[ { "id": 204319, "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-1961", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n83\n\ncolour, and as No-cha stirred it up in the stream heaven and earth were shaken and the river trembled. This river was called Chiu-wan Ho (Nine-bend River) and was situated at the mouth of the Eastern Sea. Ao Kuang (#), the dragon-king of the Eastern Sea, surprised at this unexpected earthquake, ordered his inspector-yaksha, Li Kên (R), to go at once and find out the cause. When the yaksha reached the river he saw that the river was red and a child was bathing there, dipping his red silk gauze in the water. He cleft the water asunder and shouted angrily: \"What prompts you, little child, to make the river red and the crystal palace shake?\" No-cha turned back and saw a monster coming out of the water, a monster whose face was as blue as indigo, whose hair was as red as cinnabar, whose mouth was big with long projecting teeth and who had in his hand a halberd. No-cha scolded, \"You monster, how can you speak like a human being?\" The yaksha was exasperated and said, “I am an appointed officer. How dare you insult me?\" He jumped up to the bank and brandished his halberd towards No-cha. No-cha was naked and could only jump aside. Then he took off the bracelet from his right arm and hurled it in the air. This bracelet was a precious weapon bestowed on the Immortal T'ai-I by the Patriarch Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun of the Jade Palace of Abstraction to protect the Chin-kuang Cave where T'ai-I dwelt. It fell upon the head of the yaksha and his brains spilled on the ground. No-cha ignored his corpse but smiled and said, \"He has stained my precious weapon!\" He sat himself again on the rock, smiling and washing the bracelet. The crystal palace was shaken again and even more violently. When Ao Kuang was vexed the soldiers came back to report, “Yaksha Li Kên was killed by a child on the bank.\" The dragon-king was frightened, \"Li Kên was appointed by the Jade Emperor; who dared to murder him?” Saying this he summoned his men, intending to go himself. No sooner had the dragon-king finished his words than Ao Ping (F), his third son, requested permission to go for the father. So, Ao Ping, at the head of a troop of sea-warriors, mounted his water-cleaving monster, and with his trident in his hand, left the palace. The form of the breaking waves was so furious that the river seemed to rise several feet. No-cha stood up and marvelled, \"This is a flood!\"... (Ch.12)\n\nIn Ch.48 of the prompt-book Tung-yu-chi (\"The Eight Saints or The Voyage to the East\") when the Eight Immortals were crossing the Eastern Sea, Lü Tung-pin (SM) initiated an idea, \"During our crossing would it not be fine for each of us to throw one precious thing into the sea so that our divine power may be revealed?\" Therefore, \"When the dragon-king of the Eastern Sea was holding a meeting in his crystal palace, he", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204454, "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-1962", "page_number": 86, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "75\n\nTHE PATTERN OF LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES IN 1898\n\nJ. W. HAYES, M.A.*\n\nIn 1898 Great Britain signed the Peking Convention which gave her the lease of the New Territories for 99 years. The world has made such material progress since that time and urban Hong Kong has itself seen so many changes that it is difficult for us to-day to imagine the rural part of the Colony as it then was, without roads or wheeled transport other than the wheel-barrow, with inhabitants who knew nothing of cars, aeroplanes, or weapons of mass destruction. But having made this effort, we must think back further still if we wish to obtain a proper appreciation of the situation, as James Stewart Lockhart told the Hong Kong Government in 1898. At the end of his report on the New Territory, as he styled it, he said \"Under Chinese rule enterprise has been at a discount, and progress has been at a standstill for centuries. The San On district of to-day must be much the same as it was four or five hundred years ago\".\n\nThe report is a valuable first-hand account of the area as it was in the year of its acquisition and covers the points in which Government would be most interested such as topography, communications, trade and natural products, population, industries and the existing civil government. It also gave its author's recommendations as to how the New Territory should be governed and looked after in future. This article, whilst making use of Lockhart's report, tries to give the background which he, of course, would take for granted. It does not pretend to deal with every part of the backcloth but only touches on those parts which seem worth mentioning for their share in fixing life in its accustomed mould: the village, the people themselves and their history, the clan system, ancestral worship, education, the district government, the background of affairs elsewhere in the province, the prevalence of disturbance and epidemic, popular religion: all factors which made for integration or disruption in a life that could never have been easy.\n\n* Mr. Hayes has been an administrative officer with the Hong Kong Government since 1956.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204473, "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-1962", "page_number": 105, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "94\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\nland and the clan. The popular religion too, was but an ephemeral thing, something to meet the needs of the moment; something too that was not so respectable as the austere worship which fell within the Confucian canon. In short, the impression left by the brief excursion into the past which forms the basis of this article has left me with the firm impression that Confucianism was the dominant influence over people and government in the New Territory in 1898. I hasten to point out that in itself this is not in any way surprising: but in view of the remoteness of the area and its late settlement by Chinese of different race with their undoubted absorption of earlier inhabitants this impression of its pervasiveness and brooding presence everywhere in the Territory at this time is probably worth restating.\n\nNOTES\n\nAs far as possible the notes are designed to supplement the text and not to be a necessary part of it. I have used local source material which has come to my notice during a tour of duty as District Officer South (1957-60) and Islands (1961-62) when I have been in a favourable position to hear of, find and utilise whatever happened to come my way, besides the authorities cited in these notes. I have scarcely used the District History, the San On Yuen Chi (⛧人元誌, last edition 1820, but reprinted by Kwong Tung Printers, Canton, in 1933) nor Mr. Lo Hsiang-lin's Hong Kong and its external communications before 1842 which uses the District History extensively. (It is good to know that a translation of the latter is in the Hong Kong University Press and will appear shortly, so making available in English part of the District History). I ought also to say here that this is my first excursion in the field of Oriental Studies, with all that this implies. I wish to thank Mr. Lo Chi Chung of the District Office for his valuable help. A Cantonese form of romanization has been used throughout.\n\n1 James Haldane Stewart Lockhart (1858-1937) became a Hong Kong Cadet in 1878. He was appointed Colonial Secretary in 1895, the post he held at the time of his Report (8th October 1898) for which he received the thanks of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. He was created C.M.G. in 1898 and K.C.M.G. in 1908. In 1902 he became first Commissioner of Wei Hai Wei, a territory of 285 square miles on the coast of Shantung with an estimated 330 villages and a population of 124,000 which had been leased to Britain in 1898. He remained in this quiet backwater for the next twenty years. Lockhart was a sinologue of some note in his day and wrote a Manual of Chinese Quotations (Hong Kong, Kelly and Walsh, 1903), The Currency of the Far East, 3 vols (Hong Kong, Noronha and Co., 1895, 1898) and a monograph, The Stewart Lockhart collection of Chinese copper coins, (Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, 1915).\n\nPage 105\nPage 106", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204476, "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-1962", "page_number": 108, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES \n\n97\n\nJ, FUNG Yiu Tsan, residing at No. 69 in this village, have a farm hut and a piece of waste threshing ground at Lot Nos. 94 and 95, which I hereby sell to a junior clansman FUNG Tak Yau, because I am old, have no son to support me and cannot make a living or obtain the money I need by borrowing. The price agreed upon is twenty-four silver dollars. This has been paid in full, after weighing, to me personally; the money is to be taken home for me to spend; hereafter the above-named payer will assume ownership of the farm hut and waste threshing ground, including the walls, tiles, ordure pit and boundary stones. From now on no arbitrary claims may be made, for this sale is voluntary and payment has been made in full and as agreed. This agreement is irrevocable. Should this property be found to have been acquired under suspicious circumstances, the vendor alone will be held responsible; the above payer is not liable. This written agreement is hereby prepared as proof and for retention by FUNG Tak Yau.\n\nAnother, drawn up during the difficult days of the Japanese occupation in 1942 reads,\n\nThis deed of sale on land is drawn up by the vendor CHAN Wan Shing. Because he has not money for purchasing provisions, he first offered to sell to his kinsfolk the nine plots of land, total area three dau chung, located at Nam Pei Tau in Shek Pik Village, bequeathed to him by his grandfather, but none of them are interested. Then, through the medium of a middleman, KWOK Lai Pai of Tai O was approached and he undertook to buy them at a current price of $165.00. Again, through the middleman, CHAN Wan Shing has received a sum of $165 for himself, and with effect from the date of this deed, the lots will become the permanent property of KWOK Lai Pai. For fear that verbal agreement may not constitute evidence, this deed is executed as a certificate to confirm the transaction.\n\nDuring a land court held during the Shek Pik settlement just as a case was being settled in the present possessor's favour in default of proof of the plaintiff's contention that the original document was a mortgage and not a sale (and therefore redeemable, according to custom, despite subsequent transactions) the defendant pulled out a new sheaf of papers for inspection. Among them was a white deed which proved to be the original mortgage of 1918. He thereby defeated his own case. It turned out that he had never bothered to read the papers handed over to him with the white deed of sale drawn up during the Japanese Occupation. Similarly, a sixty year old mortgage elsewhere on Lantau which was discovered in the land registers when succession was being determined, was honoured by the mortgagees, though grudgingly, the real point at issue being the amount of compensation and not the return of the land, as no figure was stated in the original entry.\n\n12 This is recognised in the provisions of the New Territories Ordinance Cap. 97 where the registration of a so manager in the Land Office is obligatory. A change of manager can only be secured after the vacancy has been filled at a properly advertised clan meeting and notices of election, posted by the District Office, have expired without objection, Prospective sales of two land have to be reported to the Assistant Land Officer (the D.O.) and advertised by him, again without objection, before a sale is allowed. Trustees, too, are not permitted to sell land belonging to minors unless the Land Officer has given his", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204479, "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-1962", "page_number": 111, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "100\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\nexerts itself with unprecedented vigour and hardihood in local affairs. No dispute arises but one or more of these social pests thrusts himself forward between the contending parties, and no fraud on the revenue or wholesale extortion is free from their similar influence\". Lockhart (through Governor Blake) says that the New Territory's literati \"have hitherto lived by irregular \"squeezes\" from the people\" and he blamed the opposition to British rule to them and to \"gamblers and bad characters banished from Hong Kong\" and not to the people who were incited by the gentry and elders. See Papers 1899 pp. 520 and 554.\n\n26 Papers 1899 p. 194.\n\n27 Papers 1899 p. 554.\n\n28 Arthur H. Smith Village Life in China (Edinburgh, Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, about 1900) p. 121.\n\n29 These affected the coastal and riverine regions of Kwangtung. See C. F. Neumann's Translations from the Chinese and Armenian with notes. 1. History of the pirates who infested the China Sea from 1807 to 1810, (London, John Murray 1831). This includes, pp. 97-125, a very interesting account of an enforced stay of eleven weeks and three days with the pirate fleet in 1809 by Richard Glasbrooke, the mate of an East Indiaman. The pirates spent a considerable time on and near Lantau, which must have suffered from their depredations. The clan record of the HO family of San Tsuen, Pui O, on the south side of the island mentions pirate raids and a decision to fortify the village with walls which can still be seen, with several embrasures for cannon.\n\nPiracy continued until a much later date. The Cheung Chau police station was attacked and burnt in 1912, necessitating its removal and enlargement, one of the Cheung Chau ferries was pirated in 1923, and in 1925 a band of sixty robbers from the Delta entered Tai O by way of Po Chue Tam creek, killed a woman and made off with young men and a fair amount of booty without any difficulty. The Police Station is situated at the other end of the town and knew nothing of the attack until it was over. See Administrative Reports, District Officer, New Territories 1912, 1923 and 1925.\n\n30 Papers 1899 p. 528.\n\n31 Foreign Office Report 1606 on Trade of Canton 1894.\n\n32 Salt was smuggled into China from Tai O as the government monopoly and price ring made it profitable to do so. See also Enclosure D to Sir Matthew Nathan's despatch No. 59 of 11 January 1905 in Correspondence relating to Kowloon-Canton Railway which mentions rice smuggling from Shum Chun and Deep Bay into Hong Kong. The export of rice from China was forbidden, and checked by the Imperial Maritime Customs.\n\n**F O Trade Report No. 1778 for 1895.\n\n34 F O Trade Report No. 1983 for 1896.\n\n33 Papers 1899, p. 540.\n\nBrenan, with his thirty-two years' service wrote feelingly \"The Chinaman is happiest who never sees an official, who does not even know the name of one\". J N CBRAS XXXII (1897-98) 37.\n\n31 Foreign Office Trade Report for Canton No. 1606 for 1894.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204620, "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-1963", "page_number": 101, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "88\n\nCHEUNG CHAU 1850-1898\n\nINFORMATION FROM COMMEMORATIVE TABLETS\n\nJ. W. HAYES, M.A.*\n\n*\n\nCheung Chau is a small island situated just over five miles west-south-west of Green Island at the western end of Hong Kong harbour. It is adjacent to the southern side of the much larger island of Lantau from which it is separated by a strait of just under one mile. The island is two and a quarter miles long at its greatest extent, but takes the form of a three-ended dumb-bell, each of whose arms radiates for roughly a mile from the low beach area on which the town is built. The three arms reach a height of about three hundred feet, the northern being the highest and rockiest. The other two are flatter and more fertile, especially that to the south-west where most of the agricultural land is situated. The total area is 592 acres (0.92 square mile), of which 91.07 acres were registered as cultivated land at the turn of the century.*\n\nThere are no large areas of cultivated fields, as most of the fertile land lies in small valleys cutting inwards from the coastal beaches or on low plateaux in the hilly areas of the island. Because of its small size and its low features, there is a general lack of perennial streams and this has always posed a problem for farmers and townspeople, though strangely enough it has never stopped them from staying there. The main anchorage is at Chung Wan facing due west, which together with Sai Wan to the south-west has attracted fishermen as a home port for hundreds of years. It is not an entirely safe anchorage as recent typhoons have shown, but, again, this does not seem to have deterred fishermen from operating from the island.\n\nThe census of 1911, taken a decade after it had passed under British rule, gave a land population of 3,244, mostly Punti, and a floating population of 4,442.*\n\n* Mr. Hayes has been an administrative officer with the Hong Kong Government since 1956. His article entitled \"The Pattern of Life in the New Territories in 1898\" appeared in Vol. 2 of this Journal.\n\nThe notes to this article are printed between pages 100-106.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204633, "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-1963", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHAU\n\n101\n\n11 \"The whole of the island (Cheung Chau) was adjudged to belong to the WONG family and it is let out to various tenants on leases renewable every five years. All these leases were registered in 1906\". Administra-tive Report for 1909, District Officer, New Territories. But see also G. N. Orme's unfavourable opinion of the initial survey and Crown rent roll in Sessional Papers 1912, p. 46.\n\n12 For example, before its tax-lord rights were extinguished (along with others') by the Hong Kong Government after 1898 as \"not compatible with the principles of British administration\" (Orme, Sessional Papers 1912, p. 46), the LI Kau Yuen Tong of Sha Wan appears to have owned a considerable proportion of all the cultivated land on Lantau island under an imperial grant made in the Sung dynasty (see LO Hsiang-lin \"The Sung Wang T'ai and the location of the Travelling Courts by the sea-shore in the Last Days of the Sung\", Journal of Oriental Studies III No. 2 (July 1956) p. 217, note 29). Nineteenth Century land deeds from the village of Shek Pik show that much of the village land paid tax to the LI family, a burden which was passed on to the purchaser when a \"sale\" took place. It is not known whether this Tong owned land elsewhere in the present New Territories but its main estates lay elsewhere. It is curious how the WONG Wai Chak Tong maintained its tax-lord position whilst the LI family's was extinguished.\n\nIt is a pointer to the island's increasing prosperity, as well as to its favoured geographical situation, that when the Chinese Maritime Customs first began to operate in the Hong Kong region in 1887 they set up a post on Cheung Chau. This had previously been operated by the Canton authorities as part of the \"blockade\" system set up in 1868-71. See Stanley F. Wright, Hart and the Chinese Customs (Belfast, William Mullan & Son, 1950) pp. 385-6, 584-6 and 708, and his earlier Hong Kong and the Chinese Customs (Shanghai 1930) which I have not yet seen. See also note 15. Old villagers on the Lantau coast opposite Cheung Chau can remember having to pass through the customs every time they came to the island to buy daily necessaries and sell their produce in the market.\n\nIt is not the place to discuss whether Cheung Chau's expansion was due to the rise of Hong Kong, or whether it was already in a flourishing condition by the time Hong Kong's expansion began in the 1840's, but available information points to a community which was already well-established and prosperous by the Hsien-feng period (1851-61), which would be rather early for Cheung Chau to owe its rise mainly to Hong Kong. The preamble to the tablet in the defence bureau mentions that \"our forefathers came and lived in Cheung Chau several hundred years ago\"; whilst the attention of pirates in the early years of Hsien-feng, also mentioned in the same tablet, seems more conclusive proof of the island's established prosperity than any other. A spate of repairs and expansion seems to have been going on apace in the T'ung-chih period (1862-75) when most of the island's temples were repaired, the CHU family ancestral hall enlarged, many old houses were built or reconstructed, and the public buildings erected which these tablets commemorate.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204635, "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-1963", "page_number": 116, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHAU\n\n103\n\n20 See T'ung-tsu CH'U Local Government in China under the Ch'ing (Harvard University Press 1962) chapter 9, especially pp. 161-164.\n\nI am indebted to Mr. W. Schofield, a former District Officer, and Cudet Officer, Hong Kong Government, for a reference to an inscription, now lost, relating to the foundation of the Lung Chun Yee Hok *** in 1847. The school, which is still standing inside the former Kowloon walled city, was opened by the district magistrate WONG Ming Ting after the sub-district deputy magistrate HUI Man Sham had reported that it was being built.\n\nOrme in his \"Report on the New Territories 1899-1912” in Sessional Papers 1912, p. 63, Appendix G, gives a school census for April 1912, by which time there had apparently been little change since 1898. There were 10 schools on Cheung Chau, average attendance 20, average monthly fee 38 cents.\n\n21 See HSIAO op. cit. pp. 235-240 and CH'U, op. cit., pp. 161-162. Occasionally government-sponsored schools were granted land for their maintenance. In the 28th year of Kuang-hsü (1902-3) four years after the lease of the New Territories to Great Britain, land inside the boundary, previously used for the purpose of aiding a school still in Chinese territory, was sold by order of the Commissioner of Education for San On district. Part of the proceeds had also been used for offerings at the Confucian temple (in Nam Tau).\n\n22 The group of titles on the defence bureau tablet is another demonstration of the widespread sale of degree titles and positions in the late Ch'ing period already remarked in several places. (see HSIAO Kung-Chuan Rural China p. 415 and chapter 10 of CH'U's Local Government in China under the Ch'ing op. cit., pp. 168-173 and notes and, in more detail, Chung-li CHANG, The Chinese Gentry. Studies on their Role in Nineteenth Century Chinese Society, (Seattle, University of Washington Press 1955) pp. 102-111. For contemporary notices see Rev. Krone \"A Notice of the Sanon District\" in Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong), Part VI (1859) p. 84 and Arthur H. Smith Village Life in China (Edinburgh, Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier c. 1900 p. 121, amongst others.)\n\nNo fewer than twenty-one persons have titles prefixed to their names, many of them minor ones, of which three-quarters were probably purchased.\n\nthe first\n\nOf the purchased titles and posts five were chien-sheng degree by purchase, which was the prerequisite to purchasing any superior post, such as that of district magistrate or prefect. It was the most commonly purchased degree. Two others were styled chih-chien and chih-sheng. There were four chin-kung and four chih-yüan 職員。", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204636, "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-1963", "page_number": 117, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "104\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\nThere were also examination titles among the organisers and subscribers to the defence office. There were three scholars, who held higher grades of the hsiu-ts'ai or first degree by examination. One was a kung-sheng, another a sheng-yüan, and the third held the grade of lin-sheng, all normally obtained by additional examinations by a literary chancellor appointed from Peking to examine hsiu-ts'ai in the provinces, though occasionally granted for merit. Another was a wu-sheng ±, a military hsiu-ts'ai, an officer by examination, not purchase. These four were WONGs, almost certainly members of the Tong. A fifth, named TSUI, was a tu-szu or first captain and was probably a serving military officer in the locality. The final title is ching sheng #.\n\nOf these various degree and title holders sixteen were named WONG *. The coincidence is probably too great to be accidental and the number of purchases testifies to the Tong's wealth, whilst the presence of genuine scholars, probably from the Cheung Chau branch, and the genealogical record, confirm its gentry status in the late Ch'ing period. There is no doubt that the main Tong was well entrenched and able to exert an \"interest\" with the district ruler and perhaps also with the prefect and viceroy at Canton.\n\n23 HSIAO illustrates the slight degree of local control on another island, Ch'a K'eng, off the coast of Sun Wui district, Kwangtung, in Rural China, pp. 344-348. For his views on the effectiveness of imperial control see pp. 320-322 and pp. 316-320 for the role of the gentry in local affairs. CH'U, op. cit., chapter 10, also examines the problem in general. Krone's article (see note 22), apparently written from long, first-hand knowledge of the western part of San On shows that the district magistrate and his deputy and sub-magistrates had little control over the population (see especially p. 81), and perhaps wanted it less, e.g. \"... the Mandarin of Fuk Wing (a sub-magistrate) confided to me, in a conversation that I had with him that he had nothing to do but to eat, to drink and to smoke”, though over 200 villages were in his charge.\n\n24 The district association is of considerable antiquity in China. They were known in Sung times: see J. Gernet, Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion 1250-76 (London, Allen and Unwin 1962) p. 222; see also Y. K. Leong and L. K. Tao Village and Town Life in China (London, Allen and Unwin 1915) pp. 78-9 for \"the guild of co-provincials\" and H. B. Morse, The Gilds of China (London, Longmans, Green 1909) pp. 35-48 for the provincial club with a mercantile bias.\n\n25 With consequent language difficulties. See R. A. D. Forrest (a former Hong Kong Cadet Officer) \"The Southern Dialects of Chinese\", Appendix No. 1 to V. Purcell The Chinese in South East Asia (Oxford University Press 1951).\n\n26 The word \"member\" may have too strong a connection with the modern club where one pays an entrance fee and monthly subscriptions. In fact, one was born into membership of these early district associations and participated in their activities by subscription, as required. Mr. LEUNG Yau (see note 28) confirms this for his own association, the Wai Chiu.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204638, "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-1963", "page_number": 119, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "106\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\n30 The Tung Kwun association note book says that there was a Po On Wui Sor ★ ★ ƒ in the Ch'ing dynasty, but since this had always led to confusion their association (the Po On Shuc Shat) was renamed the Tung Kwun Wui Sor in the 12th year of the Chinese Republic (1923).\n\n31 A tablet (1953) in the Free School says that this institution dates back to 1921 and local leaders say that the kung sor was rebuilt at this time. The old kung sor was also known as the hon kaam lau ★ ★# or watchmen's building.\n\n** On the other hand it is unlikely that it predates the defence bureau (1863-70) as this would have been a suitable subject for the Kaifong to organise (there is no mention of it on the tablet).\n\n33 Mr. LEUNG Yau recalls that there were two Kaifong junks operating a daily service between Cheung Chau and Hong Kong before the lease (1898). One left Hong Kong (Sai Ying Pun) at 11 a.m., whilst the other left Cheung Chau at the same time. Both were sailing junks and took three hours to make the journey under good conditions and the whole day if otherwise. They were subscribed and run by a number of local gentlemen for public use. A steam Kaifong vessel was bought with public subscriptions in 1910. Administrative Reports, District Officer, New Territories, 1910.\n\n&\n\n34 There are now eight district associations on the island for natives of the districts of Po On; Tung Kwun; Wai-Chiu combined ✰✰ *#; Sei Yap (\"The Four Towns') i.e. Toi Shan 4, Sun Wui. Hoi Ping, Yan Ping; Ng Yap ♣ (“The Five Towns\") i.e. Hok Shan plus the towns of Sei Yap, Shun Tak: Chung Shan ✈ and Chiu Chau (separate), the four last named formed since 1945, all offering a variety of social, educational and charitable services to members.\n\n35 HSIAO, in his interesting and lengthy study of rural China in the 19th Century, does not deal specifically with the internal organisation of the market towns. The market town of Tai O at the south west end of Lantau island (land population 2248 in 1911) would provide an interesting local comparison, though material is not so readily available as for Cheung Chau. I hope to write a similar outline account at a later date.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204716, "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-1964", "page_number": 19, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "W. C. HUNTER \n\nengaged in the lucrative trade drew out of the country large amounts of silver. Lin Tse-hsu, Governor General of Hupeh and Hunan wholeheartedly threw his support to those who memorialized the throne requesting stringent measures to prevent the use of opium within the country, and to cure addicts. Moreover, Lin took direct action and seized caches of opium, 12,000 ounces and 5,000 pipes. As a result of his success in combating opium addiction and forceful condemnation of the sale of the drug he was called to Peking by Emperor Tao-kuang and appointed Imperial Commissioner to examine the opium traffic at Canton. He arrived at the provincial capital in early March, 1839. For several years prior to 1839 nearly 30,000 chests had been imported annually there.\n\nFateful events immediately took form. Lin warned the western merchants of dire results if the iniquitous trade did not cease. His threat was followed by the demand that within three days they offer a bond that no opium would be imported. A counter proposal was made to turn over to Commissioner Lin about 1000 chests of the drug which he summarily rejected. On March 22, he demanded that Lancelot Dent, one of the principal importers be given to Chinese officials as a hostage until all opium was given up. The western merchants insisted that Dent could be surrendered only on condition that his personal safety was guaranteed. The Chinese merchants doing business with foreigners were frightened by the action of their own government. Some of them were deprived of their buttons of rank and two appeared in public with chains around their necks. Under these circumstances the Hong (the association of Chinese merchants trading with the western merchants at Canton) pressed the foreign community to comply with the ultimatum of Lin and deliver up Dent.\n\nIn the midst of this seething situation, on March 24, Captain Charles Elliot, British naval officer and Chief Superintendent and Plenipotentiary of the China Commission arrived from Macao. He entered the foreign compound with great difficulty inasmuch as the river had been blockaded and the streets leading to the foreign section had been barricaded. The predicament of approximately 300 western people seemed most serious since food and water were in short supply and a large encampment of Chinese troops was close at hand. Canton was cut off from formal communications from Macao which was nearly sixty miles distant", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204727, "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-1964", "page_number": 30, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n21\n\nOur greatest fear is that the boats from the shipping at Whampoa where there is a force of eight or ten hundred men may attempt to force their way to Canton to relieve us, in which case the Chinese would probably fall upon and massacre us. It is to be hoped, however, that all the foreigners there are too well aware of the imminent danger in which we would be placed by attempting to come up while matters remain in so very ticklish a position. We also expect the daily arrival of our two vessels of war, the Columbia and John Adams, and hope they will not do any act or aggression outside or at the Bogue,\n\nApril 3\n\nCaptain Elliot issued a circular today which I refer you to. Johnston, the Second Superintendant, and Thom are to accompany Pwankeikua and Saoqua to Macao and from thence to the shipping to attend to the delivery of the opium to the Chinese officer who also goes down as a special messenger from the Commissioner to receive it. They are to start at 4 p.m. in Chop boats.\n\nAt one after five Thom and Johnston, attended by Alantsae, the linguist, one of the Houqua's servants, and a Malay and a Chinese servant left the point in front of the Creek Hong in Houqua's boat and were taken to a large Chop waiting for them at anchor in front of the Factories, when they immediately got under way for Macao.\n\nFriday 5\n\nStill prisoners and hostages for the delivery of the 20,282 chests of opium surrendered by Captain Elliot to the Commissioner. We are promised that the servants shall be restored when one fourth is delivered, the passage boats be allowed to leave when one half's delivered and our guard to be removed, and that when three fourths is delivered the trade shall be commenced, and matters shall resume their former course when all is delivered. My present intention is to leave Canton so soon as the first 1,000 chests are delivered, for if there is any difficulty in completing the entire delivery we may be retained as prisoners yet a long time, and there are doubts of the entire quantity being at hand to deliver.\n\nOur breakfast and dinner is now prepared at Old Tom the linguist's house, and brought to us by coolies in covered boxes. Captain Elliot sent a letter to Macao today. Old Tom who\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204732, "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-1964", "page_number": 35, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "26\n\nW. C. HUNTER\n\nFriday 12th\n\n1* at\n\nAt nine this morning received a letter from Macao dated the 8th, in answer to mine of the 5th; all quiet there but everyone ready to be off the moment any trouble was at hand. Delano received, enclosed in mine, a chit from Russell Sturgis which contained much news. The Hercules and Austen left for the Bogue on Tuesday last to deliver their opium and were to be followed by the Jane and Aeriel. The Chinese would only let two vessels come up at a time. The Good Success left Macao on the 9th for Madras, with despatches to the British admiral on the India Station, and the Rob Roy was to leave today for Calcutta. The Exchange sailed for Manila on the 8th; the Nar† Naples, Roza and Benuo Successo and Poppy had also sailed for Manila but the letter does not say if they took opium or not.\n\nMr. Inness was on board the Hercules with Alex. Matthews and Chay. Beal36. The Hercules and Austen had in all over 5,000 chests.\n\nGave two bottles of beer to the Se-Ying37 or lieutenants on guard in the second line of boats in front of the Factories. Had a long chat with several of the officers belonging to Name Hoe's guard relative to matters in dispute. They appear exceedingly friendly but take no interest whatever in what is going on,\n\nSaturday, 13, 1839\n\nLast night at 12 o'clock Captain Elliot received a communication from the Commissioner, dated in the morning from the Bogue, in which he requests that the opium ships might be ordered to come up and anchor close to Chinn-up to deliver the opium, instead of Lankeel where there was much inconvenience owing to rough water. He also said that the compradores and cooks were ordered to return but they have not come yet. However it will take some time for the order to be generally promulgated.\n\nMidnight I have just returned from a chat of three hours duration held at the Hoppo House or \"Custom-House Station\" at the water's edge opposite our Factory between two officers, one equal to a captain and the other to a lieutenant, the Custom-House Officer and myself. The Captain, who wore a crystal button, was\n\n*Two words illegible.\n\n† Part of ship's name illegible.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204780, "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-1964", "page_number": 83, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "72 \n\nJ. W. HAYES \n\nbe shown for inspection to prove ownership at the land settlement which followed the British lease and, though opinions differ on this point, many old villagers have said that their deeds were handed in to the Government and not returned. This would, in part, account for their being in very short supply today, at any rate throughout the area with which I am familiar; that is the islands and the Sai Kung and Clear Water Bay districts. Following widespread enquiry over a number of years, I am convinced that another factor of great importance in explaining their scarcity is the Japanese occupation of the Colony in 1941-45. Many villagers say that their papers were destroyed at that time, in many cases by themselves, since they feared the questions which might result if the Japanese authorities got their hands on them. The less they knew the better, was the prevailing view, and therefore many families destroyed their papers, to our present loss.\n\nFortunately, to set against this background of loss and decay, there are the valuable records of the land settlement carried out within a few years of the lease of the New Territories to Britain in 1898. These consist of records of a ground survey, carried out mainly to a scale of thirty-two inches to the mile, in which individual lots are set down and numbered, and their ownership listed in an accompanying schedule certified as correct by an officer of the Land Court.2 These constitute a modern \"Domesday\" of all titles to land in the leased territory. Their usefulness to the historian is obvious and apart from their intrinsic value as a contemporary record they provide many clues to the past and enable detailed checks to be made on some of the persons and organisations whose names appear on commemorative tablets and others dated items such as furniture and fittings, which are to be found in the many temples which dot the countryside.\n\nThere are also the recollections of elders, particularly those over eighty years of age, who were young men at the time the territory changed hands. The memories of the oldest men are sometimes good and when this is the case they can do a great deal to fill in the bare bones of the land records and the genealogical trees. Since certain changes overtook the region within the first decade of British rule,3 their testimony is of the greatest importance to a realisation of manners and attitudes and an understanding of the system of civil and military administration which obtained", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204823, "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-1964", "page_number": 126, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "106\n\nCRANMER-BYNG AND SHEPHERD\n\nhad the opportunity of travelling to Peking and observing life at the Court. It was realized that even if the main objects of the embassy were not achieved it was a splendid opportunity for obtaining first-hand information about various aspects of China. In fact, the embassy was something of a reconnaissance behind the Manchu curtain of exclusiveness, since Macartney took with him an army officer, Lieutenant Henry William Parish, who was trained to make plans and sketches and to take measurements. As one of his tasks Parish made a detailed survey of a section of the Great Wall which Macartney passed by on his journey from Peking to the Manchu Emperors' summer hunting-palace at Jehol?. Also included in the ambassador's suite was William Alexander, a promising young artist who was given the title of draughtsman,\n\nMacartney arrived at Peking in August 1793, and then proceeded to Jehol where he had an audience with the Emperor on 14 September. After being shown round the parks and pleasure gardens at Jehol he returned to Peking where on 7 October he received the Imperial reply refusing all the requests made in the state letter from King George III to the Emperor Ch'ien-lung. A few days later Macartney set out from Peking on his way to Canton escorted by Chinese officials. After a long journey by inland waterways he reached Canton in December, and finally in January 1794 he moved to Macao where he stayed until all the East Indiamen were ready to sail in convoy with H.M.S. Lion (64 guns), the warship which had brought the ambassador out to China.\n\nWhile waiting for the Indiamen to complete their loading Lord Macartney used his staff for various tasks. Thus Lieutenant Parish was instructed to draw up answers to question on the defences of Macao3, and also in February 1794 he was sent, together with William Alexander, to explore the coast of Lantao island and the small island of Ma Wan (called in his report Cowhee) in case it might be considered necessary to form a settlement somewhere in that area. The idea of obtaining an island was not a new one. It had been put forward unofficially in the past and it received official recognition in the instructions to Lord Macartney dated 8 September, 1792 where it was stated:\n\nᅡ", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204826, "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-1964", "page_number": 129, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "108\n\nCRANMER-BYNG AND SHEPHERD\n\no'clock on the morning of the 13 inst. We shortly after got under weigh with a fresh breeze from the north, and worked up with the tide to the point anchor in the plan, near the Nine Islands where we anchored. The weather was squally with rain and so thick that we could scarcely discern land. At day break we weighed and worked up to Lintin, where at twelve o'clock we anchored. I went immediately on board the Lion and delivered Your Excellency's Letters to Sir Erasmus Gower. As it rained hard and blew fresh, I remained there for the night, and at seven in the morning I returned to the Jackall, when as there was some appearance of its clearing up, Captain Proctor got under weigh, and stood towards the Island of Lantao. The soundings are expressed in fathoms in the plan, and they point out the track of the vessel. We inserted the rocks marked A.B. which we did not observe in any former plan. The weather continued so thick above, that we could not discover the Peak of Lantao, nor with any precision the land along the shore. At the point C the island marked Shatlapko in the charts, wore so favourable an appearance, that we stood towards it, although as it had been laid down between it and the island of Lantao, little hopes could be entertained of finding shelter for shipping from westerly winds. At one o'clock find that we suddenly shoaled our water, we anchored in 44 fathom water over soft mud at the inner point marked anchor. The uncertain state of the weather, and the short time it was probable we could allow for the examination of Cowhee, made it necessary to hasten from this anchorage. Whilst we took angles in the ship, the boat was dispatched to sound, with directions to stand over to the South East side, as soon as she should find, towards Shatlapko so little as three fathoms water. This she very shortly did and her track and soundings are expressed in the plan. The Island of Shatlapko we found to extend towards the shore of Lantao; by which it appears, that the whole of this bay is sheltered from westerly winds. The officer who sounded in the boat, reported his having seen boats pass through the channel marked D, that the land in its neighbourhood on Lantao was low and cultivated, as was that marked E which he discovered through the opening!\". The point to the north west of E, has been hitherto laid down as an island; as well as", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204839, "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-1964", "page_number": 142, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "A RECONNAISSANCE OF MA WAN\n\nNOTES\n\n117\n\n1 For a more detailed account of British trade to Canton at this period see J. L. Cranmer Byng, An Embassy to China. Being the Journal kept by Lord Macartney during his Embassy to the Emperor Ch'ien-lung 1793-1794 (Longmans, Green, 1962), 4-17.\n\n2 Macartney's own journal printed in J. L. Cranmer Byng, op. cit.,\n\nFor Parish and Alexander see Appendix A, 313-16.\n\n111-112.\n\nJ. L. Cranmer-Byng, “The Defences of Macao in 1794: a British Assessment\" in Journal of Southeast Asian History Vol. 5 No. 1 (1964).\n\n4 Printed in H. B. Morse, The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China 1635-1834, 5 Vols. (O.U.P. 1926-9), I., 237.\n\n5 This report is preserved among the Macartney documents in the Wason collection on China and the Chinese at Cornell University, No. 371 (part). I wish to acknowledge my thanks to the Director of Libraries at Cornell for permission to reproduce this document in full. In doing so I have modernized the spelling and the use of capital letters. I also wish to acknowledge permission received from the authorities of the British Museum to reproduce Parish's sketch map from the original preserved in the British Museum, Add. MS. 19822 (art. 13).\n\n6 The Portuguese name of an island close to Macao which also gave its name to the anchorage there.\n\n7 An officer of the Bombay Marine who had been sent to Macao in 1793 in command of the Endeavour brig, one of two surveying ships, which were earmarked for the use of the embassy. The Jackall had sailed from England in 1792 as tender to the Lion. Both the Endeavour and Jackall sailed from Chusan to Canton in October 1793, but I have not discovered why Proctor was transferred to the Jackall or why the original survey ship, the Endeavour, was not used for this purpose.\n\n8 A large island about twice the size of the island of Hong Kong. The east coast of Lantao, although it has at least one good bay- Silvermine Bay is not sufficiently protected from the wind and is too exposed to the sea to make a good harbour for ships. Lantao Peak rises to approximately three thousand feet and is a useful local landmark. The Chinese name for the island is Tai Yu Shan.\n\n+\n\n9 Chek Lap Kok *#, a long island just off Tung Chung bay, See map facing page 27. Like other ports of Lantao it appears to have been more prosperous in the past than at present. The 1911 census gave its population as 77, of whom 55 were men. They probably worked in its stone quarries.\n\nto This refers to the Tung Chung valley, which included a fort between the villages of Ha Ling Pei and Sheung Ling Pei. Tung Chung ranked as a cheng M. See Rev. Krone \"A Notice of the Sanon District\" in Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Part VI (Hong Kong 1859) p. 82.\n\n+\n\n11 This is correct, since presumably Parish was referring to the head land of San Tau #. From here the coast runs sharply SW to Tai O.\n\n12 Two islands known as the Brothers, consisting of the West and East Brothers.\n\n13 In the vicinity of Tsing Lung Tau\n\n\"Green dragon head\",\n\non the coast of the New Territories between Tsun Wan and Castle Peak.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204928, "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-1965", "page_number": 36, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "THE POPULATION OF CHINA \n\n29 \n\nSome years ago I had an opportunity of discussing the subject of Chinese population with the Mandarin at Ningpo who was charged with making the returns for that district. Ningpo can scarcely be called a progressive place; it is decidedly the least so of the Five Treaty Ports; but I found, generally speaking, that the real returns were considerably in excess of the official estimates. \n\nAnd I would remark, that, in taking the area of the Eighteen Provinces of China at 1,348,870 square miles, the census of 1812 would give 268 persons to a square mile, which is considerably less than the population of the densely peopled countries of Europe. \n\nAccording to ancient usage, the population in China is grouped under four heads, 1, Scholars; 2, Husbandmen; 3, Mechanics; 4, Merchants. There is a numerous class who are considered almost as social outcasts, such as Stage-players, professional Gamblers, Beggars, Convicts, Outlaws, and others; and these probably form no part of the population returns. In the more remote rural districts, on the other hand, the returning officer most probably contents himself with giving the average of more accessible and better-peopled localities. \n\nI have no means of obtaining any satisfactory tables to show the proportions which different ages bear to one another in China, or the average mortality at different periods of human life; yet to every decade of life the Chinese apply some special designation:- The age of 10, is called \"the Opening Degree\"; 20, “Youth expired\"; 30, \"Strength and Marriage”; 40, “Officially Apt\"; 50, \"Error knowing\"; 60, “Cycle Closing\"; 70, \"Rare Bird of Age\"; 80, \"Rusty visaged\"; 90, \"Delayed\"; 100, \"Age's Extremity.” Among the Chinese the amount of reverence grows with the number of years. I made, some years ago, the acquaintance of a Buddhist priest living in the convent of Tien Tung near Ningpo, who was more than a century old, and whom people of rank were in the habit of visiting in order to show their respect and to obtain his autograph. He had the civility to give me a very fair specimen of his handwriting. There are not only many establishments for the reception of the aged, but the Penal Code provides severe punishments for those who refuse to relieve the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205169, "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-1966", "page_number": 125, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "120\n\nOLD BRITISH KOWLOON\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nOn 19 January 1861 a ceremony took place at Tsim Sha Tsui, a village on the Chinese mainland directly opposite the British Colony of Hong Kong. On that day a mandarin of the provincial government at Canton handed over a paperful of soil in token of the cession of the Kowloon peninsula to Great Britain. In this way a tiny fraction of Chinese territory passed under British rule.\n\nIt is not the object of this article to give a comprehensive account of the development of Old British Kowloon as the area became known after 1898 when another treaty transferred the adjoining area of Chinese territory to England; for this could not be done within the confines of a short article. Rather, it is my intention to give a short description of the peninsula and then to turn to a more detailed examination of some of its villages, with special reference to the origins of the settlers, their way of life, and their local institutions.\n\nWhat was the Kowloon peninsula like in 1861 when it passed under British rule? A contemporary description reads:\n\n44\n\nThe land may be briefly described as being about 2,366 yards in length and 966 in breadth: its surface being extremely rugged from the presence of numerous small hills divided by ravines and patches of marshes and rice fields; rocky and precipitous on its southern and eastern shores and gradual shelving off on its western one to a fine sandy beach.\n\nA good idea of the unpromising terrain may be had from a drawing by Lieut. Collinson made from the Kowloon foothills behind Kowloon City about fifteen years earlier (see the illustration to this article).\n\nA specialised account of the newly acquired territory was sent home to the British Government. This was the report of the Anglo-Chinese Land Commission of April 1862. Due to the\n\nThe author is an administrative officer in the Hong Kong Government service.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205348, "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": 110, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "LAND AND LEADERSHIP IN THE H.K. REGION OF KWANGTUNG 103\n\nmany Punti villages from \"squeezes\" formerly levied on them, \"especially the Hakkas\".\n\n13 The market town of Tai O had a land population of 2,248 and a boat population of at least several thousands, many of whom lived in mat-huts over the water and were therefore part of the settled population. Sessional Papers 1911, p. 103 (26 and 38). The Hong Kong Government's Administrative Reports for 1911, District Officer South, mentions 221 mat-shed permits in respect of pile huts in Tai O Creek. There were said to be 8 schools in Tai O or district at a New Territories School Census in April 1912, with an average attendance of 21. See Appendix G to Orme's Report in Sessional Papers 1912, p. 63.\n\n14 See for instance Hugh D. R. Baker, \"The Five Great Clans of the New Territories\" in JHKBRAS, Vol. 6 (1966), pp. 25-47 and his references at his note 9 to Sung Hok-pang's prewar articles in The Hong Kong Naturalist.\n\n15 The schedules of ownership attached to the Block Crown Leases for 1898 New Territories' villages show this general pattern of peasant ownership very clearly. They are kept in the District Offices of the New Territories Administration.\n\n16 A hint of the strength of superstition at this time is given by Orme, op. cit., paras. 97-98,\n\n17 They held, in addition, a considerable number of mortgages from Shek Pik people. Those recorded in the 1904 Block Crown Leases for the Shek Pik Valley may well be less in number than in 1899 because, in the intervening years, it was reported that mortgagors were making great efforts to recover unencumbered ownership, e.g., Sessional Papers 1902, Mr. Stewart Lockhart's 'Report on the New Territory for the Year 1901' p. 4. It is not entirely clear from the context whether this was a general reaction or limited only to New Kowloon,\n\n18 Hong Kong Government Gazette, 8 April 1899, p. 546 under the heading ‘Local Government in the Villages'. The information about there usually being four Tung in any administrative district comes from the former magistrate mentioned in the same paragraph of the text. He was in charge of ## and ✯✯ in Hupeh for part of the first decade of this century.\n\nWhere no sources are cited, the text is based on information obtained from old inhabitants, some of whom knew Cheung Kwong-chuen and Kung Fong-tsai personally, and from documents in Chinese relating to the land and money transactions of these two men and those of the third, Chan Fu-shing, that have been made available to me through the kindness of their present owners to whom I am much indebted for their courtesy and cooperation. I am also grateful for help with translation, especially to Mr. Chan Kwun-ngok, and for the ready help of many Lantau residents with my enquiries,\n\nAddition to Note 8. The quotation in the text comes from Professor Ho's \"The Examination System and Social Mobility in China, 1368-1911\", Proceedings of the 1959 Annual Spring Meeting of the American Ethnological Society, pp. 60-65.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205349, "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": 111, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "104\n\nA NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT 新安城:\n\nBy the REV. Mr. Krone\n\n(Editor's Note. Beginning with Vol. 5 (1965) the Society made a start with reprinting selected articles from the Transactions of the old China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society which existed in Hong Kong between 1846-59. The only known complete extant sets of the Transactions in the Colony are the microfilmed sets recently acquired by the Library of the University of Hong Kong and by the Society. The article reprinted below is taken from pp. 71-105 of the sixth and last volume of Transactions, published in Hong Kong in 1859. It is a valuable contemporary account of the north-western part of the San On (Hsin An) district (新安縣) and will be of special interest to readers of this Journal in that it describes something of the history and conditions of life in the area just beyond the present Sino-British frontier in the New Territories. Its re-appearance in print will also provide scholars with the text in a more accessible form than the microfilmed sets which are available here and elsewhere. The author was a missionary of the Rhenish Missionary Society which, according to the account of its history given in The China Mission Hand Book (Shanghai, American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1896) pp. 272-275 came to South China in 1847. From this account, Mr. Krone appears to have come to China about 1850 and worked there for upwards of ten years. He seems to have gone on leave thereafter and died in the Red Sea on his way back to China from Germany. The article is reprinted here exactly as it appears in the original, despite a few obvious errors and inconsistencies).\n\nA NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT 新安城:\n\nRead before the Society, February 24th, 1858\n\nTHE District of Sanon, to which the mainland opposite to the Island of Hongkong belongs, is one of the fourteen districts of the department of Canton. During the Han dynasty, and at the time of the Three States, the present Sanon District, together with those of Túng-kun and Pok-lo, formed only one large district, bearing the name of Pok-lo *.\n\nand Túng-kun\n\nUnder the following dynasties, Sanon ✯✯ constituted one district, which was denominated Túng-kun 東莞 ★, afterwards Po-on, and since the 2d year of the Emperor Chi-tok of the Tong dynasty, Túng-kun ✯ £. 東莞. Hung-mo, the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1399 A.D.), found it necessary in the 27th year of his reign to appoint an officer with the title \"Shou-yu-sho\"-Protector of the region, in order to protect the population, which was rapidly increasing, against the bands of robbers and vagabonds which infested the district.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205390, "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": 152, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "SALT MANUFACTURE IN HONG KONG\n\n145\n\npond to evaporate to dryness. This will take 8 to 10 hours. The salt may crystalize out before the brine is completely dry; if it does not crystalize in the expected time, \"seeds\" of ordinary salt should be thrown into the pond to hasten the growth and sedimentation of the salt-crystals. Any excess of brine left is drained off or left to continue evaporating to dryness. The salt, left as a thin layer of white crystals on the bottom, is then scraped into piles and carried to the company for storage or for sale.\n\n(See Plates 8 and 9 for illustrations to this article)\n\nADDITIONAL NOTES\n\nSalt Production at Tai O\n\nThese figures are taken from the printed Administrative Reports of the District Officer, Southern District of the New Territories. Details are only available for the years 1910-1939, less 1926-27. The remarks in the right-hand column are direct \"quotes\" from the Reports.\n\n \n Year\n Production\n Price etc.\n \n \n 1910\n No figures\n Low, with an adverse effect on business of the salt pans; but not specified.\n \n \n 1911\n No figures\n A poor year, owing to the cheapness of salt.\n \n \n 1912\n No figures\n Salt pans proved a financial success.\n \n \n 1913\n Total export from all these salt pans was 600 tons.\n Typhoon of 17 August caused damage to the salt pans.\n \n \n 1914\n Now four salt pans working: almost 800 tons exported.\n Price fell from 80 to 70 cents per picul.\n \n\n* One picul = 1331/3 lbs\n\nTrade bad in the beginning of the year but improved considerably during the latter half. Average price 80 cents per picul.*", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205399, "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": 161, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "154\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n1626 the Manchus were stopped in their tracks at Ning-yüan by the foreign artillery. But this setback was not to last very long. They saw the usefulness of these weapons and set about casting some themselves. These proved effective in the conquest of the northern frontier (1643-44) and in the years to follow as their armies plunged on down across both the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers to Kwangtung and Kweichow.\n\nColumbia University\n\nL. CARRINGTON GOODRICH\n\nNOTES\n\n1 In this I have consulted Mr. C. N. Tay of the American Museum of Numismatics, New York City.\n\n2 The inscription on the cannon is given below. This cannon was found lying on open ground in the Tsiu Keng sub-district in the northern part of the New Territories. It was reported by Mr. R. E. dos Remedios, Senior Land Assistant in the District Office, Taipo in August 1966. The cannon was completely exposed and must have been in this condition for a long time. It is not clear how it came to be there.\n\n* This cannon, which was mentioned in passing in the note on the Tung Chung Fort, at p. 148 of Vol. 4 of the Journal (1964), was dredged from the sea in 1956, either from Kowloon Bay in the course of work on the extension to Hong Kong airport or from Fat Tong Mun (otherwise called Joss House Bay) in the approaches to Hong Kong Harbour—sources differ. It is now mounted with a plaque in Chinese and English outside the Central Government Offices (East Wing), Hong Kong. It was heavier than the one recently discovered; 300 catties as compared with 300 catties. The Chinese inscription, which is much the same, is also given below.\n\n4 An insight into the happenings of these troubled times is preserved in the family record of the Tsui (徐) clan formerly of Shek Pik on Lantau island, to which their ancestor had removed in the 16th Century. The family came from Mong Ngau Tun (望牛墩) in Tung Kwun district (東莞) where they had settled in the Sung dynasty from Kiangsi province. There was fighting in Tung Kwun against the Manchus after their success in the North. The record which gives no precise date for this occurrence, though it must have been within a few years of the change of dynasty in 1644 — reads\n\n—\n\nSau Yeung-kap, a civil officer, and Li Shing-tung, a general, instigated an uprising against the new dynasty in Tung Kwun. As the revolt gathered momentum, oxen and horses were killed for food, and rice and corn became as expensive as pearls. For miles, one could see nothing animate; the fields were covered with dead bodies. In some places, human flesh was eaten by the starving people, and piles of human bones filled the ruined houses.\n\nA detachment of the Manchu army was sent to besiege the district city, then occupied by the rebels. In the conflict that ensued, human beings were massacred as though they were ants, and law-abiding people and bad characters alike were destroyed.\n\nFortunately, our clansmen, then living at Mong Ngau Tun, escaped this calamity. However, many of our former neighbours and fellow-natives in Ming Ka Lane lost their lives and [as the record says in another place] all the dispensations of the previous dynasty were regarded as scrap paper.\n\n(I am grateful to Mr. Gilbert Louie for this translation. Ed) Readers will note that Li Shing-tung (Li Ch'eng-tung) is mentioned in Prof. LO Hsiang-lin's Additional Note where he is described as Governor of Kwangtung.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205401, "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": 163, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "156\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nADDITIONAL NOTE to the above, kindly supplied by Professor LO Hsiang-lin, Professor of Chinese, University of Hong Kong, at Professor Goodrich's suggestion and the Hon. Editor's request.\n\nProfessor Lo writes:\n\n“I am pleased to provide a note on Tu, Fan and the Superintendent of Inland Seas, Chief military commissioner, installed as Ting-hai General. I regret that I have not been able to identify the other two persons, namely Hsiao Li-jen and Su.\n\nTu, Fan and the Superintendent of Inland Seas also appeared on the inscription of the cannon constructed in June 1650, discovered in 1956, for which I have written a short treatise entitled \"Researches on a Cannon made in the Fourth Year of the Yung-li Period of the Southern Ming (1650 A.D.), in Hong Kong”, (in Chinese) Ta-hsüeh Sheng-huo★ Vol. II, No. 10 (January 1957). For detailed information the reader may refer to my treatise on the cannon discovered earlier.\n\nTU, GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF KWANGTUNG AND KWANGSI ✯t, who re- 1648 and offered\n\nTu can be identified as Tu Yung-ho † †¤, a follower of the Governor of Kwangtung. Li Cheng-tung volted against the Ch'ing dynasty in Canton in his allegiance to the Emperor Yung-li (Chu Yu-lang *. formerly prince of Kuei) of the Southern Ming dynasty. When Li Cheng-tung died in the following year, the Ming emperor appointed Tu as Governor-General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi with his head-office at Canton. Thereupon Tu took up the responsibility of leading his men in their fight against the army and fleet sent by the Ch'ing government to crush the revolt. The Ch'ing general Shang K'o-hsi laid siege to Canton in February of the fourth year of Yung-li (1650). To check the enemy's advance, Tu used the two forts built by Li Ch'eng-tung which stretched out into the sea outside the city of Canton. However an officer under Tu conspired with the Ch'ing army and assisted the latter to land on December 2nd. The forts fell into the hands of the Ch'ing army and the city met the same fate. Tu and his fleet consisting of several hundred vessels made their escape through the sea route and headed for Kiungchow ] (the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205613, "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-1968", "page_number": 155, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "150 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\ncanal which would give access to warehouses and so on built in the Valley (a plan which A. T. Gordon, the Land Officer, endorsed in the 'dream' of the future City of Victoria which he communicated to Pottinger in 1843).4 But if Pottinger's description is accurate, it would have taken a good deal of imagination to see it that way. \n\nThe East Point site was purchased, at the first Land Sale on 14 June 1841, in the name of Captain William Morgan, a ship's captain who may have been Jardine's Hong Kong manager, and the actual area purchased was not specified then or when Pottinger's Second Land Committee was attempting to settle the Land Question in Hong Kong. We learn, from a later source, that it amounted to almost 170,000 square feet (about 3.4 acres). It is, however, often overlooked that the firm also purchased three other marine lots at the same sale: numbers 26, 27 and 28 and it is here that they had already commenced building by the time of the sale. This contention is upheld by a number of contemporary accounts of the sale. The Canton Register (predecessor of the Hong Kong Register) intimates that one purchaser had commenced building before the sale,6 \n\nWe are told in an unpublished history of the early years of Jardine, Matheson & Co. that in February 1841, within a month of the naval forces taking possession of the island, that they had erected a large matshed godown above the foreshore. An anonymous correspondent of the China Mail, writing 8 years after the event, but who attended the first sale in 1841, states that Matheson, in order to avoid the expenses involved in landing goods at Macao for transhipment, resolved to land a consignment of cotton at Hong Kong. To make this possible, he sent from Macao materials for the erection of a godown. This building, he avers, was four feet above the ground at the date of the sale and was sited on what later became known as the Commissariat Stores. The fact that they were building and had ground cleared, he continues, gave additional value to adjoining lots. As will be seen, Marine Lots 26, 27 and 28 were shortly to become the Commissariat stores. If further support is needed, I may quote from Tarrant's History of Hong Kong, published in 1861 or 1862: he states that \"some months before the sale......Messrs Jardine, Matheson & Co, erected those godowns which now form part of the Naval Yard, near the Canton Bazaar.” \n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205621, "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-1968", "page_number": 163, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "158 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\narea later, and right up to the present day, reserved exclusively for Government buildings. In one such letter, Johnston informed Pottinger that the 'Record Office' should be completed and ready for occupation in 6 weeks time.3 A few months later, Pottinger was datelining letters 'Government House.' It is a fair assumption that this was the building to which Johnston and the Canton Press referred. It could not, therefore, have been, as Sayer asserted, the house built by Johnston as his own residence; not only because that house was not built until some time later, but also because of the directions which Pottinger gave to Johnston on the selection by the latter of a suitable site for his house. Sayer's assertion would necessitate Pottinger giving instructions on the siting of the house in which he already lived himself. But the contents of the letter provide the answer: Pottinger directed that Johnston's house was not to interfere with the site for the permanent Government House which, he said, would “be in front of the building erected as an office and record office and in which I am now residing.” Since the site for the permanent Government House was then that on which it was eventually erected, it follows that Pottinger was referring to a site lying lower down the hill than that in which he was living. Confirmation of the location is provided by a letter which Davis, second Governor, wrote to Lord Stanley (Secretary of State for the Colonies) in which he told him that his present residence, lately the Land Office, was \"quite commodious enough to enable me to dispense with any other until orders shall be received from Home for its erection.” \n\n5 \n\nThe documentary evidence is confirmed by two maps of the time: both Collinson's Map and that prepared by Gordon, the Land Officer, show a group of buildings just to the south of the present Upper Albert Road. On Collinson's map (the later of the two) they are marked simply 'Government Buildings,' but on Gordon's map of 1843 they are called 'Government House.' At about this time, the Friend of China newspaper described a new road which passed in front of Government House and descending to Queen's Road near Johnston's House. It must therefore be taken to be established that a collection of buildings immediately to the south of the present Government House were the first to bear the name. Though Sayer admits of the existence of these buildings on this site, he fails to relate them to the general question which he sought to answer.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205743, "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-1969", "page_number": 49, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "MILITIA, MARKET AND LINEAGE\n\n43\n\nbad informal connections with Hong Kong's officialdom and that its activities were a foretaste of the future.\n\nBy March of 1899, British officials began to appear in the territory. A party was busy near the Sham Chun river, marking out the frontier with China. Meanwhile, the officer in charge of the Hong Kong police was touring the territory, considering alternative locations for police stations. This official—Captain Superintendent F. H. May arrived at Ping Shan on 27th March. His first action was to post a proclamation saying that the Hong Kong government would not interfere with the land, buildings, or customs of the people. He then designated a hill behind Ping Shan as the site for a police station. A crowd gathered and the argument began. “It says that land, buildings, and customs will not be interfered with but will remain the same as before. Why should they, therefore, when they first come into the leased area, wish to erect a police station on the hill behind our village? When has China ever erected a police station just where people live? The proclamation says that things will be as before. Are not these words untrue?”\n\n54\n\nThe Resistance Movement -- 28th March to 18th April, 1899.\n\nThe day after May's visit to Ping Shan, discussions were held in the ancestral halls of Ping Shan and Kam Tin. In both instances, agreement was reached that resistance should be offered to the British. Following the two meetings, a third took place in an ancestral hall at Ha Tsuen. Representatives of all three Tang lineages were present and previous decisions to offer resistance were ratified. Messages were sent to leaders throughout the marketing area, asking them to attend a meeting at Yuen Long market the next day.\n\nSteward Lockhart later argued that the resistance leaders feared for their positions of power and privilege. At the Ha Tsuen meeting, a wider range of anxieties were expressed: “... that under English law a poll tax would be collected; that houses would be numbered and a charge made therefor; that fishing and wood-cutting would be prohibited; that women and girls would be outraged; that births and deaths would be registered; that cattle and pigs would be destroyed; that police stations would be erected, which would ruin the Fung Shui [Mandarin: Feng Shui] of the place. In short, that the evils that would arise would be so great", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205753, "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-1969", "page_number": 59, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "MILITIA, MARKET AND LINEAGE\n\n53\n\nlocal recruits. The venture was rumoured to be the work of the Ming Lan Tong, a literary society of Tung-kuan city. Additional credence was given to the reports when it was learned that some officers of the Tong were members of the Hsin-an Tang clan. Police on patrol in the New Territory also noted that women were leaving their villages. By 10th May the exodus had reached major proportions.\n\nIt was evident that the Sham Chun river was not a defensible frontier and that the best way to forestall attack was to occupy the area from which it was to be launched. On 16th May two columns, numbering 1500 men in all, landed from Deep Bay and Mirs Bay and marched on Sham Chun. That evening the Union Jack was hoisted over Sham Chun market, to the accompaniment of a 21-gun salute. A proclamation was issued declaring that Sham Chun was British territory and that the Viceroy had no further jurisdiction in the district. There had been no resistance and no sign of forces massing to attack the New Territory.\n\nThe occupation of Sham Chun was confined to an area within five miles of the Sham Chun river, including Sha Tau, Sham Chun, and the road between them. Neither civil nor military jurisdiction were extended further. However, in the hinterland the occupation of Sham Chun and the proclamation which accompanied it were interpreted as a prelude to the occupation of the entire district. In particular, the Tangs of Pan T'in feared a punitive expedition against themselves.\n\nMuch of the information about subsequent events comes from one source. The Rev. Martin Schaub* of the Basel Mission had a station at Li Long, near Pan T'in, in the north of the district. Rev. Schaub wrote periodically to the officer commanding at Sham Chun and his letters convey a vivid impression of the activity precipitated by the occupation. Late in May he wrote that the leaders of Pan T'in had asked the larger villages to help in resisting the British. He said money was being collected and that armed men were making their way toward Pan T'in.\n\n* The printed documents call him \"Hart\", but this must be in error for Rev. Martin Schaub of the Basel Mission. A photograph and brief biography are given at pp. 16, 438 of Marshall Broomhall, The Chinese Empire: a General and Missionary Survey, London, [1907]. Perhaps hand-writing was responsible for the wrong transcription into the printed documents, Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205821, "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-1969", "page_number": 127, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE DESCENT SYSTEM\n\n121\n\nof the two should in fact have proportionately more empty houses than its poorer neighbour22; it is not impossible that the sort of inefficiencies in the descent system that I have described whereby the swelling of a descent line in one generation may leave the next with more house-property than it needs or can redistribute — may account for this anomaly.*\n\nH. G. H. NELSON.\n\nNOTES\n\n1. Göran Aijmer, \"Being Caught by a Fishnet: On Fengshui in South-eastern China\", J.H.K.B.R.A.S., Vol. 8, 1968, pp. 74-81.\n\n2. Field data drawn on in this paper are derived from a period of work in Sheung Tsuen, Pat Heung, from June 1967 to October 1968. I was employed as a Research Officer of the London School of Economics, on a project financed by a grant made to Professor Maurice Freedman by the Social Science Research Council. Much of the information from the Hong Kong Government's land records was collected by my wife, whose fare to Hong Kong was provided by the London-Cornell Project for East and South-East Asian Studies, financed jointly by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Nuffield Foundation. I am very glad to acknowledge their generosity.\n\n3. See for example J. E. Spenser, \"The Houses of the Chinese\", Geographical Review, Vol. XXXVII, 1947, pp. 254-273.\n\n4. Cf. J. W. Hayes, ‘A Chinese Village on Hong Kong Island Fifty Years Ago Tai Tam Tuk, Village Under the Water', in I.C. Jarvie and Joseph Agassi, eds., Hong Kong: A Society in Transition, London, 1969, p. 33.\n\n5. Block Crown Lease, Demarcation Districts Nos. 112 and 114, 1905; various Memorials in Yuen Long District Office; and ‘A-Roll' volume X.14. I am most grateful to the New Territories Administration for their courtesy in allowing me access to the invaluable information contained in their Land Records.\n\n6. The current records conceal the difference between inhabited structures and \"house-lots' (Crown Rent being assessed on the site rather than the structure) - a difference of which the villagers are aware. Many of them, when asked how many houses they own, will say, \"so many houses and so many lots \"(uk-tel_£)\". It seems to me possible that some villagers may, in 1905, have been far-sighted ---or fortunate enough to register both their houses and their ruined lots, thereby avoiding the expense and complication of obtaining a New Grant Lot when they wanted to rebuild on an old site.\n\n* Groups of houses, bigger and more durable than usual, have also been built as a form of long-term investment (and prestige expenditure) by particularly wealthy men; but their hopes of producing enough sons and grandsons to justify this deliberate over-production of houses are often sadly unfulfilled.\n\n* On the subject of this article see also Mr. Hayes' note at pp. 158-160.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205822, "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-1969", "page_number": 128, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "122\n\nH. G. H. NELSON\n\n* Records covering 380 houses from 1905 to 1968 reveal 55 sales of houses. This includes sales within (the majority) and between surname groups of which Sheung Tsuen has seven, formerly eight -- but does not include sales to outsiders; these do not in any case become significant until after 1963. The 55 house-sales include 12 houses which were sold twice, which for reasons given below, may be regarded as a significant reduction of the total; and also include sales of empty sites, cowsheds, and latrines. These latter are sometimes, but not invariably, indicated in the Memorial of sale, so it is likely that there were more of this type than the records reveal: I estimate the total at about 10. The number of original sales of habitable houses in this 63 year period is therefore a little above thirty.\n\n9 I occasionally heard the term chinguk EA used to describe such a house; but strictly speaking this refers to the house which contains that version of the ancestral tablet which has been passed down the eldest son line.\n\nT\n\nT\n\n10 The question of the completeness of the records may be raised: in general, I think it is safe to say that in as important a matter as title to house-property, transactions are almost certain to be registered eventually at the local District Office. The only exception to this is the adjustment of property rights which may involve a sale between brothers after a division: this often occurs before the brothers' succession to their father is registered, so that the sale does not reach the Land Records. In one such case that I know of, however, the sale between the brothers was felt to be important enough for it to be documented and witnessed by \"the Village Representative and all the elders\". This took place in 1960 or 1961.\n\nThe Hon. Editor has drawn my attention to non-registration of transactions in the early years of the British administration of the New Territories, citing the District Officer's report for the Southern district (1912) which says:-\n\nEight hundred and sixty-five deeds were registered during the year. This is only slightly above the average for the last seven years during which the Land Ordinance has been in force. There is no doubt that much land changes hands without registration; and it is probable that not more than 10 per cent of mortgages on land in the less accessible parts of the district are registered. The journey from Lantao is an almost insuperable obstacle and a \"stamped paper\" is generally considered sufficient security.\n\nIn this case the principal reasons for non-registration were distance and poor communications. At Sheung Tsuen the main land office was at Tai Po until the Yuen Long District Office was established in 1947. (though it appears there was some kind of Land Office-cum-Court at Ping Shan pre-war). If people had to go all the way over Tai Mo Shan to Tai Po there would have been similar disincentives to registration here too.\n\n11 Cf. M. C. Yang, A Chinese Village: Taitou, Shantung Province, Columbia University Press, New York and London, 1965 edition, p. 40: although this instance comes from a very different part of China, and a village where domestic architecture is different from that in Hong Kong.\n\n12 The institution of k'ai-tsai ## often loosely translated as “godson' - is not relevant here.\n\n13 See for example H. D. R. Baker, A Chinese Lineage Village, London, 1969, p. 49.\n\n14 Apart from its obvious restriction to a unilineal descent system, kwoh-kai also differs significantly from Western forms of adoption in that the initiative may come either from the adopter or the adoptee, as indicated below.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205974, "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-1970", "page_number": 54, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "HONG KONG CADETS, 1862 - 1941\n\n49\n\nThe staffing situation improved between 1897 and 1901 and 12 more cadets were recruited from England, the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States including Reginald Fleming Johnston, Cecil Clementi, A. G. M. Fletcher,50 and Geoffrey Norman Orme. The incorporation of the New Territories into the Colony meant that more recruits would be needed for district administration and as members of the Land Court set up to determine thorny problems of land ownership and tenancy.52 However, 17 cadets were recruited between 1901 and the end of 1914. There were losses of course: notably the gifted Stewart Lockhart who was transferred in 1902 to Wei-hai-wei as H.M.'s Commissioner, and the equally gifted R. F. Johnston who was also transferred to Wei-hai-wei as District Officer in 1904.\n\nA posting in the New Territories provided for some younger cadets an escape-hatch that removed them from office life in the Colonial Secretariat and other departments in the Central District. Service in the New Territories, a mainly agricultural area dotted with small village communities and small market towns, had more in common with colonial service in Africa and South-East Asia, and the cadet was left comparatively free to go his own way, lead an open-air life and exercise judicious authority. The job demanded initiative, stamina, and magisterial skills; and, if one is to believe Mr. Austin Coates,54 a cadet at a much later date, it was a deeply rewarding life which allowed a cadet to become involved in the lives of simple people, farmers and fishermen, small shopkeepers and craftsmen. Certainly, the report of the District Officers for the New Territories, such as those written by Stewart Carne Ross, have a little more colour than the stilted administrative reports presented annually by heads of departments.\n\nBy the 1920s cadets had become entrenched in most government departments and they filled all the senior posts in the Colonial Secretariat, the directing and co-ordinating agency of government. The exceptions were some departments, such as the Medical and Sanitary Services, Public Works, the Royal Observatory, and Marine Department, which necessitated at the top someone with specialist knowledge. The Inspector General of Police (also in charge of the Fire Brigade), the Director of Education, the Postmaster General, and the Superintendent of Imports and Exports, however, were all cadets, but not the...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205978, "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-1970", "page_number": 58, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "HONG KONG CADETS, 1862 - 1941\n\n53\n\n19 Sir Francis Henry May (1860-1922), Educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Dublin. Hong Kong Civil Service 1881; Captain Superintendent of Police, 1893-1902; Colonial Secretary, 1902-1910; Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner of Western Pacific, 1910-12; Governor of Hong Kong, 1912-1919. First cadet to become Governor. Altogether May spent 38 years in Hong Kong.\n\n20 Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston (1874-1938), Educated at Edinburgh University (Gray Prize; prox. accessit., Lord Rector's Essay); Magdalen College, Oxford (mentioned hon, causa Stanhope Essay). Hong Kong Civil Service 1898; Assistant Colonial Secretary, 1899-1904, Transferred to Weihaiwai 1904; Senior District Officer and Magistrate, Weihaiwai, 1906-17. Tutor to the Ex-Emperor of China, 1919-1925. Commissioner of Weihaiwai, 1927-30. Professor of Chinese and Head of Department of Languages and Cultures of the Far East, School of Oriental Languages, London University, 1931-1937.\n\n21 Sir Cecil Clementi (1875-1947). Educated at St. Paul's School and Magdalen College, Oxford, Hong Kong Civil Service 1899. Clementi, following his uncle and godfather, Sir Cecil Clementi Smith, preferred an Eastern Cadetship, and was posted to Hong Kong. Land Officer and Police Magistrate in the New Territories, 1903-6, Clementi had the task of recognizing the land titles of over 300,000 claims. Appointed Colonial Secretary of British Guiana 1913-1921; Colonial Secretary, Ceylon, 1922-1925; Governor of Hong Kong, 1925-30; Governor of the Straits Settlements and High Commissioner for the Malay States 1930. In 1934 Clementi retired on account of ill-health.\n\n22 James Legge \"The Colony of Hong Kong\", China Review, Vol. I, 1872-3, p. 173.\n\n23 Dominions Office and Colonial Office List 1939, p. 624, states: \"The average number of cadets appointed to Malaya and Hongkong during the period of 1919-31 inclusive was between 9 and 10. Since 1931 the average has been 5-8, 6 generally. In 1937, 7 cadets were appointed, and 9 in 1938. There were none appointed to Hong Kong 1937, and only 2 in 1938. The demand for cadets in Hong Kong was always small”.\n\n24 For example, Thomas Sercombe Smith (1854-1937) was appointed a Hong Kong Cadet in 1882. In 1883 he was attached to the Colonial Office for a year; and in 1884, after a brief spell attached to the Colonial Secretary's Office, Hong Kong, proceeded to Peking where he studied Chinese, 1884-6. On the other hand, Arthur Winbolt Brewin (1867-1946), proceeded to Canton in 1888. Brewin, who was educated at Winchester, succeeded Eitel as Inspector of Schools in 1897; became Registrar General in 1901 and retired in 1912.\n\n25 Victor Purcell The Memoirs of a Malayan Official, London, 1965, pp. 108-109. The Index to Correspondence (of the Colonial Secretariat), compiled in 1902 by R. H. Kotewall, has a cryptic entry: \"Cadets studying Chinese in China must reside at a place removed from European social surroundings\".\n\n26 Alexander Grantham Via Ports, Hong Kong, 1965, p. 5.\n\n27 I have been able to discover the schools attended by 64 of the cadets: 52 went to schools listed in the Public Schools Yearbook; the other 12 to small private schools. Two cadets (H. E. Wodehouse and A. W. Brewin), it seems, did not go to a university; five I have been unable to trace; and of the rest - 78 in all — 55 went to English universities (Cambridge 25; Oxford 23; London 4; and one each at Leicester University College, Liverpool University, and Manchester University); 10 to universities in Ireland (Trinity College 8); and 11 to Scottish universities (Edinburgh 6,\n\n-55", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205980, "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-1970", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "HONG KONG CADETS, 1862 - 1941 \n\n55 \n\n19 Kenneth Myer Arthur Barnett (born 1911). Educated at Mill Hill School, London, and King's College, Cambridge, Hong Kong Civil Service 1934. Retired as Director of Census and Statistics 1970. \n\n40 Quoted in James Hope Hennessy's Verandah, London, 1964, p. 186. Hennessy is quoting, presumably, from Sir George Bowen's Thirty Years of Colonial Government, London, 1889, which I have not seen. \n\n41 Margery Perham, op. cit., p. 302. Lugard also liked and trusted A. W. Brewin, the Registrar General: \"if he once said, he was very 'pro-Chinese' this was really a compliment. He would allow Brewin to forbid his own delivery of a speech to a Chinese gathering. He could not always understand the reason ‘but I trust implicitly in him'.\" \n\n42 E. J. Eitel \"Chinese Studies and Official Interpretation\", p. 8. \n\n43 Alleyne Ireland, Far Eastern Tropics, London, 1905, p. 34. In 1901 Ireland was appointed Colonial Commissioner of the University of Chicago for the purpose of visiting the Far East. \n\n44 Ibid., p. 32. \n\n45 Norman Gilbert Mitchell-Innes (1860-1947). Educated at Repton and Edinburgh Academy, Hong Kong Civil Service 1881; Treasurer 1891; left Hong Kong Service in 1896 and transferred to the Home Prison Service. Des Voeux thought highly of Mitchell-Innes. See G. B. Endacott, Government and People in Hong Kong 1841-1962, Hong Kong, 1964, p. 112. \n\n46 Report on Defalcations in the Treasury, Sessional Papers, Hong Kong, 1893, p. 546. \n\n47 Ibid., p. 546. \n\n48 Norton-Kyshe, vol. 2, p. 447. \n\n49 Ibid., p. 447. \n\n50 Sir Arthur George Murchison Fletcher (1878-1954). Educated at Cheltenham College and Trinity College, Oxford, Hong Kong Civil Service 1901; transferred to Ceylon 1927; Colonial Secretary, Ceylon, 1926-9; Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner for Western Pacific 1929-36; Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Trinidad and Tobago, 1936-38. \n\n51 Geoffrey Norman Orme (1879-1966). Educated at Cheltenham College and Hertford College, Oxford, Hong Kong Civil Service 1902. Director of Education 1924-26. Left Hong Kong Service in 1926. \n\n52 The Report on the Land Court, 1900-1905, Sessional Papers, 1905, gives a list of the presidents and members of the Land Court in order of their appointment, most of whom were cadets. H. H. J. Gompertz was appointed in 1900 and resigned in 1904; Cecil Clementi in 1903; and C. M. Messer and J. R. Wood in 1904. The Registrars in order of appointment - all cadets were: J. H. Kemp, E. D. C. Wolfe, and S. B. C. Ross. The Land Court in 1905 consisted of three members: C. M. Messer, Cecil Clementi, and J. R. Wood. The New Territories became popular with cadets as a place to walk or shoot in on week-ends. Robert Oliphant Hutchison (1880-1920), the Superintendent of Imports and Exports, on his way to shoot snipe at Saikung fell off a launch in a squall and drowned. His body was never found. With him at the time was D. W. Tratman, the Colonial Treasurer. One imagines from the evidence that both had \"tiffined\" rather too well. \n\n53 \"At first British officials were limited in principle to two, dealing with police and land. In 1899 a police magistrate was appointed and also an assistant land officer to deal with land cases, and the police were placed \n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205981, "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-1970", "page_number": 61, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "56\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\nunder the Captain Superintendent in Hong Kong. The islands, and later, an outlying part of the mainland, were organised separately as the Southern District, with an assistant land officer appointed on 1 January 1905; he became an Assistant District Officer in 191054. G. B. Endacott Government and People in Hong Kong, pp. 134-5, Stewart Lockhart's Report on the New Territory at Hong Kong, 1900, says: \"Since Mr. Lockhart's return to Hong Kong in July (1899) the work of the New Territory has been carried on by Messrs. Messer, Kemp and Hallifax, three cadets who are carrying out their instructions in a most satisfactory manner\". The tradition developed of sending newly passed cadets to be \"blooded\" in the New Territory before they took up more sedentary duties in the Central Government Departments.\n\n54 Austin Coates Myself a Magistrate. London, 1968, p. 13; speaking of his appointment as a Magistrate in the New Territories, Mr. Coates writes: \"It was a job which would demand a complete change of thought and attitude after the Secretariat, occupied as I had been there with the doings of the modern world. Yet in this older world, bypassed by time, might I not find the roots—perhaps even the soul of the people who, met with in the city, held in their hearts something that everlastingly eluded me?”\n\n55 G. B. Endacott Government and People in Hong Kong, p. 169.\n\n56 Ibid., p. 169.\n\n57 A particularly acidulous, but fictional, portrait of an Assistant Colonial Secretary is presented in Somerset Maugham's The Painted Veil (London, 1925). This so enraged the then Assistant Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong, A. G. M. Fletcher, that he threatened an action against the publishers, Heinemann. The name Hong Kong was replaced in the second issue of the book by \"Tching Yen\".\n\n58 Richard Symonds The British and Their Successors, London, 1966, p. 16.\n\n59 G. B. Sayer Hong Kong: Birth, Adolescence, and Coming of Age, London, 1937, p.15.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205997, "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-1970", "page_number": 77, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "72\n\nDAFYDD EMRYS EVANS\n\nseparate location, namely Taipingshan, for the main part of the Chinese town. This town was apparently to become separate in a way not altogether intended by its creators.\n\nThe question of the Upper Bazaar came to a head towards the end of 1843 when A. T. Gordon, the land officer, decided to meet the demands for building land (and, thereby, augment Government revenue from Crown Rents) by putting up to auction an area which extended from Wyndham Street to Gough Street, thus including the whole of the Upper Bazaar.\n\nGordon informed Pottinger of the land which had been marked out for sale on 22 January 1844 and told him that he intended to remove altogether \"that part of the town known as the Upper Bazaar\" and had marked it out into 27 lots, \"suitable for shops and dwellings either for Europeans or respectable Chinese\". This accorded with the views which Pottinger was persuaded to hold that, as Governor Davis later put it, “it would be very advisable for the interests of the community that the Chinese should be removed, so as to prevent as much as possible their being mixed up with the Europeans.\" Pottinger replied to Gordon that the inhabitants of the Upper Bazaar would be given six months, from 15 January 1844, to remove their houses, the only question remaining being one of compensation.\n\nThough this correspondence was not, of course, public it would have become obvious what was to happen when the Land Sale was held on 22 January, 1844, as many persons bid for lots which then formed part of the Upper Bazaar and on which buildings were standing. The European residents made no comment on the proceedings until it appeared to them that they could use the plight of the bazaar lot-holders as part of the fight against Government on account of the treatment of their own land claims. The Chinese lot-holders themselves were apparently kept in ignorance and claim to have learnt only after the event that their lots had been sold over their heads.\n\nThus, some time after the lots had actually been sold, Pottinger appointed a committee consisting of Major Caine, Chief Magistrate, Gutzlaff, Chinese Secretary to Government, and Gordon, the Land Officer, to consider where the bazaar lots should be relocated and on what terms the lot-holders should be dealt with.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205998, "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-1970", "page_number": 78, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "THE BEGINNINGS OF TAIPINGSHAN\n\n73\n\nIn the meantime, the lot-holders petitioned Pottinger to be allowed to stay.10 They described how Captain Mylius, the first land officer in 1842, had given them certificates to prove their holdings. The Committee met the lot-holders and endeavoured to explain to them why they were being moved. They were told that there were 'insuperable difficulties' in the way of allowing them to remain. Moreover, the permission given them by Mylius to occupy the sites in question was no more than a 'temporary arrangement' since at that date (1842) Hong Kong was not in a permanent state. Nevertheless, the Committee represented that they were to inquire into what ground could be given to them for the erection of their houses. To this the Chinese replied that what was asked of them was like \"throwing their livelihood into the sea.\" If allowed to stay, they undertook to erect houses \"in the proper manner and style\" and pay a suitable rent. But their pleas were in vain. The Committee recommended that a site be allotted to them at Taipingshan, at which place, they pointed out, a considerable Chinese population had already settled. The Committee proposed that the ground should be prepared and levelled (it was, at that time, no more than a very steep and uneven mountainside) and with streets marked out. They would be permitted to remove the materials out of which their present houses were constructed. As to compensation, they would have their arrears of rent (never paid) remitted and would enjoy a 'rent holiday' for a period of five years from the following December. In addition, each householder who could substantiate his claim would receive $50, though one member of the Committee, Gutzlaff, thought that $20 would suffice.\n\nThe area of relocation lay south of Queen's Road, between Town Lot 78 and Town Lot 44: i.e., from approximately the present Gough Street to just east of the present Possession Street. The point was specifically made by Caine, with the agreement of the other members, that this location be reserved exclusively for Chinese and that no Europeans, with the exception of police, be permitted to live there.12\n\nPottinger approved these suggestions but reserved his decision on the question of compensation. He did not favour monetary compensation, partly because some of those in the Upper Bazaar were unauthorised squatters and partly because others were keepers of brothels and gaming houses who ought to be got rid of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206002, "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-1970", "page_number": 82, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "# THE BEGINNINGS OF TAIPINGSHAN\n\n77\n\nOffice's records had fallen owing to non-registration of transactions (it being by then more or less necessary for a purchaser to take a chance on the title to land offered to him by a vendor), a strenuous effort was made to regularise the situation and much \"squatting\" without title and consequently, in most cases, non-payment of Crown Rent, came to light.\n\nThe end for old Taipingshan came not in the 1880's but in the 1890's when Bubonic Plague was brought to the Colony from West China. The most virulent reservoir of the bacillus turned out to be Taipingshan. The only solution, not only to the problem of stamping out the plague but also to other forms of social offence given by the district, was to remove the Chinese town physically. This was done by powers given in the Taipingshan Resumption Ordinance of 1894, and the result was wholesale demolition of much property and re-aligning of old and construction of new roads. Taipingshan had to be razed and, fortunately for Hong Kong, never rose again in its former glory.\n\nUniversity of London, 1968.\n\nDAFYDD EMRYS Evans\n\nMr. Evans is Professor of Law in the University of Hong Kong. Two of his earlier contributions to the early history of Hong Kong appeared in the Notes and Queries section of the 1968 Journal.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 The area was known as Taipingshan from the early days of the colony and its name is not derived from its function as a refuge for T'ai Ping rebels in later years.\n\n2 See Gordon (Land Officer) to Pottinger, CO129/Vol II, f. 152,\n\n3 See Gordon to Malcolm (Colonial Secretary), CO129/Vol. II, f. 138 dated 6 July 1843.\n\n4 The rents for both the Upper and Lower Bazaar Lots represented the same rate per square foot as that charged by Johnston for Town Lots.\n\n5 But the Chinese were turning to the use of brick rather than wood by the end of 1841; see Canton Press, 19 February 1842.\n\n6 Gordon to Pottinger, 19 December 1843; CO129, Vol. II, p. 445.\n\n7 Davis to Stanley 26 July 1844; CO129, Vol. VI, p. 435.\n\n8 Woosnam (Pottinger's private secretary) to Gordon, 10 January 1844: CO129, Vol. V. p. 69.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206094, "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-1970", "page_number": 174, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "HONG KONG BEFORE THE BRITISH\n\n169\n\nwhich had belonged to the last Emperor and in it the seal of the dynasty which was brought back as a token of the complete extinction of Sung. At Ch'ek Wan on the peninsula called Nam Shan just north-cast of our region there is a tomb which purports to be that of Ti Ping. It bears the inscription \"Grave of the Little Emperor Hsing Hsing24 of Sung\" and it is tended by a family named Chiu which was the surname of the Sung emperors. There are graves of both Tuan Tsung and Ti Ping in other places along the coast of Kwangtung province and it is not certain that this one is genuine. Most likely it was a \"garment grave\" containing some relic of the Emperor and made to deceive his enemies as to his real burial place.\n\nMany Chinese families in the district claim to be descended either from royal blood or from ministers and soldiers of Sung. These claims may be unsubstantiated individually but the fact that they are made in the mass points to a tradition that much of the Sung army settled in South China after their defeat. It may be asked whether the Tang family helped the Emperors whose kins-men they were. Tang Shou Tsu who lived about this time was a minor officer in the Yuan armies and probably fought against Sung. The Tang family nevertheless lost its paramount influence in Tung Kun district after these events, and this may be the reason why members of the elder branch settled more permanently at Kam Tin and in other parts of the region.\n\nVIII. T'UN MUN AND THE PORTUGUESE\n\nMention has been made in a previous section of the prevalence of pirates in the South China Seas in early times. The earliest record of any piratical action within the region is as early as the 10th century when a pirate named Wu Ling Kuang attacked T'un Mun but was defeated. A later event was a revolt of the population of Lantau Island in 1278 when the Yuan government attempted to enforce a monopoly of the salt production and arrested the private salt makers. It is recorded that soldiers tried to land on the island but were prevented by means of wooden stakes placed along the coast, and that the Tanka inhabitants then sailed up the estuary and attacked Canton. The civil population fled, but the sailors defending Canton, by using incendiary arrows\n\n24 The reign title of Ti Ping.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206105, "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-1970", "page_number": 185, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nTHE J.O.P. BLAND PAPERS\n\nIntroduction\n\nOne day in September 1967, I received, quite out of the blue, a letter from my former commanding officer during the Second World War, Michael St. J. Packe, to say that he had been entrusted with J.O.P. Bland's private papers, with instructions \"to find a good home for them,\" and asking me whether I would like to have them. Before going further, let me explain that Mr. Packe is himself a historian and wrote an excellent biography of J. S. Mill.* We have kept in touch intermittently since we were demobilized from the First Airborne Division (British) at the end of the war, and I have been to visit him at his home on Alderney. This is the really fantastic part of this chain of coincidences. Here was Mr. Packe, living and writing on the little island of Alderney in the Channel Islands while a near neighbour of his was Mrs. Dolores Coombs, an old friend of the Bland family, who had often visited them at their home at Aldburgh in Suffolk. Bland himself died in 1945 and Mrs. Bland in 1953. His private papers were entrusted to his goddaughter, Miss Ailsa Cochrane, who was to act as his literary executor and to try, if possible, to complete the memoirs which he had begun before his death, and to have them published. Before she could achieve much Miss Cochrane became ill and in 1955 her brother sent these papers to Mrs. Coombs who, in turn, was to act as literary executor. Meanwhile Bland's books on China had been given to Trinity College, Dublin. However, a list of these books, preserved among his papers, shows that they amounted to a modest collection without containing anything rare.\n\nSometime in 1966 Mrs. Coombs was forced by illness to leave Alderney, and it was at this point that she entrusted her friend and neighbour, Michael Packe, with the task of finding a home for these papers. Thus for a period of over twenty years Bland's private papers disappeared from view while two successive literary executors struggled with the task of trying to complete and publish his memoirs. Bland himself, to judge from his instructions to his\n\n* The Life of John Stuart Mill (London: 1954).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206120, "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-1970", "page_number": 200, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n193\n\nThe barracks are at present occupied by the 1st Battalion, The Duke of Wellington's Regiment, the old 33rd or 1st Yorkshire West Riding Regiment of Foot, raised in 1702 for the War of the Spanish Succession. It is one of the last surviving regiments of British Infantry to retain its individual identity. The Commanding Officer, Lt.-Col. D. W. Shuttleworth, the well-known Army and England Rugger International, has very kindly allowed us to take tea in the Officers' Mess where the Colours and some of the Regimental Silver will be on display. Some officers of the Regiment will be on hand in civilian clothes to act as hosts, to explain the Silver and to answer visitors' questions.\n\nStanley Military Cemetery\n\nThere are 663 graves in this 2.5 acre cemetery,* some of them dating from the 1840s and 1860s when there was a permanent garrison at Stanley (on the site of the present St. Stephen's Boys School) and others from the 1939-1945 War and the period of civilian internment at Stanley Prison. The cemetery pre-dates even the Colonial Cemetery, having been opened on 21st July, 1843. Note the large grave stones to some soldiers killed by Chinese Pirates in Stanley Bay in the 1840s.\n\nHong Kong, October 1969,\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nTHE SAN ON MAP OF MGR. VOLONTIERI\n\nIn last year's Journal (pp. 141-148) Dr. Ronald C. Y. Ng contributed an interesting article on this subject, reprinted by kind permission from the Geographical Journal Vol. 135, Part 2 (June) 1969.*\n\nNoting the bilingual nature of the map which used English and Chinese characters for place names Dr. Ng concluded that the document 'was intended primarily for English-speaking users' and described it as 'simultaneously a map and a gazetteer of the District'.\n\n* Readers may be interested to learn that the Australian National Library at Canberra has made available for sale Xerox copies of this interesting map from an original copy in their collection. Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206125, "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-1970", "page_number": 205, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "198\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nknown geologist and archaeologist. A few notes and articles from his pen on Hong Kong subjects appeared in Vols. 8 and 9 (1968 and 1969) of this Journal.\n\nThese pile houses are the habitation of Tanka,(4) the boat people of South China, and Tai O has long been a considerable fishing port and market town, indeed the principal and only one of any size on Lantau Island. At the 1911 census of the Colony the land population was 2248 persons and was probably outnumbered by the floating population which stood at 5413 for the whole of Lantau. The pile huts were probably there long before the British took over the New Territories in 1899 following the Convention of Peking, 9th June, 1898. One of the early administrative reports of the District Officer, South (1911) mentions taking over responsibility from the Harbour Office for issuing licences to pile dwellers at Tai O Creek, when 221 new matshed permits were issued at $1 p.a., and in 1916 it was stated that there were still as many as 350 matsheds there.\n\nFires were always a hazard to these dwellings of wood and palm leaves. A big fire was noted in the 1916 report and it is no surprise to read in a later report of a really big one in 1926 when 300 matsheds were destroyed. Fortunately there was no loss of life, due, it was related, to it being high tide at the time of the fire.\n\nTyphoons, too, were a constant menace to these frail structures and in 1927, the year after the big fire, the District Officer notes that a typhoon caused great damage to the matsheds.\n\nThe photographs at plates 26 to 29 are by Mr. Schofield, and the plans at Figs. 1 and 2 are re-drawn from his notebook. I am greatly indebted to Mrs. Katherine M. Schofield for permission to reproduce her husband's valuable notes. The italicised sentences are my additions. The aerial view of Tai O Creek at plate 25 is by courtesy of the Hong Kong Government.\n\nMr. Schofield's Text\n\nThe accompanying plan (Fig. 1) is of a typical shed at Yee Chung (二涌) Second Creek, Tai O. It measures 9′ in width and 29′ 2′′ in depth (32′ 5′′ including the 1 metre deep veranda) and is 7′ high. It is 8′ above the waters of the creek at mid", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206216, "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": 33, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE TAIPINGS AT NINGPO\n\n27\n\nwhich included the alleged declaration: “In the event of an outbreak of hostilities, every man who brings in a foreigner's head, shall receive a reward of 100 dollars, and he who kills ten foreigners, shall be raised to the rank of Ta-kwan....\"33 No explanation, naturally, is given on how this alleged speech was recorded; nor is the identity of the recorder mentioned.\n\nThere is one more piece of evidence that casts serious doubt upon the contention that the British had any intention to remain neutral in the impending conflict. A Chinese by the name of Cheng A-fu who was in the employ of the British, perhaps as a servant or interpreter of Consul Harvey, was commissioned by the British to organize an armed force of three hundred so-called \"green hats\" who could be used in an attack upon Ningpo. This information comes from an account written of the Ningpo episode by a Ch'ing official, Hsü Yao-kuang, who was an administrative officer in Chekiang,34\n\nOn the 9th of May, the Ch'ing fleet captured Chinghae, then advanced up river and laid-to directly in front of the Foreign Settlement where it made preparations for an assault on Ningpo across the river. The foreigners were informed that the attack would take place the following morning.35 Thus the British and French were aware that when the attack did take place the advancing Ch'ing fleet would necessarily draw fire from the city, and this would endanger the English and French vessels and the settlement. Had Captain Dew adhered to his pledge of neutrality on April 27, in which he had said: “you may rest assured that no breach of friendly relations shall emanate from our side,” or if he had wished to remain apart from the contest, he should certainly have withdrawn his ships from the line of fire.\n\nThe events of May 10th are the most interesting of all. On that day Captain Dew was to write to Admiral Hope that he had \"found it necessary to capture the city of Ningpo....\" Dew recorded that it all began at 10 in the morning with fire from the Taipings. Dew's assumption that the fire emanated from the Taipings is unquestioning. But did the Taipings fire the initial shot? We know now for a fact that they did not. For Cheng A-fu, the employee of the British, plotted with the pirate Apak to fire upon the foreign vessels, in order to create the impression that the Taipings had done so. This would \"provoke\" the foreigners", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206276, "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": 93, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n87\n\nOnly a few were able to survive the perils of the business. They were not accustomed to building in the Western style and therefore often underestimated on contracts, resulting in their bankruptcy. In 1844 the Land Officer comments that \"almost all contracts hitherto entered into with Chinamen have been obliged to be finished by Government, for the works were taken at far too low an estimate, and the consequence was, when the parties found they would become losers, both contractor and security decamped, and in some instances they were imprisoned.\"16\n\nOne of the few contractors who did survive in this early period of Hong Kong's history was Tam Achoy †, alias Tam Sam Tshoy, alias Tam Shek Tsun, although he too almost went into prison for debt, escaping only through the generosity of his creditor. Achoy was generally recognized as the most prominent leader of the Chinese community when an élite was first beginning to emerge out of the hodgepodge of shopkeepers, craftsmen and traders. We have noted that he and Loo Aqui built the Man-Mo Temple where they performed in part the traditional role of village elder. He was also Trustee for the I Ts'z Temple in Taipingshan (1851) and the Temple in Queen's Road East at Wanchai (1869). In 1847 the Colonial Treasury had on deposit £185.16.8 from Tam Achoy for erecting a Chinese School in the Sheung Wan (Lower Bazaar).\n\nAchoy had come to Hong Kong at its foundation in 1841, having been formerly a foreman in the Government Dockyard at Singapore. He was granted a certificate for the easternmost of the lots in the Lower Bazaar, and soon began to buy up the interests of the adjacent property owners until he had acquired an extensive sea frontage. He built some of Hong Kong's most prestigious early buildings such as the P. and O. Building and the Exchange Building, which was bought by Government and used for many years as the Supreme Court Building. With the accumulation of increasing capital he began to broaden his interests and secured permission from Government to build and operate a market. This was a most profitable venture and when the Lower Bazaar was destroyed in the Christmas fire of 1852, he soon rebuilt it, operating it under his firm's name, Kwong Yuen. During the period after 1848, when Hong Kong became a port of embarkation for thousands of emigrants, Achoy was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206353, "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": 170, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "154\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\naccount which is intended to provide a factual background to, and trace the major influences on, local volunteering over this long period.\n\nDEVELOPMENT AND ORGANISATION\n\n(a) 1854-1914\n\nThe different motivations, needs and attitudes of changing times provide some of the most interesting aspects of the history of the Hong Kong Volunteer Force. Danger is always a stimulus to volunteer efforts and the first Volunteers owed their origin to a foreign 'scare' occurring at a time of war with Russia and imagined insecurity in Hong Kong. This led the colonial authorities in June 1854 to take the initiative in calling for a corps of Volunteers for the defence of the lives and properties of themselves and their families in the temporary absence of a naval force sufficient to deal with an emergency. (It is interesting that Government called for an Auxiliary Police Force at the same time.) This call lost its magic when the emergency did not materialise and naval protection was restored, and for a few years there were no Volunteers in being.7\n\nAttempts to form a new Corps in 1857 proved an utter failure, the subject was mooted in the press in 1860 without result, and the eventual establishment of a new body of Volunteers on 7 April 1862 can be traced to an enthusiast, Captain Frederick Brine, Royal Engineers, a regular officer who had formed the Shanghai Volunteers in 1861 and went on to form other corps at Hankow and Yokohama. This second Hong Kong corps was disbanded in May 1866.\n\nA third Volunteer Corps was formed in May 1878, arising out of the danger of war with Russia the previous year. It was entitled the Hong Kong Artillery and Rifle Volunteer Corps. Endacott gives a succinct account of this body:\n\nIt numbered 150 by the end of the year, but when the crisis passed interest waned; there were quarrels, and all\n\n7 See Vol, 1954, pp. 17-23 and Endacott, A History of Hong Kong, (Oxford University Press, 1958) pp. 90, 119.\n\n8 Endacott, pp. 119-120. The Hong Kong Volunteers were organised as a battery of artillery with a band and rifle company added within a year see Major Arthur Chapman's article in Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong, Shanghai, etc. (1908) p. 274.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206387, "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": 204, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "178\n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nI once witnessed from my house in D'Aguilar Street an engagement between nearly a hundred Chinese coolies on each side, on the ground now occupied by the Club-house. Bamboo on bamboo, and bamboo on skull, resounded pretty equally, until the parties were obliged to give up from exhaustion. I thought that nothing wilder or better-sustained had ever been seen at Donnybrook Fair.\n\nTaking occasion to speak here on the subject of violent crime in the Colony, and affecting it, I would distinguish two eras;— that of violent burglary, and that of piracy. Not that there were not piracies in the earlier time, and burglaries in the later; but the one and the other preponderated in the two eras, and may be considered to characterize them. The former may be said to have continued down to the beginning of 1856, when a daring attack was made on several native shops at East Point. For several years, however, before that, it had been declining, owing mainly to the increasing numbers and greater vigour of the police force.\n\nThese robberies were at first conducted with an astonishing audacity. In January, 1844, to give only one instance, what is now Mr. De Souza's printing office was occupied by Mrs. White, the wife of one of the present members for Brighton, who was himself in Shanghai at the time. He was one of the early notabilities of the Colony, and founded the Friend of China, which was published here and in Shanghai for many years by very different hands. Well on the night of the 23rd January, the bungalow was attacked by an armed band of about 30 individuals. Their object was plunder; and without attempting any violence to Mrs. White or a young lady who was staying with her, they proceeded systematically to accomplish their purpose.\n\nA little down the hill were the head-quarters of a Madras regiment of which I have spoken. The young lady tripped down, and gave the alarm there, and soon a party of sepoys was led up to the scene by an officer; but the brigands stood one discharge of their muskets, and, it was said, did not flee till the ramrods were ringing in the barrels for a second, one of their number being left bleeding to death on the floor.\n\nWhen burglary on this scale could no longer be attempted with success or safety, bands of robbers attempted to carry out their attempts by tunneling from the large drains under the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206433, "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": 250, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "224\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nthe familiar background of the disasters — natural and man-made which afflicted China from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards.\n\nThe author, a retired Naval Officer, himself with a first-hand knowledge of the China Station and with some apparent experience of the military and political intelligence work supporting the diplomatic moves described in this book, weaves his story from the letter books of the Great and Ancient House, Taikoo. The period covered by these extracts and quotations is from the Sino-French war of 1883-5 through to the so-called Great Boycott of 1925. There are appended a number of short notes, some by the author, others contributed to the book, on topics ranging from \"The origin of Tribute Rice and of Lao mei\" to \"Treaty Port Racing\". Several of these are probably not to be taken as serious studies of these subjects; for example, the two devoted to \"Opium\" and \"The Eunuchs of the Empress\" are mere fragments not embodied in the main text.\n\nThere is undoubtedly a wealth — even an overflowing — of rich historical material in this volume; so much so, that the author, unwilling to sacrifice any scraps of illustrative comment from these business records, ends up by creating a confused picture of events. The significant fact throwing particular light on the business activities on the China Coast, is circumscribed by coils of superfluous trivia. From a naval writer, one might have expected a direct, economical style of exposition; and of course, the impact on the reader would have been much more effective. It is, indeed, painfully obvious throughout the book that despite the authorship of a considerable number of publications, the writer is an amateur. The book is written in a mixture of styles compounded from the Boys' Own and official memoranda; it is ridden with clichés and undigested wedges of administrative gobbledy-gook.\n\nFor the historian who would like to use this book as a compilation of source material, there are also the difficulties that the extracts are frequently not dated nor ascribed to a writer or only vaguely so. For example, there is the telegram from the Admiralty to the Commodore Hong Kong — one wonders how this came to be with the B & S records, if in fact it is extracted from them. The exercise would have been much more useful if the range of extracts had been more carefully selected, given full documentation, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206539, "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-1972", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART\n\n81\n\n21 'Despatches and Other Papers Relating to the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong', Sessional Papers, no. 32 of 1899, p. 13.\n\n22 Ibid., p. 36.\n\n23 Ibid., p. 65.\n\n24 Ibid., p. 69.\n\n25 'Report on the New Territory during the first year of British Administration', Sessional Papers, no. 15 of 1900, p. 252.\n\n26 'Report on the New Territory for the Year 1901', Sessional Papers, no. 22 of 1902, p. 4.\n\n27 Annual Report on Weihaiwei for 1921.\n\n28 Alfred Hancock and his brother Sydney were partners in the firm of A. and S. Hancock of Queen's Road, Hong Kong. In 1906 Alfred Hancock had resided for over fifty years in Amoy and Hong Kong. In the 1920s the firm had moved to Des Voeux Road and the chief partner was H. R. B. Hancock, Lockhart's brother-in-law. The firm was still active in 1940.\n\n29 The walled city of Weihaiwei, captured by the Japanese in 1894, by the terms of the 1898 Convention was not under British jurisdiction but nominally under a Chinese sub-district deputy magistrate. The British sphere of influence extended for an area of 1,500 square miles east of the Leased Territory.\n\n30 On the Chinese Regiment see: Captain A. A. S. Barnes, On Active Service with the Chinese Regiment, London, 1902; C. E. Bruce-Mitford, The Territory of Wei-Hai-Wei, Shanghai, 1902, pp. 22-24; R. F. Johnston, Lion and Dragon in Northern China, London, 1910, pp. 82-3; and Annual Report on Weihaiwei for 1906. The only servicemen left in Weihaiwei after 1906 were the small body of Royal Marines of the Island Guard,\n\n31 Johnston, op. cit., p. 82.\n\n32 L. K. Young, British Policy in China 1895-1902, London, 1970, p. 73.\n\n33 Johnston, op. cit., p. 80.\n\n34 The Weihaiwei School was opened with only four pupils in 1901 by a Mr. H. J. L. Beer. In 1903 a new school house was built near Port Edward, partly with the aid of a debenture loan subscribed by British subjects in Shanghai. The new school had dormitories for forty boys. The school, which took boys between ages of 8 to 14, was mainly for the sons of British expatriates. Pupils came from places as far apart as Mukden, Canton, Kobe, and Chungking. The school closed in 1925 when it became apparent that the rendition of Weihaiwei was close at hand. Weihaiwei's fine climate contributed to the school's success with expatriate parents.\n\n35 Johnston, op. cit., p. 96.\n\n36 Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston, K.C.M.G. (1874-1938). Johnston was educated at Edinburgh University and Oxford. He arrived in Hong Kong as an Eastern Cadet, fresh from Magdalen, on Christmas Day, 1898. In 1904, Robert Walter, Secretary to Government and Magistrate at Weihaiwei, was seconded for service as Emigration Agent at Ch'iu-wang-tao for the Transvaal Government and Johnston was appointed to take his place. In 1906 he was appointed District Officer and Magistrate and resided in the heart of the Territory. In 1919 when he took up his appointment as tutor he was Senior District Officer. In 1927 he returned to Weihaiwei as Commissioner. After the rendition of Weihaiwei in 1930 he became Professor of Chinese, University of London, and Head of the Department of Languages and Cultures of the Far East, School of Oriental Studies, 1931-37.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206559, "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-1972", "page_number": 107, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "# REVIEW OF HOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG\n\n101\n\npopulated areas which were used for portable purposes should be closed, that all private lanes and streets should be brought under government control and that back-to-back houses should be demolished as soon as possible.\n\nUnder such desperate circumstances, the government was obliged to take strong action and in the same year as the plague struck it passed, on an emergency basis, the Tai Ping Shan Resumption Ordinance. Under this statute the inhabitants from 8.5 acres of land in the worst affected area were evicted, their properties were resumed and demolished, and the area was laid out anew. The various works were completed by 1899 at a total cost of over HK$944,000. Two smaller schemes in the same locality were carried out in 1902 and 1903 at a cost of some HK$271,000; the total area involved in these schemes was about 0.7 acre.\n\nOther measures were introduced in 1894 in the Closed Houses and Insanitary Dwellings Ordinance under which the height of buildings was limited to between 25 ft. and 76 ft. depending on the length and width of the street. The Ordinance also gave powers of inspection to the Sanitary Board to ascertain breaches of the law against overcrowding, the standard of measurement being 30 sq. ft. of floor area and 400 cu. ft. of air space per occupant. Despite the apparent necessity for such measures the unofficial members of Legislative Council pressed for less restrictive clauses.\n\nIn 1895 there was a respite from the plague with only 44 reported cases, but in the following year over 1,200 persons were afflicted. Thereafter, the plague became an annual visitation, mainly in the torrid summer months, and persisted until 1907. Altogether, there were some 13,000 victims between 1894 and 1906 giving an average of over 1,000 a year.\n\nThe continued concern of the government over the insanitary condition of the Colony led to the appointment of a commission to look further into the matter and a report12 was duly submitted in 1898, the year in which the New Territories were leased from China. After a comprehensive survey of 3,095 houses in two health districts,\n\n11 Minute by the Principal Medical Officer on the Report of the Public Health and Building Ordinance Commission, Appendix A. p. 5 in the Blue Book Reports on Sanitation and Housing 1900-1907, Hong Kong, 1907.\n\n12 Report of the Commission to Inquire into the Existence of Insanitary Properties in the Colony, Hong Kong, 1898.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206670, "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-1972", "page_number": 218, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "212\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nwith offices, belonging to Messrs. Butterfield & Swire, whose Chinese style, Tai Ku (★‡) 'Great and Ancient', gave rise to the name, Tai Ku Lau (= House) by which it was known to local Chinese. Its proper name was \"Clanmore\".† It was not a healthy site, probably the reason why the Company decided to sell the property. Father Trivière writes:\n\nThe Fathers, upon arrival, had taken measures to improve sanitation. These included general hygiene, drainage, the felling of trees, the cutting back of bush, the planting of eucalyptus and camphor trees, thanks to which an improvement in the situation was expected, bringing with it the gradual disappearance of malaria. Unfortunately, things turned out otherwise. The French fathers were not successful in driving out malaria. It was, in fact, malaria which drove them out.\n\nThe original house is no longer to be seen, but we shall walk round the site.\n\nAt this point, I had hoped to show Members the fine waterfalls inside the Dairy Farm property opposite Tai Ku Lau, but the Company regrets that it is unable to grant entry because of restriction imposed as part of measures against animal disease.\n\nWe shall return to the buses for the Wah Fu Estate (Hong Kong Housing Authority; 56,000 persons) and the Hong Kong Waterfall. This is featured in G. R. Sayer's book, Hong Kong: Birth, Adolescence & Coming of Age, published by Oxford in 1937. Sayer was a Hong Kong Administrative Cadet Officer, who served here for many years pre-war.\n\nThe flow of water in the waterfall stream was affected by the construction of the Pokfulam Reservoir (1863 and enlarged in 1876 or thereabouts) and the waterfall may be seen in its former dimensions only after heavy rain. Plans are in hand to convert the area into a public garden and sitting out area.\n\nHong Kong, July, 1972.\n\n† Jarrett. A sign post on site has 'Claymore'.\n\nJAMES HAYES", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206841, "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": 118, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "112\n\nSUNG HOK-P'ANG\n\nland, distributed in various parts of the mainland, and on the island, having fields in Kowloon, Ch'eung Sha Wan (*) Kw'an Taai Lo (###) (where the city of Victoria now stands) Causeway Bay, Pokfulum and Aberdeen. He immediately promised to give one thousand piculs. When Yau Tai K'in heard of it he thought there must be some mistake, but the officer said, “At first I also thought he made a mistake, so I asked him again, and he said quite plainly, one thousand piculs!” So Yau T'ai K'in was very pleased, and he at once went off to visit Tang Yuen Fan, who said, “My rice is quite ready in the granary.” The magistrate sent off word to the \"Yamen\" to have junks sent to collect the rice, and on the day it was collected the river was so covered with the junks that the water could not be seen, and all the people gathered to watch shouted for joy. Yau remained with Tang several days and spent much time walking about the country admiring the scenery. He was much impressed by the fine buildings, open fields and pleasant woods, and exclaimed, “Why should the village have such a name? Sham T'in, it should be called Kam T'in instead!” The villagers were delighted with the new name, and it has remained till the present day.\n\nThe name, however, now embraces quite a large collection of villages each with its own name, but most of the villagers still belong to the Tang family and the name of Ch'an has disappeared. There are a certain number of people with other surnames to be found among the Tangs, but they have come in from other places at different times and are not really native to the place in the same way as the Tangs are. A new village which goes by the name of San Ts'uen (††††) new village, has been built very recently for the Cheng (*) family who had to move from the Shing Moon (M¶) district when the reservoir was started.\n\nThe only trace of the old Ch'an T'in village that remains is the temple known as Hung Shing Kung (g) in Shui Pin Ts'uen (k). This temple which was built by the Tangs is known in the village as the Big Temple although small, because formerly it was merely a shrine and was enlarged to its present size at a later date. The exact date of the temple is not known. Some say it was built when the first Tang came to Kwai Kok Shaan; others, that it was built first as a small shrine in the time of Shing Fa (✯ft) A.D. 1465-1487 of Ming dynasty when the Tang family built the village", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206851, "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": 128, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "122\n\nSUNG HOK-P'ANG\n\nwho her father really was, and Yuen Leung was very troubled as to what to do with her. However when she became of marriageable age the elders of the village advised him to marry her to his son Tsz Ming (A) which, as she was quite willing, he did.\n\nMeanwhile the fighting between the Tartars and the Sungs had ceased. Peace was made, and Hong Wong had now become the Emperor Ko Tsung, who ordered that enquiries should be made concerning his daughter. All the district officers throughout the Empire were instructed to help and when the official notice was posted up in the vicinity of Kam T’in, Tsz Ming was much frightened at having married the princess without the emperor's permission. But the princess said, “Do not fear. My life was saved by the Tang family and I have willingly become your wife. Go and tell the District officer who I am.\" When the official heard the news he came at once and did obeisance to the Princess, and then sent a petition to the Emperor. Ko Tsung ordered Tsz Ming and his wife to come to the capital, where they stayed for about a year, but the princess pined for Kam T'in and begged to be allowed to return to the place of her adoption. So the Emperor let her go, but first he bestowed on her many wharves in the district as \"powder expenses\"; and a large area of hill and forest land as \"toilet expenses\". On the thirteenth day of the seventh month of the 8th year of Siu Hing (2) A.D. 1138 they started back for Kam T’in. When they got there, the princess gave orders that the hills and woodlands should be thrown open to the public, so that anyone could make graves on her land without paying tax. In the 51st year of Hong Hei (‡) of Tsing dynasty, A.D. 1712, when the princess' grave was repaired, her dowry was still being used by the country people for a free burial ground. In the 5th year of K'in Lung (†) A.D. 1169, the princess gave thirty-six wharves to the Tsz Fok Monastery (*) the oldest monastery in Tung Kwun. Among these wharves was that of Shek Kit (5) near Shek Lung. When the history of Tung Kwoon was revised in the 12th year of Sung Ching (†††) of Ming dynasty, A.D. 1639, only three out of ten of the wharves were mentioned as still being in use, but Shek Kit is still in existence now.\n\nIn some books the princess is referred to as Sung Tsung Kei (***). Sung being the name of the dynasty, Tsung meaning royal, and Kei high lady. She is known, however, in the Tang family as Wong Kwu (2), the Emperor's Aunt, as her nephew became", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206937, "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": 8, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "2\n\nday, five short papers were read on fish, fauna and flora of the sea-shore; insects; land vertebrates, and birds, and the talks were illustrated by an exhibition of both stuffed and live specimens. The field trips, held on the Sunday, were to Tai Tam Bay which supports fauna communities, some of them unique to Hong Kong Island, on its extensive sand and mud flats; and to the Mai Po Marshes, a wetland habitat dominated by deep ponds producing ducks, mullet and carp, and having a marginal zone of dwarf mangrove. This provides a unique eco-system of considerable scientific interest. Professor Lofts is currently engaged in editing the materials presented by his team for one of our symposia publications. The materials from our previous symposium, held the preceding year, should be ready for publication shortly.\n\nOur first local visit of the year was to the Sikh and Hindu temples in Happy Valley. This took place in April. Of the 10,000 Indians in Hong Kong, some 2,000 are Sikhs and the majority of the remainder, Hindus. The Hong Kong Khalsa Diwan, “Sacred Assembly”, as both the Sikh temple and its congregation are called, was founded in 1935 and the Hindu temple some time later. Led by Mr. Ian Watson of the Department of Philosophy, University of Hong Kong, a group of members first attended a Sikh service (Sikhism is a revisionist movement within Hinduism, founded at the close of the seventeenth century) and then visited the Hindu temple and its library.\n\nOur second excursion was to Cape D'Aguilar, named after Major General G. C. D'Aguilar, first general officer commanding the Hong Kong Garrison in the 1840s. A group of members visited Hok Tsui village, founded in the eighteenth century, and providing the older name for the Cape D'Aguilar area. They looked at old houses and the village's granite watch-tower, together with its temple to the god Pak T'ai, probably of the nineteenth century.\n\nIn January, members visited the Lo Pan temple—Lo Pan is the god of carpenters and building constructors. The temple is situated in Kennedy Town, in an interesting old corner of Western District, still largely in its pre-war condition, and first built about 1884. The fourth and last local visit was to Tai Miu, Joss House Bay, one of the most historical sites of Hong Kong and well-known in Chinese historical and geographical works. The Tai Miu, or \"Great Temple\" is dedicated to T'in Hau, “Empress of Heaven”, a very popular", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207053, "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": 124, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "118\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nto play havoc in it. The Japanese wo-jen had been particularly active. In 1571 the small walled town of Tai Pang on Mirs Bay in the northeast of the district had sustained a siege of over forty days by Japanese pirates equipped with scaling ladders.1\n\nThe district gazetteer gives an account of the troubled times at the end of the Ming period, which brought much misery and suffering to the people of the district, since famine accompanied the disturbances.2 These disorders lasted for a considerable time. It is reported that Tai Pang was held for nine years against all comers by a band of soldiers.3 The clan record of the Tsui family of Shek Pik contains a vivid account of the disasters of the time, as it affected their relatives and friends in their old home near Tung-kuan city which was the centre of an unsuccessful revolt against the new dynasty. These disturbances extended to the present New Territories. A former officer of the Ming, Li Man-wing, held this area on his own account between 1647 and his surrender to the new dynasty in 1656, and the walls and moats of the principal villages of the Tang clan in the New Territories are said to date from this time. The land presented a pitiable sight in these years: there was much burning and pillaging and many of the inhabitants fled. During this time, it was said, \"The ground was covered with bones, in the day time nothing could be heard but the hum of flies, and at night the voice of weeping.\"\n\nThe evacuation of the coast in the early years of the K'ang Hsi reign between 1662-1669 followed soon after these prolonged miseries and had a profound effect on the lives of the population and on the pattern of future settlement.\n\nUnder instructions from Peking, the provincial authorities required the evacuation of the coastal areas of Kwangtung. The provinces of Shantung, Chekiang, Kiangsu and Fukien were also affected to varying degrees.7 This measure was in accordance with a five-point plan to deal with the pro-Ming ruler of Formosa, Cheng Ch'eng-kung, suggested by one of his former lieutenants\n\n1 IHNHC 13/7.\n\n2 HNHC 13/8-9.\n\n3 HNHC 13/9-10.\n\n4 JHKBRAS, 7 (1967), p. 154.\n\n5 Sung Hok-p'ang in HKN, VIII, No. 2:107-108.\n\n6 ibid, presumably a quotation from the Tang clan's genealogical record. The YCKC has a lengthy entry on the disorders of this troubled time, chuan 4/46-60.\n\n7 Hsieh Kuo Ching, pp. 585-593.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207103, "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": 174, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "168\n\nSUNG HOK-PANG\n\nthe heart in his mouth went off with it. The villagers gave chase but after a while there was a terrific gust of wind and the dog disappeared.\n\nThe present Kam T'in is divided into two distinct districts. The South, Naam Wai (南圍) was originally a large common or open space of grassland; the North, Pak Wai (北圍) was hilly country surrounded by mangrove swamp. The principal villages of Naam Wai are Kat Hing Wai (吉慶圍) the first village on the right-hand side as one approaches from the main road, which was built by Tang Paak King (鄧伯經) and two other men during the Shing Fa years 1465-1487 of Ming Dynasty; Wing Lung Wai (永隆圍) the village at the end of the road on the left-hand side, facing the open green where football is now nearly always in progress, which was started by Tang Shiu Kui (鄧紹舉) and seven others; and T'aai Hong Wai (泰康圍) the large walled village on the left just before one reaches the Cottage Hospital, which was founded by Tang Ts'ung (鄧聰) and four other contemporaries. Later on during the civil wars of the Hong Hei years 1662-1722 of Ts'ing dynasty these three villages were walled to protect the inhabitants from marauding bandits and soldiers. Tang Man Wai (鄧文蔚) and Tang Kaai Yuet (鄧啟悅) built the wall of T'aai Hong Wai; Tang Sui Ch'eung (鄧瑞昌) and Tang Kwok Yin (鄧國賢) built that of Wing Lung Wai and Tang Chue Yin (鄧珠彥) and Tang Chik Kin (鄧積堅) walled Kat Hing Wai. About the same time Tang Yuet Man (鄧悅民) of Kat Hing Wai and Tang P'ooi Hing (鄧培慶) of T'aai Hong Village both formed the village of Kam Hing Wai (錦慶圍), which is on the north of Kam T'in market; and Tang Chau Man (鄧秋文) of Kat Hing Wai built the village of Ko Po Ts'uen, on the left-hand side of the main road, on the west of Kam T'in market. These walls in many places are in a wonderful state of preservation to-day. Kat Hing Wai and Taai Hong Wai have very strong iron chain gates, and a tablet fixed in the wall outside the gateway of Kat Hing Wai explains the story of them. It can be roughly translated as follows:\n\n\"The inscription on the tablet of Kat Hing Wai:—\n\nSince Foo Hip, the ancestor of our family Tang who was a Government officer, came from Kiangsi to Kwang Tung in the years of Sung Ning of Sung dynasty, we lived in both waais (villages)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207120, "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": 191, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n185\n\nLei King T'ong (A) is another ancestral hall, and can be found by the side of the main road through Kam T'in. It was built for Tang Ng Shaang (£) (see H.K.N. VII, p. 36).\n\nI Tai Shue Yuen (**) is the new school building built instead of the Man Ch'eung Kok (M) (see H.K.N. VII, p. 256) and is situated in Shui T'au village.\n\nChau Wong Yee Kung Ts'z (M), (=214) (plate 20) is a hall that was built to record the merit of Viceroy Châu Yau Tak (♬) and Governor Wong Loi Yam (*). After the Ming emperors were expelled from China, an officer of the Ming army named Cheng Shing Kung (4) attacked the coast of South China, using Formosa as his base. All the people in sympathy with the Ming dynasty, along the coast helped him, so as the Manchu government had no navy to send against him, an order was made that all the inhabitants of the coast were to be moved inland for 50 Chinese miles. Later they were moved again for another 30 miles and for seven years, A.D. 1661-1668, the New Territories were deserted. The fields were unattended and allowed to lie fallow, and the buildings fell into disrepair. At the end of that time the people made representations to the Governor and Viceroy, and it was through the mediation of these two men, with the Emperor that the people were allowed to go back to their own land. The full account of this story is very long, but it is hoped to devote an article to it later on.\n\nI have to thank Mr. Tang Paak K'au (1) and Mr. Tang Wai T'ong (**), both elders of Kam T'in, for their co-operation and help in obtaining access to the numerous documents that it has been necessary to consult before this series of articles could be attempted. Also Mr. Tang Ch'ong Yip (##) a teacher in Kam T'in, who gave invaluable assistance in searching out references, copying out paragraphs from books in the possession of various villagers, and deciphering inscriptions from stone tablets. Unfortunately Mr. Tang Wai Man (✯) another elder who showed great interest in these articles and helped considerably, died a few months ago, and is unable to see them completed. Lastly, I am much indebted to Mrs. Herklots for her help in writing these articles in readable English.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207288, "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": 56, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "INCIDENT BETWEEN HONG MERCHANTS AND THE SUPERCARGOES OF THE BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY IN CANTON, 1811.\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG*\n\nA detailed account of this incident was recorded by the senior officer on the British side, Captain the Hon. Hugh Lindsay,† the Commodore of the East India Company's fleet at that time. It is in the form of a letter to his sister, Lady Anne Barnard, undated, and was printed in The Lives of the Lindsays by Lord Lindsay, 2 vols., London, 1849. A full copy of this letter, retaining the original punctuation, has been supplied by Mr. Tom Lindsay, a long-time member of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. It is worth printing because of the details it supplies which are missing in the brief account of the same episode in Hosea Ballou Morse, The Chronicles of the East India Company trading to China, 1635-1834, Vol. III, Oxford 1926, p. 156.\n\nHistorians of early Anglo-Chinese relations, and of the British East India Company's trade with China, have to rely to a great extent for their material on Morse's five substantial volumes. It is worth examining, at this point, how Morse wrote these volumes which are based on a massive collection of hand-written documents.\n\n* Professor Cranmer-Byng belongs to the Department of History at the University of Toronto. He was the first Hon. Editor of this Journal and has contributed to it from time to time.\n\nHon. Hugh Lindsay was a younger brother of Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres and 23rd Earl of Crawford. A note at the bottom of page 400 of Vol. II of Lives of the Lindsays states:\n\nMr. Hugh Lindsay was for many years Member of Parliament for the burghs of Forfar, Perth, Dundee, Cupar and St. Andrews, and Marshal of the Admiralty.\n\nIn the text on the same page it is stated that he was also a Director and Chairman of the East India Company. He died in April 1844 in his eightieth year. The biographical note goes on:\n\nHugh Hamilton Lindsay Esq., his only son, and long a resident in China, is the author of the extremely interesting 'Voyage of the Amherst, — along two thousand miles of the coast of China,- published in 8vo. by a speculating bookseller, from his report to the East India Co., which was printed by order of Parliament.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207299, "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": 67, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "INCIDENT: H.K. MERCHANTS & BEI. CO.\n\n59\n\nvolumes on official documents, 1 should prefer to accept his version as more likely. From a wide reading of Morse's Chronicles I have found other instances when a threat from the E.I.C. supercargoes was sufficient to make the Canton officials allow the fleet to sail or trade to reopen; but never the next day. The officials always needed some means of delay and therefore of saving face.\n\nBy way of comparison a similar incident involving Lindsay's only son, Hugh Hamilton Lindsay, in 1831 is worth looking at. Hugh Hamilton Lindsay entered the East India Company's service as a young man and passed through the various ranks until by 1831 he was a supercargo. This story begins in May 1831 when the Governor suddenly and unexpectedly ordered that part of the factory's grounds be destroyed, a linguist put in chains and a Hong merchant sent to gaol. The supercargoes received a copy of an imperial mandate ordering them to comply with a restatement of all the existing restrictions on foreigners. The Select Committee decided to warn the Chinese authorities that if they persisted in enforcing all the regulations these would be resisted, even if it meant withdrawing from trade at Canton. The members of the Committee decided to send Hugh Hamilton Lindsay to Canton (they had recently returned to the E.I.C. premises in Macao for the summer) to hand over the keys of the Company's factory to the Hong merchants for them to deliver to the Governor, with a letter to the effect that they would no longer rent the factory while they were not safe from intrusion and destruction, and if no steps were taken to remedy the situation then trade would be suspended on 1st August 1831. The description of Lindsay's efforts to deliver the letter and the keys is given in Morse, Chronicles, Vol. IV, pp. 282-3. Lindsay didn't manage to persuade the Hong merchants to deliver the letter, but eventually the officer in command of the troops of the district, who customarily received petitions presented at the gates, accepted the letter and the keys of the factory. But he simply handed them to a Hong merchant with the order “None are to be received\". The dispute dragged on till the end of 1831 and occupies as far as page 323 in Vol. IV of Chronicles.\n\nIn the following year Lindsay was given a more congenial commission by the Select Committee. He was sent in the E.I.C. ship Lord Amherst (350 tons), with a cargo of various English cloths, for which he was to find out the probable demand and the prices", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207332, "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": 100, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "92\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\ncolony of Hong Kong. In 1845, Charles May, a London police officer, was brought out to organise the new force. Most of the early police recruits were obtained locally from the army, navy, and merchant marine; but in time policemen were recruited directly from Britain or from other colonial territories. The quality and morale of the force was never high. Norton-Kyshe writes that in 1850 a European constable got only $15 a month,\n\nvery far below what the humblest in the Colony required, so that, in the case of steady men, they only accepted the position in the hope of something better turning up. But to this class, unfortunately, the chief objection was the readiness with which they yielded to the temptation offered by the many public houses about, and many of the deaths among the European constabulary were ascribed to their excessive indulgence in ardent spirits, a great portion of which, sold by the low tavern-keepers, was of the most abominable and deleterious description.4\n\nBecause of the demoralised state of the police, Sir Richard MacDonnell, Governor of Hong Kong, reported in 1869 to the Secretary of State that he intended to substitute Scottish for English constables. Altogether forty-five Edinburgh constables were enlisted in 1872. But the Scots contingent proved as susceptible as their English colleagues, for the next year several were dismissed from the force. As a group, they, too, had succumbed to the blandishments and corruptions of Hong Kong. In 1897 it was found that almost all the police—European, Chinese, and Indian—were receiving money illegally from Chinese gambling syndicates, including a British Deputy Superintendent of Police.\n\nBecause of the general shortage of European personnel in Hong Kong, police were often seconded to, or allowed to apply for, positions in other departments. The scarcity of suitable Europeans was, in the main, a consequence of the growing attractiveness of Australia as a land of opportunity, especially after the discovery there of gold in 1851, and of the rapid development of Shanghai, which soon became viewed as an arena more accommodating than Hong Kong for the adventurous and ambitious. Turnkeys at Victoria Gaol were often policemen; and the various Inspectors of Brothels (a post established in 1858), who came under the control of the Registrar General, were in nearly every case former police officers, for the principal duty of such functionaries was to detect", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207400, "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": 168, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "160\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nside used gas in our short campaign. In a later section I shall refer in more detail to the casualties. I have noted earlier that Shackleton's war-time command in the hospital was splendid. As in all beaten armies there were some less stout-hearted soldiers; some of these, uninjured, sought shelter in the hospital in the last stages of hostilities, but Shackleton overcame this hazard effectively as he did the many others that arose. He was never a man tolerant of weakness.\n\nThe nursing service was first-rate, led by the Matron, Miss E. M. B. Dyson (the Q.A.'s did not have service rank at that time), and the wounded enjoyed a splendid standard of care right up to the end when the hospital was practically in the front line. The members of the R.A.M.C., R.A.D.C., and attached R.E. stuck to their jobs manfully. The Chinese drivers of ambulance and other cars disappeared into the civilian population as our defeat came nearer, and none should blame them.\n\nIn the hospital, we heard Japanese shells fired from the mainland pass overhead and watched them burst on houses on the Peak. We saw boats bringing Japanese troops from Kowloon in broad daylight to land at North Point. They passed unopposed across the harbour, for apparently our guns could not be brought to bear on them while our defences in the North Point area had been silenced. I saw the harbour crossings made under flags of truce by Japanese officers carrying demands for the surrender of the Colony. These were rejected. In the last stages, we watched the Japanese shelling of Magazine Gap just above the hospital, and we had to keep under cover when moving about the hospital to avoid mortar and small arms fire. It is, however, one of my treasured memories to recall the reaction of Miss G. Colthorpe, one of the Reserve Q.A. sisters, to the surrender of the Colony. She would have hanged the Governor and the General Officer Commanding on the spot. The urgency of the surrender was soon only too evident, for we saw long columns of Japanese troops pass along Bowen Road immediately below the hospital, and the front line could not have been more than four hundred yards or so from the hospital at the time of our capitulation. I believe that it was the fact that we were not overrun in battle that saved patients and staff from the rape and murder which disfigured the campaign in Stanley, Happy Valley, and elsewhere.\n\nEarlier in this account, I said that the topography of the Colony left our troops little or no room for manoeuvre in defence. The", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207425, "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": 193, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n185\n\nreceived from Japanese sources, (Appendix A) will show that fresh milk was also received from time to time and this, of course, as is noted, was used practically wholly for the ill patients. It was only occasionally that a little was allowed to others in order to keep up their morale.\n\nFeeding the Staff\n\nI do not here include the officers who were members of the staff, for these received pay and could use what was left of this after contributions had been paid and friends supported to supplement their general messing, though the extra thus obtained was very small. The problems with other staff can also be stated simply. These men's work was essential; deprived of it, the hospital could not function. Some of this work was hard if intermittent, e.g., carrying patients or stores, felling trees for timber; some was hard and regular, like the work of the laundry squad, particularly during the dysentery outbreak; some was exacting and often provoking, like that of the nursing staff. On the other hand, the lamentable conditions of acutely ill patients had to be rectified at all costs.\n\nThe principle adopted was that when a member of the staff began to show signs of early deficiency, as some were doing as early as August 1942, he was admitted to hospital, when he had all the rights of patients to extra diets. In the case of staff members who had, for example, put in a heavy day felling trees or moving 100 kg sacks of rice, I made to each man a small extra issue, maybe an egg, maybe some peanut butter, and so on. This was a token rather than a major contribution to their nourishment and was never resented by patients.\n\nIn the early days of the Hospital Central Fund in 1942, the executive committee, on which officer patients were represented, recognised the special position of the working staff, and small, very small cash payments were made to these monthly from the Fund. At a later date, in 1943, staff were given working pay, again in very small amounts by the Japanese, but it was not till 6 March 1945 that the needs of working staff were recognised by a formal entitlement to extra general rations. We had long known that in the P.O.W. camps, men employed on camp duties got increased rations, and we got the immediate example we required when in January 1945 a working party from Sham Shui Po was accommodated in Bowen Road while employed on preparing land in Happy Valley", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207441, "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": 209, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n201\n\nin the recreation room and put disinfectant in a bowl outside the Japanese office. The general spoke to nobody. Two months earlier, in March I had been ousted from my office in the front of the building and this pleasant room henceforward became the headquarters office of the Japanese within the hospital. I was surprised that they had not seized this earlier.\n\nOn 23 August 1943 the President of the Japanese Red Cross Society, Prince Shimatsu, inspected the hospital. At all times the appearance of the hospital was good, but at this as at all inspections the Japanese laid great stress on having the recreation room looking specially well. In addition to white cloths on the tables and vases of flowers all the musical instruments and equipment for indoor games had to be laid out on display. As usual the inspecting officer had no parley with patients or staff.\n\nI have records of only three occasions on which British doctors from P.O.W. camps were allowed to visit Bowen Road. Major Ashton Rose, Indian Medical Service, was the doctor accepted by the Japanese as being in administrative medical charge in Sham Shui Po camp. I believe he had considerable influence with them, in so far as any prisoner could have influence. On 5 March 1943 he visited the hospital bringing with him some patients for admission and came again on 23 March with an officer patient for specialist eye examination. On the second occasion he stayed to lunch, a phrase which of course indicates a higher degree of sophistication than in fact we deserved. It was however something for us to be able to entertain a guest at all. We learned from Ashton Rose that the general state of prisoners in Sham Shui Po was improving and that the men were fitter. On 13 May Captain Woodward, an Australian serving with the I.M.S., came over from Kowloon to have medical advice about himself and on this occasion Saito came too.\n\nIt seems curious now to look back upon such things, but up to March 1943 the bomb and shell damage to the hospital inflicted fifteen months earlier had gone substantially unrepaired. The top floors were badly damaged and as I reported earlier the kitchen in the middle section connecting the two blocks of wards was completely destroyed. Rain poured in at these places as well as at other damaged areas and the recreation room below the kitchen was unusable in wet weather. The fact that we did not carry out repairs earlier probably resulted from our preoccupation at that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207444, "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": 212, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "204\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nthan he need. The improvement in his attitude to us in 1945 as the war drew to a close was significant. I never felt safe with him. His management of drafts of patients coming to our hospital from P.O.W. camps showed gross negligence particularly in the early year or so and I found it scandalous that he allowed a patient with acute and easily remediable intestinal obstruction to reach death's door in 1942 before allowing him to be sent to the hospital. How far blame should be laid on Saito and how far his commander, Tokunaga, should bear responsibility I do not know. I was then, and still remain, glad that we did not have to have Saito as our master if we had been losing the war,\n\nI thought Sergeant Seino was the most intelligent of all the Japanese army administrators with whom we came in contact. It was he who was most closely concerned with our routine affairs. He retained his dignity and upheld his position, but he was a man who could be talked to though not easily swayed. He never let his army down, and he never slapped me though he did, I know administer a token slapping to one of our officer patients whom he had caught communicating on a family matter with the outside world through the medium of our parcels. I do not know what happened to him after the Japanese surrender, but so far as we were concerned he did his duty fairly and earned a degree of my respect.\n\nJapanese officers and N.C.O's nearly always wore swords and always on duty wore what used to be called field boots in the British army in the First War and between the wars when they were worn by cavalry and gunner officers and by field officers in other regiments and corps. The Japanese used to skiff (or \"skliff\" is likely an OCR error for \"scuff\" or \"skiff\") their feet along the ground thus making an important noise as they walked, well suited to the dignity of their wearers.\n\nAt first in 1942 the guards were drawn from Japanese units but later were Formosans (Taiwanese). The latter were of no great quality and were poorly clad and equipped, and some of their N.C.O's were pettily officious and often over ready to take offence. They wore ankle boots with canvas uppers and rubber soles and there was a separate compartment in the canvas for the big toe. It was often startling to meet them on a verandah in a blackout as they moved silently along with fixed bayonet and rifle at the trail. These guards interpreted their own orders in such matters as the amount of lighting allowed during blackouts and the time of our", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207445, "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": 213, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n205\n\nlights-out and a host of minor matters. They sometimes slapped patients, both officers and other ranks, for what they considered to be breaches of orders. On our side the victims could only guess at the reasons for the slapping for no interpreter was ever to hand at the time. I took up every one of these cases with Saito or Seino as soon as either appeared after the incident, and I always tried to have the matter investigated. Repeatedly I was told that a sentry represented the Imperial Army and must inflict punishment at once for any irregularity on our part. I never discovered that there was anything personal in these slappings in the sense that they might be a retaliation for what, in the British army, we used to call dumb insolence. Some tempers on our side were sorely tried but no major incident occurred. I was never approached by any Japanese officer or N.C.O. for help over medical treatment.\n\nOnly once did an opportunity occur to retaliate. Late in 1945 in the Central British School in Kowloon we had an officious guard sergeant who was nicknamed 'Slappy' because of his readiness to slap all and sundry for what he thought were offences. About the time of the Japanese surrender, but well before the guards were withdrawn, this man was waylaid by some of our sappers who had suffered themselves and who wanted to repay him on their own and their friends' behalf. I was told that they were very satisfied with the result and there were no repercussions.\n\nTRADING\n\nThe Japanese allowed us to have a shop within the hospital. We had to buy stocks from a Hong Kong Chinese compradore, a term which will be familiar to all who have been in the Far East, and we then sold the goods within the hospital. For a very long time we were not allowed to make a profit, and it was not until a year or two after our surrender that I got permission to make five per cent and use the proceeds within precisely defined limits. The shop stocked goods likely to be desired, mainly cigarettes, matches, syrup, jams, salt, eggs on occasion, tomato sauce, beans, cigarette papers, sugar, sewing cottons and needles, ginger, laces, soy bean powder, soap, razor blades etc. We placed an order one week and such goods as were available were delivered the following week.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207488, "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": 256, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "248\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nThere was no lift. By now we were caring for 15 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis. The medical officer staff was slightly different from what it had been in Bowen Road (See Appendix C) and contained one new member, Captain Coombs. The changes had been made by the Japanese and I was not consulted, though Coombs was a valued and welcome member of the staff.\n\nThe building was arranged in two wings, and looked at from the front the left hand wing was given over to Japanese quarters. In the centre was a large Assembly Hall while our hospital occupied the right hand wing. The Assembly Hall was out of bounds to us except on special occasions. I had hoped to get a member of the Hong Kong Volunteers to come with us from Sham Shui Po as a rice cook, but he did not turn up, and Corporal J. O'Grady took charge. Our practice was now to cook all our food in bulk and not by wards and messes in their own containers as in the past. The kitchens had shallow rice boilers and our rice from now on improved considerably. The electricity generator had been damaged during the move but repairs were started by our engineers. The church was sited in the Central Clock Tower room. Saito gave us a Hongkong News from which on the 14 April we learned of the death of President Roosevelt and we held a memorial service for him on the following day.\n\nA refrigerator was converted to act as a steamer, steam being delivered through the top, and the cooks baked some very good so-called cake and made some experimental bread without flour which turned out to be excellent when judged by our standards. We even began to fry the bread sometimes when we had enough oil. On 19 April four blinded men and two old men arrived, the former with attendants to look after their needs. On 20 April Colonel Tokunaga made an afternoon inspection and we were ordered to remove all beds from verandahs and all staff except the steward and one cook were required to sleep in the barrack room. Visitors arrived to deliver parcels the same day but they had to leave them for collection by us some distance away from our front door. With 134 patients and no beds on verandahs our space was pretty crowded. By now our non-medical staff was building up and we had one shoemaker, two tailors, one barber, two cooks, three rice grinders, four vegetable men and three wood men. We also used two men for pots and pans and two appear in my diary as having duties connected with beds though I cannot now remember", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207498, "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": 266, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "258\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nS.M.O. Sham Shui Po and Crawford would be in medical charge in the officers' camp. I asked Swyer to send us five members of the R.A.M.C. including one sanitary assistant. The day before I had received a letter from Miss Dyson, our Matron from Stanley Camp who wanted her sisters with her there to rejoin us and this gave us pleasure.\n\nDuring one of my absences from the hospital an incident had occurred over a flag. Someone had hoisted the Union flag on the hospital flag staff and Japanese troops with machine guns surrounded the hospital and for safety's sake we stopped all expeditions from the hospital for the time being. Saito had been observed by our people leaving the hospital with some trucks apparently filled with papers and documents and he had a drawn sword in his hand. On 20 August the Japanese again mounted an armed guard early in the afternoon. In the morning I had been told by Saito and Nomura that the Japanese were still in control and they arranged for Takami the supplies warrant officer to deal with us over food. I pressed him especially for milk and certain other urgently needed foods for medical purposes and required Saito to return to us all the records he had removed. He asked about the numbers we had in the hospital, a foolish but typical request because he must have known all about these already. Nomura told me that the gendarmerie must have been responsible for surrounding the hospital on the day before and we thought it wise not to fly the Union flag for a time. Colonel Field, as the senior officer in command of British troops visited us, and said he would send any food that he could and he approved of our action over the flag incident. He also agreed that following a request from Saito we should not make any large scale moves before he had seen Tokunaga. Saito asked me to give medical and other help to the Indian camp. I found this a queer request indicating a concern of which I had had no great evidence before and of course we were already doing all we could to help. Nomura and another Japanese, Sekiguchi, were busy on plans of our cemeteries and some of our people who had relatives in Stanley left to visit them.\n\nWe exchanged our older men and those who were crippled with patients from Sham Shui Po who needed active treatment, and then a further 14 people who had been in Japanese prisons were admitted including Major Boxer who was an old friend of ours from the early days. Half of the fourteen were civilians. Colonel Tokunaga", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207789, "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-1976", "page_number": 177, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "LAND AND RIVER ROUTES TO WEST CHINA (With especial reference to the Upper Yangtze)\n\nA. D. BLUE*\n\nWest China, and in particular the provinces of Szechwan and Yunnan, interested British merchants in India before the end of the eighteenth century, and this interest increased after Britain got a foothold in Lower Burma in the early nineteenth century. Not until Britain was established at Shanghai and on the Lower Yangtze, however, did the British China traders take any great interest in West China. Until the 1860s, therefore, the initiative in opening West China to British trade came from the West, and concentrated on reviving the old caravan routes from Upper Burma into Yunnan. The Treaty of Yandabo between Britain and Burma in 1826, which established Britain in Arakan, Assam, Manipur, and Tenasserim, rekindled interest in these old routes. Sino-Burmese contacts went back many centuries, but were usually recorded from a diplomatic or military aspect, although it was well known that there had been considerable trade along these routes. At this time Canton was the only British foothold on the China coast, and the much shorter land route across Burma seemed to offer many benefits to British and Indian merchants in both India and Burma. Then, and for many years afterwards, India was the source of most of China's foreign imports, cotton and opium in particular, and much of British policy in the Far East was concerned with maintaining and extending this trade.\n\nAn interesting side product of this China-India relationship was the proposal to import workers from west China for the infant Assam tea industry. The East India Company had become interested in the possibility of tea production in Assam as early as 1823, when indigenous tea plants were found in the Upper Brahmaputra\n\n* The author served as an Engineer Officer with the China Navigation Company from 1928 until 1938, and was on the Yangtze in 1930 in the Shengking and again in 1934 in the Wuhu. He was captured by pirates in the Newchang river in Manchuria in 1933 and held prisoner for five and a half months. Five of his articles have been published previously in the Journal. \"European Navigation on the Yangtze\" in Vol. 3, 1963, \"Piracy on the China Coast\" in Vol. 5, 1965, \"The China Coasters\" in Vol. 7, 1967, \"Chinese Emigration and the Deck Passenger Trade\" in Vol. 10, 1970 and \"Early Steamships in China\" in Vol. 13, 1973.\n\nPlates 20-25 and the sketch-maps at the end of the volume illustrate this article.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207841, "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-1976", "page_number": 229, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "214\n\nMAURICE FREEDMAN\n\ning, for they are now cut off from the intensive study of a period in which British administration and Chinese law and society were mutually adjusting themselves). Many disputes must have been dealt with in the communities within which they arose, and the remoter villages may in fact have had little to do with the Administration directly; but over a large area of the New Territories it came to be accepted that the administrator was a sure and final arbiter of major differences. In his report on the Northern District for 1913 Ross wrote: 'Some years ago by tacit consent parties did not bring forward cases relating to the \"tso\" and the settlement of ancestral property. Now a large number of cases heard are applications for a declaration as to the parties entitled to share in the property of a common ancestor...\n\n39. The powerful role of the pre-war administrator in social control has left a legacy which weakens the effectiveness of modern attempts to divert the settlement of disputes to other channels. The Rural Committees are now expected to take over a large share of the burden of mediation. In fact, the tendency still seems to be that differences which cannot be composed within a village (where the Village Representative and the other elders are often incapable of exerting the authority to settle the matter) pass first to the District Officer whence they may be referred to the Rural Committee, sometimes returning to the District Officer when the Rural Committee finds itself unable to produce a settlement. And in some cases a settlement is never reached, because as matters have stood in the last couple of years, the District Officers no longer exercise many of the judicial functions with which they were formerly endowed. Land and small debts cases now fall within the competence of the new District Court.\n\n40. Two questions are raised about the operation of the new court. First, is it so court-like in comparison with the informality of the old system practised by administrators that it attracts to itself the unfavourable attitudes which Chinese traditionally displayed towards the yamen? As well enter the jaws of hell as pass through the gates of the yamen.\n\nSecond, are the subtleties of Chinese custom likely to be taken account of in the new court as they were in the days when justice was administered by officers trained to study and respect these niceties? It is of course too soon to say anything definite about the first question; the reactions of people to the court will need to be watched over a period of years; but as\n\n+ + + + +", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207874, "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-1976", "page_number": 262, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "85. It is obvious that the Administration has given much thought to the technical problems of land tenure, and there is probably little that I could contribute to the discussion of them. On the other hand, there are certain kinds of facts that the Administration would presumably like to know and some sociological analysis that would be of service to it which the field worker would be in a position to supply. Let me take an example from land in relation to clan structure. There was a time when wealth was regularly invested in the establishment of estates attached to ancestral halls in such a way that new branches (fong) of the clan came into being; and these estates were added to on occasion. The system of founding new estates-cum-ancestral halls is now generally (perhaps completely) dead, for segmentation (see paras. 31-3 above) is no longer an important feature of the clan; but the existing estates have waxed and waned in modern times and accordingly affected the areas of land to which members of the relevant clan units have had access for cultivation. These estates have grown by bequests and purchase, and they have diminished by being divided up among constituent members, but in this latter regard the powers given to the District Officer* may well have slowed down in the New Territories a process of disintegration which was much commented on elsewhere in southeastern China in the present century. That is to say, the District Officer, by taking general opinion into account instead of giving a free hand to managers, has made the system more democratic and the estates more difficult to break up; in China itself the managers wielded greater independent authority. (Although the estates continue to exist the halls associated with them are often no longer kept in repair. I stood in the ruins of one of them one day to hear a villager comment: 'In the old days when there was no emigration our ancestors could manage to put up a fine hall. Now, when the men go overseas and to town and make money, they can't repair what was built long ago.' But there are some interesting exceptions. An ancestral hall was recently rebuilt in San Tin in a modern style; most of the money for the work seems to have come from emigrants in the United Kingdom). The estates associated with ancestral halls are one kind of tso; other kinds of tso have been created and dissolved, as when small groups of kinsmen have for a time held property in common. In many settlements there appears to be a constantly shifting patchwork of\n\n* Under Section 27 of the New Territories Regulation Ordinance, No. 34 of 1910—Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207891, "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-1976", "page_number": 279, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "264\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nthe history and present significance of the Hospital. A Head of the Department of Home Affairs (the former Department of Chinese Affairs, and, even earlier, the Registrar-General or Protector of the Chinese) would possibly have his own unique evaluation of the institution. A medical doctor, a Neo-Marxist critic of elitism and the old compradore system, a sociologist or a historian all could find different things to emphasize in its history and development. The viewpoint of the writer of these notes is of one who has researched various aspects of Hong Kong history and is particularly interested in the historical development of the Chinese community in Hong Kong.\n\nI have mentioned the various overlapping roles of the Hospital in the past. One might divide these roles into medical, educational, religious, social and quasi-political.\n\nTung Wah as a Medical Institution\n\nAs a Hospital there has been a continuity in its medical service from its opening in February, 1872, but there has been a significant shift from an initial exclusive use of traditional Chinese medical treatment to today's most advanced international medical practice.\n\nThe story of Tung Wah Hospital as a medical institution is a part of the medical history of Hong Kong and the relation and inter-action of traditional Chinese practice with that introduced from the Western medical tradition. The nineteenth century foreign trained medical officer in Hong Kong did not look with favour upon the type of treatment the sick received at Tung Wah. He had little sympathy with Chinese medical lore. As an institution receiving a government appropriation, by the creating Ordinance it came within the province of the Colonial Surgeon to comment on conditions at Tung Wah in his annual medical report. His very first report was critical as evidenced by the following extract,\n\nThere seems to be a large number of attendants, but I never found them at hand when they were wanted. ... The treatment of surgical cases shows an amount of ignorance which is much to be deplored. Seeing that the Institution was endowed with such a large sum of money by the Colonial Government, I think that the Directors might be asked to set apart one ward of their Hospital for the treatment of patients by foreign Doctors.*\n\n* The Hong Kong Government Gazette, 1873 p.228, No. 85. Report of the Colonial Surgeon.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208036, "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": 75, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "TWO ESSAYS ON THE CH'ING ECONOMY OF HSIN-AN\n\n59\n\nThe study of perpetual tenancy systems has long constituted an important, if overlooked, avenue of research into the diversity of economic life which characterized pre-revolutionary rural China.13 Though the institution of perpetual lease was widespread, the degree to which it dominated the agricultural sector—as well as the particular form it took—varied considerably over short distances. In a communication to the Colonial Secretary's Office in January 1904, an officer of the Land Court complained of difficulties facing administrators attempting to codify the land tenure system:\n\nChinese law does not, so far as I can ascertain, contain any mention of perpetual lease and I am informed that the custom of leasing land perpetually is local in the New Territories and does not prevail a short distance from our borders.14\n\nThe variant of perpetual tenancy found in 19th-century Hsin-An closely corresponded to the ti-ku (地骨)/ti-p'i (地皮) system found in Ch'ung-An Hsien (崇安縣) of Northern Fukien. Hsu Tien-t’ai, in his \"Study of the Tenancy Systems of Fukien” (福建租佃制之研究), groups this system with the t'ien-ku (田骨)/t'ien p'i (田皮) category of perpetual tenancy (永佃制). His description follows:\n\nConcerning t'ien k'u (lit: \"field's bones\") and t'ien p'i (lit: \"field's skin\"), or k'u t'ien (骨田) and p'i tien (皮田), this system is found in several counties throughout the province, the names changing slightly from place to place. The value of the \"bones\" belongs to the landlord, and the value of the \"skin\" belongs to the tenant; both sides can freely sell their respective rights. While the landlord (\"bones-master\") can freely sell his title, he can, in no way, affect the rights of the tenant to the \"skin-value.\" Moreover, the responsibility of paying the land-tax resides, as usual, with the landlord. When the tenant sells his title, even if disputes arise, there is no way for the landlord to interfere. Indeed, even the government finds it difficult to intervene.15\n\nOne of the earliest British accounts of perpetual lease in Hsin-An is to be found in Lockhart's \"Memorandum on Land\" appended to his Report on the New Territory at Hong Kong (1900):\n\nThe relation between landlord and tenant is often a complicated one, chiefly owing to the system of perpetual lease. Under such leases the landlords have practically renounced all rights to the\n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208045, "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": 84, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "68\n\nJ. T. KAMM\n\nsystem of land distribution had its origins several centuries ago. At the time when the land was distributed, the tenant paid the landlord a certain sum; this sum represented the rent which the tenant thereafter handed over each year. The landlord could not increase the rent, nor could the tenant refuse to pay it. Furthermore, the landlord could not investigate his tenants in order to take back the land.” (G236).\n\n28 Data from the land memorials, which register sales of subsurface values, indicate that a one-mow plot of land seldom exceeded 6 taels during the late 18th century. As we shall see later in the text, these prices necessarily remained constant into the 19th century. In the Hong Kong Almanack and Directory for 1846, we learn that the tenants valued each mow of rice paddy at $40.00 (1 tael = 1.11 Mexican dollars in 1846). Granted that tenants made good profits from the sale of land, still this example tends to illustrate the great potential disparity between the two values. (Hong Kong Almanack and Directory for 1846, Note on the Island of Hong Kong by A. R. Johnston; written in 1843).\n\n29 Correspondence Respecting Affairs in China, ibid., p 7.\n\n30 CSO306/1899 Extension; \"With reference to the petition of Tang Yung Ping and others they naturally, at present, prefer the old feudal system of payment of rent in kind.\"\n\n31 HKTCSMTC: Hong Kong Almanack, “Note on the Island of HK”.\n\n32 CSO150/1901 gives a detailed account of these negotiations.\n\n33 In general, the maintenance of perpetual tenancy systems presupposes the existence of communal landownership. The British found over 25% of all lots held in clan names in 1898; later Chinese sources place the estimate at 30%. These figures are probably not reliable for the earlier part of the century. The Tangs, as we have seen, held landlord rights over all of Hong Kong Island. They similarly held over 60% of the territory in Kowloon ceded to Britain in 1860, Land in North Kowloon was lost by \"fraudulent sale” in 1898 (CSO2982/1898). Other clans, besides the Tangs, apparently lost sizable tracts as “individual initiative” replaced clan solidarity throughout the period,\n\n34 CSO150/1901.\n\n35 CSO109/1902.\n\n36 Nan Yang Tang Shih Tsu P'u, \"Notes on Land Tax.\"\n\n37 Correspondence Respecting Affairs in China, ibid., p 18.\n\nESSAY II: TAXLORDISM\n\nThe peasants and gentry of Hsin-An witnessed two concrete manifestations of the growing power of foreign countries in China during the waning years of the nineteenth century. In April 1887, the Kowloon Customs House of the Imperial Maritime Customs was established under provisions of the Anglo-Chinese Opium Agreement of September 1886. As was the case with all customs houses established during the era, supervision of the revenue stations was entrusted to a European career officer in Sir Robert Hart's service, J. McLeavy Brown. A great expansion in customs activity", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208053, "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": 92, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "76\n\nJ. T. KAMM\n\nTaxlordism first came to the attention of the British in an intelligent report filed with the Colonial Secretary nearly eight months prior to the occupation of the leased area. The document, essentially an analysis of potential unrest in the neighborhood of Kam Tin and Sham Chun, sheds light on the politics of the lease at the local level. Addressing himself to the question of possible resistance in Un Long Tung (*), the author remarks:\n\n+ + +\n\nenquiries proved that the people of the markets and towns were glad to see England get the place. But the villagers were very much displeased, especially those of Kam Tin village, owing to the fact that, though the owners in the neighborhood of Kam Tin hold deeds, they have to pay tax to the said village. If England got the place, it is feared that the benefit will be deprived of (sic).... It is like the way the (Chinese) Government charges taxes.23\n\nThe report proved to be prophetic, for it was the gentry of Un Long Tung, specifically those of the Tang villages and their dependencies, which mounted the most effective and prolonged resistance to the occupation. The same reasons were invariably set forth in petitions from captured “ringleaders:” Among the wealthy villages, there was considerable apprehension over substantial and drastic changes in the tax structure, while among the smaller villages, leaders cited the coercion and bullying of the larger gentry villages.24\n\nTaxlordism was so widespread that an enterprising land officer suggested, in 1902, that the Colonial Government utilize the taxlords \"to get the taxes for us as they did for the Chinese Government.”25 When existing tensions ruled this out, a plan was formulated to eliminate the institution by granting unclaimed tracts of crown land to those who could establish “taxlord claims.” Initial optimism over a rapid settlement evaporated, however, as taxlords attempted to establish rights over huge tracts of land. The largest claims were unquestionably in Un Long Tung, where the Kam Tin Tangs laid claim to taxlord status over the whole of Pat Heung (A) and Shap Pat Heung (+A+),26\n\nThe \"taxlord claims\" proved to be the thorniest problem faced by British colonial administrators charged with the rationalization of revenue collection. The plan by which taxlords were to be compensated for rights \"not compatible with the principles of British", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208124, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 163, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "MEMORIES OF THE DISTRICT OFFICE SOUTH \n\n147 \n\nkept the raiders under fire from the slope behind, but they got away with their plunder, including some arms and ammunition. The Captain Superintendent of Police at the time, F. J. Badeley, a cadet officer, retired soon after, and the story went that the Governor, Sir Henry May, who came in July 1912 after about eight years as Colonial Secretary and two years in Fiji, took this opportunity to get rid of him because he was 'persona non grata' to him. (There were said to be several such in the Service). The Government took the hint given by the pirates and built a new police station on a much more commanding site well inland, surrounded by barbed wire.\n\nTalking of New Territory police station siting, the Tai O station was originally to have been built close to the village, but the local elders put up representations against it, and the presence of mosquitoes in the village may have provided an argument for its present siting beyond Shek Tsai Po. Silting of the harbour may also have influenced the Government. But I have heard that what influenced the villagers was the existence of gambling houses which yielded them a good profit, and they knew that with the police among them the hope of their gains would be gone. In 1925 they had their reward. A boatload of 60 pirates from the Delta landed at Po Chu Tam, marched along the creek-side road and plundered the village, murdering a woman and kidnapping two men. They got away without interference. Government promptly 'locked the stable door' by stationing an armed Indian police guard - later replaced by village scouts in a matshed close to the mouth of Po Chu Tam creek for several months, about 50 yards from the site of an old Chinese stone-built guard station dating from the era of Japanese piracy in South China. Apparently the Police knew nothing of the raid till all was over. I think all that happened was that the sergeant in charge was transferred to another station.\n\nWhen I first took charge of the District Office, the 'black gold' rush had been over for three years, the bottom having dropped out of the tungsten market with the coming of peace; but the lime-burning and sand-digging boom was in full swing because of the roadmaking and building then going on in Hong Kong and Kowloon. (These were times of anarchy in China). Thus I had to deal with one or two applications for land for limekilns. These kilns were thickest on Ping Chau; but Nei Kwu Chau and Tsing Yi also had kilns, and another was put up at Hang Hau. This distribution is due partly", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208127, "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": 166, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "150 \n\nW. SCHOFIELD\n\nmorning visiting Nei Kwu Chau to discuss the problem of their fifteen children. They had been taught by a private teacher in the ancestral temple: but he had left, and the Education Department were asked to find someone to replace him. They had replied that the children would have to go to Cheung Chau, thus raising in an acute form the problem common in villages all over England to-day. Few if any teachers would volunteer to teach fifteen children in so poor an island as Nei Kwu Chau in those days. The problem of providing one was then found insoluble, and as the only means of transport to Cheung Chau was by junk or sampan, I fear the rate of literacy on Nei Kwu Chau must have declined badly.\n\nAnother event which affected life in Cheung Chau in 1925-6 was the change of Governor in November 1925, during the great Communist-inspired but mainly Nationalist strike which started in June that year. Sir C. Clementi increased the D. O. South's public works vote from the absurdly small figure of $400 to $1000 or more. This made it possible to repave some of the chief streets of the village with granite blocks set in concrete, which cost about $800. He also paid a State visit to the island in the summer of 1926. Flags and decorations were put up, and practically all the proceedings were in Chinese, including a lengthy prepared speech by H.E., written out in characters by (I believe) Mr. Sung Hok Pang. He walked through the main streets, keeping up conversation with the Kaifongs, and showing that despite a long absence in British Guiana and elsewhere his Chinese scholarship had undergone no observable decline. The chief impression of the day that remained with me was the heat!\n\nWhile I was District Officer South I attended two other functions of importance, both in the Northern district. In 1925 the Government had had the imagination and sympathy to restore to the Tang clan the village gates of Kam Tin, removed in 1899 because of the clan's opposition to the original leasing of the New Territory and taken, as I heard, to Sir Henry Blake's estate in Ireland. The ceremony of reopening the restored gates took place in May, just before the big Strike began: its central point was to be the opening of the gates to admit H.E. Sir R. Stubbs. As he rose up from his seat the local band struck up, and this so startled a small pig rooting in the moat that he fled for shelter over the causeway to his sty in the village, just getting ahead of H.E. and bursting through the gates! The reward for the Government's attitude was seen in the autumn", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208130, "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": 169, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "MEMORIES OF THE DISTRICT OFFICE SOUTH \n\n153 \n\nOccasionally the D.O. was called on to do special jobs outside his district. One such job I did at the Land Officer's request in 1930 or 1931 was to enquire into the holdings in Stanley village, to discover who the various lot owners were; this meant a good deal of domiciliary visitation in searching for lot boundaries, and looking for owners who might turn out to be in Macao, Australia, or Panama, and were not infrequently in their graves. This was necessary because the Land Office had no demarcators, and the Land Officer knew law but not Chinese: and the village was to be replanned and modernised. I hope the right people got the compensation, whether in land or cash: I never heard anything over the arrangements.\n\nThe collection of revenue from the District, excluding lots held directly from the Government as Inland Lots granted through the Land Office, was always a most important duty of the District Officer. The Crown rent was collected both at the District Office and at various outstations, chiefly Tai O, Cheung Chau, Tsun Wan, and the small police quarters at Yung Shue Wan on Lamma. The outstation collections were done by a shroff accompanied by an Indian constable, and in the remotest places the Water Police gave their assistance. As a rule I believe the Water Police brought back the shroff and the money, though I think the ordinary ferry conveyed him to the scene of action. The collecting was done at the local police stations. It always began about the end of July, after the first rice crop, and went on at full blast till about October: defaulters were dealt with early the next year. Licence fees for forestry, squatters' fees, and pineapple plantation licence fees were usually paid before midsummer at the District Office.\n\nIn 1925, the year of the big Communist-inspired Nationalist general strike, the office shroff was transferred on promotion. His substitute was a young fellow fresh from the Treasury, who took advantage of the disturbance and the preoccupations of his superiors to embezzle part of the receipts, and finally absconded three months after the strike began. A former District Officer South remarked to me later that he had always been worried by the possibility of this kind of thing happening to him, and the almost total impossibility of keeping a tight check on shroffs when frequent absence from the office, sometimes all day, is part of the D.O's duty. Luckily his security just covered his defalcations: and another shroff in the same racket was caught out by me and part of his loot recovered.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208161, "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": 200, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "184\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n\"The burial ground is situated near Chai Wan Kok, Tsun Wan. Some time ago, about ten years after the Territory was leased to Great Britain, some natives of Tsun Wan village applied to the H.K. Govt. for a piece of land near the grave to erect some houses, but the proposed area affected the Fung Shui of the said grave. The village Elders of the various branches of the Tang family assembled, and a joint petition was submitted to the District Officer in the names of the descendants. Thanks to this Official the proposed sale was withdrawn. It was afterwards put on record that the site of the grave was to be preserved for ever. Subsequently new roads were constructed by the P.W.D. and the line of one proposed road was across the grave site. The Elders of the Tang family, fearing that this might affect the \"force of the movement of the green dragon,” again assembled and petitioned H.E. the Governor, praying that the line be moved to the foreshore of the site. This was done. In the 6th moon of the 12th year of the Chinese Republic, (1923) a villager of Tsun Wan dug earth on the right side of the ancestral grave, that is, in Chai Wan Kok village, thereby affecting the \"force of the movement of the coming dragon.\" Another petition was sent to the District Officer, who inspected the grave personally. After that earth cutting was prohibited, and the ancestral grave preserved.\"\n\nWe then proceeded to Kam Tin itself where, in front of the Kam Tin Rural Committee Office, we were greeted by an impressive body of lineage elders, treated to a dim sum (*) repast and shown a number of interesting relics handed down through the centuries. These included a painting with imperial calligraphy stated to date from Sung times, and a number of other paintings.*\n\nOur next stop was at Au Tau cross roads to see grave No. 5, that of TANG Wai-kap, the husband of the Sung refugee princess referred to in the Notes.\n\nFrom Au Tau cross roads we went on to the Pok Oi Hospital near Yuen Long and walked into an area of low hills, across a stream, where we inspected grave No. 2. This is located in what is obviously considered to be a very favourable fung shui area because the adjoining ground is thickly covered with graves.\n\nAfter returning to Pok Oi Hospital, we went by bus to Wang Chau behind Yuen Long where we walked through the village and across the fields to the foothills of an adjacent hill area. We went first to grave No. 1 and from there along a winding path to grave No. 4 which is located some 500 yards to the south. Both graves are in excellent positions, and like No. 3 have granite pillars with lion\n\n* These have been reproduced at pp. 112-115 of the Inauguration Publication of the Tang Clansmen Association (Inc. 1965), in Chinese, of which there is a copy in the Chinese Library, University of Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208177, "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": 216, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "200\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nvided useful suggestions concerning possible lines of enquiry; their assistance promised to complement the substantial resources Government placed at our disposal. Most significant of all was the enthusiasm displayed by the village representatives and elders of Kam Tin. The Kam Tin area, populated chiefly by members of the Tang clan, has a long and rich history; we decided, therefore, to concentrate our efforts in this area. On 25 June, Government hired Chan Sin-wai, a fourth-year history student at Chinese University and longtime resident of Kam Tin, to assist in carrying out the project. Another unpaid co-worker, Chen Ka-won, a graduate of C.U.H.K. and a resident of Ping Shan, joined the project in late July.\n\nAn examination of available knowledge and questions of methodology absorbed the next few days. A field headquarters was established in Ng Ka Tsuen, and the long process of “introduction” was begun. On 11 July, Mr. Paul Wong, liaison officer attached to your Office, arranged a meeting of interested elders from the Tang villages of Kam Tin. During the meeting, we explained the goals of the project, and their warm reception assured us of every cooperation.\n\nThe success of this \"mass meeting\" prompted a series of formal interviews which have been taking place over the last six weeks and will continue into September. We have interviewed nearly twenty-five elders possessing knowledge of Kam Tin's history and traditions. Several have proved to be exceptionally valuable informants, and closer, more \"informal\" relationships have developed.\n\nWe have made a number of tape recordings of important tales ranging over a variety of topics. One collection of stories centers around the resistance by the Tangs to British occupation. We are especially hopeful that these tales and personal remembrances will shed light on the events of 1898-99 and subsequent land disputes, and will lead to the solution of certain perplexing questions regarding land tenure and rural class structure (the 'Sai Man' question).\n\nWe have been granted access to clan and fong genealogies, and have received permission to make photo-copies. Documents, paintings, and plaques dating from Ming and Ch'ing have also come to light. Field trips were undertaken to every village in the Kam Tin area, and we have been guided through the major temples, tsz tong, and graves of historical interest.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208181, "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": 220, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "204\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nas \"land-holding corporations\" and are treated as such, descent data being regarded essentially as secondary particulars.\n\n6. Although the implications of this statement for the general theory of unilineal descent groups have largely been ignored, the observation is borne out by a study of the ethnographic and historical data concerning the Kam Tin Tangs. The elders classify no fewer than four ancestors as hoi chuk cho, and, according to them, honor all four with essentially the same ritual obligations. These ancestors [1) Tang Hon Fat (**), 2) Tang Foo (##), 3) Tang Yuen Leung (*), 4) Tang Hung Yee (###)] are central pivots around which much of the oral and written history revolve; yet, as an investigation of the genealogy (##) kept by the elders reveals, long spells of \"historical time\" and interrupted residence separate them one from another, a disturbing fact which has, in the past, generated considerable debate on their individual legitimacies.\n\n7. Sung Hok Pang* mentions a debate, recorded in an early Kam Tin genealogy during the Shing Fa () years of the Ming dynasty, concerning whether Tang Hon Fat ever actually visited Kam Tin at all. Elders maintain that this debate is still very much alive.\n\n8. The debate concerning the founding of Sham Tin, i.e., whether Tang Hon Fat or Tang Foo founded the Tang settlement, is perhaps understandable when we realize the striking similarities in the biographies of the two men. Tang Hon Fat settled, it is said, in the vicinity of Sham Tin at a place called Kwai Kok Shan (± A L), some time towards the end of the tenth century A.D. There is speculation that he constructed the Hung Shing Kung (†), a temple still intact in Pak Pin (at) Village. He was a government officer, shing mo long (#4), from Kiangsi (31), Kat Shui Yuen (##), Pak Sha Tsuen village (#). The Nam Yeung Tang genealogy (✯✯✯✯✯), held by the Ping Shan Tangs, credits him with being the first settler. The Kam Tin Tangs disagree, placing most of the credit on his great-grandson, Tang Foo.\n\n9. Tang Foo was also a high official of the Sung Dynasty (holder of the chin shih (+) degree and county magistrate of Yeung Chun (**)). He, too, is supposed to have settled at Kwai...\n\nSee Mr. Kamm's Essay I, f.n. 20 and Essay II, f.n. 21.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208279, "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-1978", "page_number": 3, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "182\n\nDAVID FAURE\n\nwas uncommon, though, for women to go to school, and the only schools the boat-people went to were the \"winter schools\" that operated only in the winter months.56\n\nPupils who did well in the village schools could enter Sung Chen School in Sai Kung Market, but better off families preferred to send their children to Nam T'au, or even Canton. Graduates of Sung Chen could try to enter the Government schools in Kowloon, or the Tai Po Teachers Training School. A minority went on to the Roman Catholic school in T'am Shui, and it was possible to go from there to Roman Catholic schools in Canton.57\n\nSchools were locally organized, but from 1913, the Hong Kong Government gave a selected few a subsidy. By 1922, seventeen schools were subsidized in Sai Kung. From the wide selection of people who graduated from the Sung Chen School, it is clear that the contribution of the Roman Catholic Church to the education of the pre-war Sai Kung population was notable.\n\nMedical facilities\n\nAt Sai Kung Market, traditional doctors and herbal medicines were available, and some western medicines too, from the Government Medical Officer who came here regularly. In 1934, a Government dispensary was established, where a midwife was permanently stationed. Nonetheless, for most illnesses, villagers relied on treatments that were available closer to home. Some villagers had studied traditional medical texts and could offer treatments. \"Old ladies\" who served as midwives could readily be found. Medicinal herbs were gathered from the hillsides as alternatives or supplements to what could be bought in the market. Religious cures were not infrequently resorted to.58\n\nWritten literature\n\nMost villages had written lineage genealogies, handbooks for various purposes (medicine, etiquette, village regulations, fung shui, fortune telling, worship), written land deeds, account books both in connection with ancestral land and of individual household expenses, and occasionally books of songs to be sung on various occasions. Novels were uncommon, but the more literate read printed texts of the Cantonese songs known as the naam yam. Many villagers would not have been sufficiently literate to understand all of these texts, but in almost all villages", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208313, "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-1978", "page_number": 37, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "MILITARY EDUCATION IN CHINA, 1842-1895\n\n21\n\nWestern-style weapons, since they lived in designated garrisons that were \"comparatively easy to guard.\" This early attempt to confine knowledge of foreign weapons to Banner forces, although ultimately unsuccessful, is nonetheless suggestive. As alien conquerors, the Manchus remained somewhat paranoid.28\n\nAnother serious problem with foreign-training programs in the 1860's and 70's was that they were not designed specifically as officer-training schools. Although the Tientsin program did train officers for the Peking Field Force and some Green Standard units as well, it trained the rank and file at the same time, in the same basic way. The emphasis was on military drill rather than on modern officer-education, and immediate military needs were always paramount. As long as rebellion raged, there were compelling reasons to continue producing Western-armed, Western-trained Chinese officers and men, despite the many difficulties involved in employing foreigners. But as the internal threat in a given area subsided, so did enthusiasm for reform; and as it did, the foreign-training programs quickly withered away.29 What remained was a certain number of Western-drilled troops and some low-ranking instructors, but very few officers with a real grasp of Western military knowledge. Again, there was little premium on acquiring it.\n\nBy the mid-1870's, the major rebellions in China had been suppressed, lulling the dynasty into a false sense of security. But it was far less Western-style military education and tactics than a new-found acquaintance with Western-style weapons that brought victory to the Ch'ing forces.30 With superior arms, traditional Chinese strategy and tactics usually sufficed against internal rebels, but such techniques were much less effective against rapidly modernizing external enemies.31 After 1875, the rise of foreign aggression on China's land and maritime frontiers complicated the dynasty's military choices, and made recourse to foreign military assistance all the more difficult.32 Yet in the absence of sufficient numbers of qualified Chinese military personnel for Western-style training, reform-minded Chinese officials continued to look to the West for aid.\n\nPerhaps the most prominent and powerful of these officials was Li Hung-chang, who, with substantial foreign assistance dating from the early 1860's, had by the 1870's built his Anhwei Army into the finest military force in the empire. An examination of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208455, "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-1978", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933\n\n163\n\nespecially because they are the last court of appeal where customary law applies beyond them is the magistral court, which every Chinese has learned to fear.\n\nThe Ti-pao is an individual whose position is almost the personification of that very thin tie which links the government of the village with that of the nation. He derives authority from both sources, for he is supposed to be one of the villagers, chosen by them, and performing certain administrative duties for them; but at the same time he is specifically sanctioned by the magistrate, receives authority from him, and performs certain governmental duties.\n\nIn his position as responsible functionary in the village the Ti-pao may handle many of the administrative duties of the village council, in a measure usurping its authority. As agent of the central government the Ti-pao is usually involved in the two spheres where the government touches the village, namely, the collection of taxes and the preservation of peace.\n\nIn some cases the Ti-pao is himself charged with the collection of taxes; in others he merely indicates who owns the land, and the proper tax. Because of this latter responsibility it is his duty to officiate in all sales of land, and to know the owner and value of all property. On the side of preserving the peace the Ti-pao's duties are multifarious. He is the accredited police head of the village and chief informing officer for the government agents. At the same time he is the defender of the people, and it is his duty to report any miscarriage of justice in which one of his constituents is the victim.\n\nAlthough the Ti-pao is charged by the magistrate with these duties, it is the elders who are given the responsibility for the peace and good conduct of the village as a whole. The government finds this method of delegating responsibility to be effective and inexpensive, and it is in full accord with custom, especially the custom of mutual responsibility.\n\nThe predominant attitude of the village toward the government higher up is one of avoidance, for on the whole relations between the two are seldom in favor of the people. Every individual counts himself lucky if during the course of his life he has no relations with the government except the necessary ones of paying taxes and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208623, "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": 80, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n53\n\nthat was the extent of our Christmas Day fare, breakfast, dinner and supper.\n\nAnd there we sat on the floor from seven thirty in the morning until four in the afternoon, wondering what was going to happen next. In the meantime, as the soldiers went through the house from top to bottom, they found a few of the Royal Engineers, a couple of Canadian officers and some soldiers. When the Japanese saw these uniformed men they no doubt thought that we were also soldiers, though dressed as we were in cassocks. Four of the above-mentioned officers, one a fine fellow named Lawrence, a Lieutenant of the Engineers, were immediately trussed up with ropes binding their arms behind their backs, and made to squat on the floor with us. Another group of some seven or eight was tied up in a similar manner but led away directly, and as we have every reason to believe, were bayonetted to death. Among this group were a few wounded soldiers and one who walked up our front walk waving a white handkerchief in surrender.\n\nAs we observed Lt. Lawrence bound and sitting on the floor in front of us, we noticed that he was in acute pain because of the tightness of the ropes. At this, Father Meyer spoke to one of the officers who had tied him up, and requested that he loosen the rope a little. At first, he paid not the least attention, but finally walked over to Lt. Lawrence and pulled the ropes even tighter, which made the veins in the poor man's neck swell up and his face became distorted with pain. Father Meyer expostulated, but in vain, though after about five minutes another officer came over and loosened the ropes to an endurable position. While we were sitting on the floor, one of the soldiers, a Canadian, said he would like to go to confession and the priest nearest him performed this duty for him, the Japanese being none the wiser.\n\nDuring the night while the battle was raging outside around our house three British soldiers who had been wounded were brought in and laid on the floor in the west corridor. There in the morning we found them, but as the Japanese burst in so early we could do practically nothing for them. During the day we made signs to the Japanese that we wanted to help these soldiers but our request was refused. Going in and out of the house the Japanese soldiers passed repeatedly by these wounded men and at one time, I saw a Japanese take his rifle and lower the point of the bayonet until it touched the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208640, "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": 97, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "70\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nOn the fourteenth, an officer came in with a stern command that we were to pack up and leave for the internment camp. Just where, he did not seem to indicate, but he pointed towards the Prison and St. Stephen's College. After trying to explain to him that as a group we had considerable baggage, he reluctantly promised to have a truck sent over. We accordingly gathered together our meager belongings into a couple of suitcases and bags, rolled up our bedding, and awaited marching orders.\n\nThe next day, word came that we were not to go immediately, that we may be sent to St. Stephen's College, and that we may take with us whatever food we have, but there will be no truck available.\n\nOn the sixteenth, we took up a collection among ourselves and managed to get enough money with which to pay the coolies who were to help in carrying our baggage. The coolies arrived and, as a preliminary, weighed in our effects. Father Meyer took a hand in arranging the baggage and talking price, and I verily believe that if the number of coolies was not limited, he would have moved the whole house as well. For in addition to our personal luggage, there were food supplies, such as some tins of bully beef, tins of milk, oatmeal, a little coffee and tea, sugar, some flour, the remains of the salt pork in a barrel, and kitchen utensils, soup plates, and some dishes, a water filter, host iron, some bottles of Mass wine, a wringer, and a few tools. The question now is whether we shall be allowed to transport all this baggage, and if we have enough money to pay the coolies therefor.\n\nThe next three days were still days of waiting. At night, we unrolled our bedding, and in the morning rolled it up again, just in case. As we have no more money and very little rice left, we are sorrowfully obliged to dismiss all our servants, except two, who expressed a willingness to share our fortunes or misfortunes, Ah Fung, a Hakka, and Ah Chin, a Cantonese. We understand that we may be allowed these two servants at St. Stephen's. We have only a part of a sack of rice left and only a few beans.\n\nIn the meantime, we have sent some things, such as chalices, vestments, bookkeeping books, and various other belongings to the Carmelite Convent, where the Mother Superior has very kindly consented to store them for us, until happier days are here. We also emptied our rooms, and what books and other things we could not take with us were stored in the attic, with the hope that they will be here when, and if, we ever get back to our house.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208641, "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": 98, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n71\n\nOn the eighteenth, two Japanese officers called and we entertained them with tea. They were pleasant enough, but had little to say. Soldiers and officers have come almost every day, either for a courtesy call or out of mere curiosity. One officer especially has been very friendly with Father Toomey, and has brought him cigarettes and milk. Others seem rather arrogant and haughty. Of course, we in turn are mild and meek for we don't like bayonets. Today, finally, our Ford V-8 was towed away down the hill.\n\nShortly after our return from the garage, we witnessed a rather sorrowful scene and one which will long remain in our memories. It was when, a few days after the signing of the armistice, the British and Indian soldiers marched out of the fort on the hill and took the winding road down through Stanley and to Hong Kong and to internment in Kowloon. There must have been at least a thousand, if not more men, disarmed and dejected, and passing just below our hill we watched them as they went by under the victorious Japanese flag hung across the road. As we stood on our hilltop and saw that mournful column passing along silently, we thought of the glories and peace of Hong Kong which had been and now everywhere is desolation and despair. The victors are despoiling the city; they have ruthlessly dethroned the foreigner and humiliated him in the eyes of the Chinese; they have destroyed overnight, as it were, the work of decades; they have completely disrupted the organization of a huge modern city, and starvation faces the populace. The Japanese have learned their lessons well from the West, and the West is now reaping the harvest of what it has sown. Poor Hong Kong! which had to be one of the first victims.\n\nAfter tiffin on the 20th, we received final word to leave Maryknoll House, now His Imperial Majesty's property, for our new home in the Prison Warders' Apartments attached to the Prison at Stanley. We are to be interned, not as the Italian Fathers were, in the Prison itself, but in modern apartments, these having been built only a few years ago. We hastily summoned our coolies, and the vanguard soon got under way. We walked in advance, each with a suitcase or bag in each hand and a bundle of bedding on his back, the coolies bringing up the rear with the heavier and more awkward bundles. Twenty-four priests and Brothers, and as many more coolies made quite a cavalcade, and looking back, it seems that we have been able to move all that Father Troesch and Father Meyer", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208681, "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": 138, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n111\n\nall agreed was quite tasty. His helpers in the galley are Fathers Keelan, Downs and Madison.\n\nFather Toomey is named temporary head of the Red Cross in Hong Kong, by the repatriated manager, Mr. Fifer. The Red Cross, by the way, is on hand but not operative and the Japanese do not seem to take kindly to it.\n\nWhen the repatriates went on board the Asama Maru, no one was allowed anywhere near the pier, although we stood on the hill-top and watched them embark. No one was allowed to go on board either, from the Camp. We were anxious to learn if there were any other Maryknollers on board from the North, but could not secure the information. The Asama Maru remained at anchor that night and all the next day and night, when it left on its long voyage around the Cape.\n\n30-The Camp is extremely quiet after the departure of the Americans, and even the British remark on it. We are now awaiting orders to move into our new quarters. The father of Mr. Wong, our Chinese Superintendent, died in Hong Kong, and Father Toomey says a Mass for the repose of his soul. By the way, in the administration of the Camp, the Japanese early placed a Chinese superintendent in charge of each section of the Camp, as sort of liaison officer, and ordinarily we had to negotiate through him with the Japanese.\n\nJULY\n\n1-We are to move tomorrow into Block A-3. The Sisters keep one of their rooms on the third floor, and we 16 Maryknollers get three rooms on the same floor but in the other half of the flat. By arrangements with Mr. Wong, we are also allowed to retain our little chapel on the same floor. The other Americans take up quarters in the various small servants' rooms in this block, while the British take over the remaining larger room downstairs.\n\n2- Moving all day and getting settled, even though we have few possessions, leaves us pretty tired at night. We had to move our camp cots, as when the repatriates left, their rooms were almost completely denuded of their meager furnishings by those, of course, who had even less. We find that we will have the use of the two small kitchens on the top floor, one being for all the Americans and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208701, "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": 158, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n131\n\nvestments, books, including some of Father Meyer's dictionaries and Father O'Melia's language books, a typewriter or two, an adding machine, and various odds and ends. The officer in charge was quite pleasant and when he was in the building, gave us permission to go to the attic and rummage through the mess on the floor. In the attic, everything which had been stored in the missioners' trunks and boxes, such as clothing, books and other personal articles, was all strewn about on the floor, and the place looked a sight. In the attic, we also came across the large crucifix and two wooden statues from our main chapel and these we were also allowed to take away to the Carmelite Chapel. The Japanese seemed to have a superstitious dread of such things. Once on the bus going to Stanley, we noticed a Chinese girl who evidently worked for the Japanese stationed in our house, carrying a small hand-bag. Looking carefully at it, we noticed it was made out of a silk vestment, for we could see the embroidered border and the monogram IHS.\n\nDecember came again and found us still waiting and hoping for some word about Kwangchauwan, but the Foreign Office was silent. Early in the month there was some talk about further repatriation, and we wrote to Mr. Oda again stating that if we could not go to Kwangchauwan we would like to make application for repatriation.\n\nNOVEMBER\n\nOn the first of the month the Japanese government issued orders that all shortwave radio sets must be turned in to be sealed, after which they would be returned to their owners. At that time there was no radio at Bethany, but we listened to a neighboring one, the owner of which kindly opened his door wide and turned up the radio strong. After the first we still heard the radio news but from other sources.\n\nOn the 23rd, His Excellency, Bishop Valtorta, went to see Mr. Oda at the Foreign Office on a matter of his own. A few weeks previous, one of his Chinese priests, Father Wong, in charge of the mission at Sai Kung, disappeared, and it was feared that he had been killed. Later, Father Terruzzi, the Bishop's Chancellor and right-hand man, went to Sai Kung to look over the ground and he was never seen again. Conflicting reports seeped in concerning his fate, and it seems that in some way or other he was killed and his body thrown into the sea. Of course it is not known by whom, but", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208861, "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-1980", "page_number": 23, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "Membership\n\nTotal membership of the Society on February 28 was 539 which breaks down as follows: 5 honorary members, 114 local life members, 309 local ordinary members, 69 overseas life members and 42 overseas ordinary members. Changes in membership between March 1979 and February 1980 were: 21 resignations, mainly departures from Hong Kong; 4 deaths; 7 notices returned, presumed resigned; 23 unpaid members, presumed resigned; and 33 new members.\n\nThe Journal\n\nThe Hon. Editor, Dr. James Hayes, has written his own short report on progress and problems with the Journal (see footnote). As Dr. Hayes says, and as anybody who has lived in Hong Kong for any length of time will realise, his official duties as Town Manager and District Officer Tsuen Wan are of a particularly demanding nature at present, and this has affected the speed of publication of the Journal. We have received a number of enquiries about delays from members, and concerning which journal they may expect to receive. Essentially, you receive those Journals for the years in which you were a member of the Society, but you may, of course, always purchase those for years your membership does not cover. The present situation is that vol. 18, that is for 1978, is expected from the press within several months, and 19, for 1979, is well advanced. Besides distributing free copies of our Journal to members, we do, of course, sell our publications. I would like here to record my thanks to Mr. Tony Rydings and to Mr. Geoffrey Bonsall of the University Press for their work on distribution of publications, and to Mr. Bonsall again for distributing the Journal to members.\n\nThe Hon. Editor has had special problems this year owing to the demanding nature of his official duties as Town Manager and District Officer Tsuen Wan, which have been intensified by the tight programme of land recovery, clearances and village removals for the construction of the Mass Transit Railway and its associated development. This has made finalization of the Journal slower than usual. He regrets the delay but reports that an advance copy of Volume 18 (1978) will be available for perusal at the AGM. It is expected from the printer in the early summer. Dr. Hayes will also provide a note for Members on the contents of Volume 19 (1979) which is advanced and expected to be finalized before his annual leave in August this year, making a late 1980 publication date likely. He hopes that the valuable contents of the two journals will in some measure make up for their delayed appearance. J.W.H., March, 1980.\n\nxiii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209043, "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-1980", "page_number": 205, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "BOOK LISTS\n\n173\n\nperhaps the case.* A list of Canton and Hong Kong newspapers is included in Roswell S. Britton, The Chinese Periodical Press 1800-1912 (Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, 1933).\n\n(n) Subscription books\n\nThese are not strictly speaking “books,” but subscription lists bound in the same Chinese-style format. They either promote an object like the reconstruction, repair or extension of a temple, school or charitable hospital, the repair of a bridge or road, or in Republican times the financing of a militia or a self-managing local government or commercial or other association. Whatever the cause, a full subscription list was usually printed upon the conclusion of the work or the closing of the lists; or in the case of temples, buildings and public works often placed in the building or nearby, on a stone tablet. The short list which follows is merely a sample.\n\nThere were many more subscription books in handwritten format: I saw these when District Officer South 1957-62 as they were sometimes brought in for endorsement, and I have collected others.\n\nSection B BOOKS PROVIDED FOR AND BY SPECIALISTS\n\nI have not attempted to provide any listing of material in this huge field, save for the specialists in family rites and social etiquette, whose stock of knowledge seems mostly to have been derived from the hand-written volumes which researchers in Hong Kong have chosen to style “village hand-books”. If not actually derived from the printed books listed in sub-sections (b), (d), (f) and (g) above, their contents were similar in nature. A detailed comparison has yet to be made, and is an important scholarly task.\n\nI wish to thank Mr. Peter Yeung, Curator of the Hung On-To Memorial Library (Hong Kong Collection) of the University of Hong Kong for his great help in preparing these lists.\n\nHong Kong, 1982\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\n* A fragment of a Hsuan-tung issue of a Canton newspaper (1909) was given me by a Tai O (Lantau) shopkeeper, and I recall seeing a newspaper that came to light at Pui O (also Lantau), behind the plaster of a decaying temple last repaired in 1914.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209239, "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-1981", "page_number": 142, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "128 \n\nTA. ACTON \n\nare organised into four regional federations, whose four elected chairmen become important people indeed, and sit on the Hong Kong Government's Fish Marketing Advisory Board. The co-operatives and the regional committees have their meetings in a friendly, informal way in the Liaison Officer's office, whose job description includes a duty to \"convince troublesome committees or members to observe the ordinance and by-laws.” — fortunately, rarely necessary. \n\n30 \n\nIn addition, the Liaison Officers encourage mechanisation, training classes (also held in their offices), sensible insurance, the \"Keep Hong Kong Clean\" campaign, and have the duty \"to assist the fishermen in the organisation of festival opera performances, dragon boat races, and other recreation activities.\" 31 \n\n32 \n\nOne major effect, however, of the development, assisted by F.M.O. loans to credit societies and individuals, of a more capital-intensive, mechanised fishing industry, is a sharp decline in the number of persons actually required to man it or make a living at fishing, especially over the past 10 years. In 1971 there were around 50,000 working fishermen in Hong Kong. *2 By 1979 that number had fallen to around 35,700,13 Those with sufficient initial capital to catch the boat of modernization have done so, and now, though working on water, actually live in houses ashore, whether in Aberdeen or new villages on remote islands. It is those who were too poor to mechanise who still live on their old, leaky boats, going ashore to work in factories, sweatshops or street markets. The Shui-sheung-yan community of the early '50s has become polarised into rich and poor, between well-to-do active fishermen, living on land, and poor ex-fishermen, living on boats until they can secure resettlement. \n\nThe F.M.O. schools system, by making available alternative careers to the children of fishermen, has facilitated, and lessened the pain of this reduction of manpower. \n\nIn all other fields, however, the commitment of the F.M.O. is to active fishermen rather than ex-fishermen. Little connection is made between their work and that of the poorest Shui-sheung-yan. Indeed, Government spokesmen, talking of the poor boat-dwellers often refer to them as \"squatters\", implying that they are not true \"Shui-sheung-yan\" at all, but land-people who have moved into leaky boats typhoon shelters like Yaumatei simply to find somewhere to live or perhaps even to jump the queue for public housing. (This view was not, however, borne out by a survey carried out by students for a community \n\n¦ \n\n¦", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209242, "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-1981", "page_number": 145, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "EDUCATION AS A BY-PRODUCT OF FISH MARKETING\n\n131\n\nIt is remarkable that the F.M.O. is not really among the agencies subjected to this lobbying. In their 1978 report, the F.M.O. (as distinct from its parent body, the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries) is not mentioned. In conversation SoCO workers and F.M.O. officials appeared unaware of each others' interests in the welfare and education of Shui-sheung-yan. They were dealing, in fact, with what had become two separate populations.\n\nOther Shui-sheung-yan organisations: links between rich and poor.\n\nVery few organisations bridge the gap between the FMO-constituency and the SoCO constituency; those that do, however, are worth mentioning. This paper will look at the Hong Kong and Kowloon Fishermen's Association, Ltd. in the port of Castle Peak; the three Fishermen's Recreation Clubs of Chai Wan, Stanley and Lamma Island; and the remarkable Chan Ye-So Kaau-Ooi (True Jesus Church) in the island of Ap Chau and the border port of Sha Tau Kok.\n\nThe Hong Kong and Kowloon Fishermen's Association Ltd.\n\nThis association is a trade union in which the Chinese Communist Party plays a leading role; as the F.M.O. liaison officer at Castle Peak put it, it acts as an intermediary for such Hong Kong fishermen as require it with the Chinese authorities, and can assess and influence the politics of the fishing industry in Hong Kong. Many Castle Peak fishermen are also registered with Chinese coastal communes. In 1971 it had built a handsome floating headquarters, which is still in the harbour at Castle Peak.\n\nThe same process of mechanisation and reduction of the fishing fleet that operate throughout the territory had perforce affected its aims. By 1980, only 60 percent of its membership were still active fishermen, and their secretary stressed the achievement of better housing on land as being currently their main objective. Education could not be a priority issue for the boat-people when their living standards were so low. Because many had registered only recently, they were very low in the queue for public re-housing. The boat-people wanted to be re-housed together, and it would take less than one of the tall blocks of flats on a new housing estate to do so, but the housing authority would not allow group applications for re-housing; they would only take applications from individual families. One of the seven or eight new blocks of flats that had been built around the harbour area had had the character for fish in its name, and the boat people had thought it MUST", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209355, "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-1982", "page_number": 12, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "It is with much regret that I record that among the deaths of members this year are some of our oldest friends. One, Mr. Holmes Welch, was a founding member of the Society and Member of Council during our first four years. He came to Hong Kong with the American Consulate General after academic studies in Sinology and publication of a highly original work on Taoism: The Parting of the Way. In Hong Kong his interest in Chinese religion and philosophy, and the organization of religious institutions, continued, and he gave one of the very first lectures to the Society, published in our first Journal, “Buddhist organization in Hong Kong”. Later he left the Consulate but remained in Hong Kong to continue field research into Chinese Buddhism, working with refugee monks. In the late sixties he published several volumes on contemporary Buddhism in China. After returning to the United States he continued his sinological studies and whenever I met him at conferences on religion he always asked after the progress of the Society.\n\nAnother of our recently deceased friends was Mr. John Romer, Curator of Mammals at Hong Kong's Zoological and Botanic Gardens, Hon. Research Fellow in the Department of Zoology, University of Hong Kong, and Senior Pest Control Officer of the Hong Kong Government until he retired. He has contributed on several occasions to the Notes and Queries section of our Journal.\n\nIt was also with great shock that we learnt of the death, in January this year, of Barbara Ward, whose last talk to the Society was given only just over a year ago. Barbara was the first anthropologist to conduct field-work in Hong Kong. Coming out in 1950 she picked as her field a very challenging group about which very little was known from direct contact: the Cantonese Tanka, or sui seung yan “people upon the water” as they preferred to be known, that is, the floating population of fisherfolk. She showed how the traditional Chinese institutions and culture in which they participated were modified by their very way of life: ancestor worship is different when you do not live on the land, the role of father in a family is different too when he is also captain of a boat. Barbara's later studies in Hong Kong, to where she frequently returned, included Cantonese opera and its role in\n\nxii\n\nPage 12\n\n \n\nPage 12 \n\nPage 12 \n\nxii \n\nPage 12 \n\nPage 12", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209379, "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-1982", "page_number": 36, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "14\n\nJANET LEE SCOTT\n\nboth continuity and smooth operation, the desire for both being a common reason for electing vice-officers. One of the committees listed above as having two vice-chairmen, did so because one of these officers was soon to move to another estate and the second would be available to take over the position after he left.\n\nIn June of 1982, a decision was made by the District Offices to add auditors as appointed members of the Mutual Aid Committees. This was done on the advice of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, which believed that, although the MACs and their financial transactions were small, it was nevertheless a good idea to prevent any possible mishandling of funds.16 Any person living in the block who is not already an officer can become the auditor, but the MAC can, with the agreement of the residents, ask residents of other blocks to serve as their auditor. At the end of March, 1983, seventeen of the Mutual Aid Committees of Lok Fu Estate had appointed auditors, and one of these had also added a vice-auditor.\n\nThe largest committee in Lok Fu Estate, that of Block #15, has eight officers: one chairman, three vice-chairmen, two secretaries, one treasurer, and one vice-treasurer. The next largest, that of Block #12, operates with six officers: one chairman, two vice-chairmen, one secretary, and two treasurers. Block #19, the third largest, has also elected six officers: one chairman, two vice-chairmen, two secretaries and one treasurer. In size, these committees resemble the large scale MACs in Tze Wan Shan Estate, committees which have as many as eight to ten additional officers (Scott 1980:37). For example, the fifty-five member committee mentioned previously had fourteen officers altogether: one chairman, eight vice-chairmen, one secretary, two vice-secretaries, and one treasurer (Scott 1980:41).\n\nWhat are the duties of these officers? Of course, the chairman is the key officer, as he is the official representative of the MAC, convening the meetings, and acting on behalf of the residents when meeting with officials and representatives from the government. The vice-chairman, according to the 1982 Model Rules, is \"deputising the Chairman as and when necessary\" (City and New Territories Administration 1981:3). However, the vice-chairmen, acting in hand with the chairmen, sometimes", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209604, "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-1982", "page_number": 261, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "239\n\nThe Sailor Prince, of course, I mean; To welcome him, may he always be\n\nFound playing on the side of the Royal Navy.\n\nThe military groups were at times strengthened by the addition of actresses. Until the time when Hong Kong resident ladies appeared on the stage, the actresses were from visiting professional companies.\n\nActresses not only provided beauty but at times a necessary gentle touch. The 20th Regiment was performing the farce \"Turn Him Out\" in 1867, all was progressing well when suddenly one of the players became temperamental and refused to proceed. To soothe the anger of the audience, which was becoming boisterous, the guest actress, Miss Annie Hill, was prevailed upon to announce the suspension of the performance. While a male would have been greeted with hoots and catcalls, the gallantry of the audience gave Miss Hill hearty applause. Some felt, however, that the incident might be a serious threat to the reputation of all garrison performances.\n\nIn spite of such fears, the Band Company disregarded adverse publicity and presented themselves to the public. According to a report, there was in attendance \"a gay concourse of people, with many ladies and their friends\". At times rowdy behavior discouraged respectable patronage. At a performance at the Garrison Theatre in 1867 it was said that \"some behaved in a style savoring more of a 'penny show' than a respectable theatre, where ladies form a portion of the audience\". Performances put on and patronized by the military were more subject to the plague of rowdyism than those produced by the A.D.C. in the dignified setting of the Theatre Royal at City Hall.\n\nAnother hindrance to military performances was the ruling by the military authorities that no placards could be posted announcing productions. In retaliation, some pranksters put up posters over town announcing a forthcoming play by an officer's dramatic group, though no such production was ever intended.\n\nDespite such difficulties, Hong Kong has had a long history of performances by the Garrison.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209619, "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-1982", "page_number": 276, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "254\n\nthe prefectural capital, for more advanced studies. During the last quarter of the 19th century, when deliberate efforts to prepare for the civil examinations began to fade, there still existed within the village some of these special small classes taught by the more prestigious teachers in their own homes. This practice continued even after the abolition of the civil examinations. Liao Chung-nan [Liu Chung-nam], a siu-tsai of the late Ch'ing, taught a small class of about ten at his own house at and after the turn of the century, charging a higher fee than the normal school fees paid for classes held in the study halls. His classes remained as prestigious classes for the rich well into this century.\n\nThe curriculum and method of teaching both in the study halls and in the private classes were typical of Chinese traditional education. There was no division of classes by academic standard. Instruction was given individually or in groups of four or five by rotation. Progress depended largely on the individual or the liking of the teacher. Normally teaching would start with the well-known primers, the San-tzu-ching,70 Ch'in-tzu-wen* and Pai-chia-hsing‡. Two other popular primers were the Hsiao-ching and the Yu hsueh ku-shih ch'iung-lin****. Brighter students would proceed to the Four Books and even the Five Classics after a year or two. There was also much emphasis on teaching the students rhymed couplets, other simple poetic forms, and the correct way of writing polite letters and other formal documents. Books for this kind of teaching, some printed but most hand-written, have been found in several villages alongside the standard primers used in the village schools. Rhymed couplets were useful, we were told, to reinforce recognition of characters for their sound and meaning and also for teaching students to compose couplets, this being a form of literary activity popular in the villages of the region.\n\nShortly after the setting up of British rule in 1898, a government officer described Sheung Shui as \"a village of scholarship and agriculture”.11 Perhaps he was impressed by the grand looking ancestral hall and the number of study halls in the village. The many wooden boards hung in these halls recording", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209622, "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-1982", "page_number": 279, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "257\n\napproximately between 1900 and 1915. We find that of the four born before 1898, three had attended class for an average of four years, one attended for only one year, and then worked first in the farm for a few years and then in the construction of the railway. Amongst the six born after 1898, however, three never went to school and one claimed that he learnt to read a little when he worked as a shop assistant in a small tea-house at Shamshuipo. Around 1900, at least two teachers are known to have given up teaching, one to work in the Land Office of the New Territories administration and the other to work for his brother-in-law at Taipo. Liao Chung-nan, the siu-tsai who formerly taught a small class at high fees in his own home as mentioned above, eventually had to move to teach at the Wan Shih Tang at a lower fee of about $5 per pupil.\n\nThree government schools providing an elementary English education were set up between 1905-1906, one being situated at Taipo, about six miles from Sheung Shui. Unlike in urban Hong Kong, response to this new educational provision was not great. The school at Ping Shan fared most badly and was closed in 1907 to be replaced by one set up in Cheung Chau. The average attendance throughout 1905-1912 in these three schools was twenty, out of a total of 224 schools in the whole Territories with an average attendance of sixteen each.15 The Report of the District Officer of 1912 states: “Government schools on a small scale have been opened at centres in the New Territories providing an elementary instruction in English, the fee for these is 50 cents per month. There is not, however, a great demand for this instruction of a more modern type in most of the districts, for the people still cling to the old-fashioned learning.”16 We have no record of village people from Sheung Shui attending the Taipo government English schools before 1913.\n\n1913. The social and economic changes resulting from the change of government were still small and the opportunities for new jobs were still limited, and the jobs were mostly confined to manual labour. New demands had not yet appeared to bring marked changes in popular literacy which remained basically rooted in the traditional and relatively confined village society, but it was perhaps beginning to lose its former hold both as a basic education for the masses and, at a more advanced level, as the avenue to position and wealth.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209666, "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-1982", "page_number": 323, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n301 \n\nsatisfaction of all, both parties agreed to give the disputed piece of land to the experimental farm of the welfare center for furthering the work of agricultural improvement. \n\nThis passage is taken from Chang Fu-liang When East Met West, A Personal Story of Rural Reconstruction in China (New Haven, Connecticut, Yale-in-China Association, 1972) 50-51. It will be seen that whilst the team tactfully used firecrackers in the final solution, it was not in the form originally insisted upon by one of the parties to the dispute! \n\nIn another recorded village case, this time from Amoy in the Fukien province, provision for the use of firecrackers in the settlement of offences against the community was included in the village rules. Describing ownership and management of seaweed growing areas in the early 1930s, the writer, who was one of the professors at Amoy University, stated: \"The rocks are jealously guarded and no one is permitted to pick up a single seaweed from another person's grounds. If such a case is discovered, the person will be fined by the village committee a sum of $50.00 and besides will have to set off a quantity of firecrackers as a means of confessing his offence against the owner\". (Tseng, \"Seaweeds of Amoy”, Lingnan Science Journal 12, No. 1 (1933), 49). \n\nAssociations in urban milieu seem also to have used fire-crackers in the course of disciplining their members. E. T. Williams describes how the Swatow Guild, comprising persons from six nearby hsien, fined those members who failed to participate in the celebration of the birthday of the Queen of Heaven, the guild's patron saint, no less than 10,000 firecrackers. At least, there was provision for this in its rules! (Williams, op. cit. 200). \n\nFar from home, a party of Chinese miners on the phosphate workings on Ocean Island were only placated and a serious riot averted by the offer of fireworks by the District Officer trying to settle a dispute with their employers and the native Gilbertese workers. This happened in the 1920s, and the Chinese were almost certainly Kwangtung men since recruitment was carried out by agents in Hong Kong under the supervision of the Hong Kong authorities. The District Officer was the future Sir Arthur Grimble.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209670, "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-1982", "page_number": 327, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n305 \n\nseparate sectors close to Fanling Road; population: 505; both Cantonese and Hakkas.\" \n\nIt is believed that Cha Hang (茶坑) is the original name which was derived from the location of the village, which is situated near the junction of two streams. Because of the differing pronunciations of Cantonese and Hakka, the names Tai Hang (大坑) and Choi Hang (菜坑) appeared later. Probably because of the Chinese tradition of preferring propitious characters in place names, the villagers adopted the modified version of Tai Hang 太亨,泰亨 \"Tai\" meaning peaceful \n\nand \"Hang\" meaning prosperous. In fact, 太亨 is the official name recorded in the 1819 edition of the San On Gazetteer (新安縣志). Recently, this version has been used commonly by the Lands Department and the District Office in official maps and documents. \n\nThe local names of Cha Hang (junction of streams together with Kau Lung Hang (nine dragon stream 九龍坑) and Kiu Tau (bridge head 橋頭) sheds some light on the condition of the plain between Tai Po and Fanling several centuries ago. It suggests that the area was essentially low-lying marsh land crossed by many small streams. In this connection, the ancestors of the Man clan had certainly made, perhaps inadvertently, a correct choice in bringing the water pines with them for planting in their new village, since this occupies a location very similar to the natural habitat of the species in the low lying districts of the Pearl River Delta. \n\nYU KOW-CHOY LAI CHIK-CHUEN \n\n(Senior Forestry Officer and Forestry Officer, Agriculture and Fisheries Department) \n\nMORE ABOUT THE TUNG CHUNG FORT \n\nIt is recorded in Chapter 125 of the Kwong Tung Tung Chi, Tao Kuang edition (廣東通志) that in the 22nd year of the Ch'ia Ching reign (1543), not 1817, eight guard-houses were built at Tung Chung.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209804, "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-1983", "page_number": 63, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "NOTES ON\n\nSOME CHINESE CUSTOMS IN THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\nB. D. WILSON*\n\nCONTENTS\n\n1. Introduction\n\n2. Succession\n\n3. Adoption\n\n4. Ching sheung and sheung tin land\n\n5. Land held by clans\n\n6. Family disputes\n\n7. Marriage by proxy\n\n8. Sam p'o tsai\n\n9. Customary agricultural leases\n\n10. Graves\n\n11. Housing-building\n\n12. Some fung shui problems\n\n13. Oaths\n\n14. Money loan associations\n\n15. Names\n\nIntroduction\n\nI compiled these notes partly in 1949-51 whilst District Officer, Tai Po, and partly in 1953-55 whilst District Officer, Yuen Long. The object of the notes was to provide basic information for myself and other District Officers so as to achieve some uniformity in our approach and in the handling of common problems that arose in our day-to-day work. The notes represent what I found customary in Tai Po and Yuen Long. I made no\n\n* Mr. Brian Wilson was an Administrative Officer of the Hong Kong Government 1948-1983. He retired as Director of Urban Services in 1983. Mr. Wilson was District Officer, Tai Po 1949-1951, and District Officer, Yuen Long 1953-1955. He was awarded the CBE in 1977. Mr. Wilson was a Founder Member of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209805, "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-1983", "page_number": 64, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "42\n\nattempt to see if the customs were general throughout the New Territories.1\n\nThe Communist army reached Canton in October 1949. Shortly before and after that date, floods of refugees poured into the New Territories, many of them later engaging in agriculture, mostly vegetable farming. Up until then, natives of the New Territories were primarily rice farmers, living in long-established villages with customs and practices that regulated their lives. The only land available for cultivation by refugees tended to be marginal land without water. The refugees dug wells, made new paths, leased land from New Territories natives, and erected shacks all over the place (before October 1949 there were virtually no temporary structures in the Tai Po district). The energy, initiative and desperate attempts by the refugees to earn a living in new communities where neighbours seldom knew each other resulted in their following a way of life without traditional rules of conduct. To some extent, this washed off on the traditional New Territories natives, aggravated by the movement from 1951 onwards of New Territories men to emigrate overseas and to the urban areas of Hong Kong and Kowloon. This movement tended to break down the old indigenous customs.\n\nIn 1953-55, in Yuen Long, I used to have regular discussions with certain village elders who were locally acknowledged as experts on traditional customs; they proved most co-operative when they appreciated my interest in the subject. I always cross-checked the information with other local informants, but had neither the opportunity nor the need at the time to cross-check further afield so as to ascertain how widespread the custom was or the extent to which it applied to both Punti and Hakka communities. It must be accepted therefore that, in the absence of further proof, these customs may not necessarily have been uniformly observed throughout the New Territories or elsewhere in Kwangtung.\n\nFrom September 1953 to early 1954, in addition to my work as District Officer, I was also Police Court Magistrate (in Ping Shan), Assistant Land Officer (holding Land Courts), and Small Debts Court Magistrate. These had always been the functions of the District Officers at Tai Po and Yuen Long. But, during my", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209806, "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-1983", "page_number": 65, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "43\n\ntime at Tai Po (1949-51), a separate District Officer (now Sir Donald Luddington) had undertaken the Court duties. My Court duties in Yuen Long provided yet another insight into local custom. For instance, if it were not for the several cases that arose in the Small Debts Court, I might never have understood the workings of money loan associations. The frequent Land Courts (often two a day in 1955) provided a wealth of information about agricultural leases, inheritance, graves, and fung shui,\n\nIn 1951, I served for a time in the former Secretariat for Chinese Affairs where my duties required me to spend part of every day attempting to resolve family disputes, mostly matrimonial. This provided much background material on the status of parties.\n\nIn those more settled days, when communications were difficult and New Territories villages lacked newspapers, radio and television, tradition tended to rule the conduct of villagers, just as rice cultivation ruled the village economy. Traditional customs no longer carry the same weight these days, and in some cases are all but forgotten. Rice cultivation continues in only a few remote corners of the New Territories. Its implements and associated equipment (such as ploughs, harrows, winnowing machines) are hardly recognised by the new generation which may have little idea of how their grandparents lived. Wealth in those days was equated with the number of rice fields owned, and rice depended on a plentiful supply of water. Hence the old Chinese saying \"Shui wai choi\" (**水為財**), meaning \"Water makes riches\". The English reply might be that, since then, much water has flowed under the bridge.\n\n2.\n\nSuccession\n\n(a) By Chinese custom there is no such thing as testamentary disposition of property. All a man's \"will\" can do is permit his widow(s) to remarry, and to moralize for the sons' edification. There may have been some doubt in the past whether by English law a New Territories domiciled person can make a valid will disposing of New Territories property otherwise than as custom would have directed anyhow. But this of course is no", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209820, "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-1983", "page_number": 79, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "57\n\nEach party would then pray to the temple god affirming the truth of his statements in the dispute and inviting the god to do the supplicant an injury if he were not in fact telling the truth. Each party in turn would then attempt to strike off the head of a live cock (colour unimportant) with a single stroke of a chopper. If the head were severed cleanly, the party thereby proved his case. An incomplete severance would show the hollowness of the party's statements, probably because guilty knowledge caused his hand to shake.\n\n(b) In practice, it was seldom that both parties were required to chop off the cock's head. Usually the guilty party would feel himself unable to invite the god's wrath in the preliminary worshipping and would back out. This implied a perhaps greater belief in the omnipotence of the gods than is apparent nowadays when the modern age and Christianity have taken some of the edge off ancient traditions.\n\n(c) The custom is now quite rare, although a case occurred in Tai Po in 1948, under the auspices of the then District Officer.\n\n14. Money Loan Associations\n\n(a) Debt disputes frequently arise as a result of money loan associations. Without a clear idea of their workings, it is impossible to understand the inevitable ramifications of each case.\n\n(b) Such associations are normally formed by groups of persons in close daily contact with each other so as to create mutual trust and confidence. Examples are employees or clerks of a shop or even Government servants in the same office. The object of the association is to pool the financial resources of the members, with the gambling prospect of each member at some stage being able to use these resources for his own benefit. Each member will eventually get back roughly the same amount of money as he put into the association.\n\n(c) There are of course variations but generally the procedure is for a number of persons to club together for a set period which corresponds to the number of persons (e.g., 10 persons for 10 months). The period can begin at any time and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209854, "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-1983", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "THE ISLANDS AROUND HONG KONG\n\nW. SCHOFIELD*\n\nPresent Inhabitants of the Islands\n\nAt present, there are four races living in the Islands: they live very much mixed together.\n\n1. Tan Ka (literally \"egg people\"); these are boat-people who speak a dialect of Cantonese, they live a great part of their lives on the water, but sometimes settle on land.\n\n2. They are an outcast race, and in the old times they were not admitted to the civil service exams. They are usually quite illiterate. They sometimes live in boats hauled ashore, or in more or less boat-shaped huts, as at Shaukiwan and Tai O. All their chief centres are harbours: Cheung Chau, Aberdeen, Tai O, Potoi, Kau Sai, Yaumatei. They were formerly pirates.\n\nThey are the only modern people who might claim, perhaps, to be descended from the most ancient inhabitants.\n\nCantonese; these form the majority of the population in Lantua, Cheung Chau, and Lamma: their chief centres are Tai O, Tung Chung, and Cheung Chau. They speak various sub-dialects; a common one is the Po On dialect; this is widely spoken by the people both north and south of the frontier.\n\n* Mr. Walter Schofield (1888-1968) was a Cadet Officer in the Hong Kong Civil Service (1911-1938). Mr. Schofield was District Officer, South, during much of the inter-war period (see his Memories of District Office South, New Territories of Hong Kong, in Vol. 17 (1977) of this Journal, pages 144-156). This present paper is taken from the notes prepared by Mr. Schofield for a talk he gave in August 1937. It gives a useful glimpse of life in the Islands in the years before the coming of the Japanese as seen by a highly knowledgeable observer. In the paper Mr. Schofield gives translations of the place names listed. In many cases these translations were and are doubtful owing to lack of evidence of the original form of the name. These translations have been left in this version of the paper with notes added where present usage clearly differs from that given in the paper.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209856, "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-1983", "page_number": 115, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "Chinese call District Officers \"father and mother officers\" because they are in direct contact with the people, and in China carry on nearly every function of Government, except the making of laws. In Hong Kong the District Officer is a land court judge, magistrate, public auctioneer of land and property, director of small public works, county judge for small debts, land tax collector, registrar of land deeds, rates collector, matrimonial disputes officer, forestry officer, agricultural \"expert\" (so called), land resumptions officer, and six or seven other things I can't now remember.\n\nThe District Officer's chief function is certainly to adapt the new 20th century conditions to the ancient agricultural environment of the people he rules. More clearly than anyone he sees the need of going slowly, so as not to break up the rural economy and the whole social order with it, in the name of a badly-thought-out \"progress\".\n\nEconomics of the Islands\n\nFarming, fishing and forestry are the three chief occupations. Rice is the main crop. Owing to the rainfall coming in summer, two crops a year are raised on most fields, with a third crop of sweet potatoes or vegetables in the winter: the first seedlings are planted in February; in March they are planted out; in July this crop is reaped and the second crop sown; in August that is planted out, and in October and November it is reaped and the winter crop planted.\n\nHeavy manuring with everything available alone keeps the soil fertile, and as there is neither meadow nor pasture as we understand it, there is not much animal manure to be had. Milk is not produced except in modern dairy farms, so that very little land is used to support animals. All the conditions favour the production of a dense human population; and this in fact is the object of the whole of Chinese civilisation: not the making of money, but having enough sons to ensure that the father's ghost, and the ancestors, shall always receive due honour and offerings, and so will send prosperity and good luck to their descendants; they can if neglected send the reverse.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209857, "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-1983", "page_number": 116, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "94\n\nOn drier land are grown pea-nuts, taro, ginger, onions, and many other crops. Pineapples are grown in some places, always on the hillsides, and nearly always among pine trees; these help to shade the plants and hold the soil together, otherwise the heavy summer rains would wash it all off and make the hillside a desert. The plants last seven to nine years. On the Islands pineapples are grown only on Tsing Yi, Ma Wan, and Lantau. Other fruit is grown near villages: laichis, oranges, lungngan, pumeloes, and papaya; the last especially in North Lamma.\n\nFishing is almost entirely in the hands of the Tan Ka and the Hoklos. Big junks go out from Tai O, Cheung Chau, and Hong Kong to trawl on the continental shelf beyond and around the Lemas and Ladrones; smaller boats go in for line fishing and prawn catching; the dried and salted shrimp paste is what gives to Cheung Chau its \"ancient and fishlike smell\". But the main fishery of the year is that of the \"wong fa\", which migrate from near Kwongchau Wan every autumn up the coast towards Swatow. Night fishing with acetylene lamps is very common: these first came into favour about 1920. Stakenet fishing is very common, but does not pay very well. Rock oysters, the sort that cut your feet when bathing, are picked in great numbers by women and children, especially at low tides in summer, all round the coast. Crabs and lobsters (the sort without claws) are caught in nets and traps.\n\nForestry is confined to the growing of firewood for use and sale. The plantations are generally near villages, but some on the islands belong to owners who live elsewhere. Nearly all Tsing Yi is divided between three forestry lots: yet on Lamma there are no forest lots, though there are trees all right. The biggest forestry lot is at Tung Chung. Very little planting is done except when encouraged by the District Officer: trees are allowed to sow themselves. Grass, growing thick in summer, is cut for fuel everywhere in autumn; it is the chief cooking fuel of the New Territories. Its cutting is women's work.\n\nOther island industries are salt-making, confined to Tai O; lime-burning at Pingchau, Tsing Yi, and formerly at Naikwuchau; shell and coral are used. Limekilns on a small scale are found everywhere along the coasts; the place-name \"fui yiu\", not ...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209972, "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-1983", "page_number": 231, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "209\n\nCHUE MO PENG (#Ł), A FEVER REPORTED FROM VILLAGES IN THE HONG KONG REGION, AND ITS CURE, TOGETHER WITH OTHER VILLAGE REMEDIES FOR EXCESS HEAT\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nThis note deals with chue mō pêng (Meyer-Wempe Cantonese but variously romanized below) the subject of a disease often complained of by local villagers, in my experience.\n\nEitel's Dictionary* mentions it under mo; ‘Chu mo ping or chut chu teng, a common disease in South China. It begins with high fever and after vigourously rubbing the chest, bristles an inch long appear through the skin, after their removal the fever goes down' (vol. 1, p. 619).\n\nA similar account, under \"Chu Mo Teng\", appears at pp. 171-2 of S.H. Peplow's Hong Kong Around and About, published in 1930 by the Commercial Press, Hong Kong. The author was a Land Bailiff with the District Office South, New Territories of Hong Kong and would have been well acquainted with village life.\n\n\"A common disease in South China. The translation is: chu—a pig. Mo—hair. Teng—nail. A disease where hairs, like pig's bristles or nails issue forth. It is purely a native fever.\"\n\nBy chance, I came across a dramatic instance of this disease in my early years as a government officer when engaged in compensating and rehousing villagers who were to be displaced for the Shek Pik reservoir on Lantau Island, 1957-60. The village people attributed a major epidemic that caused many deaths about the year 1936 to this disease (100 persons were said to have died, though this is probably an exaggeration).\n\n* A Chinese-English Dictionary in the Cantonese Dialect by Dr. Ernest John Eitel, revised and enlarged by Immanuel Gottlieb Genähr of the Rhenish Missionary Society (Hong Kong, Kelly and Walsh, 2 vols., 1911 and 1912).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209980, "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-1983", "page_number": 239, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "217\n\nwas great and must have left them with little time or money to spare for their ruined temple. Finally, and almost certainly the most seriously, the influx of a new population, and immense schemes of redevelopment completely altered the generally rural background of village and market town life that still characterised pre-war East Kowloon.\n\nThus, in the Tung Shan Temple we can see a temple, founded for purely rural reasons slowly growing until it became the predominant community temple of the whole of rural East Kowloon. During this period its management changed from a purely private, clan-based system to a typical community temple structure of committee members and chairman of a type typical not only of the rural community temples in the rest of the New Territories but also of those in urban Hong Kong at this date.\n\nFounded in a rural community this temple could, and did, develop both physically and in its management structure to reflect the needs of that community. It could not, however, survive the complete destruction of that community, and its ruination directly reflects the collapse of its founding community in the face of massive urbanisation, and the establishment of the new urban communities created by that urbanisation. The new urban communities have formed their own shrines, and their flourishing condition, alongside the continued ruin of the main temple of the defunct rural community, show more clearly than anything else can the essentially community basis of the temples of this area and their management groups.\n\nNOTES\n\nIn the 1904 Block Crown Lease for Survey District No. 3, New Kowloon, the ownership is recorded in the monk's name Shing Kin (Hsing Star Bridge) and the property is listed under Lot 1101 as temple 0.7 acres, house 0.2 acres, and potato ground 0.33 acres. An entry \"Kwun Yam Temple, Ngau Chi Wan\" had been crossed out by the Assistant Land Officer who recommended that a lease for the temple buildings and site be given to the Registrar General, 28 April 1904.\n\nFrom south-east Kowloon, Ngau Tau Kok and Cha Kwo Ling; from east Kowloon, Ngau Chi Wan, Ping Shek, Sha Tei Yuen, Upper and Lower Yuen Ling and Chu Shi Liu; from central Kowloon, Tai Hom, Po Kong, Nga Tsin Wai, Upper and Lower Sha Po, Nga Tsin Long and Kak Hang; from Kowloon City, the commercial areas, Sai Tau, Tung Tau and Hoklo Village.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210165, "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-1984", "page_number": 136, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "speaking particularly of the Hong Kong villages, stated:\n\n115\n\n\"The inhabitants, from our knowledge of their character, appear to be industrious and obliging... From all accounts they seem in general to have been very peaceably disposed; nor did they exhibit any marked approbation or disapprobation, on their transfer to the British sway.\n\n+32\n\nAnother officer, Captain Loch, described a visit to one of the Hong Kong villages, possibly Tai Tam Tuk which was removed for the last of the reservoirs of that name in 1913:\n\n\"The path now wound round a tongue of land to the left into a small dell, where there were a few houses built in a line. The patriarch and ruler of this community was standing foremost, ready to receive us. This universal custom of acknowledging the superiority of age has been recognized by us throughout the island.”33\n\nMcKenzie also mentions being entertained by a village elder ‘during an excursion into the interior' of the island.34\n\nThis civility and hospitality was apparently not new, nor wholly to be ascribed to the circumspection that was surely felt at the change of rulers. A guide to navigation on the South China coast published in 1806 quotes a report on Hong Kong and its approaches dated September 1793 which says of the island.\n\n\"You will be supplied here with almost every kind of refreshment; especially fish, hogs, beef and poultry. We found the Inhabitants very civil and were daily on shore at the Villages, and fowling in the interior parts of the Island (sic).\n\n+35\n\nSentiments of a similar kind relating to some years later, are contained in Sir John Davis' account of his visit to China as part of the Amherst embassy in 1816. Describing some Hong Kong persons, \"mostly fishermen\", encountered on the way to the Pearl River he added “To such of the embassy as were accustomed to the impertinence of the Canton people their behaviour appeared very quiet and civil.”36", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210166, "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-1984", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "116\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nThis did not mean, however, that local villagers were not averse to minor piracy and smuggling, and generally to taking advantage of opportunities for gain. There are too many accounts of villainy from the surrounding waters for us to rule out the occasional initiative. In this connection, the remarks of a Chinese brigade general ordered by his superiors to cooperate with two young British naval officers against pirates thought to belong to villages in the present day Yuen Long area of the New Territories, has to my ears the ring of truth to it:\n\n\"Having seen these eighteen villages we have, becomingly and properly, together admonished the people thereof, and I think that they will be compliant and obey our orders. But this is merely an affair of vagabonds who rob with violence and make forays, who are not in the same category with confirmed rebels and pirates.”37\n\nThe English officer in charge commented:\n\n\"It must clearly be borne in mind that piracy in China differs from piracy elsewhere in this respect that there the pirates live on the land and only put to sea occasionally to carry on their depredations... Nor is this state of things confined in this vicinity to the neighbourhood of Deep Bay. Piratical villages exist along the whole coast wherever the native traffic is sufficient to render such an occupation remunerative.\"38\n\n+39\n\nWriting specifically of Hong Kong itself on 11th April 1846 to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in his annual despatch on the state of the Colony, Sir John Davis observed that “A principal obstacle to the Chinese commerce of the place is the system of piracy which infests the approaches from the east and west. In another despatch dated 26 February 1848, Davis commented on the subject as follows: \"The former prevalence of piracy has been checked (as appears best proved by the increase of native trade) through the active exertions of Captain Loring of HM's ship 'Scout', by whom nearly 300 pirates were captured in the last year, and delivered over to the Chinese government.\n\n1540\n\nWhether the Hong Kong villagers joined in such behaviour", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210186, "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-1984", "page_number": 157, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "136\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\np. 78. There was a custom-made school building on the edge of Wong Nei Chung village which is shown on maps from Collinson's survey onwards.\n\n13 By \"town\", Collinson means village.\n\n14 The Last Year in China by a Field Officer actually employed in that Country (London, Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 2nd edition 1843) p. 75.\n\n15 Cited from the Canton Press for January 1842 by G.R. Sayer op. cit., p. 121. For information on present day So Kon Po, see the Notes by Revd Carl T. Smith and myself in JHKBRAS, Vol. 23 (1983) p. 7-77.\n\n16 Wright and Allom, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 17 and again at p. 33, \"Bamboo Aqueduct at Hong Kong\".\n\nFor a fuller account see J.W. Hayes The Hong Kong Region 1850-1911, Land and Leadership in Town and Countryside. (Hamden, Conn., Anchor Books, 1977) pp. 25-32.\n\nE A copy of this letter from Mr. Chow Yat-kwong, JP, dated 30 March 1967, is now in the Public Records Office, Hong Kong,\n\n19 This statement can be found in the manuscript volume Summary Report of the Squatters Commission 1891-1906 in the Public Records Office, Hong Kong, under the date of hearing 6 July 1893. By \"100 years\" is meant \"from before anyone now alive can remember,\" as normally in local village usage.\n\n20\n\n21 Ibid, hearing of 26 January 1891 of claims at Wong Nei Chung.\n\nReport of the Hong Kong Mission, Vol. 23, June 1843, November 6, p. 157, in American Baptist Board of Foreign Missions Archives, Valley Forge, Pa., by courtesy of Revd Carl T. Smith.\n\n22 American Baptist Mission Archives, folder of Revd I.J. Roberts, No. 1 — China, also by courtesy of Revd Smith.\n\n23 Captain A.A.T. Cunynghame, quoted in Sayer, op. cit., p. 104.\n\n24 Stanley and Aberdeen in 1841 would seem to have been very similar in size and composition to the New Territories Market Towns in 1898 and earlier. Thus, Sai Kung had 50 shops and 150 houses in 1898 with a population of 512 (cf. C. Fred Blake Ethnic Groups and Social Change in a Chinese Market Town. (Hawaii, 1981 p. 27-28), Tai Po New Market had 38 shops within eight years of its foundation (J.W. Hayes The Hong Kong Region, op. cit. p. 36 and n. 78), and Yuen Long Old Market had about 160 buildings of which at least 100 were shops (see unpublished Report 24 (Yuen Long Kau Hui) produced by Antiquities and Monuments Section, Hong Kong Government). 100 shops specifically noted as being from the Yuen Long Old Market donated to the restoration of the Tai Wong Temple there in 1837. At the Yuen Long Old Market many of the families working in the Market lived in the adjacent villages of Nam Pin Wai and Sai Pin Wai. As well as the 100 shops donating in 1837, 7 residents in the Market, 52 in Nam Pin Wai, and 22 in Sai Pin Wai donated, suggesting a total community of about 200 families, about half of which had shops. Tai O must have had more than 100 shops: 119 shops donated to the restoration of the Tin Hau temple there in 1838, 98 to the restoration of the Hung Shing temple there in 1841, and between 105 and 126 to the restoration of the Man Mo temple there in 1852 (in each case counting \"workshops\" and \"ferries\" as shops).\n\n科大衛,陳總集,吳倫電位,合術 香港碑靠藥衚\n\nMOMSKOM * (D. Faure, B. Luk, A. Ng The Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong) (Hong Kong Urban Council 1986), pp. 86-90, 90-93, 95-97, 103-107,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210188, "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-1984", "page_number": 159, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "138\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\n37\n\nCO 129/99, Despatch No. 115 of 28 July 1864.\n\n38 Ibid. The report, by Lieutenant Adams, R.N., dated ‘Woodcock’, Hong Kong, 28 June 1864, is at pp. 37-45.\n\n39 Reports on the Past and Present State of Her Majesty's Colonial Possessions (hereafter Blue Book) 1845, No. 38 Hong Kong, p. 149.\n\n40 Blue Book for 1847, No. 36 Hong Kong, p. 308.\n\n41\n\ne.g. W.F. Mayers, N.B. Dennys and C. King, The Treaty Ports of China and Japan. (London, Trubner and Co., 1867), p. 108, for two very bad piracies there.\n\n42 Harbour Master's Report for 1887 in Sessional Papers (Papers laid before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong) September 1887-December 1888, p. 258.\n\n43 Blue Book for 1845, No. 38 Hong Kong, p. 151.\n\n44\n\n**科大蘭,陳鴻基,吳倫霓霞, 合品 香港碑銘彙編 p. 98 (D. Faure, B. Luk, A. Ng The Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong (Hong Kong Urban Council 1986) p. 98-101, 75-78.\n\n45 Public Record Office, London: CO129/12/9757, para 12.\n\n46 E.J. Eitel Europe in China op. cit. p. 132.\n\n47 J.W. Hayes The Hong Kong Region op. cit. p.62, (and see also p. 27, n. 11).\n\n48\n\nUnpublished Temple Directory, The Temples Unit, Home Affairs Dept. H.K. Government, 1980, p. 17.\n\n49 Mayers, Dennys and King, op cit, p. 2. Sin Ngan (#) variously romanized herein as San-on, Sun-on and Hsin-an was the county to which Hong Kong Island belonged in 1841. Tungkwan ( ) otherwise Tung-Kwun was the older, larger county from which it was created in 1573. For Hsin-an see Peter Y.L. Ng, prepared for press and with additional material by Hugh D.R. Baker, New Peace County, A Chinese Gazetteer of the Hong Kong Region (Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 1983).\n\n50 Mayers, Dennys and King, op. cit. p.3\n\n51\n\n52\n\n53\n\nFriend of China, 24 July 1858 (courtesy of Revd. Carl T. Smith),\n\nIbid.\n\nSee J.W. Hayes The Hong Kong Region op. cit. pp. 46-53. See also J.W. Hayes, The Rural Communities of Hong Kong, Studies and Themes (Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1983) pp 9-10.\n\n54 Petition dated 8th day of 4th lunar month, Tao Kuang, 21st year, i.e. 28th May 1841, to the District Magistrate of Hsin-an. This and other quoted papers belong to the Tang family of Kam Tin, New Territories. I am grateful to the District Officer, Yuen Long and Mr. J.T. Kamm for the translations that appear here. They have been checked against the originals by my friend Dr. Anthony K.K. Siu. Kwan Tai Lo was a village near the foot of the present Leighton Hill.\n\n55 Copy of an undated instruction to a presumably subordinate office following the above.\n\n56 Petition dated 28th day of 5th lunar month, Tao Kuang 23rd year i.e. 25th June 1843.\n\n57 Undated reply to the petitioners, presumably from the District Magistrate, following receipt of the foregoing petition.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210431, "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-1985", "page_number": 38, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "19\n\nmade an ornament and not a disfigurement”. He thought it not proper that the Colonial Chaplain had been turning his ponies loose to graze in the cemetery, though he had no complaint about the grounds-keeper, Mr. Donaldson, who kept things in order, reduced \"over luxuriant foliage”, and in bare places planted trees and shrubs. He suggested that for a trifling cost the bare blank walls along the road could be made more ornamental. The south end of the cemetery, however, was unenclosed and, as far as he knew, unconsecrated. He suggested this portion, \"rising in a rapid slope, could be greatly improved if it were grassed and flowering shrubs planted”. Even at the date covetous eyes were cast towards the proceeds from the races. \"Could not the Race Committee spare a few dollars that flew so plentifully into its coffers, for the purpose of improving the appearance of the site of their annual sports. We have more than once suggested that the centre of the race course should be laid out and planted, but we should rather see the cemetery beautified and cared for\".\n\nColonial Cemetery Ordinances the problem of Japanese and Chinese burials\n\nThe Public Health and Buildings Ordinance (No. 1 of 1903) included an article setting aside separate sections of the cemetery for special groups: naval and military commissioned officer, civil servants, residents of more than twenty-one years standing, residents of more than seven years standing, children and destitutes.\n\nSeveral conditions remained that created dissatisfaction in sections of the community. One was the burning of joss sticks and the firing of crackers at graves of non-Christians. The other was the absence of what were considered proper sites for the burial of wealthy Chinese with resulting periodic requests for burial of such in the Colonial Cemetery. These issues came before the Sanitary Board in 1908-1909, and resulted in the Christian Cemetery Ordinance of 1909.\n\nThe joss stick and cracker problem was principally related to Japanese burials. The first Japanese burials were on terraces where their graves were intermingled with Christians. Later a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210450, "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-1985", "page_number": 57, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "38 \n\nBARBARA E. WARD \n\ngiven land, a new dwelling, a new pig-sty, free transport for himself, his family, livestock and all belongings, and an agreed sum of $50 per person per month to tide his family over the first six months until he could begin to get an income from his new land. It is important to stress that the negotiations, which were conducted by the District Office, were entirely correct, the enquiry meticulous and the terms most generous. Only the fishermen were left out of account. \n\nThe omission was, at the time, not unnatural. The stereotyped view of the Boat People as essentially mobile (“like gypsies” was a common English phrase) made it difficult even to imagine that some of them might be attached in any permanent sense to any particular place. It was assumed, too, that fishing could be carried on as well in one part of the water as another (or, if not, that it would be impossibly difficult with such a transitory population to determine who normally fished where) and that therefore only the land people of Kau Sai could be considered. \n\nThere were in fact two separate issues, affecting respectively two separable categories of fishermen. On the one hand were those who claimed that because firing practice interfered with their fishing operations and therefore reduced their income they were entitled to monetary compensation; on the other hand there were the others who did not want compensation but simply desired to be allowed to go on using Kau Sai as their permanent anchorage. The former group, mainly small long-liners and others engaged in day-time fishing, put in their claim to the District Office during the course of the negotiations with the land villagers. It was referred to the Fisheries Section of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and investigated by its officers together with those of the Fish Marketing Organisation. Finally, a list of claimants was drawn up, and a once-for-all payment agreed and handed over. The organisation of this claim and its significance are discussed more fully below. \n\nThe second group of fishermen were mostly, but not all, night-time operators, purse-seiners, who normally spent the days at anchor in Kau Sai bay. At first, they seem to have shared (though for different reasons) the District Officer's assumption that the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210712, "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": 63, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "46\n\nHENRY THOMAS JACKMAN (1874-1928), ENGINEER, PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT, HONG KONG\n\nSTEPHEN SELBY*\n\nH. T. Jackman came to Hong Kong in July 1903 to take up the post of executive engineer in the Public Works Department. Born in England on 4 June 1874, Jackman attended the Crystal Palace Engineering School in London from 1890 to 1893. He left the engineering school to take up three years' practical work on drainage and waterworks engineering with the firm of McLandsborough and Preston, where he was pupil and then assistant engineer. During that period, he was in charge of a new sewage works in Ripon. Following his indenture, he was appointed in 1897 as Assistant District Engineer for Sheffield, where he was responsible for electric tramways, drainage and highways works.\n\nThe early 1900's in Hong Kong were years of severe water shortage and sanitation problems. The total population of the territory stood at just over 300,000, about 94% of whom were Chinese. The first few years of the decade showed a particularly high death-rate from plague, although 1902 showed a slight drop. Severe damage was regularly caused by typhoons, particularly in 1900 and 1906: flash floods and strong winds brought down many of the poorly-constructed buildings in the “Chinese Quarter\" of the city, frequently killing or injuring the occupants. Shipping and small sampans on which whole families lived suffered huge losses.\n\nA report had been undertaken in 1882 by Osbert Chadwick on the sanitary condition in the Colony. The report resulted in the establishment of the Sanitary Board in 1883 amid some controversy over how far some of the report's more draconian recommendations should be implemented. The report was elaborated upon by Chadwick over the period from 1883 to 1903, and further recommendations were developed that works on sewerage, water supply and drainage should be put in hand forthwith.\n\n*Stephen Selby is an Administrative Officer in the Hong Kong Government and a member of the Society.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210746, "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": 97, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "80\n\nCHAN WING HOI\n\nwere a fishing family who moved in from Naam Tau. The Chan family started the village.\n\nThe jung-lei (chairman)* Mr. Wong Man Gwong, a 59-year-old former seaman, provided more information on local history. It was his great-great-grandfather who first came here. The original population consisted of about 60 fishing households. The Hoklo and Chiu Chau newcomers were already there when he was small. The present site of the golf club was occupied by paddy fields. One village, known as Seung Wai, was relocated to present Shek O to make way for the golf club. Mr. Wong pointed out the place when we passed it in a procession in the festival, which was just outside the golf club enclosure. Traces of walls could still be seen, and Mr. Wong remembered going back there to worship the Daai Wong Ye Earth God when he was small. At the time the golf club was built the foreigners were powerful and met with little resistance when they took away the land from the villages.\n\nA 39-year-old Mr. Lam, an indigenous villager, told me about the occupations of the original Shek O people. At the beginning, the inhabitants made their living in vegetable gardening and fishing. In more recent times the men worked as seamen. Very few people travelled to the West to work in restaurants, and such emigration started only in the last ten years or so. Most people of his own generation worked in the city. Many of the retired seamen came back and worked as waiters at the Shek O Country Club. He was a seaman himself, a radio officer.\n\nA 56-year-old Mr. Lau, the owner of the restaurant where I had a vegetarian dinner, provided additional information about the changes that had taken place in local life. The indigenous people fished with stake-nets (jang-paang). He believed that the golf club was built in the 1930s. It was already there when he was born. But some of the facilities, at least the swimming pool, were still being built when he was small. He remembered that at the age of 7, he was scolded when he jumped on a pile of sand that was prepared for the construction of the swimming pool. Most of the Chinese newcomers at Shek O arrived after the Japanese Occupation. They were Hoklo fishermen who came in their boats. It took only one night to reach Shek O from Hoi Luk Fung when the wind was in...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210964, "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": 26, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "OBITUARY: K. M. A. BARNETT, O.B.E.\n\nThree contributions to the memory of a remarkable man, Fellow of the RAS of Great Britain and Ireland (1949) and a founding member of the Hong Kong Branch: from James Hayes, Derek Davies, Solomon Bard.\n\nThree weeks ago one of the most distinguished retired members of the Civil Service passed away in England. Mr. K. M. A. Barnett's death was noted in the South China Morning Post on 30 October 1987. A factual account of his services was provided, beginning with his posting here as a young Cadet Officer in 1932 and ending 37 years later with his retirement from Hong Kong, but with a further 10 years' service for the United Nations Organisation in Malawi and Bangladesh on duties connected with the census.\n\nIt is difficult to do justice to this exceptional man. Few friends of his own or a later generation could claim to have covered quite the same ground, or in the same way. For this reason, letters of appreciation have to come from several persons, and not from one pen alone. Dr. Bard's letter printed on 20 November is a case in point, (see pp. 8-10 below).\n\nAs a Hong Kong civil servant his greatest achievement was probably the 1961 Census, the first for nearly thirty years. He established the office (the present Census and Statistics Department) and was its guiding genius. The work suited him to a “T”, for he was able to bring to its organisation and subsequent reporting, all the knowledge, experience and intellectual qualities that make it a lasting and major landmark in the history of Hong Kong's post-war development. Each segment of the land and sea population, by origin and occupation, each type of dwelling place (and they were legion in those hard times), education, marriage and much else was covered in the 3 volume report, and he personally wrote the manuals for the field staff and supervisors. He conducted further investigatory work, including the 1966 By-census, before retirement in 1969.\n\nMy own association with Ken Barnett stemmed from our being colleagues in the Administrative Grade of the Civil Service, and from shared interests. He was District Commissioner, New Territories when I was posted to the District Office (South) in 1957, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210972, "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": 34, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "During the hostilities, I believe he was the first to spot the Japanese crossing the Lei Yue Mun passage to land on Hong Kong Island; unfortunately, his report of the landing went unheeded.\n\nIn the PoW camp he and I often played chess. He was a very good player, yet another one of his achievements. I recall those surprise roll calls which the Japanese always called at night; Ken and I contrived to stand next to each other and passed the time by playing mental chess. I could seldom get beyond eight or 10 moves, after which Ken would continue making moves for both of us.\n\nIt was in camp, later on, when he spoke up to the visiting Swiss Red Cross officials about a shortage of food and medicine, an act of great courage for which he was severely beaten by his captors.\n\nAfter the war, when Hong Kong had begun to recover from the ravages of occupation, a fresh spirit of idealism and cultural aspirations started to grow. Ken Barnett embraced the new mood with enthusiasm and dedication.\n\nHe became the moving spirit behind and the first chairman of the newly-established Sino-British Club, whose noble object was to bring together Chinese and British people in a mutual spirit of tolerance and understanding. Alas, the idealism did not last long in our all-too-materialistic Hong Kong. The Sino-British Club today is but a memory, but at least one of its seeds has thrived and grown to maturity.\n\nI knew him less well in his capacity as a senior administrative officer in government service and have not touched on his achievements there, but perhaps one of his former colleagues might do this.\n\nA big and jovial man, he was kind and considerate; a brilliant raconteur with a marvellous sense of humour. He visited Hong Kong regularly to stay with his daughter and son-in-law, Sai Chan and David Roseveare, and renew old friendships.", "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": 211184, "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": 245, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "220\n\nThe Government faced the vexing problem of compensation to the owners of the fields. This problem still troubles the Government. The compensation to people whose ancestral lands are resumed is a thorny issue.\n\nIn 1844 a three-member commission was formed to consider claims and recommend suitable payment for the land given up. It was composed of the Land Officer, Mr. Gordon, the Chief Magistrate, Major William Caine, and the Chinese Secretary, the Rev. Mr. Charles Gutzlaff.\n\nMr. Gutzlaff did most of the work interviewing the villagers and attempting to ascertain current land values.\n\nThe Colonial Office inquired of the Governor under what circumstances it had been necessary to purchase the land when, with the cession of the island to Britain, all land automatically had become the property of the Crown.\n\nThe Governor explained: “That Rule laid down since the occupation of the island has been that the property of those Chinese who were possessed previous to the cession of the colony should be respected, but none other.\n\n“The land in question is among the oldest under cultivation in the island, being a rich alluvial soil adapted to the growing of rice. It therefore came strictly under this rule.”\n\nThe committee determined to its satisfaction that the price of the second-class paddy land was between $20 and $40 a mow (a Chinese land measure). It recommended the average of $30.\n\nThrough a mistake by the committee in stating the number of mow in an acre, the Government almost blundered into paying three times as much for the land. Fortunately for the Government treasury, but not the villagers, the error was discovered before a settlement was made.\n\nIt took a year to complete the project. The land was surveyed. The owners were compensated and the drainage and undertaken.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211358, "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": 74, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "50\n\nBut Mr. Scholfield stuck to his opinion. \"I would not give a single thought to it. The only thing I would think of was the ten cents I would receive at the end of the day.\"\n\nWhen the resolutions proposed by Mr. Bowley were put to the meeting, only Mr. Scholfield voted against him. He told the meeting that if the suggestions were to be implemented it would mean money **and would depend on the maintenance of the opium revenue**. If that was stopped, what would they do?\" Up to that date Hong Kong had depended upon the income from the opium trade to finance itself, now there was heavy pressure from the Home Government to abolish the traffic in opium.\n\nThe editor of the Daily Press commended the small group of Hong Kong expatriates who were concerned about social problems, though his views were expressed in the colonial attitudes of the day.\n\nFar removed from the centres of civilization and surrounded by people alien to us in manners, customs and ideas, there is a natural tendency to lose that sense of communal responsibility which is steadily developing in the land from which we spring. It is well, therefore, that we have in our midst some whose interests are not limited by sport or commerce to remind us of the thoughts and aspirations of our more progressive fellow countrymen at Home.\n\nProposals of the Sanitary Board 1919\n\nMr. Bowley was a member of the Sanitary Board and used his position to try to get passed some regulations on child labour. He used a back door approach by proposing that the regulations be based on sanitary grounds. As the name of the Board suggests such concerns came within its province.\n\nOn the 19 March 1919 Mr. Bowley had posed the following question, **Does the Medical Officer of Health consider it desirable in the interests of public health of the Colony that the ages, hours and conditions of employment of women and children in factories, workshops and work-places in the Colony should be regulated and controlled?** The Medical", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211359, "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": 75, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "51\n\nOfficer, Dr. Hickling, replied that the matter needed a full investigation, and for a beginning certain broad lines might be laid down. She suggested as such (1) the conditions which would constitute overcrowding in work places, (2) the ages at which children be admitted to factories, and (3) regulation of the hours children worked.\n\nAt a meeting of the Sanitary Board on 2 April 1919 Mr. Bowley said that though previous to the meeting he had submitted his intention to place before the Board resolutions concerning overcrowding in factories and child labour, he thought it would be better if the Board first appointed a sub-committee to investigate conditions and thresh the problem out before definite suggestions were placed before the full Board.\n\nMr. Bowley was the natural Chairman for the committee as he had shown special interest in the problem and was acquainted with the corresponding legislation on the subject in England, America and the British Colonies, and as the Chinese section of the community would be chiefly affected by such regulations, Mr. Chan Kai-ming and Mr. S. W. Tso were appointed along with the Sanitary Department's Medical Officer, Dr. A. D. Hickling. As the regulations would be dealing with the working conditions of women and children, it was appropriate that Dr. Hickling, a woman, be on the committee.\n\n―\n\n―\n\nAt a meeting on 27 May, the sub-committee submitted its recommendations. An amendment was proposed to Section 16 of the Public Health and Building Ordinance of 1903 that children under the age of fourteen be prohibited from working in any factory for more than ten hours a day exclusive of meal times and that children under thirteen not be employed in any occupation likely to be injurious to their “life, limb or health, regard being had to his or her physical condition”. The committee also proposed an addition to Bylaw sub-section 13 of Section 16, that factories be regarded as overcrowded and therefore a danger to health if there was less than 250 cubic feet for every person employed, or during overtime after six p.m., 400 cubic feet per person.\n\nThe Sanitary Board had the power to require factories to provide adequate ventilation, cleanliness and latrine accommodation. There was no statutory definition of what constituted overcrowding hence the resolution included such a definition.\n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76\n\n52", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211390, "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": 106, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "82\n\nespied Pooi To riding along on a big horse, urging it along with a whip. Chue and his companions threw themselves down and began to worship Pooi To, who entered their boat, and they gave him the alms bowl and the letter. Now there were many people about, and when some of them saw the letter, they recognized it as that which Pooi To had written in Ch'an's house, for it was on two bits of yellow paper and only consisted of a few characters which were ugly and no-one could understand them. Pooi To held the alms bowl in his hand, and laughed. He said, \"Oh, they want me to go home and throw this bowl into the sky and catch it again. But I haven't seen the bowl for four thousand years!\"\n\nAnother version of this story recounts that when Chue reached the island he met a priest carrying the alms bowl who said, \"I was a pupil of Pooi To. Formerly I held this bowl, but I died in Ye Shing Monastery (#). Now I ask you to return this bowl to Pooi To for me. When you get to your boat, hold it in front of the boat and let one man hold the tiller, and you will reach the capital safely.” And the minister did what he had been told, and reached Pooi To, as described before.\n\nPooi To must have returned to Ch'an's family by then because the story tells that on that day he had left Ch'an's house early and did not return till dark. The following morning Ch'an rose up early, and found that Pooi To had disappeared, but on his door, written in childish and uneducated characters, were the words \"Happiness family. The holy man will come and live there.\" After that Pooi To never returned to Ch'an's family again, but he made several mysterious appearances and disappearances in the city, working miracles and curing sick people.\n\n11\n\nA man called Yue Shing (4) had a servant girl who stole a lot of things and ran away. He searched for her in vain, so sent someone to ask Pooi To's help. Pooi To said, \"She is dead already. Her body is in an old tomb on the river shore in Kam Shing. His words were proved to be true. An officer of high rank named Hung Ning Tsz (FLB 7) was very ill with dysentery. No one could cure him, so Pooi To was consulted. The monk looked sad and said, \"No one cannot be cured. I have seen four ghosts all badly wounded.\" When the sick man heard this he wept and said, \"When Suen Yan (E) raised a rebellion, his family were scattered by the soldiers. His parents and an uncle were cruelly treated, and he himself died. Were these their ghosts?\" And soon", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211397, "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": 113, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "89\n\ntouched anything belonging to the people, however. They then ventured up the Canton river, burning ships and attacking Canton itself. At last Chau was captured by the Ts'ing general, Cheung (), and Lei put out to sea again and kept his junks near Taai P'aang (A) now Kowloon city. In the 3rd year of Hong Hei, 1664, a battle was fought off Kowloon city between Cheung and Lei. The latter was beaten, and was forced to take refuge at Tung Ch'ung (Hafi) on Taai Ue Shaan (AMBULI), Lantau Island.\n\nThere now followed a time of great distress for the unhappy country people. More villages were forced to move, and the people treated with great harshness. Many of them who refused to go or even hesitated were killed by the soldiers. At the beginning of the Ts'in Fuk the people imagined that it was only a temporary measure and they managed to keep together with their wives and children. But after three years had passed they found themselves without means of livelihood. So the husbands left their wives, the fathers left their children, and the elder brothers younger brothers, each pushing north in the hope of finding work, leaving behind them the sound of crying and sorrow.\n\nIn the 8th month of the 3rd year of Hong Hei a man named Yuen Sze To (AP48), a Foo Muk (11) (an official title meaning \"Head of relief and soothing of the people\") disobeyed the order to move over the boundary, and collecting a crowd of discontented country people, he made a stronghold in Lik Yuen (HM) a village near Sha Tin. He had other quarters in Kwun Foo (1fif), now Kowloon city and his followers acted as bandits robbing and killing as they pleased. They gave much trouble to the Ts'ing government, as when the soldiers were sent out to search the solitary parts for people hiding in order to avoid being moved, they were often set on by Yuen's band and either robbed or killed by them. Eventually they were exterminated after a long time by an officer named Tseung Wang Yun (1479) who was sent with a large company of soldiers to Sha Tin for that purpose.\n\nThe following year a system of beacons was started along the coast to be used as signals in case of attack. In the same year the retiring Viceroy Lei Sut T'aai (4) in his Wai Soh (6) a valedictory address to Emperor Hong Hei, asked him not to press too firmly the question of removing the people over the boundary. \"When I was in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211399, "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": 115, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "91\n\nbefore leaving Kwangtung or on his arrival in Peking is uncertain, and there are many private records that state that he did not die a natural death, having taken poison by his own hand, as a protest to the throne. Roughly translated Wong's address said, in part: \"Although your Majesty has not thrown me away but instead given me this post, I am an officer of no use, most of the government affairs that I want to do having failed, and my abilities being inadequate for the position. Now I have received information from Peking that the ministers of the Board have reported badly of me, and having the Imperial degree dismissing me, I may die at any moment. It is hopeless for me to return to the capital while I am alive. But as I have been in this appointment for two years already, I understand quite well Kwangtung affairs. Your Majesty wants to have the affairs kept better and better, and as I have a clear knowledge of things and can be sure of future happenings, if I keep my mouth shut when I am about to die, I surely carry my sin to the grave. Therefore I cannot help putting it to your Majesty that the boundary be removed as soon as possible. Kwangtung faces the water and is backed by the hills, and the level land is not wide. Twice have the people living near the water been moved inland. Several hundred thousand people are now homeless, large troops of soldiers are kept in the places whence they were removed, in order to watch the boundary, and government builds beacons, railings, etc., which have to be repaired. None of this is paid for out of government funds; the people are taxed in order to pay it. ... I therefore beg that the boundary be abolished and the people allowed to return to their own villages to farm and evaporate salt. ... The above-mentioned affairs are forbidden, and all high officers dare not mention them, but as I am on the point of death, I pour out my blood to write this suggestion as my will before my death. Though I have done nothing for my country, since I can have this matter put before you, I can die without regret.\"\n\nAt first, this letter had no result, but eventually, a party of officials were sent from Peking to inspect the boundary in the company of Chau Yau Tak (**周佑德**), the Viceroy. The latter, seeing the wretched condition of the removed people, at once urged the Emperor to let them go home. \"Do not wait till the inspection is over,\" he said, \"It is urgent to let the people prepare seeds and develop the land to be ready for farming next spring.\" Thus, at last, in the 8th year of Hong Hei, 1669, an Imperial decree was issued abolishing the boundary. It is said that when the people", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211537, "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": 254, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "230\n\nThe main additions to our knowledge of the land situation at Shek Pik afforded by the chi tsai come from the notations giving the local place name (4) of each property, and whether a field was being cultivated by an owner or another party, and whether the claimant held a mortgage on someone else's property, as did Chi Yau-kei in a number of cases. Other information, on the use of huts, the occupancy of houses, with the numbers by which they were known in the village (?), and on abandoned (uncultivated) land, was also provided. Mortgages held by Yau-kei were also noted.\n\nIn Chi Yau-kei's case, the chi tsai appear to show him in possession of a considerable amount of land, some abandoned or fallow but mostly under his own (and his family members') cultivation and use. His fields extend over demarcation districts 312, 315, and 318, but are mostly located in the last.\n\nIs such information reliable? It could only have been given by the claimant. Unless he was slack in his answers, deliberately to avoid giving more information than he had to, or because he could not be bothered — it would have been easier to say that he occupied and farmed everything himself — the chances of accuracy are fairly good. If so, it is a pity that more chi tsai from the village have not survived, as they would have told us more about land use than it is possible to gain from the ownership schedules in the Block Crown Lease.\n\nFinally, a word about the forms themselves. They are of additional interest because each carries a red oval-shaped \"chop\" bearing the title of the New Territories Land Court in English and Chinese. In every case, there is another \"chop\", also in red, from the District Officer, added after the claim of ownership had been substantiated, stating that the paper is only for identification and record purposes and has no value by itself, since only the Tsap Chiu would be taken as an accurate record — presumably in case unscrupulous persons tried to pass the Chi Tsai off as title deeds in a fraudulent sale.\n\nThe forms have another value, in that the District Officer's notice is the earliest example I have seen of the use of the Chinese title “Lei Man Fu (li min fu)”, the time-honored description of the officer and the implied duties of the post. The full inscription reads:\n\n!\n\n \nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211623, "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-1989", "page_number": 38, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "13\n\nThe first was a Muslim who had been with the British army, and who may have been one of those who deserted in large numbers after the founding of the colony and who later formed the basis of an Indian community in Kowloon,\" The China Mail of 28 March 1878 printed: 'The man, known by the name of Mohammed Arab, died here yesterday. We understand that his residence in the Colony dates with the cession of the Island to Her Majesty, and it was he who planted the British standard on the Island, being with the expeditionary Force. He was a very charitably disposed person, and always stretched a helping hand to the needy and poor irrespective of nationality. He was well-known to many of the foreign community, and held in no little estimation for his uprightness and charities. His funeral, which took place yesterday, was largely attended by persons of various nationalities'.\n\n43\n\n44\n\nIf indeed Mohammed Arab had been in the British army, he must have been in either the Bengal Volunteers or the Madras 37th Native Infantry which were two of the regiments serving in the Chinese expedition.\" Both of these regiments contained Muslims and so Mohammed Arab could have been in either of them. The first Bengal Volunteers were raised in 1799 and in time the Volunteers became the 36th, 37th, 38th and 39th regiments of the Bengal Native Infantry.42 The usual sepoys of the Bengal army were mainly high-caste Hindus who because of dietary restrictions could not travel overseas, and so the Bengal Volunteers raised in the spring of 1840 were low-caste Hindus and Muslims lured from regular regiments by the promise of extra money. As for the Madras Native Infantry, it is known that some Muslim Lascars from Madras deserted during or after the Chinese expedition.\" This war was the first in which Indian troops were deployed in a non-Indian operation.\" Unfortunately the only members of the Bengal Volunteers named in official records of the Chinese expedition are firstly those who died, and secondly the officers,\" and no more information is yet forthcoming about the members of the Madras Native Infantry. The question whether Mohammed Arab may or may not have hoisted the flag on Hong Kong on 26 January 1841 hinges on whether a contingent of the Bengal Volunteers or of the Madras Native Infantry was landed for the ceremony - the only regiment which was definitely ashore at the time was that of the Marines and on which rank would have been called upon to perform the task. The senior native officer in the regiment was the Subadar-Major upon whom the duty could have devolved (in January 1841 this position in the Bengal Volunteers was held by Shaick Hedait Alie) but it would have been more likely", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211676, "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-1989", "page_number": 91, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "66\n\nAnother time the alarm went, due to a slight misunderstanding at one of the gates. It was approaching dusk and the sailor sentry, who had no doubt been standing guard at this particular gate at the back of the Concession for some time, was beginning to get bored. The gates, of wood, with a small window through which persons on the far side could be inspected, were open. Outside stood a row of hawker's stands, for the most part purveying cooked foods to the coolies who passed in and out. The stand nearest to the sentry held a large copper pan, of the sort in which rice is cooked, over a small fire. At the moment the pan was empty, and the sentry, being of an enquiring mind, wondered what would happen if he put a rifle cartridge in it. The experiment produced a loud bang and several holes through the bottom of the pan. An infuriated hawker, supported by increasing numbers of excited fellow tradesmen, shouted curses at the sentry and loudly demanded large sums of money in compensation for the damage done. At the sound of the explosion the naval guard in a near-by house turned out. The petty officer in charge was a great barrel of a man, an old tarpaulin of long service in many parts of the world where opportunities for cultivation of that diplomatic tact, in which the Royal Navy is so accomplished, must have been numerous. In less time than it takes to tell he had the situation well in hand, had paid one dollar compensation for the damage done, had closed the gates, and had nipped an incipient riot in the bud. It was considered unwise to allow a \"matelot\" of such an enquiring mind ashore again, and for the remainder of that destroyer's stay at Kiu Kiang he was confined to his ship.\n\nLate on an afternoon early in January, 1927, as the river water swirled past the hulks under the hard light of the wintry sun, a strange tall man walked down the Bund, accompanied by a number of Chinese dressed in civilian clothes. He wore the collarless buttoned-up jacket, the knee-high black leather boots, and the little leather-peaked brown cap, of one of Borodin's officers. His companions were members of the Revolutionary Kuo Min Tang party. They moved along looking at the houses, at the cross-roads, and at the foreshore, talking and gesticulating. Outside the Consulate they paused to read the pink posters and the green posters. They were planning the organisation of riots, the object of which would be to draw fire from the British sailors guarding the gates. The bodies of a few dead Chinese rioters, shot by the blackguard Imperialists, would provide excellent fuel to inflame still further the feelings of an excited populace; and would at the same time give ammunition for the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211680, "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-1989", "page_number": 95, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "70\n\nof excited Chinese. It would obviously soon no longer be safe for foreigners to be seen in the streets, and they were accordingly instructed to concentrate at two houses on the Bund, the one belonging to the River Inspector and the other the Consulate itself. A guard of sailors was brought into both these houses, with instructions not to show themselves to the crowd outside: thus every effort was made to avoid in any way provoking the rioters. By early afternoon reports were coming in that the crowd had begun to break into houses at the back of the Concession and that looting had started.\n\nThe phone was still in working order and the Consul was again able to speak to the Garrison Commander, who, however, denied that the crowd was out of hand or that there was any looting. He was invited to come into the Concession to see for himself. Two foreigners were detailed to accompany his escort on a tour of inspection, and brought back accounts of his increasing indignation as he passed each group of looters, many of whom were soldiers who refused to obey his instructions. The Political Department had done their work only too well. The loss of face was irreparable; he flew into a temper and made one soldier, whose arms were full of an assortment of ladies' shoes, knives and forks, and a silver teapot, face away and kneel down. He then retired several paces and took a running kick at the guilty party; but although he selected the tenderest part of the soldier's anatomy for this treatment, as he himself wore soft shoes of Chinese pattern, it was not apparent who suffered most. He ordered the looter to be taken away and shot. No one supposed that the sentence was carried out. The soldiers did not belong to his particular unit, and felt, perhaps, as a group of Irish Guards Commando men might feel towards a junior officer of the Royal Indian Army Service Corps who should have the temerity to comment on their peculiar way of saluting.\n\nThe situation thus became impossible and the Consul decided to withdraw to the two ships of war in the harbour, a destroyer and a river gunboat. I was in the party which had taken refuge at the Consulate. The sailors suggested it would be foolish for the Consul to leave his more valuable portables to be looted by the crowd, and so a distribution was made of silver mugs, salvers, a gramophone, a canteen, a tantalus (full), some tinned provisions, cushions, and other easily portable articles. At half past four a mixed nondescript party of sailors and civilians could be seen standing in the garden before the flagpole in front of the Consulate. Parked at each man's feet lay a small pile of such valuables from the Consulate as he had been asked to escort on board. At the sound", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211782, "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-1989", "page_number": 197, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "172\n\nstationed in Shanghai during the 1860s were nearly always open air ones. But sometimes a theatrical company co-operated with one of the bands, like the Amateur Burlesque Company on June 29, 1864. Otherwise, performances took place on the Bund, or Embankment, along the river, which was the favourite promenade of the foreigners as well as the most prestigious section of the Settlement. Records have come down to us of concerts by the French 101st regiment in March 1861 (“By permission of Colonel Pouget [who was the commanding officer of the regiment JH] we are authorised to state that the band of the 101st regiment will perform every Sunday and Thursday (weather permitting) before the headquarters of General De Montauban at Messrs Rémi, Schmidt & Co. [this was in the French Concession JH] between the hours of 3 and 4”*. Further concerts by the Rhenish Band and the band of the 67th regiment in June and July 1864 provided entertainment which “the residents evidently appreciated (...) large numbers (...) congregating during the performances”.67\n\nProfessional musicians\n\nFrom time to time professional musical artists visited Shanghai, and, as with the travelling dramatic companies, 1864 and 1865 were a golden age for the public. In the first decades of the twentieth century Shanghai was honoured with recitals by, to name just a few, Feodor Chaliapine, John MacCormack, Fritz Kreisler and Amelita Galli-Curci, but during the fifties and sixties it was only the lesser gods that came to the city. In fact, hardly any one of the artists in this period can be traced in contemporary reference works. This does not mean, of course, that they could not have been capable musicians able to provide enjoyment during an evening. That such was not always the case, though, has already been shown by the criticism drawn by the performance of Prof. Shonbrun, which led the Herald to state that \"in this remote place we have so few opportunities of hearing really good music that we hunger for it and can ill brook disappointment\".68 But then there were Messrs Desvachez and Grossi whose concert in February 1865 had \"called for favourable comment at the hands of our music critic\".69\n\nYet, bearing in mind the conditions of travel in the 19th century, it is amazing enough that European musicians were at all willing to undertake an Asian tour with only very uncertain financial prospects.\n\n\"The first public concert (properly so called) that has ever been given", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211994, "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-1989", "page_number": 409, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "384\n\n亞哥剪辮\n\n亞哥又興弟又興 新買銅鐘莫冇聲 新買銅鐘莫有聲 不怕滿州使劍刀\n\n革命打贏哥剪辮 餓死滿州冇肚腸 餓死滿州有肚子 炸彈一去就冇毛\n\nP.H. HASE\n\nNOTES\n\nThese are the papers of a local village scholar (1874-1944) from Hoi Ha Village in North Sai Kung, and are now on deposit in the Sha Tin Public Library. Regional Council. The pamphlet is entitled \"A New Three Character Classic\", and has the classification number R802.81 0132.\n\nI am obliged to Mr. M.Y. Lee for assistance in transcription and translation.\n\nPapers laid before the Legislative Council of Hongkong, 1912, (Sessional Papers), No. 11, \"Report on the New Territories, 1899-1912”, para. 88, page 56 (G.N. Orme, District Officer, 9th June, 1912), and Hong Kong Administrative Reports for the Year 1911, Appendix I, \"Report on the New Territories for the Year 1911, A. - Northern District”, page I, 5. (G.N. Orme, District Officer, 20th June, 1912).\n\nTHE MUTUAL DEFENCE ALLIANCE (YEUK) OF THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\nIt is well-known that the traditional society of the eastern New Territories was dominated by inter-village mutual defence alliances, or Yeuk, and that the political structure of the area was dominated by further, higher-level alliances, or \"unions\", of Yeuk. The Sai Kung area, for instance, comprised six Yeuk, which formed a single, higher-level \"union\" centred on Sai Kung market; the Sha Tin area was similarly a \"union\" of nine Yeuk; the Sha Tau Kok area one of ten Yeuk; and the Ta Kwu Ling area one of six Yeuk. These areas were, in consequence, known in the late nineteenth century as the Luk Yeuk (\"Union of Six Yeuk\"), Kau Yeuk (\"Union of Nine Yeuk”), etc.\n\nRecently I discovered two copies of a document in the Yung Sze-chiu collection from Hoi Ha village in North Sai Kung by which a group of villages constituted themselves into a Yeuk. Because of the interest of this document, I append a copy and translation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212027, "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-1989", "page_number": 442, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "417\n\ninterested in modern China or who are interested in the British in Asia. Dr. Atwell has made a significant contribution to our knowledge of how the British administered one small locality and coped with the demands of modern forces. Her work can be used as a guide or spring board for comparison of British colonial policy in other East Asian places, such as Brunei and the Straits Settlements, Hankow, Tientsin and Shanghai, say, with Hong Kong tossed in for good measure.\n\nWEI PEH T'I, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong\n\nSteven A. Leibo, Transferring Technology to China, Prosper Giquel and the Self-strengthening Movement, China Research Monograph 28, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Center for Chinese Studies, 1985.\n\nProsper Giquel, edited by Steven A. Leibo, A Journal of the Chinese Civil War 1864. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1985.\n\nThese two works, one of compilation and assessment based on a doctoral dissertation, the other of translation (with the help of Debbie Weston) and annotation with a lengthy introduction, have a considerable intrinsic interest because they deal with a rather extraordinary man. They have also a degree of relevance, over a century later, for the West's involvement with present day China's modernizing programme.\n\nThey are to be read in conjunction with other modern works on this period of China's self-strengthening efforts, including those listed in Dr. Leibo's introduction to Transferring Technology.\n\nProsper Giquel, a French naval officer, came to China during the Second China War. After service with the Joint Commission that guided the administration of the city of Canton during its four year occupation by the Allies, during which he laid the foundations of his knowledge of written and spoken Chinese, he joined the Chinese Maritime Customs at Ningpo. When that city was captured by the Taiping Army, he assisted the Sino-French \"Ever Triumphant Army” to recapture it, and later commanded it in the operations that led to the recapture of Hangzhou, for which he received high rank and honours from the appreciative Ch'ing government. Contacts made during this time led to employment after the Rebellion, in and outside China, that lasted until his death in France in 1886. His principal achievement was the construction and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212074, "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": 16, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "He served with the 8th Army in North Africa, where as an officer cadet he was among those deployed to surround the Abdin Palace, King Farouk's residence in Cairo, while tanks were moved into the square, a show of force to oblige the King to call on the Wafd leader Nahas Pasha to form a government.\n\nGibb was then with the 8th Army in its drive into Italy, before transferring to Intelligence, to be parachuted into Yugoslavia to join the British units helping Tito's partisans.\n\nAfter the war in which he was mentioned in despatches - Gibb returned for a short time to work at Lloyd's before going to the Far East as a journalist for the Sunday Times and other papers.\n\nIn Singapore he switched to photography and was one of the first to realise the potential of 16mm film for television. Operating from South-East Asia and the Far East, he quickly became a master of documentary film.\n\nA key point in Gibb's career as a film-maker occurred in the Great Caves of Niah in Borneo in 1954, when he watched the dangerous process whereby birds' nests were gathered from the roofs of the caves and turned into delicacies for the Chinese table: out of that moment grew his prize-winning Borneo series.\n\nDrawn by the legendary appeal of the Angkor complex of ruins, Gibb rebased himself in 1960 in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, to which he drove from Singapore in his Land Rover.\n\nGibb's enduring interest in Khmer architecture and sculpture, of which Angkor is the supreme expression, was accompanied by an awareness and admiration for the French archaeological achievement in Indo-China. He became a close friend of the late Bernard-Philippe Groslier, the last French curator of the Angkor ruins, and was a frequent guest at the Conservation in the days before Cambodia was engulfed by turmoil.\n\nThis Anglo-French intellectual entente proved to be an enduring influence on Gibb's work. Earlier this year Gibb was in close contact with the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, which was interested in his films for their archives; and his Angkor films are to be shown at a commemorative ceremony at the Musée Guimet in October.\n\n¦\n\nXV", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212104, "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": 46, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "23\n\n2\n\nChina: The Land and the People (New York, William Sloane Associates. 1948), pp. 152-153.\n\n3\n\nA most useful survey is given in chapter 4, Autonomous Hong Kong, 1972-1982, of Ian Scott's Political Change and the Crisis of Legitimacy in Hong Kong (London, Hurst and Company, 1989).\n\n4\n\nMy government service was mostly spent in departments and in direct contact with the population.\n\n5\n\nLin Yutang, My Country and My People (New York, Halcyon House, 1938), pp. 203-206.\n\n6\n\nMy The Hong Kong Region 1850-1911: Institutions and Leadership in Town and Countryside (Hamden, Connecticut, Archon Books, 1977) and The Rural Communities of Hong Kong: Studies and Themes (Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1983) are directed at this theme. See especially the Introduction to the former, at pp. 11-13. See also David Faure, \"The Hong Kong History Project”, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 27 (1987), p. 261.\n\n7\n\nPersonal letter from Walter Schofield (1888-1968) dated 27 July 1962.\n\n8\n\nAustin Coates, Summary Memoranda on the Southern District of the New Territories, Spring 1955 (Unpublished). He was District Officer between May 1953 and July 1955.\n\n9\n\nEverard Cotes, Signs and Portents in the Far East (London, Methuen & Co., n.d. but 1907), pp. 110-111,\n\n10\n\nRev. R.H. Graves, D.D., Forty Years in China, or China in Transition (Baltimore, R.H. Woodward Company, 1895), pp. 18-19,\n\n11\n\nReginald F. Johnston, Confucianism and Modern China (London, Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1934), p. 66, citing Mencius, Book 1, Part 2, Chapter viii.\n\n12\n\n13\n\nStuart Schram, Mao Tse-tung (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1967), p. 21.\n\n14\n\nHerbert Giles gives numerous examples in the chapter \"Democratic China\" at pp. 75-106 of his China and the Chinese (New York, The Columbia University Press, 1912). Many others are cited by Kung-Chuan Hsiao, Rural China, Imperial Control in the Nineteenth Century (Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1960), pp. 433-440.\n\n15\n\nI am uncertain whether this record was engraved on a stone which has since been lost, or whether it only ever existed on paper. Either way, the original is now lost, and I cannot now recall who was kind enough to give me a copy.\n\n16\n\nMy early lectures came from male and female indigenous New Territories villagers living in remote places at a time when modernization had not yet set in; it was seemingly part of the tradition.\n\n17\n\nIn Leonard A. Lyall, China (London, Ernest Benn. 1944). p. 99.\n\n18\n\nE.R. Hughes, The Invasion of China by the Western World (London, Adam and Charles Black, 1937), p. 157.\n\n19\n\nArthur H. Smith, China in Convulsion (Edinburgh, Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier. 1901), Vol. 1, p. 6. Striving to convey to his readers and listeners the power of these teachings, he explained that ... the tenets of Confucianism, as a whole and in detail, [are] intellectually and psychologically appropriated by the Chinese as on a par with a law of nature.\n\n20\n\nYang Kang, Daughter, An Autobiographical Novel, (Beijing, Phoenix Books: Foreign Languages Press, 1988) pp. 225-226, and see also pp. 67-74, 80-83 of this fascinating book.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212188, "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": 130, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "107\n\n: with splinter holes, and inside broken glass and damaged furniture lay scattered around. In the vain hope that she might avoid further attention the \"Whangpoo\" had taken the hulk for a \"cruise\" up the river, while a British officer stood all the time with a loaded revolver guarding the lashings to prevent the excited crew cutting the hulk adrift. It was eventually decided to move an anchor over to the hulk and to moor her off by herself. To the officers of the Merchant Service this sort of thing is all in a day's work. To stand on his bridge and listen to the flow of language addressed by the Captain of the \"Whangpoo\" to the panicking refugees below was a treat not to be missed.\n\nIn the evening a reply was received from Wuhu that the officer commanding the Japanese troops had declared that, if any ship moved on the Yangtze it would be fired at. He was the notorious Colonel Hashimoto, a prominent member of the young Officers' group, who staged the military rising in Tokyo in 1936 during which several leading members of the Japanese government were murdered.\n\nThe news was discouraging and we had to face the possibility that in the morning the attacks would be renewed and the ships sunk, because we could not expect our phenomenal luck in avoiding direct hits to repeat itself. It was decided that before dawn all the merchant ships should be placed along the north bank, where there was deep water, so that the Chinese could step off onto the shore to hide in the reeds. That night it was thought wiser to leave all the ships' lights on in the belief that the Japanese would be less likely to fire at ships, of whose presence they had been repeatedly notified, than if the ships blacked-out and showed no marks of identification. Hurried arrangements were made against the possibility of having to abandon ship. We opened the Captain's safe and shared out thousand-dollar bundles of notes, on the one hand to save them going down with the ship, and on the other to finance any cross-country travelling which might lie before us.\n\nDawn found the ships tied up at intervals of 200 yards along the bank, with only a few foreigners and members of the Chinese crews left aboard. The bulk of the refugees were hiding in the reeds. Many of the sailors and engine-room hands, as well as the Chinese employees of the foreign firms, decided not to risk another day in this dangerous neighbourhood, and disappeared into the interior of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212491, "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": 45, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "25\n\nItem\n\nTable 5\n\nXu Run's Investment in Modern Enterprises\n\n \n Company\n Amount (T)\n %\n Place\n \n \n China Merchants' Steam Navigation Co\n 480,000\n 33.44\n Shanghai\n \n \n Yun Wo Insurance Co.\n 100,000\n \n Shanghai\n \n \n Chi Wo Insurance Co.\n 50,000\n 10 45\n Shanghai\n \n \n Kaiping Coal Mines\n 150,000\n \n Tianjin\n \n \n Guichi Coal Mines\n 100,000\n \n Anhui\n \n \n Sanshan Silver Mines\n 60,000\n \n Rehe\n \n \n Pingchuan Copper Mines\n 60,000\n \n \n \n \n Jinzhou Mines\n 50,000\n \n \n \n \n Other Mines\n 10,000\n 29 96\n \n \n \n Shanghai Cotton Mill\n 50,000\n \n Shanghai\n \n \n Shang Jinglun Cotton Mill\n 170,000\n \n Shanghai\n \n \n Craseman & Hagen's Filanda (Yantai Saosi Ju)\n 10,200\n \n Yantai\n \n \n Paper Manufactury\n 20,000\n \n Shanghai\n \n \n Chinese Glass Works Co.\n 30,000\n \n Shanghai\n \n \n Shanghai Dairy Farm Co.\n 30,000\n \n Shanghai\n \n \n Hong Kong Liyuan Sugar Refinery\n 30,000\n \n Hong Kong\n \n \n Tianyi Land Reclamation Co\n 5,000\n \n Jinzhou\n \n \n Taggu Cultivation Co.\n 30,000\n 2.44\n Tianjin\n \n \n Zhongshan Tongyi Ranyuan Cultivation Co\n 1,000($)\n \n Guangdong\n \n \n Total\n 1,435,200\n 99.99\n \n \n\n(+$1,000)*\n\n* Mexican dollars have not been added in the total or calculated in the percentage\n\nSource: Xu Run, Qing Xu Yuzhi Xiansheng Run Zixu Nianpu.\n\nbut educated in Hong Kong. He first came to Shanghai as an interpreter in the Chinese Maritime Customs in 1859. It is believed that he was introduced by an officer named Horatio Nelson Lay whom Tang had met in Hong Kong. Tang was recruited as a comprador by the Jardine, Matheson & Co. in 1863 but he left in 1872. During the decade of his compradorial career, he invested, planned, organized and assisted in the sale of stocks of a number of enterprises. These enterprises were called modern because they had adopted a new form of ownership, organization and management. Moreover, some of them such as steam navigation and insurance companies were the first to take place in China. Unlike Xu\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212639, "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": 193, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "173\n\nactivity of the British Military Mission in Hunan and to withdraw the British troops to India. It looked as if our party would be all that remained, and I hoped that now at last we should be given a medical officer - Dr. Petro had in the meantime left us - and our full complement of officers. We had been much handicapped by the shortage of officers which prevented our manning the forward dumps properly and maintaining our contacts with the forward generals, while the school courses were in progress.\n\nReports continued to come in of successful operations by our teams at the front. We were particularly pleased with the report of one military train, the engine of which was blown up by a specially laid pressure-switch mine with considerable casualties to the passengers. We also had some failures. The members of one of our best guerilla teams were laying a pipe mine in the road at night, when they suddenly found themselves surrounded by Japanese. The leader promptly trod on the mine and the report we received stated that in addition to killing the team the explosion had killed some of the enemy.\n\nIt would be wrong if I gave the impression that there was a positive state of activity along all the fronts round us. At the time the Japanese were advancing on Shangjao the front was more active than usual; but on the whole the warfare was passive rather than active. I think a passive state of war accords more with the Chinese genius. The Chinese have had few foreign wars; their wars for the most part have been amongst their own people, where cunning and silver bullets counted for more than actual fighting. Life, God knows, is held cheaply enough in China and it cannot have been from any desire to save life that the preference for manoeuvre and deception arose; I would judge it derived more from an appreciation of the intellectual concomitants of warfare, as is well exemplified in the teachings of Sun Tze.\n\nIt was by denying facilities, rather than by fighting, that the Chinese resisted the Japanese. Not by any positive activity was a large Japanese garrison, supported by a still larger puppet army, held in the Yangtze delta; it was the negative pressure of a potential activity, which had not to assert itself to make itself felt. In the same way I argued that if the Japanese knew there were fifty well-trained demolition teams in the delta country astride their communications - and I had little doubt the Japanese knew just how many teams we trained - then they would feel compelled to increase their defensive arrangements by that much, in case all fifty", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212795, "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": 104, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "89\n\nChang was the first scholar in the land. Sir Everard Fraser, the Consul-General in Hankow for ten years [1901-1911], was an excellent scholar. He once told Green that he had taken a despatch in Chinese to Viceroy Chang, of Wuchang, who had become a friend of his when he was in Hankow, for his opinion on it. The Viceroy read a few lines, and then taking up his brush-pen began to edit. ‘And then,' said Sir Everard, ‘I had the finest lesson in Chinese that I ever got.' Chang was that rara avis, the official who scorned to enrich himself.\n\nChiang Chao-ling #*# @ Chiang Pa-hsia (1846-1891)\n\nA native of Szechuan, Chiang met Mesny when he, Chiang, was travelling to Yunnan to take up an appointment as County Magistrate of Hsi-o Hsien. He and Mesny were thrown out of the province at the behest of the French in Tongkin. They met again in Canton and Shanghai where Chiang's pursuit of reform was not appreciated by other officials. He died in Peking. Mesny and Chiang were to have started a monthly magazine in Shanghai in 1887 to be called the Yueh Pao ♬ which was to have been the organ of the reform party. Chiang was to have been the chief editor and Mesny the registered owner and business manager. Mesny intended to use his nom-de-plume of Meng-hua # but in the event the magazine appears not to have been published.\n\nCooper T.T.\n\nVisited Hankow and asked Mesny to accompany him on a trek to India. Mesny refused as the fees offered were too low. He later expressed regret at having refused as he 'had missed an opportunity to travel.'\n\nDamström\n\nCaptain Damström was referred to by Mesny three times during his times in Hankow in the mid 1860s. Once as a gunnery officer on one of the first steam boats ever owned by the Chinese, at Ningpo, and later as Captain of the S.S. Pao-hua [nfd]. Mesny took him along together with a Captain Dix to offer their services to General Tso of the Imperial Force in the Northwest of China. Tso offered all three of them positions as instructors but we never hear the outcome as far as Damström and Dix were concerned.\n\nThe second occasion was when Damström went off with the other", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212824, "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": 133, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "118\n\nassistance which it might be possible to provide, and, soon after, the Myosa left to return to his country.\n\nIn August 1943 British troops were poised on the Assam border at Imphal, Tamu, and Tiddim, awaiting sufficient replenishment of equipment and the cessation of the rains to undertake the return advance into Burma; and there was activity down in the Arakan: while General Stilwell's Chinese divisions, retrained, reinforced, and re-equipped in India after their withdrawal from Burma, were just beginning to feel their way forward from Ledo, away up at the northern end of Assam, down the road which later was to become famous as the Ledo road. General Wingate's first expedition into Burma had just been completed, with heavy loss on our side, but with much success in confusing the enemy and disorganising his effort to consolidate his positions. The shape of future operations depended on the enemy's dispositions, so that any information which could be collected in eastern Burma would be useful: and in Kokang it might also be possible to organise patriot parties to assail his communications.\n\nIt was not an easy matter to obtain the consent of our allies for the passage of a British party to Kokang. The Chinese have unfortunately imitated the Japanese in a predilection for red tape; formalities are extended ad infinitum. It was fair enough that any British officer who entered China should require a pass issued by the Chinese authorities - though no such restriction attached to the presence of Chinese officers in India - but was it really necessary that the power to issue the pass should be retained by the highest authority in the land, the Military Affairs Council which would correspond with our Committee of Imperial Defence and that it should have to carry the personal chop of the Generalissimo? It did not make for speed in administration. It should also be remembered that the Chinese refused to serve in Burma under British command: that is how General Stilwell first came on the scene; and I think it is fair to say that our American allies had come to look on the Far East, and perhaps more particularly China, as their own special sphere of operations, where there was no room for any British.\n\nMy appointment was from the Army in India, which in those days, before the South East Asia Command had been established, was responsible for the operations in Burma. The proposal for assistance to the Myosa was submitted by the British representatives in Chungking to the Chinese government with a request that the necessary passes be", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212853, "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": 162, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "147\n\nwireless. We had small hand generators for charging the batteries, but our skeds were so heavy, that even though we hired coolies to turn the generators in relays for fourteen hours a day, we could not keep our batteries up. So it was proposed to drop a \"chorhorse\" to us, a small petrol machine which would do the job. That was the one container we never found. The package was heavy, it broke away from the 'chute, and must have dived into the earth, where it probably buried itself a good many feet. We did not get our \"chorhorse\" till my relief arrived with a large mule train overland from Kun-ming.\n\nThe dropping of money was an anxiety; there was a tendency to overload the containers, and a proportion broke away and crashed to earth, burying and scattering a jumble of bent silver rupees. I kept the responsibility for money in my own hands, and on the whole we lost remarkably little thanks to the innate honesty of the simple natives, who helped us to collect the scattered treasure. They did not like accepting the bent dollars in payment; but I had to insist; we had too many on our hands, and after all they contained the same amount of metal.\n\nI was due for relief before the rains; the officer sent for the purpose was a well-known young Tibetan explorer. Let us hope he will some day add to his books by giving us an account of his adventures in Kokang; they were not few. Although in my time, the Japanese had on several occasions put us in a state of alarm, by advances from Kunlong, so that we once dispersed to hideouts in the hills, they never actually chased us. That was fortunate for though we had hired mules from the Puppet, we were by no means mobile. My successor, however, had a different experience which should be well worth the relating.\n\nAs for the Myosa, his case was referred to the highest authorities, and the British insisted on his release, without trial. He was flown over to India where he went to recuperate in a hill station. I cannot tell you the end of his story, because I do not know it myself. We must leave him in his bungalow on a hill top in India.\n\nIt was mid-May of 1944 before I could start on my return journey. I took Rogue with me, and Lao Teng. The Americans had kindly given us a case of C ration; for each meal there was a tin containing five biscuits, two lumps of sugar, coffee powder for two cups, and four glucose candies; and a second tin with vegetable hash, vegetable stew, or hash and beans. It was all excellent, and saved time cooking; only", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212878, "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": 187, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "172\n\nThis letter is both a classic of its kind and rather special—in its content warranting translation in full. It was composed in the literary style, and the writer's calligraphy is of a high standard. It is altogether a superior production, and of a kind now seldom seen. The writer was either an old village scholar or a retired schoolmaster, since the younger generation no longer has these literary skills or is trained in them. The letter was accompanied by a copy of the grave tablet erected in 1962 by the four branches descended from Ancestor Shui-tai, and by a list of all male descendants in the after generations, including mention of those who had gone abroad. It is beyond doubt that the clan took the government's notice to remove the grave very seriously indeed.\n\nAccidental Damage to Graves and Urns\n\nSuch statements by those concerned—and they can be many times multiplied since they were the rule—indicate how very concerned villagers became if an old grave, and especially a founding ancestor's grave, was likely to be interfered with by the authorities. Sometimes the files record damage by accident or even by intent. Where accidental damage to graves occurred in the early postwar years, when a large military garrison engaged in frequent exercises across the countryside, the British Army was sometimes the culprit. In 1963, the District Office received a letter from the Tangs of Kam Tin about one of their ancestral graves on the slopes of Tai Mo Shan. 'It has recently been discovered that this ancestral grave has been damaged by military trucks... We are anxious to have it repaired; and as we cannot afford to do so, shall be much obliged if you will sympathize with us and provide the cost of building materials, so that we may proceed to repair the grave as possible in order to pacify the souls of our ancestors and calm ourselves.'8\n\nOn another such occasion, the then District Commissioner, New Territories, upon learning that an ancestral grave had been damaged during a military exercise, arranged for a ceremonial visit to be paid to the village by the brigade commander, the command land agent, the district officer concerned and himself. This was done to show respect to the family and to acknowledge its concern, as well as to show the authorities' desire to make speedy reparation for the damage caused.9 The villagers no doubt appreciated this gesture.\n\nSuch actions could be two-way. Meritorious actions by officers of the District Administration were also recognized. I once received a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212879, "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": 188, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "173\n\nletter from the elders of the Tsang lineage of Kau Wah Keng, enclosing an embroidered banner of appreciation which they wished me to note and transmit to one of the land inspectors in the Office. Apparently, over a weekend some Tsang clansmen had discovered that a construction lorry had damaged some burial urns. An agitated call to this particular officer on the Sunday morning brought him quickly to the scene. He was able to contact the company responsible and make satisfactory arrangements for putting matters to rights.\" Such actions by the land staff greatly improved our relationships with villagers, and stood us all in good stead when land resumptions and village removals were necessary on account of development.\n\nPrivate Initiatives\n\nIt should not be thought that villagers only took action when the government was involved, and with it the prospect of compensation. They would sometimes, on their own initiative, resite and re-bury remains in graves whose fung-shui was thought to be affected by the actions of other parties, or by government works that had not actually required a grave to be moved. A letter received from a villager of Muk Min Ha Village in 1971 stated:\n\nMany years ago, the government's need to construct more catchwaters led to construction works taking place near my ancestors' grave. As the work affected the grave's fung-shui, I exhumed the remains myself [and placed them in a burial urn]. They have not been reburied [in a formal grave] since then.\n\nI have now found a spot to my liking (meaning, with good fung-shui] between Yau Kam Tau and Ting Kau for the rebuilding of this ancestral grave, and would be grateful for permission to begin the work.\"\n\nOther Means of Averting Harm\n\nSometimes, instead of moving graves - always an expensive business - villagers took other measures to contain the bad effects of altered fung-shui. I recall visiting an old grave with a village elder of the former Lan Nai Tong Village above Lei Muk Shu in Kwai Chung. The visit was at my request, and made in connection with their claims", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212880, "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": 189, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "174\n\nto indigenous status, though now living in multi-storey apartment blocks following an earlier removal from their village. The grave was in thick bushes and clearly had not been visited at the two grave-worshipping festivals for a very long time. The elder confirmed this, but added that the fung-shui had turned bad.2\n\nWhere adverse influences were detected by experts, stones were placed at the grave, so as to block off the tablet. An instance of blocking-off is given in one of the files. It comes from Northeast Lantau. The grave belonged to a family from Tai Lam Chung on the mainland. A branch had also been settled for a hundred years at Tai Pang Po, Lantau, where this particular grave was located, on account of the good stake-net fishing there. The land officer provided a photograph of the grave. He reported that it was some 60-70 years old, but added, \"The inscription cannot be seen as the tombstone is covered by small rocks, because of poor fung-shui.\" The claimant told him there were four burial urns inside the grave, and gave the names of the persons whose remains were interred there.\" In another case, also seen on Northeast Lantau, the names of the deceased had been deliberately chipped off the tablet.\n\nObligations Outside The Family\n\nWhen it came to securing the removal of old graves, we found that the obligations to take up and rebury could sometimes ramify beyond the clan concerned. I had several cases of this kind when serving in Tsuen Wan. In another instance, the link was not so direct or as clear, but it was just as well-established as an obligation in the minds of those involved. The case involved an old grave, required to be removed for further development at Sam Pak Tsin, Texaco Road, Tsuen Wan. Since it had been repaired in 1813, it assuredly dated from the 18th century. Moreover, the grave tablet referred to the earlier burial of the remains of the husband and wife at other places, one of them at Kwai Chung. A lineage of a different surname, belonging to Hoi Pa Village, had responded to our notices posted on site, and came forward to state its obligation to arrange for removal and reburial of the remains. This was not simply a matter of taking compensation (if we were satisfied with the claim) as the reburial would involve the family in much trouble and expense. Such cases were not encountered frequently. Elders of this lineage (and the village representative who also belonged to it) said that the link with the persons buried in the grave was through the female side of their family but was no longer known clearly to even its oldest living members. Whatever it was,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212881, "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": 190, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "175\n\nsomething special must have taken place nearly two hundred years before, to create an obligation that was still felt to be incumbent upon descendants of the other lineage.\n\nRunning Out Of Land for Traditional Burials\n\n14\n\nThe continuing progress of development could create great stress upon descendants of old lineages, especially if it had been their practice to concentrate their burial areas. This occurred with the Tsang lineage of Kau Wah Keng, the nearest of the Tsuen Wan Villages to urban Kowloon. Paradoxically, and unlike the other inlying Tsuen Wan settlements, their village had not been removed and resited. However, their fields and associated areas of hill land above and adjacent to the village had all been taken, with the exception of the remaining part of the hilly area, where most of their graves were located. In 1984, the Lands Department posted notices there calling for the removal of these graves. Their anguish was extreme, as shown by the contents of the following letter to the District Officer:\n\nWhen we worshipped at our ancestral graves on the hill at Shek Lei Tau during the recent Ching Ming Festival, we were much surprised to see notices all around, calling for the removal of all graves and burial urns to make way for development.\n\nThis came as a great shock to us, as ancestral worship has been our filial duty since our forefathers settled at Kau Wah Keng more than 300 years ago, during the reign of the K'ang Hsi Emperor [1661-1720]. It has the dual intention of appeasing the [souls of the] dead and ensuring that the living flourish and prosper.\n\nShek Lei Tau has been the burial ground for our ancestors from as early as their arrival at Kau Wah Keng, and in the selection of [auspicious] grave sites geomancers had to be engaged at great cost. Some of the burials are quite recent, having occurred in the past ten years when our then elders, acknowledging the need for land to provide [public] reservoirs, roads, hospitals and children's homes, witnessed with shame the repeated and obligatory removals of remains", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "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 }, { "id": 213148, "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": 216, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "198\n\ncommodities\n\n+\n\nThe boat-building and repair sheds at Sha Tau Kok had entirely disappeared, with great loss of life. Special encouragement [from a relief fund] was given to the boat-builders at Sha Tau Kok to start all over again. \"The Customs Station at Sha Tau Kok was destroyed in this typhoon - see Jiulonghaiguan Bamen Dashiji, op. cit., sub anno. In the 1945 aerial photograph, it can be seen that far fewer than half of the buildings in the old market were still standing; the site had been, effectively, abandoned even for residential purposes. Since the War, all vestiges of the old market have been removed for development, and nothing whatsoever now survives of it.\n\n-\n\n47 Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hongkong, printed by Noronha & Co, Government Printers (Sessional Papers), 1900, \"Report on the First Year of Brush Administration of the New Territory, Laid Before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor” (No 15 of 1900), p. 257; 1901, \"Report for the New Territory for 1900, Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor\" (no 28 of 1901), p. 6; Administrative Reports for the Year 1933, App. J, \"Report on the New Territories for 1933\", p. J3. In 1937, the Coronation was celebrated with electric light displays in Sha Tau Kok. Administrative Reports for the Year 1937, App. J, \"Report on the New Territories for the Year 1937\", p. J11.\n\n49\n\nA party from the Basel Mission stayed in a \"totally comfortless guesthouse\" in the town in 1859, Jahresberichte der Basler Mission, 1859, and a noodle shop \"at the entrance to the market\" is mentioned in 1882 (Basel Mission Archive, Doct. A1-16, Nr. 45).\n\n49 Basel Mission Archive, Doct. A1-2, Nr. 46 (1853), Doct. A1-16, Nr. 45 (1882), Jahresberichte der Basler Mission, 1859. \"I do not like taking a house in a market, for you always find wicked types there - thieves, opium smokers, gamblers - festering together and leading to predictable outcomes.\" In 1859, Sha Tau Kok was the only market where the Basel missionaries had attempted to set up a station. Between 1899 and 1902, the District Officer was very concerned about the huge amount of gambling going on at Yim Liu Ha, with over 300 arrests in 1901, but this dropped away to \"almost nothing\" later, after the gambling house became available in Sha Tau Kok. Paper Land Before the Legislative Council of Hongkong, printed by Noronha & Co, Government Printers, (Sessional Papers), 1901, \"Report on the New Territory for 1901, Laid Before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor\", App. 6, p. 20; 1902, App. 2, p. 342-344; Orme's Report, op. cit., para. 41, p. 49.\n\n50\n\nThe route is described in 1848 (Der Evangelische Heidenbote, March 1848); 1853 (Basel Mission Archive, Doct. A1-2, Nr. 44; see P.H. Hase, \"Sha Tau Kok in 1853\", op. cit.); 1858-1859 (Basel Mission Archive, Doct. A1-4, Nr. 11; Jahresberichte der Basler Mission, 1859; and Jahresberichte der Rheinischen Missionsgesellschaft, 1859); 1863 (Basel Mission Archive, Doct. A1-5, Nr. 5); 1884 (Basel Mission Archive, Doct. A1-19, Nr. 35); and 1893 (Basel Mission Archive, Doct. A1-27).\n\n* 1688 Gazetteer, ch. 3 passim; 1819 Gazetteer, ch. 4, Chung Lap Pao edition, 1879, p. 51. The 1688 Gazetteer specifically mentions several of the roads over the shoulders of Ng Tung Shan (b. 1); the road from Sha Tau Kok to Shu Yue Chung (this is probably the implication of the mentioned there) - this is the \"official road\" from which the village of Kwun Lo Ha (Guanlouxia, \"Below the Official Road\") takes", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213152, "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": 220, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "202\n\nwas a full hour's walk further from the market than Tsat Muk Kiu\n\n75\n\nA contact from a mountainside village explained that they could not keep poultry: \"We lived in the mountains, where there were too many snakes, civet cats, wild cats, and other animals. Any poultry we kept would be killed. At best we could keep just one or two for our own consumption.\"\n\n76\n\nThe Basel missionaries said in 1853: \"They do not pay attention to fruit-trees, and fruit-trees do not seem to grow in this region. Thus, fruit like pineapples, oranges, and mangoes are not found here.\" See PH Hase, \"Sha Tau Kok in 1853\", op cit.\n\n77 Contact from Tsat Muk Kiu village\n\n78\n\nThe late Mr K.M.A. Barnett told of a village house in an exceptionally remote mountainside village which he visited in the late 1930s, and which sported a cast-iron Victorian wash-hand stand and a framed picture of the \"Shang at Bay\". A hawker had picked these up in Hong Kong in a second-hand sale, and thought it worth his while carrying these very cumbersome things around the mountain villages until he got a sale.\n\n79\n\nThis trade in imported vegetable seeds was noted by the District Officer in 1926, Administrative Reports for the Year 1926, App. J. \"Report on the New Territories for the Year 1926\", p. J4. \"It is noteworthy that nearly all the vegetable seed used comes from Chinese territory.\"\n\n80\n\nEastern no. 66, Extension of the Boundaries of the Colony, op. cit., Enclosure No. 12 in Item No. 204, 28 April 1899", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213252, "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-1994", "page_number": 74, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "53\n\nGerman Firms and Insurance Agents\n\nNine German firms subscribed to the Ross Testimonial Fund in 1880. Mr. William Ross was the head of the Volunteer Fire Brigade and had suffered severe injuries in December 1879 in fighting a fire. Upon his release from hospital some ten months later the insurance companies of Hong Kong raised a fund for him to show their appreciation. Among the subscribers were Arnhold, Karberg and Co., agents for Lancashire Insurance Co.; Garlowitz and Co. agents for Hamburg Bremen Fire Co.; Melchers and Co. agents for North German Fire Insurance Co. and Royal Insurance Co.; Meyer and Co. agents for Prussian National Insurance Co. in Stettin; Pustau and Co. agents for Fire Insurance Co. of 1887 of Hamburg and the General Life and Fire Assurance Co.; Sander and Co., agents for Hamburg-Magdeburg Fire Insurance Co.; Scheele and Co. agent for Lubeck Fire Insurance Co.; Eduard Schellhass and Co. agents for Hanseatic Fire Insurance Co.; and Siemssen and Co. agent for Transatlantic Fire Insurance Co. (HKT 3 Oct. 1880)\n\nSteamship Lines\n\nWilliam Pustau and Co. was appointed in 1848 an agent of the Austrian Lloyd Steam Navigation Co. The route was from Trieste to Alexandria, then by land to Aden on the Red Sea where the traveller could connect with the P. and O. Line to Galle in Ceylon (FC 5 Dec. 1848). In 1886 the German Lloyd Steamship Co. opened an office in Hong Kong. In 1914 it and the Hamburg Amerika Line had Hong Kong offices.\n\nInternment of Germans in 1914\n\nWar declared between Britain and Germany on 5 August 1914. A few days later the Hong Kong Government placed enemy aliens under parole. They were restricted to certain areas and had to report to the police at stated times. This arrangement was not sufficiently tight to satisfy Major George F.H. Kelly, the Officer Commanding British Forces in Hong Kong. He saw the German residents of Hong Kong as a distinct threat to the speedy end to the war. He conveyed this opinion to the Governor of Hong Kong.\n\n\"I look upon every German, man or woman, at large in the Colony, as a potential factor for evil, and possibly for prolonging the war", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213438, "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-1995", "page_number": 34, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "ARTICLES\n\nCHINESE CUSTOMARY LAW IN HONGKONG'S NEW TERRITORIES. SOME LEGAL PREMISES.\n\nEDWIN HAYDON\n\nLast year [1961—Editor] the legislation regulating the New Territories of Hong Kong was amended1 and jurisdiction was conferred on the Supreme Court of Hong Kong and on the District Courts subordinate to it.\n\n\"to hear and determine all questions and disputes at law or in equity in connexion with or in anywise arising out of or regarding any land in the New Territories.\"\n\nAt the same time the Land Officer was divested of his former powers to decide questions of land in the New Territories summarily,3 and District Officers were divested of the summary jurisdiction, which for many years4 they had exercised in Small Debts Courts, in actions or matters where the claim, debt or damages sought to be recovered did not exceed one thousand dollars. Since 1953 the District Courts had exercised a concurrent jurisdiction with the Small Debts Courts in such actions. The effect, therefore, of this amending legislation was to confer from henceforth exclusive jurisdiction in all proceedings arising in the New Territories on the courts of law staffed by the professional Judiciary.\n\nSection 17 of the New Territories Ordinance reads:\n\n\"In any proceedings in the Supreme Court or the District Court in relation to land in the New Territories, the court shall have power to recognize and enforce any Chinese custom or customary right affecting such land.\n\nSo much is clear in respect of land cases, but in respect of other proceedings which may involve Chinese custom or customary right one must search further back to the source from which the British Crown's rights in the New Territories spring.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213443, "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-1995", "page_number": 39, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "6\n\nfrequently in consultation with rural committees and village representatives.\" For example, during the year 1956-57, of 138 land disputes which the District Officers dealt with, 30 were settled through rural committees or other local bodies, 92 were settled out of court and 16 were decided in court.” And in the following year, of 112 land disputes, 19 were settled through rural committees or other local bodies, 70 were settled out of court and 23 were decided in court. The method of disposal of one such case is recounted in the District Commissioner's report for the year 1948-49:\n\n\"For the first time since 1913 a land dispute, which had dragged on for nearly a year, was resolved when one of the parties satisfied the District Officer Taipo of his good faith by decapitating a cock in a local temple, a supreme test of honesty. As the dispute was not formally heard under Part II of the Ordinance, the legality of this expedient will fortunately not be subject to review by a Judge.\n\n1920\n\nThirdly, the Full Court ruled that it had no jurisdiction to entertain a further appeal from the decision of a judge of the Supreme Court under section 23 of the New Territories Regulation Ordinance, 1910,\n\nThere are, however, a further eight unreported cases of the Supreme Court sitting in its appellate jurisdiction from decisions of the land officer in land cases arising in the New Territories. The cases all date to the first post-war decennium until 1956. The pre-war records of the Supreme Court were destroyed during the Japanese occupation 1941-45; and since 1956 there has been no appellate proceeding of this type.\n\nWithout proof by evidence in court, it would clearly be dangerous to rely upon works describing customary law obtaining generally or in certain areas of China in the past, as information as to customary law obtaining in the New Territories for Chinese customary law \"is subject to divergencies not only from Province to Province but sometimes from clan to clan in the same neighbourhood.\" Such books may have some comparative value. It is, however, to be regretted that it is difficult in Hong Kong today to trace even one copy of those works written in English to which reference was made by the 1948 Committee.*2\n\nApart, then, from the Report of that Committee, which covers the wider field of Chinese customary law generally obtaining in Hong Kong", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213455, "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-1995", "page_number": 51, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "18\n\nconveyances and mortgages (Part II passim) and the derivation of title in accordance with the Crown lease, grant or licence (section 49).\n\nThe ancient Chinese law governing leases is also described in the Memorandum and although it is now superseded by the leases granted by the British it will be of interest to consider it in comparison with modern customary agricultural leases.\n\n\"The relation between landlord and tenant is often a complicated one, chiefly owing to the system of perpetual lease. Under such leases the landlords have practically renounced all rights to the exercise of ownership and are content to do nothing further than to receive a yearly rent. They can sell this right to receiving rent, but the land is otherwise under the absolute control of the cultivators, who often sell their perpetual lease.\n\nThe landlord is called the owner of the \"Ti Kwan\" which may be termed the right of receiving rent. The tenant is said to possess the \"Ti Min\", or right of cultivation.\n\nThe most common practice in the case of land-owners who do not farm their own land, is for them to let it out to tenants, who pay them a fixed rent in kind or in money, the amount of which is settled beforehand. In bad seasons the landlords grudgingly reduce their rent on being asked by their tenants but they are not compelled to do so.\n\n\"Gompertz, writing in 1901, stated that short leases of agricultural land for a year were not uncommon and were usually determined at the end of the spring or autumn harvest by six months' notice on either side.109\n\nCustomary agricultural leases provide the subject-matter of quite a few disputes and this frequent consideration by the courts has caused this kind of lease to be particularly studied.\" \n\nIt has also resulted in there being available a few judicial decisions on this type of land tenure, which are regrettably absent, as already observed, in other branches of the customary law. The most important decision is that of Williams, Acting Chief Justice in the case of CHAN PUI and CHU YAN KIT. That was an appeal from the land officer sitting at Tai Po who had heard expert evidence on the local custom.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213456, "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-1995", "page_number": 52, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "19\n\nprevailing as to the requirements of proper notice to quit. Repeating here extracts from that judgment:\n\n\"I turn now to the evidence of the two witnesses who spoke as to the custom. It is clear from these witnesses that the time notice is given is fixed with reference to the reaping of the second rice crop, which occurs about the 10th moon, and notice is given after the second harvest. Tang Ying Lung mentions that the notice is given at this time, irrespective of whether the land is cultivated with rice or vegetables. It would appear then that in the case of land used for planting rice, the time at which the tenant gives up the land is limited to some 1 1/2 months. During the period from the second harvest until next spring, the land may be lying fallow; if, however, there are vegetables on the land, the tenant can occupy the land for a further period to enable him to get the full benefit from the vegetables which have already been planted, when notice is given. This does not inconvenience the landlord in any way because he will not begin to plough the land until about the 3rd moon. My understanding of the evidence of the custom is that such tenancies are annual; all the landlord is required to do is to notify the tenant after the reaping of the second harvest that he is terminating the tenancy at the end of the year. That is sufficient notice; obviously, there can be no objection if he notifies him he will require the land back at the end of the following year. The custom does not require him to add words to the effect that if the tenant has vegetables on the land, he (the landlord) will give him a further few months. It may well be that the landlord is unaware in what way the tenant is cultivating the land. The tenancy terminates at the end of the Chinese year, but, as the landlord will not require to start work on the land until about the time of the spring planting, the tenant may continue during the early months to remove crops planted at the time of the notice.\n\nThe tenancy is, by custom, annual, and it is sufficient for the landlord to give notice to terminate the tenancy at the end of a year.”\n\nThis matter was also considered by a land officer sitting at Ping Shan in 1954, and he described it thus:\n\n\"There is a Chinese custom, of which I take notice, that a landlord of paddy fields, in the absence of a written agreement, may give verbal or written notice to the tenant on receiving rent after the second harvest and before the Winter Solstice. The land shall be returned by the tenant", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213457, "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-1995", "page_number": 53, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "20 \n\nto the landlord at the end of the 1st moon in the following year \n\nIn the case of vegetable land the same land officer stated that the tenancy is normally given up at the end of the second moon. \n\n114 \n\nRent for paddy land is paid in cash or in “kuk” either once a year or after each rice harvest. Rent for vegetable land is usually paid in cash. The customary right of the tenant to request the landlord to reduce the rent in time of a poor harvest, which has already been mentioned, still exists but the request must be made before the crop is actually harvested so that the landlord may examine the crop himself.' \n\nIn the appeal case cited above, Williams, Acting C. J. also decided that the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance applied generally to the New Territories other than in New Kowloon. 17 Obiter the learned Chief Justice opined that the Ordinance did not apply to agricultural land wherever situate in the Colony \n\nTo complete this review of the Chinese customary law of land in the New Territories we must enter the realm of geomancy The most concise statement of the belief in “fung shui” is also one of the earliest:- \n\nTHE \n\nThe general religious beliefs as to the relations of the spirits with the land are embraced under the name \"Fung shui\", \n\nmeaning \"wind and water”— the two great moving elements in nature. The whole earth, with all that grows out of it, is full of spirits good and bad, which have their own prejudices about the use and occupation of their haunts, and require proper attention from the human beings in their neighbourhood; so it clearly behoves any one intending to build a house or a grave, a road or a railway, to ascertain on the best authority what site or direction he should chose In its origins, fung shui can undoubtedly claim to be based on feelings and ideas natural to human nature, and there is much wisdom in it, which even our modern science cannot entirely ignore. Thus \"fung shui\" forbids the overlooking of other houses or places, and the setting of one grave just above another: for such an action would show a spirit of arrogance and presumption. It sets great store by wild trees, which are for this reason carefully preserved and even worshipped near the villages; and certain large or ancient trees are objects of special veneration. \n\n1", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213468, "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-1995", "page_number": 64, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "31\n\n* These powers of the Land Officer sprang from the New Territories (Land) Ordinance, 1905 (No. 36 of 1905).\n\n1 Such powers were originally conferred on District Officers by the New Territories Small Debts Court Ordinance, 1908 (now repealed). By agreement of the parties, District Officers, by virtue of the proviso to that section, could determine suits with subject matter up to $5,000 in value ($1,000 HK is the approximate equivalent of £62-1st in 1962 - Editor).\n\nBy the Convention of Peking, 9th June 1898 vide Laws of Hong Kong, Allibone's Edition 1913, Vol. III, pp. 6-7.\n\nibid, pp. 8-9.\n\n* § 7, Supreme Court Ordinance 1873 (now s. 5 of Cap. 4).\n\nExtracts from a Memorandum on some Legal Aspects of the Hong Kong Extension, by W. Meigh Goodman, Attorney General of Hong Kong, dated December 1898, in Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1899, p. 209 at p. 210.\n\n19 Mr. Chamberlain (then Sir Joseph) to Sir Henry A. Blake, Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1899, p. 177 at p. 178, para 5.\n\nTranslation of the Chinese Proclamation dated 9th April 1899, being Appendix IX to Sir Henry A. Blake's Report to Mr. Chamberlain dated 19th February 1900, in Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1900, p. 280.\n\nvide my article \"The Choice of Chinese Customary Law in Hong Kong\" (1962) 11 International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 231 at pp. 232-233.\n\n\"Chinese Law and Custom in Hong Kong\" Hong Kong 1953, (hereinafter cited as Committee Report 1953) Appendix 1A at p. 122.\n\n1bid, Chap. II, para. 13 at p. 8.\n\n15 Memorandum of the District Commissioner, New Territories, to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, dated 20th March 1958. It would appear that the 17th April 1899 was the date intended (vide the Governor's Proclamation of 8th April 1899 which appeared as Appendix XX to the Governor's Report in Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1900 at pp. 291-292) to bring the Colony's laws into force in the New Territories with effect from 17th April 1899.\n\n18 (1962) 11 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 231.\n\n17 loc cit para. 6.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213470, "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-1995", "page_number": 66, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "33\n\nOriginally compiled in 1955 by Mr. B D Wilson, MA, District Officer in the New Territories Administration. These notes were revised from time to time in the light of the comments of other officers of that Administration and of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs and have been circulated among the Administration though not published. I gratefully record my thanks to Mr GCM Lupton, District Officer, Tupo who made available to me the latest revision dated 15th September 1959.\n\nFor the customs of the sea-dwelling Tanka and Hoklo I have relied upon material collected by Mr W Duncan of the Department of Co-operative Development and Fisheries. He generously provided me with a copy of that material which in due course he proposes to publish.\n\nThe following brief topographical description is based on the Reports DCNT 1952-53 paras 1-5 as amended by the 1953-54 paras. 1-4; a scientific and detailed description is to be found in Tregear, Land Use in Hong Kong and the New Territories. Hong Kong Univ Press. 1958 (The World Land Use Survey Monograph).\n\nAnalysis of Census Returns, Hong Kong 1961, Table I.\n\nVide Reports, DCNT, 1952-53 para 5 and 1959-60 para 49.\n\nReport, DCNT, 1954-55, para 8.\n\nVide Ballou's article \"Hong Kong Before the British\" in T'ien Hsia Monthly, Shanghai, 1941, pp 331, and 334-336 (Balfour's article is of great authority as it was based on the official local history of the area of Hong Kong and the New Territories \"The Topography of the San On District\" dated 1820 being a revised version of earlier editions dating back to the 15th century).\n\n\"Native to the country\" a Hakka expression for the Cantonese (Reports, DCNT, 1954-55. para 8 and Ballou, op cit p332).\n\nBalfour, op cit p 332.\n\nReports, DCNT, 1954-55, para 8.\n\nBalfour, loc cit.\n\nIbid.\n\nBalfour, op cit p 445.\n\nReports, DCNT, 1959-60, para 45.\n\nBallou, op cit pp 445 and 448.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213473, "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-1995", "page_number": 69, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "36\n\nHong Kong Sessional Papers, 1900, pp 26-269 This Report was forwarded to London under cover of Sir Henry A. Blake's despatch to Mr Chamberlain of 19th February 1900 and this Memorandum of Land was subsequently published as Command Paper 403 in November 1900 (vide Committee Report, 1953, Chap III para 39 and Appendix 10 at p 207, where only two extracts appear) Mr Lockhart stated that the Memorandum was prepared with the assistance of Mr. Messer and Mr Ts'oi, Cader and First Clerk respectively\n\nA later, verbose but less informative source is \"Some Notes on Land Tenure in the New Territories\" attached to the Report, dated 4th March 1901, on the Land Court for 1900 by Mr HHJ Gompertz (who in 1909 was elevated to a puisne judgeship), a Member of that Court - Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1901 p 371 at p. 374\n\n17\n\nThe Emperor of China\n\nre the Chinese Government and Imperial Rent\n\nReport, DCNT, 1959-60, para. 171. The District Commissioner's Report for 1947-48 records (at para 29) that it was discovered in that year that one hamlet had never paid Crown rent since the British occupation of the New Territories This was remedied by the grant of a Block Crown Lease\n\n90 8. New Territories Ordinance (Cap 97)\n\n\"Report, DCNT, 1959-60, para 171\n\nTA\n\ne The Chinese Government\n\nby Bruce Shepherd, Deputy Land Officer, dated 17th January 1900, being Appendix VIII to Lockhart's Report, para. 12 (Hong Kong Sessional Papers, 1900, p 277 at p 279)\n\n44\n\nReport dated 18th February 1905 of Mr C. Mcl Messer, member of the Land Court (Hong Kong Sessional Papers, 1905, p. 149)\n\nReport dated 7th March 1905 of Mr JR Wood, Member of the Land Court (Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1905 p. 147)\n\nIbid, and see also Report on the New Territories 1899-1912, para 21(1), (Hong Kong Sessional Papers, 1912, p 46)\n\n7\n\nTregear, op cit, p 62\n\nDA\n\nReport, DCNT, 1959-60, para 177 and Tregear, loc cit\n\n44 Wilson's Notes\n\nalso sometimes termed \"Ching Sheung\" according to Wilson's Notes", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213474, "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-1995", "page_number": 70, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "37\n\nThis passage was one of the two extracts from Command paper 403 quoted in Appendix 10 to the Committee Report, 1953, and was considered by the Committee to be still relevant (Chap II para 39) See also the Explanation in Appendix 22 to that Report at pp 313-315\n\n101 Wilson's notes. This was the type of land which gave rise to one of the two reported cases dealing with land in the New Territories viz. TANG CHOY HONG vs TANG SHING MO & OTHERS (1949) 33 HKLR 58, See also the decision dated 30th January 1950 of the land officer in Ping Shan Land Case No. 233/75B/48, LEUNG MUN TONG & OTHERS vs WONG KAM KWAI (unreported) - “It is an almost universal custom throughout the New Territories that land which is reserved for ancestor worship, commonly known as \"Ching Sheung\" land, may not be sold \"\n\n(On appeal - Civil Appeal No. 9 of 1950 (also unreported) the order only was varied by Williams Ag CJ)\n\nThe English Rule against Perpetuities probably does not apply to gifts of ancestral land in the New Territories - vide intra under “Succession” and note 137\n\n \n Cap 153\n \n\n10 vide Committee Report, 1953, Chap III para. 39 and Appendix 10 as to money loan associations see below\n\n106 vide s. 19, New Territories Ordinance (Cap. 97)\n\n107 Committee Report 1953, para. 1.3\n\n10 Mr PC Woo, whose views on Chinese custom were highly valued by the 1948 Committee has informed me in a private communication that these terms are not proper legal ones but are slang used by villagers\n\nop cit para 19\n\nReport, DCNT, 1950-52, para 37\n\n1 (1950) 34 HKLR 297 at pp. 304-306\n\n112 Tsun po Land Court Case No. 4 of 1950 (unreported)\n\nper Mr B D Wilson in Ping Shan Case No. 45 of 1954, TSING KAN & OTHERS vs LAI CHEUNG (unreported) the appeal against this decision Civil Appeal No 17 of 1954, LAI CHEUNG vs THE KWOK YUEN (unreported) - was dismissed by Reynolds J on grounds that the Court had no jurisdiction, see also almost identical wording by same land officer in Ping Shan Land Case No 5 of 1953, TANG CHING LOK TSO vs TO HOP CHOI (unreported), the appeal in this case - Civil Appeal No 15 of 1954 (unreported) was similarly dismissed by Reynolds J", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213475, "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-1995", "page_number": 71, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "38\n\n+ Pung Shan Land Case No. 24 of 1954. TANG LAP LEUNG »» TO SHU KAN (unreported) against which the appeal was similarly dismissed by Reynolds J-Civil Appeal No 24 of 1954 (unreported)\n\nWilson's Notes\n\n(1950) 34 HKLR 297\n\nVide Tenancy Tribunal Appeal No 40 of 1950, NG CHOW HING & OTHERS vs KAM WING CHAN & OTHERS, (1950) 34 HKLR 201\n\nTls Report on the New Territories 1899-1912, para 97 (Hong Kong Sessional Papers, 1912 p. 58) General accounts of \"fung shui\" may also be found in Burkhardt, Chinese Creeds and Customs Hong Kong Vol I p 129 and Vol II p. 137\n\nReport DCNT 1959-60, para, 120\n\n120 Memorandum of District Officer, South, to DCNT, dated 22nd December 1959\n\n121 Report on the New Territories 1899-1912, paras 21(2) and 98 (Hong Kong Sessional Papers. 1912, pp 47 and 58), and Report, DCNT, 1959-60, paras 120 and 135\n\n12 Literally notification of the gods ceremony. Report DCNT, 1959-60 para. 125 and memorandum of District Officer, Yuen Long, to DCNT dated 30th October. 1959\n\nReport on the New Territories 1899-1912 para 98 (Hong Kong Sessional papers. 1912 p 58)\n\nDO Yuen Long, loc cit The District Commissioner's Report for the year 1951-52 contains an amusing account of how one village geomancer was confounded (at para, 19).\n\n25 Wilson Notes\n\n125 ibid\n\n127 Cap 97 viz ss. 27, 29, 30 part II, ss. 14 and 57, vide Committee Report, 1953. Chap II, para. 13 at p 7 and the preliminary point decided in the case of TANG CHU YI HONG vs TANG SHING MO and OTHERS (1949) 33 HKLR 58\n\n128\n\nFor which see Chinese Marriages in Hong Kong, Government Printer, 1960, Greenfield. op cit, and Committee Report, 1953\n\n19 vide intra\n\n10 Things Chinese, 4th Edn 1903, p 424 cf MH Van der Valk. An Outline of Modern Chinese Family Law Peking, 1939, pp 82-83, regarding the position under the Nationalist", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213476, "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-1995", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "39\n\nCivil Code (see also Committee Report 2953. pp. 193 and 251)\n\nIn the matter of the state of YOUNG SING, YOUNG LING SHI & 2 OTHERS vs YOUNG HONG NING (unreported) the original record was destroyed during the Japanese occupation but a contemporary newspaper report is to be found in the South China Morning Post of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th July 1940.\n\n12. I am indebted to the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs for giving me permission to peruse their files on the subject (particularly SCA3/251/51 and SCA2/351/54).\n\nPR File SCA2/351/54\n\nWilson's Notes\n\nWilson's Notes, 61; Van der Valk, op. cit. p. 76 where this custom is described under the title of \"T'ung-yang-hsi\".\n\nMorris, Hong Kong and Malaya, E.T.M.S.O. 1937, p. 14, for the custom generally see Burkhardt, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 173.\n\nHvide Committee Report Appendix IV, p. 120 and Chap. I, para. 13 but in Ping Shan Land Case No. 24 of 1954, JANG LAP TEUNG vs TO SHU KAN (unreported) the Assistant Land Officer (Mr. B.D. Wilson), in the absence of proof that perpetual leases could be made under Chinese custom relied upon the English Rule against Perpetuities. (This case was the subject of Civil Appeal No. 24 of 1954 TO SHU KAN vs. JANG LI YAU TSO (unreported) but Reynolds, J. held that he had no jurisdiction to hear and determine the appeal).\n\n19 (1949) HKLR 58.\n\n1 Wilson's Notes; Gompertz, op. cit. para. 16 and compare Jamieson, Chinese Family and Commercial Law, Shanghai 1921, pp. 30-31.\n\nTM Committee Report, 1953, Chap. V, para. 400 at p. 54.\n\n* Now Cap. 30, and see Committee Report, 1953, Chap. II, para. 17 at p. 9.\n\nDe Wilson's Notes.\n\nCommittee Report, 1953, Appendix IV, p. 120 and Chap. II, para. 13, after Williams, Ag. C.J. in Civil Appeal No. 16 of 1947, CHEUNG SAU TIM vs CHEUNG YUI LAM, (1948) 32 HKLR 1, at p. 6.\n\nThis statement is from Wilson's Notes.\n\nT'ung-yang-hsi = a wife married when both parties were previously unmarried.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213500, "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-1995", "page_number": 96, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "64\n\nwhich this path ended was naturally called by this same name. But among the Hakkas, the Island of Hong Kong or rather this northern portion of it, is to the present day called by the same name \"Kwantailou\" (Eitel, 1895, P.134)\n\nAs early as 1841, a shoreline road was planned in the northern part of the Hong Kong Island. It was pegged out by the Chinese labourers and made to connect Sai Ying Pun to East Point, a distance of nearly four miles. It was finished in early 1842 and was named Queen's Road. The road was so cut as to leave generally enough space between it and water and at a safe height above sea-level for the erection of godowns.\n\nThe possession and occupation of the Island in the first instance was largely due to military reasons, especially as the Chinese mainland was so near at hand. There were two Chinese forts on the tip of Kowloon peninsula. Military establishments were therefore quickly set up on the northern coast in order to prevent the Chinese from recapturing Hong Kong.\n\nIn the early days of February 1841, the navy had already laid claim to Navy Bay (Belcher's Creek) lying due east of the bluff then known as Belcher's Point and was already running up store houses on the sloping foreshore.\n\nThe Army had established two camps on the northern shore, one on Cantonment Hill (later known as the Victoria Barracks and the Seven-and-six Penny Hill) and other at Sai Ying Pun, on the long slope which now carries on its shoulders the Hong Kong University and at its foot, the old Reformatory Building (Sayer, 1937, P. 99) and above the present Pokfulam Road. On the site in Third Street where the St. Louis School now stands was a small battery, called the West Point Battery or Elliot's Battery. (A similar battery, East Point Battery or Pottinger's Battery was mounted on the site of Wellington Barracks)\n\nThe barracks at that time were of a more or less makeshift nature. Owing to unstable political situation, it was said that Lord Saltoun, then Commander-in-Chief, would not take upon himself to erect permanent and suitable barracks and officer quarters for the troops. The soldiers were encamped in flimsy structures of bamboo, cane, palm leaves and canvas. The so-called barracks at Sai Ying Pun were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213579, "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-1995", "page_number": 175, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "145\n\n4000 acres. The creation of Government Forestry reserves would however probably involve considerable expenditure in the acquisition of the trees, and in watching and preserving the reserves. Hitherto funds have not been available to meet this expenditure\" (Dunn, 1907).\n\nIt was a delicate matter for graves to be sited within a village forestry area, even within a family's own portion. Agreements had to be forthcoming from village elders and from other families. Sometimes these areas had a secondary fung shui significance. For example, a fung shui hill on Tsing Yi island, consisted of a steep slope covered with pine trees, which was held under a forestry license by the Rural Committee on behalf of the villagers (Hayes 1983).\n\nTsing Yi seems to have been the exception with regard to the islands as Schofield (1983) comments, “Forestry is confined to the growing of firewood for use and sale. The plantations are generally near villages, but some on the islands belong to owners who live elsewhere. Nearly all Tsing Yi is divided between three forestry lots: yet on Lamma there are no forest lots, though there are trees all right. The biggest forestry lot is at Tung Chung. Very little planting is done except when encouraged by the District Officer: trees are allowed to sow themselves. Grass, growing thick in summer, is cut for fuel everywhere in autumn; it is the chief cooking fuel of the New Territories. Its cutting is women's work.” Coates (1968) observes that the natural regeneration of trees and shrubs was severely limited by this regular grass cutting, as young trees could not be seen in the long grass.\n\nThe problems of village forestry were described by Schofield (1977) from his time as a District Officer in the islands in the 1920s: \"During my periods in office I made an attempt to get the Chinese communities and villages owning forest lots to look after them and to plant trees. Free seed was distributed and planting instructions given, and a forest guard appointed to supervise and watch results. The difficulties of forest conservation in such scattered and isolated areas were certainly formidable: one was that the boat people could land almost anywhere and steal trees; another that the grass-cutters who annually collect fuel in the autumn are quite likely to cut and take young seedlings: to say nothing of true diseases and caterpillar infestation, often very serious. One bad case was at Tai O, where an entire hillside was laid bare at one swoop by its licensee instead of being cut in stages, and I told him", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213635, "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-1995", "page_number": 231, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "206\n\ntrials, International Military Tribunals were established, and Russia took part in the Tokyo trial although it had been in the war against Japan for only one week before the surrender. In all the other trials, Tribunals of Officers were set up to hear the cases. The range of offences to be tried as war-crimes was never precisely defined, but broadly concerned “offences against humanity” including events causing cruelty, indeed often death, to prisoners and civilians in occupied territories. The notorious Kempetai (military police) had tortured, and indeed, killed, many thousands usually in an effort to extract confessions. Were these trials a \"Victor's Justice\"? It is true that the Japanese surrender had made the trials possible, but the catalogue of criminality left no doubt that those appearing in the dock deserved the punishment they received. There were acquittals mostly as a result of problems of identification, and some because the required standard of proof had not been satisfied. Tribunals did not attach much weight to affidavit evidence since cross-examination was not feasible. Documents which were contemporaneous on the other hand usually told their own story, although bonfires of such documents had been destroying such evidence in the interval between the Emperor's surrender broadcast and the arrival of the Allied forces.\n\nThe first trial was of General Yamashita, the \"Tiger of Malaya\", who became Supreme Commander of Japanese Forces in the Philippines, and this began in Manila on October 29th, 1945. He was sentenced to death. Other trials were conducted by U.S. Tribunals: 90 were sentenced to death. During 1945 and 1946, Nationalist Chinese Tribunals convicted 504 as war criminals. The French convicted 198, the Dutch 969, Australia 644, and in Singapore and Hong Kong, the United Kingdom Tribunals convicted 811.\n\nAccused were permitted legal representation, and given interpreters and the assistance of an Allied officer, and this was strictly adhered to in the British trials. We had the assistance of Army Investigation Units which collected evidence. One problem was that mistreated P.O.W.s wanted to get home to England or Canada as soon as practicable for rehabilitation, and tribute should be paid to the public-spirited few who agreed to return as witnesses.\n\nMy first case in Hong Kong concerned atrocities in Kinkaseki Camp, Formosa, and its \"Hell Mine\", and one of my star witnesses was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213701, "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-1996", "page_number": 54, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "25\n\n5%\n\nwide divergence where females are concerned cannot be due solely to the transfer of Tsuen Wan alone. This wide divergence can probably be ascribed to the large numbers of women busy in the fields during the 1921 Census period and thus being missed by the 1921 enumerators. The 1921 Census Officer, as noted above, remarked on the problems the peak agricultural season caused for the enumerators, who, clearly, were able to compel the presence of the heads of household, but not always the womenfolk of the family.\n\nThe higher numbers of females as compared with males recorded in both 1911 and 1921 (at ages above about 26 in 1911, and about 32 in 1921) can be ascribed to the temporary absence of many of the males in the City or abroad. As is to be expected, this feature is much less marked in 1921, because of the return of so many males for the Ching Ming Festival, and the greater effort made to record the boat-people, many of whom were prime-age males, whose families were resident outside the New Territories. The higher recorded figures for females at ages above 55 are more likely to be due to differential death-rates, with females living longer.\n\nSouthern District. An Immigrant, Urban Society\n\nWhile the censuses show a settled agricultural society in Northern District, in Southern District they show a society dominated by the land and floating populations of the market town seaports of Cheung Chau, Tai O, and Ping Chau, and marked by significant temporary immigration of young adult males.\n\nAs mentioned above, the census figures are problematic for Southern District. Because of differences in the treatment of New Kowloon, Tsuen Wan, and the floating population, only two tables provide fully usable data: the 1911 figures for the islands' land population, and the 1921 figures for the Southern District floating population. However, even though the series of usable figures is short, nonetheless they clearly show a society radically distinct from that of Northern District.\n\n00\n\nTable 9 shows the reported population figures for the 1911 land population of the islands. As in Northern District, the figures suggest under-reporting of infant children. At 35 births per thousand, the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213710, "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-1996", "page_number": 63, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "It seems likely that the annual birth rate was about 140 males and the same number of females. This represents a figure of 37 births per thousand, higher than that estimated for the land population by the census officer. The recorded number of females aged below 5, even ignoring postnatal deaths, already represents a birth rate of over 30 per thousand, and this suggests that the birth rate among the islands boat-people must have been above 35 per thousand. Up to the age of about 12, the figures for males and females are very similar, and they are again for ages above 45, and even more for ages above 60. These figures must represent the settled, permanently resident floating population. Between the ages of 12 and 45, however, the recorded numbers of males greatly surpass those of females (by about 40% at about age 22).\n\nThere is a very slight change in the angle of curve of the female figures at about age 25, which may represent a very small influx of single women, but the figures recorded for females suggest a single, settled, population of females at all ages. The curve is generally coherent at all ages. This curve suggests the average age of death for boat people women was about 17-18. The recorded figures for females can be taken as accurate, and as descriptive of the settled Southern District boat people.\n\nAs with the 1911 land population figures, however, the males recorded must include a substantial temporarily immigrant adult male component. On the figures given, the average age of death for men was about 37, which is highly unlikely, unless large numbers of temporarily immigrant adult males are in question, many of whom would have left the area before death.\n\nThe average age of marriage recorded for the Southern District boat people in 1921 (about 21-22 for females, 26-27 for males) also suggests a significant number of temporarily resident immigrant adult males. This is discussed in greater detail below.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213724, "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-1996", "page_number": 77, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "48\n\nthere were 15,570 male children under 15 in the New Territories (including New Kowloon), but suggest that about 235 of boys aged 5-15 were believed to be at school at any one time.*\n\nIn 1912, the district officer reported that there were, on average, 2,449 children regularly attending school in Northern District, in 166 schools, and 570 in the islands, in 29 schools.* This would suggest that 28.9% of male children aged 5-15 were at school in Northern District, and 55.5% of those of the same age group among the land population of the Islands.\n\nIn 1913, in the Sung Report on Education in the New Territories, a total of 2,990 students regularly attending school were recorded, in 247 schools, in Northern District, and 233 in 13 schools, in Southern District. However, the Sung Report did not cover Lantau (where there had been eight schools, with 168 students, the previous year). The Sung Report figures differ from those of the district officer and come from a different census, but give an entirely similar picture.*?\n\nIn 1921 another school census of the New Territories found 3,989 at school in 184 schools, although the census does not break the figures down into Northern and Southern Districts. The Report on New Territories Schools noted that, although 3,989 persons were registered as students, the average attendance was about 3,096 (both the Orme and Sung Reports also gave “average attendance\" rather than \"registration\" figures). It will be seen that this school census gives figures again very close to the previous ones,\n\nThus, the 1911 Census, and the 1921 and 1931 Censuses, seem to give figures very much in line with those of the school censuses of 1902, 1912, 1913, and 1921, and these figures must, therefore, be treated as essentially accurate. At any time, about a quarter of all boys between 5 and 15 were at school in the Northern District, and up to half were in Southern District. In 1921, the Director of Education assumed that the average period a boy spent at school was 5 years, but a rather shorter period than this is probable. 3.4-4 years would seem more likely.* Nonetheless, the numbers of full students found make the claims in the three censuses that well over half of all adult land population males in the New Territories were literate believable. The Director of Education was of this opinion in 1921 \"very few males in Hongkong", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213761, "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-1996", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "84\n\nNOTES\n\nDetails of the 1911 Census are in Papers Laid before the Legislative Council of Hongkong, 1911, (Hong Kong Sessional papers), printed by Noronha and Co, Government Printers, Hong Kong, No 17, \"Report on the Census of the Colony for 1911, Laid Before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor, November 23rd, 1911” (Hereafter, Census Report, 1911). This Report consists of an eight-page (49 paragraph) Report (pages 103 (1-9)), with 41 Tables attached to it (pages 103 (10-59)), together with a section of 'Notes for the Guidance of Future Census officers'. Details of the 1921 Census are in Papers Laid before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 1921, (Hong Kong Sessional Papers), printed by Noronha and Co, Government Printers, Hong Kong, No 5, \"Preliminary Report on the Census of Hong Kong, 1921, Laid Before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor, 23rd June, 1921\", and No 15, \"Report on the Census of the Colony for 1921, Laid Before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor, 15th December 1921\" (Hereinafter, the 15th December Report is noted as Census Report, 1921). The preliminary Report consists of an introduction (page 41), followed by Tables of 'Preliminary Figures of the Population' (pages 42-44). The 15th December Report consists of a 19-page Report, in 7 sections (pages 151-169), with 37 Tables (many with several subtables) attached to it (pages 171-232).\n\nThus, the Hoi Ha books which are now deposited with the Regional Council, in the Sha Tin Central Library, are the books and papers of a local doctor and teacher from the remote village of Hoi Ha, in North Sai Kung. Included in them are some notes of information on Italy and the Mediterranean Sea, which must be the record of a conversation with the priests. More specific evidence of contact is a book which the owner of the collection bound in fragments of an Italian newspaper. This evidence dates from 1910-1920. From the late 1890s, there is a deed from Hoi Ha regulating the village's relationship with the bottom-soil landlord, which states that a copy has been deposited with the priests \"for safekeeping\". The owner of the collection had no religious sympathy with the Sai Kung priests.\n\nEmigration is discussed in detail below.\n\nPapers Laid before the Legislative Council of Hongkong, 1912 (Hong Kong Sessional Papers), printed by Noronha and Co, Government Printers, No. 11, \"Report on the New Territories, 1899-1912, Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor, August 22nd, 1912”. (the Orme Report) para 88.\n\nPapers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hongkong, 1902, (Hong Kong Sessional Papers) printed by Noronha and Co, Government Printers, No 14, \"Report of the Committee on Education, Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the officer Administering the Government\", p 392. See also Sessional Paper, 1905, pages 536-7, 1907, page 514, 1908, page 339, Administrative Reports for the Year 1909, page M10; 1910, page N13, 1911, pages N7-8, 1912, page N11-12. The Yuen Long school was at Ping Shan between 1907 and 1912. The poor standards and low numbers of pupils are stressed in 1908, 1909, 1910, and 1911. See also the Orme Report op cit paras. 100-102 and Appendix G, and Administrative Reports for the Year 1920, page O15.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213762, "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-1996", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "85\n\nX\n\n\"J\n\nAdministrative Reports for the Year 1913, pages N13-17, 1914, pages N12-N13, 1915, pages O18-O19, 1916, pages 15-06-1917 page 07-1918, page 09, 1919, page O10, 1920, pages O15, O21, O29-O30, 1927, pages O17-4, O16, O22-O23, O33-O34. Scholarships were offered from these aided village schools to the Government schools in the New Territories, and from the Government schools in the New Territories to those in the City, although very few were taken up in the first few years.\n\nSee RJ Phillips, Kowloon-Canton Railway (British Section). A History, (Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1990), and Administrative Reports for the Year 1910, page R6, 1911, page R1. In 1911, the Sha Tau Kok light railway was opened only as far as Shek Chung Au. The extension of the light railway to Sha Tau Kok came in 1912.\n\nAdministrative Reports for the Year 1910, pages P34-35, 1911, pages P40-41, 1912, page P51, 1913, pages 186-88, 1914, page P85-86, 1915, pages Q94-96, 1916, pages Q77-78, 1917, pages Q88-90, 1918, pages Q81-85, 1919, pages Q53-55, 1920, pages Q64-65, and 1927, pages Q77-78. A programme to build 6 to 8 feet wide footpaths/bridle paths had been begun in the New Territories in 1899. The footpath from Kowloon to Tai Po was completed in 1902, and that from Castle Peak Bay to Au Tau in 1911. The section from Au Tau to Fanling was completed (except for the bridge at Au Tau) by the end of 1914. No path was built between Castle Peak Bay and Sham Shui Po, or between Tai Po and Fanling in this period.\n\nThis footpath construction programme does not seem to have affected traditional village life significantly, although the District Officer felt the new footpaths had made the work of patrolling and administering the New Territories easier. However, the only specific use the District Office noted for the new footpaths, other than by Government officials, was by cattle drivers sending animals to the City for slaughter. The footpaths were \"justified by administrative and military needs” (the Orme Report, pages 30, 32-33, 36). The New Territories circular road was an upgrading of these earlier footpaths, where they existed, but included new construction where the earlier footpaths were lacking.\n\nPapers Land Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 1899 (Hong Kong Sessional Papers), printed by Noronha and Co., Government Printers, Hong Kong, No. 9, \"Extracts From Papers Relating to the Extension of the Colony of Hongkong, Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor. Extracts from a Report by Mr. Stewart Lockhart on the Extension of the Colony of Hongkong,\" p. 187, remarks that, in 1899, the steamers from Hong Kong to Macao called intermittently at Cheung Chau. The Orme Report, op. cit., mentions that steam ferries from Cheung Chau used to carry the fish catch to Hong Kong early in the morning (para 65). See also Administrative Reports for the Year 1913, page J12, 1915, page J9, 1916, page J12, 1919, page J12, 1922, page J12.\n\n1 Including the choice of Cheung Chau as a place to spend weekends and the summer by numbers of European families, mostly missionaries from Canton. This began in a very small way in 1912, but only became a major feature from 1918. In 1919, a “European reservation” was formed, and a small year-round resident European community with an Assembly Hall and a 10-hole golf-course had become established by 1921. Administrative Reports for the Year 1912, page J13, 1914, page J11, 1915, page J10, 1917, page J11, 1918, page J11, 1920, page J12, 1921, page J13.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213765, "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-1996", "page_number": 117, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "88\n\n\"The total Northern District recorded population was 69 thousand in 1911, and 699 thousand in 1921 (including the boat-people), suggesting, at 35 births per thousand, about 2420-2450 births a year, of which half (1210-1225) would be male.\n\nThe 1921 figures for women aged 10-14, 15-19, 25-29, 30-34 do not show the same pattern as the 1911 figures did for the same group a decade earlier; in 1921 these groups, namely 4,380, 3,390, 2,792 and 2,616, thus making it very likely that the differences were due to under-reporting, given the static nature of the population.\n\nThe figures in Table 7 take no account of emigration from the area which would reduce the resident adult male population (particularly between ages 20 and 40). Emigration was a significant social feature (it is discussed more fully below), but does not make the very rough figures in Table 7 substantially inaccurate.\n\n42 Death-rates, of course, differed much more on a year-by-year basis than today. Epidemic disease (smallpox especially) killed many children, but smallpox struck only one year in every 3 or 4. Malaria and dysentery, the other major killers of children after neo-natal infections, were more endemic as problems. The Census officer in 1921 discussed death-rates within the New Territories, but, presumably because he was aware of the problem of under-reporting of children, he limited himself to the death-rates of persons aged over 25, pointing out that the death rates of males between 25 and 50 were double those of England and Wales at the same date, and were 50% higher for females. Between 50 and 60, death rates in the New Territories were, he found, 1.4 times those in England and Wales and rather higher than this for females. The percentage of the population still alive at age 60 in the New Territories was less than half that in England and Wales for males, and barely half for females (Census Report 1921, page 161, para 8).\n\n55\n\nPapers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hongkong, 1900. (Sessional Papers), printed by Noronha and Co, Government Printers, No 8, \"Report of the Acting Principal Civil Medical Officer for the Year 1900. Laid Before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor\", p. 253, 1902. No 37, p 729, 1905, No 15, p 266, 1906. No 14, p 350, 1907. No 27, p 459, 1908, No. 21, p 459, etc., Administrative Reports for the Year 1909, p K54-6, 1910 p L51-52, 1911 p L61, 1912, p L60-61, 1913, p. L61-62, 1914. p L63. 1915, p M57-58, etc. A short history of medical provision in the New Territories is in Administrative Reports for the Year 1932, p M103-104.\n\n55\n\n21\n\nReductions in infant, especially neo-natal, mortality in the market-towns between 1911 and 1921 were certainly less than the numbers of infants not reported to the Census, and thus are invisible in the statistics.\n\nThe 4.3% reduction the loss of Tsuen Wan implied was offset, to a large extent, by the 1921 higher figures for the boat people. Between these two factors, the 1921 figures would be expected to be lower than the 1911 figures by about 1-2%.\n\n~ Administrative Reports for the Year 1920 page O29-30", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213767, "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-1996", "page_number": 119, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "90\n\n65\n\nCensus Report, 1971, Tables II and XIII. No detailed breakdown of Dialect Spoken in the Home by the floating population is included in the 1911 Census\n\n* Oral evidence suggests that the boat people did have larger families than the land people, and a higher rate of infant mortality, but these figures still suggest that the “35 per thousand\" figure given by the Census officer in 1921 may have been slightly under-estimated\n\n67 Census Report, 1921, Table XXVI\n\n68 Taken from the 1911 Table of Places of Birth (Northern District), and the 1921 Tables of\n\nPlaces of Birth (Northern District Southern District, Floating Population)\n\n69\n\nCensus Report, 1911, Table XXVIII\n\n70 The 1911 Census records 24,468 males of 10 years old and upward, and 22,460 of 15 years and upward, suggesting about 24,000 of 12 years and upward The married state of 24,378 males is recorded, of whom 881 were married before the age of 12 The corresponding figures for Northern District females are 27,926, and 24,378, suggesting about 26,000 aged 12 and upward, with the married state of 26,723 females actually recorded, of whom 902 were married before the age of 12\n\n* The corresponding figures in 1911 for the Southern District land population were 0.8% and 1.1%\n\n* In 1911 the Married State figures for Southern District are not broken down into the Islands and New Kowloon, and are therefore difficult to use\n\n* The \"Occupations\" Table of the 1921 Census (TABLE XVIII) shows 31 male, and 104 female religious in North District, and 14 male and 71 female religious in South District in 1921\n\n24 Census Report 1911, Table XXX\n\n75 Census Report 1921, Table XII See also Alice Ng Lun Nga-ba, \"Village Education in Transition The Case of Sheung Shui”, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol 82 (1982), pp 252-270 generally for this section of this article\n\n76 In 1931, the Census Officer stated that he felt the 1921 Census figures for educational attainments of the floating population were inaccurate. He suggested 34.04% of floating population males over 20, and 1.38% of females over 20 were literate These figures, however, are not broken down by district See Sessional Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 1931, printed by Noronha and Co, Hong Kong, 1931, No 5/1931, \"Report on the Census of the Colony of Hong Kong, 1931\" (the Census Report, 1931), p [4]\n\n* See Alice Ng Lun Ngai-ha, op cit p 266\n\nCensus Report, 1911, Tables XXXV and XXXVI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213768, "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-1996", "page_number": 120, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "91\n\n7 The Census Officer in 1931 came to this conclusion, after considering the evidence in some depth Census Report, 1937, pp. 139-141\n\n440\n\nPapers Laid before the Legislative Council of Hongkong, 1902 (Hong Kong Sessional Papers), printed Noronha and Co Government Printers, 1903, No. 14 \"Report of the Committee of Education” (The Brem Report), \"Land before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government”, p.392\n\n* Crime Report, op cit para 101, and Appendix G\n\n* Administrative Reports for the Year 1913, pages N[3-17\n\n** Administrative Reports for the Year 1921, pages 03-4, 022-23\n\n** Administrative Reports for the Year 1921, page 03-4. An average of 34 years would imply about 80% of boys received some education 4 years, about 70%\n\n*The Tampo Market Girls School, the Cheung Chau Girls School, the Yuen Long Girls School, and the London Mission Society School (Co-educational) at Tsuen Wan By 1931 there were distinct signs of improvement while only 2.81% of land population females over 21 were then literate, 1.69% of those aged 16-20 were\n\nHer\n\nThe withering scorn with which the Sung Report treats the content of the traditional curriculum and teaching methods of the village schools should be treated with some caution Sung was an extreme proponent of the \"new methods” in education\n\n* Census Report, 1977, Tables XXXV, XXXVI, Census Report, 1927, Table XVII\n\nKH\n\nKU\n\nCensus Report, 1921, para 4. The criticism of the 1921 \"Occupations” statistics was repeated in the 1931 Census Report\n\nCensus Report, 1921, Table XXVIII\n\nCensus Report, 1927, Table XXXIVa\n\n\"Census Report, 1927, Table XXIII, Part I and Part II\n\n02\n\nOmitting people working in agricultural occupations, fishermen, domestic servants, people working in religion, teachers/students, sailors on ocean-going ships, grass-cutters, Cartway workers, road transport workers, caddies miners and lime-burners, seamstresses and Mu Tsu\n\n\"Aberdeen, Ap Lei Chau, Lam Wan and Wong Chuk Hang also show dominance of the population by males, as does Shau Kei Wan, but these areas should be considered more as market towns, with subordinate industrial villages, and thus to fall more with places like Sai Kung or Peng Chau\n\n* Census Report, 1971, Tables XII, XIII\n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213817, "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-1996", "page_number": 169, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "141\n\nthe verandah and afterwards in the little parlour I was soon deep in an argument with Eitel and Winness, as to the general tendency and aim of Paul's preaching, and we maintained the point a long time, without either giving way. At last Winness is a fine Chinese scholar, and we had a long talk about religious publications in the Chinese language, of which he has written several. Then we turned in for the night, after our evening devotions, and after hearing Mr Winness' evening service, in his chapel. Really the singing of his boys was melodious to a high degree. He has about 20 whom he teaches German, etc. One is now at Hong Kong waiting to go to Germany to be educated as a missionary, and can play the Harmonium quite well.\n\nWe then turned in. The only two rooms in the house for Europeans served our turn. Four in one, and three in the other. It was sharp work. The mosquitoes were immense great things, and big enough, and many enough to suck all the blood out of one man, but with seven of us, they could not quite manage it. So in the morning we were all able to get up. Few of us slept much. I slept but very little, although I had the best bed.\n\nIn the morning I took a walk over the hills with Eitel for an hour or two, and then after breakfast we prepared to go on the hills pheasant shooting. I got a long two-barrelled gun, and Stringer got another, and so four of us started, with a guide. Two at last struck out one way, and then Capt Drummond and I went the other.\n\nWe were soon out of sight and hearing of the rest. But no pheasants were to be seen. This Drummond is a fine fellow, and has no foolery about him. He appears to be as good a Christian officer as could be expected, considering the many things they have to make them wild and dissipated. His right hand and shoulder were bitten severely by a great tiger in India, which caught him and carried him off. The tiger was soon wounded, and at length dropped him, and next day was shot dead. It just gave him a pat on the head with its paw, and made him insensible. It was a narrow escape. The tiger was rather old and its teeth were almost worn out, or it would have been far worse with him.'2 We walked a long time, but shot nothing.\n\nSo we began to bend our steps home through the village of Lilong. We looked at many houses and things, and even entered some of them and looked about. We were much amused with the immense great wheelbarrows the people use. The wheel is made of planks, sawed...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213969, "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-1997", "page_number": 38, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "Africa and South-east Asia to be suspicious of the pretensions of local leaders whose personal interests were not always easily identifiable with those of the common man—or, in their new surroundings, the worker in the plastics factory and his family. They had been conditioned by British policy and practice elsewhere to accept a goal of parliamentary democracy and self-determination as the norm; and while admitting that Hong Kong was, in the other cant phrase, “unique,” they saw no reason for it to be utterly different in ethos.\n\nSomeone who appreciated the subtle differences within colonies and between their officials was the last Colonial Service Governor, Sir David Clive Crosbie Trench GCMG MC. Trench had started his service in the Western Pacific, where as a District Officer in the Solomon Islands he had been a wartime \"coastwatcher\" in the mountains, reporting on Japanese activity, and had earned a military decoration during the Allies' reoccupation. He was one of the few Administrative Officers to benefit from the old Colonial Office's unspoken \"seven year rule.\" Under this, those who had spent that length of time in the supposedly enervating climate and mores of the Pacific should be sent to more politically and mentally bracing parts of the empire, the better to come back refreshed when more senior (determined Resident Commissioners in the Western Pacific, who thought seven years only just enough to train their juniors in the proper ways, usually managed to circumvent this best-laid plan.) Trench came to Hong Kong after the war, where he acquired a strong and popular reputation, notably in the Labour Department, as reorganiser of the Fire Brigade and as Deputy Colonial Secretary (DCS). It was no surprise when he went back to the Western Pacific as High Commissioner; there he presided over the creation for the egalitarian Melanesian society in the Solomon Islands of a novel democratic form of government based, via a constitution already adapted for Ceylon, on the pre-war London County Council, with committees instead of ministers (some of whose chairmen, however, inevitably assumed ministerial pretensions.) After three years, he returned to Hong Kong as Governor in 1964.\n\nBefore he had left, Trench had naturally always shown greater sympathy with and understanding of the \"interlopers,\" as the aforesaid subset was vulgarly known, than did some of his senior colleagues. Although relations with a governor were inevitably more remote than those with a senior secretariat officer had been, he contrived not to be", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213972, "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-1997", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "6\n\nordinary people could play a greater part in their own local affairs without \"rocking the boat,\" and so strengthen what was still in the 1960s a nebulous sense of identity with Hong Kong as something more than a dependent entrepôt.\n\nBill Dickinson had come to Hong Kong from West Africa as a man of good report with capacity for high office, widely experienced in local government and as right-hand man to the deputy governor of the Gold Coast (now Ghana). It may be thought that he made insufficient effort to affect the outward manners of a society that regarded itself as more sophisticated than an officer who preferred to wear khaki shorts in summer; he was generally seen as a stranger from a dark continent, and though well-liked did not move in élite circles. As Clerk of Councils and a Principal Assistant Colonial Secretary, he had held positions which gave knowledge but little power. Sir David Trench found in him an appropriate officer to assist in solving his dilemma. On 29 April 1966, he appointed Dickinson to chair a working party with the following (typically for Hong Kong detailed) terms of reference:\n\nTo explore and advise on practicable alternatives for the development of an effective and convenient system of local administration in Hong Kong which will take account of the size and complexity of the existing Urban Areas, the planned creation of new towns in the New Territories, and the different stages and development in the rural areas, with particular regard to—\n\n(a) the types of local authority which might be established and the criteria which might govern their establishment;\n\n(b) their possible composition, and the various methods of selection and tenure of office of members which might be considered;\n\n(c) the powers and functions they might have;\n\n(d) possible sources of revenue and financial powers;\n\n(e) their staff and the means by which their functions might be carried out;", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214031, "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-1997", "page_number": 99, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "66\n\n13\n\nDespite this, the Pangs are free to rent it to outsiders for profit because this will not change their legal ownership. This social phenomenon manifests villagers' two underlying distinctive concepts, as David Faure suggests, that is, the right of settlement and the right of residence. He points out that not all residents in the village enjoy settlement rights, as the rights can only be inherited by the lineage founder's male descendants.1 One will be considered as a lineage member if one can trace common descent and hold the same settlement rights. Residents who do not hold settlement rights are defined as outsiders. They have no right to elect anybody or to serve in any posts (such as the village guard and Village Representative) in the lineage, nor can they participate in or benefit from lineage religious activities. Therefore, keeping village houses by lineage members is synonymous with maintaining their prescribed settlement rights to sustain their lineage community.\n\nAs a matter of fact, property dispute is not unknown in Fanling Wai. The following case study demonstrates the way in which the Pangs strategically manipulated the spatial differences between agricultural land and housing land to prevent a married-out daughter from inheriting the zu wu. In the dispute, patrilineal ideology is commonly articulated by different parties involved, namely, the Village Representatives (who are elected by male villagers to speak for their interests and whose power is legitimised by the government) and the female villagers, to safeguard their interests.\n\nPang Chiu Sun had only a daughter, Pang Mei Fan (see Diagram 1). In the late 1970s, after her parents' death, Mei Fan applied for the inheritance of her father's property, which included nine plots of agricultural land and two village houses. Her application, however, was objected to by Pang Man Si (Mei Fan's father's brother's wife). Man Si complained to the District Officer that Mei Fan should be precluded from inheriting her father's property. She argued that, according to the Pang lineage custom, married-out daughters enjoyed no rights to inherit the housing property in Fanling Wai.\n\nVillage Representatives arbitrated this case. In 1979, they arrived at the resolution that Mei Fan inherited her father's landed property and the village houses were managed by Man Si as a trustee. Their rationale is that, by custom, zu wu should only be inherited by male", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214034, "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-1997", "page_number": 102, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "69 \n\nproject, about 1,924 acres of agricultural land in Fanling and Sheung Shui were reclaimed.22 Besides, in 1982, thirteen acres of the Pangs' agricultural land were then resumed to build a park. By surrendering their lands to the government, the Pangs received cash compensation. The land records show that, for example, Pang On Sun in 1981 surrendered agricultural lands with a total area of 2,168 square feet and received $224,334 at a rate of $103 square feet. In the same month a plot of agricultural land of 3,610 square feet, owned by Pang Chung On, was reclaimed by the government, and he received $372,860 cash compensation. Besides, the Pangs since the late 1970s have also been granted cash from their corporately-owned land trusts when the trust land was resumed by the government. The villagers say that a trust member has been granted more than twenty hundred thousand dollars in total or so from their trusts since the 1980s. As they received cash compensation, many of them saved up for building houses.\n\nAfter the 1980s, however, the Pangs find that they do not have enough land to build ding wu, as most land has been resumed by the government. Moreover, the government has not provided any building land for them in or nearby Fanling Wai. Consequently, by 1990, the number of applications for purchasing Crown land to build ding wu had increased to 300. In 1994, a new set of selection criteria was drafted by the District Officer and the Village Representatives for evaluating the applications.3 Those additional criteria included the applicant's family size, financial competence to pay the construction costs of building house, contribution to the village and so forth.4 Besides, the Village Representatives recommended that the applicants residing in the village or in Hong Kong took priority for having their applications granted over those overseas applicants, as they were said to be in greater need. As a result, 69 villagers were selected from among approximately 300 applicants under this new selection system.2\n\n25\n\nPang Yeuk Lung was one of the successful applicants. He was a village committee member from 1985 to 1994 and a member of Da jiao committee in 1990. His payment for the construction costs largely came from the cash dividends of his ancestral trusts in the 1980s. He said the amount he could save from his job was little, as most of it was spent on the family. Pang On Sun was another successful applicant. He was a seaman from the 1950s to the early 1980s and remitted a large part of his salary to support his family. His savings for building a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214043, "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-1997", "page_number": 111, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "78\n\n47\n\n#\n\nGovernment Press\n\nThe total land area of Fanling and Sheung Shui was 13,184 acres (20.6 square miles). See Heung Yee Kuk, Xin Jie Xiang Yi Ju Cheng Li Lu Shi Zhou Nian Jin Dian Te Kan (The Special Issue for the New Territories Heung Yee Kuk's 60th Anniversary [published in 1986]), p. 182\n\nA name list of successful applicants was posted on the village notice-board in 1991. A total of 69 ding houses were allowed to be built. But unsuccessful applicants tore down the list and then submitted objections to the District Office. They complained that some successful applicants were found to be living abroad, some came from the same family, and that most village council members of Fanling Wai (cun wei hui cheng yuan) were successful applicants. The result was considered unfair because many of these successful applicants were said to have bribed the Village Representatives for their applications. So the District Officer and Village Representatives had to set up new criteria for reconsidering the applications.\n\n\"The detail of the criterion is as follows (Data collected from the Fanling Wai village notice-board in 1994): (1) Villagers having large families and those whose present living conditions were comparatively less desirable. (1) Villagers who could afford the construction costs of the houses and were unlikely to dispose of the completed houses to outsiders. (11) Villagers who were enthusiastic towards serving fellow villagers and were benevolent towards the affairs of the village. (iv) Villagers who had submitted applications before June 1989. (v) Applicants who were or had been members of either the village committee, or Da Jiao Committee or Village Guard would be considered to have served their fellow villagers and to be benevolent towards the affairs of Fanling Wai. (Da Jiao is a lineage-based religious festival, see footnote 10). (vi) Where two or more applicants having a father and son relationship were successful in this selection exercise, only one application would be selected for allocation of a Small House site.\n\n\"Some villagers anticipated that their building rights would not be realized in their lifetime due to the keen competition or to their lack of money, so they decided to sell their \"right to build\" (ding quan) to land developers to profit. That is, land developers have offered villagers money to make use of their building rights to apply to build houses elsewhere. During my fieldwork, I found a total of seven Pangs who had successfully applied to build ding houses outside Fanling Wai. Six were built in San Wai of Lung Yeuk Tau (the Tang lineage settlement in Fanling), and one in Long Chai, Fanling. In fact, the phenomena of selling ding quan by villagers to make a profit has been a common one. For example, according to the Far Eastern Economic Review, ten villagers living abroad who had no intention of returning to Hong Kong made a total profit of $500,000 by selling their ding quan to land developers (1982: 55, quoted in Allen Chun, op. cit., p. 222).\n\n* In 1976, in order to discourage villagers from making profits by selling their ding wu, the government amended the policy to pay the government full market value premium if houses are sold within five years of the end of construction work.\n\n27. The emigrant Mans also built new village houses in San Tin as the ultimate proof of their stake in the community of their birth. See James Watson, op. cit., p. 165", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214286, "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": 144, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "107\n\nWEAPONS OF THE CHINA WARS\n\nRICHARD J. GARRETT\n\nOne of the remarkable features of the nineteenth century China wars was the ability of a relatively small force of European soldiers and sailors to overcome a numerically superior Chinese force. Just as in the recent Gulf War, where Saddam Hussein's dream of a 'mother of all wars' was shattered by high tech. weaponry, so one of the factors which made the difference was, undoubtedly, the vast difference in the military technology available to each side. It was not the only factor, but it is necessary to understand it to arrive at a clear picture of the China wars.\n\nIt is worth dismissing any idea that the quality of the fighting men was inferior. There are many instances of troops fighting to the death and refusing to surrender.1 Indeed, to the European mind some of these heroics seemed foolish, just as they could not understand why people committed suicide rather than fall into the hands of the 'barbarians.'2 Captain Loch R.N. remarks that \"I feel persuaded that, if drilled under English officers, they would prove equal, if not superior, to the Sepoys; they have greater physical power, greater obstinacy, and consequently minds that retain impressions with greater tenacity, and would be slow to lose confidence after it was once built upon the foundations of their vanity.\"3 It was not that the officers were cowards, as many of the Mandarins died bravely, but rather there was no conception of the need for the troops to be trained to act together as a whole. Mackenzie, an officer present during the first war, notes: \"As yet, I imagine that no field exercise and evolutions have been compiled for the use of the Chinese Army. Neither do the troops, as far as I observed, move in concert, nor do they make any formation in bodies.\"5 Although the Manchu armies had been an efficient fighting force at the time of the conquest, two centuries later they neglected to maintain rigorous training programmes.\n\nThe European officers, on the other hand, put a lot of effort into exercising their men. An example of this is recorded by Lord Jocelyn: \"During our stay in Singapore the seamen of the flag-ship Wellesley were exercised on shore, under the supervision of the commanding...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214287, "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": 145, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "108\n\nofficer, Captain Maitland, whose unwearied attention and military taste soon brought 350 sailors into a state of discipline, very little, if at all, inferior to the best light-troopers in our service...\" \"The Chinese felt no such need, and the reason is probably related to the tactics employed. The European style of fighting had developed continuously over hundreds of years, and had evolved along with the weapons. The Chinese, on the other hand, had not been exposed to the same demands, as they had not had to fight an efficient army since the start of the Qing dynasty in 1644. They had fought wars to consolidate their control over the full extent of China, and there had been a number of uprisings that had to be put down. However, in all these cases they had fought troops which were less well organised and had weapons which were similar to their own and hence, there had been no pressing need to modernise their army. They still fought with weapons which had not materially changed since the early 17th century. With such weapons, there was less need to be disciplined as the normal outcome was a melee of hand to hand fighting with spear and sword.\n\nWhat then was the weapon technology of the period? There were then, as today, two main classes of weapon in use. These were artillery and hand held arms, both projectile and cut and thrust weapons.\n\nArtillery\n\nArtillery includes rockets as well as cannons, as they required more than one person to transport and operate them. The purpose of the artillery was to destroy fortifications, including ships, and to kill troops. All cannon, or guns as they were commonly called, were, at the time, muzzle loaders and smooth bored. Cannon could be mounted in fixed batteries on shore, on ships or on carriages that allowed them to be transported with the ground troops. In the latter case they are referred to as field pieces or field guns. In the campaigns of the first two China wars, the main use of artillery was in battles between the ships of the European navies and the shore batteries of the Chinese forts. The European forces also employed field guns whilst the Chinese did not appear to, even though they did possess a type of mobile gun (see below).\n\nTaking the European side first, let us consider what artillery was available. First, and most important, were the guns mounted on the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214764, "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-1999", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "143\n\norders us to evacuate our positions and retire to Aberdeen. We are amazed at such an order but apparently the Japs have broken through over Mt Nicholson turning our left flank. We collect our small force and start our retirement. Heavy firing coming from Wanchai Gap where fierce fighting is going on. What a forlorn sight we make groping our way back through the hills in the dark. Finally reach Aberdeen, the Canadians going to Mount Gough and I take my men to the AIS. Atmosphere depressing and everyone falls to sleep through exhaustion. Up early, lucky for me, as a bomb lands on my bed just as I leave the room wrecking everything including my kit. AIS heavily shelled causing many fires and casualties.\n\nWed twenty fourth and Thursday Xmas day. The retirement order was a mistake and back we go to Bennetts with guns and equipment. Just as we reach the top the Japs open up on us with mortars. We have no protection and lie flat. The shells land amongst us. Man next to me hit, also several others. Piece of shrapnel glances off my helmet and am half buried in flying debris. If we stay we shall all be killed so order the men to disperse and dash for cover and miraculously we make it. During the barrage I had noticed that one of our previous posts was still manned by Canadians who obviously had not received the order to withdraw. Cpl Blueman AC, Canadian, volunteers to go with me to try and get them out. We climb on our bellies through the thickest undergrowth but are fired on several times. Finally we get within hailing distance and get them all into a pillbox. We collect all the arms and equipment which we can't carry, pile them into the pillbox, and throw a couple of grenades into the pillbox. As we start back everything goes off at once and we have to duck flying bullets. Eventually we arrive intact at the AIS.\n\nNo one seems to know where the Japs are so back we go to a new position guarding the bridge over Aberdeen reservoir. My party consists of twelve Canadians and ten RAF. Up to midnight all is quiet although every sound indicates Japs to the men. Soon after midnight heavy firing starts just across the bridge. The Japs weird war cry is plainly heard and soon a small party of Canadians retire over the bridge. They report a heavy attack by Japs who crept up on them and broke through. We open up with everything we have across the bridge. The Canadians are badly rattled, even their officer seems to have lost control of his men. The Japs start shelling us and confusion sets in and the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214767, "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-1999", "page_number": 182, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "146\n\nJust as I was congratulating myself on a good day's work, a Jap officer came up and ordered me back into the lorry. Whimpey and Frank got off. He directed me by hand signs to drive to Courtlands Hotel which had been taken over by the Japs. The few remaining residents looked pretty scared. More troops piled in and, after a very trying drive through Kennedy Town, we finally reached the St Louis Industrial School where they all got out. We had passed hundreds of troops and the streets were littered with dead Chinese. I was beginning to think my work was done when several officers started arguing and kept pointing at me and looking aggressive. Suddenly one of the officers whipped out his sword and I thought they had decided to bump me off but to my amazement he produced a bottle of beer, nipped the top off with his sword, and handed me the bottle. I was then given a loaf of bread. Apart from one or two soldiers, they had treated me very well. My wings seemed to fascinate them. By now I wanted to call it a day but another officer got in the lorry and off we went back to the hotel. He had some beer with him and handed me the bottles to open. I stopped the van and wedged the tops off on the mudguard. This seemed to amuse him and he tried to do the same on the dashboard with drastic results. Once more the van is loaded up with troops. Another officer takes over who is not so pleasant and I get half an inch of bayonet in my bottom for being too slow. Back to the School where another terrific argument starts. I want to go back with the van but two officers decide to drive me back in a Ford Ten. They don't use any lights and we have several narrow escapes from hitting lamp posts. Suddenly I see we are heading for one of the islands in the middle of the road and shout a warning. Too late and there's a terrific crash and we finish up on our backs. By now I am fed up so, bowing politely, I leave them and walk the two miles to China Command.\n\nSaturday. Five of us sleep in a small office. All our water has to be drawn from a stream nearby. No one knows what is going to become of us and everyone tries to guess at our future destination. Some Jap officers inspect us.\n\nSunday twenty eighth. More troops arrive from Stanley and report that Japs raped and bayonetted nurses in St Stephens hospital, also killed the wounded. Colonel Smith, whose wife was one of those killed, goes nearly mad and tried to get at the nearest Jap. Several atrocity stories come to light and atmosphere becomes very tense. Two destroyers", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214774, "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-1999", "page_number": 189, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "153\n\never with me. I still have your photograph, signet ring and cigarette case. I will never lose them.\n\nSeventh. Eight officers move into the flat including a Chinese called Evans. In my room I have Captain Chippywood and Lieut Tressider. Ian Blair and Mathers of the Punjabis bring along some chapatties which go down well with butter and marmalade. Roy Haywood and Glasgow join us and spend a pleasant evening. Ken had been to Kai Tak on a working party and been roughly handled by a sentry but an officer apologised and gave him a tin of plums which he brings along.\n\nEighth. Shave my beard off and feel a new man. Florrie turns up and I get another good parcel. I had told her if she wanted to get a note to me to bore a hole in a bar of soap and put the note inside. She has made a good job of it. Poor kid, the Japs have turned her out of her home. I keep trying to stop her bringing me parcels but she tells me to mind my own business.\n\nNinth and tenth. A Jap general is due to arrive and after a two-hour wait on parade he arrives and goes in a few minutes. Florrie turns up again and I get within ten yards of her. She appears to be in tears. I get a note to her and tell her not to bring any more food but she just smiles and says she will be here again on Sunday. News bad, Japs having landed on Singapore Island. Things look grim.\n\nEleventh and twelfth. Another parade and we are kept standing for two hours and nearly freeze to death, several men pass out. One has to go to bed fully dressed to keep warm. Chippy keeps us constantly amused with his antics.\n\nThirteenth. Electricity is turned on and we find a bulb. What luxury. Still very cold and news still bad. Had slight attack of stomach poisoning. Give men a lecture on discipline as some troops in camp, not RAF, are getting unruly. GOC says he will hand control over to Japs unless men snap out of it. My men behaving very well. On the evening parade camp commandant says if I miss the others and says that perhaps in two months I shall be with them. Bitterly cold, difficult to keep warm.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214829, "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-1999", "page_number": 244, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "211\n\n\"THAT SINGULAR AND HITHERTO ALMOST UNKNOWN COUNTRY\"; OPINIONS ON CHINA, THE CHINESE, AND THE \"OPIUM WAR” AMONG BRITISH NAVAL AND MILITARY OFFICERS WHO SERVED DURING HOSTILITIES THERE.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nIntroduction\n\nIn February 1840, the British Government advised the Qing authorities of the dispatch of an expeditionary force of troops and warships to the China Coast. Its purpose was to force the Chinese authorities to cease their harassment of British traders and officials resident in China, and to make reparation for goods and property taken from them. A blockade of China's principal ports was to be established, and one or two islands demanded as a place of residence and commerce for British subjects. A piece of Chinese territory was to be occupied, to be restored only when matters were settled to the British Government's satisfaction. Hostilities continued on and off until August 1842 when three specially appointed Chinese commissioners signed the treaty of Nanking on board a British warship in the Yangtse River.\n\nThis much is, of course, common knowledge. However, the subject matter of this paper is perhaps less well known. Among the by-products of the China Expedition were the books written by British naval and military officers about the War and their experiences in China. Some of the letters sent to family and friends at home have also found their way into print. Such books and letters, together with official papers, are used here to illustrate the sentiments, opinions and attitudes of the day towards China and the War, and I have occasionally quoted from them at length, in order to provide greater realism.\n\nScant Knowledge of China and the Chinese\n\nThis was the first time that British forces had fought in China. Consequently, there was no one with experience of conducting operations there on land or sea. Moreover, the higher levels of society to which the British officer corps mostly belonged - the aristocracy, the landed gentry and the professions - had little or no knowledge of China.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214832, "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-1999", "page_number": 247, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "214\n\nForce conceded that there were reasons for beginning hostilities against China, whilst others were openly critical of a war opened on behalf of opium traders, badly treated or not.\n\nAn anonymous military writer in Colburn's United Service Magazine observed bitterly at the time that \"the poor Chinese - with their painted paste-board boats - must submit to be poisoned, or must be massacred by the thousand, for supporting their own laws in their own land.\" Another military officer, Lieutenant John Ouchterlony of the Madras Engineers in his history of the War, conceded: \"That the quarrel was an unhappy one and for many reasons to be deeply deplored, does not admit of a doubt.\"\n\nAt the same time, Ouchterlony introduced a wider consideration for his readers. However plausible the view taken in England by those opposed to a war which, as they thought, was being undertaken to enforce the opium traffic, it was, he said, “on our part just and unavoidable\" due to the \"vindictiveness and insufferable arrogance of the Chinese government\" during the past half-century. \"The opium question,\" to his mind, was to be \"regarded merely as a spark blown into a mine, and no more to be considered the primary cause of the war than the match which ignites the train...\" This was a view shared by another young officer, Lieut. Wyndham Charles Baker of the Madras Engineers, as we see from one of his published home letters.\n\nNot all their brother officers were convinced. The naval surgeon Edward Cree, was more concerned with the results of the War. Noting in his journal for Monday 29th [August] 1842 that \"the articles of the treaty [were] signed this day,\" he commented:\n\n“So ends the Chinese War. About the justice and policy of it I leave to more competent judges, but one thing I dislike in connection with it is the opium question. It has cost the lives of many thousands of human beings, and great destruction of property and misery and sorrow to many.\n\nWaging War in European Style\n\n11\n\nIn official circles in Britain, China's Court and Government were blamed for bringing on the War. Perhaps because of this, the British", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214872, "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-1999", "page_number": 287, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "256\n\nGetting to Tong Fuk at that time was a slow business. After taking a scheduled ferry from Hong Kong, and travelling along the new South Lantau Road to the road-end at Cheung Sha, half the distance to Shek Pik, we had still to walk along old country paths and ford large and small streams. One of these stream courses was wide and boulder-strewn, and crossing it in full flood after heavy rain, as well as several smaller ones, was guaranteed to give one a thorough soaking. However, being young and active, and in high spirits, we thought nothing of it. In fact, I positively enjoyed it! Nonetheless, when visits were so time-consuming and there was plenty of work to do in the office and elsewhere in the District, the need to go out so frequently in that short space of time was not appreciated.\n\nOn this occasion, local opposition was centred on one especially sensitive spot, where the villagers insisted that rock and boulders be broken up by hand instead of being removed by blasting with explosives. My reluctant acquiescence made the District Office unpopular with the government engineers from the Roads Office, who thought we were pandering to the villagers. So it might have seemed, but there was otherwise certain to be a conflict with people who were quite numerous, united in their opposition, and always capable of taking the law into their own hands, not omitting sabotage of contractors' equipment and installations. In this respect, I may add, they were no different from the majority of New Territories' villagers of the day.\n\nTo run such a risk was not advisable in circumstances where both the senior police and civil authorities were based in Kowloon, several hours' journey from the site. Violent confrontations would not have been acceptable to my seniors; and in any case, it was part of my personal responsibility as District Officer to avoid that kind of thing. Moreover, further, and more prolonged delays would be certain to ensue. This was unthinkable.\n\nNonetheless, our experiences on this particular occasion were certainly rather trying. The full story, on two and a half closely typed pages, was contained in a minute to the District Commissioner dated 27th May 1958. I do not know whether it has survived in the Public Records Office of Hong Kong, but fortunately I kept the copy on which this account is based.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214992, "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-2000", "page_number": 88, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "44\n\nIt was considered that more rapid progress could be made with the utilisation of the Chinese [British] officers as they had technical knowledge and could speak the language. At a meeting at which the CO of the 78th Labour Group, Lt Col. Cline, together with all the Chinese Company officers, it was decided that 2Lt Carter be attached to the Works Office staff to administer the Chinese Labour with one Chinese Company officer attached to each section to supervise the Chinese labour. They were responsible, amongst other duties, for bringing to the notice of Section Commanders any coolies for trade training. This scheme produced better results in that the Chinese were continually supervised and also that they appreciated someone looking after their interests.\n\nIn March, 1918, a total of 248 Chinese were skilled at varying jobs from fitters, riveters, carpenters and strikers amongst others. Squads were formed for performing particular jobs such as detracking and changing engines.\n\nBetween January and March, under 2Lt Burgess, the Chinese were extensively used for the construction of the new workshop at Teneur. Under Captain Jackson, all cement foundations were laid, together with the Decauville Lines system and sleeper roads. At Teneur the Chinese performed similar tasks as previously, first on the repair of Mark IV tanks and then on the conversion and subsequent repair of male and female Mark V tanks. [see photograph no. G]\n\nAs a result of heavy demands in the Engine Shop during September and October, 1918, the Chinese skilled labour was increased, with a result that 24 big-end bedders were employed. These men considered themselves the highest grade and refused to work on any other job.\n\nThe Camouflage Section responsible for the painting of all tanks and the repair and manufacture of all camouflage material consisted of about 70 Chinese.\n\nAccording to Sir Albert Stern, a Malay donor, Mr Eu Tong-sen, who was a member of the Federal Council of the Malay States, offered a sum of £6,000 towards a tank, the average price at that time being between £4,000 and £5,000, but whether from his personal resources or as a gift of the Federal Council is not clear. A Mark IV male tank", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215019, "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-2000", "page_number": 115, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "71\n\nMaj. Gray was sympathetic towards the Chinese and believed in fairness towards them. He said that they were strangers in a strange land and homesick. He suggested the Chinese carpenters build a small pagoda, about 15 feet high, near the entrance to the Hospital. They painted it in bright colours. When Gray was promoted Lieut-Col. he was inundated with presentations - the dressers [medical assistants] presented him with a scroll, the cooks, an honorific umbrella and two flags, the Sanitary Gang, scrolls, etc.\n\nStuckey's time in France ended on 16th March 1919, when he left Noyelle-sur-Mer for Liverpool to join an Australian Ambulance Transport ship, working his way as Medical Officer, arriving in Melbourne on 15 May.\n\nSir Douglas Haig awarded Stuckey a Mention-in-Despatches for his work at the Hospital and, on the recommendation of Sir William Lister, Captain Stuckey was awarded the Order of the British Empire, Military Division. He said that this decoration really also belonged to the three doctors of the Ophthalmic staff at the Hospital, namely Captain H. Tomlin, MD and Captain C. A. Hughes, MD, D Ch O. and himself.\n\nIn 1920, Stuckey and his family returned to China, with periods of leave in Australia, leaving in 1938, after 33 years in China, returning via Korea to the UK and then, in 1939, returning to Australia.\n\nNoyelles-sur-Mer\n\nThe HQ of the CLC was at Noyelles-sur-Mer. Being interested in the CLC and also curious as to whether there were any remains of the CLC camp there, my wife and I decided to visit this small village close to the River Somme and about one and a half miles inland from the sea.\n\nWe were very fortunate that, on our first day of arrival, we contacted Mr. C. Gallemant, the butcher and Mr. M. C. Landos, the baker [third generation], but we failed to locate any candlestick maker! They were very helpful, especially Mr. Landos, who, after enquiry, told us the locations of some buildings still standing used by members of the CLC. Unfortunately, there do not appear to be any remains of the CLC camp site nor their hospital, prison or detention centre and other buildings, all having reverted to farmland.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215026, "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-2000", "page_number": 122, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "78\n\nStaff Officer for the HQ mess. The Head Ganger was from Tsinan [Jinan] in Shantung, under him were I think four Gangers, and the Labourers were all from Northern China, my father said they were all tall men and physically very strong and hardy. While clearing munitions one of them had been very badly injured when he pulled the pin from a grenade out of curiosity, and to the amazement of the British was able to return to work after a few weeks. My father said that for minor ailments the Chinese practised acupuncture on each other using a needle stuck in a cork.\n\nThe unit my father joined moved backwards and forwards with the last German Offensive of the War, he had great trouble finding them initially, and after the Armistice seemed to work mainly in the area around Amiens remaking roads, clearing munitions, collecting corpses, destroying animal corpses, clearing wells, and digging ditches to restore the drainage to arable land. It was a priority that the local French farmers were able to plant their fields as soon as possible as the population who had been behind the German lines were close to starvation. The condition of some of the French children in these areas made a deep impression on my father and on the Chinese who seemed very fond of children and used to give them their rations.\n\nAlthough the Chinese were willing to work waist deep in water, they often refused to work when it was raining much to everyone's exasperation. One who insisted on working while holding an umbrella in one hand had it broken over his back by a Ganger. Punishment was either by fining or flogging. My father asked the Head Ganger which was better, and the Head Ganger assured him that since they were all there to make money flogging was better. The Labourers, said the Head Ganger, would resent a fine but a flogging would be nothing to them. My father said this was borne out by one of the Officers who refused to flog on principle being chased down a road by a crowd of angry Chinese. A flogging would be administered by a Ganger and would be watched by the other Labourers who stood laughing at the victim's stupidity at being caught. The man who was tied to a post, often had wet tea leaves poured over his head. Wherever the Chinese went there was a bonfire with tea brewing.\n\nOne of the Officers with the unit, a Mr. Ferguson, was robbed and murdered while off-duty by European labourers who had been paid off", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215027, "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-2000", "page_number": 123, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "79\n\nand left to fend for themselves (my father believed they were Spaniards). The Chinese were very fond of Mr. Ferguson and searched for him when he went missing. If they had found those who had committed the crime they would not have lived very long, but by the time my mother and I, and Mrs. Jarvis who was the wife of another Officer arrived in France the security in the area must have improved. We were meant to be there for several months, but the Chinese were marched off and my father demobbed earlier than expected. One of the Labourers was a very skilled carver and my father brought home as souvenirs two German shell cases the man had decorated with ornamental dragons using a razor, and a silver ring he had beaten out of a French coin which was decorated with Chinese characters. He was also presented with a gold half-hunter watch now belonging to my nephew, another John Morrison. My father asked Mr. Wong what would happen to the men when they got home, and Mr. Wong replied that if they didn't gamble their money away on the journey they would be important men in their villages. He also said that what worried him most about the future were the \"Yellow men,” by which he meant the Japanese.\n\nMrs Gibb told me that she remembers a show put on by the CLC for the troops. She recalls that, as the only child of a British officer in the camp, she was rather intimidated when they came and shook her hand, as they were so big!", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215210, "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-2000", "page_number": 306, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "270\n\nconnection, as my mother was a Yip from Chan Uk Village, also at Nam Tau. There were over ten families of Ng in Kowloon Tsai, but we had no ancestral hall there. There were two parts to the village, an upper and lower part - Sheung and Ha Wai. We lived in the Ha Wai. There was a Tin Hau temple at the village, and we had puppet shows on the goddess' birthday every year when I was young. We also had a Ta Chiu in the village every ten years.\n\n'I was married to a Li of Sheung Sha Po Village when I was 18. My husband was a revenue officer in the Customs service. We had three houses in the village, but they were all demolished for the airfield extension. We were sent first to a vacant tenement house in Cheung On Street [not identified in a modern street guide, but very likely to have been in nearby suburban Kowloon] whose owner had left. We were there for 4-6 months, before moving to Model Village.\n\n'I am Shing Sung, now 55, a Hakka. I was born at Nam Tau and came to Kowloon when I was 18 to join my uncle who owned a wooden house at Tsat Kan Uk [The Seven Houses], a place north of old Kowloon Tsai Village. I later built a wooden hut there for myself. I came to Model Village after the war. I remember that there were private fields in the general area, as well as government land. People named Fung, Hui and Tsang owned fields there before the war.\n\n'I am Madam Law Mui, aged 57, also Hakka. I was born at Nam Tau, and came to Kowloon when I was 20, to marry Shing Sung's elder brother - also to The Seven Houses. We farmed government land there, for which we had a permit and paid fees, both before and after the war. There were many people at Ap Tsai Wu (Duckling Pond), the name of the general area where we lived and farmed. They were scattered here and there, because we were all vegetable farmers and you built your own house beside your own plot of land. Like Shing Sung, we moved to Model Village after the war.\n\n'I am Madam Kwai-fung, aged 64. I am a Hakka, born at Sha Po Tsai, Kowloon, where my family had lived for several generations. My father kept a store in Lower Sha Po, near Blacksmiths' Street in the Kowloon City suburb. When I was 22, I was married to Ng Sam-hong, a Punti, of Old Kak Hang Village, next to Nga Tsin Wai, when we had gone to live in a newly repaired house. We had two houses of our own at the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215214, "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-2000", "page_number": 310, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "274\n\nowners who had lost their land and houses for the extension of the airfield. This is correct. When I became District Officer South in 1957, I found that the office registers listed a number of files dealing with the subject, among them DOS9/171/50 (1950), entitled 'Kai Tak Compensation - List of Property formerly owned by Squatters at Kowloon Tong (Kowloon Tsai) Model Village', and that my staff were still making payments to late applicants.\n\nModel Village itself was cleared for development in the early 1980s, removing an almost forgotten link with the wartime events, which had brought so much hardship to those village families directly involved.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215514, "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-2001", "page_number": 291, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "241\n\nA REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENT OF CEMETERIES IN HONG KONG: 1841-1950\n\nKO TIM-KEUNG\n\nHong Kong had been claimed for the British Crown even before the First Opium War (1839-42) was formally brought to an end. A naval party under Sir Gordon Bremer landed on the island on 26th January 1841. A form of government was organized and a chief magistrate and a harbour-master appointed, and in June the first land sale took place to create the impression of permanency. The port was declared a free port, and merchants, both foreign and Chinese, were encouraged to settle and trade there. However, little significant building followed, the main deterrent being the island's insalubrity and a high death rate from 'Hong Kong Fever.' Hong Kong, quite unexpectedly, became the last resting place of many of these early settlers and troops.\n\nThe Burial Ground in Wan Chai\n\nThe first years in Hong Kong had a distressing aspect for the British, particularly its army, because of disease. The setting up of the first barrack areas along the north coast of the island led to severe epidemics of fever among the troops. 183 of them had died in 1841. Consequently, a burial ground for the dead was urgently needed. A notice was proclaimed in August 1841:\n\nA piece of land to the eastward of Cantonment Hill having been allocated by Government as the ground for the burial of the dead of Europeans and others, Notice is hereby given that persons burying their dead in any other unauthorised place will be treated as trespassers.\n\nJno. F. Mylius, Land Officer, Hong Kong 30th August 1841.\n\nA 19th-century publication also records: \"Deaths now [1841] became frequent occurrences also among the European community; hospitals had to be hastily constructed, and the first cemetery (near the present St. Francis' Chapel, above Queen's Road East) began to fill...\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215538, "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-2001", "page_number": 315, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "265\n\nSayer, S.R. (1980). HONG KONG 1841 - 1862: BIRTH, ADOLESCENCE AND COMING OF AGE. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, p. 117.\n\n7 Eitel, E.J. (1895). EUROPE IN CHINA: THE HISTORY OF HONGKONG FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE YEAR 1882. Hong Kong: Kelly & Walsh, p. 175.\n\n3 Ticozzi, Sergio (1997). HISTORICAL DOCUMENT OF THE HONG KONG CATHOLIC CHURCH. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Catholic Diocesan Archives, p. 13.\n\n9 Ibid.\n\n10 Hawkins, R.S. (1968). Far East Outpost, The Royal Engineers Journal Vol. LXXXII, p. 41.\n\n11 Endacott, G.B. (1988). A HISTORY OF HONG KONG. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, p. 67.\n\n12 Oxley, p. 28.\n\n13 For details of some of the military graves, see Bard, Solomon (1997), Garrison Memorials in Hong Kong: Some Graves and Monuments at Happy Valley, The Antiquities and Monuments Office Occasional Paper No.4. Hong Kong: The Antiquities and Monuments Office.\n\n14 Illustrated London News, 8 November 1845.\n\n15 Smith, Carl T. (1985). NOTES FOR A VISIT TO THE GOVERNMENT CEMETERY AT HAPPY VALLEY, The Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 25, pp. 17-18. Also see the same author's work, A SENSE OF HISTORY: Studies in the Social and Urban History of Hong Kong (1995), Hong Kong: Hong Kong Education Publishing Co, pp. 113-114.\n\n16 Wong Nai Chung Valley was at first intended by British merchants and the Land Officer and Colonial Engineer A.T. Gordon for the principal business centre, but the project was abandoned as the valley was found to be unhealthy. See Eitel, p. 167 and Endacott, p. 45.\n\n17 A list of these graves and monuments can be found in HKGG Notification of 2nd\n\nPage 315\n\nPage 316", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215664, "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-2001", "page_number": 441, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "393\n\nService and was posted to the British Consulate in Beijing. He was interned by the Japanese during World War II but was then exchanged for Japanese diplomatic staff and made his way to India. He spent the War serving in various capacities with the Indian Army. In 1940, he met the German photographer Hedda Hammer and they married in Beijing in 1946. Due to the increasing instability of the political situation in China, they left Beijing soon after. The Morrisons spent six months in Hong Kong before relocating to Sarawak, in the north-west of the island of Borneo, where Alastair was appointed to the British Colonial Service and later became a district officer. Throughout her 20-year residence in Sarawak, Hedda accompanied Alastair on all his official journeys and made numerous independent photographic tours. From 1960 to 1966 Hedda was employed by the Sarawak government to work part-time in the photographic section of the Information Office in Kuching. Her duties included taking photographs, establishing a photographic library and training government photographers. Hedda wrote two major books on Sarawak, Sarawak (1957) and Life in a Longhouse (1962).\n\nJennie Morrison, 1912, (Mitchell Library)\n\nIn 1967 the Morrisons settled in Canberra, Australia. Hedda died in Canberra in 1991, at the age of 82. Alastair lives in Hughes, Canberra. His Fair Land Sarawak: Some Recollections of an Expatriate Official (Ithaca, Cornell University) and The Road to Peking (Canberra, Highland Press, private distribution), both appeared in 1993.\n\nMr. Morrison's other brother, Colin Morrison was born in April 1917. He joined the Administrative Service in Hong Kong and was also a member of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps, which held out valiantly for 17 days against the Japanese in December 1941.2 He was interned by the Japanese at the Shamshuipo camp for the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215726, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 25, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "CONTRIBUTORS\n\nAndrew Abraham, is a noted Singaporean academic.\n\nPaul Bolding, works as a financial journalist at the news and information organisation Reuters in London. He has been with Reuters since 1974. He lived in Hong Kong from 1993 to 1997 and has travelled widely in Asia. Mr Bolding has previously worked in Europe and the Middle East including Brussels, Berlin and Nicosia. He is a co-author of the Insight Guide to Turkey (pbolding@onetel.net.uk)\n\nJulia Chan, is the Hon Librarian of HKBRAS and a member of Council (jlychan@hkucc.hku.hk).\n\nChohong Choi, obtained a B.A. in History from Queens College of the City University of New York, and an M.Phil. in History from the University of Hong Kong. He is currently a research assistant in the Department of Real Estate & Construction at HKU.\n\nThe late Arnold Graham, was an old China hand. He was well known for his steady stream of Letters to the Editor in Hong Kong under the pseudonym Ancient Gweilo (a play on his initials). He donated a large number of books to the Library of HKBRAS in 1994. He ultimately relocated to New Zealand where he passed away in 1996.\n\nPeter Halliday, was formerly an assistant commissioner with the Hong Kong Police Force and its chief information officer for over six years. He now heads his own information technology consulting and training company, Elite IT Services Ltd. He is the Hon Editor of HKBRAS and a member of Council (Peter.Halliday@e-liteitservices.com).\n\nPeter Hansell, is an active member of the Friends of HKBRAS in Great Britain.\n\nPaul Harrison, started his conservation career as a volunteer at Leicester Museum, U.K., in his school holidays. He has a B.Sc. in Archaeological Conservation and a M.Sc. in Archaeometallurgy from the Institute of Archaeology, now part of University College London. He has also worked for the Scottish Urban Archaeological Trust, the British School at Athens in Crete, studying an ancient Minoan City - Palaikastro - and Bradford University's Department of Archaeological Sciences. He was formally with the Central Conservation Division (Metals), Museum of History, Leisure and Cultural Services Department. He now heads his own conservation company, Phoenix Conservation Ltd., (paulehar@netvigator.com).\n\nxvi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215899, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 198, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "Pottinger Battery: 1 officer + 26 soldiers\n\n3 February 1920 The Chief of Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, considered that Hong Kong could resist Japanese attack for 3 months before relief from Singapore arrived.\n\nWashington Treaty\n\n1920/1921\n\n1922\n\nThe Admiralty informed the Committee of Imperial Defence that it was the authority to advise the scale of attack on ports and that for Hong Kong, the \"status quo applies.\"\n\nRollo, 1992, p.98\n\nRollo, 1992, p.101\n\nRollo, 1992, p.102\n\n1924\n\n\"Devil's Peak Sheet No.3,\" Ordnance Survey 1904, corrected and printed at the War Office 1924, shows road access, including \"roads suitable for man-handled guns\" and detailed land uses in the Devil's Peak area, with boundaries of War Department lands delineated. However, the locations of batteries and the Redoubt are not shown.\n\nPRO100(2)\n\n1927\n\nAerial Photograph No. H19 15 taken by HMS Pegasus.\n\nThe Joint Overseas and Home Defence Committee review.\n\nRollo, 1992, p.104\n\n1928\n\nSteel choke caused problems to the 9.2-inch guns at Devil's Peak.\n\nRollo, 1992, p.105\n\n1929\n\nAugust 1930\n\nFebruary 1931\n\nChinese writer/composer, Tien Han, visited Hong Kong and was impressed by the scenic views of Lei Yue Mun, as stated in his poem \"Good Bye Hong Kong.\"\n\nThe 12th Heavy Battery replaced the 9-inch guns with anti-choke pattern.\n\nRollo, 1992, p.105\n\nThe 12 Heavy Battery fired new guns at Gough Battery. \"Gough Battery fired over Hong Kong Island and Repulse Bay.\"\n\nRollo, 1992, p.105\n\n1933\n\nAnnual Review of the Defence of Ports.\n\nRollo, 1992, p.105\n\n22 October 1934 The 12 Heavy Battery practised indirect shots at Pottinger Battery.\n\n1934\n\nA letter from the Military Operation Branch of the War Office indicated plans to modernise two 9.2-inch guns at Devil's Peak in 1936/37 with 35-degree mountings.\n\n1936\n\nThe Hong Kong Defence Scheme\n\nRollo, 1992, p.107\n\nRollo, 1992, p.108, 109\n\nRollo, 1992, p.110, 112\n\n131", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215930, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 229, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "163\n\na new breed of intelligence officer. Grimsdale recalled his admiration with the ease with which Boxer could gain the trust of the Japanese.\n\nWhen the Japanese conquered Guangdong in 1938, Boxer arranged an invitation for himself and Grimsdale to visit the Commander of Japanese Forces, General Ando, whom he had known socially in London. To Grimsdale's amazement, Ando showed them round Japanese installations in his own staff car. They were able to inspect troop positions, aerodromes and see the power of the Japanese army at first hand. Perhaps that was Ando's subtle point, but it benefited both parties. At one stage, the general joked to Boxer that the British should stop supporting the Chinese 'then we could finish off this bloody war and all go home.' In the same jesting vein, Boxer answered that the Japanese should stop supporting the Germans.\n\nBoxer and his colleagues made a point of travelling and meeting people. Through personal contacts they were able to extract more information, and get an understanding of context. Boxer and his colleagues were articulate and fluent in Chinese or Japanese, and above all sensitive to the cultures, aware of the place of Hong Kong in the overall Chinese scheme of things. They illustrated the concept that \"well informed is well armed.\" Nor were they the only ones. In 1937/8, the Japanese Army in central China had agreed to take a young Japanese speaking British officer \"on attachment\" for nine months. Although his detailed report was misinterpreted (the atrocities in China were deemed a 'temporary lapse') is the then Military Attache and Foreign Office agreed that a non confrontational approach was more effective in getting information and defusing potential incidents.\n\niv\n\nAlert to the nuances of Japanese politics, Boxer sensed in July 1939, a sharp deterioration in Japanese attitudes towards the British. He interpreted this as a move by the Japanese Army to find a scapegoat for their lack of progress in the China campaign. He reported 'at present there can be no greater error than to assume as is so often done that Japan's military machine is too bogged down in China to prevent it being turned towards us...the only thing likely to restrain the Japanese Army....is the fear of possible complications with the United States of America.\" His warnings however went unheeded: Europe was itself just about to plunge into war, and to the Foreign Office, Hong Kong seemed very far away. Indeed, the note covering Boxer's letter", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215947, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 246, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "180\n\nthemselves and slip outside into town, claiming neutral or non-combatant status. Many Europeans were able to stay out of internment or leave if they could: Professor Gordon King escaped with sufficient materials to try and restart a medical school in Free China. There were even escapes from Stanley Internment Camp, including of women civilians. Within the Prisoner of War Camps, there were very strong feelings that, while individuals might choose to escape, it was the duty of senior officers to remain with their men at a time of crisis. Escapes were of extremely limited military or strategic value. Even men like Col Newnham, Major Boxer, Lt Bush (who was a MTB officer) and others, whose sensitive work gave them more reason than most to need to get away, remained as prisoners. It was no failure of courage to choose to remain behind and help others. Newnham was later executed [Hon. Ed. - I think I prefer the term murdered.] and both Boxer and Bush imprisoned. Senior officers in camp expressed grave offence at the tone of the messages sent into camp. Nonetheless, the need to escape is a human trait, and the right of an individual to decide whether he was more useful in or out of camp was acknowledged. At least four parties of European servicemen escaped from POW camps in the first few weeks of internment.\n\nPerhaps the most publicised escape occurred on 9th January 1942 when three university officials left Sham Shui Po camp. Lindsay Ride, a physiologist, said he had planned the escape very early on and realised he needed a Chinese to facilitate it. Fortunately in camp he found Francis Lee Yan Piu, a resourceful clerk who had worked for him as a clerk. Lee arranged for the three Europeans to get Chinese clothing and to cross into the New Territories, where they laid low during the day, planning to explain to any Chinese who found them that they were Germans, as they feared the Chinese might be hostile. How being German made a difference is unclear. To their surprise, when they did encounter Chinese, the Chinese were not only delighted to help but appeared to know exactly what to do. These were guerrillas who had previously been in contact with someone with British connections, for they knew just where to bring the strangers. When the party arrived in Shaukwan (Kukong) over the border in China, they were met by MacEwan and Talan, members of ‘a mysterious Hong Kong organisation known colloquially as the Cloak and Dagger Boys, who had received what appeared to be some sort of guerrilla training formerly in Hong Kong,’xxiii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216070, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 369, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "303\n\nup to Zhenjiang where he was stopped, searched and arrested for carrying arms. He was returned to Shanghai where he was tried and gaoled for nine months. The Chinese were furious having wanted his head'.\n\nMason's own version described his life in some detail and, in particular, his escapade in Zhenjiang and Shanghai in 1891. He began his book with a lengthy piece about him charting his aims and future some year or so after he had arrived and settled in China as a member of the Chinese Imperial Customs. He had decided to make himself king of a great country, first by forming a band of robbers to attract more desperate men and expand the band until he was strong enough to seize a city and plunder its public treasuries and arsenals. From there on he foresaw that things would move rapidly. As he wrote many years later, describing in a summary of his aims and objectives, he had decided to make himself the King of China because, he reasoned, he was in China, was popular with the Chinese, spoke their language and the Imperial Government was weak. He decided to use the Gelao Hui to further his aims. He planned it for some two years, so he wrote, and then in 1891, at the age of 25, he embarked upon his scheme. The plan was to bring a cargo of arms from Hong Kong and distribute them to Sha's [a Gelao Hui chief] five hundred men in Zhenjiang, and they would then rise and attack the authorities.\n\nHaving purchased the rifles, he had them shipped by coastal steamer to Shanghai where, following an informer's tip, Customs men were waiting. Mason, confronted by a Shanghai-based Customs officer, declared that he had been keeping the shipment under observation of his own volition all the way from Hong Kong. He was at first believed or at least given the benefit of the doubt, and was taken off to lunch by the Shanghai Customs Commissioner, Bredon. Mason, hating himself for being a turncoat, fled Shanghai to Zhenjiang where he was promptly arrested, and interrogated at the Customs headquarters in Shanghai by the local Chinese Imperial Daotai. Having confessed all to him but having also refused to name names, even after having been shown photographs of his mangled, tortured and decapitated Chinese friends, he was put before the British Supreme Court in Shanghai where he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year or so in gaol followed by deportation. He never mentions Mesny, nor any aspect of the case as described by Mesny.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216146, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 445, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "379\n\npublisher) and I persevered, however, and Teresa was mightily impressed with our second effort. Apparently we had reproduced the manuscript exactly, including all the Polish diacritics.\n\nNow came the editing. Teresa hand-edited her hard copy and sent it to me. I was agreeably pleased to find that Microsoft Word contains all the Polish diacritics and edited the soft copy of the proof on my office computer. I leave to the reader's imagination the thought of a Hong Kong police officer, sitting in his office, editing a 500-page book, written in Polish. Finding the places in the book which needed correcting was, frankly, a labour of love but pride in finishing won through. I e-mailed the final version to Teresa who was highly impressed with my new-found Polish language skills!\n\nSo much for the text. There then followed an e-discussion on a dust-jacket for the book. I was keen on this, as it would give the book some colour. The Crippled Tree is an autobiographical work about Han Suyin's childhood in China. This led our thinking to the idea that the illustration on the dust-jacket should be of a tree, or forest, or some such. It was ultimately Teresa who came up with the brainwave that the illustration should be drawn by a child.\n\nAnd so it was. I sat my seven-year-old son, Alexander, down one evening at home with paper and coloured pencils and asked him if he would contribute to literary history (!) by drawing a tree. This, obviously, went through several iterations before we were both satisfied with it but Alexander is rightly proud of the fact that his artwork now graces the shelves of bookshops and institutions in Poland! His name also appears on the credits page.\n\nKalekie drzevo\n\nHan Suun\n\nFirst proof of the dust jacket for Kalekie drzewo. There is a deliberate mistake!", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216496, "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": 255, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "206\n\nwas electric. About thirty men ran out of the ranks and crowded round him, some grasped his hand and kissed it, others drew out little satchels which they had hanging round their necks which contained their certificates of baptism into the Catholic church.\n\nThe Chaplain asked the officer, who he now discovered to be a Protestant missionary from China who had come to Europe with the Labour Corps, to explain that he would say Mass for them in the neighbouring village on the morrow, that they could have general absolution and Holy Communion. He found it difficult to explain through his Protestant interpreter what was meant by general absolution. Eventually, the Protestant missionary had explained to him that the phrase the Chaplain required was 'Are you sorry for your sins?' which the Chaplain recorded phonetically in his notebook.\n\nNext morning the Chaplain was at the church half an hour before the appointed time for Mass. The Chinese were already there, grouped around the confessional and it was only then that he realised what he had let himself in for and the difficulty of his task. A few words in English were received with a blank stare; the same in French got a similar reception. He pulled out his notebook and repeated the words he had written down the previous evening. The reply was a general chatter and a vigorous nodding of heads. Yet, when the Chaplain tried to explain by dumb-show that they would receive general absolution, he knew that he had failed ignominiously. They looked at him plaintively, almost reprovingly, and pointed repeatedly at the confessional. There was nothing else for it; he had to admit them individually. The men heard the Mass with every mark of attention.\n\nWhen the Chaplain had removed his vestments he came to them in the church again. One of the Chinese whom the Chaplain judged to have been a Catechist at some time or other and had led the prayers offered the Chaplain, evidently in the name of himself and his companions, a ten-franc note. The Chaplain explained by dumb-show that he could not possibly accept it and this seemed to disappoint them so much that he had to do something to satisfy them. The Curé from the sacristy, having been told of the situation, provided a few altar candles and the ten-franc note was dropped into the collection box. Finally, as the Chaplain left the church the men crowded round him, and chattered and smiled their gratitude.\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216498, "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": 257, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "208\n\nAfrica in 1917. Apparently, in October 1993, a squad of Queen's Gurkha Engineers went up to the Peak one night with a truck and a crane and purloined the Middlesex Boulder.\n\nNot everyone used the word outrage, as did Booth. Nevertheless, the general reaction among Hong Kong citizens who take an interest in local history was that this fascinating and moving colonial memorial belonged to Hong Kong and to take it away was 'naughty' to say the least. There were others, however, who felt it would be better cared for by the Middlesex Regiment in England.\n\nIn 2001, the Boulder was spotted by Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch members outside the National Army Museum in Chelsea. This is 'formally and legally the Museum of the Middlesex Regiment and stands within the county of Middlesex.' I wrote to the Director of the Museum, the late Ian G. Robertson MA FMA, who was helpful. He pointed out that he did not have a hand in moving the Stone and did not know the underlying circumstances. I, in turn, pointed out that the plaque on the Boulder was difficult to read and needed cleaning. Mr. Robertson responded by saying care needed to be taken not to use destructive techniques. He did, however, say the intention was to move the Boulder inside the Museum at a later date.\n\nIn 2003, I was informed by RAS members that the Boulder had indeed been moved inside and placed in a permanent gallery. It is said to have been donated to the National Army Museum by the Middlesex Regimental Association. I was able to visit the Museum on 3 June 2004. The original plaque, which is still on the Boulder, reads:\n\nThis stone memorial was erected by Lieutenant John Ward, Commanding Officer, in memory of those men of the 25th Battalion The Middlesex Regiment who died when the troopship TYNDAREUS struck a German mine off Cape Agulhas, South Africa, on 6th February 1917. The Battalion had embarked in England and were en route to Hong Kong to carry out garrison duties. There is no doubt that the exemplary conduct of all ranks after the accident contributed in considerable measure to the Master's ability to prevent the ship from sinking with further loss of life.\n\nI am pleased to be able to report that the Stone is now well lit and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]