[ { "id": 207769, "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": 157, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "142\n\nW. A. REYNOLDS\n\nand canvas tops added in Rangoon. Other similar trucks were obtained during the fall of Burma, but in the event a total of 12 trucks were left behind there. As has been mentioned earlier, the Unit took over the existing IRC fleet which was a very mixed bag. It also purchased eight Dodge 3 tonners in Chungking from Liddell and Co., a merchant house. Another addition was five 1938 Ford chassis into which replacement Hercules 4 cylinder diesel engines were fitted.\n\nBy May 1942, the Unit had a fleet of 30 trucks, and those held in Feb. 1943 are listed in Table VI. Some of these were obtained by an ingenious arrangement. Some mission organizations had purchased trucks, brought them to Rangoon and taken them up the Burma Road loaded with supplies and people. It was, however, uneconomic and difficult for the organization to run the trucks once their destination had been reached. The Unit, therefore, offered to take them over in return for 16,000 km. tons of haulage of their organizations' goods.4\n\nWith the fall of Burma, importation of fuel oil, lubricating oil, and petrol became impossible except by air. Low octane petrol and diesel fuel were available at the Yumen oilfield in Kansu, some 3,000 km. from the centre of operations. The alternative fuels were rape-seed or other vegetable oils for the diesel engines, alcohol produced from sugar cane, and 'petrol' distilled from tung (#) oil for the petrol engines. All these fuels suffer from serious shortcomings. The rape-seed oil had a high acid content which gave rapid wear on the fuel pumps, injectors, and cylinders of the diesel engines, and these were worn out after two years of hard service. The alcohol was not only expensive, it was also rationed and gave a fuel consumption double that of petrol with the engines and carburettors available. The water content of the alcohol also caused rusting in the fuel tanks. The tung oil petrol was better but cost (in October 1942) NC$130 a gallon when the exchange rate was NC$80 to 1 pound sterling.\n\nThe alternative was to convert trucks to run on gas produced from charcoal. The technical description of the system used is given later. Conversion sets were first purchased and later manufactured by the Kweiyang and Kutsing depots. Considerable skill and experience were required to operate the systems successfully, and the maximum power obtainable was perhaps 70% of that on petrol. The apparatus took up room and increased the tare of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207774, "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": 162, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "A ROAD TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN WEST CHINA 1942-46\n\n147\n\nhappened). Two died of typhus, and one was killed when a truck overturned. No Chinese transport employees died in the four years under review.\n\nMaintenance\n\nAs has been indicated in earlier sections, truck maintenance was the major problem in sustaining the system, and the supply of spare parts and lubricating oil was the most critical element. Each convoy or individual truck was expected to be self-sufficient for any repairs or maintenance between bases. If there was a major breakdown within 50 km or so of bases, arrangements might be made for a tow-in; otherwise, repairs were done on the spot. Connecting rod bearings can be replaced, and crankshaft journals resurfaced at the roadside if necessary. Replacing front and rear spring main leaf was a common occurrence. Just what self-sufficiency on the road meant can be gathered from the lists of spare equipment carried on truck No. 21, a Chevrolet converted to charcoal, given in Table IX. This was in addition to personal sets of spanners, etc. It is true that this truck was four years old and was better kitted out than most, but all the spares had been found invaluable on one occasion or another. Even with new WD Dodge trucks running on petrol, but setting out on a 3200 km round trip from Chungking to the Shensi-Kansu-Ninghsia Border area in early 1946, the list of spare equipment for a three-truck convoy was quite formidable and is given in Table X.\n\nEffective transport systems depend on maintenance, especially where there are no service facilities, and maintenance, in these circumstances, starts with the truck driver. It became second nature, drilled into all drivers on first trips, to examine all tyres and springs at every stop and to check not only oil and water but also engine mountings, fan belts, U-bolts, and wheel bolts every day.\n\nApart from mechanical failures of springs, etc., the major causes of troubles on Chevrolet and Dodge trucks were electrical. Radiators also gave trouble, and if a leak could not easily be soldered, the addition of water buffalo dung to the system was often efficacious. One ingenious charcoal truck driver connected his fuel pump (not required on gas) to a spare 5-gallon water tank and kept his leaking radiator topped up in that way.\n\nThe major item of garage maintenance was engine overhaul. This was established on a preventive basis, especially for the char-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207781, "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": 169, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "154\n\nW. A. REYNOLDS\n\nAll hospitals and medical services in China were very short of medical supplies both in terms of medicines, anaesthetics, equipment and everyday requirements such as bandages and sheets. In addition, in a time of inflation, assets were put into easily saleable form of which medicine, such as quinine, was a favourite. This meant that there was little western medicine for sale in the open market and supplies of such materials, whether in store or in transit, were a favourite target for thieves. However the greatest losses in the Nationalist armies were undoubtedly from the malnutrition/dysentery cycle from which, beyond a certain point, there was no recovery.\n\n3 The daily routine on the road varied with the fuel used, but there were common features. The driver and mechanic (or assistant if carried) slept on the truck, the shorter in the cab and the taller on top of the cargo. This helped to prevent theft of cargo and removal of parts such as headlamps and half-shafts which were in great demand. Passengers slept in the nearest inn, or perhaps mission station. Techniques for an undisturbed and loss-free night in an inn included an oiled sheet (p.8) sewn into the bottom of the mosquito net which was then slit at one end and fastened with clips, and placing the bed or table legs into shoes to make unauthorized removal of them difficult.\n\nActivity started at dawn and after refuelling and a check on wheels and springs a quick breakfast of ji dan dou jiang (p.8) taken from a travelling salesman, the truck would get under way. There would normally be a stop at a convenient fandian (p.8) between 10.30 and 12 noon- refuelling, wheel and spring checks and away again until late afternoon and a stop for the day.\n\nLiquid fuel was carried in 50 (US) gallon drums and was siphoned out into 5 gallon cans for transfer to the truck tank. A skilled man, using a rubber hose, can induce a siphon by sucking at the end and avoid getting his mouth full of raw alcohol, rape seed oil or whatever the fuel might be. Operation and refuelling of the charcoal burning trucks was a much longer and dirtier procedure and is described in the section devoted to them.\n\n4 The Sentinel/HSG trucks had an interesting history. With the loss of the coastal region and the main railway lines, China had not only lost the possibility of importing diesel fuel and petrol but had gained a number of experienced, but unemployed, steam railway engine drivers and firemen. The IRC decided to enquire into the possibility of steam road transport and got in touch with the Sentinel Steam Carriage and Wagon Co. Ltd. at Shrewsbury, England, the major manufacturer in the past of steam road engines. The transport would use local coal or charcoal fuel and the available engine drivers and firemen. However, the tare weight of steam wagons is high and the gross weight would have been greater than the bridges would have stood. The Sentinel company suggested an alternative. They had recently taken up the designs of the High Speed Gas engine and offered a 5 ton capacity truck fitted with a 4 cylinder horizontal HSG engine with a 12:1 compression ratio. This burnt producer gas made from charcoal in a gas generator of the cross-draught type. Four of these Sentinel/HSG were purchased and may have been the first (and possibly only) ones built. One of these had been lost on the Burma Road and the remaining three contributed to the death of one man, resignation of another, and almost broke the hearts of several other Unit members. It should be a cardinal point never to introduce any equipment, mechanical or electrical, into a tough environment lacking supporting services, unless it has been in series production and has been thoroughly tested in similar conditions.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212826, "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-1992", "page_number": 135, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "120\n\nI was also most fortunate in my Chinese friends, many of whom strongly disapproved of the discreditable state into which Chinese administration had fallen. Unchecked hoarding and profiteering were the order of the day and on these the black market flourished exceedingly. Providing you had the money you could buy almost anything in the Kun-ming shops. Inflation mounted steadily and so far as one could see no serious efforts were made to control it. Many officials kept several wives and lived in great luxury; they had profited from the colossal fortunes made over the transportation of supplies on the Burma road. The sight of all this was sufficient to shake one's faith in the future progress of China.\n\nThere was also an extensive black market in money. The official rate of exchange for the Indian rupee was six Chinese dollars to one rupee; but in the black market you could get forty, then fifty, sixty, and so on upwards. British officers drew as much of their pay as they required in Chinese dollars at the fixed rate later by special arrangement with the Ministry of Finance increased by 50%, that is nine dollars to the rupee - but at these rates Kun-ming prices in terms of dollars were beyond their reach. They could not afford to go out, and had difficulty in returning hospitality. The Americans were better off because they received their pay in U.S. dollars, which they disposed of in the black market.\n\nThere was no difficulty about the provision of food; local supplies, so far as we were concerned, were adequate. The drink problem was more difficult; supplies had to come over the 'Hump' and a bottle of whisky was a very rare thing. The French Catholic fathers made a beverage, called Anis, not unlike Absinth in taste, and like Absinth it turned a cloudy white colour when mixed with water; it had a kick like a mule. Anis was rather expensive though, and the more enterprising members of the community took to distilling their own ‘gin'. The machine consisted of a two-gallon petrol tin, placed over a charcoal fire: from the top of the tin a copper tube - probably salvaged from a dismantled lorry - led through a five-gallon kerosene tin filled with cold water, where the vapours from the still passed through coils in the pipe, condensed, and dripped into the gin bottle. The stock from which the liquor was distilled would be either one of the fiercer forms of Chinese wine or the commercial alcohol manufactured for use in driving vehicles: either product tasted horrible and left the most distressing hangover, but it did make a party go.\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215671, "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-2001", "page_number": 448, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "400\n\nIn researching the original Note, I came to a profound admiration for Ian Morrison. His newspaper reporting was erudite and he demonstrated a perceptive understanding of the issues involved. His two books; Malayan Postscript (1942) and This War Against Japan (1943) were equally perceptive. By all accounts the picture that Han Suyin painted of him in A Many Splendoured Thing; as being a gentle, kind and understanding man, is borne out by the facts. Alastair describes him as ...a cultivated and gentle man and no swashbuckler but (he) had an insatiable curiosity about events in Asia.' Accordingly, I offer this tribute to his memory. R.I.P.\n\nREFERENCES\n\nMorrison, Alastair (1993), The Road to Peking, Canberra: The Highland Press (for private distribution).\n\nPearl, Cyril (1967). Morrison of Peking, Sydney: Angus & Robertson Ltd.\n\nNOTES\n\nhttp://www.fechk.org/archives/achives historyconduit.htm\n\n2 See JHKBRAS Vol. 40: The Battle of Hong Kong: A Note on the Literature and\n\n3\n\nthe Effectiveness of the Defence, Lawrence Lai Wai Chung, pp. 115-136.\n\nSource: Alastair Morrison, personal communication and The Road to Peking, p. 151\n\nAll images, unless otherwise stated, courtesy of The Times of London.\n\nIan and Maria met in Shanghai and were married, in Hong Kong, in 1941. Maria was Steffi's sister (Colin's subsequent wife) Their first home was at the Cathay Building, in Singapore. After the War, they returned to Singapore and lived in Gallop Road. According to Alastair, the marriage was not a happy one (The Road to Peking, p. 151). After her husband's death, Mrs. Morrison and the children (who were seven and five at the time of his death) appear to have stayed on in Singapore, at any rate for a while, and then moved to Australia. According to Alastair Morrison, Maria 'died long ago.' The son, Nicholas (?), lives in the U.K. and visited Alastair in Canberra on his eighty seventh birthday", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]