[ { "id": 209595, "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": 252, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "230\n\n!\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nINNOVATIONS\n\nIn 1886 a musical sketch was introduced entitled “Cups and Saucers\". It was written by George Goldsmith, Junior, as a satire against the craze of the day for collecting blue and white china at exorbitant prices. There were only two characters, one male, one female, the latter played by Mrs. Fraser-Smith, wife of the editor of the Hong Kong Telegraph. It contained the song \"Foo-chow chan aring, ching a ring China”.\n\nThe Club announced another serious production for 1888, \"The Rivals\". There was the inevitable comparison with the earlier performance of \"The School for Scandal\".\n\nWhen it was announced that the A.D.C. had resolved to play Sheridan's comedy of \"The Rivals\", many residents entertained the feeling that they had undertaken too much, although against this idea it could well be argued that the performances here of \"The School for Scandal” were most enjoyable, it was argued that Sheridan's masterpiece was placed before the Hong Kong public when the A.D.C. was in the heyday of its existence. Furthermore, the successions of costume and scenery possible in \"The School\" were not available in “The Rivals\". Looking at both of these performances, however, and taking into account the gorgeousness of scenery and dressing in \"The School\" as well as the exceptional ability of several of the actors who have passed away from these shifting scenes, we do not find that the A.D.C. did an unwise thing in deciding upon \"The Rivals\". The Amateurs and the public have had their share of burlesque and of modern pieces of late; and it was, we think, a healthy change to come back to the legitimate comedy of the last century.\n\nThe reviewer noted that two of the actors in \"The Rivals\" were well on their way to filling up a gap left by the retirement of Mr. Hockey (Mr. Atwell Coxon) and Mr. Treab (Mr. Beart), an accomplished comedian. One of the newcomers was Mr. James Whittall, later to become a taipan at Jardine Matheson and Company,\n\nA first of a series of Christmas pantomimes was staged in 1889. It had \"splendid spectacular effects, light and appropriate", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211125, "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": 186, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "161\n\nBLOCKADE FINDS A CHAMPION\n\nThe Chinese petition to the Queen concerning the evils of what was called the Chinese “blockade” of Hongkong was followed by a public meeting held at the City Hall in September 1874, to draw up resolutions to present to the Government in Britain.\n\nThe meeting began with the calamitous forecast by the chief manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, Mr. James Greig, that Hongkong's junk trade was threatened with complete extinction and the acts of China in patrolling the waters near Hongkong were an outrage.\n\nHe proposed the first resolution: \"That this meeting regards with feelings of amazement and alarm the organised invasion by the Hoppo of Canton of the freedom and sanctuary of the port and harbour of Hongkong.\"\n\nThere was one person at the meeting who had not been carried away by the ground-swell of indignation which pervaded the mercantile section of the community.\n\nThe unofficial member of the Legislative Council and senior partner in Hongkong of Jardine, Matheson and Company, Mr. James Whittall, stated his opinion that the commerce of Hongkong was not suffering from the blockade.\n\nIndeed, he claimed that trade had improved after some recent sluggishness and was as large as it ever had been.\n\nFurthermore, China had a perfect right to levy and collect duties on cargoes.\n\nSeveral speakers questioned the accuracy of Mr. Whittall's estimate of the progress of Hongkong trade. One drew attention to the Harbour Master's report for the previous year which showed a decline in junks entering and leaving the harbour.\n\nBut Mr. Whittall stood firm. He reminded the meeting that his company did a very large business and he ought to be fully acquainted with the situation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211126, "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": 187, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "162\n\nquainted with the state of trade between Hongkong and China.\n\nNext he hit at the root of the problem. He bluntly stated that “a great many Chinese in Hongkong smuggled.”\n\nHis remark was not welcomed. Hongkong merchants were reluctant to look squarely at the source of the Colony's tensions with China.\n\nMr. Whittall next commented on statements made in the recent Chinese petition protesting against the seizure and confiscation of a junk by the customs officials. He claimed that contrary to the impression given in the petition, the junk had been engaged in smuggling and was not an innocent victim of rapacious Chinese officials.\n\nThis attitude towards the problem from the head of a firm, whose fortunes had been founded on the import of opium and its sales to smugglers, seemed out of character. By 1874, however, Jardine's had little to do with the opium trade but the firm's past associations led to an appreciation of the fact that many Chinese traders had either direct or indirect interests in smuggling.\n\nAnother factor influencing Mr. Whittall's tolerant views regarding the actions of China to protect its income was Jardine's efforts to win railway and other concessions from the Chinese Government. To do this the firm needed to keep on good terms with Chinese officials.\n\nYet still another factor in Mr. Whittall's position may have been his relation to the local Government. He may have agreed to act as its spokesman at the meeting.\n\nThere were other occasions when he was charged with being the Government's mouthpiece, rather than the people's voice as an unofficial member of the Legislative Council.\n\nMr. Whittall suggested that if the initial request of the Chinese for a consul to supervise duty regulations had been granted, the present conditions would not have arisen. He acknowledged that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "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": 211128, "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": 189, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "164\n\napparently withdrew from the meeting. All the other resolutions were passed unanimously.\n\nThough the great majority of those at the meeting did not agree with Mr. Whittall's views, the editor of the Daily Press told its readers that “it was impossible to overlook the fact spoken of by Mr. Whittall that a nation possesses a right to take steps for the protection of its revenue.”\n\nThere was little Britain could do against this, for \"at the present day it has become an established principle to treat China as an equal in all matters of international law or courtesy.”\n\nThis was a principle of expediency, for in the view of the editor, \"the Home authorities are alive to the importance of political complications which might arise by treating China otherwise than as an equal. The effect of which would be to relieve her from the obligation to treat us in the same way, albeit she but little acts up to her duty in this respect.”\n\nThough admitting that as an abstract truth of principle, China might have the right to take whatever measures it might think necessary to protect its revenue in its own waters, the editor claimed, however, that “this privilege is being used to invade the independence of a friendly neighbour and of harassing and oppressing the trade of a particular port.”\n\nA problem affecting Hongkong might be viewed differently by those concerned with protecting their local financial interests and those responsible for diplomatic relations between two nations.\n\nBRITAIN COOL TO BLOCKADE HYSTERICS\n\nCertain frustrations and insecurities were behind the rejection of proposals to appoint a Chinese consul in Hongkong and the indignation created by what was felt to be a blockade of Hongkong by China.\n\nThe majority of Europeans in China were there to trade and make money. China was a market to be exploited. Any hindrance", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211130, "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": 191, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "166\n\nIn addition to the embarrassment such persons were to “respectable” Europeans, it was felt the employment by the Chinese of members of their own class also created a wrong impression.\n\nOne of the resolutions passed at the meeting to protest against the blockade stated that the actions of the Chinese were \"most inimical to British prestige in Hongkong and the neighbouring provinces of China, the impression being general, on account of the prominent part taken by Englishmen in the matter, that the system is connived at by the British Government, which is powerless to resist it.\"\n\nAny situation where British honour or prestige was felt to be undermined stirred up basic insecurities. Other statements made at the meeting reflected popularly held attitudes towards the Chinese.\n\nOne of the speakers gave a somewhat simplistic analysis of the manner in which the Government functioned in China. He stated: “China contains two classes, the governors and the governed. The one class squeezes and the other is squeezed and the richer the subject, the more certain he was to be so.”\n\nHe believed that many Chinese were attracted to Hongkong not because of the opportunities it offered for making money, but simply to escape the uncertainties of life in China.\n\nMr. Whittall in his speech at the meeting had introduced the question of a Chinese consul in Hongkong. Another speaker elaborated on the dangers he felt were inherent in the proposal.\n\nHe claimed that a consul would be regarded by the Chinese as the real ruling power in Hongkong, especially “as they do not understand all the details of English law, they would at once submit themselves to his direction.”\n\nA Chinese consul would never be able to fulfil the usual function of a consul in a foreign port, which, according to the speaker, was to act as a mediator in case of disputes between the people of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211131, "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": 192, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "167\n\nthe country he represented and the Government and people of the foreign territory where they reside.\n\nInstead, it was claimed, “there would be little friendly relation manifested by him. He would simply be a spy. He would in fact be an enemy to the Government of this place.”\n\nThis totally negative view of a Chinese consul reflects a generally low estimate and distrust of Chinese character held by many foreigners at that time.\n\nAnother speaker, Mr. Granville Sharp, categorically stated that the Chinese nation and its people lacked integrity: “Her inhabitants from the highest official to the lowest coolie appear to be utterly incapable of understanding the social as well as moral necessity for truth.”\n\nHe analysed the suffering China was causing Hongkong. To him the resolutions of the meeting were cries of distress.\n\nIn his diagnosis he said: \"We were all of us in pain: that we suffered. If anyone at the meeting said we did not, were we to believe him?”\n\nThis appeared to be a reference to Mr. Whittall's remarks that Hongkong trade had not been affected by the blockade.\n\nMr. Sharp regarded what had happened to Hongkong as producing cries of distress: \"Every man, woman and child, and almost every animal had the power of expressing suffering, and by its cry of petulance, irritability or anger showed the nature and degree of its sufferings. No real cry of suffering should be disregarded.\"\n\nLet Britain respond with sympathy and understanding to Hongkong's feelings.\n\nMr. Sharp attempted to put the resolutions not only within a general psychological framework, but also in an international political setting:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211132, "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": 193, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "168\n\n\"We would hope that the almost unanimous voice of the meeting and the tone and manner in which its views would be expressed would have an effect, not only upon the immediate subject of the meeting, but the worldwide China question.”\n\nA few days following the meeting, Mr. David Welsh wrote a letter to the Daily Press supporting Mr. Whittall's unpopular position.\n\nIn introducing his opinions, he took up Mr. Sharp's theme of cries of distress. Mr. Welsh suggested that, “in a war of opinion, a good cry is more than half the battle. This was made painfully evident at the public meeting. The cry of Hongkong blockaded is a good one, and almost every person came to the meeting prepared to vote for resolutions framed in that sense, notwithstanding their extravagance, and that the movers of the resolutions gave not one shred of evidence in favour of what they proposed.\"\n\nThe final resolution of the meeting provided for a wide distribution of its results. They were of course to be sent to the proper Government authorities.\n\nCopies were also to be provided to the Chambers of Commerce in Britain and to all Members of Parliament and other prominent figures.\n\nBritish officials in Canton, Peking and London did not share the strong views of the meeting. Their position was more moderate and no definitive action was taken to break the “blockade.”\n\nSTRIKING A HARD BARGAIN ON TRADE WITH CHINA\n\nOfficials responsible for political relations between Britain and China were less emotional than Hongkong residents about the issues of a Chinese \"blockade\" of the harbour and the appointment of a Chinese consul. As diplomats their perspective was broader.\n\nThey recommended that a report formulated by a commission appointed in Hongkong to study the blockade should not be made", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 } ]