[ { "id": 208702, "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-1979", "page_number": 159, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "132\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nthe Bishop thinks it may have been Chinese Communists. At any rate, Bishop Valtorta went to see Mr. Oda about this incident, and while in the office, Mr. Oda suddenly said: \"Do the Maryknoll Fathers still want to go to Kwangchauwan?\" The Bishop, quite taken aback, said: \"Why, I thought you said they could leave the Colony under no consideration whatever!\" \"Well,” replied Mr. Oda, “I have changed my mind, and if they still want to go, tell them to send in their names.\" At this, the Bishop lost no time in acquainting Father Toomey with the latest developments and we again promptly submitted our names.\n\n**\n\nWhat brought about this abrupt change of policy, of course, we do not know. In the meantime, the Bishop had used every means at his command and had, I believe, threatened to write to the Apostolic Delegate in Japan, Archbishop Marella. We also heard that the Governor of Macao might be able to do something for us. Then too, we thought perhaps the Vatican had brought some pressure to bear, and that possibly Maryknoll itself might be working in our behalf. At any rate, after all this time, our hopes were now high, and we anxiously expected an answer from the Foreign Office.\n\nIn the meantime, Sister Paul was fighting a tough battle with the Japanese who wanted to take over Holy Spirit School. They talked and threatened, and she wanted guarantees and reasons for their actions, so that they were somewhat nonplussed. And the Sisters stayed in Holy Spirit School.\n\nLate in the afternoon of the 24th, Christmas Eve, the Bishop hurried over to the Sisters with the gladsome news that at last the Maryknoll Fathers and Sisters might go to Kwangchauwan! What a wonderful Christmas present! At last we were to get to China and our missions! Deo gratias!\n\nAt Holy Spirit School, Father Downs sang a Midnight Mass and the Sisters had a little procession upstairs and downstairs to the little cribs. Fathers Toomey, Tackney and Moore also helped out in churches in Kowloon, and at Pokfulam the Fathers sang at a Solemn Mass on Christmas morning in the little mission chapel near Nazareth, of which Father Favreau is in charge.\n\nAt tiffin, we had the French Fathers at our festive board, Fathers Vircondelet, Tournier, Biotteau, Morel and Favreau, as well as the two Fathers of Bethany, Bos and Chaye. Of course, we had no turkey but our tiffin was a little more festive than ordinary, despite", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "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": 212618, "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": 172, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "152\n\nperimeter of the Settlement and the Concession, but was later to be used by the Japanese to hem in the foreign areas. At the time that Hawkins passed through, about eight in the morning, the news of the Japanese attack on Britain and America had apparently not yet been handed out by the Japanese High Command to their troops. The sentry took no notice of Hawkins, who, however, a little further on saw the men of a Japanese mechanised unit tumbling out of their billets in a hurry and manning their vehicles.\n\nThe Shanghai neighbourhood, as indeed the whole of the Yangtze delta, is a network of creeks, large and small. Unless you know the country paths well you are liable to find your progress blocked at frequent intervals by creeks, the footbridges over which are few and far between. By nightfall Hawkins, keeping away from the neighbourhood of the several Japanese posts planted round the outskirts of Shanghai, had only covered ten miles; and he had lost one pony. To avoid approaching any of the bridges he had had to swim a number of creeks. It was not until his third day out, moving with great caution, that he found a farmer who could lead him to a Chinese guerilla unit. The news of the events in Shanghai was by this time beginning to filter out to the country people, all of whom shewed him the greatest kindness, gave him food, and found him shelter. Hawkins deserved all the more credit for his initiative and resource because he spoke not a word of Chinese and naturally had considerable difficulty in making himself understood.\n\nThroughout occupied China it is true to say in a general way that by night the country belongs to the Chinese. At night, owing to the guerilla activity, the Japanese, except when in force, retire to the safety of the towns. Only in the daytime, within reasonable distance of their posts outside the large towns and along the lines of communication, can they move with safety. In many places this guerilla control is effective up to the very walls of the large cities; or, in the case of Shanghai, the wire. Once Hawkins reached the guerillas he was comparatively safe. Night by night, watching their opportunities, they moved him further inland, taking him safely across the various railways, roads, or creeks, which were subject to Japanese patrolling, slipping if necessary between the machine-gun posts where the Japanese had established more permanent lines. The chief danger was from the spies and informers, in Japanese pay, who infest the whole area; they live dangerous lives themselves because they get short shrift when caught by the guerillas. It thus took him three weeks to reach the town where we sat eating our New Year", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212666, "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": 220, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "201\n\n# THE RE-OCCUPATION OF HONG KONG\n\n## IN AUGUST 1945\n\n### DAN WATERS\n\nIn May 1992, on a Royal British Legion pilgrimage to Italy to visit graves of comrades killed when my company fought there in World War II, I became friends with ex-company sergeant major John McLaren. We later exchanged letters and he enclosed comments by his stepbrother, a Fleet Air Arm naval rating, about the return of the Allied Forces to Hong Kong in August 1945. From Mr Roland Davidson's comments I have compiled the following. It should be remembered, of course, that recollections can become distorted over half a century.\n\nWhen the atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki both the American 7th Fleet and the British 5th Fleet attached to it were at sea ready for strikes at the Japanese mainland. Everyone was delighted that Japan had surrendered. As Singapore and Hong Kong were both holding out the 7th Fleet was dispatched to Singapore and the 5th Fleet to Hong Kong. We arrived quite quickly and American Admiral Bill Halsey lost no time in demanding the presence of the Hong Kong garrison Japanese commander aboard the flagship “Indomitable” on which I was a crew member. One of our aircraft, a Fairy Fulmar if my memory serves me right, was sent to pick this worthy gentleman up. After a short time the plane returned. I might add that our ship was still at sea in a state of readiness.\n\nOut of the aircraft stepped this very well dressed, debonair Japanese army officer who treated the armed marine guard as if it was his guard of honour. Admiral Halsey was none too pleased and called down to the flight deck: 'Bring that man to the \"island\" (the bridge) at the double!' Documents of surrender were placed ready for signature on a small table.\n\nWhen the poor fellow arrived he was asked if he was indeed the Japanese commanding officer. He replied in perfect English that he was in fact the second-in-command. He said his commanding officer had absconded the previous day. The second-in-command was rather arrogant and swanky, and smartly dressed in uniform with high boots which had high heels. Halsey ordered a marine to break off the heel of his right boot who then had to hobble around the bridge and across the decks to the amusement of the ship's crew. I never saw a man's arrogance", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212667, "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": 221, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "202\n\ndisappear so quickly.\n\nHalsey would have no truck with the second-in-command who was then escorted back to the waiting plane. The Japanese commander eventually appeared whereupon the surrender was signed later in the presence of the British admiral aboard HMS King George V.\n\nAt dawn the following day the whole fleet was placed in ‘line ahead' and we sailed up the Lei Yue Mun Channel, between Hong Kong and Kowloon. As we approached a gun emplacement set high in the rocks was spotted with the Japanese flag flying. The Japanese could be seen quite clearly on the ramparts of the fort. The order relayed to the King George V battleship was 'range broadside!' I never saw a flag come down so fast.\n\nWe anchored in an orderly fashion off the City of Victoria and in no time at all found ourselves surrounded by sampans and all sorts of other small boats. Royal marines armed with machine guns were stationed round the sides of the ship. After all, we just didn't know what to expect.\n\nWhile preparations were being made for the first landing party to go ashore naval officers selected the men. They questioned ratings how they felt about the task. One or two were rather brash in their manner and replies. They were rejected. Asked if I felt afraid I answered that I was a bit scared. 'Good,' said one of the officers, ‘A frightened man is a careful man!'\n\nIn the early afternoon I and nine other men, armed to the teeth, went ashore in a motorised cutter. The landing stage was free of booby traps and obstacles. We came ashore near the Star Ferry. All was very quiet. Even the sometimes boisterous Chinese were not self-evident. The Japanese had destroyed all the dwellings and buildings along the waterfront so they had an uninterrupted view of the sea lane.\n\nI was on shore patrol when we came across a mob of Chinese and, on investigation, we discovered a Japanese soldier had been strangled by a Chinese. I was told the Japanese had molested and raped the man's wife during the occupation. The man was later arrested, charged and, I believe, subsequently let off.\n\nOn another occasion I noticed two bodies in the harbour being swept down the straits. Who they were or what was going on I didn't know.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212823, "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-1992", "page_number": 132, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "117\n\nwithdrew partly into India and partly back into Yunnan. Kokang was left high and dry. Undaunted the Myosa from his own funds purchased what weapons he could from the retreating Chinese troops and the disbanded men of the Burma Rifles, who had been instructed to disperse to their villages with their weapons, which were to be retained for local protection until the British returned. He acquired several hundred rifles, a small stock of ammunition, and a few Bren guns, and organised his own force, the Kokang Defence Force. Fortunately the prowess of the force, which could scarcely have proved high in the face of the battle-trained troops of Japan, was not put to the test. The Japanese advance stopped at the Salween, a convenient barrier on which to consolidate their East Wall in Burma.\n\nThe Myosa, left thus in a most dangerous situation, in the front line, as it were, of the Allied positions, applied to the nearby ally, China, for assistance. The Chinese who were themselves receiving equipment from America for their forces in this part of the world, could spare him no equipment, but undertook to train officers for his force. The quality of the training so provided will grow evident as this story unfolds.\n\nIn 1943 the Myosa made the journey to Kun-ming to apply to the British authorities for assistance and it was at the British Consul General's* house in Kun-ming that I met him. I saw an alert slight figure, young looking and brisk for his 45 years, dressed in a western suit of Palm Beach cloth. He looked Chinese, but I believe there is also an admixture of tribal blood, possibly Shan; there is, of course, a good deal of intermingling throughout all that border country. The prince spoke Burmese and Chinese, but very little English: though his schooling on the border had probably been rough and ready, he possessed in a strong degree that charm, which goes with a courtesy so cultivated that it becomes natural and can conceal the aptitude for decision based on a habit of command. The prince was accompanied by his son, a capable young man in his early twenties, who had been educated at the Princes' School in Taungyi and spoke excellent English. The Myosa explained to us, his son serving as interpreter, the difficulties of his position, the trouble he was having with Chinese troops, a battalion of whom had been stationed in Southern Kokang, and the hope that we might be able to come to his support. We discussed the situation and the nature of the\n\n*Strangely, he had been the Consul at Kiu Kiang in 1927, from whose house we retired to the warships", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214464, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 322, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "289\n\nand a dedication plaque from the Imperial court. This would not have been unusual for a Chinese general killed in action, but for a foreigner it was a great but much misunderstood honour. Missionaries in particular were indignant, and it was only very fortunate that the local peasantry did not take it to its normal and logical conclusion by placing an image of Ward on the altar, otherwise the missionaries would doubtless have forced the authorities to remove it.\n\nThe oral history related in 1993 by the curator of the History Department of Sungkiang county is insignificantly at variance with the story as related by Caleb Carr in his book The Devil Soldier published in 1991, which regrettably I did not come across until it appeared in paperback in 1995, two years after my visit to Sungkiang. Carr explains that the Japanese invaders had sacked Ward's shrine and Memorial Hall and defaced his grave in 1940. And in 1955, six years after the communists came to power, his remains were dug up and the gravesite and shrine were destroyed and paved over. He added that the whereabouts of Ward's bones today are unknown, and have almost certainly been destroyed.\n\nCarr's version is almost certainly accurate though Ward has not been forgotten in Sungkiang and local memory still has Ward's bones under the high altar of the Catholic church.\n\nAs an After Note readers might be interested in Franck's final paragraph providing his version of the end of Ward's natural successor, his second-in-command, Burgevine, who had been born in North Carolina in 1836.\n\n\"The southerner was overbearing and, there remains little doubt, dishonest and disloyal, and he was soon discharged by the financing merchants of Shanghai. He went over to the [Taiping] rebels and tried to get Gordon to join him and establish a new dynasty! But the staid Britisher seems to have had so little imagination in his make-up that he 'peached' on Burgevine instead. [The US] consul deported the Carolinian to Yokohama, but he came back to Amoy, 'got lickered up', and started to rejoin the rebels. He was captured by the Imperial Chinese", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216406, "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-2003", "page_number": 165, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "115 \n\n\"This position was chosen to ensure a beam wind for boats sailing to and from the wreck. I did not consider it safe to go any closer, as I felt the chart could not be implicitly trusted, it being an 1886 survey. This was borne out by the lead getting an 8 fathom sounding between two of over 20 fathoms.*19\n\nNot mentioned but in the case of HERMES always a point to be considered carefully, the more so when manoeuvring at slow speed in high winds, was the tremendous sail effect of her considerable island superstructure.\n\nCaptain Mackinnon continued:\n\n'It was too rough even here to use either the motor boat or motor cutters, and so the port sea boat was sent away under stormsails in command of Commander Baxter, the crew consisting of Lieut. Commanders Harrison and Sherwood and six picked ratings. Great difficulty was experienced in getting the boat alongside the wreck owing to the heavy surf and the close proximity of rocks on three sides of the wreck. A large quantity of water found its way into the boat and the pintle of the rudder sheered, but nine of the crew of the wreck were taken off and the boat got away without loss of life, returning to the ship under sail and being hoisted without accident.'\n\nThis rescue operation lasted for two hours, from 0730 to 0930 hours. At 1050 hours a second attempt was made to save more of the shipwrecked men but in the meantime the sea had increased, especially in steepness in the vicinity of the rocks, and so half an hour later the attempt had to be abandoned.\n\nDuring the day nothing more could be done. However, since four large sampans had been observed in the vicinity of the wreck, and as RYUJIN MARU had made a signal saying that she feared pirate assaults, during the night a searchlight illuminated the wreck at intervals in order to deter any such visits.\n\nAt 0800 hours on Thursday, the 5th the Japanese destroyer NASHP\" arrived and anchored close by. It was too rough to send a boat over but by semaphore it was learnt from her that a salvage vessel was on her way from Moji. Further Captain Mackinnon was informed that the\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216407, "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-2003", "page_number": 166, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "116\n\nJapanese cruiser YAHAGI11 was due to arrive at 2200 hours that evening.\n\nIn the interim the freighter MADRAS MARU2 arrived. She attempted a rescue operation but this was not successful. Indeed the seas were so high that it was not even possible to contemplate sending the nine survivors across to her for repatriation to Japan.\n\nSince all these Japanese flag ships had appeared or were due to appear at the scene of the grounding Captain Mackinnon informed NASHI that he would sail for Hong Kong that afternoon, and take with him the nine men. Later he was to write:\n\n'Many friendly and complimentary flag signals were exchanged with all ships present, including the wreck. At 1700 I proceeded to Hong Kong leaving the Japanese destroyer NASHI in charge of the situation.'\n\nOn Saturday 7 November HERMES returned to her buoy at Hong Kong and a short while later the nine rescued seamen were landed ashore.\n\nIt is pleasant to be able to record that in due course official thanks were rendered by the Japanese minister of foreign affairs, Baron Kijuro Shidehara. His letter was addressed to the British ambassador to Tokyo, H.E. Sir Francis Oswald Lindley who forwarded these thanks to the Foreign Office in London from where, in turn, they were passed to the Secretary to the Admiralty.\n\nA year later, on 6th December 1932 at Hong Kong, the C. in C. came onboard our ship to present Lloyds Silver Medals to the three officers, and Bronze Medals to the six ratings who had taken part in the rescue. Also a bronze shield, mounted on a wooden base, was presented to the ship by the Committee of Lloyds.\n\nIn December 1931 an epidemic of diphtheria struck Hong Kong. Amongst those taken ill was Captain Mackinnon. Commander Baxter temporarily assumed command until the arrival of the ship's new commanding officer, Captain W.B. Mackenzie, on 25th February 1932.\n\nCaptain Mackinnon duly returned home and on 21 January 1933", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]