[
    {
        "id": 212189,
        "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": 131,
        "title": "RAS-1990",
        "content_text": "108\n\nChina, not to be heard of again. Some of the ships were left so short-handed that they were not in a position to raise steam, if required.\n\nIt was with mixed feelings at about half past ten that morning that we saw a Japanese infantry patrol approach along the shore and enter the first of the moored launches. They were then seen to get down under cover and examine the foreign ships through their glasses. That scrutiny was returned with intense interest, but presently they waved a handkerchief and, when approached, appeared friendly. They requested that a message should be sent off to the two gunboats anchored in the river to say that a detachment of motor craft would be proceeding down river and asking that the gunboats should not open fire on them. Later contact was made with the Japanese officer commanding the considerable detachment, and he expressed sympathy when he heard that the ships had been repeatedly bombed the previous day. He did not mention that his detachment was the one that had fired on the \"Panay\" and the other American ships as they were sinking.\n\nThe Japanese passed on their way, and soon we noticed other things passing too. There was a thick scum of oil going down with the tide all that day. Wireless messages came in asking for information about the American ships, whose signals had suddenly stopped in the middle of a message during the previous morning. It was only now beginning to be realised that all the American ships had been sunk. A small Standard Oil steel lighter drifted by; and shortly after, the derelict motor-boat of the \"Panay\". These were rescued and made fast alongside the gunboat. American equipment in those days was lavish, I remember the hopeful glint in the eye of a C.P.O. stoker in the \"Scarab\", as he suggested to his Captain that, perhaps, the Americans would not miss the motor-boat's engine, if it were \"borrowed\". He did not get his way, but the \"Panay's\" life-belt, rescued at this time, was kept as a souvenir and in 1941 could still be seen in the wardroom of one of the river gunboats. I think she was H.M.S. Peterel. If so, the souvenir was presumably lost when H.M.S. Peterel was sunk at her moorings off Shanghai, with flag flying, after refusing to surrender to overwhelming Japanese forces which suddenly treacherously attacked her at dawn on December 7th, 1941.\n\nLater a report went round that the Japanese were mounting a battery on the south bank, that opposite to which the ships were moored,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 212617,
        "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-1991",
        "page_number": 171,
        "title": "RAS-1991",
        "content_text": "151\n\nalong the dismantled track ran no trains, under whose wheels we could get our dummy mines, as we had been able to do in Burma where the alarm created by their noisy, if harmless, explosions had often confused the Indian engine drivers.\n\nThe magistrate was helpful: he devoted two days to tramping round with us from village to village, until we could decide where accommodation for the school might be most suitable; and he promised to build a short length of road to connect the village finally selected with the motor road so that our lorries could drive right up to the door. The village was some miles outside a small country town; I shall call it Chin Ya, the Golden Duck.*\n\nNew Year's Eve fell while I was making these investigations. The local general, with that consideration which is the charming mark of Chinese breeding, fearing I should be lonely, invited me to dinner. Since arrival in the 3rd War Zone I had asked to be kept informed of any parties of foreigners escaping from Shanghai, but no news of any escapes had come through. It was accordingly with the greater pleasure, as we were sitting down to dinner, that I was surprised by the entry of a tall bearded figure, wearing a long Chinese gown, and heard myself addressed in English. He was the first foreigner to escape from Shanghai, an American, Mr. Hawkins, the manager of one of the branches of the big American bank which had offices in China.\n\nHe told us his story while we ate our dinner. Having only just returned from leave in the States, he was staying at an hotel, which happened to be near the Bund. Early on the morning of December 7th he was wakened by the sound of gunfire. He went out to investigate and found that Japanese destroyers were sinking H.M.S. Peterel in the Whangpoo River just off the Bund. He realised that war must have broken out and dashed round to his bank to 'phone his manager. He then returned to his hotel, packed a small bag, got into his car, and drove out to the stables in the western suburb, where a friend kept two ponies which he had permission to ride. He saddled the ponies, and riding the one while leading the other, passed through the gate at which a Japanese sentry stood guard where the road crossed the barbed wire barrier surrounding Shanghai. The barrier had originally been put up by the foreign troops holding the\n\n* It is in the Tianmushan mountains, near the border of Chekiang and Anhwei, near the country town Anchi",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j",
        "rank": 0
    }
]