\nLUKE KWONG\n\npunctuated by periodic transfers from port to port, station to station, and they still recalled memorable events and personalities they encountered on their various postings. What follows is a summary of the more notable points that emerged during the interviews. It might be noted that the dialect used on these occasions was Cantonese, the interviewees being all from the Canton area in Kwangtung. Yet, these elderly gentlemen's flair for English expressions was given ample opportunity to manifest itself.\n\nIndeed, knowledge of the English language was, in those days, an essential requirement for any Chinese who wanted to join the Customs' clerical staff. In view of the Service's cosmopolitan character, illustrated by its multi-national personnel composition, this emphasis on an international language seemed only fitting. Facilities for learning English in early twentieth-century China, though limited, were nevertheless available. Despite their somewhat disparate educational background, somewhere in their early training the interviewees had all studied the language. One learned it for two and a half years at a school in Tientsin. Another attended St. Francis Xavier's College in Shanghai, where English was an instruction language. The third actually graduated from the Customs College in Peking, where students were required to attain a certain proficiency in a second foreign language, English being counted as their first (consequently, he knows French, as well). Invariably, they had had to demonstrate a sufficient mastery of English before entering the Service in 1910, 1917 and 1919, respectively.\n\nCompetition for Customs positions was always keen. For a post with the Customs was not just any job. It had a number of superior features. One was security. Once inside the Service and beyond probation, and as long as he did not commit any serious legal offence, a Customs employee could consider his job as secure, in colloquial parlance, as an “iron” or even \"gold rice-bowl.\" Another was its liberal pay. It was recalled that even a janitor working in a Customs office made three times as much as he would working for a private firm. There were fringe benefits, as well. At the end of every seven years of service, an employee received a gratuity as \"retiring allowance\" and on retirement would be provided with \"pension benefits” in a lump sum. Moreover, high-ranking officials on transfer to duties elsewhere were to travel first-class with their families. One of the former commissioners", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211992, "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": 407, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "382\n\nRobert Hart, Bart., GCMG Inspector General of Customs and Post, Peking [set in hard bound volume] + photograph and clippings re Congress (CARTON 1)\n\nWedding picture of European couple with Chinese mandarin guests (CARTON 2)\n\nConferences (CARTON 2)\n\nInteriors (CARTONS 1 and 2)\n\n1 red invitation in English to Hart from Viceroy of Chihli to dinner at the \"Naval Secretariate” (sic) 23 Feb 1894 (CARTON 3)\n\nList of mourners (CARTON 3)\n\nNOTES\n\nE. SINN\n\n1\n\n2\n\nThese notes are partially based on notes previously prepared by the Rev. Carl Smith.\n\nRobert Hart was Inspector-General of the Chinese Maritime Customs, 1863-1907. See Juliet Bredon, Sir Robert Hart: The Romance of a Great Career (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1909); Stanley Wright, Hart and the Chinese Customs (Belfast: Wm. Mullen & Sons, 1950); John King Fairbank et al., eds. The I.G. in Peking: Letters of Robert Hart, Chinese Maritime Customs, 1868-1907 (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press at the Harvard University Press, 1975); Katherine F. Bruner et al., eds. Entering China's Service. Robert Hart's Journals, 1854-1863 (Cambridge, Mass. & London, Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1986).\n\n3\n\nHere, Hart refers to Sir Robert Hart; Robert refers to his grandson.\n\nA SONG FROM SHA TAU KOK ON THE 1911 REVOLUTION\n\nVery few documents remain from the New Territories which refer to the 1911 Revolution, or which display any interest in the political disputes which lead up to it. One revolutionary document, a ferocious anti-Manchu and anti-Kang Yu-wei pamphlet, survives among the Yung Sze-chiu papers from North Sai Kung,1 and must represent a type of revolutionary ephemera to be found in the area at that date but no longer remembered - Yung Sze-chiu presumably picked it up in his local market town of Sai Kung about 1908. In general, however, local sources, both written and oral, pay little attention to the Revolution.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216375, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 134, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "83\n\nto remain there for the vacations must have seemed the most appropriate provisions he could make in order to maintain a safe distance between them and his family planning to live in London.\n\nThere is no doubt that Hart had great expectations for his wards and wanted to provide them with excellent educational opportunities. This is one of the reasons for him sending them to boarding schools. \"From the first I want it to be understood that they (two boys) are to be trained for the Indian Civil Service.\" (ibid: 192) As N. Ferguson suggests, positions in the Indian Civil Service, at that time, were very desirable and \"competition for places was fierce, so fierce that selection had to be based on perhaps the toughest exams in history.” (2002: 185) “As regards Anna I want her to be sent for three years to a Protestant boarding school on the Continent where she can devote herself to music, French, and German”. (Fairbank, Bruner and Matherson 1975: 192-3) Hart did not realise that his expectations were too high until the two boys failed the qualifying examination for entering Clifton College. In general the results of the children's studies were not good at all.\n\nHowever, disappointment with his wards' poor performance in their studies can't be the only reason Hart changed his mind completely later in 1879 and insisted very firmly that the three wards should not return to London. Hart knew that the Davidson couple treated the three wards well and he appreciated this. In early 1875 he wrote to Campbell \"Pay Mrs. Davidson anything that is fair: err on the liberal side, please. She has evidently treated the youngsters kindly.\" (ibid: 206) However, in his letter to Campbell on 24 August 1879 Hart refused to consider the possibility of the wards returning to their previous London home: \"I think, on the whole, anywhere rather than London, and any people rather than the Davidsons.\" (ibid: 300) At the end of the letter Hart stresses it again: \"I repeat, I am of opinion that away from London and not with the Davidsons might be the best.” (ibid)\n\nFor the period April 1878 to March 1879 Hart was on leave, reunited with his family in Paris and then later in England. Although his pregnant wife returned to China with him when his leave finished, Hart knew that she would not remain in Beijing for long. Two years later Lady Hart left China to settle in London and the couple did not see each other again for twenty-four years until 1906. Perhaps Lady Hart had made a sensible decision to absent herself and the children", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216376, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 135, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "84\n\nfrom China. Hart complained that it was difficult to get proper private tutors for their elder daughter, Evey. In his letter to Campbell on 2 July 1875 he said: \"I fancy Evey will be a grandmother by the time you find my rara avis!” (ibid: 198) Hart also wanted to concentrate on his work without disturbance. When he was finally reunited with his wife and children after almost a quarter of a century's separation, he did not feel completely comfortable and even hoped that they would be gone soon \"for I want to be alone to attend to the hundred and one things.\" Thus, during the period 1879-1881 when Lady Hart lived with Hart in Beijing, the couple must have discussed seriously future plans for her to return to settle in London. This is when Hart wrote to Campbell and insisted that his three wards should not be sent back to London to live with the Davidson couple.\n\nFrom this it can be seen that it wasn't just a matter of kindness, generosity, or even love that motivated Hart to make such expensive provisions for his three wards by Ayaou. Hart had always been cautious and gave mature consideration to his arrangements for his wards, not just in 1866 when he prepared to go home and marry a European, but also during the period 1875 to 1879 when he began to make plans for his wife's return to live in London permanently. He was kind to his wards; but he was also rational and determined to prevent both his married life and his career from being troubled by the wards.\n\nREFERENCES\n\nBell, Stanley. 1985. Hart of Lisburn. Lisburn: Lisburn Historical Press.\n\nBell, Gertrude. 1903. The Gertrude Bell Archive.\n\nBickers, Robert. 1999. Britain in China. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press.\n\nBruner, Katherine F, Fairbank, John K, Smith, Richard J. 1986. eds. Entering China's Service - Robert Hart's Journals, 1854-1863. Cambridge and London: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University.\n\nFairbank, John K, Bruner, Katherine F, Matheson, Elizabeth M. 1975. eds. The I.G. in Peking - Letters of Robert Hart, Chinese Maritime Customs 1868-1907. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.\n\nFerguson, Niall. 2002. Empire: the rise and demise of the British world order and the lessons for global power. London: Allan Lane. Pp 185\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216378, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "86\n\nHart's house and photographed him: \"He was extremely friendly, asked us to dinner, kept us talking, assuring us that he was a man busy enough always to have time to give people. Month after month, year after year, for the last 50 years has found him always at work; for 25 years he has had no holiday; he never goes away and has never been even to the Great Wall. 'My wife used to do my sightseeing and my visiting for me' he said. 'She was very useful to me. It's difficult to live alone.' I didn't know what to answer as Lady Hart seems to find it more difficult not to live alone.\"\n\n*\n\n7 The marital relationship between Hart and Lady Hart, as Bruner, Fairbank and Smith argued (1986: 322), is that \"each offered something the other was seeking.\" In his journal entry for 22 August 1867 - their first anniversary - he wrote: \"No one could have a better wife than I have got & so far, we have got on well together.\" Then he added: “At the same time, matrimony does interfere a man's work at times.\" (Volume 9, Transcribed by Deirdre Wildy, 15 September 2003)\n\n$\n\n* Similar statement can also be seen in Declaration 1\n\n\"Census place: Cliffton, Gloucester, England. Source: FHL film 1341597, PRO Ref RG11, Piece 2482, Folio 38, Page 22.\n\n10 See Bruner, Fairbank, and Smith edited “Entering China's Service” (1986: 150): \"Volume 3, as it now exists, begins on 20 March 1858, after a lapse of almost three years. The first pages of this new book, however, were torn out by Hart, who then wrote on the flyleaf '20 March to 6 Dec. 1858' as if that were the normal content of the volume.\" \"It seems evident that Hart did some tidying-up of his journals years later, perhaps in 1902 when Hosea B. Morse asked\n\n11\n\npermission to see them in connection with a proposed biography.\"\n\nIn March 1866 Hart left for home on leave and in late May he fell in love with Miss Hester Jane Bredon. This happened less than a year after Hart's third child was born. Hart was very determined to find a European girl to marry during his visit home. He knew that his proposal to Hester might be refused if he told her the truth, particularly the year when Arthur was born - giving proof to the fact that he continued his sexual relationship with Ayaou until at least late 1864. For Hart the best way to convince Hester to accept the reality of the situation was to let her believe that all these events had taken place a long time ago and she could therefore \"forget the past and welcome the future\". Perhaps it is for this reason that there are contradictions between Hart's statements concerning the year of Arthur's birth in Declaration 1 and 2 and those in his letter to Campbell as well as that which is recorded in 1881 British Census,\n\n12 Hart only felt a bit annoyed when he received two letters from her in 1870 and 1872 and troubled by two of his wards by her between 1904 and 1905.\n\n17\n\n13 See Declaration I.\n\n14 The sum of money equals £28,704, as $5 at that time roughly equals £1. In his", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]