[
    {
        "id": 208124,
        "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": 163,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "MEMORIES OF THE DISTRICT OFFICE SOUTH \n\n147 \n\nkept the raiders under fire from the slope behind, but they got away with their plunder, including some arms and ammunition. The Captain Superintendent of Police at the time, F. J. Badeley, a cadet officer, retired soon after, and the story went that the Governor, Sir Henry May, who came in July 1912 after about eight years as Colonial Secretary and two years in Fiji, took this opportunity to get rid of him because he was 'persona non grata' to him. (There were said to be several such in the Service). The Government took the hint given by the pirates and built a new police station on a much more commanding site well inland, surrounded by barbed wire.\n\nTalking of New Territory police station siting, the Tai O station was originally to have been built close to the village, but the local elders put up representations against it, and the presence of mosquitoes in the village may have provided an argument for its present siting beyond Shek Tsai Po. Silting of the harbour may also have influenced the Government. But I have heard that what influenced the villagers was the existence of gambling houses which yielded them a good profit, and they knew that with the police among them the hope of their gains would be gone. In 1925 they had their reward. A boatload of 60 pirates from the Delta landed at Po Chu Tam, marched along the creek-side road and plundered the village, murdering a woman and kidnapping two men. They got away without interference. Government promptly 'locked the stable door' by stationing an armed Indian police guard - later replaced by village scouts in a matshed close to the mouth of Po Chu Tam creek for several months, about 50 yards from the site of an old Chinese stone-built guard station dating from the era of Japanese piracy in South China. Apparently the Police knew nothing of the raid till all was over. I think all that happened was that the sergeant in charge was transferred to another station.\n\nWhen I first took charge of the District Office, the 'black gold' rush had been over for three years, the bottom having dropped out of the tungsten market with the coming of peace; but the lime-burning and sand-digging boom was in full swing because of the roadmaking and building then going on in Hong Kong and Kowloon. (These were times of anarchy in China). Thus I had to deal with one or two applications for land for limekilns. These kilns were thickest on Ping Chau; but Nei Kwu Chau and Tsing Yi also had kilns, and another was put up at Hang Hau. This distribution is due partly",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215939,
        "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": 238,
        "title": "RAS-2002",
        "content_text": "172\n\nthe Admiral himself. The Admiral, who had lost a leg in battle in his youth, removed his wooden leg in which he had hidden $40,000xiii and dived into the sea. Fortunately, his ADC was Henry Hsu Heng, the tall, athletic championship swimmer. Hsu helped the injured Admiral swim through the choppy waters, torn by shellfire, and alive with dangerous stinging jellyfish, until they clambered onto the rocks on Ap Lei Chau Island. Still under fire, the party was able to reach the relative shelter of the oceanward side of the island.\n\nLt Commander G H Gandy, commander of the flotilla, was to tell the story of how he had received orders to withdraw from Aberdeen because the boats were coming under heavy fire, but, as I had not got the two important Chinese personages aboard and had no news of them, and as also movement by daylight would be obvious to the enemy, I consulted with Mr FWK with whom I had been told by the Commodore to collaborate in the matter of escape from Hong Kong, and decided to wait.\" It was providential that he decided to honour his original orders, for at 17:30 hours, one of his men signalled that someone was swimming out to his vessel. It was one of the men from the Chan Chak party. The group was rescued. The boats proceeded to Mirs Bay, where on the orders of Admiral Chan they anchored at Peng Chau Island. Kendall went ashore, bringing back with him the local village elder, whom Admiral Chan interviewed. Learning that it was safe to proceed, the flotilla headed towards the mainland at Nam O in Guangdong, where the boats were scuttled. From this point Kendall led the party, linking up with KMT guerrillas, led by a man called Leung Wing Yuen who escorted them to safety. Later, when the communists consolidated their control over all guerrillas in the region, Leung, who had been honoured for helping the KMT Admiral, had to escape the region himself.\n\nIntelligence and politics\n\nWhy was so much effort taken to help a Chinese Admiral escape from Hong Kong when, at the same time British Generals were being rounded up and made prisoners of war? Admiral Chan Chak was of such importance to the British that they were prepared to organise an elaborate escape, involving what eventually became some seventy men, including 15 senior officers, at the very moment when all was lost in Hong Kong, Admiral Chan represented the Chinese National Government in Hong Kong. MacDougall acknowledged that his leaving",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278",
        "rank": 0
    }
]