[
    {
        "id": 211127,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 188,
        "title": "RAS-1987",
        "content_text": "163\n\nhe himself had opposed the appointment, but perhaps the matter should be reconsidered.\n\nHe made the positive suggestion that the Hongkong Government and the Chinese authorities discuss together the problem of smuggling and the methods China employed to collect its duties. He stated, however, that he was still opposed to having a Chinese in Hongkong with the position of a consul.\n\nAs far as the \"blockade\" was concerned, Mr. Whittall remarked that \"many of the Chinese merchants had said to him that they were perfectly satisfied with the present arrangements. It was a protection to the honest merchants and only a disadvantage to the dishonest man.\"\n\nNo view was presented by a Chinese. The foreign and Chinese communities were still too separate to discuss public issues together.\n\nIn the published newspaper account of the meeting, it is stated that there were about two hundred present from every sector of the community. A list of some seventy-five names is given.\n\nAmong them, there is only one Chinese, Ng Moon-koon. He was, I believe, the same as Ng Man-kwan, one of the leading Chinese opium dealers.\n\nMr. Whittall's statement about Chinese opinion on the matter did not go unchallenged. The senior unofficial member of the Legislative Council, Mr. Phineas Ryrie, had apparently been gathering Chinese views. He reported that \"some dozen\" had told him it was hurting the trade. He did not specify whether the dozen were from the honest or the dishonest class of traders referred to by Mr. Whittall.\n\nThe remarks of the Jardine taipan may have influenced others at the meeting, for when the vote on the resolution was taken, there were seven against it.\n\nHis views having received such a cold reception, Mr. Whittall,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211180,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 241,
        "title": "RAS-1987",
        "content_text": "216\n\nThe Honourable Phineas Ryrie, a long-time resident and senior member of the Legislative Council, spoke against the amendment of Mr. Francis. He opposed sending to England any funds raised in Hongkong.\n\nHe admitted that a few years before he had not opposed sending a substantial contribution to help Irish famine sufferers, but the present object was of a different nature.\n\nThroughout his many years in Hongkong he had contributed liberally to many subscriptions. He had great faith in Hongkong's ability to raise funds for causes that had a popular appeal.\n\nHe was sure that: \"We are good enough in this Colony to subscribe for a memorial to Her Majesty the Queen, and we should do so.\n\nAt this point the chairman interrupted. He informed Mr. Ryrie that his remarks were out of order. He had been speaking to a specific proposal, while Mr. Francis' amendment, after he had rephrased it, was general.\n\nThe amendment proposed by Mr. Francis was then put before the meeting. It was rejected. Mr. Francis did not raise the question again.\n\nThe fourth resolution was that of Mr. Chater proposing that the permanent memorial of the jubilee year be a park in the Wongneichong Valley to be called Victoria Park. After some other suggestions were discussed, the park scheme was approved by a small majority. Many at the meeting, however, abstained from voting.\n\nThis did not settle the matter however. After the public meeting there was continued opposition to the decision. Demands were made that it be rescinded.\n\nThe Chinese went off and held their own meeting and adopted a plan more to their desires. Amid all the confusion new proposals were advanced and old ones revived.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211204,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 265,
        "title": "RAS-1987",
        "content_text": "240\n\nQueen had to be abandoned.\n\nInability to proceed with the agreed plan resulted in the two subsequent meetings. These were chaired by the Honourable Phineas Ryrie. Many of the difficulties which resulted can be attributed to the manner in which he conducted the meetings.\n\nIt is not a simple matter to keep a meeting in order and progress towards its goals when the atmosphere is charged with tension created by strongly held opinions and personal ambitions. The meetings chaired by Mr. Ryrie were like this.\n\nA good chairman is not only fair and impartial but also firm and decisive. He gives room for free expression of opinion but does not permit the meeting to digress into irrelevant matters or get muddled in improper procedure. To do this he must adhere to accepted parliamentary rules.\n\nMr. Ryrie was a public spirited man who had long — perhaps too long — been prominent in public affairs. He was the senior unofficial member of the Legislative Council and therefore a natural choice for chairman. His handling of the meetings, however, suggests he may have been tottering into old age. He was a man of decided opinion and also irascible, a dangerous combination.\n\nAs senior partner of the firm of Turner and Company, he belonged to the small interlocking circle who sat on the boards of the leading companies and institutions in Hongkong. As such, he had presided over many meetings. These, however, were usually quite routine and required a minimum of parliamentary skill.\n\nIt was a different matter to chair a meeting in which there were strong differences of opinion accompanied by a feeling of frustration over the mess in which the community was increasingly getting itself involved.\n\nThe main business of the meeting was to decide on another memorial now that the idea of a park in the Wongneichong Valley was no longer feasible. Before the meeting people who wished to have a scheme considered were asked to submit them in writing.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522",
        "rank": 0
    }
]