[ { "id": 205787, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 93, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "KING MONGKUT AND THE KINGDOM OF SIAM\n\n87\n\nPursuing this conciliatory line Brooke came to Bangkok determined to win the confidence of the Siamese and to allay their fears. He wrote to a friend:\n\n\"I shall not seek to make a treaty in a hurry. I shall try to remove apprehensions and obstacles and pave the way for the future. The King is old and a usurper; he has two legitimate brothers, clever and enlightened, who ought to be raised to the throne.... A treaty extorted by force would be but a wasted bit of parchment... The Prince Chow-fa Mongkut is an educated man, reads and writes English and knows something of our literature and science\".2\n\nWith such admirable sentiments Rajah Brooke arrived at the mouth of the Menam. Everything went wrong. The Sphinx ran aground attempting to cross the bar at Paknam. When he met the Praklang (the Foreign Minister), every point he raised was opposed. Was there any need for a treaty? What was wrong with the Burney treaty of 1826? When Brooke asked for more freedom of trade the Praklang replied that trade was already free. As for the British having a Consul at Bangkok and being exempt from Siamese law, both proposals were unnecessary and improper. Later talks with the Siamese Ministers made no more progress. They asked Brooke to put his points in writing but letters between the two sides made no more progress than conversations. It was clear that the Siamese did not want a treaty or any improvement in trade or diplomacy with Britain.\n\nThe Brooke mission was obviously failing. And as frustration grew Sir James's conciliatory attitude changed. Finally he advised force. In a dispatch to the Foreign Minister he wrote:\n\n“Should these just demands firmly urged be refused, a force should be present immediately to enforce them by a rapid destruction of the defences of the river which would place us in possession of the capital and by restoring us to our proper position of command, retrieve the past and ensure peace for the future, with all its advantages of a growing and most important commerce.\"3\n\nBrooke alleged, with some justice, that the Burney Treaty had been broken by the Siamese. Monopolies had been restored, trade was no longer free and taxes on British vessels had increased. In", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205796, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 102, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "96 \n\nR. BRUCE \n\nlive in Bangkok and buy or rent property there, and within a distance from the capital measured by how far a local boat could travel within twenty-four hours. Beyond that the Siamese could not undertake to ensure their safe protection. British subjects, who must register with their Consul and carry identity documents, could observe their own religion and build churches. This provision was scarcely necessary when we recall Mongkut's welcome to the missionaries. The treaty also specified that British subjects could employ Siamese servants. \n\nBritish ships-of-war were allowed to sail up the Menam as far as Paknam about twenty miles from Bangkok - but no further without special permission. If an ambassador were to arrive he could sail all the way to the capital in his warship. \n\nThen followed the commercial articles. The monopolies of the King and his nobles were abolished and trade was made free. British merchants might buy from the producer direct and sell their imports to anyone without interference. The duties levied on ships according to their size were abolished, and all imports were to be subject to a tax of three per cent. Exports were to be taxed once only; the amount of the duty being specified in a schedule attached to the treaty. Opium was to be admitted without duty and sold to a single merchant. The export of rice was now permitted for the first time, but the treaty provided for a ban on its export and on the export of salt and fish - in times of scarcity. Permission was given to British companies to build ships in Siam. Article 10 was a \"most favoured nation\" clause: Bowring had the foresight to expect that other countries would follow the British example and he insisted that the terms they obtained would never be better than those he had just secured. Lastly, there was provision for the revision of the treaty in ten \n\nyears. \n\nEveryone was happy and especially King Mongkut. Bowring was received in Royal audience formally and for several hours in private. He visited the Second King, Mongkut's equally gifted younger brother, who held this peculiarly Siamese post of deputy monarch. Mongkut wrote a personal letter to Queen Victoria and entrusted it to Parkes who was to take back the text of the treaty to London for ratification. Elaborate gifts were collected for the Queen. The King was in excellent spirits, delighting in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215329, "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-2001", "page_number": 106, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "54\n\nThe Marquis is usually represented on altars by tablets though where there is an image it conventionally portrays him as a scholar-official, sitting wearing a scholar's winged cap. He has a pink face, a black beard, a rolled scroll in his left hand and a plaque bearing the characters 'May the State Prosper and the People Enjoy Peace' in his right hand.\n\nHe is usually accompanied by two aides, generals on horseback:\n\nYinma Jiangjun The Silver Horse General [mounted on a white horse]\n\nJinma Jiangjun The Gold Horse General [mounted on a black horse]\n\nIn the temple in Hougang Avenue 5 in Singapore where the main deity is Shuiwei Shengniang, the side altar stage left is dedicated to Wenzhou Houwang whose image stands on the left hand of and paired with a deity simply known as 'Da Laoye' whose image is remarkably similar to that of Wenzhou Houwang. Da Laoye has two guardians mounted on horses and armed with long handled swords. They are Generals Gan and Meng [see below 4e - list of deities in temple loose-leaf records]\n\nb] \"The Holy Mother of Shuiwei,' Shuiwei Shengmu, is primarily a Hainanese local deity who, in Hainan, was a protective deity prayed to mainly by fishermen. In South-east Asia where her cult has been established within Hainanese communities, she has also been adopted by devotees of other Chinese ethnic groups. In Singapore she is worshipped as a goddess who heals the sick by both Fukienese and Chaozhou devotees, the two ethnic groups which dominate the Chinese community in the island state. Her shrines have been seen in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia [even in a Chinese temple on the island of Bali], in Vietnam and Cambodia but not in either Hong Kong or Taiwan. It is claimed that the oldest Chinese temple in Thailand is dedicated to Shuiwei Shengmu, at Paknam pho. Other old temples dedicated to her have been noted in Korat and the surrounding area. Her images have no unique identifying characteristics. She is a motherly matron, sitting on a throne, attended by several assistants, and in several places she is portrayed wearing a cap bearing one to five birds with open wings.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]