[ { "id": 205357, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 119, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "112\n\nREV. MR. KRONE\n\nwealthy man, desirous of having a tablet erected in remembrance of his merits, built a stone bridge across the river about ten yards above the old one. The building cost him 200 taels, but the first rainy season carried it away, as the structure was supported only on granite piles, which rested on the sandy bed, and yielded to the slightest force. All attempts to repair it were fruitless.\n\nThe principal streams of the plain San-keaou, unite in the Pik-tou river, which, as before stated, forms the northern boundary of the district for eight or ten miles; only a few small streams discharge themselves directly into the sea. The Pik-tou river is by far the largest of the district. It has several tributaries, which have their rise partly from the Yeong-toi mountain, and partly from the mountain range which forms the northern boundary of the district. It is navigable for light craft for eight miles from its mouth, and as it is difficult of approach, on account of its course being bounded either by very precipitous banks or extensive marshy ground, it is a favourite and safe refuge for pirates. The villages scattered along its banks, are inhabited by traders with Canton, Hongkong, and Tung-kun, and fishermen who occasionally act as pirates when a favourable opportunity occurs.\n\nThe Mow-chow river, of which the Wang-kang and San-keaou rivers are tributaries, empties itself into the Pik-tou river, at a short distance before it pours its waters into the estuary of the Pearl river. Both these rivers are only navigable at high water, when light craft are able to get up as far as Wang-kang and San-keaou respectively. The greatest depth at low water seldom exceeds from two to four feet. The wells of the villages through which the rivers pass are always brackish, doubtless in consequence of the tidal flow, which is perceptible to a great extent throughout the district.\n\nAmong the fifty \"remarkable bridges\" which the district boasts, and which have generally very pompous names, there are few of any importance; a few are of solid masonry, and have several arches.\n\nA hot sulphurous spring in the neighbourhood of Tuk-lat1 between San-keaou and the Yeong-toi mountain, attracts the notice of the traveller. It is situated between two gently rising hills in the midst of rice-fields, and the steam which constantly rises from the several springs is visible at a considerable distance.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206389, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 206, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "180 \n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nChinese Customs' service, and a greater energy which has of late years been manifested by the Chinese Government itself. I have been told that the Customs' cruisers confine themselves to the inner waters, and act against smuggling and not piracy. It may be so; but smuggling and piracy may be considered as frequently only different branches of the same profession, the members of which will take to either as they think it safer, and likely to be more profitable for the occasion. That law and order are the rule increasingly in Hongkong and along the coast is a growing impression, and that impression is a surer preserver of the peace than the gallows, the axe, and the sword. Bad men are kept habitually obedient to the law by the form of justice armed with power in their mind's eye more than by outbursts of indignation occasionally aroused against them, and from which they always hope to escape.\n\nEre I leave the subject of crime, I may be permitted to say a few words on the police force of the colony. All along its history, the good organization of this has been perhaps the most difficult part of the duties of the Government. Experiment after experiment has been tried as to the constituents of the force; and as long as I can remember, that is, since the very first attempts at its formation, charges have been advanced against it of inefficiency, drunkenness, and openness to bribery. My own conviction has been for many years that the strength of the police force ought to consist of Chinese. I pressed my views on this point on Sir Richard MacDonnell soon after he arrived in the Colony, and he put them on one side. I stated them to the Commission which held its sittings on the subject during the present year, and I was glad to find that about one half of its members were disposed to coincide with me. I believe that the Chinese people are in the mass law-abiding and fond of order. I believe that there is a large body of Chinese merchants who have as great a stake in the Colony as the British and merchants of other nationalities have. I believe that by a cordial communication with them a body of native policemen might be obtained who would be sufficiently reliable, and who, with a smaller number obtained from home as the Government has lately done, a considerable proportion of its present force would keep the Colony almost free from crime. Give me a superintendent well skilled in the business of his department, and able to communicate", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207529, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 297, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\nAttached to Staff -- Table 2\n\nRfm Archibald\n\nPrivate Rfm Baxter\n\nCambon\n\nPrivate Caruso\n\nRfm Davidson\n\nPrivate Frankiewicz\n\nPrivate Kashton\n\nPrivate Kohut\n\nRfm Woodridge\n\nCorporal Young\n\nRfm Snively\n\nO.S. French\n\nQ.M.S. Hamlen\n\nB.S.M. Lobban\n\nC.S.M. Collings\n\nSergt. Lockie\n\nCorporal Carter\n\nP.O. Waardenborg\n\nCanadian Army\n\nR.N. R.A.S.C. R.A.\n\nH.K.V.D.C.\n\nR. Scots\n\nR. Sigs.\n\nR. Netherlands Navy\n\nAppendix \"D\"\n\nRoll of QAIM.N.S. and Canadian Nursing Sisters, British Military Hospital, Bowen Road (Incomplete)\n\nMiss E. M. B. Dyson\n\nMiss Mirian Beaman\n\nLieut (Miss) Kay Christie - Canadian Service\n\nMiss Gwendelene Colthorpe\n\nMiss Mary Curry\n\nMiss Freda Davis\n\nMiss Molly Gordon\n\nMiss Brenda Morgan (Killed)\n\nMiss Margaret North\n\nMiss Kathleen Thompson\n\nMiss Daphne Van Wart\n\nLieut (Miss) May Waters Canadian Service\n\nMiss Joan Whiteley\n\n289\n\nNotes:--\n\n1. To my great regret I have not got the names of the members of the Hongkong Auxiliary Nursing Service.\n\n2. The two members of the Canadian Service were repatriated to Canada in November 1943.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208108, "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": 147, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW -LONG ISLAND \n\n131\n\nJunks are the reason for Cheung Chow which only exists to take over their cargoes of fish, salt, or hides, and to supply them in return with all that junks need, ship chandlery and stores, gear of all sorts, and certain amusements for the fisherman, some of them innocent and some not. It stands between Hongkong with its population of some 600,000 persons clamorous for food, and the fishing fleet which cannot afford to lose time beating about in narrow and often becalmed waters under high hills. At Cheung Chow the wind is almost always blowing, but the deeply indented bay and the sheltering spit between the hills give shelter. The junks can run in, unload their catch, revictual or refit, and stand out to sea in any wind, with no delay. The steam ferry carries their fish to the waiting markets for them.\n\nBut the islanders have a second string to their bow for the presence of the ferry has made it worth while to grow vegetables for the same market, and the little glens of the island are terraced to the limit to provide vegetables to the inhabitants and a surplus for that export.\n\nSubsidiary trades have grown up from the same root, if fish can be called a root; fish must be salted and dried, so there is a great trade in salt, though most of the salt which comes into Cheung Chow is not rubbed into the fish there but is re-exported to China.\n\nWhen we have pictured the little land to ourselves, described its climate, the races and tribes of its inhabitants, we will wander along the busy main street, and so take ship and depart from this little place so like some ancient Greek kingdom set in the wine-dark sea smelling of fish, overrun with pigs. Later we will return to see the Moon-cake festival, and after that let someone more capable take up the tale.\n\nThe Little Land and City\n\nCheung Chow is shaped as the photograph shows.*\n\nIt would seem that one of the very numerous saddle-shaped ridges in which Hongkong abounds has sunk here so that the ridge between the two peaks makes a long double beach, only one hundred yards wide at its narrowest. On the Western Side the bay is large and partly sheltered by other islands, but on the Eastern it is open to the sea, and the N. E. Monsoon pours aslant into that bay, and rages against its headlands. So the town turns its back to the\n\n* Not reprinted.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210824, "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": 175, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "158\n\nCARL SMITH\n\nBritish Plenipotentiary, informed them that missionaries would not be welcomed at the Treaty Ports. British officials felt missionary efforts to convert Chinese would provoke the hostility of the mandarins and hinder the proper development of commerce and trade with foreigners.\n\nSir Henry maintained that the treaty extended only to commercial relations between Great Britain and China and not to religious activities.\n\nDuring the discussion about the Anglo Chinese College some of the missionaries were rather critical of Dr. Morrison and his work. This deeply hurt his son, John Robert Morrison, who had been invited to attend the Hongkong meeting by the Mission Society's directors in London. This did not please some of the missionaries in the field, for the young Mr. Morrison was not a missionary but had the office of Chinese Secretary in the Government. A disinterested observer who attended the meetings remarked: \"Indeed it seemed to be the studied purpose of some of them to cast discredit on Dr. Morrison by all means. John Morrison was affected to tears on learning of the way in which some of them spoke of his father.\"\n\nFortunately there was a peacemaker present, W.H. Medhurst, the observer remarked. “If it had not been for him, I fear there would have been unpleasant consequences.”\n\nThe outcome of all the troubled waters was that Dr. Legge was authorised to reopen the school in Hongkong, with four pupils in temporary quarters.\n\nFINDING A HOME FOR A COLLEGE\n\nIt was no easy task reestablishing the Anglo-Chinese College in Hongkong. A new student body had to be gathered, a site for a building obtained, the building erected, the new financial support arranged.\n\nThe Rev. James Legge, Principal of the school, had brought with him from Malacca only one student, an orphan boy he had taken into his family. Mrs. Legge had under her care a Chinese girl", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211112, "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": 173, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "148\n\ngrievance in regard to smuggled opium. The geographical position of Hongkong immediately adjacent to the coast of China made it difficult for China to control the contraband trade.\n\nTo do so would require patrolling all the rugged coastline and its thousands of inlets and navigable streams, or, as an alternative, to place a cordon of Chinese ships around Hongkong. They could patrol within Chinese waters the entrances and exits of Hongkong.\n\nIn view of the alternative, Sir Rutherford proposed that \"it would seem reasonable that the Emperor of China should have the same right to appoint a consul to reside in Hongkong as all other Treaty Powers have, and to enjoy the same rights and exercise the same authority in matters connected with the trade of Chinese subjects as any other nation in treaty with Great Britain may claim in British Colonies.\"\n\nThe proposal was received as worth consideration by the British Government and the item was put on the agenda for the formal negotiations regarding treaty revision which were to begin soon.\n\nIt is not surprising that a cry of alarm arose in Hongkong over the suggestion.\n\nSir Rutherford was a diplomat and not a trader. He viewed the problem as one to be resolved according to diplomatic usage. The Government officials in Hongkong were eager to protect its commercial interests.\n\nThey viewed the problem from a financial and not a diplomatic stance.\n\nSir Rutherford looked at the request within the enlarged context of Britain's total relation to China, of which Hongkong was only a part.\n\nHongkong, on the other hand, related the problem to its own peculiar position and the difficulty of governing a population it regarded as a potential threat to its security.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211125, "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": 186, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "161\n\nBLOCKADE FINDS A CHAMPION\n\nThe Chinese petition to the Queen concerning the evils of what was called the Chinese “blockade” of Hongkong was followed by a public meeting held at the City Hall in September 1874, to draw up resolutions to present to the Government in Britain.\n\nThe meeting began with the calamitous forecast by the chief manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, Mr. James Greig, that Hongkong's junk trade was threatened with complete extinction and the acts of China in patrolling the waters near Hongkong were an outrage.\n\nHe proposed the first resolution: \"That this meeting regards with feelings of amazement and alarm the organised invasion by the Hoppo of Canton of the freedom and sanctuary of the port and harbour of Hongkong.\"\n\nThere was one person at the meeting who had not been carried away by the ground-swell of indignation which pervaded the mercantile section of the community.\n\nThe unofficial member of the Legislative Council and senior partner in Hongkong of Jardine, Matheson and Company, Mr. James Whittall, stated his opinion that the commerce of Hongkong was not suffering from the blockade.\n\nIndeed, he claimed that trade had improved after some recent sluggishness and was as large as it ever had been.\n\nFurthermore, China had a perfect right to levy and collect duties on cargoes.\n\nSeveral speakers questioned the accuracy of Mr. Whittall's estimate of the progress of Hongkong trade. One drew attention to the Harbour Master's report for the previous year which showed a decline in junks entering and leaving the harbour.\n\nBut Mr. Whittall stood firm. He reminded the meeting that his company did a very large business and he ought to be fully acquainted with the situation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211128, "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": 189, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "164\n\napparently withdrew from the meeting. All the other resolutions were passed unanimously.\n\nThough the great majority of those at the meeting did not agree with Mr. Whittall's views, the editor of the Daily Press told its readers that “it was impossible to overlook the fact spoken of by Mr. Whittall that a nation possesses a right to take steps for the protection of its revenue.”\n\nThere was little Britain could do against this, for \"at the present day it has become an established principle to treat China as an equal in all matters of international law or courtesy.”\n\nThis was a principle of expediency, for in the view of the editor, \"the Home authorities are alive to the importance of political complications which might arise by treating China otherwise than as an equal. The effect of which would be to relieve her from the obligation to treat us in the same way, albeit she but little acts up to her duty in this respect.”\n\nThough admitting that as an abstract truth of principle, China might have the right to take whatever measures it might think necessary to protect its revenue in its own waters, the editor claimed, however, that “this privilege is being used to invade the independence of a friendly neighbour and of harassing and oppressing the trade of a particular port.”\n\nA problem affecting Hongkong might be viewed differently by those concerned with protecting their local financial interests and those responsible for diplomatic relations between two nations.\n\nBRITAIN COOL TO BLOCKADE HYSTERICS\n\nCertain frustrations and insecurities were behind the rejection of proposals to appoint a Chinese consul in Hongkong and the indignation created by what was felt to be a blockade of Hongkong by China.\n\nThe majority of Europeans in China were there to trade and make money. China was a market to be exploited. Any hindrance", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211129, "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": 190, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "165\n\nencountered was resisted and resented.\n\nIt was an accepted maxim that the prosperity of Hongkong was dependent on its status as a free port. Any interference with the trade of Hongkong was a threat.\n\nThe fact that China was within its legal rights to levy duties on goods carried in Chinese junks and to collect these duties within its own waters carried little weight with Hongkong merchants who felt that China was slowly stifling the business life of the port.\n\nThe frustrations created fed upon a deeper insecurity. The foreigner in China has been slow in cultivating a spirit of sympathy and understanding towards the Chinese.\n\nMany came to China with a feeling of superiority which imposed a wall between them and the mass of the people among whom they resided.\n\nOne expression of this insecurity was the desire to maintain a certain image of the foreigner. The image was of a person whose standard of living was above the common lot, who did not engage in manual labour, and who embodied the best features of a superior civilisation. Aspects of this image still linger in Hongkong.\n\nThe presence of fellow-foreigners who did not live up to these standards was an embarrassment.\n\nChina employed foreigners in its customs service and on its revenue cruisers. Those in high position generally conformed to the image the foreigner wished to uphold among the Chinese, but a different type of person filled more lowly positions.\n\nSome Westerners in the employ of the Chinese were from a group of ne'er-do-wells that drifted through the tropics. They were the nineteenth century prototype of the modern roaming hippie.\n\nThe Chinese had first begun employing such people at the time of the Tai Ping rebellion in the 1850s.", "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": 211135, "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": 196, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "171\n\nIn his memorandum to the Foreign Office, the British Minister at Peking, Sir Thomas Francis Wade, reviewed the whole problem of customs collections as it related to Hongkong from the time of the treaty revision in 1868.\n\nHe remarked: \"The sum of my propositions from first to last was that we should either retrocede Hongkong to the Chinese Government or that we should allow the Chinese Government to establish a branch of the Customs Inspectorate in Hongkong; either concession, of course, to be purchased of us by a counter-concession to the general advantage of British trade with China, the particular advantage to Colonial Trade being the reduction to a minimum of the interference of the Chinese Revenue Service with native craft.”\n\nHongkong residents naturally would have considered the British Minister's suggestion of giving Hongkong back to China as a betrayal and sell-out. In their view it would totally discredit British prestige. One wonders if Wade was really serious in his suggestion.\n\nHe interpreted the conclusions of the Hongkong Commission as a denial of the right of the Chinese Government to search vessels of its own people on the high seas, or in its own waters if such vessels were within 10 miles of Hongkong.\n\nAs a diplomat, Wade believed some concessions were needed. Britain should do what it could to ensure that China received whatever duties it might levy on goods leaving or arriving on its shores, even though they passed through Hongkong.\n\nRobertson at Canton also advocated conciliation. He charged Hongkong with viewing the problem too narrowly: \"There are other interests of more importance than the interests of local trade which seem to be forgotten in the battle for local interests, and I fear if the report of the committee be published the Chinese authorities, knowing it was appointed by the Colonial Government, may consider that the strong expressions of opinion it contains are sanctioned by the Executive, and this may tend to interrupt the entente cordiale which is so important to maintain.\" He was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211138, "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": 199, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "174\n\nWhen in July 1891, the appointment of a Chinese consul was made public, the expatriate community was angered at the manner in which it had been sprung on them. Without prior notice, the Governor had laid the notice of the appointment before a meeting of the Legislative Council.\n\nThe writer of the newspaper column \"Fragrant Waters Murmur” described the despatch announcing the appointment as \"made in the truest Imperial style, regardless of colonial feeling or opinion.\"\n\nHe further claimed, “that this, the Imperial will, was flashed upon the amazed residents without the slightest previous hint being given from any official source.\"\n\nHe expressed strong objections to an Imperial policy of this kind, particularly in view of the financial demands the Home Government made on the Colony. According to \"Brownie,” the author of the column, local opinion felt that, “if Hongkong is called to pay £40,000 a year as a contribution to the defence of the Empire, it is entitled to be consulted in matters which immediately concern its interests.\n\nToday if Britain takes unilateral action on certain matters affecting Hongkong, such as agreements regarding landing rights for airlines at Kai Tak, there are local murmurs about unfair treatment.\n\nIn order to air the question and to have a basis for formulating a position in response to the announcements, the merchants wished to have made public the correspondence on the matter.\n\nConsequently, at the next meeting of the Legislative Council, Mr. Whitehead, an unofficial member, after due notice asked: \"Will the Government lay upon the table copies of all recent correspondence on the subject of a Chinese consul to Hongkong and also copies of the correspondence on the same subject in the years 1868 to 1876?”\n\nThe Officer Administering the Colony, who was presiding, was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211146, "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": 207, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "182\n\nfor support in opposing the appointment.\n\nHo A-mei's advice to his countrymen was: “All Chinese merchants, who have any regard for themselves, should refuse to assist in the consummation of an act that is wrong. Let them be peaceful and law-abiding, but with enough pride as Chinese to stand for what was their nation's due.”\n\nThe letter evoked critical comment from \"Brownie,\" who wrote the newspaper column, \"Fragrant Waters Murmur.\" He questioned Ho A-mei's motives.\n\nAccording to him, a consul had always been A-mei's \"pet scheme.” In fact, Brownie said he was sometimes facetiously called the \"Chinese Consul\" because of his close relations with Chinese officials. He sometimes acted for them in an unofficial capacity.\n\nBrownie thought these connections should have made Ho A-mei fully aware of “the devious ways of Chinese officialdom.” Certainly he could not really believe that a consul would benefit Chinese residents.\n\nAn editor, commenting on A-mei's letter, implied that its author had himself had an unhappy experience with Chinese mandarins. He pointedly asked: \"Were you, Mr. Ho A-mei, ever fined a large sum of money for your temerity in presenting a work or despatch of yours to the Viceroy and did you think it fair treatment?\"\n\nUnder the caption, “How rich Hongkong residents are squeezed,\" the China Mail published a chapter from a work entitled: Chips from the workshop of a self-sacrificing officer. It related the difficulties the Li Sing family encountered at the time of the Second Opium War, when the Chinese Government put pressure on members of the family to make large \"contributions” to the Ch'ing Government. At the time, the family was accused of collaboration with the British against the Chinese.\n\nThe example was interesting inasmuch as Ho A-mei had a long", "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": 211216, "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": 277, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "252\n\nThere was still, however, one more proposal before the meeting, that of the statue. It was defeated. This left Dr. Manson's sanitarium proposal as the only one not rejected outright. But the meeting was at an impasse because of the tie vote.\n\nIt was now time for those who desired a committee to again come into their own. Mr. Lister spoke: “I have now much pleasure in proposing a small committee to inquire into the details of Dr. Manson's scheme and report at a subsequent meeting.”\n\nMr. Sharp proposed the names of six men to serve on the committee. One of the persons named begged off, saying he could not possibly spare the time. Mr. D. R. Crawford was suggested as a substitute. He also declined as he was leaving the Colony shortly. Another name was put forward, but at this point the meeting suddenly dissolved.\n\nThe reporter who covered the meeting for the Daily Press thought: \"Probably it was the general impression the committee was appointed, but this is a matter of more surmise as the motion was never put.\n\n**\n\nThe whole affair seemed to be about to melt away, leaving behind a bad taste and a smudge on Hongkong's reputation. This would have been a dismal admission of civic incompetence as well as an insult to the Queen.\n\nAs a way out, the Daily Press suggested that a plebiscite be held. Voters on their ballot could select the scheme they wanted and suggest twelve names for a committee to carry out the most widely accepted proposal. Or, if it seemed there was no possibility of the public being able by this means to come to a decision which represented a majority, the Legislative Council should take the matter in hand and invite the public to co-operate.\n\nAfter the meeting, the China Mail column \"Fragrant Waters Murmur,\" as an expression of general dissatisfaction over the state of affairs, suggested \"the erection in a conspicuous position of a broken column, copies of the entire correspondence to which the subject has given rise to be deposited in a receptacle in the base.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211291, "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-1988", "page_number": 7, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "CONTENTS\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT ............. HON. TREASURER'S REPORT HON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT ARTICLES:\n\n• Dian H. Murray, Pirates in the Pearl River Delta ... Dan Waters, A Brief History of Technical Education in Hong Kong\n\n• Steven A. Leibo, Not So Calm An Administration: The Anglo-French Occupation of Canton, 1858-1861 Wei Peh T'i, Through Historical Records and Ancient Writings in search of the Giant Panada\n\n• Carl T. Smith, The First Child Labour Law in Hong Kong\n\nvii xviii xxiii\n\n• 1 10 16 • 34 44\n\nSung Hok-P'ang, Legends and Stories of the New Territories; Tai Po 70\n\nSung Hok-P'ang, Legends and Stories of the New Territories; Castle Peak 26 76\n\nSung Hok-P'ang, Ts'in Fuk 86\n\nViolet Mebig Chan Lew, A Sentimental Journey into the Past of the Chan and Jong Families 94\n\nHarold M. Otness, \"The One Bright Spot in Shanghai\" A History of the Library of the North China Branch of The Royal Asiatic Society\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES:\n\n• David Faure, The Man the Emperor Decapitated Carl T. Smith, The Archives of the Basel Mission 185 198 203\n\nP. H. Hase, The Lanterns of Chuko Liang O. William Borrell FMS, A Silver Bracelet with an Ancient Greek Coin found in Wewak, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea · 207 212\n\nJames Hayes, The Tai Sheung Lo Kwan Temple, Chai Wan 217\n\n• E. W. Wright, The Hongkong Milling Company's Failure 218\n\nP. H. Hase, A Traditional New Territories Latrine James Hayes, A Note on Rice Hullers 222 226\n\nJames Hayes, A Glimpse of the Land Settlement at Shek Pik Village, Lantau Island, Hong Kong 228\n\nBOOK REVIEWS 234 · vi\n\nPage &", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212191, "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": 133, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "110\n\nJ\n\nonto\n\nup from Shanghai to relieve them. In this way he wished to show the Japanese that the British flag could not be driven off the Yangtze. But other ideas prevailed in Shanghai; the ships were ordered out. I was instructed to transfer my Chinese refugees, the employees from our office and their families, numbering some 200 souls, to the \"Ewo\" hulk, which was to be left anchored at Nanking under the protection of a British gunboat. Curiously enough, the refugees showed extreme reluctance to be abandoned thus to an unknown fate, and in the upshot, most of them went on to Shanghai with the ship. Our flotilla was augmented by the arrival of the light cruiser **Caradoc** from Hankow, where she had been wintering. Her 'tween decks were packed with several hundred British women and children, who were being evacuated from the upriver ports. A small ship flying the Italian flag added to our number; she was believed to be carrying the personnel of the Italian Aviation Mission, who had been training Chinese pilots at Nanchang. Led by a Japanese escorting destroyer, followed by H.M.S. \"Caradoc\", we formed line and sailed down the river, the journey enlivened by the anger of the Japanese Commander at the inability of the master of the Italian ship to understand the signals which, from time to time, he made in the International code. With our convoy went the last merchant ships to show the British flag on the Yangtze. The \"Red Duster\" was displaced; henceforth the Japanese view prevailed.\n\nHong Kong and South China 1938\n\nThe West river and its network of tributaries provide the highways over which the commerce of South China moves. Some distance outside Bocca Tigris, where the river debouches into the China Sea, an eleven-mile ridge of hills rises sharply out of the blue semi-tropical waters. We call it Hongkong, but to the Chinese it is \"The Fragrant Lagoon\". Why \"fragrant\" I cannot say, because the surrounding waters are salt, as any sea water, and full of large diaphanous jelly-fish that lie in wait to sting unwary swimmers, or of little black insects which get inside your bathing costume and bite you in places inconvenient to reach.\n\nThere is no record to show how these marine depredators spent their time before 1840. In those days, before the arrival of the British, the island was uninhabited and, though visited by fisher folk and pirates, I doubt whether they went swimming. The pirates have now", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212192, "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": 134, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "transferred their activities elsewhere: the evil reputation of Bias Bay nearby is well known. But British influence made itself felt in other ways, too. The \"foreign devils\" not only brought security; they built houses, roads and dockyards, so that a very large number of Chinese found Hongkong preferable to their native districts and came there to live. By 1938 the population was over two millions, including twenty-four thousand foreigners. It is true, of the Chinese no less than one million were only transient inhabitants, refugees from the Japanese wrath which was spreading over China. To these wretched thousands, Hongkong, for a time, was a sanctuary: as later in another part of the world, was England to the French, Belgian, Dutch and Norwegian refugees, who were to escape from German occupied territory.\n\nBehind Victoria, the cramped commercial hub of the island, a funicular Peak Tramway rises steeply to serve the numerous mansions, erected at varying levels, for taipans, who hope vainly to avoid the moist clinging heat of the long Hongkong summer. Some of the mansions look out over Victoria at the twin city of Kowloon on the mainland across the harbour: others, on the reverse slope, look out to sea, to Lantao island, still barren, to Lamma, in the foreground, and to Cheung Chau in the middle distance.\n\nHongkong was crowded. The hotels were full and so when we arrived, some weeks after leaving Nanking, my wife and I took rooms at the small hotel which an enterprising English couple had opened on Cheung Chau island. A special ferry from Victoria did the trip several times a day in about half an hour. There was quite a large fishing village, the rendezvous for many of the junks that frequent these waters. We lived on fish and strolled amongst the stunted pines and the empty bungalows of the summer visitors waiting until we could find more convenient accommodation. It was a pleasant change from the vicissitudes of Nanking.\n\nEventually we were able to get rooms in the Repulse Bay Hotel, famous as a honeymoon resort. It is on the side of Hongkong facing the open sea, near what is perhaps the best known bathing beach. A winding road over the hill through the Wong Nei Chong gap leads to Victoria, and in Deepwater Bay round the point there is a small nine-hole golf course.\n\nI remember one day we took the bus up to the Gap and got out", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212195, "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": 137, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "14\n\nThe business section of Hongkong is compressed into so small an area that the hotels are just round the corner from any office. It would often be convenient to meet for cocktails before a meal, and in this way the habit had grown of doing business outside the office, either seated at a small table, or with one foot on a brass rail.\n\nWhen the Chinese Government evacuated Nanking in November 1937, the various Purchasing Departments moved to Hongkong, which, with the closing of the Yangtze, had become the main port of entry for supplies into China. The ships docked alongside at Kowloon, or discharged their cargoes into lighters in mid-harbour.\n\nThe railway between Hongkong and Canton had been completed nearly forty years previously, but the railway from Hankow on the Yangtze to Canton was only opened to through traffic in March 1937. That was before the war with Japan broke out, and in line with its anti-foreign policy, the National Government refused to connect the Hankow railway at Canton with the line from Hongkong. The intention was to inconvenience transhipment of cargo at Hongkong on to the railway and to favour use of the small steamers which sailed up the shallow waters of the Pearl River to Canton. This shortsighted policy was now quickly reversed and a connecting loop put in so that cargo loaded onto rail at Hongkong could go straight through without further handling to Hankow.\n\nMy business was mainly with the Chinese Government Purchasing Departments, and very efficient they were. They drove such hard bargains that the staff might have been Scots, though most claimed to have been trained in the States. The Hongkong government gave every facility for the traffic and there can be no question but that the existence of Hongkong as a British colony at this time was a great help to the hard-pressed Chinese.\n\n―\n\nAs regards the administration of Hongkong by the Colonial Office, by almost any western standard it was good. It was essentially better than anything that could be found in China or in Chicago but it was by no means perfect. The administration suffered from the defects of bureaucracy.\n\nThe civil servant who enters the colonial administration must pass a stiff examination; but once he has passed it, he can expect regular", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212197, "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": 139, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "116\n\ncontrolling the rackets of the Shanghai underworld. With the advent of the Japanese they no longer felt safe there and so had taken refuge in Hongkong. The long-gowned men were their bodyguards. These were the gangster chiefs, well regarded by the Chinese government, who had been responsible for the communist purge ten years previously. You can imagine what sort of a strain the presence of such men placed on the vigilance of the Hongkong police.\n\nThe police, however, did trip up badly once. One day a well-dressed, good-looking Chinese gentleman landed from the Chungking passenger plane. He had no passport or credentials and refused to say who he was. So he was detained. He turned out to be Mr. Tai Li, the formidable head of Chiang Kai Shek's dreaded Gestapo. The detention, although very brief, involved a loss of face, and it took a special visit of the British Ambassador to China to Hongkong to smooth the affair over. It is said Mr. Tai Li has ever since used his influence in a direction unfavourable to Britain.\n\nHongkong carried imperial liabilities. It was less irresponsible than Shanghai: nor was it a place like Shanghai where Japanese bagmen flocked in the wake of their army as instruments of Japanese policy with the dual role on the one hand of beguiling the foreign businessman, and on the other of reaping a rich commercial harvest from the trade restrictions imposed by the army on all business which did not pass through Japanese channels. Hongkong knew it had nothing to expect from Japan. It guessed the defences and the garrison were both inadequate; two weak British battalions, one Indian battalion, four out-of-date aircraft, and a small assortment of guns. Yet small as they were, the armed forces looked to their defences. Workmen set to to build concrete pillboxes to cover the beaches, of which there were a large number; alternative sites were prepared for light anti-aircraft guns, roads were built to link weak points in the system, bomb shelters were tunnelled out of the hillsides, and the British civilians, enrolled as volunteers, went into military training. Others served as watchers of the fixed minefields laid off the island, and small naval vessels were set to patrol the adjacent waters outside the boom which floated ready to stretch across the harbour entrance.\n\nBut the Japanese had their spies everywhere. The excellent barber's shop on the ground floor of that English stronghold, the Hongkong", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212199, "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": 141, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "118\n\n1 left by steamer for Canton, the great southern Chinese town, which sprawls along the shore of the Pearl River; and spent a few days on the Shameen mud-bank, just off the city, where the small British and French Concessions are. The Concessions were untouched; but, across the narrow creek that separates them from the shore, the city had suffered heavily from bombing, and from the fires which raged furiously in the congested native districts after each raid. One morning I crossed to the South bank and took the branch line to Samshui on the West river, where I caught the steamer for Wuchow in Kwangsi province.\n\nAlthough owned by a Chinese company, the small river steamer flew the British flag. That was a phenomenon common enough on the inland waters of China. The foreign flag protected the ship from being commandeered by the local war lord. Sometimes for months on end steam traffic, on this water-way or that, would be completely disorganised. The Chinese ships would be impressed to carry the troops of the various armies contending for power. It was only under a foreign flag that they could find the security which would justify their remaining in operation at all. The British government did not welcome this use of the British flag, and introduced regulations to control abuse of the privilege. In order to qualify for British registry a ship must at least carry a British captain and a British chief engineer, and must comply with the Board of Trade regulations in regard to safety measures. But even so, the Chinese owners would make every effort to obtain British registry for their ships, thus in one direction taking advantage of the treaties between Britain and China while, in the other, probably contributing to the Kuo Min Tang party funds, which were used to denounce the iniquities of those very same treaties. In order to comply with the letter of the regulations, the particular ship I now found myself on carried three British officers, whose aggregate age exceeded 200 years. They were, of course, mere figure-heads, the actual work being done by the Chinese officers and crew. These river-boats kept communications open and provided a measure of security for travellers - owing to the presence of British gunboats these small ships moving on inland waters were seldom attacked by bandits which otherwise would have been lacking.\n\n―\n\nIn Kwangsi the road system had been extended to connect Wuchow with the other large towns of the province and I left by car for Kweilin, the capital. An American aviator, who had been down to Hongkong on a shopping expedition, travelled with me as far as", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212220, "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": 162, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "139\n\nI was in Ningpo when the announcement of the closing of the Burma road was received. It was a severe blow for the Chinese, but I think they appreciated the difficulties of Britain's position and that she had only been compelled by the force of circumstances to accede to the Japanese demand. Nothing could have exceeded the kindness and courtesy shown to me by the merchants and officials whom I met.\n\nNingpo was one of the first five treaty ports, opened to trade in 1842. Early promises had not been fulfilled, and the port, overshadowed by Shanghai, had remained small. Off the mouth of the Ningpo river on the largest island of the Chusan archipelago lay the walled city of Tinghai, occupied by British troops twice for a space of several years between 1840 and 1860. Tinghai at one time was designated, instead of Hongkong, as the place to be ceded to Britain for the repair of vessels. It looks a healthy enough place, built up the slopes of a high hill, yet the troops suffered much from sickness and the stones in the graveyard bear witness to the numbers buried there. The garrison imported some turkeys, to provide variety for the larder. The British troops have long since left, but the climate was favourable to turkeys, and now large flocks descended from the original birds are bred to supply the Christmas market in Shanghai.\n\nIn Ningpo, the graveyard contains the stone monument, first erected outside the East gate of the city, to commemorate the assistance given by Captain Roderick Dew, R.N., and Lieutenant Kenny of the French Navy and their respective ships' companies, in 1862, to the Imperial Chinese troops in expelling the Taiping rebels from the town. It was nearby that the American General Ward, Gordon's predecessor in command of the Ever Victorious army, was killed. But times change. To Dr. Sun Yat Sen and the Kuo Min Tang the Taiping rebels are the glorious forerunners of their own revolution, and it is doubtful whether General Gordon, or the British, are given any credit for having assisted the Imperial Government to quell the rebellion.\n\nThe country round the little Ningpo plain is very beautiful. In previous winters I used to shoot on the shallow lakes which lay amongst the hills to the west. Most sportsmen waited to go after the early morning and evening flights of duck, but I preferred to work along the edge of the hills with my dog for the occasional pheasant. They were not so numerous here as amongst the reedbeds of the Yangtze. Beyond the lakes, the deep waters of Nimrod Sound were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212222, "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": 164, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "141\n\nvehicles, with much kind assistance from my Chinese friends, I found my way, frequently changing buses, to Kinhwa, the large commercial town to which the capital of Chekiang had been removed after the fall of Hangchow. A stretch of the Kiangsi-Chekiang railway was still in operation, though the terminals at either end, Nanchang and Hangchow, were in Japanese hands. The railway carried me to Yintang, where I again took to the bus, and eventually made my way, via Kanshow, to Laolung, the roadhead above Hongkong, at the head of junk navigation on the East river. My progress was often delayed by air alarms, as in accordance with their usual practice, the Chinese would not allow vehicles to enter a town while the alarm was on, and you might spend half a day waiting in the country outside.\n\nOn the way I was struck by the enormous numbers of Chinese migrating from occupied to unoccupied parts. These mass migrations, which have been extended by each subsequent Japanese advance, cannot but have a great influence on conditions in China after the war. The people of the provinces are getting mixed up in a way which has not happened in China before. The effect should help to break down the exclusive provincial barriers which have handicapped unity in the past. Also, owing to the bombing, it was the habit, in many towns, to close down until about four in the afternoon. Everyone who could manage it would walk out into the countryside early in the morning, only to return late in the afternoon after any chance of bombing might be over. The shops would then open and remain open till late at night, and all the intercourse of the town would be...* ...good progress, but the boatman refused to travel at night; muttering about the danger of bandits, he tied up alongside a number of other junks - they always go into a huddle at night for safety - and proceeded to light his opium pipe. Next day we reached a town whence a launch service connected with Waichow. The launch only travelled at night to avoid the risk of being shot up by Japanese aircraft; so we reached Waichow early in the morning and breakfasted off the hot steamed rolls which are popular amongst the Cantonese.\n\nFrom Waichow the track led overland to Mirs Bay in Hongkong waters. For about half of the sixty miles, the recognised form of conveyance was on the carrier of a push-bike propelled by a muscular coolie. We distributed ourselves and our baggage over the necessary\n\n* 27 lines missing here...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212223, "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": 165, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "142 \n\nnumber of bicycles, and despite having to dismount frequently to cross ditches, alleged to be anti-tank but too narrow to be effective for the purpose, made forty miles in a day along the footpaths amongst the hills. \n\nTens of thousands of coolies were carrying loads over the track from Mirs Bay to the East River: it shewed what a large flow of supplies still entered China from Hongkong despite the Japanese blockade. I even saw the parts of wholly dismantled lorries being carried along, four coolies to each pole on the heavier loads, such as the frame. Unfortunately a cholera epidemic was raging, and the Chinese government appeared to have made no effort to provide medical and sanitary supervision, on what was one of the few remaining routes of entry into China. A plague of flies hovered over the human excreta which defiled the edges of the road along its whole length. Coolies were dying by the dozen. They would collapse by the side of the road and crawl off to expire in the scrub. In places the stench was so strong as to make you retch. On arrival next day at Mirs Bay we were offered tea at the little Chinese customs house, while waiting for the launch. As the bay was entirely inside Hongkong territorial waters, Japanese ships could not enter, and the launches ran twice a day with impunity. \n\nI stepped ashore at Taipo, a village in the New Territory, in time to catch the evening train from Fanling, but I was now feeling ill myself and half wondering whether I too had not caught cholera. I was unable to join the golfing fraternity in the saloon car to listen to the highlights of the day's sport, or to partake of refreshment, and on arrival at the Gloucester I retired to my bed. \n\nThe luxury, however, of a modern hotel soon put me on my legs, and I was further fortified by the comfort of a passage to Shanghai in one of the Canadian-Pacific Company's liners. \n\nIt was November. Many of the younger men had left to join up, either in Malaya or in India, where it was thought their services might prove more useful than in England. Nevertheless with the addition of the people who had been brought in from the outports, there was no shortage of staff in the offices; and the Clubs, if anything, appeared rather crowded. Owing to the stagnation in trade, people had not much to do. Yet managers seemed reluctant to release their young men, too many of whom, as it appeared to me, seemed quite content to stay; while, surprisingly, older middle-aged men were being allowed \n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213136, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 204, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "186\n\n# APPENDIX I\n\n## Calendar of Disturbances in the Border Area, 1899-1940\n\n(Orme = Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hongkong, 1912, (Sessional Papers 1912, printed by Noronha and Co, Government Printers), No 11 of 1912. \"Report on the New Territories, 1899-1912” (The Orme Report), pp 43-63, SP = Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hongkong (Sessional Papers), STJLS = Shatinjiade Lishe, op cit. AP = Administrative Reports, \"Report by the District Officer New Territories\", JLHG = Judonghaiguan Baoguan Dashiji op cit. Note JUHO is limited in material for 1921-1927, and AP has little to say on the border 1931-1938, except to comment on the levels of smuggling)\n\n \n Year\n Event\n Source\n \n \n 1900\n Abortive Rebellion in Wai Chan Sham Chun valley in turmoil Sam Chau Ti in revolt 5 piracies in Hong Kong waters\n SP 1901 STJLS Orme\n \n \n 1901\n Chinese military patrol formed on frontier\n SP 1902\n \n \n 1905\n Most serious crime in New Territories caused by cross-border gangs these impeded by new blockhouses at Ta Kwu Ling Second rebellion at Sam Chau Tin\n Orme STJLS\n \n \n 1906\n Market strike at Sha Tau Kok\n STJLS\n \n \n 1907\n Riot against Customs at Sha Tau Kok\n STJLS\n \n \n 1911\n Law Fong, Chor Uk Wai, Shu Tau Customs Stations sacked by bandits Law Fong Customs Station destroyed by bandits\n JLHG\n \n \n 1912\n Fighting in area near border Increase in banditry and piracy In Hong Kong, military assistance needed by Police Law Fong, Lin Tong, Sha Tau Customs Stations sacked by bandits, at Law Fong claiming to be \"new revolutionaries\" Situation confused Executions in Sham Chun\n SP 1912 AR JLHG\n \n \n 1913\n Nam O, Yun To Customs Stations sacked by bandits\n JLHG\n \n \n 1914\n Nam O attacked and sacked by night Tai Chan, Chek Wan Customs Stations sacked by bandits\n JLHG\n \n \n 1915\n Chan Hang (Siu Mui Sha) Customs Station sacked by bandits\n \n \n \n 1916\n Increase in smuggling opium into China Bad outbreak of cross-border crime, due to \"lack of any reasonable system of policing\" on the Chinese side Yum Tin (3 times), Kai Chung, Lung Tsun Hui Customs Stations sacked by bandits (40 men attack Kai Chung, up to 200 Yum Tin, and 150 at Lung Tsun Hui) All Customs firearms removed to Hong Kong for safe-keeping (until 1932)\n JLHG AR JLHG\n \n \n 1917\n Hakkas fleeing disturbances in Waichau arrive in New Territories Outbreak of crime in New Territories by \"undesirables\" from across border Kai Chung, Lung Tsun Hui, Sha Tau Customs Stations sacked by bandits\n AR JLHG\n \n \n 1918\n Times \"very disturbed\" on border Outbreak of cross-border crime \"half the offenders come from Chinese territory\" Kai Chung, Tip Fuk, Ha Sha JLHG Customs Stations forced to close (April) Sha Yue Chung and Kai Miu Customs Stations sacked by bandits and forced to close (August)\n AR JLHG", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 } ]