[ { "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": 207146, "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-1974", "page_number": 217, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n211\n\nNote the offices of the Nam-pak Hong Association on the left-hand side of Bonham Strand; the divided shops of the Chun Lung Sang porcelain business (1878) and the bamboo and rattan ware dealers further along, also the frontage of the Ping Heung Tea-house next to Ching Wah Kok.\n\nDuring this visit Members are advised to look around them, up as well as down, because there are all sorts of interesting little vistas to have had, often revealed by the removal of a house for redevelopment.\n\nFootnote:\n\n1) We will not be going to the Shun Tak District Commercial Association at 67, Queen's Road, West, as hoped, because a terrible blow; the furniture and fittings have already been cleared out prior to demolition of the building.\n\n2) The Tung Kwun District Commercial Association was founded as the Tung Yee Hop Tong in 1893 for charitable, including educational, work among persons of that district resident in Hong Kong. The present premises were purchased about 40 years ago. There is an interesting commemorative board above the window in the main hall presented by four shops in Liu Po New Market, Tung Kwun in 1912 in appreciation of flood relief work and settlement of disputes and of a defamation case by the Hong Kong Chamber. This shows that its influence extended beyond Hong Kong.\n\n3) The Nam-pak Hong Association in Bonham Strand, though in new premises that are of no appeal, is of great interest. This powerful commercial association was established in 1868 by merchants from different parts of China together with Chinese merchants from South-east Asia. This explains the name of the association which, in Chinese, means South-North Firms' Public Office.\n\nAdditional Notes for the Visit to Old Western District Carl T. Smith\n\n(a) The Development of West Point\n\nThe area we are visiting today was formerly dominated by two points of land. After the British occupation of Hong Kong they became known as Possession Point and West Point. Between the two was a steep hillside with a bay at its foot. The present Ko Shing Street approximates the original beach.\n\nDr. Eitel in his history of Hong Kong, Europe in China, pp. 123-124, gives an account of the event which gave Possession Point its name:\n\nOn January 24, 1841, Commodore Bremer, having arrived at Lantao, directed Captain Belcher, in command of H.M.S. Sulphur, to proceed forthwith to Hongkong and commence its occupation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210879, "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": 230, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "213\n\npious, became more prominent.\n\nPIONEER BEHIND THE MINING TRAIL TO NEW ZEALAND\n\nThe career of Ho A-mei, the younger brother of Ho A-low, is of particular interest because he was an innovator. He introduced the first group of Chinese miners into New Zealand goldfields. He opened up lead, tin and silver mines in Kwangtung province. He was a principal in organising a company to build a telegraph line between Canton and Hongkong. He initiated a proposal to organise a waterworks company at Canton. He was the first president of a Hongkong Chinese Chamber of Commerce. I shall be writing about these and other aspects of his career in this and future articles.\n\nAfter leaving Dr. Legge's school he left Hongkong in 1858 to join his brother in Australia. Here he acquired enough capital to embark on a project to introduce Chinese labour to the goldfields of New Zealand. The details of his effort are set forth in a letter he sent in 1871 to the Otago Daily News Times in New Zealand.\n\nHe begins with an estimate of himself and his intentions. \"Sometime in the month of November 1865, being an energetic and enterprising man, blessed with the health and hopefulness of youth, and more especially animated by a spirit of speculation, I started from Melbourne for your city (Dunedin)... My object was for obtaining reliable information, and making necessary preparation previous to the introduction of Chinese labour into your goldfields, but being not a miner myself, my view therefore was to first secure the introduction of labour; then, with a hope to reap the benefit by having the full command of provisioning business, should the scheme prove a success.\n\nA-mei gives the impression that he alone was responsible for initiating the project. The account of the coming of Chinese to New Zealand given in Charles Price's book, The Great White Walls are Built, states that he had been invited to Dunedin by the Otago Provincial Council and the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210891, "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": 242, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "225\n\nshareholders will, in all likelihood, result in a species of competition such as must gradually work a complete revolution in enterprises of the natives.\n\nThe foreign businessman did not have long to wait before this prognostication began to be realised. In 1872, under the patronage of the Chinese Government, the China Merchants Steam Navigation Co was organised at Shanghai. Progressively the Chinese entered areas of business formerly monopolised by foreigners.\n\nIn 1877 the On Tai Insurance Co was organised in Hongkong. At the annual meeting of the Chinese Insurance Co, the chairman took notice of the new competition. The two companies had almost the same constituencies.\n\nThe chairman reported at the meeting that this overlapping threatened to have a serious effect on the company's resources, but as yet was not as disastrous as had first been expected. He remarked: “This is proof that the habit of insuring is being developed amongst the natives of this mighty empire.”\n\nIn 1881 the On Tai Insurance Co applied for and was granted membership in the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce. They were its first Chinese members.\n\nAt the annual meeting at which the firm was elected as a constituent member, Ho A-mei thanked the chamber and then asked if the rules permitted him, as a new member, to propose anything. If so permitted, he wished to bring up a matter that was to the general interests of the commercial life of the whole Colony. The chairman ruled him to be quite in order.\n\nA-mei then proposed: “That a memorial be addressed to His Excellency, the Governor, asking that restrictions recently put upon emigration to Honolulu be done away with.”\n\nNot only had Ho A-mei a long-standing interest in emigration, but the Wo Hang firm of the Li family, whose interests he represented and who were the principal shareholders in the On Tai Insurance Co, had been engaged in the sending of Chinese labour", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210893, "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": 244, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "227\n\nThe whole matter was one that was not really for public discussion and the chairman suggested it be dealt with by the Standing Committee of the chamber. After some discussion this mode of dealing with the matter was approved.\n\nHo A-mei may have been a little bold in speaking up at his first meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, but he was not one to shrink from expressing his opinions. His outspokenness received the approval of the press, which in its comments on the emigration resolution said: \"It was a novelty that it was put forward, not without ability, fluency and clearness by a Chinaman. The fact is reassuring, as an indication of the interest in public events which is being developed amongst the Chinese.\"\n\nHo A-mei, as \"a Chinaman,\" was to speak out about public questions on many other occasions.\n\nHO DABBLES IN THE REALTY BUSINESS\n\nHo A-mei's link with the distant past of Hongkong was a housing scheme he was promoting in 1895. The scheme was financed by the wealthy Li Sing family of Hongkong. They had purchased through a Hongkong-based company, Fuk Tin, the remaining rights of the Tang clan in the area between Laichikok and Shamshuipo. There are also references to the Fung Fuk and Tin Fuk firms in connection with the deal.\n\nThe Tang's claim to the land extended back many centuries, most likely to the Sung dynasty, when members of the family first came into the region. There is well-substantiated evidence that the family once owned Hongkong Island, British Kowloon, much of New Kowloon, Tsing Yi Island and a substantial part of the New Territories.\n\nThe original grant had been broken up through the centuries. It was divided among various branches of the clan, portions had been sold outright to others, certain tracts had been perpetually leased with the Tangs retaining their right to annual payments.\n\nThe Tang family received no compensation for their claim for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211111, "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": 172, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "147\n\nHongkong opposed the request for two basic reasons. Any check to smuggling would deprive opium importers of substantial profits. This reason was seldom openly acknowledged. The other reason was frequently stated.\n\nIt was the ever-present fear that the Chinese population of Hongkong would be influenced or controlled by the officials in China and British prestige and sovereignty would be affected.\n\nThe dispatches, memorials and letters of the Hongkong Government, the General Chamber of Commerce, the Foreign Office, the Colonial Office, the representatives of the Chinese Government, the British Consul at Canton, and the British Minister at Peking, as well as the editorials and correspondence in the local papers, such as the letter of Ho A-mei in 1891, point up the issues involved.\n\nThe matter was first raised in 1868. At that time, Prince Kung on behalf of the Chinese Government was discussing the revision of the 1858 Treaty of Tientsin with the British Minister at Peking, Sir Rutherford Alcock.\n\nThe Prince asked Sir Rutherford if China would be permitted to station one of its officials in Hongkong to look after the collection of duties China levied on goods conveyed in junks from Hongkong to the mainland. Much revenue was slipping away because of the ease by which Hongkong exporters could evade the custom taxes. China wished to plug the leak. The simplest and least expensive method was to check it at its source.\n\nSir Rutherford thought that Britain should not permit a Chinese Government official to reside in Hongkong in any official capacity other than that of consul. This would bring his position in line with general diplomatic usage.\n\nIt was the practice for consuls of foreign nations to reside in British possessions to look after the interests of the country they represented.\n\nThe British Minister in Peking was aware that China had a real", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211113, "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": 174, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "149\n\nThese local views were expressed in the dispatch of the Governor, Sir Richard MacDonnell, to the Colonial Office in London and in a memorial from the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce. Both reflect, as we shall see, the uneasiness underneath the comfortable life of the expatriate in nineteenth century Hong-kong.\n\nCOLONIAL PRESSURE STOPS CONSUL MOVE\n\nIn 1891, Ho A-mei wrote to the newspapers supporting a proposal of the British Foreign Office that a Chinese Consul be appointed for Hongkong. It was an issue which in the past had sharpened differences between Hongkong and the Home Government.\n\nThe matter had first been raised in 1868. When news reached Hongkong at that time that it was being considered by the Foreign Office in London, there was an immediate outcry.\n\nThe Governor, Sir Richard MacDonnell, rushed off a protest to the Colonial Office. He objected not only to the proposal, but also to the manner in which the British Minister at Peking had ignored Hongkong.\n\nThe Governor was not on good terms with the Minister, Sir Rutherford Alcock. He complained that it had been his experience that Sir Rutherford was not concerned about the interests of Hongkong and in his negotiations with China paid little attention to Hongkong opinion.\n\nThe Governor wrote to the Secretary of the Colonies that it was no surprise to him that Sir Rutherford had sent the suggestion of a Chinese Consul to the Foreign Office without consulting or informing the local government, nor had he given Hongkong an opportunity to register its opinion on the matter.\n\nWhen the Governor had eventually heard the British Minister's suggestion, he immediately called together his Executive Council to consider the issue. At that time all the members of the Council were Government officials.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211117, "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": 178, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "153\n\nclaimed: “We believe that such a creation of an imperium in imperio would produce alarm and dissatisfaction among the Chinese residents here; and by unnecessarily pressing on the Chinese the adoption of such a measure, Her Majesty's Government would be taking the surest course to develop, during times of peace, the worst vices of Chinese rule in a population under British protection; and, on the other hand, in the event of approaching disturbances, or the cessation of friendly relations with Peking, we would be creating in our midst a dangerous centre of rebellion, plots and hostile actions.”\n\nThe basic insecurity of a small group of colonials dwelling in the midst of a large population, whose customs and language were unfamiliar and strange, welled up at the prospect of the approval by Britain for a Chinese consul to assume duties in Hongkong.\n\nPressure from Hongkong and from merchants in Britain interested in the China trade caused the matter to be dropped.\n\nIt was revived in 1875 and again in 1891. It was in the latter year that Ho A-mei spoke out on the matter.\n\nCONSUL NEEDED ‘FOR FAIR TREATMENT\n\nThe suggestion that a Chinese consul be appointed for Hongkong reappeared periodically. The idea was first advanced in 1868.\n\nAt that time the Governor, Sir Richard MacDonnell, sent a strong protest to England.\n\nTwo years later the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce expressed its views on the subject.\n\nThe Treaty of Tientsin between Britain and China was signed in 1858. It contained a provision that it should be reviewed after 10 years. These revisions were embodied in the Chefoo Convention.\n\nThe Foreign Office asked the various Chambers of Commerce", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211118, "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": 179, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "154\n\nin Britain and China to submit their views on the document. The Hongkong Chamber of Commerce responded with a memorial in 1870.\n\nOne of the items the chamber found objectionable was Article II. It stipulated that China might appoint consuls in all ports in British dominions.\n\nThe chamber admitted that for ports distant from China the provision was fair, but it should not apply to Hongkong. The port was peculiar and existed in a special relation to China. Nothing should be done that might endanger the dreams of its founders and the hopes of the memorialists.\n\nThey submitted that, \"this Colony was originally established as an experiment, and the views of its founders have been fully realised by its progress and growth. . . Its geographical situation, and its magnificent harbour mark it as admirably adapted to become the emporium of foreign commerce in this part of the world, and the headquarters from which the large financial and commercial transactions of British and Foreign Merchants in China could best be carried out.\" Its location ensured its prosperity.\n\nSuccess, however, may produce envy. The chamber believed that Hongkong's prosperity and its status as a free port “have long been regarded with jealous displeasure by the Chinese Government which has done all in its power to interfere with its trade, especially that carried on by native merchants settled in Hongkong.\"\n\nThe memorialists contended that China could not claim the diplomatic privileges of other nations because it did not qualify as a civilised country. China's capricious legal system disqualified it from acceptance within the community of nations.\n\nIn the opinion of the Hongkong merchants, all governments worthy of being recognised \"find a common unity in their provisions for securing the life, the liberty and the property of all foreigners as well as natives.” This security is rooted in a dependable", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211120, "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": 181, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "156\n\nIn its memorial the Chamber of Commerce maintained that both foreigners and Chinese who were British subjects, when travelling or reading in China, needed the protection of a consul and the right to be tried in a British Consular Court.\n\nOn the other hand, the Chinese on the British soil of Hongkong needed no such protection. They could rest confident in the fair administration of British justice. In addition it was pointed out, \"they have an important official in the Registrar General, to whom as 'Protector of Chinese' they can always have recourse for advice and assistance.\n\nThe Chefoo Convention was never ratified by Britain. Therefore China could not claim by treaty rights the privilege of appointing a consul for Hongkong.\n\nThe question arose again in 1874 as the result of the so-called \"blockade of Hongkong.\" This development had been anticipated by Sir Rutherford Alcock, the British Minister to China, at the time China had first asked for permission to station an official in Hongkong as a check to smuggling.\n\nIn 1868 the Viceroy of the Two-Kwangs had opened customs stations near Hongkong to collect provincial duties on goods carried by Chinese junks sailing from Hongkong.\n\nTwo of them were near the eastern and western approaches to the Hongkong harbour. Another was on the island of Cheung Chau. In 1871 the stations began collecting the treaty tariff duty on opium,\n\nIn addition, armed revenue cruisers were introduced to see that the stations were not bypassed. They patrolled Chinese junks, chased smugglers and attempted to ensure that proper duties were paid. The foreign merchants in Hongkong labelled this effort of the Chinese to protect their interests as a \"blockade.”\n\nThe Chinese, however, had not given up their wish to have a consul in Hongkong. The expense of maintaining a fleet of armed vessels near Hongkong was heavy. There was always the danger", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211133, "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": 194, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "169\n\npublic. Its conclusions were considered not acceptable and its tone would have aggravated differences between China and Britain.\n\nIn December 1873, the Governor of Hongkong had appointed a three-man commission to investigate the alleged interference by China with the trade of Hongkong. Its members were Phineas Ryrie, a businessman and chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, H. G. Thomsett, the harbour master, and M. S. Tonnochy, his assistant. They submitted their report in April 1874.\n\nThe General Chamber of Commerce requested a copy, but it was told that as the Colonial and Foreign Offices were still considering the report, it could not be released to the public.\n\nThe merchants felt that the Government was deliberately withholding the findings of the commission. To draw attention to their views, which were similar to those expressed by the commission, the merchants encouraged a group of aggrieved Chinese to petition Her Majesty. They then followed this up with their own public meeting.\n\nThe commission had taken the position that the method China was using to enforce its revenue collection was seriously hurting Hongkong trade. The main premise of the report, that China had encroached on Hongkong's sovereignty, was rejected by the representatives of the British Government at Canton and Peking.\n\nAlthough the Foreign Office in London, Sir Thomas Wade, the British Minister in Peking, and Sir Brooke Robertson, Her Majesty's Consul at Canton, were not in complete agreement about the various points raised by the commission, they all agreed that the commission had greatly overstated the case.\n\nIt was conceded that the employment of a low type of foreigner by the Chinese was objectionable, that in the nature of the case there must have been some violation of Hongkong waters when a junk was being chased by cruisers, and that no doubt there had been instances of squeezing.\n\nIn commenting on the report of the commission, Sir Brooke", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211139, "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": 200, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "175\n\nnot able to satisfy the request. Somewhat apologetically he stated that \"as far as this Government is concerned, they would willingly lay on the table all this correspondence, and as the matter is one which appears to have been dealt with on Imperial grounds, I thought it better to request by telegram permission of the Secretary of State immediately I received notice of the question, but I have not yet received a reply. Therefore I must postpone the question to the next session.”\n\nMr. Whitehead was not to be put off so easily. He attacked from another quarter: \"Your Excellency, in Lord Knutsford's despatch of May 21 he refers to his despatch of March 26 and His Excellency Governor Des Voeux's reply. Would it be possible for the Government to lay this correspondence on the table?”\n\nHis Excellency felt unable to comply as in his opinion the question of Mr. Whitehead related to the entire correspondence on the matter and his action in regard to this was dependent on instructions from London.\n\nMr. Whitehead stated his reason for pressing his request. A public meeting was to be held the following week to pass resolutions on the matter. The recent correspondence would be of great value in determining how best to challenge the official reasons given for the appointment.\n\nThough Mr. Whitehead had asked for the correspondence from 1868 to 1876, they were in fact not needed as the Chamber of Commerce had copies of these. Before the meeting they were published in Hongkong newspapers as background information for those attending.\n\nThe Governor suggested that the meeting be postponed until he had received a reply from London to his request to make the correspondence public.\n\nIn concluding the exchanges, Mr. Whitehead complained of the way in which Hongkong was being treated: \"It is on the face of it a most arbitrary proceeding on the part of the Imperial Government, and cannot be justified in any way.”", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211148, "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": 209, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "184\n\nhas never been a Chinese consul resident in Hongkong. The appointment, announced by Britain in July 1891, was cancelled before it could become effective.\n\nHo A-mei, however, continued his efforts to have an office in Hongkong that could watch over Chinese trading interests. In 1895, he took the leading role in the opening of a Chinese Chamber of Commerce.\n\nWHEN TELEGRAPH CAME TO THE SUPPORT OF A-MEI\n\nBy the time the translation of Ho A-mei's letter urging his countrymen not to attend the meeting called to protest against the appointment of a Chinese consul in Hongkong was published in the English press, word had been received that the appointment had been cancelled. The meeting was never held.\n\nThough Ho A-mei's endorsement of a consul did not receive the support of most of the European community, it did receive a favourable notice in the Hongkong Telegraph.\n\nThis paper was often found on the opposite side of any question under discussion in the press. It was the voice of minority opinion within the expatriate community. It was also generally sympathetic to Chinese viewpoints.\n\nWhen news of the appointment first broke in Hongkong, it humorously commented on the reaction of the daily press. It said that its competitor had earned for itself the name of \"granny.\"\n\nIn fact, to the Telegraph it seemed “the old lady was 'took bad' over the innovation of the establishment of a Chinese Consulate in the Colony”.\n\nIt called for a less emotional reaction and a sober consideration of the question. It maintained there was no reason for such alarm. Hongkong should have more confidence in itself.\n\nIt claimed that Hongkong had the ability and the means to control its Chinese population: \"No matter how his nationals may", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211150, "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": 211, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "186\n\ngence and capacity of the official class controlling this Colony at the present time of its existence, and when he comes to compare the same with the rigid system of qualifications exacted in his own country.\n\nIn fact, the critic felt that there was little to choose between the operations of Chinese or colonial administration.\n\nHongkong might even have the edge as far as incompetent administration was concerned, for \"much as China is abused for its inefficiency and jobbery, in these as well as in its feebleness and downright deceit and audacity the present one-horse administration of Hongkong well take the cake.”\n\nAnyone caring to look could easily see how Hongkong was mismanaged by ineffective administrators. With a Chinese official watching they might be shamed to mend their ways.\n\nThe editor claimed that China had no monopoly on the practice of \"squeezing.\" It was his opinion that \"we are all more or less tarred with the same brush in this respect.\" For the Chinese it is a part of their system.\n\nThe writer explained: “It is simply an incident peculiar to the Chinese system of taxation. It concerns themselves alone. They all do it, and submit to the system with universal complacency, if not with satisfaction.\"\n\nHongkong had its own problems to worry about and to correct without attempting to reform traditional Chinese procedures.\n\nIf the Telegraph was hard on Government officials it was equally critical of the manner in which the General Chamber of Commerce operated. It felt that the chamber was out of its province when it meddled in the political area.\n\nAll the rantings of the Hongkong merchants about decisions arrived at on a diplomatic level were characterised as an \"asinine exhibition.\" Behind it was the Chamber of Commerce.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211151, "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": 212, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "187\n\nThe newspaper claimed the Chamber only represented specialised interest, and said it could not speak for the whole community. The sincerity of its claim to be interested in the welfare of the Chinese community was questioned.\n\nEven if sincere, such interest was gratuitous: \"The Chinese, it will be generally allowed, are quite able to support themselves without such extraneous aid.\n\nThe Chamber, according to the editor, was being devious. Their desire \"to hold the umbrella and pose as guardians and protectors of the Chinese is only a peg upon which they hang an argument to cover up from sight their own particular game.”\n\nThis game presumably was to dictate Hongkong policy and to control its affairs for the interest of a few tai-pans: “the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce is an institution formed on the principles of conserving the selfish interests of the few, posing as being influenced by the most intense concern for the welfare of the masses, especially the Chinese...\"\n\nThe chairman of the Chamber at this time was Mr. E. Mackintosh, the head of the firm of Butterfield and Swire in Hongkong. He was singled out for a sarcastic barb.\n\nThe editor felt that the chairman was getting beyond his depth in actively promoting a meeting to oppose a political decision presumably made after careful consideration at the highest levels of its advantages and disadvantages.\n\nThe journalist predicted that, \"the energetic little chairman of the Chamber will exhibit himself in this matter in an attitude no more dignified than that of Ajax defying lightning.”\n\nThe editorial proceeded to refute the arguments being advanced against the appointment. It pooh-poohed the idea that a Chinese consul would act as a spy, asking: \"What in the name of all that is great has he got to spy about here? Are we frightened of our own shadows? Or of our weaknesses being exposed? Or of the feebleness of our executives being discovered? And may we in-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211152, "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": 213, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "188\n\nclude the Chamber of Commerce in this?” \n\nIn its opinion Hongkong need not fear that a spy was needed to discover these soft spots they were so obvious anyone could see them. \n\nAfter the appointment was withdrawn, the anxieties of those who had so strongly opposed it were alleviated. Four years later, in 1895, the fear of undue influence of Chinese officialdom on Hong-kong affairs was again aroused at the inauguration of a Chinese Chamber of Commerce under the leadership of Ho A-mei. \n\nA CHAMBER TO GIVE CHINESE AN IDENTITY \n\nIn 1895 a building for a Chinese Chamber of Commerce was opened. Ho A-mei was chairman of the organising committee. The opening was the fulfilment of a long-felt need within the Chinese community. \n\nThere had been a need for a proper meeting place for the leaders of the community. Previous centres had not been altogether satisfactory and there had been agitation for something like a Chinese Town Hall for a number of years. The new building of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce was expected to meet this need. \n\nThe demand for a public meeting place attested to the fact that through the years there had emerged out of the heterogeneous collection of Chinese who had settled in Hongkong from various villages and districts recognised leaders, community organisations and a distinct identity. \n\nBoth the leaders and the organisations were an important part of the history of the Chinese in Hongkong and the struggle for visible signs of self-identity. \n\nThe Chinese who came to Hongkong after the British occupation were, on the whole, an unruly lot. \n\nThe officer in charge of Census and Registration describes the state of affairs: \"The arrival of the British fleet in the harbour", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211156, "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": 217, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "functions.\n\nA nineteenth century Chinese account of the Chinese community in early Hongkong states that the donors, Loo King and Tam A-tsoi, \"judged the people in public assembly.\"\n\nIn 1851 the temple management was broadened. At that time the shopkeepers and firms subscribed to repair and probably to enlarge the structure. They elected a committee.\n\nFor some years the temple on Hollywood Road with its adjoining Kung Soh (public meeting hall) served as an official centre for the Chinese community. With the opening of Tung Wah Hospital in 1872 a new focal point for community identity emerged.\n\nTUNG WAH OFFICIALS UPSET EXPATS\n\nThe formal inauguration of a Chinese Chamber of Commerce Hall in 1895 was the culmination of many years of discussion and planning for a proper meeting place for the Chinese community to discuss matters affecting its welfare.\n\nFrom 1873 to 1895 these meetings had been held at the Tung Wah Hospital. Earlier still, community leaders had met at the Kung Soh or meeting hall beside the Man Mo Temple on Hollywood Road.\n\nA notice in the Daily Press of January 2, 1873, mentions the move to the new Hospital: \"The old Joss House Court the Kung Soh, in the Hollywood Road, — has, we hear, been given up in favour of another building not far off.\"\n\nThe article describes how the court functioned: \"It seems that there a vast number of disputes are settled, and that it is an understood rule that matters should be brought to the cognisance of the proper authorities only if they cannot be arranged in this manner.\n\nWe understand the committee of the Chinese hospital is the same body of men who head the kaifong, and that they discuss municipal and semi-political matters in the hall of the hospital.\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211159, "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": 220, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "195\n\nfor the grant of a site on Possession Point on which they might build a meeting hall.\n\nOn the occasion of the annual official visit to the Governor by the newly elected Tung Wah Committee, they were told that the matter of a meeting place was under consideration. However, no definite action was taken.\n\nThe same meeting that had discussed the need of a kung soh or town hall also considered related questions, such as: “Should the hospital committee in the future participate in anything which affected the interest of the Chinese community at large; had the committee usurped the authority of local officials; and was the hospital a guild detrimental to the interest of the community?”\n\nNo.\n\nThe answer to the first question was yes. To the last two it was no.\n\nThese questions reflected charges frequently made in the English language press against the manner in which the directors of the hospital had conducted their business.\n\nThese charges were an expression of the sense of insecurity underlying the foreign presence in China.\n\nThe colonials were a handful in the midst of a surging, vital and ever growing Chinese population. For all the efforts of the expatriates to recreate the social and political structures of the homeland, Hongkong was at heart Chinese. They had yet to discover and employ adequate ways of relating to this fact.\n\nThey projected their insecurity on the prestige of the Tung Wah Committee within the Chinese community. It was the centre for the self-identity of the Chinese in Hongkong and, as such, it was regarded as a threat to the power and position of the expatriate community.\n\nThis same attitude was expressed at the time of the opening of a Chinese Chamber of Commerce in 1896.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211160, "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": 221, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "196\n\nCHINESE GET A COMMUNITY HALL\n\nAFTER LONG BATTLE\n\nThe opening of the hall of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in 1895 was the culmination of many years of agitation for such a community centre.\n\nBefore it was built the Tung Wah Hospital served as a place for public meetings. Its past and current directors were the recognised leaders of the Chinese in Hongkong and had assumed responsibility for matters which affected their community.\n\nAfter the opening of the hospital in 1872, the committee was frequently criticised for assuming functions beyond that of hospital management.\n\nStrong objections were raised against alleged quasi-governmental functions undertaken by its directors. It was also charged that it was not appropriate for the main hall of the hospital to be used for public meetings where matters of general interest to the Chinese community were discussed.\n\nIn September 1881, the editor of the China Mail expressed his growing exasperation at the state of affairs. \"The Tung Wah Hospital subject we have worn nearly threadbare, but with little result.\" He felt it was time that the proper role of the hospital was defined.\n\nHe combined criticism of Tung Wah activities with the animosity the expatriates in Hongkong felt towards Governor John Pope Hennessy's liberal policy toward the Chinese.\n\nThe editor believed that what he called the presumptions of the directors could be blamed on the Governor:\n\n\"When the directors act as a sort of Small Cause Court, Chamber of Commerce, Tribunal of Arbitration, Hongkong Association and Advisers General of the Government, it cannot be said they are much to blame. His Excellency, the Governor, has recognised the 'good offices' of this admirable institution in his despatches", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211161, "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": 222, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "197\n\nand in his public utterances, and during the course of his much lauded conciliatory and considerate policy towards the Chinese, the Governor has unduly accentuated the political power assumed by this eleemosynary institution.”\n\nThe paper had time and again drawn the attention of the public to the dangers the activities of Tung Wah posed to the legitimate authority of the Government.\n\nOnce again it warned of the \"dangerous mischief calculated to result from the action of a native corporation possessing no guide or check” and urged the “necessity for either prohibiting the directors from acting as extra judges or jurymen, or for recognising certain powers in them limited by clearly defined rules.”\n\nTheir acting as \"a sort of Small Cause Court, Chamber of Commerce, Tribunal of Arbitration, (and) Hongkong Association\" was the natural result of the composition of the directorship of the hospital,\n\nIt was made up of elected representatives from the major commercial guilds. There was usually a member from the pawnbrokers, the compradores, the rice merchants, the nam-pak hongs (trading firms dealing in goods between the northern ports of China and Southeast Asia), the California-Australia importers and exporters, the piece-goods merchants, the cotton yarn merchants and the opium dealers.\n\nThe directors were quite aware of the tenuous position they were in, due to their being charged with the management of a hospital and at the same time undertaking to act as a board of arbitration over disputes that could not be settled within a guild.\n\nThey also could not escape the fact that the Chinese in Hong Kong looked to them as their natural leaders and entrusted them with the general overseeing of the welfare of the community.\n\nAs long as the hospital was used for the management of general community affairs, the directors realised they would be criticised. For this reason they requested a grant of land from the Govern-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211164, "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": 225, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "200\n\nJUBILEE JOY HAS A SOUR START\n\nFunds for a hall for the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, which was opened in 1896, were raised as a part of the celebration of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887.\n\nHongkong's planning for the jubilee was officially launched by a question raised in the Legislative Council in February of the Jubilee Year by Mr. Paul Chater, an unofficial member.\n\nIn the opinion of the China Mail it was none too soon: “We have been waiting and watching for many weeks for some sign on the part of the Government or on the part of the committee who, we understand, had taken the matter in hand, but we have waited in vain, and we are thankful to Mr. Chater for saving us the trouble of losing our patience.”\n\nHongkong was lagging far behind the rest of the British Empire in formulating plans. In India, the date for the celebration had already been fixed, and the home country was a-bustle with preparations.\n\nThere had been some preliminary discussion in Hongkong by a small group of concerned loyal subjects. Their action, however, was criticised by the editor of the Daily Press.\n\nThe journalists of that day were always quick to object to efforts of small groups to manage or control Hongkong affairs. The editor felt that this group was presumptuous for privately taking an initiative regarding the jubilee.\n\nPlanning, the editor contended, should be a thoroughly open and public matter. Although he expressed approval of Mr. Chater's move to query the Government regarding its intentions, he felt that it would have been preferable first to have had an open meeting to discuss what projects were most popular with the general public. Such a meeting could have then appointed a committee which would have been representative of all sections of the community. This committee could then have been entrusted to co-operate with the Government in formulating plans for the cele-\n\nPage 225\n\nPage 226", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211168, "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": 229, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "204\n\nendow a high class school and call it the Victoria Female College.\" And lastly, the possibility of a statue was advanced.\n\nAlready seeds were sown for divided opinions and each little group pushing its own project. Out of the resulting confusion, the Chinese emerged with their own scheme, a hall for a Chinese Chamber of Commerce.\n\nJUBILEE PLANS COMPETE WITH RACING\n\nThe manner in which Hongkong should observe the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria was publicly launched when Mr. C. P. Chater raised the question at a Legislative Council meeting on February 11, 1887.\n\nHis preliminary remarks reflected the sentiments prevalent among colonials in a period when the British Empire was in its unchallenged glory. They were proud of the widespread dominion of their native country.\n\nMr. Chater began thus: \"Sir, the question I am about to ask, though neither of state importance, nor materially affecting the interests of the Colony, touches upon a subject which at the moment is appealing to the loyal feelings of millions of Her Majesty's subjects all over the world.\n\n\"This year Her Most Gracious Majesty celebrates the 50th anniversary of her accession to the throne of that great empire, the Government of which she has so ably administered; and throughout her vast dominions rejoicings are to be the order of the day.\n\n\"And her subjects, of whatever race they may be, are anxious to celebrate the occasion in a manner befitting its exceptional and gratifying nature.”\n\nHongkong, said Mr. Chater, was eager to participate in the general rejoicings.\n\n\"This Colony does not wish to be behind in anything, more especially in a matter of this sort.\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211172, "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": 233, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "208 \n\nThere was only time in those busy days for a committee to meet on February 17 to pass a resolution that read: “A public meeting should be convened upon Wednesday, March 2 at 4.30 pm, and the Chief Justice shall be asked to preside. All members of the community are invited to attend. The meeting will be held at the City Hall.\" \n\nAfter Mr. Chater's question and the Government's reply, \"Brownie,\" the writer of the regular China Mail column “Fragrant Waters Murmur,” expressed the hope that \"some scheme for celebrating Her Majesty's jubilee will be harmoniously arrived at, and that it will reflect credit upon the community of Hongkong as well as be a permanent good to the Colony and a worthy record to our Queen.\" \n\nUnfortunately, it produced discord rather than harmony. It resulted in the Chinese holding their own meeting on March 28, when harmony did reign. That meeting decided to raise funds for a building for a Chinese Chamber of Commerce. \n\nWHEN EXPATS WAXED OVER GLORIES OF SOVEREIGN \n\nOn March 2, 1887, a public meeting was convened at the City Hall to pass resolutions concerning Hongkong's celebration of the Golden Jubilee year of Queen Victoria. \n\nFive resolutions were passed and several amendments were proposed. The proposer of each resolution gave a speech as did its seconder. It was an occasion upon which Hongkong's would-be Demosthenes could display their oratorical skill. \n\nThe anticipated celebration was one in which national pride could luxuriate. In that day loyal Britons took pride in the worldwide Dominion of the Empire. The occasion was an opportunity for the expatriates in Hongkong, an outpost of that Empire, to express their patriotic sentiments, \n\nIn the nineteenth century imperialists did not question the right of \"civilised nations\" to impose their rule over what were considered the less advanced peoples of the world. The \"white man's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211177, "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": 238, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "213\n\na hall for a Chinese Chamber of Commerce which was eventually opened by Ho A-mei in 1896.\n\nTHE JUBILEE SQUABBLING GOES ON AND ON . . .\n\nHongkong got itself into a muddle attempting to decide on a permanent memorial to mark the celebration of Queen Victoria's golden jubilee year.\n\nA public meeting was held at the City Hall on March 2, 1887, to formulate plans for the celebration. At the meeting it was decided to create a park in the Wongneichong valley to be named after the Queen. Both before and after the meeting many objections were raised to the scheme, which was eventually abandoned.\n\nAt the meeting, the chairman, Sir George Phillippo, in his introductory remarks mentioned a number of proposals that had already been put before the public.\n\nHe referred to an institution to be located in London to display and promote the products of the Empire. A year or so before the Indian and Colonial Exposition had been held. The various possessions of Great Britain had sent examples of their natural resources and products to it.\n\nIt was such a success that plans were put forward for something more permanent. The jubilee seemed an appropriate time to promote such an undertaking.\n\nAt the time, the British people were basking in the extent and importance of their empire. Its many colonies and dominions were rich in raw materials to feed the industries of the United Kingdom.\n\nThe multitude of people of different races under its rule were regarded as an inexhaustible market for the manufactures of the home country.\n\nIn recognition of the financial importance of Britain's possessions the plan for an Imperial Institute in London was launched.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211197, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 258, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "233\n\nThe speaker believed that the meeting was with him in a desire to express appreciation “of the kindness of Her Majesty.” He set before them the means of doing so. He proposed the Chinese put up a building for a Chamber of Commerce.\n\nSuch an institution, he maintained, was not only much needed, but indispensable, because \"Hongkong was the entrepôt for the commerce of Asia; and yet the Chinese had no place where they could discuss matters relating to commerce and trade in particular, and also hold public meetings.\"\n\nBesides a hall the building would contain a free library and a reading room where both Chinese and English books and periodicals would be available. The library would be named after the Queen,\n\nWhile the Portuguese and even the Japanese had a meeting place, the Chinese had none. To them it was a disgrace that there was no hall where they could hold official receptions and celebrate public events.\n\nThey were holding their meeting in the Tung Wah Hospital. The Chinese had used it as a meeting place since it was opened, but it was only out of necessity. They did so \"because they had subscribed to it, and had no other place to go, but it was really a Chinese hospital and not a place for meetings to be held.\"\n\nIt would take time to build a suitable hall. As a temporary measure it was proposed to use a building next to the Man Mo Temple on Hollywood Road.\n\nIn presenting the plan, Ho A-mei reviewed some of the past history of a search for a site for a meeting hall. During the administration of Governor Hennessy the grant of a space in the Chinese Recreation Ground was sanctioned, but it was cancelled by his successor, Governor Bowen.\n\nAt the time, the Registrar General had told them that if they really wanted the site they could probably get it if they pressed for it. But this did not seem advisable as the site was far from ideal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211198, "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": 259, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "234\n\nIf a building was to be built on the ground, where would the poor have an open space for recreation? Furthermore, the Government had put an objectionable dustbin at one end and a latrine at the other, not a very appropriate setting for receiving Chinese ambassadors and other high officials passing through Hongkong.\n\nThe building for the Chamber of Commerce should be entirely independent of Government. The community had experienced difficulties in the administration of Tung Wah Hospital because it had received contributions from Government. The Government consequently exercised some control over it.\n\nTo avoid Government interference, Ho A-mei believed that the entire sum for the new building should be subscribed by the Chinese only. This would not be too great a task if everyone would participate. Subscriptions would be welcomed from five cents upward.\n\nAfter Ho A-mei had finished, Mr. Leung On, the compradore of Messrs. Gibb, Livingston and Company, called upon any present who might not agree with the scheme to speak out. The managers of the meeting did not wish to fall into the same muddle as the foreigners. They wished to have the scheme accepted only if there was the unanimous and hearty approval of all present.\n\nOnly one speaker replied. He did not oppose the scheme but expressed the hope that when the project was adopted it would be carried through successfully. He recalled a similar plan had been advanced some twenty years before, but nothing had come of it. Recently the papers had been criticising the Chinese community because it had not fulfilled its plan to put up a statue to Governor Macdonnell after having raised money for it.\n\nHo A-mei replied that he had no doubt that the present scheme would be successful. The contributions from every guild and association would be needed, but he was confident they would generously give their support. It was a matter of community pride that the Chinese should have such a hall.\n\n:\n\n!", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212497, "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": 51, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "31\n\nLo was suspected to have cheated an amount of 20,000 taels as bad debt from the Bank See Group Archives of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Comprador Files Law Pak Sheung\n\n|| Ibid. Lo Hok Pang was said to be involved in certain bankruptcy cases See Comprador Files Lo Hok Pang\n\n12\n\nFor an important article that explores the studies on early Chinese in Hong Kong, see Carl T Smith (1993), Hong Kong Chinese Wills 1850-1890\n\n13 See HKRS#144-98. Cheang Hoong (December 1856), 245 Wong Kong (August 1867), 254 Kwong A Hang (January 1872), 268 Ng A Cheong (October 1870), 349 Law Pak Sheung (February 1877), 368 Wei A Kwong (October 1866), 457 Law Sai Nam (December 1881), 470 Lau Cheong (June 1880), 661 Au Yeung Shing (December 1886); 733, Wong Shi Lai (June 1888), 734 Sung Chin Tseung (January 1888), 1161 Tong Mow Chee (December 1894), and 1465 Choa Chec Bec (June 1890)\n\nHKRS#134-144; Soong Ke (December 1864)\n\n15 See Zheng Guanying. Da Guangzhou shangwu zonghu yi bingting zhuamban zhangcheng ershisi tiao (To draft the twenty-four opening ordinances of the General Chamber of Commerce of Canton), in Xia Dongyuan (1988a), pp 593-6\n\n16 HKRS#144-273 O Kee Cheong (October 1872)\n\nHKRS#144-1504: Leung Kiu (April 1887)\n\n18 HKRS#144-394 La Hing (January 1879)\n\n19 See Carl T Smith (1993), p 11, 15-6\n\n20 For Western merchants who came with their Cantonese compradors to Shanghai, see Hao (1970), pp 51-3\n\n21 According to Leung Yuen-sang's study, Wu Jianzhang came to power because of the rise of mercantile power in post-1843 local politics when there was an absence of official-gentry leadership during the British invasion and capture of Shanghai in 1842 The vacuum was filled by Cantonese merchants and compradors They were sought because of their foreign language skill and foreign knowledge During Wu's office, nearly all the jobs in the government were filled by Cantonese See Leung (1990), pp. 53-6, 147-50, Toyama Gunji (1994), Shanghai dotai Go kensho (The Shanghai Taotai Wu Jianzhang), pp 45-54. and Zhang Wenqin (1989), Cong fenguan guanshang dao maiban guantiao, Wu Jianzhang shilun (From Feudal Official Merchant to Compradorial Bureaucrat), pp 31-54\n\n21 Leung Yuen-sang (1982), Regional Rivalry in Mid-Nineteenth Century Shanghai: Cantonese vs Ningpo Men, pp 34-6.\n\n21\n\nThough Li Hongzhang was a central bureaucrat, through the guandu shangban enterprises in Shanghai and Tianjin, he had successfully extended his influence in this region discussed through the \"Shanghai-Tianjin Connection\" See Leung Yuen-sang (1986), The Shanghai-Tientsin Connection: Li Hung-chang's Political Control over Shanghai during the Late Ch'ing Period, pp 315-30\n\n24 Ibid, pp. 45-6\n\n24\n\nWang Gungwu (1990). China and the Chinese Overseas, pp 175-6\n\nHKRS#144-1152 Li Chu (December 1896)\n\n27 HKRS#144-1087. Lee Chak (May 1894)\n\n8 HKRS#144-1093 Chan Kin Tong (April 1896)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212505, "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": 59, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "39\n\nthe Kuan Lineage in K'ai-p'ing County. Ann Arbor, Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan.\n\nWright, Arnold 1908 Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China their history, people commerce, industries, and resources London, Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company. Ltd\n\nWu, Chang-chuan 1974 Cheng Kuan-ying A Case Study of Merchant Participation in the Chinese Self-strengthening Movement (1878-1884) PhD thesis Columbia University\n\nXia, Dongyuan. 1982 Zheng Guanying ji (Collected materials of Zheng Guanying) Volume I Shanghai, Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe\n\n1985a Wanqing yangwu yundong yanjiu (A study of self-strengthening movement of late Qing China) Chengdu, Sichuan Renmin chubanshe\n\n1985b. Zheng Guanying zhuan (A biography of Zheng Guanying) Revised edition Shanghai, Huadong Shifan Daxue Chubanshe\n\n1988a, Zheng Guanying ji (Collected materials of Zheng Guanying) Volume II Shanghai, Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe\n\n1988b. Sheng Xuanhuai zhuan (A biography of Sheng Xuanhuai) Chengdu, Sichuan Renmin Chubanshe\n\nXu, Dingxin 1991 Shanghai zongshanghui-shi 1902-1929 (A history of Shanghai Chamber of Commerce). Shanghai, Shanghai Shehui Kexueyuan Chubanshe\n\nYamagami, Kan'ichi 1938 Sekko zaibatsu-ron so no kihonteki kōsatsu (A discussion of Zhejiang financial magnates its basic observation) Tokyo. Nihon Hyōronsha\n\nYu, Qixing 1970 Wu Tingfang yu Xiangkang zhi guanxi (The relations of Wu Tingfang with Hong Kong). In Shou Luo Xianglin Jiaoshou Lunwenji Hong Kong, Wanyou Tushu Gongsi 255-78.\n\nZhang, Wenqin, 1984. Cong fengnan guanshang dao maiban shangren Qingdai Guangdong hangshang Wu Yihe jiazu de pouxi (From feudal official merchant to comprador An analysis of the family of howqua of the Guangdong hong merchants in the Qing). In Jindaishi Yanjiu 1984/3 167-97. 1984/4 231-53\n\n1989 Cong fengjian guanshang dao maiban guanliao Wu Jianzhang shilun (From feudal official merchant to compradorial bureaucrat An analysis and discussion on Wu Jianzhang). In Jindaishi Yanjiu 1989/5 31-54\n\nZhejiangji zibenjia de xingqi (The rise of Zhejiang clique of entrepreneurs) Edited by Zhongguo Renmin Zhengzhi Xieshang Huiyi Zhejiang-sheng Weiyuanhui Wenshi Ziliao Yanjiu Weiyuanhui Hangzhou, Zhejiang Renmin Chubanshe, 1986.\n\nZou, Yiren 1980 Jiu Shanghai renkou bianqian de yanjiu (A study of evolution of the population of old Shanghai) Shanghai, Renmin Chubanshe", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 } ]