[ { "id": 205710, "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": 16, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "10\n\nT. C. CHENG\n\nWhile he was Legislative Councillor in Hong Kong, Ng Choy was known to oppose the office of the Registrar-General (established 1844), also known as Protector of Chinese and later renamed in 1913 Secretary for Chinese Affairs, on the ground that it was race discrimination to force Chinese and Europeans to deal with the Government through different departments.8 During his term of office, he was a member of a very important Education Commission, appointed by the Governor Sir John Hennessy in August 1880, to study the question of raising the Government Central School into a collegiate institution, giving a higher education in English and Science. What Sir John had in mind was that Hong Kong would render a great service to China by starting a collegiate institution so that young Chinese boys could come to Hong Kong for a higher western education instead of going to distant countries like America and England. However, the Commission as a whole disagreed with the Governor. It dismissed the idea of a Collegiate Institution on the ground of cost, and pointed out that the great need of the majority of the local population was a sound elementary education. Thus it was not the province of the Government to establish, at the cost of the ratepayers, an institution that would be mainly for the advantage of a small number of wealthy members of the community.\n\nNg Choy's achievements as a Legislative Councillor in Hong Kong were by no means great as compared with some of his successors, as he held office for less than three years; but he had the distinction of being the first Chinese to serve on that Council, and since his time both the Colonial Office and the Governors of Hong Kong have agreed on the principle of Chinese membership of the Legislative Council.\n\nWhen Sir George Bowen arrived in April 1883 as Governor, he was in favour of having a Chinese member on the Legislative Council but realized that it would not be easy to find a successor to Ng Choy from \"among those qualified as British subjects, a native gentleman combining in his own person the proper social position, independent means and education\". In conjunction with the question of a permanent Chinese member on the Legislative Council, Sir George Bowen also took the opportunity of re-constituting the Council. The main differences between the old and the new Council were that a Chinese member was appointed and that the Chamber of Commerce was invited to elect a member.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205970, "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-1970", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "J\n\nHONG KONG CADETS, 1862 - 1941\n\n45\n\nThe recruitment of cadets changed the nature of administration in early colonial Hong Kong. The cadets were professionals, unlike the earlier officials who were a mixed lot from variegated backgrounds. They spent their working lives—20 to 30 years on average—in one or other of the Eastern colonies, for some of course transferred from, or to, Hong Kong. Since their profession was administration, and the government of Hong Kong was mainly a matter in those days of running a municipality—between 1886 and 1939 only four new departments were established, the District Office New Territories after 1899, the Kowloon-Canton Railway in 1906, and air services and broadcasting in 1929—they soon introduced routines and procedures, organised the files, and set the administrative machine into grooves, along which it ran, on the whole, smoothly and uneventfully for many years. Several governors evinced surprise at the little work they were called upon to do, for ways of doing things had soon become fixed and immutable, and colonial officials were reluctant to change well-tried methods. Sir George Bowen, Governor 1883-1885, declared that the routine and absolutely necessary work of Hong Kong administration \"seemed to me from the first to be much lighter than that of any Crown Colony which I had previously governed\";40 and Sir Frederick Lugard, Governor 1907-1912, of the same opinion, was amused by the bland efficiency and meticulousness of his able Colonial Secretary, Francis May. In Lugard's day, as Margery Perham writes, the officials \"were certainly efficient; the place was small and administration was conducted according to a system which had been seventy years in the making\". Of course, before 1941, most of the problems dealt with by administrators in Hong Kong tended to be workaday ones, and dramatic solutions were hardly called for until the post-1945 period, when massive immigration changed the face of things.\n\nWith regard to administration, then, Sir Hercules Robinson's scheme had worked. It also produced results in another respect, interpretation. Eitel wrote in 1878: \"There are now very few departments where there is not someone who can read a Chinese petition for himself and efficiently check the oral interpretation of the native clerks acting as interpreter. The Coroner's Courts, the Registration Office, and Chinese Protectorate, even the Colonial Secretary's Office, are well provided with a sufficient check on...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205980, "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-1970", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "HONG KONG CADETS, 1862 - 1941 \n\n55 \n\n19 Kenneth Myer Arthur Barnett (born 1911). Educated at Mill Hill School, London, and King's College, Cambridge, Hong Kong Civil Service 1934. Retired as Director of Census and Statistics 1970. \n\n40 Quoted in James Hope Hennessy's Verandah, London, 1964, p. 186. Hennessy is quoting, presumably, from Sir George Bowen's Thirty Years of Colonial Government, London, 1889, which I have not seen. \n\n41 Margery Perham, op. cit., p. 302. Lugard also liked and trusted A. W. Brewin, the Registrar General: \"if he once said, he was very 'pro-Chinese' this was really a compliment. He would allow Brewin to forbid his own delivery of a speech to a Chinese gathering. He could not always understand the reason ‘but I trust implicitly in him'.\" \n\n42 E. J. Eitel \"Chinese Studies and Official Interpretation\", p. 8. \n\n43 Alleyne Ireland, Far Eastern Tropics, London, 1905, p. 34. In 1901 Ireland was appointed Colonial Commissioner of the University of Chicago for the purpose of visiting the Far East. \n\n44 Ibid., p. 32. \n\n45 Norman Gilbert Mitchell-Innes (1860-1947). Educated at Repton and Edinburgh Academy, Hong Kong Civil Service 1881; Treasurer 1891; left Hong Kong Service in 1896 and transferred to the Home Prison Service. Des Voeux thought highly of Mitchell-Innes. See G. B. Endacott, Government and People in Hong Kong 1841-1962, Hong Kong, 1964, p. 112. \n\n46 Report on Defalcations in the Treasury, Sessional Papers, Hong Kong, 1893, p. 546. \n\n47 Ibid., p. 546. \n\n48 Norton-Kyshe, vol. 2, p. 447. \n\n49 Ibid., p. 447. \n\n50 Sir Arthur George Murchison Fletcher (1878-1954). Educated at Cheltenham College and Trinity College, Oxford, Hong Kong Civil Service 1901; transferred to Ceylon 1927; Colonial Secretary, Ceylon, 1926-9; Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner for Western Pacific 1929-36; Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Trinidad and Tobago, 1936-38. \n\n51 Geoffrey Norman Orme (1879-1966). Educated at Cheltenham College and Hertford College, Oxford, Hong Kong Civil Service 1902. Director of Education 1924-26. Left Hong Kong Service in 1926. \n\n52 The Report on the Land Court, 1900-1905, Sessional Papers, 1905, gives a list of the presidents and members of the Land Court in order of their appointment, most of whom were cadets. H. H. J. Gompertz was appointed in 1900 and resigned in 1904; Cecil Clementi in 1903; and C. M. Messer and J. R. Wood in 1904. The Registrars in order of appointment - all cadets were: J. H. Kemp, E. D. C. Wolfe, and S. B. C. Ross. The Land Court in 1905 consisted of three members: C. M. Messer, Cecil Clementi, and J. R. Wood. The New Territories became popular with cadets as a place to walk or shoot in on week-ends. Robert Oliphant Hutchison (1880-1920), the Superintendent of Imports and Exports, on his way to shoot snipe at Saikung fell off a launch in a squall and drowned. His body was never found. With him at the time was D. W. Tratman, the Colonial Treasurer. One imagines from the evidence that both had \"tiffined\" rather too well. \n\n53 \"At first British officials were limited in principle to two, dealing with police and land. In 1899 a police magistrate was appointed and also an assistant land officer to deal with land cases, and the police were placed \n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207400, "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": 168, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "160\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nside used gas in our short campaign. In a later section I shall refer in more detail to the casualties. I have noted earlier that Shackleton's war-time command in the hospital was splendid. As in all beaten armies there were some less stout-hearted soldiers; some of these, uninjured, sought shelter in the hospital in the last stages of hostilities, but Shackleton overcame this hazard effectively as he did the many others that arose. He was never a man tolerant of weakness.\n\nThe nursing service was first-rate, led by the Matron, Miss E. M. B. Dyson (the Q.A.'s did not have service rank at that time), and the wounded enjoyed a splendid standard of care right up to the end when the hospital was practically in the front line. The members of the R.A.M.C., R.A.D.C., and attached R.E. stuck to their jobs manfully. The Chinese drivers of ambulance and other cars disappeared into the civilian population as our defeat came nearer, and none should blame them.\n\nIn the hospital, we heard Japanese shells fired from the mainland pass overhead and watched them burst on houses on the Peak. We saw boats bringing Japanese troops from Kowloon in broad daylight to land at North Point. They passed unopposed across the harbour, for apparently our guns could not be brought to bear on them while our defences in the North Point area had been silenced. I saw the harbour crossings made under flags of truce by Japanese officers carrying demands for the surrender of the Colony. These were rejected. In the last stages, we watched the Japanese shelling of Magazine Gap just above the hospital, and we had to keep under cover when moving about the hospital to avoid mortar and small arms fire. It is, however, one of my treasured memories to recall the reaction of Miss G. Colthorpe, one of the Reserve Q.A. sisters, to the surrender of the Colony. She would have hanged the Governor and the General Officer Commanding on the spot. The urgency of the surrender was soon only too evident, for we saw long columns of Japanese troops pass along Bowen Road immediately below the hospital, and the front line could not have been more than four hundred yards or so from the hospital at the time of our capitulation. I believe that it was the fact that we were not overrun in battle that saved patients and staff from the rape and murder which disfigured the campaign in Stanley, Happy Valley, and elsewhere.\n\nEarlier in this account, I said that the topography of the Colony left our troops little or no room for manoeuvre in defence. The", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207403, "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": 171, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n163\n\nrapidly in the hospital but our nurses carried out full duty by day and by night though many had to draw on their reserves of courage to do so.\n\nIn Bowen Road the women nurses moved at once into the hospital building from their isolated mess and were joined by their colleagues from other hospitals who had suffered the murderous attacks on themselves, their patients and their doctors. It is not surprising that many of them were deeply apprehensive. They never suffered any overt attacks but in their crowded quarters in war-damaged wards they had to guard against many peeping toms among the Japanese guards. On duty they were objects of much curiosity to sentries who, in their rubber-soled boots would suddenly materialise silently out of the darkness of night with their bayonets fixed. Inquisitive Japanese officers would appear in the wards where many patients had limbs immobilised in various forms of apparatus. Those in Thomas splints suspended from Balkan beams were special objects of curiosity but when Japanese tried to touch the carefully balanced suspensions they were speedily moved on by our sisters. In particular the lady who would have hanged the Governor showed, as might be expected, no fear. The courage and fortitude of our nurses at this time are beyond all praise and their example was of the greatest importance in encouraging male staff and patients.\n\nEarly in 1942 the Japanese set about concentrating British and allied wounded, except Indian troops, in Bowen Road. The Japanese had their own political reasons for segregating Indians. By 26 February the only other hospital serving British and allied troops was the small St. Teresa's Hospital in Kowloon which provided a few beds for men from the P.O.W. camps there. Eventually on 11 August 1942 St. Teresa's was closed and its few patients who still needed care were moved to Bowen Road. Thereafter no British or allied wounded remained in any other service or civil hospital or building which had been used as a hospital.\n\nThe Military Hospital, Bowen Road, thus fell into Japanese hands structurally damaged but functionally practically intact, fully equipped with beds, mattresses, blankets, sheets, normal hospital furniture and office equipment and ample surgical equipment, laboratory resources and good stocks of drugs and dressings and medical dietary necessities. Our stocks of ration fuel, coal and expendable materials which we could not replace were soon exhausted.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209432, "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": 89, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "67\n\nalready scraped her bottom. Members of the crew were forced to finish painting her themselves.\n\nA few days later, Sino-French hostility manifested itself in Hong Kong in another way. A French steamer, the Atalante, had stopped and searched Chinese junks near Hong Kong, and thrown overboard the guns of one of them. At a meeting of the General Chamber of Commerce, E. R. Belilios, a prominent Indian merchant, expressed the opinion that such action would cause consternation among the junk people of Hong Kong. Ho Hsien-chih 何獻鄰, better known as Ho Amei 何亞美, condemned the French more vehemently. He pointed out, not without some exaggeration, that such interference would cut off supplies to Hong Kong, and, since war between China and France had not been officially declared, he roundly announced, “I consider it an act of piracy.” In Ho's stand we have a demonstration of anti-French feelings at the other end of the social spectrum from that of the Dock workers.\n\nOn the 17th, the proclamation by the Canton authorities issued on the 5th calling on Hong Kong workers to strike, was published in the four Chinese-language papers in Hong Kong. On the following day, the crew of the French man-of-war at the Dock heard rumours that the Chinese planned to destroy it. The French admiral Léspès wrote at once to W. H. Marsh, the Acting Governor, asking for protection. There was also fear that the dock workers would riot. Police were despatched to the dock, but they arrived to find everything quiet. A guard was nevertheless left behind, and nothing untoward occurred but the tension was not dispelled.\n\n8\n\nAnti-French actions continued. In the meantime, the Chinese provisions store Yu-hsing-hsiang refused to sell themselves in arms to the French, But the French found an even more embarrassing situation on the 22nd. That morning, about twenty-five head of cattle were herded to the Praya Central,\n\n* Governor Bowen's departure from Hong Kong on 15th September caused a series of shuffles in the administration: the Colonial Secretary W. H. Marsh became Acting Governor; F. Stewart, the Registrar-General became Acting Colonial Secretary and James Stewart Lockhart Acting Registrar-General.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209443, "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": 100, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "78\n\nELIZABETH SINN\n\nThere can be no doubt that there were anti-French feelings among local Chinese of many different classes, feelings which existed independently of any initiative from Canton, but which were likely to rally to any call for patriotism from China.\n\nThe choice of the La Galissonière as the first target to boycott is significant. It had taken part in the storming of Keelung and at the attack on the Foochow fleet, and it had carried Admiral Courbet, the man in charge of these operations. It was a symbol of French aggression and a natural focus of Chinese hatred.\n\nPatriotism was recognized as an important factor in the initial strike not only by the Chinese. The Foreign Office in London sympathized with Chinese workers who refused to do work which would further French war efforts, and it implicitly raised the question of whether it was morally right for the Hong Kong Government to fine them for that.55 Questions raised in the House of Commons over the riots in Hong Kong reflected similar views, and the suggestion was made in the House that directions be sent to authorities in Hong Kong and Singapore to refrain from forcing to work Chinese who refused to do so for patriotic reasons.56 When the strike was over, Governor George Bowen identified the feelings behind it as a \"common national spirit\", and saw its rise as an important turning point of modern Chinese history.57\n\nOf course, the ties between the Canton authorities and local Chinese were not confined to the noble feelings of patriotism. The other forces at work included an assortment of interests. Many local Chinese had business and family ties in China which were vulnerable to retaliation. There was also the incentive of winning rewards from the Chinese Government which could greatly enhance status in Hong Kong. The Canton authorities exerted, therefore, by use of this carrot and stick approach, great influence on the Chinese in Hong Kong who while living and working there, still had their social, political and cultural frame of reference in China.\n\nIn many instances, local Chinese were eager to carry out official Chinese instructions. When the problem of finding agents in Hong Kong was brought up among Canton officials in 1884, Chang Chih-tung confidently declared, “All the civil and military", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209450, "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": 107, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "85\n\nChinese leaders seemed determined to use this occasion to make their presence felt, though they had already been told in no uncertain terms that the Government did not want this impression to be given.\n\nBefore the strike ended, cargo boatmen and others had been anxious about those rioters who had been arrested and detained. They had not been sentenced on the 3rd because of insufficient evidence against them. They were tried on the 10th. On that day, the court was packed, and significantly, among the crowd was a \"certain past director of the Tung Wah Hospital.\"76 Significant also was Ho Kai's appearance as defence attorney. Some of the men he defended were reported to be unaware of the fact that they were being represented by a barrister.\" Who instructed Ho Kai? One possibility is that Chinese leaders had hired him to defend rioters as part of the deal to induce boatmen and coolies to resume work. Another possibility is that Ho had done so on his own, out of a mixture of the patriotic fervour which he was to demonstrate so freely in his later reformist writings, and self-interest in establishing himself as a Chinese leader. Whatever the case, we see attempts by Chinese to defend Chinese, and reverse what many believed to be patent injustice. And again, we see the possible combination of high principles and material interests within the Chinese leadership.\n\nThe fines were, therefore, repaid and work was resumed. For all practical purposes, the riot was over by the afternoon of the 3rd and the general strike was terminated by the 5th. In quantitative terms, the general strike lasted only five days and the riot a matter of hours. A month and a half later, Governor Bowen summed up the events by saying, \"It is now generally acknowledged on all sides that the riot of October 3rd had little, if any, permanent or political significance.”78 His attitude seems to be shared by historians of Hong Kong, including G. B. Endacott and Lin Yu-lan79 who have not devoted special attention to it in their works.\n\nIronically, the few historians who have focussed upon these events have done so beyond the context of Hong Kong history. Fang Han-ch'i wrote of them in 1957 in terms of an", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209456, "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": 113, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "91\n\nbetter social and political deal from the British rulers. The racial feelings whipped up by the press in 1884 are reminiscent of the hysteria created in 1878 by the City Hall meeting to discuss Governor John Pope Hennessy's \"misgovernment\".98 One cannot deny that racial tensions existed in 19th Century Hong Kong, and it is clear that the English newspapers played a critical role in maximising that tension. In turn this racial animosity drove the Chinese to look inward for mutual protection and leadership.\n\nThe 1884 events reflect the genuine, positive national feelings, as opposed to narrow anti-foreignism, of the Chinese. Governor Bowen observed that unlike the Arrow War when the Chinese coolie corps freely helped the British and French to attack Chinese positions, in 1884, Chinese artisans, coolies and boatmen in Hong Kong refused all offers of pay to do any work whatsoever for French ships. He attributed this to the awakening of a \"common national spirit\", something which had developed over the preceding twenty-five years and which was, he felt, a factor likely to prove the turning point of the modern history of China.\n\nIt is no coincidence that several figures closely associated with modern Chinese nationalism had lived for some time in Hong Kong including Wang TaoE, Ho Kai and Sun Yat-sen.95\n\nThere they acquired national identity through living side by side with foreigners. There, they could observe China as outsiders, and in relation to other nations. They could conceive of China as more than a village or province, as one sovereign nation among many sovereign nations. Although in 1884, Chinese intellectuals had not begun to question the sanctity of absolutism in the Chinese Imperial system, there was a slow groping toward something other than the court as the object of allegiance, viz. the vague, incipient concept of \"nation\". The Sino-French war became a focal point upon which these vague ideas coalesced. Sun Yat-sen himself is reported to have confessed that the courage of the Hong Kong dock workers who refused to work for the French inspired him to embark upon a career of revolution.96\n\nIn Hong Kong, Chinese could feel an affiliation with Chinese culture, and yet, through their contact with foreign cultures, they could distinguish what was of value, and perhaps, more importantly...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209458, "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": 115, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "93\n\n193, ibid.; Parkes to Granville, 1st October, 1884, Despatch No. 201, ibid.; 7th October, 1884, Despatch No. 203, ibid.; Parkes to Granville, 7th October, 1884, Despatch No. 204, ibid. It took some time before Parkes realized there were 2 proclamations involved.\n\nDaily Press, 19th September, 1884.\n\nIbid., 23rd September, 1884. Ho Amei will be discussed further below. See Note No. 59.\n\nThe publication of the Viceroy's proclamation in 4 Chinese language newspapers in Hong Kong was reported by the Acting Governor to the Under Secretary of State of the Colonial Office. (Marsh to Derby, 25th September, 1884, Despatch No. 336: CO129/217). Also reported in China Mail, 17th September, 1884.\n\nIt may be noted that although no Hong Kong Chinese language newspaper of this particular period has survived, information on material published in these papers is often available in other contemporary sources.\n\nAdmiral Léspès to Marsh, 18th September, 1884, enclosed in Marsh to Derby, 25th September, 1884, Despatch No. 336: CO129/217.\n\nMarsh to Derby, 25th September, 1884, Despatch No. 336: CO129/217, China Mail, 18th and 19th September, 1884, Shu Pao II, 23rd September, 1884. (for Shu Pao, see note 10).\n\nShu-pao W, 22nd September, 1884. The Shu-pao published in Canton. Very little is known about its origins though it is believed that it had started publication in 1884 for the specific purpose of reporting on the Sino-French War. There are at present two collections of this paper. One is at the Provincial Library of Taiwan at Taipei, from which a photographic reprint was made in 1964 under the editorship of Wu Hsiang-hsiang (Shu-pao, Taipei reprint, 1964; hereafter referred to as Shu-pao I). Another collection was discovered by Fang Han-ch'i 方漢奇 in Soochow, and he published those parts related to the “anti-imperial struggle\" of Hong Kong workers in 1884. Fang Han-ch'i \"I-pa pa-ssu nien Hsiang-kang jen-min ti fan-ti tou-cheng” 一八八四年香港人民的反帝鬥爭 (The anti-imperial struggle of the people of Hong Kong in 1884) (hereafter Shu-pao II) in Chin-tai-shih tzu-liao 近代史資料 (Sources on Modern History) 57:6 (1957.12) 20-30. The materials in these 2 collections overlap as well as complement each other. Since no Hong Kong Chinese-language newspaper of the period has been preserved, the Shu-pao acts as a substitute in reflecting contemporary Chinese \"public opinion\".\n\nChina Mail, 23rd September, 1884.\n\nMarsh to Derby, 25th September, 1884, Despatch No. 336: CO129/217.\n\nIbid., 27th September, 1884.\n\nIbid.\n\nDaily Press, 1st October, 1884.\n\nDaily Press, 2nd October, 1884.\n\nChina Mail, 2nd October, 1884.\n\nDaily Press, 7th October, 1884.\n\nDaily Press, 29th September, 1884.\n\nChina Mail, 7th October, 1884.\n\nMemorandum by the Colonial Secretary, Marsh, 5th December, 1884, enclosed in Bowen to Derby, 5th December, 1884, Despatch No. 399; CO129/218.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209460, "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": 117, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "95\n\n\"Kaifongs were self-appointed district leaders, people who showed interest in district activities.\n\n40 Marsh to Derby, 6th October, 1884, Despatch No. 340: CO129/217.\n\n\"Marsh to Derby, 11th October, 1884, Despatch No. 342: CO129/217. A police report enclosed in this despatch describes 1,000 women leaving on one ship on the 10th October alone.\n\n42 Daily Press, 9th October, 1884, China Mail, 8th October, 1884. Police Inspector D. Thomson's \"Morning Report\" enclosed in Marsh to Derby, 11th October, 1884, Despatch No. 342: CO129/217,\n\n48 \"Report on Ordinance No. 22 of 1884,\" enclosed in Marsh to Derby, 11th October, 1884, Despatch No. 342: CO129/217.\n\n\"Marsh to Derby, 11th October, 1884, Despatch No. 342: CO129/217.\n\n**Daily Press, 11th October, 1884. Ho Kai (Ho Ch'i) is another colourful personality in Hong Kong's history. His biography has been written by Gerald Choa, The Life and Times of Sir Kai Ho Kai (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1981) and his intellectual biography by Dr. Chiu Ling-yeong, \"The Life and Thought of Sir Kai Ho Kai\" (Ph.D. thesis, University of Sydney, 1968) and Ts'ai Jung-fang, \"Compradore Ideologists in Modern China: Ho Kai (Ho Ch'i) (1859-1914) and Hu Li-yüan (1847-1916)\" (Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1975) and \"Syncretism in the Reformist Thought of Ho Kai and Hu Li-yüan”, Asian Profile, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1978).\n\n40 Bowen to Derby, 1st November, 1884, Despatch No. 358: CO129/217. Daily Press, 1st November, 1884. Shu-pao, 10th November, 1884.\n\n**Chang Chih-tung to Tsungli Yamen, 4th October, 1884, telegram in Chang Chih-tung, Chang Wen-hsiang kung ch'üan-chi (The Complete Collection of Chang Chih-tung's Works), 228 chuan, 6 vols. (Photographic reprint, Taipei, 1963) chuan 73:6b-7a.\n\nChang Chih-tung to Tsungli Yamen, 9th October, 1884, telegram in Chang Chih-tung, chuan 73:7a-7b.\n\n\"Governor-General Chang to H.M. Acting Consul Hance, 12th October, 1884, enclosed in Marsh to Derby, 20th October, 1884, Despatch No. 350: CO129/217.\n\n50 Chang Chih-tung to Tsungli Yamen, 9th October, 1884, Chang Chih-tung, chuan 73:7b.\n\n1 Daily Press, 1st October, 1884.\n\n* China Mail, 23rd September, 1884.\n\n63 Bowen to Derby, 25th August, 1884, Despatch No. 298: CO129/217. Marsh to Derby, 25th September, 1884, Despatch No. 336: ibid. China Mail, 2nd October, 1884.\n\n4 Marsh to Derby, 21st September, 1883, Despatch No. 240: CO129/211.\n\n65 (Draft) F.O. to C.O., 7th November, 1884: CO129/219.\n\n5 House of Commons to C.O., 27th October, 1884: CO129/218. 67 Bowen to Derby, 23rd February, 1885 in Stanley Lane-Poole, (ed.), Thirty Years of Colonial Government. Selections from the Despatches and Letters of the Right Honourable Sir George Ferguson Bowen G.C.M.G. 2 volumes (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1887) Vol. 2, 350.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210156, "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-1984", "page_number": 127, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "106\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nNor did he mince his words. “You have disobeyed and neglected your instructions” he told Elliot. \"You seem to have considered that my instructions were waste paper which you might treat with entire disregard, and that you were at full liberty to deal with the interests of your country according to your own fancy.\" The Foreign Secretary accused Elliot of having settled with the Chinese for much less than he had been told to demand “without the full employment of that force which was sent to you expressly for the purpose of enabling you to use compulsion, if persuasion should fail”. He was not impressed by the cession of Hong Kong “a barren island with hardly a house on it” and clogged by conditions which made it doubtful if it was a cession in full sovereignty.\"\n\n196\n\nThis myth, for myth it was, has died hard. Indeed, I fear it is not yet dead. It has always been more striking to compare the glowing present with such an insignificant past, and this has been the case at all times in Hong Kong's later history. Over forty years after the British occupation of Hong Kong, Governor Sir G.F. Bowen, addressing the Legislative Council at the opening of the 1884-85 Session, stated that \"... the Island of Hong Kong... when annexed to the British Empire in 1843 (sic) was merely a barren rock, inhabited only by a few fishermen and pirates.” This view was expressed another forty years on by the American Consul-General, George E. Anderson, writing on the Hong Kong Consular District in an official publication of the American Department of Commerce. \"The island of Hong Kong consists of a broken ridge of lofty hills, the highest, Victoria Peak, being approximately 1,800 feet in height. There are few valleys of any extent and scarcely any ground for cultivation... In general, the hills and mountains are bare and the soil is poor.\" He added usefully, \"The island of Hong Kong, 28 square miles in extent, is about 11 miles long and from 2 to 5 miles broad; its circumference is 27 miles\".*\n\nIs this a justifiable description? Was Hong Kong ‘a barren island with hardly a house on it\"? Were its people, such as they were, \"a handful of fishermen and pirates\"? The answer is NO, on both counts. There were several villages of some size, as well as hamlets, and a few larger coastal villages which served as market towns for the villages and as home ports for a permanent boat population and visiting craft. The land people were settled, and as we shall", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210338, "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-1984", "page_number": 309, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "288\n\nJULIAN TENISON WOODS IN HONG KONG\n\nRODERICK O'BRIEN S. J.\n\nA century ago, the government and scientific elite of Hong Kong welcomed an unusual visitor; an Australian Catholic priest and scientist, Julian Edmund Tenison Woods, who passed through Hong Kong as part of an extensive scientific tour of south-east and east Asia. Woods is probably best known outside church circles for his scientific work, and despite limited formal training, he became an active scientist, publishing extensively in natural sciences, especially marine biology, botany, geology and paleontology.\n\nIn 1883, Woods was commissioned by the then Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir Frederick Weld, to explore and report on the mineral prospects of some areas of the Malayan peninsula. During this time, he was elected an honorary member of our sister branch, the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, and two of his nearly two hundred publications are to be found in its journal. This expedition widened in scope, as he took advantage of opportunities to travel more widely, especially on the naval hydrographic ship HMS Flying Fish. Woods eventually returned to Australia in July 1886, after nearly three years research.\n\nDuring this time, he seems to have made four stops in Hong Kong:\n\nJanuary 1885: Hong Kong and Canton\n\nIn mid-January 1885, Woods arrived on the P & O steamer Hydastes from Singapore. He stayed first with the Governor, Sir George Bowen and then with Judge Russell.\n\nSir George arranged for him to lecture on The Mines and Minerals of the Malay Peninsula on 3 February 1885. During his introduction, Sir George expressed surprise at finding a priest involved in scientific pursuits, and his rather tactless remarks have been preserved in the full report which he sent the next day to the Earl of Derby at the Colonial Office:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210687, "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": 38, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "21\n\nin private practice. However he quickly became established and when Hayllar left Hong Kong in 1882 he was ready to step into his shoes. The Hong Kong Telegraph in its obituary observed “In the early part of his career he had an uphill fight but his eloquence and thorough grasp of the law quickly placed him in the leading ranks of the Bar and after the retirement of Hayllar he had no rival. No important case could come before the court without Francis being retained\". The China Mail said “As a lawyer he had limitations but they were due to lack of early legal training rather than lack of ability. He had a ready grasp of the main points of a case and was unequalled as a reader of character, particularly Chinese character, and an expert cross-examiner\". The speed with which he prospered may be judged from the fact that he took silk in 1886, being only the third member of the Hong Kong Bar to do so. In his letter to the Colonial Secretary requesting the Governor to recommend him to the Secretary of State for appointment Francis wrote \"His Excellency is well aware that this is an honour which according to the recognised custom and etiquette of the profession is always asked for and when properly applied for is seldom refused”. The Chief Justice (now Phillippo) wrote \"Mr. Francis is fully deserving the honour he seeks. On the retirement of Mr. Hayllar Q.C. he obtained the position of leading counsel at the Bar in conjunction with the Attorney General. In nearly every case he holds a brief on one side or the other, and as leading counsel when more than one counsel is employed”. Governor Bowen wrote \"he has risen into leading and lucrative practice at the local Bar where he is making, as I am informed, some £4,000 annually. I have no hesitation in recommending that his application be granted\". The newspaper reports of cases bear out the above observations. Only towards the end of his life when his health began to fail did anyone else challenge his supremacy. He died before the start of the Hong Kong Law Reports but one of his cases is reprinted from a newspaper: Tang Kai Shang v. Ng Pak To H.K.L.R. Vol. 6 for 1911 p.90.\n\nReading the newspaper reports of his cases Francis comes across as a forceful, and often pugnacious and outspoken, advocate who took every possible point for his clients and never gave up. He had many clashes with the bench, other counsel and witnesses. He admitted that he was \"at all times very hot tempered\" and more than once apologised for “the unjustifiable warmth” of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210734, "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": 85, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "68\n\nthereon.\" \n\nD.A. GRIFFITHS AND S.P. LAU \n\nBy this time Ford's time had to be divided between running the Botanic Gardens, establishing the herbarium and collecting specimens for both of these undertakings. Realising his own limitation he asked for the appointment of an assistant and a Mr. Westland arrived in the colony in May 1883. Earlier in February of that year Ford, anticipating the arrival of an assistant and the possible rapid expansion of the herbarium, sent the following letter to Kew:\n\n\"Could you also please send me sample of cartridge paper which you use for herbarium sheets, 16” × 10½”, together with prices and name of supplier? The Crown Agents sometimes disappoint me by sending paper unfit for our use and not according to samples sent with order.\"\n\nFord met with a constant barrage of difficulties from Government officials particularly from the Surveyor-General, Mr. Price and from members of the finance committee. Fortunately the Governor, Sir George F. Bowen, supported Ford and a letter by Ford written on 9/5/83 confirms this:\n\n\"H.E. was very pleased with what he saw and he has been very good to my dept. since he came. He offered to let me have at once another $1,000 for the completion of our New Gardens.\n\n\"(He [Mr. Price] wrote to the Governor before the Governor had been a fortnight in the Colony and asked him to reverse Sir J. Hennessy's policy (which had, as you know, been confirmed by the Sec. of State) in reference to my and his departments. The Governor told him that he did not see any reason to disturb the arrangement which his predecessor had made. Sir George told me he had visited the Gardens and that they did me very great credit.)\"\n\nLater in the same year Ford again met official opposition, this", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211167, "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-1987", "page_number": 228, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "203\n\nThe Daily Press publicly launched the discussion of this prickly topic by suggesting that Hongkong make a contribution to the Imperial and Colonial Institute to be set up in London.\n\nHis Highness the Prince of Wales had intimated that Her Majesty, his mother, looked with favour on this project as an expression of her subjects' gratitude and loyalty.\n\nIt was felt that there ought to be a local memorial. Especially, as the paper reminded its readers, \"Hongkong was the first colony acquired by the British Crown after Her Majesty's ascension though Natal runs it rather close and the whole of its history is included in that of Her Majesty's reign, and it seems only reasonable that the present generation of colonists should transmit to their successors some permanent memorial of the jubilee of a sovereign who has endeared herself to her subjects in all parts of the world and in whose reign the Colony was settled and has grown to the state of prosperity it at present enjoys.”\n\nThe paper then anticipated the suggestion Mr. Chater was to make to the Government, that of a public park.\n\nSeveral years earlier Governor Bowen had turned the sod for a park in Wongneichong Valley. It was intended to bear his name.\n\nBut as far as the paper was concerned there was little likelihood of the Government carrying out the scheme for a quarter of a century.\n\nHence, the paper suggested that \"the community might take the matter in hand and change the name to Queen's Park.\" The public was assured that “there would be no discourtesy to Sir George Bowen in changing the name under the circumstances, seeing he was unable to carry out his intention of having the park made during his government and that the work is practically uncommenced.\"\n\nAnother suggestion put forth was that inasmuch as Hongkong had done little to provide education for girls it \"establish and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211170, "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-1987", "page_number": 231, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "206\n\nMr. Chater proceeded to introduce a project he felt worthy of the occasion.\n\nWhat stimulated his imagination were the possibilities for “our picturesque little valley of Wongneichong, so admirably adapted by nature for a park.”\n\nHe knew the valley well, for he was perhaps Hongkong's most enthusiastic and successful racehorse owner. Between his first appearance at the Happy Valley track in 1865 until his death in 1925, he never missed a meeting.\n\nAs for the park, it was true that the Government had appropriated $25,000 for the construction of a park to be named Bowen Park several years earlier, but little had been done.\n\nMr. Chater asked: “Do you not think this is a fitting opportunity for pushing on this much needed park and of naming it after Her Most Gracious Majesty, Victoria Park?”\n\nHe was sure that it would be a project of which the good Queen would approve as it would be \"so beneficial to all the residents of her densely populated little Colony of Hongkong.”\n\nAfter this long introduction, Mr. Chater put the question: “As there is a general desire on the part of the community of Hongkong to celebrate Her Majesty's jubilee year in a fit and appropriate manner, I wish to ask whether the Government would co-operate in any movement made by the public for the purpose?”\n\nThe presiding officer Sir George Phillippo, the Chief Justice, replied on behalf of the Acting Governor who was ill and not able to attend the meeting of the council: \"In answer to the question, I am requested by His Excellency the Acting Governor... to say that the Government is prepared to co-operate with the public of Hongkong in celebrating Her Majesty's jubilee year in a manner befitting the occasion, and is ready to take into consideration any definite proposal on the subject that may be made to it in accordance with the wishes of the community.”", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211187, "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-1987", "page_number": 248, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "223\n\nnity; at least he was the only Chinese to speak at length at the meeting.\n\nHe proposed to amend Mr. Chater's resolution by striking out the reference to a park and in its place substitute the words “a charitable institution of some kind be established and named after Her Majesty, the exact nature of such institution to be left to the decision of Her Majesty herself.\"\n\nHe hoped this would block a decision on a park, and open the way for a project that might have the support of the Chinese. He stated his objections to the park, giving three reasons why it was not acceptable.\n\nHis first objection was that the Government had already stated its intention of creating such a park. It had been on the agenda of the Legislative Council several times, and as he pointed out, \"the money has been voted for it and revoted.”\n\nIf the Government was going to do it, let it carry it through. It was not appropriate that, \"when the Government undertakes to do a certain work for the community to come in and take credit for it and say 'We have done this.'\n\nIntroducing a bit of irony into his remarks, Dr. Ho Kai said: “If it is the general desire of this community to adopt as a memorial to Her Majesty's Jubilee any work which has been undertaken by the Government, then I say, let us dedicate to her our grandest and costliest and greatest one, and that is the Tytam Water Works.” (Applause).\n\nNo, it would not do to foist off a second-hand project as a memorial from the public. As Dr. Ho told his audience: \"What we want, gentlemen, is something quite new, something which the community will carry out without the assistance of Government and something more in harmony with the occasion.\"\n\nThe next objection was of a delicate personal nature. It concerned the late Governor's connection with the proposed park. Two years previous at an official ceremony Sir George Bowen had", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211188, "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-1987", "page_number": 249, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "224\n\nturned the soil in the Wongneichong Valley for a park. The incipient park already bore his name.\n\nGovernor Bowen was one of Hongkong's unpopular administrators. He was regarded as pompous with an over-developed sense of his own importance.\n\nThis antagonism towards him may possibly have been one reason why the park had received support as a memorial gesture. It would be an indirect expression of the public's disapproval of its late administrator if he were deprived of having his name perpetuated in Hongkong by a public amenity.\n\nDr. Ho Kai reminded the meeting that if looked at in another way the change of the name from Bowen to Victoria was not entirely complimentary to Her Majesty. It was rather like, as he expressed it, offering her \"cast off shoes.\" This remark was greeted with loud applause.\n\nDr. Ho Kai reserved his most serious objection last. It was he said \"a class objection.\" The park would not be welcomed by the Chinese.\n\nThough he did not say so openly, it meant that the community could not expect the Chinese to assist in this aspect of the plans for the jubilee.\n\nThe park would be too far from the centre of town. Not only the Chinese but other less affluent sections of the population would find it too remote.\n\nDr. Ho Kai admitted that for residents near the park and those who liked to take long walks the park would meet a need, but, on the other hand, for the great majority of people living in the town the park would be quite useless, at least for some time to come.\n\nThere were suggestions that circumstances might change. “We speak of having tramways, of the Praya extension, and of connecting east and west, but in regard to this I may use the words of Mr. Chater and say that Government does not undertake these", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211197, "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-1987", "page_number": 258, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "233\n\nThe speaker believed that the meeting was with him in a desire to express appreciation “of the kindness of Her Majesty.” He set before them the means of doing so. He proposed the Chinese put up a building for a Chamber of Commerce.\n\nSuch an institution, he maintained, was not only much needed, but indispensable, because \"Hongkong was the entrepôt for the commerce of Asia; and yet the Chinese had no place where they could discuss matters relating to commerce and trade in particular, and also hold public meetings.\"\n\nBesides a hall the building would contain a free library and a reading room where both Chinese and English books and periodicals would be available. The library would be named after the Queen,\n\nWhile the Portuguese and even the Japanese had a meeting place, the Chinese had none. To them it was a disgrace that there was no hall where they could hold official receptions and celebrate public events.\n\nThey were holding their meeting in the Tung Wah Hospital. The Chinese had used it as a meeting place since it was opened, but it was only out of necessity. They did so \"because they had subscribed to it, and had no other place to go, but it was really a Chinese hospital and not a place for meetings to be held.\"\n\nIt would take time to build a suitable hall. As a temporary measure it was proposed to use a building next to the Man Mo Temple on Hollywood Road.\n\nIn presenting the plan, Ho A-mei reviewed some of the past history of a search for a site for a meeting hall. During the administration of Governor Hennessy the grant of a space in the Chinese Recreation Ground was sanctioned, but it was cancelled by his successor, Governor Bowen.\n\nAt the time, the Registrar General had told them that if they really wanted the site they could probably get it if they pressed for it. But this did not seem advisable as the site was far from ideal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211205, "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-1987", "page_number": 266, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "241\n\nOnly one letter was received. It was from Dr. Patrick Manson who proposed building a sanitarium at the Peak for the sick and convalescent.\n\nThe meeting started inauspiciously. It had been called for 4.30pm at the City Hall. When the hour arrived there were only four or five people present. Obviously they could not proceed. Half an hour later there were sufficient present to begin. The attendance, however, was far below that of the first meeting.\n\nOn looking around it was noted that high-ranking government officials had decided not to attend the meeting. They had become somewhat wary of public meetings. They found themselves in an embarrassing position due to their presence at the previous meeting when a plan had been adopted which reflected badly on Hongkong's regard for Governor Sir George Bowen.\n\nThe Governor was on leave and it was not expected his appointment would be renewed. Rumours, however, reached Hongkong after the meeting that he was to sail for the East. It was not clear whether he was returning as Governor of Hongkong or for some other purpose. As it turned out, his term was not renewed. At any rate, prudence dictated that Government officers should avoid meetings which reflected the local animosity towards Sir George.\n\nAfter the opening formalities, the letter of Dr. Manson was read. The chairman then asked for an expression of opinion on the sanitarium scheme. No one responded, instead Mr. W. E. Crow, a government pharmacist, introduced the idea of a public library and reading room,\n\nFollowing Mr. D. R. Crawford's seconding of his proposal, Mr. Crow asked for clarification on a point of procedure. Would Dr. Manson's project be voted on before his own, or would his be voted on as an amendment to Dr. Manson's? The chairman ruled that as Dr. Manson's proposal had not been seconded and Mr. Crow's had, it was the latter which should be voted on.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 } ]