[
    {
        "id": 205250,
        "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": 12,
        "title": "RAS-1967",
        "content_text": "We are greatly indebted to Mr. Uhalley for his valuable work, both as Honorary Editor and as a member of the Council. We are most fortunate in having as his successor Mr. James Hayes whose scholarly and popular contributions to the Journal on historical aspects of Hong Kong are well known to its readers. The Journal has now become a valuable publication which members will no doubt find useful to bind for their personal libraries and it has achieved a high reputation among oriental scholars abroad. It is expected that in the coming years there will be a considerable demand for past numbers. Copies of Volume 1 are now already exhausted and consideration will have to be given to reprinting when we have money to do so. The paper on the Old Protestant Cemetery in Macao by Sir Lindsay Ride in Volume 3 of the Journal has been in such demand as the best historical introduction for visitors to Macao that it is now being reprinted. It will be on sale soon and we anticipate that it will be speedily exhausted.\n\nNow I want to refer to the Council. Of the original members of the Council only two now remain, Dr. Marjorie Topley and myself. Of the two Vice-Presidents of last year, one, Mr. R. E. Lawry, for so many years our Honorary Secretary and a pillar of the Council and of the Society, left last year and is now with the British Council at Cambridge. The other, Sir Tsun-nin Chau, who was a founder member and a life member, finds that he is unable to attend our regular meetings and now has regretfully tendered his resignation. Towards the end of the year we lost one of our most faithful members, Madam du Breuil, who was always an inspiration and a most zealous supporter of the Society. We feel her loss very deeply. During the year the Council filled the vacancy created by the departure of Mr. R. E. Lawry by electing Mr. Robert Bruce, his successor as representative of the British Council, as a member of the Council.\n\nI take this opportunity to thank once again the British Council and Mr. Bruce and his staff for their invaluable help and the facilities which they have at all times extended to the Society, and I wish to thank, in particular, Miss Michaeliones who has worthily followed Mr. Lawry as our Honorary Secretary and accomplishes prodigies of work at all times so readily and cheerfully. I wonder if the Society appreciates the great amount of voluntary work that is done on its behalf or the obligation it owes to its Honorary Secretary and Treasurer.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g",
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    },
    {
        "id": 205702,
        "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": 8,
        "title": "RAS-1969",
        "content_text": "2\n\nJ\n\nnumbers. The complete set of the volumes now 8 in number with the 9th in the press is now being regarded as of increasing value. Vol. 1 is long out of print, but we expect to have sufficient demand for a limited new issue to justify reprint as soon as possible.\n\nAs to our Library we can now say that we have a considerable number of books upwards of 300 volumes but unfortunately no library room of our own to accommodate them. One section including some of the rarer volumes and the growing number of exchange journals is kept in the library of the University of Hong Kong; the remainder are housed in the library of the British Council in the Gloucester Building. The library of the original branch of the Society founded in 1847 was the first library organised in Hong Kong, with the exception of that of the Medico-Chirurgical Society founded in 1845 whose members with their small collection of books—mainly professional joined the new branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1847.* The Society's library of 400 volumes was housed at the old Court House where the Society had been granted by Sir George Bonham a room to hold its meetings: but in 1859 when the Society became defunct the whole of its library was handed on trust to the Morrison Educational Society which later in 1869 presented its own and the R.A.S. library to the City Hall. Now we are back where we started in 1847, with a library of 400 books gradually increasing but with no generous benefactor to give us a room in which we can house them.\n\nFrom the Hon. Treasurer's Report you will see that the Society's finances are in a reasonably healthy condition. There appears to have been an excess of income over expenditure, but that was partly due to a greatly increased income from the sale of journals and the bank interest and dividends received. The annual subscriptions amounted to $11,590 but the expenditure was $17,398. The gap was bridged mainly by interest from investments, bank interest, and the sale of journals.\n\nSince the last general Meeting there have been several changes within the Council of the Society. Mr. Robert Bruce left Hong Kong on retirement in March 1968 and his place on the Council was filled by his successor as Representative of the British Council, Mr. G. A. Bridges. Professor K. E. Robinson resigned from the\n\n* See page 154.",
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    },
    {
        "id": 205703,
        "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": 9,
        "title": "RAS-1969",
        "content_text": "Council in February of this year, and more recently both Mr. J. S. Lee and Mr. M. S. Cumming have resigned owing to their many other commitments, and in the case of Mr. Cumming owing to the likelihood of his being away a good deal from the Colony during the year. Of the original Council of 1959 there are only two left - Dr. Marjorie Topley and myself. The Council is a hard-working body; it meets at least once a month and its activities involve a great deal of time and labour. It is essential for the future of the Society to fill the vacancies with persons who have real interest in the work of the Society and are prepared to share the work in furthering its interests.\n\nIn concluding I want to thank all my colleagues on the Council for their unremitting work, the British Council for their traditional help in a variety of ways and for the use of their premises for the meetings of the Council and their Library to house the greater part of the Society's books, and last but not least Mrs. O'Hara, also of the British Council, for her ever-willing and ready help and secretarial work which have been most valuable.\n\n28 April, 1969.\n\nLectures in 1968 comprised:-\n\n15 January\n\nProfessor Michael Sullivan.\n\n\"The Cave Temples of Maichishan (with slides).\n\n26 February\n\nJ. R. JONES\n\n\"The British Treaty with Siam of 1855\"\n\n16 March\n\nMr. Robert Bruce.\n\nVisit to Chinese Vegetarian Halls (chai-t'ang) and the Sects of Former Heaven (Hsien-t'ien Tao).\n\n18 March\n\nDr. Philip Mao.\n\n\"Some Aspects of Ching Dynasty Porcelain of the Kang Hsi, Yung Cheng & Ch'ien Lung Periods\" (illustrated with slides).\n\n8 April\n\nAnnual General Meeting.\n\n29 April\n\nMr. T. C. Cheng.\n\n\"Chinese Unofficial Members of the Legislative and Executive Councils in Hong Kong up to 1941\".",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt",
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    {
        "id": 205782,
        "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": 88,
        "title": "RAS-1969",
        "content_text": "82\n\nKING MONGKUT OF SIAM AND HIS TREATY WITH BRITAIN\n\nROBERT BRUCE*\n\nWhen Sir John Bowring sailed up the river to Bangkok in March 1855 he was asked by King Mongkut not to fire a salute lest the citizens be alarmed. Sir John, Governor of Hong Kong and Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary in the Far East, reluctantly agreed to postpone the ceremonial explosion from the Rattler's guns until the anxious citizens had been given one day's warning.\n\nThe Siamese had cause for concern. The Burmese, their traditional enemies, had been conquered by the British; and a dozen years before the Bowring mission the great Chinese Empire had been defeated by the British navy. On their eastern frontier, the Siamese watched with alarm the French encroachment on Cochin-China and their own dominion of Cambodia. To the south of the Isthmus of Kra British power was spreading into the Malay States, including Kedah, a feudatory of Siam. But their fears were to prove unfounded. The Bowring mission to Bangkok was completely successful for both British and Siamese. On April 18th, 1855, a Treaty of Friendship and Commerce was signed, an agreement which was to secure for Siam, alone in south-east Asia, independence from colonial rule and which set her on the long, painful road of modernisation.\n\nForce had been used to 'open' China. In the same year as Bowring's peaceful mission to Bangkok Commodore Perry's American warships were demanding commerce and navigation rights of the Japanese. Even after the Treaty of Nanking had\n\n* This article, entitled \"King Mongkut of Siam\", appeared in History Today for October 1968. The original text, slightly extended, is reprinted here by permission of the Editor. Mr. Bruce lectured to the Hong Kong Branch on this subject in February 1968.\n\nMr. Bruce is at present a visiting professor in the Department of Political Science at Eastern Kentucky University, U.S.A. He served eight years as Representative of the British Council in Thailand and later filled the same post in Hong Kong where he was a member of Council of the Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society. Mr. Bruce was also one time Director of the Government School of Chinese Language at Kuala Lumpur, Malaya.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d",
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    },
    {
        "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",
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    {
        "id": 207978,
        "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": 17,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1977\n\n(Covering the period April 1, 1976 — March 31, 1977)\n\nDuring the past year your Council has endeavoured to arrange a full and varied programme of events and we hope that everybody has found something to interest and enjoy. Altogether there have been 14 lectures, three local excursions and two foreign tours, all events being well attended, although not always by the same people. Let me briefly summarise these events.\n\nIn May 1976 Professor John Fairbank, a leading authority on modern Chinese history and Asia's relations with the West, visiting from Harvard, came to talk to us about contemporary China studies. He also asked us about studies of Hong Kong and China being conducted from here at that time, and was pleased to find many of our own members active in this field. In June, Dr. James McGough, an anthropologist, at that time with the University of Hong Kong, talked about his own research on Chinese marriage carried out in Taiwan, and in July Professor Robert Bruce, an old friend and former member of the Council, discussed relations between the United States and East Asia. In August Mr. Brian Peacock, Curator of Hong Kong's Museum of History and also a Council member, talked on Hindu-Buddhist Settlement and Trade in Ancient Kedah, Malaya; and in October members visited the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals' museum, under the able guidance of Carl Smith and James Hayes. Carl Smith also provided very comprehensive notes on the Hospital which will be published in a later issue of the Journal. Also in October Dr. Peter Wesley-Smith gave a very thought-provoking talk on the convention for the lease of the New Territories. This stimulated much discussion. In November, in preparation for the Sri Lanka tour, Ms. Minette de Silva gave an introductory talk, illustrated with slides, of the various places tour members would be visiting and things they would be seeing on the tour. Also in November Professor Cheng Te-k'un returned to us again to lecture, this time on Chinese Nature Painting, and in December Dr. Leigh Wright, a member of your Council, gave a lecture in preparation for the other foreign tour, to Borneo, which he led in February.\n\nA visit to the Tang family graves was organised by David Liu and James Hayes in December. The Tang lineage is the oldest and",
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    {
        "id": 210958,
        "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": 20,
        "title": "RAS-1987",
        "content_text": "the symposium was returned by nearly 130 members. This response gave the Council a better idea of our present situation and how we should move forward. Mr. Ian Deane, one of our members, did the major share of the preparatory work and wrote the draft report, greatly facilitating the Council's consideration of its contents. He is unable to be present this evening as an invited guest, but I wish to state our sincere appreciation of his work on our behalf, before and since the symposium.\n\nFollowing the symposium, the Council decided to strengthen our organisation by establishing a number of committees to cover the main activities and areas of concern. These will be chaired by Councillors. Membership will come partly from the Council and partly from our members, enabling more of you to share in the Society's work. In addition, the Assistant Secretary's work, which has steadily expanded, will be recognised by increasing her salary. A separate paper provides more detail and I will be happy to answer questions.\n\nMembership\n\nLast year at this time I reported that 82 people had joined the Society. During the year under review this number has further increased by the unheard of number of 192 with, Mrs. Bruce tells me, another 26 applications in hand. As President, may I extend them all a hearty welcome on your behalf. As of 1 March 1988 the Society has 580 local members and 131 overseas members, a total of 711. All indications are that membership will continue to grow, making it likely, before very long, that our membership will exceed that of the North China Branch of the RAS in Shanghai which, at its peak, had around 800 members.\n\nFinance\n\nOur Hon. Treasurer, Mr. David Gilkes, has tabled his report and will answer questions. I have to report that, after being our Treasurer for no less than twenty-one years, since 1967 in fact, Mr. Gilkes will be handing over to Mr. Robert Nield who has kindly agreed to become Hon. Treasurer in his place. Mr. Nield is a local partner of Messrs. Price, Waterhouse International and has been a Hong Kong resident since 1980. We welcome him to the",
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    {
        "id": 211989,
        "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": 404,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "379\n\nThe Morning Post, Jan 1, 1901\n\nCover Page of La Politique de Pe'kin BM7 Jun, 1914, with\n\nSir Robert Hart on it\n\n1 booklet \"Topside Galan\" illustrated by Bessie L'E. Pirkis, in water\n\ncolour (MS)\n\n10 Chillon College Magazine, Vol II: XI XII (2 copies); Vol III: I,\n\nII, IV, VI, VII, VIII: VOL IV, 1\n\nSchool reports, 1937\n\nBundles of theatre programmes and theatre tickets\n\nMinutes of the Seventh Annual Meeting of the Board of Managers of the\n\nPeking University, January 16, 1906 (University Press)\n\nMisc. clippings, newspapers and magazines\n\nLoose papers, some with Robert's childish scribbling for Granny Some calling cards\n\n3 menus\n\nHong Kong and Shanghai Bank to Lady Hart, 29 Oct 1906\n\n5 photographs in an envelope addressed to E Prince (?) Hart Esq. 1 poem (MS)\n\nInvitations\n\nPostcards to Hart (Moore to Hart, 3 Aug 1909), Lady Hart (5), Bruce\n\n(1), Robert (6)\n\nBOX 5\n\nBundle of misc. letters to Robert\n\nBundle of misc. letters to Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Hart Bundle of misc. letters to Carrie and others\n\nMisc. clippings, scribbling, empty envelopes, etc. Robert Bredon to Lady Hart, 7 Sept 1911 27 May 1912 Bundle of papers for learning meaning and pronunciation of Chinese\n\ncharacters (MS)\n\n1 printed address accompanying the Testimonial to Sir Robert Hart GCMG. with Sir Robert Hart's Reply (Peking, 22 Aug 1890)\n\n1 printed letter, E.B. Drew to Alex. Jamieson, 28 August 1890 Letters to Lady Hart from various persons and institutions mainly\n\nregarding her finances\n\n1 typed letter to Editor of The Times, \"The China Crisis”, from H.\n\nCrouch Batchelor\n\n5 letters to Hart\n\nLetters from Hart",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
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    {
        "id": 212946,
        "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": 14,
        "title": "RAS-1993",
        "content_text": "in these issues has recently been sent on the above lines.\n\nTurning to other activities I would like to place again on record our thanks to all those volunteers who have assisted in grading ancient buildings in Hong Kong for the Antiquities and Monuments Office. This project has been going on for two years and I understand has made significant inroads and according to Mr. Peter Chan, Curator (Historical Buildings), their reports and work are very professional. Our thanks are also due to those members who sit on the Antiquities Advisory Board and particularly to Dr. Dan Waters who co-ordinates all these efforts.\n\nOn the administration side all of us have a good deal to be grateful for; keeping a list of members, and ensuring that they pay their subscriptions are we know thankless tasks but without them a Society such as ours would soon die; Mrs. Sharon Bruce, our Assistant Secretary does a superb job here, and so does Mrs. Anita Wilson on the newsletter, without which nothing would happen; also our Secretary, Mr. David Sheil who somehow manages to produce coherent minutes of our Council meetings from his Lamma Island outpost. I will leave Mr. Robert Nield, our Treasurer to explain our finances to you; you will, I hope find them in good shape, and whilst a Society such as ours should not boast that it has made a profit on the Stock Exchange, the fact is we have.\n\nTwo of the most important academic activities of the Society are the build up of the Library and the publication of the Journal. Last year I reported that the Library, under the capable direction of our Librarian, Mr. Y.C. Wan, would be moving from its location in the rather inaccessible Kowloon Central Library to a special collection room in the re-organised City Hall Central Library. Together with new acquisitions during the last year this is now likely to happen in the foreseeable future. Not only that, it is liable to be input into the Urban Council's data base, and therefore computerised. This is indeed very good news and I hope that when the Library does move it will be utilised more than it is now: it is a very fine collection.\n\nThe publication of the Society's Journal is one of the most arduous tasks; editors of journals are a wonderful breed and our editor, Dr. Patrick Hase is no exception; indeed his patience with late contributions and sub-standard publishers is a model. It is therefore with some relief that I report that the 1990 Journal was finally published earlier this month and there is no doubt that it is fully up to the high academic standards of the ...",
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    },
    {
        "id": 213191,
        "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": 13,
        "title": "RAS-1994",
        "content_text": "now no longer on the second floor of the Murray Road Car Park and last month some of the more important records were placed in a special room in the Central Government Offices West Wing and these are accessible to members of the public. The other records have been placed in Tuen Mun in, I believe, reasonable surroundings. However, more importantly it has been reported that the Government has agreed to build a special purpose building for Public Records in Kwun Tong. This is very good news even though the building is unlikely to be completed for another two or three years. I should again like to thank all those who helped in this campaign. One of the incidental results of the move of the Public Records is that the Society's stock of journals which were there (rather surreptitiously I may add) is now temporarily (I hope) stored in the library of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. And in this connection I hope you will have a good look and buy some of these back journals at the back of the room,\n\nPublications, visits, lectures and other educational activities are the ingredients of the Society and what makes it move. However none of these can work well unless there is a satisfactory administration to back it up. The Society has been fortunate in the people who help in this direction. We have our Treasurer, Mr. Robert Nield, who helps us (even orders us!) to keep on the right financial track; he will tell us later that the Society's finances are in reasonable shape and we will not need to raise our subscriptions in January 1996, but may well need to do so in January 1997. Our Secretary, Mr. David Sheil keeps us in order at our Committee meetings and even from his Lamma outpost. Our Assistant Secretaries - you will note I have said Secretaries rather than Secretary, because we have had two in the last year. Mrs. Sharon Bruce who served in this capacity for eight years did a splendid job - her sympathetic listening and quiet efficiency served the Society extraordinarily well. Unfortunately she left in December and her position has been taken over by Mr. Martin Barnett. We welcome him; he promises to professionalise us, but not, I hasten to add, too much. He has already put our membership records on computer thereby giving us more information on the profile of our members than we ever had in the past.\n\nLastly, I think it would be useful to give some thought for the future. The Society by nature caters very much for the local amateur and professional academic interested in local affairs covering a wide range of interests, from political and social history, anthropological matters, archaeology, architecture, geography, and many other matters which stimulate the mind. This is how it should be. However, we cannot be\n\nXI1",
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    {
        "id": 213943,
        "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": 13,
        "title": "RAS-1997",
        "content_text": "sometimes attended RASHKB functions. He still has interests here—for example the Lord Wilson Heritage Trust.\n\nEarlier in 1997 two of our Past Presidents, Mr David Gilkes and Dr James Hayes, were also made Honorary Members in recognition of many years of devoted service for our Branch. We were pleased to welcome David and his wife Edith back on a brief visit in late 1997.\n\nOur membership today is becoming more cosmopolitan and includes about 20 different nationalities comprising scholars, teachers, lay persons and students. It is made up of specialists, who can pursue their own interests, as well as generalists. We welcome persons of all nationalities and from all walks of life and we encourage interaction between the different groups. There is strength in diversity. Yet in a few ways the Branch has not changed over the past 30 odd years. In the 1965 President's report the following was recorded:\n\n\"the Society should have a publicity officer, somebody who would chase after a few more members.\"\n\nToday, too, we need new members and, with the assistance of Robert Neild, Phillip Bruce and Arthur Hacker, a recruitment drive is under way. But all members can help. If all present members could each recruit a friend our aim would be more than achieved. Publicity is important. It is also up to all of us living and working in the 'New Hong Kong', to ensure that our Branch is seen as a friendly group of similarly minded people who are prepared to welcome all types of members.\n\nAs at 27 March, 1998, the number of local members stood at 393. Of these, 62 were Life Members. In addition there were 110 overseas members of whom 77 were Life Members. It is regretted, however, that, in spite of repeated warnings, members underpaid their subscriptions often because they would not take the trouble to up-date their bankers' orders. This causes considerable extra work. It has been decided that, in future, any member who does not pay his or her full subscription will not be entitled to a free copy of the Journal. Although some complain that our subscriptions are high one has to remember\n\nxii\n\nPage ...\n\n \n\n (No additional text like \"Page\" number information is available other than the \"xii\" which seems to be a page number or a marker) \nwas not provided, hence not added \n\n was removed as per rule 12. The text is now output in HTML using  for paragraphs.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214157,
        "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": 15,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "together with his wife Edith, re-visited Hong Kong. So did Past President Dr James Hayes who gave an entertaining, illustrated talk to our Branch about his army days, in Hong Kong and Korea, in the early 1950s. We were delighted to see these three old friends once again.\n\nIt is always sad when old friends depart, for whatever reason, and we are sorry to have to report the passing of two of our overseas members in Britain: the Reverend Cyril Clarke and Mr G Harden. We are also sad to record the passing of Lady May Ride who was a strong supporter of our Branch from 1960 right up to her death after she had moved to England. May they all rest in peace. In addition other members resigned and some left, we later discovered, without informing us which complicates the keeping of our records. As a matter of general interest, there appears to be no founding member (who joined in 1960) who is still active in our Branch today.\n\nMembership drive\n\nBecause of reduced membership, strenuous attempts have been made to increase numbers in various ways. For instance a successful photographic exhibition, on the Landmark Building's Overhead Walkway in Central, was mounted at the end of May, 1998 (see Appendix C). The major organisers for this event were Robert Nield and Tim Ko, assisted at planning stage by Philip Bruce and Arthur Hacker. Their efforts were greatly appreciated as was the help of a large number of other members, including Dr Michael Lau who did the Chinese translation.\n\nIn addition to the successful Landmark Exhibition (no pun intended), the RAS message has been spread in various other ways. This has included the President and members giving talks to, or liaising with, approaching 20 associations, such as the Corona Society, Dante Alighieri and the Hong Kong Natural History Society. Reciprocal arrangements with other societies are obviously important and, in some cases, other associations have been very supportive. Councillors have also taken part in radio and television programmes and our Branch is to be allocated space by the British Consulate on the Internet. For all this assistance we are grateful to many different organisations.\n\nWe are also grateful to RAS members Bob and Sally Bunker and\n\nXiv\n\nPage 15\n\nPage 16",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    }
]