[ { "id": 204237, "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-1961", "page_number": 5, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nBesides the Governor and Shortrede, the first office-bearers included Major-General D'Aguilar, Peter Young the Colonial Surgeon, Mercer the Colonial Treasurer, John Bowring the Younger (of Jardines); and also Thomas Wade, the celebrated interpreter and Envoy to China, who later became famous as inventor of the Wade System of romanization of Chinese still in general use today, and, as Sir Thomas, was to become President of the Society in London in 1887.\n\nIn his Inaugural Address as President, Sir John Davis stressed the importance of directing the Society's attention to practical projects and to natural history, geology and botany, as well as to literary pursuits, and suggested that he could get the sanction of the Colonial Office to the grant of a moderate piece of ground for a Botanical Garden. Sir John left the Colony in 1848; but, as the result of a stirring appeal by Mr. G. Gutzlaff, the missionary, at a meeting of the Society in August 1848, the project was approved, although it was not carried into effect until the governorship of Sir John Bowring (the younger John Bowring's father), and then the Garden was placed under Government control and not under that of the Society.\n\nDuring the twelve years of its life, the Society was dogged to some extent by the personal animosities prevalent in Hong Kong in the early days; but it flourished under the inspiration of Sir John Davis, and also for a time under Sir John Bowring, who enjoyed a European reputation as a scholar—as President he preferred to be called Dr. Bowring—and who animated the Society with his personal influence and by his contributions to its discussions. The Society had no permanent home of its own, but in 1849 it was granted by Sir S. G. Bonham a room in the Supreme Court building. It published six volumes of Transactions, the first in 1847 and the last in 1859.\n\nWith the departure of Sir John Bowring in May 1859 and the death in the September following of the Branch's devoted Secretary—Dr. W. A. Harland, M.D.—the Society collapsed. The efforts of Dr. James Legge, as well as those of Sir Hercules Robinson, the new Governor, as President, of the Bishop of Victoria and of the Acting Chief Justice as Vice-Presidents and of Harry (later Sir Harry) S. Parkes were of no avail.\n\nThe collapse of the Society came at an unfortunate time and deprived it of the prestige and momentum which it would have gained from the work of some of its famous members. Legge was on the eve of publishing his famous translation of the Chinese Classics, which could be printed and distributed only through the generosity of Joseph Jardine, and his successor Sir Robert Jardine, and of John Dent, the heads of the two largest merchant houses in the Colony. A little later, in 1865, T. W. Kingsmill had to resort to the aid of the Shanghai Branch for the publication of his studies on the geology of Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205047, "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-1966", "page_number": 3, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "THE HONG KONG BRANCH\n\nOF THE\n\nROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\nPatron:\n\nH.E. Sir David Trench, K.C.M.G., M.C. Governor of Hong Kong\n\nTHE COUNCIL, 1966:\n\nPresident:\n\nJ. R. Jones, C.B.E., M.C., M.A., LL.D., J.P.\n\nVice-Presidents:\n\nThe Hon. Sir Tsun-nin Chau, C.B.E., M.A., LL.D., J.P. R. E. Lawry, O.B.E., M.A.\n\nHon. Secretary:\n\nE. O. Michaeliones\n\nHon. Treasurer:\n\nW. S. Addis\n\nHon. Editor:\n\nS. Uhalley, Jr., M.A.*\n\nHon. Librarian:\n\nH. A. Rydings, M.B.E., M.A., A.L.A.\n\nCouncillors:\n\nK. E. Robinson, M.A., F.R.HIST.S.\n\nMarjorie Topley, PH.D.* N. du Breuil*\n\nJ. S. Lee\n\nMa Meng, B.A.*\n\n* Member of Editorial Committee", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205241, "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-1967", "page_number": 3, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "The Hong Kong Branch\n\nof the\n\nRoyal Asiatic Society\n\nPatron:\n\nH.E. Sir David Trench, K.C.M.G., M.C. Governor of Hong Kong\n\nThe Council, 1967:\n\nPresident:\n\nJ. R. Jones, C.B.E., M.C., M.A., LL.D., J.P.\n\nVice-Presidents:\n\nMarjorie Topley, B.Sc.(Econ.), Ph.D.* K. E. Robinson, M.A., F.R.Hist.S., J.P.\n\nHon. Secretary:\n\nMiss E. O. Michaeliones, succeeded by T. H. Thomas, B.A. assisted by Mrs. K. R. Hunter, M.A.\n\nHon. Treasurer:\n\nG. W. Lanchester, B.A., succeeded by D. S. Gilkes, M.A., C.A.\n\nJ. S. Lee\n\nHon. Editor:\n\nJ. W. Hayes, M.A., J.P.\n\nHon. Librarian:\n\nH. A. Rydings, M.B.E., M.A., A.L.A.\n\nMa Meng, M.B.E., B.A.*\n\nCouncillors:\n\nH. T. Wu, M.A., J.P. R. Bruce, O.B.E., M.A. M. S. Cumming, O.B.E., J.P.\n\n* Editorial Consultants", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205461, "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-1968", "page_number": 3, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "J. S. Lee\n\nTHE HONG KONG BRANCH\n\nOF THE\n\nROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\nPatron:\n\nH.E. Sir David Trench, K.C.M.G., M.C. Governor of Hong Kong\n\nThe Council, 1968:\n\nPresident:\n\nJ. R. Jones, C.B.E., M.C., M.A., LL.D., J.P.\n\nVice-Presidents:\n\nMarjorie Topley, B.Sc.(Econ.), Ph.D.* K. E. Robinson, M.A., F.R.Hist.S., J.P.\n\nHon. Secretary:\n\nT. H. Thomas, B.A.\n\nHon. Treasurer:\n\nD. A. Gilkes, M.A., C.A.\n\nHon. Editor:\n\nJ. W. Hayes, M.A., J.P.\n\nHon. Librarian:\n\nH. A. Rydings, M.B.E., M.A., A.L.A.\n\nMa Meng, M.B.E., B.A.*\n\nH. T. Wu, M.A., J.P.\n\nCouncillors:\n\nR. Bruce, O.B.E., M.A. (left Hong Kong on retirement in March) M. S. Cumming, O.B.E., J.P.\n\n* Editorial Consultants", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205716, "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": 22, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "16 \n\nT. C. CHENG \n\nDr. Ho died in September 1914 at the age of 55 leaving over ten sons and daughters by his second wife who was a Chinese. \n\nThe fourth Chinese to serve on the Legislative Council was Wei Yuk, son-in-law of Mr. Wong Shing. He had another name Wei Bo-shan17 and Po Shan Road is named after him. He was born in Hong Kong in 1849 of a wealthy family, his father, Wei Kwong, being compradore to the Hong Kong branch of the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China (now the Mercantile Bank Ltd.). After many years of Chinese studies under private tutors, he entered the Government Central School. In 1867, at the age of 18, he proceeded to England to attend the Leicester Stoneygate School. In 1868 he went to Scotland and studied for four years at the Dollar Institution. After a European tour, he returned to Hong Kong in 1872 and then worked in China for a short period. When his father died in 1879 he succeeded him as compradore to the bank. He was a very public-spirited citizen, well-known for his charming manners and pleasant personality. In 1880 he was elected a director of the Tung Wah Hospital and in 1887 became its Chairman. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1883. \n\nWei Yuk's appointment to the Legislative Council was additional to and not in replacement of Ho Kai, and came about as follows. \n\nDuring 1894, the Governor, Sir William Robinson, forwarded to the Secretary of State a petition signed by the Honourable Messrs. Thomas Whitehead, Paul Chater, Ho Kai and other residents in the Colony, asking for unofficial membership in the Executive Council; \"free election of representatives of British nationality in the Legislative Council\"; \"a majority of such representatives in the Legislative Council\"; and freedom of the official members to vote according to their conscientious convictions.18 \n\nThe Secretary of State, Lord Ripon, criticized the petitioners' demands as lacking in clarity on the ground that the petitioners \"asked for the free election of representatives of British nationality without reference to the qualifications of the voters\". Thus if the petitioners intended that only those from the British Islands should vote and be eligible for election, this would exclude the Chinese who comprised nine-tenths of the entire population. He dismissed the claim to have a majority of elected representatives,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205717, "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": 23, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS\n\n17\n\nand stated that free debate by officials was impossible because paid servants must support Government measures or resign.\n\nHowever, in a confidential letter to the Governor, Lord Ripon agreed that unofficial representation on the Legislative Council should be enlarged and that there should be two unofficial members nominated to the Executive Council. Considering the extent of the Chinese contribution to Hong Kong and the undesirability of making any distinctions of race, he was of the opinion that one of them ought to be a Chinese. In his reply, the Governor, Sir William Robinson, doubted the advisability of the proposed increase in the Legislative Council and opposed having a Chinese on the Executive Council on the ground that he \"could not and would not be an independent member\". He also added that the Chinese did not understand representative Government.\n\nIn 1896, the new Secretary of State, Joseph Chamberlain, approved the appointment of an extra unofficial in the Legislative Council, preferably a Chinese, and the appointment of two unofficial members for the first time in the Executive Council. Thus in 1896 Wei Yuk became an unofficial member in the Legislative Council, and Messrs. Paul Chater and J. Bell-Irving of Jardine, Matheson & Co., took their seats in the Executive Council on 22nd October, 1896. From the year 1896 to 1929 there were two Chinese unofficial members serving concurrently on the Legislative Council.\n\nAlthough he was junior to Dr. Ho Kai in the Legislative Council, yet because he was older in age and much more Chinese in his mentality and approach, he was just as much respected by the Chinese as was Dr. Ho Kai. He did a good deal to bridge the gap between the Europeans and the Chinese on the one hand, and the Government and the Chinese population on the other. His advice was highly respected by the Government, especially at times of strikes and troubles among the Chinese masses, e.g., the coolie strike against the health regulations for plague prevention in 1894. He was noted for his ability to settle matters amicably before they assumed serious proportions. He was very much concerned with law and order among the Chinese masses because in those early days riff-raff and political refugees from South China continued to come into Hong Kong. Thus it was at his suggestion that the District Watch Force was formed in 1888, the district", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205931, "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": 11, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "the Society included the hierarchy of the Government, Military, Medical and Mercantile communities.\n\nIn his Inaugural Address as President of the Hong Kong Branch, Sir John Davis stressed the importance of directing the Society's attention to practical projects and to natural history, geology and botany, as well as to literary pursuits, and suggested that he could get the sanction of the Colonial Office to the grant of a moderate piece of ground for a Botanical Garden. Sir John left the Colony in 1848; but, as the result of a stirring appeal by the Rev. C. Gutzlaff at a meeting of the Society in August 1848, the project was approved, although it was not carried into effect until the governorship of Sir John Bowring, and then the Garden was placed under Government control and not under that of the Society.\n\nThe Society was fortunate in enjoying influential Government and press support, including that of the China Mail, and continued under Sir George Bonham who gave the Society a room in the old Supreme Court building to hold its meetings and to house its library.\n\nWith the departure of Sir John Bowring in May 1859, and the death in the September following of the Branch's devoted Secretary, the Society collapsed. The efforts of Dr. James Legge, as well as those of Sir Hercules Robinson, the new Governor, as President, of the Bishop of Victoria and of the Acting Chief Justice as Vice-Presidents and of Harry (later Sir Harry) S. Parkes were of no avail.\n\nThe collapse of the Society came at an unfortunate time and deprived it of the prestige and momentum which it would undoubtedly have gained from the work of some of its famous members. Legge was on the eve of publishing his famous translation of the Chinese Classics, which eventually appeared only through the generosity of Joseph Jardine (and his successor Sir Robert Jardine) and of John Dent, the heads of the two largest merchant houses in the Colony. A little later, in 1865, T. W. Kingsmill had to resort to the aid of the Shanghai Branch for the publication of his studies on the geology of Hong Kong.\n\nIt was thus with a deep sense of responsibility, and also of duty, that it was decided to revive this Society in 1959 after the lapse of a century.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205962, "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": 42, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "HONG KONG CADETS, 1862 - 1941\n\n37\n\nand those on leave, in order to discover, at any moment in time, the actual number of cadets administering the affairs of the colony. However, they formed an administrative corps d'élite: a minuscule band of officials with the same values and from the same social background. They were always in short supply: but in time they changed the style of government in 19th century Hong Kong and routinised its operations. The object of this paper is to examine some changes brought about by the introduction of Sir Hercules Robinson's cadet scheme in 1861,3 and to explore the lives of a few expatriate officials, those who formed the apex of a colonial society with its complicated gradations of race, caste, class, occupation and office.\n\nSuch a research task is not a supererogatory one: Sir Ralph Furse, Director of Recruitment, Colonial Service 1931 - 48, affirms that 'in most colonies the Civil Servant is the Government, and not the servant of Government'24 Sir Ralph's obiter dictum is particularly applicable to Hong Kong in the late nineteenth century. At that time it was a small territory with a population squeezed into a few urban enclaves, where everyone lived cheek by jowl and officials were highly visible and often met in the street. In such a constricted society the quirks of an official, given the system of government, often influenced important administrative decisions, over which the general public could exercise little control. The inclusion of the New Territories in 1899 within the administrative framework of Hong Kong did not substantially alter these facts of life; for a long time, certainly until the re-establishment of British rule in 1945, the New Territories remained curiously peripheral to the older, established areas of Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon peninsula.\n\nThe cadet scheme instituted by Sir Hercules Robinson, Governor of Hong Kong from 1859 - 1865, grew out of a pressing need for correct interpretation and translation in government, especially in the courts. For the first twenty years of its existence, the Colony had very few officials apart from the notorious and devious D. R. Caldwell (at one time General Interpreter to the Government and Registrar-General) who had adequate command of Cantonese and were able to communicate with the mass of the immigrant Chinese population, most of whom were Punti and Hakka. The actions of government were stultified by the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "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": 205972, "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": 52, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "HONG KONG CADETS, 1862 - 1941\n\n47\n\nrelieved by H. E. Wodehouse until January 1890, resuming duties until June, when Wodehouse again acted until the end of the year. Mitchell-Innes was then appointed Treasurer on January 1, 1891, and in 1893 defalcations were discovered in the Treasury. During Mitchell-Innes' term of office, F. H. May acted for him during a six months' leave of absence. Throughout this period 1888-1892, one Alves, first Clerk in the Treasury, had been systematically embezzling crown rents paid to him as shroff for the Department. Alves was sentenced to six years imprisonment with hard labour. It seems that he had been, like many others, caught up in a tide of building speculation, and had lost most of the stolen money, amounting to $67,817, a large sum in those days.46\n\nThe fact that the defalcations occurred in the Treasury and went unnoticed by several heads of department - Lister, Wodehouse, May and Mitchell-Innes - caused a great stir in Government and in the Colony. Lister had died in 1890, and before he died he had been given a bond of $10,000 for the faithful discharge of his duties, so that only Wodehouse, May and Mitchell-Innes were called upon by Sir William Robinson, the Governor, to show cause why they should not be held pecuniarily responsible for the sums embezzled by Alves. Each of the officials replied in his own way and attempted, naturally, to exculpate himself. The Governor mildly censured Wodehouse and May but concluded that Mitchell-Innes had continuously neglected the duties of his office, especially as his was a substantive post but theirs had been merely acting posts in addition to their regular duties in other departments. A confidential despatch was sent to the Secretary of State, the Marquis of Ripon, setting out the facts of the case. Ripon replied that 'the officer to whom the heaviest amount of blame must be attributed is unquestionably Mr. Mitchell-Innes, and I regret to observe that he has not improved his position by the tone and temper of his defence'. Ripon concluded: 'I must mark my sense of his shortcomings, by directing that, as a condition of his remaining in the public service, he be required to pay into the Colonial Treasury a fine of $1,000... and that as he has not justified his selection for the headship of a department in Hong Kong, it will be necessary for me to arrange, if possible, his transfer to another Colony. But such transfer will not mean a promotion, but I trust that...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206396, "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-1971", "page_number": 213, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "# THE COLONY OF HONG KONG\n\n# 187\n\nAs I walked out, after the service, round the wall of the city, I had a singular and pleasing rencontre with a countryman and fellow-townsman of my own. Passing the quarters of the English troops, near the Five-storied Pagoda, a fine-looking fellow of the Engineers came panting up the hill, and addressing me, said, “Are you Mr. Legge of Hongkong?” \"Yes, but I do not know that ever I saw you before.\" \"But you have,\" said he, bursting into the sweet Aberdeenshire Doric; \"I cam oot for the wark here, and we hadna time to land at Hongkong, or I would hae come to see ye. Dinna ye ken the sma toon o' Huntly in Aberdeenshire?\" \"I know Huntly well, and so, I suppose, do you. Are you from Huntly?\" \"Eh! aye. D'ye mind the Piries at the brig-fitt?\" All I could do, I could not bring the Piries to my recollection; but this was one of them, John Pirie; and seeing that he had the Victoria Cross on his breast, I touched it, and said, \"Weel, I see you hae na been disgracing oor sma toon; what did ye get this for?\" \"It was a sma matter, and nae worth speaking about.\" \"But tell me what ye got it for.\" \"Weel, ye see, I was in the Crimea in the attack on the Redan. You ken it was a failure, an' we had to retreat, and many o' oor men were i' the open exposed to the fire o' the Russians. I was wounded mysel', but nae sae sair that I couldna keep the field, and I thought I would try and bring aff some o' these men. An' I did sae, an' they thought it was a brave thing, and gied me this cross for it. But it was a sma matter; I couldna but dee't.”\n\nOn returning from Canton, I started for a short visit to England by way of Calcutta. I reached that city on the day that news came down to it of the taking of Lucknow; and a few weeks after I sailed for home in the same steamer with Sir John Inglis, and many officers of the garrison of Lucknow, and many widows also whose husbands had died there. You may be sure the passage was not tedious with such companions, but I have not time to dwell on my intercourse with them, and many of the thrilling narratives about the siege which I received from their lips.\n\nIn September, 1859, I was back here again, and found that Sir Hercules Robinson had arrived a little before me as our new Governor. The news also greeted me of the violation of the T'ëentsin treaty by the Chinese, and of the defeat of our fleet at", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206397, "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-1971", "page_number": 214, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "188 \n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nthe Ta-koo forts; and there were expectations of a second expedition to secure the fulfilment of that treaty.\n\nSir John Bowring left his name in Bowrington, and the Bowring Praya. He was the most learned of our governors, and I had sincerely wished that he might prove himself as mighty in deeds as in words.\n\nSir Hercules Robinson was a different man, as slow to speak as the other was ready, though he could speak well enough when moved. He began his administration under favourable auspices. The treaty of Tëentsin had given a considerable impulse to trade, and soon the concentration in the Colony of the large force for the second expedition to the North produced a great circulation of money, and increased the demand for house accommodation. Building went on rapidly; the value of ground rose immensely; fortunes were realized by many. Most of this, however, was merely a temporary and factitious prosperity, though Sir Hercules seemed to think, as many others did, that it was real, and that tomorrow would be as this day and much more abundant.\n\nMany important measures were carried through in his time. In 1860, the Chinese schools, supported by Government throughout the island, were entirely re-arranged, and I may claim to myself the merit of having pressed on successive governors the adoption of the present system, which Sir Hercules was the first to take up heartily, and give effect to. We were very fortunate in obtaining such a master to inaugurate it, and carry it out with untiring devotion, as Mr. Stewart. He has been doing a great work of education with hundreds of pupils, the benefits of which will be increasingly felt by the Colony and by China itself.\n\nSir Hercules adopted another scheme, which I had in vain recommended to one governor and another. My idea from 1844 was that the administration of the Colony would not be thoroughly satisfactory, till many of the offices in it were filled by men having a practical knowledge of the Chinese language, and a sympathy with the people. To secure the former, I advised the bringing out of young gentlemen as student-cadets, hoping that they would gradually acquire the latter also. I venture to think that the idea was sound; and it has not been fruitless by any means.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206398, "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-1971", "page_number": 215, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE COLONY OF HONG KONG\n\n189\n\ngood effects. It would have been more fruitful, however, if it had been better carried out, first by Sir Hercules Robinson, and then by Sir Richard MacDonnell. The materials supplied to them from home, in one relay of students and another, were excellent; but there should have been no diverting them away from their proper business of study, until they had given proof of their proficiency by actual interpretation in the Supreme Court; after which, every other office in the Colony, under that of the Governor himself, should have been open to them according to their aptitudes.\n\nTo Sir Hercules also we are indebted for the beginning of our Water Works; and if they were not constructed at first on a sufficiently large scale, where are we still, after so many years, and so continued an expenditure? With all their deficiency, they are a great boon; and when I have read the lucubrations of grumbling complainers, I have laughed in recollecting the scenes of early years, when, every night in the dry season, hundreds, of a small population comparatively, might be seen streaming on the hills with pitchers and buckets, searching for the precious element.\n\nIn Sir Hercules' time also it was that the present Gaol was built, to take charge of which there came out in November 1863, its model governor, Mr. Douglas. Then came gas to illuminate our streets and houses, and a commencement of the Public Gardens was made. The conception of the Mint always appeared to me admirable, and I thought there would be in it an institution that would greatly contribute to the prosperity and influence of the Colony. It has not turned out so. The refining of sugar is a good thing, but I had much rather that the buildings had continued to be employed for coining money.\n\nIn two only of his undertakings did Sir Hercules fail,--the building the prison on Stonecutters' Island, and his management of the newly-acquired territory on the Kowloon side of the harbour. I have heard that he could not get his way with that through the clashing of his views and those of the naval and military Authorities. However that was, the delay in offering the ground for sale to the public, which was done at last at upset prices absurdly high, allowed the ebbing of the tide of factitious prosperity to set in. Perhaps it was well. The impulse from abroad once removed, there was nothing in the Colony itself to sustain", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206399, "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-1971", "page_number": 216, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "190 \n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nthe excitement and activity. Then came the close of the war in America, which had produced a feverish activity in the cotton market, ultimately disastrous to many. There followed, in 1866, the commercial disasters consequent on the fall of Overend and Gurney, and the panic at home, with the crashing of banks and the downfall of Houses which had been supposed to be firm as the foundations of the mountain behind us. It was a time of trouble and darkness. Sir Hercules came to the Colony when the tide was rising, and he had it at the flood for the greater part of his time. There remains the Robinson Road to perpetuate his name. When he went away, Mr. Mercer took his place as acting governor, an able man and accomplished, who would have done better for himself had he ventured to assume more responsibility. Then came Sir Richard MacDonnell to the helm at a time of great difficulty; but here I must bring my reminiscences of Hongkong to a close. The events of Sir Richard's incumbency are fresh in the memory of most of you, fresher, indeed, than in my own, for I was absent from the Colony during his administration for three whole years. There are none of us but would rejoice to hear of the reinvigoration of his health. In these recent years the capabilities of the telegraph wire and of the Suez Canal have come fully into play. Their effects on the Colony have already been great, and they will yet be greater.\n\nAnd now, as I draw to a conclusion, permit me to observe that the more than thirty years of my residence in the East have witnessed events of almost unparalleled magnitude and change all over the world. What wars and revolutions have taken place in Europe! in America! in India! in Africa! But great as they have been, they have not been greater than those which have taken place, here in the Far East. When I think of China opened as it has been, and of Japan pursuing with much more willing and rapid steps the career of progress, I can scarcely realize the contrast between the state of things in 1839 and 1872. We sometimes doubt if China be really moving, but moving it is; and if I sometimes fret at the slowness of its advance, and wish that there were more in it of the mobility of its neighbour, yet in the end that slowness tends to increase my respect for the country and its people. There must be a great future yet for the country. In Great Britain there is an area of 12,000 miles of coal fields,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206517, "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-1972", "page_number": 65, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART\n\n59\n\nent Chinese he was largely instrumental in reorganizing the District Watchmen Force (a body of watchmen paid for by voluntary subscriptions from the Chinese community) and he obtained the appointment of twelve leading Chinese gentlemen as a supervising committee; he remodelled the Po Leung Kuk (a voluntary association concerned with the welfare of girls and young women); and he helped in the reformation of the Tung Wah Hospital and strengthened its committee of management.11 He was active, then, in setting up a number of official Chinese committees, linked to government through their special relationship with the Registrar General's Department, of which he was head. The Registrar General in all cases was ex officio chairman of the committees.\n\nLockhart's views on the importance of the Chinese element in the population are to be found in a trenchant report he submitted in 1894 to the Governor, Sir William Robinson, 'on the subject of a petition addressed to the House of Commons praying for an amendment of the Constitution of the Crown Colony of Hong Kong.' This petition from Hong Kong taxpayers to the House of Commons owed its origin principally to the imposition upon the taxpayers in 1891 of an additional military contribution of £20,000 a year, a decision that irritated and excited particularly the European business community. In 1894 T.H. Whitehead,13 Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council and leader of the business faction, was granted six months' leave of absence from the Council and he took with him to England a petition signed by 363 members of the community — (in Lockhart's words) ‘284 British, 10 Anglo-Chinese, 3 American, 4 Portuguese, and 47 British Indians.' The petitioners sought the election of representatives of British nationality in the Legislative Council; freedom of debate for the Official members with power to vote as they desired; complete control in the Council over local expenditure; the management of local affairs; and a consultative voice in questions of an Imperial character.\n\nWith great dialectical skill Lockhart took the petition to bits and exposed the vacuity of its arguments. In his memorandum to the Governor he averred: 'Most of the taxes fall almost entirely on the Chinese. The only tax to which the British and other residents as a whole are subject in the same manner as the Chinese is the tax of 13 per cent levied on the rateable value of house", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206616, "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-1972", "page_number": 164, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "158\n\nDAFYDD EMRYS EVANS\n\nCaine, allegations were repeatedly made of his complicity with persons of ill-repute, in particular with Daniel Caldwell, for many years a Government servant and consort of the 'Jonathan Wild' of Hong Kong, a Chinese called Wong Akee (or Machow Wong).\n\nAfter this incident of the Market extortions, which most wanted to believe anyway, Tarrant turned his attentions towards the Press, becoming—how is unexplained—the owner of the Friend of China on the departure from the Colony of the editor who had taken his side in market dispute, John Carr. Tarrant was able to use the editorial columns to pursue Caine and his subordinates on every possible occasion but in the end it was Caine who won. In 1859 he was forced out into the open and instituted a Crown prosecution for criminal libel against Tarrant. This ended with Tarrant being jailed for one year. When he was released before the end of his sentence Tarrant was a broken man and left the colony for Canton, where he continued to publish the Friend. He paid a visit to Hankow in 1861 and settled later in Shanghai but his journal never flourished thereafter.\n\nIt is, perhaps, a pity that the issue of corruption in government in Hong Kong, some of which was so devastatingly exposed by Sir Hercules Robinson, a later Governor, in 1861 in his Report to the Home Government on Civil Service Abuses in Hong Kong, was so clouded by the personalities of those who concerned themselves with the issue. The undoubted corruption which government servants like Caine permitted, even if they did not actively participate in it themselves, could have at least received a check if the then Governor, Sir John Davis, had had the courage of his own convictions and the confidence of the public and ordered a proper investigation into the Market scandal. Instead, the rumours which had started in 1841 when Caine was alleged to have allowed piratical activities for a price, rumours fed by the Lock Hospital scandal and the Tarrant affair, continued unabated until 1861, by which time most of the objectionable public servants had left the service.\n\nNOTES\n\nA Friend of China, 19 June 1842.\n\n2 The Lower Bazaar, located in the present Bonham Strand area, came into existence when A. R. Johnston, who had control of the administration of the island when Sir Henry Pottinger was absent from the colony prosecuting the war against China, allowed Chinese who had helped the British", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206761, "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-1973", "page_number": 38, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "32 \n\nA. J. S. LACK \n\nhad died the reaction of the Chamber of Commerce to the Governor's suggestion was not perhaps what one might have imagined. \n\nOn 27th September 1906, Mr. E. A. Hewett* the unofficial member of the Legislative Council appointed by the Chamber of Commerce rose to comment upon the budget proposals for the year ahead, and in the course of his speech said— \n\nWith regard to the typhoon shelter, your Excellency referred to the necessity for this which is admitted by all and went on to suggest the Chamber of Commerce might see their way to suggest the means of raising funds, I am sorry to say the Chamber of Commerce do not see their way to meet your Excellency's suggestion. For many years it has been strongly urged by all those interested in shipping that tonnage and light dues should not be levied for the purposes of general revenue. \n\nHe claimed that in 1897 Mr. Chamberlain, the then Secretary of State in reply to a telegram from Sir Wilfred Robinson, “practically admitted that in future light and tonnage dues were not to be raised for such purposes.\" He then said, \n\n\"the shelter benefits all classes of the community and should be borne by the Community and not by the shipping section, we all depend on the native craft, the merchant and the house owner as well as the ship owner and the refuge here is just as much a benefit to the merchant and the house owner as to the ship owner. Consequently, it would be manifestly unfair to ask a portion of the community to raise a large sum of money for the benefit of the whole Colony.\" \n\nMr. Hewett then questioned various sites which had been proposed for a typhoon shelter and raised the possibility of the Colony incurring a loan to pay for it. Then he went on to say that he did not suppose that even had there been a shelter it would have had any effect in avoiding the great loss of life which had occurred on 18th of the month. He considered that a few boats in the immediate vicinity might have gone into the refuge, but it would not have benefitted the native shipping at large. \n\n* Edbert Ansgar Hewett, listed in Who's Who in the Far East as Superintendent, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, b. 1860, member of the Shanghai Municipal Council 1897-1901 and its Chairman in 1900-1901. Chairman of the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce since 1903.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207303, "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": 71, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "THE GREAT PLAGUE OF HONG KONG\n\n63\n\nfaced with our epidemic of great magnitude. By July, for example, there had been 2442 deaths. Hospitals were quickly established on board the \"Hygeia\", at Kennedy Town Police Station and at the Kennedy Town glass works. The first two hospitals were run by European staff whilst the third was manned by Chinese personnel of the Tung Wah hospital. Official despatches record that \"it was deemed advisable to give the Chinese doctors a free hand at first. In any case, it is difficult to persuade the Chinese to report cases of sickness and their foolish and violent prejudice against Western medical men is quite sufficient to induce them, as they certainly did in the first fortnight or three weeks of the existence of the plague, not only to secrete their sick but often to desert their plague-stricken friends and relations after death.\"*\n\nA house-to-house inspection was carried out by personnel of the garrison and those houses in which plague had occurred were cleansed and disinfected. This action gave rise to numerous complaints from the Chinese community for it was rumoured that the foreigners had sinister and unspeakable desires on the women and children. Indeed, so inflamed did feelings become that a deputation of Chinese petitioned the Governor, Sir William Robinson, to order the cleansing operations to be stopped. However, Sir William made it clear in no uncertain terms that the government was determined to take strong measures. Subsequently, an anti-government poster campaign was launched and this spread to Canton where further rumours were started to the effect that English doctors were accused of cutting open pregnant women and scooping out the eyes of children to make medicines for the treatment of plague-stricken patients.\n\nThe prompt answer of the governor in Hong Kong was to station the gunboat \"Tweed\" off Tai Ping Shan and to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest of persons distributing malicious posters. Additionally, the Chinese Viceroy in Canton was requested to issue proclamations denying the atrocity stories. However, these were not made with any great degree of vigour and feelings in Canton continued to run high to the extent that two women missionary doctors were set upon by a mob.\n\n* \"Further Correspondence Relative to the Outbreak of Bubonic Plague at Hong Kong between Sir William Robinson to the Marquess of Ripon 1894\", p. 2 in Blue Book Reports on Bubonic Plague 1894-1903, Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210209, "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": 180, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "159 \n\nThe action of the Secretary of State in overruling the Governor's advice in 1889, 1893, and 1931 was most unusual. It was, doubtless, a highly moral stand, and spared the Secretary from the obloquy of appearing as an advocate of vice in an unsympathetic House of Commons. But the results were disastrous, so disastrous in fact that the official instructions were circumvented in Hong Kong for thirty years with the connivance of the Colonial Office. When they were enforced under a compliant Governor the results turned out to be as bad as had been predicted.\n\n2 \n\n1 \n\nNOTES \n\nHong Kong Government Gazette, 15 February 1873 p. 55. \n\nHong Kong Legislative Council, Sessional Papers 1931, pp. 102 and 111. Correspondence relating to the Working of the Contagious Diseases Ordinances of the Colony of Hong Kong, C3093, p. 21 in Parliamentary Papers 1881 LXV, p. 599. \n\n4 Mr. Labouchere to Governor Bowring, 27 August 1858, reproduced in Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Working of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance 1867 (Hong Kong: Noronha 1879) p. 207. \n\n6 \n\nOp. cit. note 3, p. 22. \n\nFor a full description of the system in operation in 1878 see Report of the Commissioners, 1879, Appendix, especially the evidence of C. Clementi Smith and A. Lister at pp. 1-8. \n\n+ Ibid, Appendix p. 6. 'The examinations were the greatest punishment (the women) could have and the mere threat of sending them to examination was generally sufficient to keep them in order. See also CO129/259 pp. 132f for the situation in 1893. \n\nQuoted by Governor Sir J. Pope Hennessy in a despatch to the Earl of Kimberley, 13 Nov 1880, in op. cit., note 3, p. 46. \n\n9 \n\n9 W.H. Marsh, Officer Administering the Government, to Secretary of State, 10 Jan 1887 in Parliamentary Papers 1887 LVII p. 689, no. 6. \n\n10 Sir H.T. Holland to Governor of Hong Kong, 2 July 1887 in Parliamentary Papers 1887 LVII, p. 793, no. 30. \n\nSir W. Des Voeux to Lord Knutsford, 8 Oct. 1888 with enclosures in Parliamentary Papers 1889 LV p. 163, no. 22. \n\n12 \n\nKnutsford to Des Voeux, 30 Nov. 1888 and 15 Feb. 1889 in Parliamentary Papers 1889 LV pp. 173 and 204, nos. 25 and 39. \n\n13 Knutsford to Des Voeux, 3 Jan. 1890 and 13 Jan. 1890 in Parliamentary Papers 1890 XLIX pp. 56 and 63, nos. 25 and 27. \n\n14 \n\nDes Voeux to Knutsford, 29 July 1889 in Parliamentary Papers 1890 XLIX p. 38 no. 10 and Marquess of Ripon to Sir William Robinson, 17 March 1893 in Parliamentary Papers 1894 LVII p. 39, no. 13. \n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210210, "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": 181, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "160\n\nR.J. MINERS\n\n15 Knutsford to Des Voeux, 12 Dec. 1890 and Des Voeux to Knutsford, 13 April 1891 in Parliamentary Papers 1894 LVII pp. 26-27, nos. 5 and 6.\n\n16 See for example CO129/218 p. 487, letter to the Secretary of State from the National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act, 28 March 1884.\n\n17 Ripon to Robinson, 17 March 1893 in Parliamentary Papers 1894 LVII p. 39, no. 13.\n\n18 Robinson to Ripon, 17 June 1893 with enclosures in Parliamentary Papers 1894 LVII pp. 46-52, no. 17.\n\n19 See the tabulated returns for Straits Settlements and Hong Kong in CO129/286 pp. 86-87.\n\n20 See CO882/6 Confidential Print Eastern no. 69 Correspondence regarding the Measures to be Adopted for Checking the Spread of Venereal Disease 1894-1899; Minute by Sir Edward Wingfield at CO129/276 p. 132.\n\n21 J. Chamberlain to Governor Sir H.A. Blake, 11 May 1899 in CO882/6 p. 117.\n\n22 Minute by J. Chamberlain, 25 Jan. 1898 in CO129/276 p. 132.\n\n23 This possibility had been mentioned earlier in an unpublished letter from the Attorney General; see minute in CO129/286 p. 75 dated 18 March 1899.\n\n24 Memorandum by Secretary for Chinese Affairs, 4 June 1923 in CO129/480 pp. 254-259.\n\n25 The following paragraphs are based on the S.C.A. memorandum; a long description by Dr. Wellington, Director of Medical and Sanitary Services, not dated item 5 in CO129/533/10 of 1931; and note by the Chief Justice, J.H. Kemp dated 16 May 1931, item 3 in CO129/533/10.\n\n26 Macfarlane and Aubrey: Journal of the Hong Kong University Medical Society, Vol. 1 April 1922, quoted in CO129/480 p. 260.\n\n27 In CO129/472 pp. 356-382, April 1921.\n\n28 See CO129/474 pp. 338-358; CO129/484, pp. 257-8; CO129/485 pp. 2-18 and 122-6.\n\n29 See CO129/472 pp. 603-5; CO129/475 pp. 326-331; CO129/483 pp. 66-75 and pp. 156-170.\n\n30 Straits Settlements Legislative Council Sessional Papers 1923: Report of the Venereal Diseases Committee, 17 December 1923, pp. C286-327; CO882/11 Confidential Print Eastern no. 147 Correspondence 1923-1925 Relating to Social Hygiene in Singapore.\n\n31 First Report of the Advisory Committee on Social Hygiene, August 1925 Cmd 2501. See also Report of a Committee appointed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to examine and report on Straits Settlements Ordinance no. 15 of 1927, March 1929, Cmd 3294.\n\n32 CO129/522/3.\n\n33 Unpublished memoir by Sir William Peel deposited at Rhodes House, Oxford. House of Commons Debates, 27 June 1930 p. 1500, speech by Dr. D. Shiels.\n\n34 Peel to Passfield, 22 August 1930 in CO129/522/3.\n\n35 Peel to Passfield, 9 June 1931 in CO129/533/10.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210697, "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": 48, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "31\n\nother it is in my fondness for anything connected with the military”.\n\nFrancis was involved with a number of organisations founded for the benefit of the Chinese. In 1878 a number of Chinese, concerned about the traffic in women and girls, petitioned the Governor for permission to form an Anti-kidnapping Association. The Governor appointed a committee of four, including Francis, to investigate the matter. The committee met in 1878 and 1879 and Francis put forward “Suggestions for the organisation of the proposed Chinese Society for the Protection of Women and Children\". He proposed that a company limited by guarantee be formed with a management committee of seven, two to retire annually and their successors to be elected by the shareholders, the Governor having a right of veto. The objects were to be the protection of women and children by detecting and suppressing kidnapping, the restoration of women and children to their homes (if that were not possible making provision for their future), providing temporary accommodation and a refuge for the homeless and raising funds. He also proposed that the Society should employ detectives to be sworn in as special constables with powers to act against kidnappers. (The activities of these detectives led to a number of cases in the courts in some of which Francis was engaged). In the result the Po Leung Kuk, or Society for the Protection of the Innocent, was formed in 1880. Francis drafted rules and regulations for the running of the Society. They stood the test of time as was affirmed by Governor William Robinson when he laid the foundation stone of a new home for women and girls in 1896. After reviewing the history of the Society he said “And let me say here that the rules and regulations under which the Society has so long and successfully worked were drawn up by our eminent Q.C. Mr. Francis. The society has proved itself worthy of confidence and I ask you to concur with me in the hope I now express that its future success may be greater still\". That hope has been fully confirmed. The Society still flourishes and provides many services in the fields of health, education and welfare for children, women and the elderly.\n\nFrancis was also a member of the Finance Committee of the Alice Memorial Hospital founded by a prominent Chinese, Ho", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210701, "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": 52, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "35\n\nhis profession but no-one would ever know what he was going to do next. Francis did not try again though he remained in the public mind as a possible candidate. The Daily Press in an editorial in 1892 said that he would prove a valuable acquisition to the Council with his long and intimate knowledge of the colony and his legal attainments but the Government would probably think it desirable to have a merchant. Also (according to G.B. Endacott, Government and People in Hong Kong 1841-1962) Governor William Robinson regarded Francis as one of his principal opponents. However he maintained his interest in the reform of the Legislative Council and the introduction of representative government. In 1889 in a lecture on Crown Colonies he expressed a hope for an elected Council, and he was a leading member of the Hong Kong Association founded in 1893 for improving and popularising the Government. That was followed in 1894 by a petition to the Home Government for constitutional reform.\n\nFrancis did in fact achieve elective office, but on the Sanitary Board. That was set up in 1883 to supervise and control the practical sanitation of the colony (which left much to be desired). As its work involved interference with the private affairs of residents it was unpopular with property owners and with the Chinese generally. It could however only make proposals. Their implementation was a matter for the Government. Originally it consisted solely of official members but subsequently provision was made for nominated unofficial members, and two members elected by ratepayers on the special and common jury lists. The first election was held in June 1888 and there were four candidates including Francis who received 55 votes. The other candidates received 71, 43 and 18 votes respectively. The Daily Press hailed the occasion saying the day would be ranked as a day of note by the future historian of Hong Kong; for the first time the ratepayers of the Colony had been given a voice in the management of their own affairs. Prior to the election it referred to his legal knowledge, skill in debate and long and intimate knowledge of social conditions of all sections of the population and said that his presence on the Board should ensure some check on its servants. Granville Sharp in proposing him called him capable, conscientious and unselfish. He promised to be a watchdog for the public. He remained a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210707, "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": 58, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "41\n\nwith Mr. Francis. The procedure of the Hong Kong Government towards him seems miserably failing in tact. The Government was contemptible but Mr. Francis has diverted to himself a portion of the criticism that would otherwise have been monopolised by the Government. The whole affair makes an ugly page in the annals of the colony\".\n\nThere was reaction also inside the Government. Ackroyd wrote to the Colonial Office saying \"Mr. Francis is not a general favourite in Hong Kong and therefore the feeling in his favour on this occasion is all the more forcible testimony”. A Government memorandum recorded \"It has been decided not to give Francis the C.M.G. and it is impossible to vary that decision in the light of his letters. It will be seen that in his letter of 29 May he asks for the reason why he has not been honoured to the same extent as May. He should be politely told that the Secretary of State must decline to enter into correspondence on the subject”. The Governor recommended that Francis should be noted for a C.M.G. \"if he is quiet between this and then\" (i.e. the next honours list). According to a memorandum in 1902 Francis was so noted but “it was not finally decided that he should be given the C.M.G.”\n\nAfter the death of Francis, Ackroyd wrote to the Daily Press “He was a most useful citizen. As Chairman of the Plague Recognition Committee I recall he had put aside his professional duties and sacrificed his large practice for some months to help the Colony in her hour of trial\" (in fact he did not entirely abandon his practice). “He did a great and good work and I deeply regretted that these deserving services had not met with their reward but I suppose some official jealousy prevented him receiving that mark of Her Majesty's favour which he surely deserved and which he would greatly have appreciated\". The Colonial Secretary, J.H. Stewart Lochkart, brought this letter to the attention of the Governor writing “Ackroyd was knighted and now draws a handsome pension of more than £1,200 a year. So far as the Hong Kong Government is concerned his supposition of official jealousy is entirely unfounded. The services of Francis were brought to the notice of the Colonial Office by Sir William Robinson, and Mr. May when he was on leave at home also informed the Colonial Office of the good work done by Francis. I believe he would have been decorated but he published an injudicious letter after receiving the historical inkpot", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210726, "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": 77, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "60\n\n—\n\nD.A. GRIFFITHS AND S.P. LAU\n\nand it is to be got through the Press early in the issuing year. It will form one of the series of Floras of the British Colonies published under the sanction of H.M. Government and the general superintendence of Sir W.J. Hooker.\n\nFurther, and perhaps of more relevance in getting the gardens established, it is boldly stated in answer to Query no. 4 of June 28th 1860 \"No Botanical Garden exists in the colony\".\n\nThus although the scheme to establish a public Botanical Garden had been sanctioned by the Secretary of State in 1856, the proposal was held in limbo until Nov 30th 1861 when a sum of £269..10..6 was approved \"for the formation of Public Gardens”. A further sum of £4,371..2..6 was approved by the Governor, Hercules Robinson who explained the justification for such a large sum on the difficult topography of the chosen site.\n\n\"The amount proposed to be expended in this service is large, but the only ground available for a Public Garden in a suitable locality is situated on such a steep incline as to call for very special arrangements for carrying off the water from the hills. Drainage and a boundary wall constitute the chief items of the Estimate\".\n\nIt is obvious that Governor Robinson considered the formation of a public garden both an added attraction to the rapidly expanding city and, in addition, well within the financial resources of the Colony. He continues:\n\n\"I am of opinion that a portion of the large surplus revenue at present in hand, cannot be better expended than in carrying out this undertaking, which will contribute to the embellishment of the City of Victoria and the health and enjoyment of its inhabitants.”\n\nThe Duke of Newcastle's scribbled note appended to Robinson's submission on its arrival in London states:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210727, "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": 78, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "61\n\n\"Rather a large outlay for Public Gardens but as the Revenue is very flourishing and the object (?) one of general public advantage\n\nHe sanctioned the costs!\n\n+\n\netc.\"\n\nIn addition to the actual cost of the gardens themselves, an extra provision of $3,562.24 was made on November 7th, 1862, \"for the erection of Quarters for the Government Gardener and the foreman of works…\". During the final stages of construction, there were the inevitable changes in plans and, in addition, the ground being levelled was so rugged and rocky, requiring much blasting, that a final supplementary funding was approved on July 13th, 1864, totalling $15,643.98.\n\nIt is difficult to establish who, apart from the Governor, were the people striving to establish the Botanic Gardens, which were comparatively expensive to develop and would, by definition, divert funds from other seemingly more important projects within the Colony. One such person was Dr. H.F. Hance, a distinguished botanist who later became vice-consul at Whampoa, and who played an active role in pushing the project forward. He wrote, for example, to George Bentham of Kew Gardens in November 1859:\n\n“When in Hong Kong, I had a talk with Sir Hercules Robinson (then Governor of Hong Kong) on the subject of a Botanic Garden, and he seemed to look hopefully, I thought, on the prospects of one being established.\"\n\nHis involvement in the project was confirmed later in his obituary, which appeared in the Hongkong Daily Press dated 26th June, 1886:\n\n\"When Hong Kong began to think of establishing a Public Garden, Dr. Hance was consulted as to the suitability of a site, and it was on his recommendation that that was chosen on which the old portion of the Botanic Gardens now rest.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211035, "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": 96, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "71\n\n1901 (see below).\n\n36\n\nBrewin, who was promoted to Registrar General in 1901, had also served briefly, from 1897 to 1901, as Inspector of Schools in succession to E.J. Eitel. His endorsement was, therefore, particularly valuable. He had been appointed, together with his successor as Inspector of Schools, E.A. Irving, and the Chinese member of the Legislative Council, Ho Kai, to the 1901-1902 Education Committee, the report of which contains blatant calls for the separate educational treatment of the different races and a clear recommendation, compatible with the extremes of colonialistic paternalism, that, as far as Chinese education was concerned, the Government should concentrate its efforts and finances on the education, in English, of the few who could be regarded as potential leaders. Interestingly, the Secretary of State for the Colonies at this time, Joseph Chamberlain, totally rejected this recommendation (Chamberlain to Sir Henry Blake, Governor of Hong Kong, 12th September, 1902, in CO129/311, p. 481).\n\n\"For certain individuals, this explanation is something of a euphemism since the “medical and sanitary precautions\" involved burning down their homes.\n\nThe Plague first broke out in Hong Kong in the Spring of 1894. The death rate for the first five or six months was over 2,500, and, though, it was the Chinese population which was most affected, the Europeans were not untouched. Lady Robinson, the wife of the Governor of Hong Kong, was, for example, a victim. Dr. E.J. Eitel, the Inspector of Schools, provided details of the rumours circulating among the less educated Chinese, and their effects, in a memorandum to the Colonial Secretary on 22nd May 1894. Eitel wrote to report and explain \"the panic which has suddenly decimated the attendance in the local Chinese Schools\" and noted that the rumours began to spread in districts affected by the Plague on Sunday, 20th May and reached other districts the next day. The principal rumours were (a) that \"the Government intended to select a few young Children from each School to subject them to a surgical incision of the liver in order to obtain bile, this being the only known remedy for curing the plague”; and, (b) that \"every School would be visited by officers who would examine every child and send to the \"Hygeia\" anyone having the least boil or pimple on its body\". Eitel speculated about the origin of the panic, attributing it to \"the malicious distortion of the native medical fraternity\" and concluded: “I do not think anything very effectual can be done to remove the suggestions of native malice to native ignorance and suspiciousness. Distrust of the Government is still rampant among the lower classes of Chinese. Education will remove it in time. (Memorandum No. 38 of 22nd May, 1894, by Dr. E.J. Eitel, Inspector of Schools; in CO129/263, p. 190-193). 39 In Arnold Wright (ed.), Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and the Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History, People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources (London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908), p. 182, for example, Mok Tso Chun, “a native of the Heungshan district\" and formerly one of the directors of the Tung Wah Hospital, is described as the Chief Compradore of Butterfield and Swire. In the Anglo-Chinese Commercial Directory of circa 1915 (Chief Editor, Jan George Chance), a Mok Jao Chuen, clearly the same person as Mok Tso Chun, appears as Compradore for Butterfield and Swire, while a Choi Kung Po and a Mok Kon Sang appear as Assistant Compradores. Mok Man Cheung acted as witness to the will of Mok Tso [or Jao] Chun and the will, itself, makes it clear that Mok Kon Sang was Mok Tso Chun's eldest son. It was certainly not unusual for Compradores at this time to find positions for younger relatives.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211105, "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": 166, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "141\n\nOf the issues raised in the editorial comments on the Chinese protest meeting chaired by Ho A-mei, English language education and the consultative process are still Hongkong concerns.\n\nHOW AN OBNOXIOUS LAW WAS ABOLISHED\n\nThe China Mail in commenting on the protest meeting against the light and pass regulations held in 1895 emphasised the theme of sedition and the threat to internal security. It approved the warning the Governor had given the speakers.\n\nThe Telegraph, however, upheld the principle of freedom of speech and the right of the Chinese to express their opinions. Its editorial was colourful and strongly worded.\n\nToday the English language press seldom openly attacks a Government official. Journalism in Hongkong is much too polite and gentlemanly for this. The Chinese press, however, has its own subtle way of ridiculing public servants.\n\nThe Telegraph spoke out boldly in criticising the tone taken by Governor Robinson in his remarks to the Directors of Tung Wah Hospital. In its opinion, what was needed was a “Government gag.”\n\nIt stated that \"His Excellency Sir William Robinson is badly in need of an automatic patent safety gag, so arranged as to shut everybody's mouth as soon as there is any occasion for absolute freedom of speech. We have seen many ebullitions of petty resentment on his part... but we have seldom seen such a determined onslaught on the divine right of freedom of speech as the one hinted at so plainly threatened is the word, for it rather more than hinted ---- in his recent address to the Tung Wah Committee”.\n\nThe Governor had probably spoken \"off the cuff\". If he had given the matter more careful consideration, he probably would have expressed himself in a less abrasive manner. However, his words reflected a popular method of dealing with Chinese. One did not listen, discuss nor bargain. With the backing of superior power, one told them what was expected of them.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212328, "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-1990", "page_number": 270, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "247\n\n―\n\nand Godown Company. 'Monuments' still standing include the Helena May Institute (completed 1916), Saint Andrew's Church (foundation stone laid 1904) and Church Hall, and the Peninsula Hotel (official opening 1928) which — along with the Taj Mahal in Bombay, Raffles in Singapore and a few others was classified, before World War II, as one of the 'great hotels of the East'. Another of Leigh and Orange's edifices is the main, 'Renaissance' style, building at Hong Kong University which was completed in 1912 and extended in 1952. It has been gazetted as an historical monument. The now demolished Sir Paul Chater's 'Marble Hall', generally accepted as the most luxurious residence in Hong Kong before World War II, was another example.\n\nThe Colony's first, full-time, chartered accountant was Arthur Lowe, who came to Hong Kong in 1902. Joseph Bingham became his partner in 1905, and Frederick Mathews (Lowe, Bingham and Mathews) in 1909. There were other accountants in the Territory before 1902, but few had professional qualifications and auditing was usually a subsidiary activity to their main lines of business. For instance, Linstead and Davis were mainly property agents, but they also sold bicycles, and, up to 1926, they had an agency for Manila cigars. The partners audited the accounts of various companies. The senior partner of Gibb Livingston was one of the two Hong Kong Bank auditors, and so on.\n\nLowe Bingham (Lo Bing Ham in Chinese) became part of the international firm of Price Waterhouse in 1974,\n\nHong Kong and China Gas Company\n\nWilliam Glen, who had no knowledge of the gas industry in 1861, obtained from the then Governor, Sir Hercules Robinson (when the population was 123,281), a concession to supply gas to the city of Victoria. The company was incorporated on May 31st 1862: most of the shareholders lived in the United Kingdom, although 500 shares were offered locally.\n\nThen, on December 3rd 1864, Hong Kong was lit with gas for the first time by about 15 miles of mains and 500 lamps, in Queen's Road extending up the hill to Upper Albert Road. Previously, the only street lights had been installed voluntarily by residents, and burned peanut oil. The residents of Caine Road complained that they\n\n---\n\nPage 270\n\nPage 271", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213084, "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-1993", "page_number": 152, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "133\n\nsecretary of the Sanitary Board. He turned out to be wrong.\n\nMay 8th\n\nI am diagnosed A. Hung as suffering from plague and isolated him\n\nThe identity of A. Hung was revealed in the Report to the Governor. He was a ward boy in presumably the Government Civil Hospital. He was admitted during Lowson's absence in Canton with the diagnosis of remittent fever but having seen him Lowson diagnosed it as plague. This then was the first case he saw in the Hong Kong Epidemic. Action had now to be taken as described in the following entry:\n\nMay 10th\n\nOrder from HE OAG for report on plague in Canton in morning Order an four Taler to visit Tung Wah where I found about 20 cases of bubonic plague Visited Tung Wah again with Ayres at 2:30 pm Sanitary Board at 4:00 pm Long Meeting Gave order to have Hygeia over in morning and prepare for epidemic Government proclaimed Colony suffering from plague\n\nThe Governor then was Sir William Robinson. He must have been away and the person acting for him, known as the Officer Administrating the Government, could be the General Officer Commanding. The Hygeia was a hospital ship moored in the harbour for the isolation of patients suffering from infectious diseases such as small-pox and cholera. The Tung Wah was the same hospital which still stands on its original site, on Po Yan Street in Sai Ying Pun District.\n\nWe will now follow the situation as it developed from the entries of the next few days:\n\nMay 11th\n\nHygeia over Sanitary Board in pm passing bye-laws 13 deaths from plague\n\nMay 12th\n\nSome difficulty with moving patients but got them all over before 4 pm Saw all settled Rabbit and Guinea pig injected from A Hung 26 deaths reported from plague", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213092, "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-1993", "page_number": 160, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "141\n\nwith some happier notes.\n\nJuly 23rd\n\nBy this time we had broken down the opposition and matters began to run smoothly\n\nAnd after a long gap, the final entry,\n\nSeptember 3rd\n\nI left for Japan about this time spending all September in Colony In Japan the guest of the Japanese Government and made a national hero Valuable presents numerous and suite of rooms in the Imperial Hotel\n\nThis red-carpet treatment must have been recommended by Kitasato in appreciation of the help given him by Lowson in making the discovery that earned him international fame\n\nHaving read the diary, I learnt more about the situation as it developed from day to day but it came as a surprise to me that so much had gone on behind the scenes arising from clashes of personalities The three important people whose responsibility in the fight against the Epidemic was no less onerous than that of Ayres or Lowson were called: fools, cowards and nonentities. They were the Governor, who was in overall charge as head of the administration, the Colonial Secretary, who was the Governor's principal assistant, and the Chairman of the Permanent Committee of the Sanitary Board which was set up to recommend on legislation Were the accusations justified? We do not know, but it would be interesting to find out something about these three.\n\nSir William Robinson was Governor of Hong Kong from December 1891 to January 1898. His governorship covered a most difficult period in the history of Hong Kong, during which 'misfortunes after misfortunes assailed the colony in swift succession', to quote from Sayers. The year 1894 was a particularly bad one for Robinson and Hong Kong. His wife died but not from plague. Two very severe typhoons struck Hong Kong in September and October, causing much devastation and many casualties. Above all, there was the Epidemic with its effect on the economy and other aspects of life in the Territory. Robinson reported to the Secretary of State for the Colonies that 'Without exaggeration, I may assert that so far as trade and commerce are concerned the plague has assumed the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215296, "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": 73, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "21\n\nKenya 33 per cent, Nigeria 58 per cent, Ceylon 52 per cent, Jamaica 60 per cent.\n\n7. For example Nyasaland in 1929 raised the duty on imported soap from 5 shillings to 7 shillings to protect a newly established factory. In 1931 the duty was increased to 8 shillings a cwt. The Colonial Office first heard of these increases in 1932 when Unilever complained. Memo IDC(37)No.7, T160/763/F14811/2.\n\n8. CO137/780. Georgina Waylen, 'Colonial Policy towards industrialisation between the wars: the case of Jamaica', Manchester Papers in Politics (University of Manchester, Nov. 1987, mimeo).\n\n9. In 1931 a local company proposed to establish a cement factory in Kenya which required a protective tariff and a guarantee that a very high anti-dumping duty would be imposed on Japanese cement which dominated the market. The Colonial Office refused the request for protection on the advice of the Board of Trade because the local factory if successful would take over government orders, depriving British cement manufacturers of the last remnant of the market. CO533/417/18. In 1933 the Colonial Office rejected a scheme to erect a cotton spinning and weaving factory in East Africa which required a capital subscription of £500,000 from the governments of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika. IDC(37)No.8, T160/763/F14811/2. A proposal for a soap factory in the Windward Islands was disallowed because it involved the colony being given a preference over the UK in other colonies from which the copra was to be exported. IDC(37)No.7, T160/763/F14811/2.\n\n10. Hong Kong Blue Book 1846 (PRO, CO133/3), 226, stated ‘A large number of Chinese are employed in their respective shops and houses in the exercise of industrial trades and manufactures and there are scarcely any ordinary wants of the inhabitants which do not meet with a ready supply within the town.'\n\n11. These dates are taken from the Return of Manufactures, Mines and Factories in the Blue Books compiled every year for submission to the Colonial Office. Not all the manufacturing enterprises were successful: the cotton spinning factory closed in 1914 and removed its machinery to Shanghai. But new manufacturing ventures soon took their place. Sir William Robinson (governor 1891-98) in his first address to the legislative council spoke of the advantages that would accrue from a further encouragement of local industries. 'The community may rely upon my aid and assistance in fostering in every legitimate way the development of such enterprises.' Hong Kong Legislative Council Debates, 25 Jan. 1892, 97. This was done by selling public land by private treaty at a discount for industrial development, H.K. LegCo. Deb., 4 Dec. 1893, 1–2.\n\n12. CO129/379, 377-384 and 392-755.\n\n13. Hong Kong Blue Book 1930. Blue Book 1932. The largest factory was that of the Green Island Cement Company which could employ 1,470 men when working at full capacity.\n\n14. Statistics on imports and exports were first collected in 1918. Publication was discontinued in 1925 and resumed in 1931, but no distinction was made between re-exports and domestic exports until 1959. Estimates of gross domestic product were not made by government statisticians until 1961. Domestic exports have been calculated from Hong Kong Trade Returns 1932, compiled by the Imports and Exports Department (Hong Kong, 1933), CO133/103, by identifying all categories where exports exceeded imports, on the assumption that the surplus must represent Hong Kong domestic production. This calculation certainly understates local production since it does not take account of manufactures consumed locally. Also the trade figures do not include the very large volume of goods smuggled into China to avoid payment of customs duty.\n\n15. Memorandum in Clementi to Cunliffe-Lister, 20 Sept. 1933, CO323/1232.\n\n16. Report of the Commission appointed by the Governor to Enquire into the Causes and Effects of the Present Trade Depression in Hong Kong, February 1935 (Hong Kong, 1935), 88-89, CO129/554/5.\n\n17. Trade Depression Report, 75.\n\n18. W.K. Hancock, Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs Vol II, Problems of Economic Policy 1918-1939, Part 1 (Oxford, 1940), 87.\n\n19. CO129/344. CO129/370. CO129/392.\n\n20. F. V. Meyer, British Colonies in World Trade (Oxford, 1948), 9–11, 18–19.\n\n21. Hancock, 125. Meyer, 10-11.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215942, "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-2002", "page_number": 241, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "175\n\nHong Kong shipyards to do marine engineering could also be used to make armour cladding for ships and vehicles. Hong Kong was also the base from which British aircraft manufacturers wanted to penetrate the Chinese market - the Far East Flying School wanted to train Chinese to fly so they would buy British rather than American or German planes. Hong Kong was also a centre for financial transactions both within and outside the banking system, a source for remittances and money transfers, more secure than Shanghai after the Japanese conquest. A large KMT community operated out of and lived in Hong Kong: almost a parallel government. While there was sympathy for the Nationalists, the colonial administration was uncertain how to maintain a balance between the Japanese and the Chinese Government. Riots against Japanese living in Hong Kong had been suppressed, and no protests made against Japanese attacks on the junk fleet. When the St Johns Ambulance wanted to send an ambulance to bombed Canton, the Colonial Office refused permission. Groups of Chinese 'terrorists' were arrested and deported from time to time. As late as May 1941 the colony's police force raided premises at 98 Robinson Road and destroyed a wireless transmitting station which had been operating for three years. The leader of this group was Chan So, an agent of General Wu Te Ching. When Governor Northcote sought guidance, the Colonial Office was advised by the Foreign Office that British policy had to vary according to circumstances, and support for China should be rendered 'compatible with the safety of Empire and avoidance of actual hostilities with the Japanese.'xix Nonetheless, there was a significant understanding between the Goumindang and the British when it came to matters of mutual benefit. When war officially broke out, their clandestine relationship could come out into the open. When Phyllis Harrop,\n\na civilian consultant working with the police reported for duty right after the outbreak of hostilities, she was assigned to work with the KMT who had already started to occupy offices with the police.\n\nThe Japanese were all too aware of the importance of Hong Kong to the KMT. The Japanese Foreign Minister had softly but firmly reminded the British Ambassador to keep the KMT under control. Even before their push to the south, the Japanese had identified KMT activists and targeted educated, articulate overseas Chinese as a threat and source of resistance. In Malaya and Singapore, they were to massacre thousands of Chinese in the wake of their advance, a fact obscured by the emphasis on the sufferings of Europeans interned in camps. In Hong Kong, on", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216222, "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-2002", "page_number": 521, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "455\n\ncould sometimes hear barking deer calling from Victoria Peak. At the time one could still hire a sedan chair and four coolies to carry one up to Conduit Road. There were half a dozen or so parked regularly in Wyndham Street, in Central, up until the late 1950s. The fare was 30 cents for each 15 minutes with a 30 cents surcharge. The working life of a chair coolie was said to be eight years.\n\nAs with many houses in Conduit Road at the time, 41 Conduit Road had a superb view and, long before the days of cross-harbour tunnels, one of the pastimes of children was counting the number of ferries they could spot. Between the two World Wars an eccentric Englishman who lived in Robinson Road, not far away, did not own a clock. He used a telescope to tell the time from the clock tower then standing in Pedder Street. In the \"good old days,\" more than one British Governor used the activities in the harbour as a barometer of the strength of the economy. We are talking of times, up until the mid 1930s, when a cannon was fired from Blackhead Point, in Tsim Sha Tsui, to let residents know when a typhoon was approaching or, alternatively, the mail ship had arrived. Occasionally, inhabitants were not sure to which of the two events the firing referred!\n\nWhen the FCC vacated the premises the final days had come for the old mansion at 41 Conduit Road. In 1960, it was bought by Cheng Hing Realty and, in 1966, rebought by Court Properties. As with so much of Hong Kong it was a case of 'Hungry for the new forget the old.' The old building was demolished and the site remained empty for some time. The sale price was reputed to have been $13 million. The site was then redeveloped. In the summer of 1970, there were 1,200 applications to purchase the 400 flats at Realty Gardens. My wife and I were successful in the ballot and we took possession of our newly completed flat in Venice Court, for which we paid, in mid 1972, the princely sum of $114,000. Prices were still low after the property slump brought on largely by the drawn-out 1967 riots. My flat has been a splendid investment. We let it for the first four years, unfurnished, at $2,000 a month. We moved in ourselves on 1 March 1976.\n\nAlthough I can see a narrow strip of the harbour and Stonecutters Island (an island no longer) from my bedroom window, my flat at Realty Gardens in fact faces south. It is thus shielded from the cold north-easterly monsoon in the winter and receives the benefits of the cool", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]