[ { "id": 208138, "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-1977", "page_number": 177, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n161\n\nd) Just beyond the concrete ford on the right-hand side, note the profile of the krasnozem.\n\ne) Beyond the Gun Club, note the picnic places set out by the Agriculture and Fisheries Department on both sides of the road.\n\n2. Stop A—car park at road junction (altitude ca 480 m.)\n\nThe countryside around the car park is essentially a grassland—probably maintained by repeated fires—which is now being changed in various ways, e.g.\n\n(i) pine trees (Pinus massoniana, a native species) have been planted extensively, and the process of succession is taking place beneath them.\n\n(ii) the adjacent hillside has been planted with Acacia confusa, also native.\n\n(iii) the grassland is being invaded by shrubs, as a stage of natural succession to scrubland.\n\nAt Stop A, note the following:\n\na) Between car park and road, there is a large grave. One may surmise that before the car park was made, the fung shui (feng shui) of this site was probably better than it is now.\n\nb) To the west, below the car park, there is a large patch of even-aged Pinus massoniana. The broad-leafed shrubs beneath the pines are mainly Eurya japonica; this species is typical of scrubland in Hong Kong, and here is flourishing beneath the canopy of the pines.\n\nc) Beside the car park are scrubland species such as Rhodomyrtus tomentosa, Rubus reflexus (cf “blackberry”) and Eurya as well as the fern Dicranopteris linearis; there is also some \"European bracken\" (Pteridium aquilinum). Although the vegetation is moving toward scrubland, the insects are probably mainly grassland forms.\n\nd) The number of insects to be seen is highly dependent on the weather conditions. Many flying insects (butterflies etc.) are temperature-dependent and fly only when the temperature is above a certain minimum value. In grassland, as in other vegetation, the distribution and species of animals will depend on the availability of food. One may distinguish three arbitrary groups—plant eaters, eaters of debris, and predatory animals.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210709, "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": 60, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "43\n\nClub and Fraser Smith and represented the Club in legal proceedings. After one case Fraser Smith unsuccessfully proposed at an Annual Meeting that his fees be not paid, alleging that he had been actuated by prejudice in advising that there were grounds for expelling Fraser Smith from the Club. I have found no evidence that Francis ever rode or owned horses. However he did run on one occasion. That was in 1880 in the Veterans Flat Race during the Civilian Athletic Sports. He was unplaced off a twenty yard start. T.C. Hayllar won off thirty-five yards.\n\nHe was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the China Association and the Navy League, and in 1895 accepted the Presidency of the British Mercantile Marine Officers Association. He was also a member of the Gun Club and the Rifle Association. He joined various literary and debating societies. He supported Dr. Cantlie in the formation of the Odd Volumes Society in 1893 observing that he had been connected with many similar ventures during his thirty-three years of residence.\n\nHe was an inveterate lecturer, his subjects ranging from Jesuitism in 1872 through maritime and Asian affairs to the theory of British Advocacy in 1897. He was still lecturing in the year of his death. He was said to be an entertaining, clear and simple lecturer though the China Mail said that his chief fault as a public speaker was \"inartistic redundancy\".\n\nIn 1889 at a meeting of the Literary Society he expressed hope for an elected Legislative Council and objected to heads of departments being members of the Executive Council. In 1893 at the Odd Volumes Society on the subject \"What does Hong Kong want\" he gave the answer “public spirit”, and attacked incompetent officials and harmful legislation.\n\nIn 1899, again at the Odd Volumes Society, he disagreed with the view of an earlier speaker that the British Nation was more vulgar than others and deficient in imagination and gave his own view that the British were disliked by others because of their national self-complacency and arrogance which resulted from the accomplishment of great deeds.\n\nHe played chess and kept open house in his chambers for chess players at 4.30 p.m. on Wednesdays. In 1894 he was involved in a living chess tournament organised to raise funds for the Union Church and held in the grounds of the Hon J.J. Keswick at East Point. In 1897 he took part in the founding of the St. Cecilia Society established to cultivate a taste for music and was its President.\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210757, "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": 108, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "91\n\nlanterns affixed on the posts shone on Shek O and Tai Long Wan people.\n\nThe priests and ritual representatives visited the faan-gon posts and made offerings three times a day in a procession called haang-chiu (audience procession). When I followed one of those processions in Shek O, however, I discovered that not all four of the faan-gon posts were erected at the corners of the settlement. The first faan-gon post in Shek O visited by the haang-chiu procession was between the school playground and the quarters of the cleansing unit of the Urban Services Department. One of the local members of the procession volunteered the information that the post was set up there because three years ago a fatal accident took place at the spot. Two young boys who lived in the quarters of the cleansing unit were playing there when a stone pillar fell down suddenly and killed both of them.\n\nV. The local gods\n\nThe Tin Hau was represented by her wooden image at the centre of the altar. Behind the image was a piece of red paper on which the titles of ten local deities were written. With the exception of the Sea Goddess (shui sin) of the small temple at one edge of Shek O Beach, they were Baak-gung and Daai-wong earth gods of Tai Long Wan, Shek O, and Seung Wai. One of them, styled jang-paang daai-wong (earth god of the stakenets), was a reminder of the former fishing activities of the local residents. Many others had probably existed for the protection of villagers in fishing and farming. The change in land use is evident in the reply given by Mr. Wong, the local leader, when asked where the god's place was. He said, \"Below the number 10 alley of the Westerners' residences of Tai Long Wan,\" linking the god with the change that had taken place in the locality. He gave the same description for the location of another god, the Earth god of the Banyan Tree Place. For the Seung Wai daai-wong, he explained that it was below no. 1 alley, which had become a residential area for Westerners. It used to be the villagers' settlement which was removed to Shek O for the construction of the golf club. There were also three gods whose names were not known to Mr. Wong. He believed that those were from Hok Tsui, the village which joined in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211678, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 93, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "68\n\nmembers of the Kiu Kiang Defence Force, a small volunteer group recruited from the foreign residents. Some of the men were veterans of the Great War, and the force had originally been armed with rifles and Lewis guns provided by the Navy; however, to avoid all possible accident, these lethal weapons had been withdrawn and replaced with truncheons. Men were despatched to close the Concession gates so as to keep out accessions to the rioters from those directions, and by the exercise of a good-humoured restraint and some sang-froid the rioters were gradually dispersed and shepherded away. By nightfall all was quiet again at the cost of a few broken heads and windows, but the atmosphere remained dangerously charged with emotion.\n\nThe Consul ruled that the women and children must be evacuated that very night in a river steamer, which he had caused to be held up for the purpose. I dashed off to our small flat overlooking the tennis courts at the back of the Concession to warn my wife. We had also our two infants, the one in arms and the other just able to walk; and their dear old amah, of course, had plenty of advice to give. During the early days, while the Revolutionary Army was still attacking the Northern troops who held the city, there was a certain amount of indiscriminate shooting and shots fell amongst the houses in the Concession. One came in through our front door and down the hall. The old amah then used carefully to drape a layer of blankets on the window side of the children's cots \"to keep out the bullets\", as she would ingenuously explain.\n\nOn a large verandah outside the flat where a good view could be obtained of the back gate, the Navy had mounted a Lewis gun and installed an inlying piquet. My wife arranged to cook meals for the sailors, and what with the assistance of an occasional bottle of beer from the Club over the road, they voted that life in Kiu Kiang was not so bad. It was a change from the routine of shipboard and had one unforeseen result; the sailors made so strong an impression on our infants that when he grew up nothing would satisfy the elder boy but that he should join the Navy.\n\nNow the sailors volunteered to assist in the packing, but time was short and there was little room on the steamer for other than the bare essentials. It was more than any Chinese coolie's life was worth to be seen carrying baggage for the foreigners, and so with naval assistance husbands and bachelors helped each other to get the boxes down to the ship.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211976, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 391, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "366\n\nThe procession soon turned back without entering the village. By now, I noticed, the team had grown to more than 100 young men. They moved towards Kat Hing Wai. On the way they turned the paper image to \"shine on\" an alley opposite the food stall at the market, and the paths leading from the main road to Tsi Tong Tsuen and Tai Hong Tsuen. Beside the alley was a shop, where a few women fled when they saw the King of Ghosts facing them. Then the same \"shining on\" procedure was repeated at the other spots they passed on the way to Wing Lung Wai: the path leading to Tai Hong Wai, the path leading to the Tung Tak School of Shing Mun San Tsuen and a place on the other side of the road. Partly for fun, the young men did the same to the two doors of the Jockey Club betting centre, \"to influence the outcome of bets\". The procedure was also applied to the village gate of Wing Lung Wai and a spot opposite the gate across the road. Then the procession turned back and proceeded to Tai Hong Wai, where some of the men in the team shouted, \"tell people to keep clear and shut their doors\". Some of the younger men added, \"thank you for your co-operation\". I had the impression that they were talking like that partly for the fun of being in command. The procession went back to the main ritual area after \"shining on\" the village gate of Tai Hong Wai.\n\nG. Renewal of the jiu\n\nThis took place in the morning after the final main rite of Grand Offering to the ghosts, after the Taoist priests had performed the brief purification rites at the individual households. It took place at the temple of Jau and Wong, the two main gods of the festival. To their altar was escorted the image of Gwun-Yam, the other patron god of Kam Tin.\n\nIn the preparation for the rite an elder explained to a younger ritual representative that this rite is to heui-ping-on, to beseech the gods for well-being, giving a promise that in ten years' time another celebration will be held. Only the no. 1 to no. 15 ritual representatives (which was in accordance with the traditional rule) and the priest participated. The priest chanted a eulogy and the invocation for blessing.\n\nH. Sending off the gods\n\nThis took place after the end of the Opera performance period. I overheard previously the villagers telling one another that those who fetched a god should send them home afterwards in this rite.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212175, "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": 117, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "94\n\ncity, which is some eleven miles in circumference; that was before it was included in the prohibited areas. Now concrete machine-gun loopholes peered at you from various angles; and towards the great gate, where the wall made its nearest approach to the Yangtze, the fortifications were believed to be particularly heavy and well provided with deep dugouts to serve as battle headquarters in time of need. We heard that even the German officers, who advised on how these concrete emplacements should be constructed, were not allowed to know the actual details of their location, and we used to think how ungrateful and suspicious it was of the Chinese to act thus. However, subsequent events have surely justified the Chinese attitude.\n\nNear the gate, at intervals, the older houses of the foreign business community, sited along Socony ridge, stare out over the long squat wall of the city at the Yangtze, and the intervening mile of pond, field and shack: but the last house turns its back to the river, straddling a narrow spur, an offshoot from the main ridge. Set in a pattern of mellow brick, our windows faced Nanking and Purple Mountain beyond. From the small lawn in front we could look down on the familiar landmarks of the city, the hillock of the Northern temple, the ancient Drum Tower, the hard concrete lines of the sumptuous International Club, and the salmon-pink walls of the New Metropolitan Hotel, so soon to be painted a hideous black. From the verandah of this house we were to watch the flash and smoke of the bursting bombs of many an air raid.\n\nThis August the discussion of the trivialities of a daily routine had continued against a background of mounting tension. How exercised we were to find a method of circumventing a malignant crack through which the water of our small swimming pool sought to escape down the hill! At the bridge tables of the Bungalow Club, at dinner parties, dancing at the International Club, amidst the humdrum of everyday life, there was a mystery of 'phone calls, a whispered exchange of latest information, the question of increasing urgency **Is it war?**\n\nAlready in July members of the various embassies had begun to return from the summer seaside resorts in the north, where the storm was brewing, following the Marco Polo Bridge incident on July 7th; and a trickle of refugees came in from Tsinanfu. But in Nanking the cinemas remained open, the tennis tournament continued, and I remember an entertainment which was given towards the end of the month to the twenty-four Chinese students, who had been", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212224, "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": 166, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "143\n\nto retire, as if no war were in progress and no shortage of manpower in prospect.\n\nThe price of rice had risen from 15 dollars per picul in 1939 to 110 dollars per picul, increasing the terrible hardship of the thousands of refugees, and requiring constant adjustment to the pay of Chinese employees. It also affected the finances of the Municipal Council, which found it would again have to advance rates and taxes to cover increased expenses. At the same time the continued pressure of the Japanese, who wished to seize control of the huge Municipal administrative machine, became more urgent. The Council worked out a compromise arrangement, under which it was hoped that the bulk of the foreign interests could be maintained pending conclusion of the Japanese war with China.\n\nA special meeting of the landrenters, to be held at the Race Club, was called for January 26th, 1941. The Norwegian Consul, in the Chair, the members of the Council, and the municipal secretaries, took their seats on a covered platform, erected opposite the racing stands, on which the landrenters were disposed. I had a seat facing the platform, and noticed that the Japanese landrenters were sitting in a crowd, several hundreds strong, at the far right. The British Chairman of the Council put forward the motion for the increased taxes; he was opposed by Mr. Hayashi, the Chairman of the Japanese Residents Association. The other foreign landrenters, by virtue of their much larger holdings of property, of course greatly outvoted the Japanese. When the motion was put to the vote, by a show of hands, the Norwegian Consul declared the motion carried. There was an immediate outcry from the Japanese and Mr. Hayashi approached the platform, as everyone thought to make another speech; but instead of moving to the rostrum on one side, he walked round behind the long table at which the Councillors sat, and suddenly pulled out a pistol. Mr. Okamoto, one of the Japanese Councillors noticed this, realised what was up, and very pluckily tried to grab the gun. He was in time to deflect the aim, but two shots were fired from which the Chairman of the Council received flesh wounds in the arm and side, while one of the bullets passed through Mr. Okamoto's hand. Pandemonium then broke out amongst the Japanese ratepayers; howling like a pack of wolves, they tried to rush the platform, to rescue Mr. Hayashi, who was being led away by the police. When the group on the platform moved beyond the screens to the rear,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214151, "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-1998", "page_number": 9, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "Sheilah Hamilton - The District Watch Force ... 199\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nHong Kong (From the Notes of a Russian Traveller), translation of an article written by Iosif Antonovich Goshkevich in 1871.... 229\n\nHong Kong, translation from a book chapter written by Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov in 1853 237\n\n...... 247\n\nR.G. Horsnell - The Story of Stanley Fort 257\n\nR.G. Horsnell - The Story of Gun Club Hill Barracks ..... 265\n\nB.C. Fawcett - First World War Labour Corps Cemeteries in Flanders 281\n\nKeith Stevens - The American Soldier of Fortune Frederick Townsend Ward: Honoured and Revered by the Chinese with a Memorial Temple 285\n\nRonald Bishop Smith - Sir Ralph Moor and the 'Benin' Cannon of the British Museum and the Royal Armouries 293\n\nPhotographs from the Hong Kong 1906 Typhoon contributed by Victoria Brown 297\n\nDan Waters - Arnold Graham, 1905 - 1996. 305\n\nTranslated letter from the Bishop of the Philippines to the King of Spain dated 1584 contributed by Robin M. Bridge.............. 315\n\nGeoffrey W. Roper - The Drunken Dragon Dance and the Tam Kong (Tam Kung) Festival: Notes on the RAS HK Visit to Macau, May 1997 .. 323\n\nRobert Nield - Bits of Broken China: The RAS Visit to North-east China in Search of Colonial Remnants, 1999 329\n\nviii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214213, "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-1998", "page_number": 71, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "34\n\ncomparatively recently it was unbecoming to make fun of the British Royal Family in public in Britain.\n\nVittachi, in his letter to the author, says that although stories which pour scorn on leaders are loved by Westerners, Asian audiences sometimes appear a little scared when he does this. As Lee Kuan Yew recounted, by and large an Asian leader is not expected to accept gibes to his face. In Lee's own words, regarding how his political party acted (and largely acts) when governing Singapore: We argued and thrashed out our differences in private. In public we never contradicted each other (Minchin, 1986:343). It can be added that an Asian leader is likely, nevertheless, to receive a few well-aimed jabs behind his back, although, really to enjoy a joke, many will argue there has to be a 'victim.'\n\nAlthough the pointed joke and the sardonic barb can bring a great deal of trouble (Matthews, 1983:368), Western comedians are fond of using sarcasm with contemptuous language that is intended, in the extreme, to mock, insult or convey scorn. But in Hong Kong (and even more so on the People's Republic Mainland), it is so easy to cross the line and show disrespect (so that the person loses face). The Hong Kong film star and comedian Michael Hui Kwoon-man, a Hong Kong Chinese University graduate, explained to the author that he heard a western comedian in the United States say during a performance: 'What me? I'm so fat and healthy how could I possibly have AIDS?' 'Only people like Michael Jackson, who is skinny and ugly, have AIDS.' The Michael Jackson club in America, consisting mainly of young people, really enjoyed the joke about their idol and roared with glee.\n\nLater, Michael Hui returned to Hong Kong and tried the same joke out at the Anita Mui Fan Club. It fell completely flat. Members sat there looking glum, according to Hui. To be fair however, not all Westerners, especially the more sedate and elderly, would consider this joke funny. Also, of course, the fact that Michael Hui was joking about Anita Mui, a woman, made a difference.\n\nConclusions\n\nAfter researching and preparing this paper it is still not possible to decide positively whether there really are cognitive differences between", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214426, "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-1998", "page_number": 284, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "250\n\nGun Club Hill Barracks in Kowloon was silenced in this way by British guns on Hong Kong island.\n\nThe Fortress System\n\nBy the 1930s the operation of batteries had become immensely sophisticated and complicated, difficult for a layman to understand. The old 19th century arrangement of individual battery range and position finders was improved by a new arrangement known as the Fortress Range Finding System. Under this system the range of vision and of precision was greatly extended by a series of what were known as Fortress Observation Posts to cover targets within range of the guns. These transmitted bearings and ranges gained from observation to a central Fortress Plotting Room where the target, such as an enemy vessel, was tracked on a chart known as a Fortress Plotter. The co-ordinates of the target were then calculated or computed on a mechanical device known as a predictor which made allowance for the time in flight of the shell and the movement of the vessel assuming it had not realised it had been observed and taken evasive action by changing course. The co-ordinates were then telephoned or telegraphed to the individual batteries which then possessed all the information necessary to engage the enemy, even though the target might be so far away as to be invisible to the Battery Commander. The data could also be relayed directly to the guns where it was displayed on electrically operated dials.\n\nIn Hong Kong as part of reorganisation and modernisation of the Hong Kong defences a Fortress Range Finding system was developed consisting of three Fortress Plotting Rooms at Stanley Fort, Mount Davis and Tytam Gap, also ten Fortress Observation Posts all connected to two Fire Commander's Posts which in turn, were connected to the Commander Fixed Defences who had his Coast Artillery Headquarters in the underground Operational Headquarters in Victoria Barracks known as Fortress HQ, nicknamed the \"Battle Box\". The Fortress Plotting Room at Stanley Fort is located in an underground bunker below an old Signal Station, Block 3, opposite the Officers' Mess. Remains of a plotting table and predictor still can be found inside.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214440, "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-1998", "page_number": 298, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "265\n\nTHE STORY OF GUN CLUB HILL BARRACKS\n\nR.G. HORSNELL\n\nAnyone who walks or drives along Austin Road, Kowloon, past the Kowloon Bowling Club towards Chatham Road, cannot fail to notice the imposing entrance to Gun Club Hill Barracks.\n\nThe old cannon on its granite base at one side of the iron gates guarded by a sentry, and the massive granite retaining wall resembling the wall of an unassailable fortress, make a fitting entrance to the barracks. Yet it did not always look like this. The granite retaining wall was built when the cutting for Austin Road was made, and the main entrance to the barracks originally was from Chatham Road. In the old photograph one can see what the entrance looked like at the turn of the century. Colonnaded buildings stand on the site of the present WOS and Sergeants' Mess, a building in the centre stands on the site of the present Record Office and Training Centre, and a building on the right is where the present Officers' Mess now stands. This building is still there although somewhat remodelled with a front entrance wing added in 1935.\n\nIt is not known for certain when the barracks were established, but in early 1860, before Kowloon was ceded to Britain after the China Wars, several areas had already been mapped out as possible sites for military barracks. A memorandum from the Secretary of War, dated 1860, stated \"The necessity for increased accommodation for the garrison has long been apparent to the military authorities, and the acquisition of a healthy site like that of Kowloon, points at once in the direction in which accommodation must be found.\" One of the sites which was mapped out was Whitfield Barracks, named after Maj. Gen. H.W. Whitfield, Maj. Gen. China, Hong Kong and Straits Settlements (1869-1874) to the west of Nathan Road in Tsimshatsui. Another site was Gun Club Hill, probably one of the nine hills which gave Kowloon its name. The site then encompassed the Kowloon Cricket Club ground, but the present 25 acre site is bounded by Chatham Road, Austin Road, Jordan Path, Jordan Road and Gascoigne Road, this last road named after another CBF - Maj. Gen. Sir W.J. Gascoigne KCMG, Maj. Gen. China and Hong Kong (1898-1903).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214441, "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-1998", "page_number": 299, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "266\n\nThe origin of the name \"Gun Club Hill\" is uncertain, but it may be because a gun club was once based there. Shooting was a popular pastime with the army and Kowloon with its market gardens, streams and paddy fields would have provided good sport. Game would have included resident birds such as the Chinese francolin or partridge, and the spotted-neck dove, as well as migratory birds such as teal, duck, geese, quail, woodcock and snipe. The latter are winter visitors and still visit Hong Kong. The writer has observed snipe on two separate occasions in the Kowloon urban area, once in Gun Club Hill Barracks itself. Doves can also still be seen in the Barracks.\n\nThe name \"Gun Club\" may however also be derived from the firing range in King's Park which followed almost exactly the present line of Wylie Road. Old record maps in the Public Records Office show the range extending north from the firing points at Gun Club Hill across Gascoigne Road to the butts near the present site of the old British Military Hospital. A shorter range, to the west of the military range, on the present site of Queen Elizabeth Hospital was probably the police firing range or the Naval Association firing range.\n\nThe whole of this area, now known as King's Park, was reserved for rifle ranges, field firing and military exercises. At the north end of the park was a hill known as Danger Flag Hill where red warning flags were flown when firing was taking place. This hill is now the public open space known as King's Park Rise Garden. Steps wind up the hill past numerous benches and pergolas to the summit where there is a curious rock formation of huge boulders almost forming a natural redoubt. There is now no evidence of any military use, although originally there may have been a range warden's store for targets and flags. There is a good view from the summit looking south down Wylie Road to Gun Club Hill.\n\nThe cession of the Kowloon Peninsula to Britain opened up new areas of training for the military. Companies from units based at Murray and Victoria Barracks were sent to Kowloon on monthly rotation for firing and musket practice. Before the barracks were built the troops were quartered in tents. Early photographs of Kowloon show large tented encampments stretching right across the peninsula.\n\nMatsheds were also used to accommodate newly disembarked", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214442, "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-1998", "page_number": 300, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "267\n\ntroops in quarantine. These were built from a framework of bamboo poles lashed together, with walls and roofs of palm leaves and woven rush mats. Similar structures can still be seen today on vacant lots erected at times of Chinese festivals for Cantonese opera performances. The only difference is that today zinc sheeting is used instead of matting. The matsheds were not popular with the troops as mosquitos and other insect life infested the sheds. During typhoons or heavy rains the sheds were liable to collapse and leave the troops exposed to the weather. The building of proper barracks was therefore imperative for the health of the troops.\n\nThe first permanent buildings at Gun Club Hill were constructed in 1903-4 for infantry but were soon afterwards occupied by the Asiatic Artillery which was originally made up of Sikh and Punjabi Mussulman Companies known as Gun Lascars. They became the Hong Kong Asiatic Artillery in 1891 and the Hong Kong-Singapore Battalion Royal Artillery in 1898. In 1905 four companies were housed in the newly completed barrack blocks flanking the parade ground. According to PRO records construction was \"brick and granite and best Manilla Hardwood; outer walls of Amoy Brick and inner walls of Canton Brick.\" By 1909 other buildings had been built and a layout of the barracks at this time shows an Infants' School, Followers' Hut, Sikh/Mohammedan Cookhouse, NCOs' Quarters, Guard House, Sergeants' Mess, Officers' Mess, and a small Medical Centre.\n\nMost of these buildings have now been replaced with more modern buildings, but two of the original barrack blocks facing the Parade Ground still exist, together with the Medical Centre and the Officers' Mess although somewhat changed in appearance. Photographic evidence in the Public Records Office shows that the buildings were brick-built two-storey colonial style blocks with pitched Chinese tiled roofs and balustraded 'Venetian' verandahs. The Officers' Mess seems to have undergone an external facelift in the 1930s with an annex added on to the south elevation facing the Chatham Road entrance. The barrack blocks and Medical Centre were remodelled and altered in the 1960s but retain much of their original colonial style.\n\nThe Medical Centre, formerly the Soldiers' Canteen, numbered Block 11, is a single storey rectangular white painted brick-built block with an eight bay front verandah with a flight of steps at each end\n\nPage 300\n\nPage 301", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214444, "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-1998", "page_number": 302, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "269\n\nare formed in stepped voussoirs. The first floor verandah is divided into bays by rusticated granite pillars which support the entablature and parapet wall to the roof. Ground and first floor verandah balustrades consist of heavy moulded copings on pierced and mortised infill panels with heavy plinths supported on moulded horizontal cornices emphasizing the storey heights. Flights of entrance steps lead up to the ground floor verandahs on both sides. The 1935 addition comprising the front entrance, dining room, and anteroom is built in similar style but is three storeys in height due to the sloping ground. There is a five-centred elliptical arch and a panel with the Royal coat of arms over the main entrance. On the parapet wall above there is a plaque engraved '1935.' Internally there are several interesting fireplace surrounds and period joinery but little else of architectural interest. Evidence in the P.R.O. indicates that the present infill panels to the verandahs may not be original and that the roof originally was pitched with gable ends and had several large chimney stacks projecting above the ridge. Part of the original roof still remains. The Officers' Mess is a Grade 2 historical building.\n\nThe last British Army Units at the barracks were 28 Squadron, the Gurkha Transport Regiment, also 247 Gurkha Signal Squadron. The United Services Recreation Club occupied part of the site, and 10 Intelligence and Security Company occupied the old Colony Club building, having moved in on the handover of their former site, Number 3 Camp, Argyle Street, to the Hong Kong Government in 1977. Prior to occupation by the Gurkhas, the barracks were usually occupied by British infantry battalions. In recent years occupying British units have included the First Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers (1967), First Battalion The Royal Welch Fusiliers (1969/71), First Battalion The Black Watch (1971/73), and the First Battalion The Royal Hampshire Regiment (1974/76). The 25th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, is also recorded at Gun Club in 1948. Some of the earliest troops to be stationed in Kowloon were the 99th Regiment (now the Second Wiltshires) and the Second Royal Welch Fusiliers, some of whom were quartered at Gun Club upon their arrival on January 13, 1899. Other Kowloon based units included the 91st Argylls (1888), First Battalion The King's Shropshire Light Infantry (1892) and the First Battalion the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214447, "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-1998", "page_number": 305, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "272\n\nGun Club Hill Barracks, Chatham Road Entrance Circa 1910 (Public Records Office, Government Records Service)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214448, "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-1998", "page_number": 306, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "Gun Club Hill Barracks, Block 1 facing the Parade Ground (Public Records Office, Government Records Service).\n\n273", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214449, "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-1998", "page_number": 307, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "274\n\n1935\n\nGun Club Hill Barracks, Officers' Mess Addition Built 1935 (Public Records Office, Government Records Service)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214450, "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-1998", "page_number": 308, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "27\n\nGun Club Hill Barracks, Old Infants' School Demolished 1977 (Author's collection)\n\n275", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214451, "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-1998", "page_number": 309, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "276\n\nGun Club Hill Barracks, Officers' Mess Rear Elevation (Author's collection)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214452, "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-1998", "page_number": 310, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "277\n\nAppendix A\n\nCHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY NOTES\n\n1860\n\nKowloon peninsula ceded to Britain after the China Wars.\n\n1862\n\n1863\n\nGun Club Hill & King's Park areas were tented encampments with horse lines in the Chatham Road area.\n\n2nd Bttn. 20th Foot arrived in Hong Kong in December and encamped in Kowloon.\n\n1885\n\nGun Club Hill range in existence but no buildings.\n\n1888\n\n1892\n\n1899\n\n1904\n\n1905\n\n1909\n\n1910\n\n91st Argylls arrived in December and spent first days in Kowloon matsheds at either Whitfield Bks or Gun Club.\n\nArgylls replaced by 1st Bttn. The King's Shropshire Light Infantry and quarantined in Kowloon matsheds because of smallpox outbreak on the troop ship from Alexandria.\n\nSeveral companies of Royal Welsh Fusileers quartered at Gun Club following disembarkation.\n\nBarracks Blocks, Officers' Mess, Guard House, Soldiers' Canteen, etc. in existence.\n\nCol. Lewis, RE(Rt.) visited Gun Club which housed the Asiatic Artillery, King's Park described as \"very rough\" presumably still being used for army training. Rosary Church built same year in Chatham Road (then named De Voeux Road).\n\nMohammedan/Sikh Cookhouse and Followers' Hut in existence.\n\n1st Bttn. The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry at", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214453, "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-1998", "page_number": 311, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "278\n\n1914\n\nGun Club.\n\nHong Kong - Singapore Bttn. RGA at Gun Club with D & E Coys quartered at Whitefield Bks. Four 10 pdr BL mountain guns at Gun Club,\n\n1914-18 First World War. Armed Forces in Hong Kong mobilised.\n\n1920s\n\nc.1925\n\n1935\n\nHong Kong - Singapore Artillery still at Gun Club where these Indian troops trained their mule handlers. Gun Club still unfenced at this time.\n\nSt. Mary's Canossian College built in Austin Road opposite Gun Club.\n\nOfficers' Mess addition built.\n\n1942-45 Japanese Occupation. Equipment abandoned on withdrawal to Hong Kong island. Japanese artillery silenced by British guns on the island.\n\n1947\n\n25 Field Regt. RA at Gun Club.\n\n1949\n\n58 Medium Regt. RA at Gun Club.\n\n1957\n\n32 Medium Regt. RA at Gun Club.\n\n1960-61 Remodelling of some buildings by Leigh & Orange.\n\n1961\n\n34 Light Anti-Aircraft Regt, at Gun Club.\n\n1963\n\n1967\n\n1969\n\n34 LAA Regt. leave Gun Club. Replaced by infantry battalion.\n\n1st Bttn. Lancashire Fusiliers at Gun Club.\n\n4th Bttn. The Regt. of Fusiliers at Gun Club.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214454, "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-1998", "page_number": 312, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "279\n\n1970\n\n1971\n\n1973\n\n1974\n\n1977\n\n1978\n\n1986\n\n1989\n\n1994\n\n1995\n\n1997\n\n1st Bttn. The Royal Welch Fusiliers at Gun Club.\n\nDeath of \"Billy\" Regimental Goat on 8 June. Buried behind Church. (The \"gravestone\" was salvaged, prior to excavation work for the new PLA Hospital, & removed to ASD Property Services Branch Antiquities Store at APB Centre in Cheung Sha Wan. No remains of \"Billy\" were found.)\n\n1st Bttn. The Black Watch at Gun Club.\n\n1st Bttn. The Royal Hampshire Regt. at Gun Club,\n\nAlanbrooke Block (British MQs) & Infants' School (Block 27) demolished. New Gurkha MQs, Temple, Clinic & School build started. 10 Int & Sec Coy moved into Colony Club (Block 36) from Argyle Street Camp.\n\nGurkha Transport Regt. & Gurkha Signals moved into Gun Club from Shamshuipo Camp. Victoria Junior School moved over from Victoria Barracks.\n\nNew Classroom built at Gun Club Primary School. Skeleton said to date from Japanese occupation unearthed during excavations.\n\nSevere flooding on May 2 to MT compound causing considerable damage to vehicles, buildings and equipment. Compound again flooded on May 20 during Typhoon Brenda.\n\nColony Club (Block 36), St. Eligius' Church, and the old gun shed (Block 29) demolished to make way for the new military hospital. Banyan trees transplanted to elsewhere in the barracks also to the new Kowloon Walled City Park.\n\nBarracks vacated by the British Army and handed over to Hong Kong Government.\n\nBarracks occupied by People's Liberation Army following handover of Hong Kong to China.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214455, "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-1998", "page_number": 313, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "280\n\n* See Appendix B.\n\nSt. ELIGIUS (or ELOI)\n\nAppendix B\n\nArtisan and Bishop. Born near Limoges, c. 588 : died at Noyon 660. Feast Day 1st December.\n\nCame of a modest Gallo-Roman family, and was apprenticed to the Master of the Mint at Limoges. In due course, coming to the notice of King Chlotar II, he was appointed to a similar post at Marseilles; on Chlotar's death in 629, Dagobert I became his patron, and Eligius acquired considerable influence with the King. He had a great talent for engraving and smithing, and gained sufficient wealth to found a monastery at Solignac and a convent for women in Paris. In 641 Dagobert chose him to be Bishop of Noyon and Tournat. He discharged this office with vigour, especially in the foundation of religious houses and in missionary work among the heathen Frisans. St. Eligius was an outstanding churchman of his day, a friend and counsellor of St. Bathild, and very generous to the poor. Numerous works of art, especially reliquaries, were attributed to his workmanship, some of which still exist. He is the patron saint of smiths, farriers and all kinds of metalworkers.\n\nSource: Plaque in St. Eligius' Church, Gun Club Hill Barracks, Kowloon (demolished 1994).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215321, "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": 98, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "46\n\nmuddy plats, eventually reached the first \"gun-house,\" as the crumbling fort was known to the Chinese. Finally, the passengers reached the Custom House and on to whatever accommodation they had reserved or could find in this very primitive European backwater.\n\nChinese immigrants from Hainan, along with those from Fujian, Guangxi, and Guangdong, flocked down to the foreign colonies of south-east Asia. Though integrated into the greater Han Chinese population of Singapore and Penang, as well as within towns and cities in North Borneo, Java, and Sumatra, even today Hainanese have remained in one or two linguistic pockets, such as is to be found in the area of Rengam and Kluang in southern Malaysia.\n\nOnly a few of all the Chinese temples visited in South-east Asia have been categorically identified as exclusively founded by Hainanese immigrants. Others, predominantly Hokkien, have a Hainanese altar stuck away in one corner, erected by the few local Hainanese, though two temples stood out, both in southern Malaysia, in which the images of the deities were predominantly uniquely Hainanese, though the temple custodians, the devotees, and the other images were all Hokkien. The picture gained from Hainanese staff and devotees in temples containing uniquely Hainanese images revealed the following minimum of temples being predominantly, if not entirely, Hainanese - six in Singapore, two in Penang, one in Kuala Lumpur, one in Seremban, and two in or near Kluang in southern Malaysia; on Sumatra, one in Medan and two in Palembang; on Java, one in Jakarta, one in Cirebon, and one in Semarang. There are several in Ha Tien in southern Cambodia and others scattered across southern Thailand. The strangest of all was the lone, small Hainanese temple on Bali.\n\nHainanese temple altars bear the usual accoutrements and have the same layout as altars in other Chinese communities, though, to generalise, with less clutter, particularly on altars in Hainanese Huiguan [community club houses]. Major China-wide deities, such as Guan Yin, Guan Gong, Hua Guang, City Gods, Earth Gods, and the Wealth Gods, are the same as in every Chinese community. There are also a number of predominantly Cantonese, Chaozhou, and even Minnan deities in many of the Hainanese temples both in Hainan and in South-east Asia, adopted from other immigrant ethnic groups, including Jinhua Niangniang, Caibo Xingjun, Fazhu Gong, Qi Tian Da Sheng, Longwei.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215883, "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": 182, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "115\n\nfor the surveying and associated film shooting exercises.\n\nREFERENCES\n\nBooks and journal articles\n\nBard, Solomon 1988 In Search of the Past: a Guide to the Antiquities of Hong Kong. Hong Kong, Urban Council.\n\nEather, Charles Chic 1996 Airport of the Nine Dragons: Kai Tak Kowloon. Surfers Paradise, Australia, ChingChic Publishers.\n\nEmpson, Hal 1992 Mapping Hong Kong: a Historical Atlas. Hong Kong, Government Printer (Bilingual: English and Chinese).\n\nHorsnell, R.G. 2000 \"The Story of Stanley Fort,” The Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 38, 1998/1999, pp. 247-263.\n\nHorsnell, R.G. 2000 \"The Story of Gun Club Hill Barracks,” The Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 38, 1998/1999, pp. 265-280.\n\nKo, Tim Keung and Wordie, Jason 1996 Ruins of War: A Guide to Hong Kong's Battlefields and Wartime Sites. Hong Kong, Joint Publishing (Hong Kong).\n\nKo, Tim Keung 2001 War Relics in the Green. Hong Kong, Cosmos Books.\n\nLai, Lawrence Wai Chung; Ho, Daniel Chi Wing and Lung, Ping Yee 'Disused Military Structures on Devil's Peak: a Post-Colonial Planning and Building Analysis on Pre-war British Coastal Defence Structures in Hong Kong', EKISTICS, forthcoming.\n\nLee, Klaudia 2002 \"War Relics Disappearing Under the Weight of Neglect, Historians Warn,\" South China Morning Post, 17 November 2002, p. 2.\n\nRollo, Denis 1992 The Guns and Gunners of Hong Kong. Hong", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216046, "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": 345, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "279\n\nfrom\n\nsince. Legends claim it to be either a Buddhist pagoda dredged up the bed of the Yangzi Song dynasty from about 1000 AD or a memorial shrine to a Song dynasty prefect of about 1090.\n\nA stone Stupa or dagoba [containing Buddhist relics] is situated on a stone platform supported by four pillars over a busy street in front of the Guan Yin Cave to the north of Yuntai Hill to the west of Zhenjiang. In years gone by people heading for the small ferry across the Yangzi had to pass under it and gained confidence for their chancy ferry crossing from the protective power emanating from the relics. It is said to have been built during the Yuan dynasty during the 13th century.\n\nDaily life of foreigners in this insignificant Treaty port\n\nDuring the heady days of westerners within the Yangzi basin the steady stream of river steamers sailing the river under the protection of foreign flags and the twin fleets of protective river gun boats of the RN and USN, trade flourished and even an early form of tourism existed. Zhenjiang was famous for silk piece-goods, silk cord tassels for official hats, medicated wine called White Flower Wine, Baihua Jiu, aromatic plants, and fine sturgeon. However, for the foreign residents the greatest bane was the boredom. Although there was the Club where cards, drink and perhaps a few books and newspapers helped while away the long evenings, the ennui of the same faces, the same voices and the same topics of conversation was sufficient to bring some to the verge of suicide and some over it.\n\nLife was fairly constrained. There were only two provision stores to serve the foreign community during the first decades of the 20th century, Foo Chong and Chong Hsin. And according to L.C. Arlington Zhenjiang Concession, despite its very limited numbers, boasted its own aristocracy, with the Consul and the Commissioner of Customs as joint Sovereign Lords. The port, he added, was full of individuality, and social life; and the clubs - that for the Upper Circles [Zhenjiang Club] and that for the Lower Strata [Customs Club] - combined to produce constant gossip and occasional friction.20 There were a number of peculiar characters but none more peculiar than an American missionary who had been divorced by his wife owing, it was said, to his peculiar ways. He professed to carry out the teaching of St. Paul by consorting with the coolies in the native city, and providing them with\n\nPage 345\n\nPage 346", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216067, "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": 366, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "300\n\nSilver Island forts. I did not answer his letter, but noted the date thereon and the date on which I received it. I was requested to send an answer to someone in Zhenjiang. I gave the letter to Consul Mowat.35\n\nAs I did not answer Mason's letter he called early one morning and I asked who he was and what he wanted. He replied that he was the United States consular marshal at Hankou and had come down to see the machine gun I had offered to sell to the Municipal Council at Hankou and wished to know if my machine was a single action or double action gun. I showed him the gun and how to work it, and he decided to buy it. He then wished me to send it somewhere on the Yangzi, I said I could not let it go out of my house until it was paid for, and would not deliver anywhere outside the limits of a treaty port unless provided with a special passport or huzhao. Mason then said that he was going to Ningbo and would call for the gun on his return. He did not do so. He went to Hongkong engaged a lot of foreigners, instructed them to come and report themselves to me for duty, etc., etc.\n\nOn Mason's return to Shanghai he brought a lot of firearms he had bought in Hongkong. They were seized, and the men he had engaged were looked after. He himself was introduced by Mr R.E. Bredon, Shanghai Commissioner of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, to the Daotai of Shanghai who invited him to dinner and to witness a theatrical performance as if he, Mason, had been a popular hero.\n\nHe lived in the Central Hotel and was a frequent visitor at the Shanghai Club where he had been introduced by Mr Bredon.\n\nMeanwhile all sorts of tricks were being practised to inveigle me into a trap. Conch shells were blown at all hours of the night about my house under the direction of Mason. A host of extra police officers and detectives were placed on special duty on my property, at the switch-back railway. I suddenly remembered the letter that had been sent me. I thereupon called on Mr acting-consul Mowat and insisted on his reporting the matter to H.M.'s Minister at Beijing. Mowat pooh-poohed the whole thing as a farce and so it proved in reality though very costly and dangerous to me.\n\nInstructions were soon received from H.M.'s Minister at Beijing and Mason was removed from the Central Hotel on the Bund to H.M.'s", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]