[
    {
        "id": 208597,
        "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": 54,
        "title": "RAS-1979",
        "content_text": "# THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG\n\n## 1941-1946\n\n### INTRODUCTION\n\nThe Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (Maryknoll) was founded in 1911, with headquarters thirty miles north of New York City, and took in its first students for the priesthood in September 1912. On Christmas Day, 1917 the French Catholic Bishop of Canton agreed to cut off the southern portion of his east South China vicariate and give it to the new American mission. By 1941 the Maryknoll Mission had stations at Yeung Kong (18-21) and Ka Ying (★ ★) in Kwangtung, and at Wu Chow (*) in the neighbouring province of Kwangsi. Work was also undertaken in Hong Kong where a Rest House and Language Centre had been completed at Stanley in 1934.\n\nFather James Smith of Maryknoll has completed an as yet unpublished account of the Mission's Work in Hong Kong, entitled The Maryknoll Hong Kong Chronicle 1918-1975. The lengthy extract that follows is taken from this work, and on account of its human interest is published here with Father Smith's permission. He has advised me that much of this section was, in fact, written by Rev. William Downs of Maryknoll, based on his personal experiences during those memorable years in Hong Kong's history. Also, that Fr. Downs was first assigned to Hong Kong in 1925, but left to take up mission work in the Kaying, Kwangtung, area in 1927. In July of 1938 his residence in Swatow was bombed by Japanese airplanes and totally demolished; he was seriously wounded and eventually sent to Hong Kong for treatment and recuperation. He remained in the Colony as Director of the Language School for those priests studying the Hakka dialect. This work was interrupted by the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong, but in the Stanley Camp he taught the newly arrived priests, and when they were released and permitted to go into the interior, Fr. Downs accompanied them.\n\nIn 1946 Fr. Downs was again assigned to Hong Kong and remained at the Maryknoll Stanley House until failing health forced him to return to the United States in 1968. He died there in 1970.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 208607,
        "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": 64,
        "title": "RAS-1979",
        "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n37\n\nSecretary, Procurator, and all his priests in the other parishes of the City were interned, he did not know where at that moment, but later on he was informed that they were at Stanley, in the prison. That evening our belated supper was eaten in more or less silence, as with guns booming in the distance and the suspense in the air, we did not have much heart for conversation. We retired early, but about eleven o'clock were awakened by the air raid siren, only to find that it was a false alarm. Incidentally, during the hostilities of Hong Kong there were no night air raids. However, after that false alarm, Father Downs in the city, at the Cathedral Rectory, could not get to sleep, and heard the clock strike every quarter of the hour until daybreak. And the next morning at about eight o'clock, the fun began! At that time planes appeared overhead, bombs were dropped at various points and wherever these bombs fell, anti-aircraft guns in the vicinity started barking. A couple of these anti-aircraft guns were set up in a small depression just below the Italian Sisters' Hospital on the hill to the east and south of the Cathedral, and when they began popping we thought they were in our backyard. During the day and those that followed, there were perhaps an average of four or five daily air raids, the targets being mainly gun emplacements, shipping and forts.\n\nHowever, on the very first day, as narrated by Fr. Downs a couple of bombs hit a portion of the Central Police Station, a block or two just west of the Cathedral. Guns were booming over on the Kowloon side and out in the New Territories along the Pearl River estuary where the Japanese landed, having come down the river from Canton. Whether these guns were land or naval batteries, of course we could not judge, but no doubt the shells came from both sources at times. On the night of the second day, after we had retired, the booming of guns seemed to be nearer, and finally we were awakened by a crash which seemed to be in the Rectory. As the booming kept up we were not desirous of making any personal investigation, and as we waited, another crash shook our building, and then another, a little farther away. The next morning we learned that the Japanese were evidently trying to get the range of the anti-aircraft guns just above us near the Sisters' Hospital, for the shells seemed to fall in a straight line; the first struck to the west of us, the second hit the edge of the roof of the house next door, the third crashed through the roof of the Cathedral, cutting a neat hole",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938",
        "rank": 0
    }
]