[ { "id": 204608, "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-1963", "page_number": 89, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "78\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nguard was reinforced by marines from the warships in the Gulf of Chihli, and arrived in Peking on May 31st. Seventy-five was the number fixed for the French, British, and Russian contingents. On June 10th, an immediate attack on the Legation area was expected, while at the same time reinforcements were awaited from Tientsin. On June 20th, the German Minister, Baron Ketteler, was murdered by Boxers on his way to the Tsungli Yamen, the Chinese department dealing with Foreign Affairs. As a result, all the women and children in the various Legations, together with the non-combatant men, gathered inside the British Legation, since this was alone regarded as capable of any serious defence. In here, there were eventually over eight hundred people, including the Ministers of eleven different nations and some Chinese Christian converts. At this time, the Legation was only half its final size, being roughly 700 yards long and 200 yards wide, but containing eight different walls, some of them very thick, which made it good for defending.\n\nMeanwhile, the German Minister's interpreter, Cordes, who had been wounded, was brought into the Legation, and a hospital was hurriedly set up, under the charge of Dr. Poole of the British Legation, with Dr. Welde of the German Legation as his assistant. The nurses consisted of one fully trained and certificated nurse (Miss Lambert of the Church of England Mission), who was made Matron, and a number of partly trained missionary women under her, together with Fuller, a naval sick-berth steward, who had been sent up with the marines. One of the partly-trained missionaries was Jessie Ransome, who kept a diary of the siege, giving the story of the hospital work. As she recorded:\n\nThe first thing to be done was to find a building which could be set apart for a hospital, and this, in the crowded state of the British Legation, was not very easy. It was decided to use the Government offices and reading-room, commonly known as the Chancery, and two rooms were hastily cleared and prepared for use, one as an operating theatre, and the other as a ward. Even then, we had not an idea of the task before us, thinking that a few days would certainly bring Admiral Seymour and his column to our relief; and so it was only by degrees, as our patients increased in number, that we cleared out more rooms and even encroached upon", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206265, "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-1971", "page_number": 82, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "76\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nTam Tso (Achoy) gave $50. Then there are thirteen contributions of $10 each. Of these six are from compradores, and an equal number from merchants. The remaining contributor in this particular group was a government servant, the overseer of the coolie gangs of the Surveyor General's Department.\n\n(5) In April, 1861, The Friend of China published a list entitled, \"A Public Declaration of the Shop Keepers of Hong Kong, stating that when Mr. Caldwell managed the Proprietorship of the Chinese here, the people of Hong Kong were at rest, but he resigned his office. They now present their petition to the Governor asking him to retain Mr. Caldwell\". It has sixteen names of firms as the chief petitioners. Beside seven of them are given the names of the head of the firm. Five of these are found on the 1859 list.\n\n(6) In January, 1868, The Hong Kong Daily Press published forty-two names of individuals and firms who submitted a petition to the House of Commons against the imposition of a Military Contribution upon Hong Kong.\n\n(7) In 1872, The Chinese Chronicle and Directory gives the names of the eleven members of the Kai Fong or \"Joss House Committee, as well as the thirteen members of the Tung Wah Hospital Committee. This was the organizing committee of 1869 which remained in office until the Hospital was formally opened in 1872, when a new committee was elected. The Directory also lists a General Committee for the Hospital. This too had thirteen members.\n\n(8) On 1 April, 1871, a memorial presented to Henry Charles Caldwell upon his departure from the Colony by the Chinese community, which was published in the Chinese section of The China Mail and signed by thirty-two of the most prominent Chinese, serves as a check against the Tung Wah and Kai Fong Directors.\n\n(9) In May, 1872, The China Mail contains the names of thirty Chinese who called upon the Governor on behalf of the Chinese community. This delegation was composed of seven compradores, fourteen merchants, two journalists, one contractor and two government servants.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207141, "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-1974", "page_number": 212, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "206\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nlarge dwellings and godowns. It was a pleasant area. Two of the properties were especially noted for their gardens. A Parsee merchant, Framjee Jamsetjee, in advertising his property for sale in 1845, stated that it was \"beautifully situated by the water side with a fine view of the Bay, surrounded by a garden, stocked with the choicest plants which have been imported at great expense, and now is in a flourishing condition.\" The other gardened property was called Spring Gardens, and for a number of the years the name was applied to the area. The name is preserved today by Spring Gardens Lane which marks the eastern boundary of the original property. The dwelling was also known as \"Old Government House\" for at one time it had been the residence of Governor Bonham [1848-1854]. Advertisements mention its \"ornamental grounds\" and \"fine well of spring water with powerful iron pump\".\n\nWhen the military gradually bought up and occupied the area between Central District and Wanchai in the 1840s and 1850s, the two sections were separated and Spring Gardens area lost most of its commercial activity. Decline set in, reinforced by a business depression, and a number of godowns and dwellings stood empty. Several of the properties reverted to Government through non-payment of Crown rents. Others were foreclosed by mortgagees. The military took advantage of the empty premises to use them as barracks and officers' quarters.\n\nPoor Chinese settled as squatters both on the west and east fringes of Victoria. To accommodate these on the east the Government put up for sale in 1847 a range of lots at the foot of Hospital Hill along the present Wanchai Road. These were used for small shops, trades, and family residences. The population, however, tended to remain poor and unruly. With the influx of displaced people during the Tai Ping Rebellion in the 1850s several of the European properties were redeveloped with Chinese housing.\n\nThe area near Queen's Road East and Ship Street was probably the site of a small settlement before the British occupation of the Island. Eitel in his history of Hong Kong states that the Hung Shing Temple on Queen's Road East existed before the cession. The pattern of the lots also suggests that there may have been previous occupants. When the military rented some vacant properties nearby for barracks, several brothels were established on Ship Street north of Queen's Road East. To the south, up the hill on Ship Street, there were several small dairies operated by Chinese.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207402, "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-1975", "page_number": 170, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "162\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nof 230 moved on 20 January 1942 from Hong Kong to Camranh Bay and thence to Sumatra. The 230 regiment left Camranh Bay on 18 February 1942 and landed at Java. The whole Japanese operations in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaya and elsewhere had been carried out by only eleven divisions. As soon therefore as Hong Kong fell on 25 December 1941 it must have been Japanese policy to withdraw the fighting troops in order to replace their losses, which had been substantial, reequip and reorganise them for the next operation. The atrocities in Stanley, Happy Valley and elsewhere were carried out by fighting troops flushed by success in battle. I imagine that these must have been withdrawn before our hospital and Hong Kong generally suffered. This seems the most likely explanation for the facts, for as I said earlier Bowen Road was practically in the front line as the fighting ended and the city of Victoria was an exceedingly rich prize.\n\nDuring hostilities we in Hong Kong learned of the sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse off the Malayan coast, which with the destruction also of a large part of the American fleet of course extinguished any hopes of relief. Rumour spread among us and was eagerly passed on that a Chinese army was hastening to our rescue. To those who had watched the failure of the Kuo Min Tang Chinese to make an effective attempt to dislodge the Japanese armies from Canton and South China since 1938 this story was considered to be most unlikely to be true, as so it proved.\n\nSoon after our surrender, nurses and other staff and patients who had survived the outrages of Stanley, Happy Valley, St. Albert's Convent Hospital and elsewhere rejoined Bowen Road and their experiences soon became known to all staff and patients. Even so it came as a shock to many to see and hear Japanese methods with captives. For several nights for example our guards had a number of Chinese as prisoners; these they had tied to trees and seemed to carry out barbarities upon them. Some of our people reported that they had smelt burning flesh and certainly the cries of the prisoners were shattering. Rumour had it that the Chinese were caught looting, of which large numbers were undoubtedly guilty, but this experience shook patients and some staff considerably for a while.\n\nOne of the early Japanese officers to visit the hospital expressed surprise at finding women there at all, and advised that they should make themselves as inconspicuous as possible. This warning spread", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207423, "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-1975", "page_number": 191, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n183\n\na more cheerful atmosphere became apparent; most people used the contents intelligently to make the basic diet more palatable while the thought that we were not forgotten did much to improve morale.\n\nSix months later, in May 1943 a second consignment of parcels arrived. Some of our patients had already received a second parcel in Sham Shui Po and those who had done so were allotted one parcel between two men from our second allocation. All others in the hospital received one parcel each, but as before a number of parcels showed shortages.\n\nOn 1 September 1944, sixteen months later we received a splendid consignment of parcels from the Canadian Red Cross, enough to issue two to each person in hospital. A few parcels remained after this distribution and I took these into the store and used the tinned foods for general messing. As usual some parcels were incomplete though the wrappings were intact, and the shortages in this case and perhaps in others must have resulted from bad packing.\n\nIt was only three days later when on 4 September 1944 we received a further 144 Canadian parcels and issued two between five men. As before a few parcels not allocated in the foregoing way were broken up, the tinned food being used for general messing while such items as prunes, chocolate, raisins, biscuits etc. were added to bulk stores of similar nature received three days earlier and used to make 133 prizes which were raffled among 315 people.\n\nNo further individual parcels were received, and therefore each member of staff and each long-term patient received a total of just under 41 parcels between 1942 and 1945, though patients admitted from Kowloon may have had a fraction more. In January 1943 the Red Cross organization in Hong Kong had started to send in bulk stores of food to us. These included tins of meat and vegetable, preserved meat, sardines, condensed milk, marmalade, jam, tomato catsup, syrup, Yershey's milk powder, shark liver oil, dripping, hen and duck eggs, barley, fresh limes, dried peas, soy beans, soy bean powder, soy sauce, peanut butter, peanut oil, Chinese and cube sugar, tea and cocoa. In January we had two intakes and further intakes were spread at irregular intervals, one in May, one each in June and July and two in October. In August 1943 Sergeant Seino told me that we could expect no further supplies but in 1944 we had two intakes in each month from March to August inclusive, one each...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207432, "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-1975", "page_number": 200, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "192\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\ndical Services of the Japanese Army of Occupation. Selwyn-Clarke represented to Eguchi that it was essential to take precautions to avoid outbreaks of epidemic diseases in the chaotic conditions following our surrender and he, with his wife and daughter and a handful of his staff, were spared internment for a while in order to organise the necessary work. Certain other categories of people, for example senior bankers, were likewise not interned at the beginning though the movements of all these men were always restricted within narrow limits. Selwyn-Clarke's mind turned at once to ways in which he could help those who were in P.O.W. or Internment camps. He knew exactly what would happen and how health would suffer and he set about getting food and drugs to combat the infectious and deficiency diseases he saw to be inevitable.\n\nI do not know how these relief operations were financed nor do I know many details. He visited the camps and though not allowed to see the prisoners he did get guides as to what was needed e.g., food, fuel, meat, cooking oil and at the same time he got the names of many prisoners. He had found out that the Japanese would allow entry to parcels of food etc. addressed to individuals but would not accept bulk supplies for delivery. He then recruited a number of women helpers; some of these had husbands, relatives or friends in the camps and hospital. Before hostilities Selwyn-Clarke was at all times completely absorbed in the task he had in hand. In a community where alcohol and tobacco were cheap and widely used he did not drink and he did not smoke and I think found it difficult to interest himself in the small talk usual in the kind of society in which Hong Kong took pleasure at that time. His wife was an electrifying woman, full of energy, vastly intelligent and widely informed, with great warmth, firmly held opinions and completely devoted to the welfare of the Chinese citizens of the Colony. She unfortunately has since died, but she always played a leading part in organising the parties delivering food to the hospital.\n\nOne of her main helpers was Miss Helen Ho. Miss Ho was arrested three times by the Japanese, the first being shortly after Selwyn-Clarke's own arrest. She was imprisoned once below the Supreme Court; another time she was confined in a house above Queen's Road, but being allowed to open a window for air she attracted the attention of a passing friend by flashing a reflected ray of sun in her eyes using a hand mirror. She then dropped a pre-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207466, "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-1975", "page_number": 234, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "226\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nwas found and confiscated, and I was told that searches would continue if forbidden articles of this kind were found. We repacked the boxes as best we could but we could only rope them and not lock them. I passed to the Japanese lists of possessions known to have been taken by them which I claimed belonged to people protected by the Geneva Convention. Nobody ever saw these goods again.\n\nOn 26 September the transmitting room used to broadcast music to the wards was dismantled and the bunk used for this purpose reverted to use as a nurse's bunk. Many in the hospital I think were relieved to know that our radio receiver was no longer active. I have referred elsewhere in this account to the rumour that the receiver was still being operated elsewhere in the hospital.\n\nIn September 1943 there arrived as our hospital interpreter Mr. Watanabe, Uncle John to many. This remarkable man was the minister of a Christian Church in Japan but I had few dealings with him outside official business at this time. He hated war, but while he did much work carrying messages of comfort between prisoners and between them and their relatives in the Colony and forwarding the good work being done by Selwyn-Clarke and his helpers he never betrayed his country and sought only to temper the harshness to human beings which resulted from her policies. After the war he was the subject of one of the \"This is your life\" programmes presented on television from London, to the preparation of which Selwyn-Clarke contributed greatly. I have had the pleasure of entertaining this truly Christian man myself in London. His whole family was killed in an air raid in Japan.\n\nWhen hostilities began in 1941 a number of private cars had been parked in the hospital grounds and most of these were damaged, my own very severely by masonry falling from the building which was damaged by bombing and shell fire. One car had been stripped and used by us for study purposes but all cars along with a lorry and an ambulance car had to be pushed by us up the steep hill to the Japanese officers' living quarters and were thus lost to us.\n\nMy diary records that on 9 November we sent a couple of glass eyes to Sham Shui Po for use by our men there so that they obviously continued to pay attention to their appearance. There was a very cold spell of ten days in November during which we needed all our blankets and all our blue hospital uniforms to keep patients warm. A full course of inoculations against typhoid, cho-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207519, "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-1975", "page_number": 287, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n279\n\namong us. I have referred to only a few people by name and this has occurred when the story would be incomplete otherwise. In singling out individuals I do an injustice to those who are not named and this is clearly unfair. Some, like myself, had weaknesses, but all could be relied upon in difficult times; at the other extreme, some were magnificent throughout, courageous and dependable in the long months and years of the slogging, unexciting routine work needed to nurse and care for the personal needs of patients, to supply and feed them and keep their surroundings in a state of good order and cleanliness. In all these circumstances, I have felt it improper at this distance from events to single out more individuals by name. In an appendix (Appendix C) is provided a list of those who served in the hospital from August 1942 to our release in September 1945. This is a hospital staff Roll of Honour, which it is a privilege to publish.\n\nThough the period December 1941 to August 1942 is not covered by my diaries and I have touched on events during that period only lightly, I must refer specially to the lady nurses of the Q.A.I.N.M.S., the Royal Canadian Nursing Service, the Volunteer Nursing Service, and the Auxiliary Service. Miss E.M.B. Dyson, as matron, was responsible for the training of the additional staff before hostilities and for arranging the staffing of the additional hospitals set up in St. Albert's Convent, in Stanley, in Happy Valley, and in the Hong Kong Hotel. In St. Albert's, the matron, Miss Kathleen Thomson, was wounded, and one sister, Miss Brenda Morgan, was killed by shell fire, and elsewhere, a number of these ladies suffered badly at the hands of Japanese troops. The Royal Naval Hospital had its own nursing service under Miss Olga Franklin and found itself practically in the fighting line before moving to St. Albert's Convent Hospital. When this hospital was overrun, the matron and nursing staff were tied up with ropes for a time. In Stanley, medical officers and patients were murdered before the eyes of the nurses, and some of the latter were criminally assaulted, while nurses at Happy Valley suffered like fates. Our nurses at Bowen Road were spared these fates only, I consider, because the Colony had surrendered just as the hospital was about to be overrun. That these dangers were real is shown further by the advice given to us by a Japanese officer after our surrender that we should keep our nurses away from observation by Japanese troops. All this was known to these ladies, and their courage during", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208015, "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": 54, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "38 \n\nG. C. EMERSON \n\namong them were many connected with the medical profession including 40 doctors, two dentists, one biologist, six pharmacists, 100 nurses and six masseuses, as well as a number of auxiliary nurses. The personnel, however, were far more adequate than the equipment. Very little medical equipment or supplies were provided by the Japanese, but the internees were able to set up a hospital of sorts, called Tweed Bay Hospital. Most illnesses concerned disorders of the alimentary tract, including bacillary dysentery. Other common illnesses included typhoid, tuberculosis, typhus, malaria, beriberi and pellagra. Only one serious case of mental disorder occurred. Surprisingly few died in Camp — approximately 120 – and the majority of these were older people or people suffering from diseases before internment. There were a few accidental deaths, including two who died in falls and a child who drowned. The worst accident during internment was the bombing of Bungalow C at St. Stephen's College on 16th January 1945, by an American aeroplane probably attempting to destroy a Japanese boat in Stanley Bay. The plane flew low over the camp and released its bomb too soon. Fourteen internees were killed.\n\nLikely you may be wondering about escapes from camp. Many if not most internees thought about escaping but few actually tried. The difficulties were great, including getting through Japanese-occupied territory, finding food, and coping with languages (few internees spoke Cantonese, let alone any dialects of the area). In spite of such difficulties, there were three major escapes, two of which were successful in March 1942. One group of eight obtained a small boat and sailed to Macau; the other, two persons, went through the New Territories into China. As a result, the Japanese instituted stricter controls, including a curfew, more guards, additional barbed wire, and two roll-calls each day. In April 1942, four policemen escaped but were caught within a few miles of camp. After several weeks in prison, they were returned to Camp. The fact that attempts to escape were so few, considering there were nearly 3000 internees, might be explained by several factors. The possibility of repatriation was always present, many internees were either too old or were parents with children in Camp, and everyone was aware that retaliatory measures would be taken against those left behind.\n\nOne question almost all internees were asked after the war was, \"what did you do all day?”. Actually, most people kept quite busy.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208198, "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": 237, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n221 \n\nPo Yan Hospital of the Church Missionary Society at Pakhoi, South China(廣東北海市普仁醫院). From the condition of the original typescript copies it is clear that they were among others sent to interested supporters like the Schofields. \n\nI do not yet know whether other copies have survived in the Archives of the C.M.S., nor whether similar material is repeated in the Hospital's Annual printed reports: but as the contents are of much human interest I am reproducing them here.-Hon. Editor. \n\nLetter from Po Yan Hospital, Pakhoi, South China. \n\nAn annual letter in wartime does not appear as peaceful and balanced as in normal times. If statistics need explanation it is at this time, as much useful work does not appear in them. \n\nFrom the beginning of our work in Pakhoi in March 1938 we considered it one of our most important tasks to collaborate with the Chinese authorities in every way. The civil officers asked our help and advice in general health measures. We vaccinated many thousands of people, prisoners, police cases etc., and performed post mortem, chemical and biological examinations for the court. The army doctors asked our opinion and help for a great number of difficult cases. We tried to ameliorate housing conditions, wells and public cleanliness, treated a great number of soldiers and their relatives in our hospital; this all without charge. We dispensed, for instance, Dysentery and Tetanus serum, of which the single dose costs $20 free of charge. No wonder that the financial part of the work is not looking as prosperous as usual. But we have the conviction that in this time when the Chinese people are faced with sufferings unknown before in history, the Missions are glad to show their real friendship and that we can make in some small measure Our Lord's commandment true in our deeds. \n\nIt was not surprising that in the year 1938 month after month showed a great increase in all departments of our work. It was encouraging for the Mission workers to see how far away our hospital was appreciated. We got patients from very remote places, treated the heads of the civil and military authorities, and people in towns and villages many miles away did not hesitate to make the long and sometimes exhausting journey to Pakhoi. One time we got such a great number of patients with cancer from Limchow that we were inclined to make our diagnosis from the fact that they came", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208202, "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": 241, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n225\n\nreal attack from the aeroplanes who systematically machine gunned the fore-shore and junks. One junk was burned and the British steamer which happened to be in the harbour had an anxious time as the planes machine gunned the clustering group of sampans who were unloading her cargo. There were comparatively few casualties, 5 in all, 2 of whom died, the 3 survivors coming to our hospital for treatment for a smashed lower jaw, a transverse shot in the lumbar region and other gun-shot wounds. The next day we also got a casualty from a fishing village 20 miles away, the planes also paid us a further visit and again machine gunned the sampans so severely that none of them dared to venture out again and the ship had to leave without loading her full amount of cargo.\n\nThen we had an interval of peace and quiet and during the morning people began to stream back from the country, shops were opened again and optimistic merchants plied a brisk trade in everything from a toothbrush to a small sucking pig. The weather had been very hot and sultry for several days and we were glad to see the heavy thunderclouds begin to gather and darken the sky. With the exception of a solitary plane which appeared in the early morning, did a little harmless shooting and then retired, we had no cause for alarm.\n\nAt about 2 p.m. it grew very dark and the increasingly loud crashes of thunder announced the long looked-for rain storm. Without any previous warning 3 planes flew into sight and after preliminary survey started to drop bombs in one of the most densely populated parts of the town; within 10 minutes they had been joined by 2 other planes, and before the people had time to run from the market place a great deal of destruction had been done. The planes swooped and hummed over the hospital compound and the smoke from falling houses and broken streets very soon formed a thick screen around us. Flying splinters from bombs rattled on the roof of our buildings but no serious damage was done. One bomb fell within a hundred yards of our front entrance; about 13 were dropped all together.\n\nAs soon as the planes had gone away the injured began to pour into the hospital. Many were seriously hurt and some were dying, many were badly mutilated and all were suffering from the shock and panic of a sudden attack: 11 died within 12 hours of their arrival, we have hope, however, that the further 20 who are still in the hospital may recover in time, a great number of them have compound fractures which we treat by Boehler's Method in extension without Plaster of Paris. There were about 40", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208608, "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-1979", "page_number": 65, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "38\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nabout six inches in diameter through the concrete roof of the sanctuary, and inside toppling over a huge granite pillar, and finally burying itself in the floor. The next shell apparently went beyond us near the Canossa Hospital, but did not yet reach the gun emplacement. After this, Masses could no longer be said with safety in the Cathedral, and were instead said in the Bishop's house. In the Bishop's house, throughout the day, a great number of people gathered during the air raids and remained all day, bringing with them their meagre food and eating it as best they could. They filled the reception hall, and corridors and finally overflowed into the priests' refectory, where some of them even slept at night, fearing to return to their homes. During the air raids and shelling they continually recited the Rosary and litanies and finally Father Rosello got out his small organ and led them in singing hymns.\n\nDuring these terrible and anxious days, many came back to the Sacraments after years of laxity; confessions were heard almost everywhere, in the streets and in dugouts and pillboxes, where some of the Fathers visited the defenders. At the Cathedral calls came in for confessions to be heard in certain places. For instance, the Portuguese girls in the Telephone exchange who could not leave their posts, asked for this privilege, and the priests were kept busy. The Jesuit Fathers were extremely busy and were in constant demand. Father Rosello visited various outlying convents and institutions, and related how he had repeatedly to wend his way over and around shell holes in the pavements. Despite the danger on the streets many came to the various Masses in the Bishop's house, and many pagans asked for baptism. While we, of course, only observed the happenings at the Cathedral, no doubt the same scenes were being enacted at the various churches, in the city and in Kowloon, and many an heroic act will never be known except by the angels in heaven.\n\nFor the first few nights we all slept in our usual rooms on the upper floors of the Mission House—the building is one of four or five stories—but as the shelling increased in intensity and kept up sporadically at night, we decided to seek safer quarters, and as preparations for this eventuality had already been made in the cellar, we accordingly wended our way down to the depths. Our dugout was none other than the wine cellar into which had been put some benches over which were laid boards and these constituted our box", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208619, "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-1979", "page_number": 76, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The next day, the twenty-third, snipers' bullets began pelting our house from the north and we promptly retreated to the south. A couple of these bullets came in through the glass windows in our front hall, and our only casualty was Father Meyer who received a very slight scratch on the cheek evidently from a piece of flying glass. Artillery shells now began coming our way, apparently from the west and north, proof enough that the Japanese had succeeded in getting on the island of Hong Kong. The targets of these shells were evidently gun emplacements in and around Stanley village and near the Prison, for the shells struck along the water's edge—sometimes in the sea itself—and along the military road leading to the fort. A number of these shells actually hit the Anglican School and the Police Station in Stanley village. Some also struck buildings of St. Stephen's College and the various buildings on the Prison Compound. Many shells seemed to fall just between the buildings on St. Stephen's campus, one building of which had been turned into a hospital. From our own hilltop we again had a grandstand view, but our interest was not exactly that which one has when viewing a competitive game.\n\nBombs also dropped out of the sky on the fort and attempts were made to cripple \"Big Bertha\", but she came out of the fracas unscathed and continued to hurl her deadly missiles over the hills until the end. One Japanese bomb fell at the foot of our hill, striking a portion of the village market and killing eight or nine people. All around our hill the British had constructed trenches and machine gun nests, and we were in momentary fear of the shells finding these objectives. British soldiers could be seen moving steadily in among the trees, and many came in to our house occasionally for a drink of water.\n\nAs a further safeguard against snipers' bullets we barricaded the exposed doors and windows. We also moved our provisional recreation room from the lower chapel to the refectory, this latter being on the south side. During these hectic days we could do nothing but huddle downstairs in the corridors while air raids and shelling were in progress, and look forward to the night time when the din (except from \"Big Bertha\") was silenced. As we had no electricity we retired early and rose late.\n\nOccasionally we could observe a few straggling soldiers on the mountain just across from us, but could not distinguish whether", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208656, "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-1979", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "86 \n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS \n\nBritish in St. Stephen's Hall. Another piece of bread. Maryknollers win another game of softball. The British seem to be taking to softball and it is becoming quite popular. \n\n8- Sunday. Father Toomey, preacher. Stations of the Cross and Benediction, with sermon by Bishop O'Gara in the afternoon. Special menu today: morning, 3 hot cakes with a little syrup and butter; a cup of okra soup at noon; and in the evening, rice, hash and beans, but no bread. The Hong Kong News (now published by the Japanese in English, and sold in the Camp) says that the Shanghai Americans may be repatriated, if they desire. We? We arrange our language classes. Father Meyer is also teaching the Sisters Cantonese. \n\n9- The American Community holds its usual monthly meeting in the Club and listens to various reports and resolutions, regarding our conditions and prospects. Continual representations are being made by our president, Mr. Hunt and the British heads, to the Japanese for improvement in our rations, especially milk for babies and children, for medicines, for clothing, and for any number of things considered necessary for a decent living. A great many people are still sleeping on concrete floors. It is now announced that there are 324 Americans in Camp; that we get for that family from 80 to 100 pounds of meat daily (bones and fat included), about 80 pounds of green vegetables, and 4 ounces of rice per meal, and now at length, some 8 or 9 loaves of bread. This latter item means that each one gets a slice or half a slice daily, and of the above rations, some are kept out for increased rations for babies and growing children, and the convalescent. Glutinous rice for supper today. \n\n10- Brother Anthony and Father Bauer go to Tweed Bay Hospital. Father Bauer's long-standing case of dysentery does not yield to treatment, and the doctors are perplexed. Of course, it is also a question of proper medicine in the Camp. \n\n11- Eighty pounds of meat, forty-five pounds of cabbage and eight loaves of bread for 324 people. For the past few weeks, considerable activity has been noticed around St. Stephen's Primary School building, hitherto unoccupied. A cement block wall has been built around the compound and guard-houses placed at each corner. Today the American Consular staff from Hong Kong took up their quarters there, and incommunicado. No one may visit them and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208659, "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-1979", "page_number": 116, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n89\n\nbad carbuncle. No bread, and pop corn instead of soup at noon. Flashlights and typewriters confiscated. My cement mixer and bull-dozer combined was put in the Council's office and reclaimed after the storm blew over. Some cigarettes given out.\n\n23-Canteen opens after a two-week cessation. Queue starts at 4 a.m. We were number 85 in line. Canteen opened at 1:30 and after 75 people were served, it closed up, leaving us waiting at the church. The Maryknoll Sisters again got permission from the Japanese official in the Prison to go to Carmel for more vestments, but return without securing much. We learn that Father Feeney has succeeded in getting out of the Colony, going to Yeung Kong. Bishop Paschang, enjoying relative freedom in Macao, succeeds also in getting funds to the Maryknoll Sisters still in Kowloon, and also to Father Feeney.\n\n24-Dysentery is appearing in the Maryknoll ranks. Fathers Moore and Gaiero going to Tweed Bay Hospital. Brother Anthony out of the Hospital again. The Americans living in the Club building have their own separate kitchen and, according to reports, they are doing pretty well. Their cook, Mr. Gingles, has asked Brother Thaddeus to try to make some bean sprouts for him. According to our bulletin board, we are now getting 7.29 ounces of rice daily, per person.\n\n25-Father Siebert goes to the Hospital with dysentery. During peace time, an American club functioned in Hong Kong, and when war broke out, they had quite a supply of foodstuffs on hand. Some of this, it seems, the members have managed to get out to Stanley, and today, very generously, they divided these goodies among all the Americans in Camp. As a result, we each received some cigarettes, one can of salmon or vegetables, 7 ounces of coffee, 1/2 roll of toilet paper, and a half a bar of soap. Canteen closed after selling some coffee at Hong Kong $8.50 per pound, tea at $15.00, oatmeal $2.30 and sugar $2.30.\n\n26-Very little rice for our morning meal; no rice for supper, but some noodles instead, and more lettuce.\n\n27-No rice. Rations cut, and we Americans in Blocks A-1, A-2 and A-3 seem to have overdrawn our allotted supply, so that we now get no more rice until we get caught up. Pop corn soup at noon and at night, pop corn instead of rice (where the pop corn", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208675, "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-1979", "page_number": 132, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n105\n\n23-We are notified today that swimming will soon be allowed at Tweed Bay just to the south of the Prison. Rules governing this permission will be issued later.\n\n24-Sunday. As usual. Our days now follow each other in much the same way, and apart from rumors, there is not much to chronicle. Father Moore follows Father Quinn with the \"flu\" and goes to bed.\n\n25-His Excellency, Bishop O'Gara, finally gets permission to leave the Camp, as also Father Chaye, a Belgian M.E., and quite a crowd gather to see them off. Father Meyer now becomes the Vicar Delegate of Bishop Valtorta.\n\n26-Father Madison succumbs to the \"flu\" and room number 9 seems to be hard hit.\n\n27-Canteen opens. Fathers Quinn and Moore improved and Father Downs back from Tweed Bay Hospital. One thing about the Hospital in the Camp, the doctors have a splendid cure for dysentery and within a short time the patient improves.\n\n28-The Sisters take over bread-baking for all the Maryknollers.\n\n29-After reconsidering the matter, four of the new men decide to remain, and take their names off the list.\n\n30-The American community meets and discusses the coming repatriation. It seems each repatriate will be allowed only such baggage as can be carried by him; in other words, no more than five bags as a maximum.\n\n31-Camp was agog this morning as a report spread that a tiger, or tigers, were seen within the Camp precincts. During the morning we did see a few Japanese soldiers clambering among the rocks on the hill to the south of us, and wondered what was up. Later, the police killed a tiger which is said to have weighed 240 pounds and was 3 feet high. A photo of the kill appeared in the next day's local paper. The other tigers remained in the vicinity for a few days and were later reported near Hong Kong.\n\nSunday. Father Meyer takes over the preaching, and loses no time in starting Catholic Action, with a meeting in the afternoon at 3:30. About 35 people were present. May Devotions close this evening, with an outdoor crowning of the Blessed Virgin. Mr. Fisher, a very good Catholic, 75 years of age, died in Tweed Bay Hospital.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209439, "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": 96, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "74\n\nELIZABETH SINN\n\nThe meeting not appearing to have achieved any great breakthrough, the Government and the Chinese merchants went their separate ways to try to resolve the situation. Later that same afternoon, the 4th, Marsh himself met some of the sureties of the boatmen and assured them of police protection if the boatmen returned to work. They told him they feared violence despite this, but Marsh got the impression that this was merely an excuse to avoid returning to work. He came away with a feeling that they were waiting for some secret order on whether to resume work or not. He also sent word around through Stewart Lockhart that if the people would resume work, the Government would consider as an act of grace any appeal which might be made for a remittance of the fines. No appeals, however, came forward.88\n\nThe Chinese merchants, too, continued for the rest of the day exerting themselves in an effort to end the strike. There is no documentary evidence recording specifically what they did, but we shall return later to discuss what had probably been done.\n\nEarly the next morning, placards signed \"All the kaifongs of the Colony\" were posted all along the Praya. They claimed that a meeting of those pursuing various trades in the Colony had been held, and the resolution was that all the cargo boats and coolies should resume work on the morning of the 5th October.30\n\nAt about 10 o'clock on the 5th, cargo boats started coming over from the Chinese side of the harbour. A crowd gathered on shore and, to forestall violence, a picket of soldiers was moved from the Tung Wah Hospital to the Harbour Master's office. The police read a proclamation calling upon the people to disperse and they did so. Though there were a few isolated cases of attempted interference with those resuming work, the general strike may be said to have ended.10\n\nIn fact, there was no serious disturbance after the 3rd. Yet despite this and the resumption of work on the 5th, the Acting Governor remained anxious about the angry and excited feeling among the lower classes of coolies and the large number of triad members he believed to have assembled in Hong Kong. The city was rife with rumours about imminent troubles, and a large", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209626, "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": 283, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "No first-hand information concerning female education of the time has yet been obtained as the small number of women who then attended classes in Sheung Shui left the village upon their marriage, and have not yet been located for interview. According to the account of their male contemporaries, however, 'the small classes in the Christian-run girls' school (Fu Yin T'ang 女校) were mostly from humble families, but those who were later admitted into classes in the study halls were mostly daughters of wealthy families. These girls were usually bright and diligent and showed deep interest in learning. Their average attendance was shorter than the boys', starting normally from the age of nine and none stayed beyond fourteen when they began to prepare for marriage.' \"The experience of the two daughters of the founder of the Fu Yin T'ang was, however, exceptional. They never attended class in the village but were sent to a Christian school in Kowloon at the age of 10 and 9. It was a subsidized boarding school for girls (Fairlea) where the Bible, English, arithmetic, biology, hygiene, geography, history, and music as well as the traditional primers were taught. The fee was $5 a month per pupil.\" \"It was a big sum of money, as the fee in the village schools was then from $2 to $5 per year,\" one of these two ladies, now aged 78, told us in an interview. The elder sister died young but she herself, after completing the upper primary class at Fairlea, received training in nursing at the Nethersole Hospital and then worked as a nurse in Hong Kong until retirement.\n\nWhile the above case was exceptional for women, it was less so among the men. Changes of the 1910's and 20's brought opportunities as well as new demands. Traditional education, though modified to a certain extent, began to seem steadily more inadequate to cope with the conditions of the time. Those who formerly would have sought a literate career in classical learning turned to the new facilities available. According to our findings from the Oral History Project, between 1913 and 1932, at least twenty young men from the village and almost certainly more were known to have received a Western education at the Tai Po Government School or at the Anglo-Chinese schools in urban Kowloon and Hong Kong. Most of these people had thereafter successful careers as government clerks, interpreters, teachers, headmasters, and businessmen. They were also viewed as elite.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211690, "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": 105, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "80 \n\nand get permission for us to move into the War Memorial Nursing Home, where the British staff were still functioning under the wing of a Japanese Doctor-Colonel and a gendarmerie post. He was able to arrange this for us, and we were fetched in a car and installed in the Nursing Home next day, January 6th. Dr. Talbot, an ear specialist attached to the hospital, looked at my ear and said the postponed operation should be performed without delay as the earhole had become completely blocked with scar tissue and pus was accumulating dangerously inside. On January 10th I was sent down to Queen Mary Hospital for X-ray photos to be taken both of the ear and the knee. The Martins were still there, and this was the last time I saw them. The expedition was of great interest to me since it was the first time I had visited the town since the Japanese occupation. The streets were crowded with Chinese, most of them in mile long queues trying to get cooked rice from \"co-prosperity\" congee kitchens. All the shops were shut and barricaded but the pavements in Queen's Road and the central district generally were lined with hawkers selling bread ($4 a loaf) and other foodstuffs, and large quantities of looted articles; bedding, silverware, cutlery, etc: one could have got almost anything one wanted, and all this without any apparent interference from the Japanese.\n\nAs the X-rays confirmed Dr. Talbot's diagnosis I let him operate on January 13th. He found it necessary to do a radical mastoid operation and make me a new earhole. At the time we expected to be left in peace for a month or so as there were a number of severely wounded British soldiers in the Nursing Home and we thought the Japanese would not insist on them and us being moved until they were fit to be moved. Eight days later, however, they announced that they needed the hospital and that it would have to be evacuated next morning. The military patients were sent to the military hospital at Bowen Road, and the rest of us to Stanley. I was told I need not go to Stanley Camp unless I wished, and I was given my choice of two other hospitals but I said I must go where my doctor went; so I was put on a long chair which was put on a lorry, and with my wife and our few belongings and half a dozen lorry loads of doctors, sisters and patients we went off to Stanley. That was on January 22nd. The place was in a turmoil as lorry loads and boat loads of people were arriving from all the Chinese hotels in Hongkong and Kowloon where the Japanese had congregated them and they were all scrambling for billets. The British personnel from Queen Mary Hospital (from which they and all the British wounded had been moved the previous day) were busy trying to get a hospital organised in a block\n\nPage 105\n\nPage 106", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211694, "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": 109, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "84\n\nanti-aircraft fire, but as far as I could see, they were completely unscathed. The bombing seemed to me to be directed entirely against what were, or might be taken to be, military objectives, and this indeed may be said of the artillery fire also. During the 18 days fighting Queen Mary Hospital, 400 yards from Mt. Davis Fort, did not receive a single direct hit. The two hospitals on the Peak (i.e. the Matilda Hospital and the War Memorial Nursing Home) were repeatedly hit by shells, but I think this was due to the fact that the Japanese were searching for two field batteries which were located uncomfortably close to the two hospitals: this, at any rate, was the explanation given by a Japanese officer who came to the War Memorial Nursing Home while I was there after the surrender. One point which struck me very forcibly was the small size of the bombs and shells which the Japanese were using. I saw many direct hits by bombs on buildings on the Peak but in no case did I see any building completely demolished as my house in Chungking was; and the shells, which I am told were mostly from field guns and trench mortars, did not seem to have much penetrating power: they hardly scarred modern reinforced concrete buildings such as the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank building and the block of flats where my wife and I were living. I am told that the Japanese were using heavier weapons elsewhere, but my general impression was that the Japanese were mainly using what I think Mr. Hore-Belisha called “Woolworth” material.\n\nAs regards the behaviour of the Japanese in Hongkong I think I must distinguish between two phases, i.e. the actual attack and afterwards. There are many well-authenticated stories of the shooting or bayoneting of British prisoners during the attack, though how general the practice was I have no means of judging. (A Commissioner of Customs, Mr. Flanagan, who is in the \"Narkunda\", told me he had seen a number of corpses of British soldiers still with their hands tied behind their backs). There was also a very nasty affair at Stanley where two doctors, three nurses and a number of Canadian officers and possibly others were massacred. There were also apparently numerous cases of rape including a few European women and girls. The situation however was quickly brought under control and there was nothing at all resembling the licensed disorder which followed the capture of Nanking in 1937. We were indeed told by people who were in Kowloon when the Japanese came in, that the behaviour of the latter towards European women was good though numbers of Chinese and half-caste girls were taken off, obviously for ...\n\n* The staff repatriated via the \"Kamakura Maru\" were transferred to the \"Narkunda\" in Lourenço Marques. (Editor's Note)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212573, "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-1991", "page_number": 127, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "107\n\nis unacceptable to many Chinese. In China, therefore, organs are often obtained from executed criminals.\n\nIn this study the three sisters cried bitterly when informed an autopsy would be carried out on their mother's body. They were relieved when the authorities relented. The three blamed themselves because the mother was alone at the time of the heart attack. A soothsayer, however, said that nobody could have saved her. If she had been taken straight to hospital at the onset she would have died just the same. Because of her age and the hour of death it was prophesied the deceased would go to heaven.\n\nThat the dead person had not eaten that evening before death was construed as a good omen. Missing the meal signified she has left everything behind for her children. However, she was in the habit of drinking from a special mug. This had disappeared. It was assumed she had taken it with her. That three months before death she had given a friend a piece of jade and had told her: 'I may not be here for your next birthday,' was repeated frequently by mourners.\n\nIn her early thirties, influenced by eldest daughter, mother had been baptised a Catholic. But the attractions of a combination of native Taoism, Buddhism and folk religion were too great. By the 1960s, mother was no longer practising Christianity. She never expressly told relatives why she left the Church. It was probably because, to a very Chinese person who spoke no English, Catholicism was too western; in spite of the Church adopting a few Chinese customs, such as three bows to a deceased's photograph and the 'last glance' at a funeral. Many quote the saying: 'One Christian more is one Chinese less.'\n\nA few hours after death, the mother's spirit, which left the body as visible vapour, was in limbo wandering about'. Depending upon deeds performed on earth there are six possible 'destinations': hell, heaven, and becoming an animal, a ghost, a human again or a buddha. Everybody possesses a number of spirits, one of which first descends into hell (described as dark and yin) to await sentencing by 10 judges. There the spirit is tried, punished and purged. Those who have committed excessive evil spend longer in purgatory before going to heaven (seen as bright and yang). People can later be reborn as children, or, if sinful, as animals.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212905, "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-1992", "page_number": 214, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "199\n\nGROWING UP IN CHINA:\n\nLECTURE TO THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, HONG KONG BRANCH, 14 MAY, 1993\n\nDENIS BRAY\n\nIt is quite a challenge to compose a talk on the first 13 years of your life when there are practically no books to consult and friends from those days are scattered or gone. To the challenge is added an audience much more knowledgeable than I on the history of the area. I think I can only get away with it because nobody can check on much that I have to say. As I do not speak Putonghua or write Pinyin I am going to stick to spellings for place names used in the thirties and Cantonese for local names.\n\nThere are some references. There are three books of reference on the China Inland Mission School at Chefoo. Two are written by students who went there long before I did. They are Mrs Jean Moore and Dr. Gren Wedderburn. A full history of the school from start to finish has been written by Gordon Martin who was classics teacher when I was there and who was one of the longest serving teachers the school had. I am sure that the Methodist Missionary Society in London has copious records on the mission in Fatshan and South China.\n\nI Was Born\n\nI did not start life in China but in Hong Kong — at the Matilda Hospital in fact. My father was working in the Methodist Mission in Fatshan at the time, running Wah Ying School. This school was founded in 1913 near to a hospital, also run by the mission, which was founded in 1881. The hospital, now known officially as the Number One People's Hospital, but spoken of as the Chun Do Yi Yuen, or Methodist Hospital, celebrated its 111th anniversary last year. The school, now known as the Number One Middle School but spoken of still as Wah Ying, will celebrate its 90th anniversary in December this year.\n\nJanuary 1926 towards the end of the General Strike, when all Chinese were urged to boycott any form of service for foreigners, was accompanied by incidents of unrest in China and in Hong Kong itself. It was no time for a pregnant woman to remain in China unless it was...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214406, "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": 264, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "230\n\nHONG KON\n\n(from the notes of a Russian traveller)\n\nOf the many islands, scattered along the shores of the extensive Chinese empire, the English selected for themselves a small island not particularly distinguishable for its fertility, almost bare, of little use to China; but with a good harbour and lying on the route from the Indian to the Pacific Ocean - hence very useful to them - and founded a city here, a depot for trade not only with China but with neighbouring islands. The city, whose proper name of Victoria is hardly known even to its own inhabitants, looks over the strait separating the island from the mainland, and consists of one main street following the course of the shore; it's called Queen's Road, although neither the present, nor any future queens of Great Britain are likely to travel on it; a number of other smaller streets run parallel to this main street or cross it at right angles. The latter rise up the mountain so steeply, that the houses behind stand a whole storey above the ones in front and that is why all of them have a wonderful view of the harbour and the picturesque shores of China. Magnificent too is the view of the city from the harbour. The houses, arranged in the form of an amphitheatre at the foot of the hill, are shaded by groups of trees; the main street is interrupted in the middle by an avenue, from which a garden with convenient, winding paths, runs further up the mountain, so that the mountain itself, previously completely bare is now covered to a certain level by shady bamboo lanes or groves of various trees. People building houses here mainly tried to shield themselves from the burning rays of the tropical sun, which is why the houses all have something in common: each one has, without fail, a covered balcony, and has some semi-dark hall through which the breeze blows; also shutters are an essential accessory of windows. The best building, in my opinion, is where the beautiful is united with the useful, which is - the barracks of the regiment stationed here. The two-storeyed peristyle surrounding it gives it the appearance of a Roman temple and shields it on all sides from the sun's rays. The Governor's House built recently on an elevated site in the middle of a newly cultivated garden, would have been one of Hong Kong's best adornments, were it not obstructed by extensions which completely obscure it. Other magnificent buildings I must include are the hospital, the club and many private homes. The western part was the first to be settled and is now nothing very much: - narrow streets with small houses", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 } ]