[ { "id": 213948, "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": 18, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "to his daughter, Mrs R. Woodcock, for donating these to our Society.\n\nOur Branch is always looking for donations and if anybody wishes to find a good home for some interesting and valuable items or artifacts we should be grateful if you would consider donating them to the RASHKB.\n\nThe Public Records Office\n\nAlthough the RASHKB is apolitical and has no wish to be seen as a pressure group, it does make its views known when it has a case. You may remember that our Branch objected when the Hong Kong Government decided to move the Public Records Office from Central District into an industrial building in Tuen Mun. Besides writing letters and taking other action two Branch deputations appeared before the Legislative Council Panel on Information Policy in 1993. The outcome of our efforts was that a new, purpose-built Public Records Office was opened in Kwun Tong, in June 1997, shortly before the Handover. Our Branch played a major role in this achievement.\n\nThe Council\n\nSeveral of the 14 posts which comprise our Council require a special expertise. These include the Treasurer, the Librarian and our Editors. But, in addition to these 14 posts, other persons are co-opted on to the Council. They include the Reverend Carl Smith, our Honorary Vice President, and our Assistant Secretary, Mrs Sarah Parnell. Each Council Member is expected to pull at his or her respective oar and to row in unison. It is a working council.\n\nIn addition to the two co-opted persons named above, namely Carl Smith and Sarah Parnell, as well as the President, the following have sat on the Council during the past year: Doctors Elizabeth Sinn, Michael Lau, Patrick Hase, Joseph Ting, Peter Barker, Choi Chi-cheung and Anthony Siu, together with Robert Nield, Geoffrey Roper, Peter Halliday, Valery Garrett, Julia Chan, and Peter Rull. Also, although Anita Wilson stepped down from the Council at the last AGM, she was co-opted back on until she left the Territory last July. All those\n\nxvii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214602, "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": 17, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "Being chairperson of the Activities Committee is a demanding position and we thank Valery Garrett for her considerable effort and for a job well done. We also thank her Committee comprising the Reverend Carl Smith, Doctors Elizabeth Sinn, Michael Lau, Patrick Hase, Joseph Ting, as well as May Holdsworth, Sarah Parnell, Peter Stuckey and Jason Wordie. Others who have helped with the organising of activities include Stephen Selby, Michael Broom and Arthur Hacker. A vote of thanks is accorded to all of them.\n\nProjects and other activities\n\nAgain our Society has been involved in various ways with projects and other activities which sometimes amount to a form of community service. For instance, over the summer we pieced together information for Mrs Victoria Brown of Australia. She was trying to trace details about her great-grandmother, Mrs Miranda Main (née Mann), who served as a school principal in Hong Kong at the end of the 19th and early in the 20th century. When Mrs Brown visited Hong Kong in October of last year, together with Mr S T Chiu of the Antiquities and Monuments Office, he and I showed Mrs Brown the old school building at 136 Nathan Road where her great-grandmother had been principal. Also, RAS members David Clinton and Dr Gillian Bickley met Mrs Brown and provided her with useful information.\n\nWith the help of Council member Tim Ko, we also provided information regarding bullet and shrapnel marks on a wall on Lower Stubbs Road where a great deal of fierce fighting took place when the Japanese invaded Hong Kong in December 1941. In another case a lady in England, Frances Howell, was trying to trace details of her relatives who lived in Shan Dong Province and Hong Kong.\n\nAgain, in response to a letter in the press, information was provided for a relative in England regarding Lieutenant Henry Dallas who died in Hong Kong in 1844. Information was obtained regarding both the grave and a monument on the wall inside Saint John's Cathedral up until World War Two.\n\nAlso, our Branch was invited to send a representative to make its views known to a government working party which was looking into the subject, 'Conservation and the Natural Environment.' This is the\n\nxvi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214605, "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": 20, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "As a democratic society we have this year again asked members to nominate other members to serve on the Council. No nominations have been received. Consequently, all serving members offer themselves for re-election.\n\nNone of our Councillors have unlimited time and the work they put in for the RASHKB, for most of them has to be done after a full day's work. Nevertheless, the amount of work some Councillors do for the Branch is considerable. A big 'thank you' to all members of Council for their efforts over the past year. It would be impossible to run the RASHKB without them.\n\nAcknowledgements\n\nI have already thanked Council and committee members for their significant contributions during the year 1999/2000. I have also thanked speakers, leaders of groups and institutions who have assisted us. I must also thank anyone who has helped with the undertaking of projects. Again I must not forget Mrs Sarah Parnell our energetic Assistant Secretary. It is always difficult to remember everyone one should thank on an occasion like this but if I have overlooked anyone then I crave your forgiveness.\n\nConclusions\n\nIt should be mentioned in concluding that our members are generally pleasant, affable people. They do not complain when the odd thing does not run as smoothly as it should. This we all know, with the best will in the world and no matter how well a function has been organised, is inevitable on the odd occasion. But when there are problems, we would do well to remember that, especially for the more elderly among us, adrenaline is a wonderful cure for Alzheimer's. We should also ponder the words of Dharma Master Cheng Yen, a Zen Buddhist, who is supposed to have said:\n\nIt is through our troubles that we achieve wisdom. Only this kind of trouble is meaningful.\n\nxix", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214922, "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": 18, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "They contain a wealth of observations and well-researched material written by both RAS members and non-members who have frequently lived and worked close to their subjects for considerable periods. Such studies often contrast with those of other scholars who, because of lack of personal contact through no fault of their own, must distance themselves from their subjects and rely largely on secondary sources. I should like to thank our present Honorary Editor, Dr Peter Halliday. Nevertheless we must not forget earlier editors such as Drs Patrick Hase, James Hayes, David Faure and their predecessors, who put in countless hours in honorary capacities. Do you possess any special knowledge or expertise? Do you have something important to say regarding Hong Kong's past? If so, we look forward to reading your contribution.\n\nOver the past year selected papers and articles from our Journals have been digitised and placed on the Hong Kong University Libraries Homepage. The Home Page includes a search engine thus obviating the need for an index. We are grateful to the University for giving us the opportunity to co-operate with them on this meaningful project.\n\nOur publications continue to attract attention and sell to scholars and discerning readers around the world. Over the past year a number of bodies have requested permission to quote from, or to display, photographs from our last book, In the Heart of the Metropolis: Yaumatei and its People. Such requests are normally granted provided due acknowledgement is given. Our bimonthly Newsletter continues to be read avidly, RAS member Robin Bridge wrote: 'My thanks to all those who have researched and compiled such an informative Newsletter. Delighted to receive it e-mail, too.' While a few of us have fed in information over the past year the Newsletter was prepared, firstly, by Sarah Parnell and, for the second part of the year, by her successor, Mary Painter.\n\nWe again congratulate our members who have published in their own right over the past year. Because of numbers we are unable to name them individually. Other than in special cases we try to refrain from showing favouritism to individual authors. Nevertheless any member who publishes may, if he or she wishes, have their work mentioned in our Newsletter. Writing is, some contend, a form of therapy. One sometimes wonders how those who do not write manage\n\nxvii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214924, "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": 20, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "and continue to put so much into our Branch. The idea of holding this conference, which included two films, was proposed by Dr Elizabeth Sinn. We are grateful to her, too, both for chairing the organising committee and for acting as mistress of ceremonies. We are also grateful to the Centre of Asian Studies at the Hong Kong University for its assistance.\n\nFew members can recall the activities during the early days of our Branch and the rapidly changing Colony in which it functioned. These need to be recorded. Such sources of information will not be around forever. A prime task of our Society has been, and must continue to be, the recording of Hong Kong's past before it disappears for all time. This should include both oral history as well as memories of Branch members. It may involve, for instance, working as a government servant in the New Territories when it was far more rural than it is today. It may be about Chinese puppets, bamboo scaffolding, women who apply Chinese-style facials with a long, cotton thread, or of other aspects of the rapidly fading local lifestyle.\n\nIn the summer a questionnaire concerning our activities was prepared, largely by Jason Wordie, and sent to all members. Although the return of 20 per cent was disappointing, it did provide a great deal of useful information. Although there were the inevitable caustic comments, the returns showed clearly by far the majority of our members are well satisfied with what we are doing. We have however taken careful note of suggestions and some have already been implemented.\n\nBecause of the large number of lecturers, tour leaders and others involved, it is not possible to name everyone who has contributed to the success of our activities. Many (although not all) are named in the appendices. To everyone concerned a very sincere thank you. We cannot leave it at that, however, and a special vote of thanks must go to our Honorary Activities Coordinator, Valery Garrett, together with her committee members. These consisted of the Reverend Carl T. Smith, Drs Michael Lau, Patrick Hase, Joseph Ting as well as May Holdsworth, Sarah Parnell, Peter Stuckey, Jason Wordie and Mary Painter. Others who gave a helping hand were past Council member Phillip Bruce and member Michael Broom. If anyone else would like to assist in any way please let us know. We have a large membership and we appreciate\n\nxix", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214927, "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": 23, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "submission to the Inland Revenue Department for charitable institutional status.\n\nAccommodation\n\nAgain we are grateful to our many good friends on whom we rely for accommodation. They include the Public Records Office, where our Journals and some of our archives are stored, the latter on permanent loan. We are also grateful to the City Hall where our lectures (which are run as joint functions with the City Hall) take place and again to PricewaterhouseCoopers who kindly allow us to hold committee meetings on their premises. A heartfelt thank you to all concerned.\n\nThe Council\n\nOther than those that have to be taken at AGMs, all-important Branch decisions are made in Council to whom our membership has delegated the running of our Branch. The latter functions completely autonomously from our Headquarters in London and separately from other Branches in Asia. Over the past year the RASHKB Council has comprised two Vice Presidents, Drs Elizabeth Sinn and Michael Lau. Other members have included Robert Nield, Julia Chan, Valery Garrett, Bob Horsnell, Tim Ko and May Holdsworth. It has also included Drs Patrick Hase, Joseph Ting, Peter Barker, Peter Halliday and Janet Lee Scott. The Reverend Carl Smith, our Honorary Vice President, and Sarah Parnell as Assistant Secretary, and her successor, Mary Painter, have been co-opted, non-voting members. We are grateful to everyone who sat on the Council and gave of his or her time.\n\nAcknowledgements\n\nHaving thanked Council and Activity Committee members, speakers and leaders of groups and various other persons, who have I failed to mention? Firstly we must thank HKBRAS members, Angus Forsyth and John Budge, for their valuable professional advice. Past Council member Geoffrey Roper still helps in various ways quietly behind the scenes as do some spouses of Council members. We value everyone's assistance. So many people and institutions have rendered help to us over the course of the year. It is quite possible that someone who deserves to be thanked has inadvertently slipped through the net.\n\nxxii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 } ]