[ { "id": 213604, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 200, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "172\n\nStation and shortly after midnight was ambushed at Chung Yuen Ha on the Border Road between Ta Kwu Ling and Lin Ma Hang. The attackers, a gang of more than ten men, fired on the officers and one police constable was killed instantly, while another was slightly wounded. The culprits escaped, taking with them the dead constable's service revolver. The same gang struck again fifteen days later on the night of May 17 with an attack on Nga Yiu Post, near Ta Kwu Ling, where four constables were on duty.\n\nIn those days the Post was only a brick structure of two rooms without any form of perimeter fence or facilities of any kind. Two constables left the post to visit a local teahouse, situated about 100 yards away, but out of sight of the post. A third constable decided to take a bath at a nearby matshed structure, leaving the fourth constable on guard duty outside the post. Whilst away from the Post the three constables heard the sound of shots being fired. Three men were seen running from the Post carrying weapons and the body of the constable who had been left on duty was found outside the Post where he had been shot twice in the back. The two constables in the teahouse were prevented from taking action by two armed men in what was obviously a well-planned operation.\n\nThe gang escaped in the direction of the Shum Chun River, and took with them a Sten gun and two rifles, and the dead constable's revolver. Three days later, acting on information provided by New Territories officers, a large body of Chinese troops mounted an attack on the gang's hideout in a village four miles north of Shum Chun. In the encounter, three of the gang were killed and five were captured. Seized in the raid were all the weapons stolen from the Post, including the revolver taken from the constable killed in the previous ambush on the Border Road.\n\nIt was as a direct result of the Nga Yiu incident that the then Commissioner of Police, Mr. Duncan Macintosh, decided to improve the design of border posts and the conditions of officers deployed at such outposts. On the hilltops lining the Border, a string of strongposts was erected which gave a view across the Border at strategic spots. The imposing concrete structures with their distinctive appearance and outline against the skyline were dubbed the \"MacIntosh Cathedrals\". The posts, of which seven in all were built up to 1953, provided police", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213607, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 203, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "175\n\nthere are rainwater catchments discharging into underground water storage tanks.\n\nOuter defences consist of a dannert or barbed wire topped chain link fence, slit trenches, barbed wire entanglements, and at some locations concrete bunkers sunk into the hillside. Dense thickets and tangled undergrowth form a natural defence outside the perimeter. A later Police Commissioner, Charles Sutcliffe, who came to Hong Kong from Tanganyika, had the idea of improving the natural defences by planting the Mauritius or Cape Thorn. His idea was to cultivate the thorn all along the border fences and around the observation posts as a general security measure. The plan was not successful as the plant did not grow very well and in most areas never really developed as expected.\n\nThe man who gave his name to the new observation posts and whose idea it was to build them, was Duncan William MacIntosh, C.M.G., O.B.E., who assumed command of the Hongkong Police Force on Nov. 22, 1946. At the age of sixteen he joined the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1920 and served with that force until 1922 when he joined the Airdrie Burgh Police. In 1929 he was appointed an Inspector of Police in the Straits Settlements and was interned in Singapore during the occupation. After the war he became Acting Commissioner of Singapore Police, from where he was posted as Commissioner to Hong Kong in 1946.\n\nCommissioner Macintosh was responsible for reorganising the Hong Kong Police Force after the liberation, and to him goes the credit for laying the foundations on which so much of the present efficiency of the force depends. One of his most important tasks was to improve the low morale among the men under his charge. He set about this by beginning a long battle to upgrade police pay, conditions of service, and above all living accommodation. He also concentrated on improving professional standards, and reorganised the Police Training School. He succeeded in his efforts in boosting morale, improving recruitment, and established an esprit-de-corps essential to the running of an efficient police force.\n\nAfter leaving Hong Kong in 1953 on retirement, Mr. MacIntosh accepted appointment as Adviser to the Iraqi Police and spent some time in Baghdad. He died at his home in Surrey, England on September", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213611, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 207, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "Mr. Duncan William MacIntosh, C.M.G., O.B.E., C. St. John,\n\nCommissioner of Police 1946-1953\n\n(Photo by courtesy of the RHKP Force Museum)\n\nPage 179\n\n \n \n\nPage 179", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 } ]