[ { "id": 204722, "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-1964", "page_number": 25, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "W. C. HUNTER\n\n \n Soldiers with matchlocks, bows and arrows, flags and songs moving across the Square to reinforce those stationed on board the Chop and other boats.\n \n \n Tomorrow is Captain Elliot's last day, when I am quite sure the passports required will not be granted11. The heat of the weather is such that much of our provisions is spoiling.\n \n \n New China Street still remains closed with bars of wood nailed across the gates and police stationed to guard them. The Chinese houses in all directions filled with people looking from the roofs and out of the windows but none daring to attempt an entrance into the Square which is perfectly clear, except the police force. Foreigners move across the Square and into each others Hongs without impediment.\n \n \n Captain Elliot received a communication this morning from the Commissioner direct which ordered him to give up all the opium outside.\n \n \n Captain Elliot's secretary and myself went to the cow-yard with a small piece of paper containing a list of a few articles, such as rice, bread and meat which they wanted in the Company Factory. We thought we could bribe the cow-man to buy them and secrete the articles amongst the straw till we could carry them away a little at a time, but we were so closely watched we had no opportunity to speak to the man and finally the police drove him out of the yard.\n \n \n 27 March\n \n \n This morning Elmslie12, Captain Elliot's secretary, came round with a circular to the foreigners in which was requested that all opium owned by British subjects should be surrendered to him for the use of Her British Majesty's government to be delivered to the Commissioner.\n \n \n We made our list and gave up under receipt:\n \n\n \n 980\n chests Malwa\n \n \n 356\n chests Patna\n \n \n 33\n \n 97\n chests Benares\n \n \n 40\n \n 4\n 33\n \n 100\n piculs Turkey\n \n \n 700,000 dollars\n \n \n 1437 chests the cost of which is upwards of all belonging to our constituents in Bombay", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205361, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 123, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "116\n\nREV. MR. KRONE\n\n. \n\nThe preceding, are the \"Kau-yue\", and the \"Fan-to\". They have nothing to do with the government of the district, but may be called Inspectors of Education. They register the graduates of the district, and present them for examination at the provincial city, and they inspect and superintend the private schools of the villages and towns.\n\nThe fifth and sixth officials bear the title of \"Tsun-lin-tzu\", or chief officer of a township. One of them resides in the market-place called Fuk-wing-ak, on the shore of the Hap-lan-hoi. His jurisdiction extends over the whole plain of San-keaou, and comprises 185 villages; 31 only of these are inhabited by the Hak-kas.\n\nThe other officer resided, when history first makes mention of his office, in the neighbourhood of Kow-loong. Subsequently he transferred his residence to Chik-me, bordering on Deep Bay; but since the first war with England, his chief place of residence has been Kow-loong, except during the autumn of 1854, when his official residence having been burnt by the rebels, he was obliged to reside again at Chik-me.\n\nHe rules over 492 villages, of which 298 are Pun-ti, and 194 Hak-ka. Each of these two officers has a military force of two soldiers at his disposal.\n\nThe seventh officer, the lowest in rank, is the \"Teen-le\" — director of police. He resides with his superior the Che-yuen, and has under his jurisdiction 73 villages (of which only six are Hak-ka), in the immediate neighbourhood of Sanon.\n\nGlancing at the names of the mandarins, who, during the present dynasty, have been at the head of affairs in Sanon, we find that among thirty Chi-yuens, four only have been of Manchu extraction, and the rest all Chinese.\n\nOf these thirty, we find that, on first starting on their political career, ten held the rank of Tsin-tze-it, six that of Keu-jin-A, and nine that of Seu-tsai of the first degree, whilst the remaining five could only boast the title of Kam-shang, which is the lowest bestowed, and which was probably purchased by them.\n\nAmong these last there was only one Chinese, the other four being Manchu.\n\nThe office of Sub-magistrate has seldom been held by a Manchu; most of those who held it were either Seu-tsai or Kam-shang, and received the appointment for good services rendered to the State.\n\nNo Manchu ever held the office of Kau-yu or Fan-to in this district.\n\nThe office of Kau-yu - inspector of schools — is", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205421, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 183, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "176\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\npopulation is involved in all this and its relationship to the institutional life of the society. There are a few useful pieces on such matters however. A section worth mentioning here is on the city gods who are second only in importance on the island to the goddess Ma Tsu. The section includes a detailed description of the temple to the city god in Hsinchu,\n\nIt appears that before the Ch'ing dynasty set up official law and order in Taiwan the need for public control in the early days of immigration was met largely by the city gods and their temples. In some cases temple attendants became the administrators of local justice and a group of bone-healers (associated with the temples?) the police force. Their shops in Taiwan, says the author, still display swords and helmets associated with their former role. Mandarin officials sent by the Ch'ing court in Peking had first to report to the city god temple and ask permission for any changes in local administration, and this went on until the Japanese curtailed the activity during their administration. Not only did the city gods \"take the place of the Imperial government\" in the early days, but \"each were given titles and enfeoffed (sic) with their territories\" (p. 58).\n\nThe resident in Hong Kong might be interested particularly in a section on Ma Tsu, who has assumed something of the status of patron saint in Taiwan. Ma Tsu, in fact, is none other than T'in Hau, \"Goddess of Heaven\" who is so important here to the boat population. The author gives us various legends of her origin which are popular in Taiwan and show us why she should have such importance for sea-faring folk (interestingly enough T'in Hau is similarly known as Ma Tsu in Macau and some believe Macau is in fact named after her). It is also interesting to note that those seven \"fairies\" known as the Seven Sisters in Hong Kong and worshipped by girls looking for husbands appear in Taiwan as the Seven Old Maids, with a particular role in care of children.\n\nIt is my impression that this book is probably written more with the interests of the foreign visitor or new foreign resident to Taiwan in mind, and perhaps those also of people working in Christian missions on the island. However, even if not directed especially to the research worker or resident elsewhere, there is much in this account to repay study by them. Hong Kong, 1967.\n\nMARJORIE TOPLEY", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205749, "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": 55, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "# MILITIA, MARKET AND LINEAGE\n\n49\n\nThe resistance movement had now reached a state of readiness. Further subscriptions of silver were obtained and responsibility for provision of rations allocated. On 13th April Ping Shan supplied pigs as food for the militia. By 14th April an advance force was in position on the hills overlooking Tai Po. It was composed of units from Fan Leng, Kam Tin, the Lam Tsuen valley, and Pat Heung. A British party making preparations for the flag raising saw about 150 men on the hills to the northwest. Four or five standards were seen, and the Chinese \"kept up an incessant yelling, beating of gongs, and firing of crackers, or guns, probably jingals ...\" 64\n\nWhen the Governor heard of these events at Tai Po he decided to station a force there immediately. On the morning of 15th April, two units were dispatched from Hong Kong. Captain Superintendent May, in charge of 22 policemen, left by launch for Tai Po. A company of the Hong Kong Regiment* — comprising 125 officers and men — set off overland from Kowloon, with orders to rendezvous with the police that afternoon.\n\nWhen the police landed near the matshed hill they were fired upon by forces from the Lam Tsuen valley, Tai Hang, Pat Heung, and Kam Tin. The militia of Ha Tsuen and Ping Shan had not been committed, although Ha Tsuen was, on this day, responsible for rations. By this time the infantry company was only a short march from Tai Po. Its commanding officer, Captain E. L. C. Berger, could see that the hills were crowded with several thousand militia, displaying six or seven different banners. As they approached the market he noted that the Chinese were uniformed and that the units nearest him occupied good tactical positions.\n\nThe soldiers joined the police on the matshed hill and found their situation difficult. The hills to the west and northwest were occupied by militia. To the east was Tolo Harbour. Twelve pieces of light artillery — probably jingals and mortars — kept up a steady fire on them from two positions. There was also continuous musketry fire. If the aim of the militia had been better, the casualties would have been heavy. Shortly thereafter the militia began an advance but were driven back by volley fire. This was the situation when H.M.S. \"Fame\" arrived late that afternoon.\n\n* A regiment of the Indian Army, with British officers and Indian (Pathan) other ranks, not to be confused with the volunteer unit of this name in present day Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205752, "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": 58, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "52\n\nR. G. GROVES\n\nthe configuration of the country favoured cover and our casualties were few.\" But, \"had this advance not been conducted with great care the loss to our troops must have been heavy.\"69 After fierce fighting the militia withdrew from the valley, leaving it by way of the saddle which gives access to the Pat Heung district. The soldiers followed and, having lost touch with the Chinese, bivouacked for the night at Sheung Tsuen, on the foothills overlooking the Pat Heung valley.\n\nThe next afternoon a large force (subsequently estimated at 2,600 men), was seen approaching from a distance. It consisted of men from Ping Shan, Ha Tsuen, and Castle Peak and from four villages in adjacent Chinese territory, including Pan Tin. The British force took up positions and stood watching the militia, deployed in three lines, \"advance across the open in excellent skirmishing order.70 The British Officer Commanding later conceded that it was \"distinctly a determined advance for Chinamen.”71 The militia began firing at long range and their rifle and jingal fire shortly became almost continuous. When the distance had been reduced to 500 yards the British tried a few ranging shots, moved forward under cover of a dry water course, and advanced into the open toward the on-coming militia. In the face of such a determined response, which now became a general advance accompanied by heavy fire, the militia broke and ran.\n\nThis battle marked the end of organized resistance within the New Territory. The next weeks were spent in establishing the civil administration and in persuading villagers to return to their normal occupations. The Governor, in attempting to explain what had happened to a remote Colonial Office, drew upon another Celtic parallel. The resistance, he said, revealed \"a state of clan feeling and power of combination not unlike that of the Scottish Highlands two centuries ago . . .\"72\n\nThe Occupation of Sham Chun and its Aftermath-- May to September, 1899.\n\nThus far, operations had been confined to the newly leased territory. Early in May, however, reports reached the Hong Kong Government of an impending attack from across the Sham Chun river. Police informers said that 140 ‘bare-sticks' from Tung-kuan Hsien had assembled in secrecy at Sha Tau, on Deep Bay. They were to form the nucleus of a force which was to be augmented by", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205797, "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": 103, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "KING MONGKUT AND THE KINGDOM OF SIAM\n\n97\n\nceremonies, audiences and banquets. A white elephant had been captured the previous year, the most auspicious of auguries for the new reign and now its presence seemed to be bringing the expected good fortune. Mongkut seemed to enjoy the company of the Englishmen, particularly Bowring whom he called “my friend”. As a parting gift he offered Sir John two elephants, but they were gracefully declined owing to transport difficulties. But Bowring did accept two tufts of hair from the white elephant's tail, which he later presented to Queen Victoria.\n\nThe gates were open. Within a year the Americans and the French had signed their own versions of the treaty with King Mongkut. In the next three years half a dozen European nations had similar agreements with the Siamese. By April, 1856, Harry Parkes returned with the Queen's instrument of ratification and a personal letter from Her Majesty. King Mongkut was delighted with this royal favour from mighty Britain and ordered a procession for formal delivery of the letter. In fact these ceremonies infuriated Townshend Harris, the newly-arrived American envoy, as he had to wait many days before he could begin discussions on his own treaty.\n\nThe effect of Mongkut's treaties with the West were far-reaching. Trade increased rapidly and had more than doubled by the time of the King's death in 1868. The character of the trade changed. There was virtually no export of rice before 1855, and by the end of the century rice accounted for nearly seventy per cent of Siam's exports. Bangkok grew rapidly, foreign merchants set up offices in the capital and there was an increase in the number of Chinese entering the country. The King's fiscal system had to change. Instead of royal monopolies of imports, taxes were charged at an agreed level.\n\nThe political effects were even more important. Foreign consuls lived in the capital and Siam sent embassies to Europe for the first time. The King took the initiative in employing foreign experts in his civil service. This practice was greatly extended in the next reign, that of his son, King Chulalongkorn. British officers were employed in the police force. A Belgian advised on legal reform. Germans were invited to plan the building of railways. Americans and Danes were appointed to civil and military duties. Most notorious of these appointments was that of Anna", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205967, "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-1970", "page_number": 47, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "42\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\nunsatisfactory. Instead, the system was adopted in the early 1880s of sending cadets to Peking where they learned Mandarin, which was little used in Hong Kong.24 Finally, in the late 1880s cadets were sent to Canton to learn Cantonese, and this arrangement continued in force until the Second World War.\n\nCadets at Canton were billeted in the former residence of the Tartar General, which was taken by Britain after the war of 1857-60 and became His Britannic Majesty's Yamen. When the Consulate was transferred to Shameen, the area of original European settlement, the Yamen was turned over as a place of residence for cadets of the Malayan and Hong Kong Civil Services learning Chinese. Some cadets also resided in Shameen. In the early 1920s, according to Victor Purcell,25 who was then a Malayan cadet, there were in Canton usually about 15 or so cadets, the majority from Malaya, but a few from Hong Kong, and one or two police probationers, who were taught Chinese by a small band of Cantonese teachers... with a core of about half a dozen stalwarts who had taught generations of cadets in the past'. Sir Alexander Grantham, who was also a cadet in the 1920s, tells us that in his day there were about half a dozen cadets living in the Yamen.26 It is clear from his memoirs that the Hong Kong Government exercised little supervision over its protégés in Canton. So long as the cadets passed their examinations—four examinations taken at six-monthly intervals—cadets had two years of glorious freedom in a very free and easy Chinese city.\n\nCadets appointed to the Hong Kong Civil Service, or transferred from other colonial territories in Asia, had much in common. All were British subjects of pure European descent and all entered the Colonial Service at approximately the same age. They were educated at fee-paying schools, but most had their schooling at minor public and obscure private schools, not listed in the Public Schools Yearbook: only one Etonian, one Wykehamist, two Rugbeians and two Harrovians are to be found among the eighty-five. The majority proceeded to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge but a substantial contingent—over 30 per cent—came from universities in Scotland and Ireland; only a handful—nine in all—were from London or English provincial universities.27 A few—Cecil Clementi, R. F. Johnston, J. H. Stewart Lockhart, F. H. May and A. M. Thomson28—had outstanding academic records; yet even the rest were above average.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205979, "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-1970", "page_number": 59, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "54 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nSt. Andrews 2, Aberdeen 2, Glasgow 1). Sir Joseph Kemp attended Cape University, South Africa and Edward Wynne-Jones the University of Wales. \n\nThese university-educated gentlemen represent a social stratum lying somewhere between Mathew Arnold's Barbarians and the Philistines. A large number of them had been educated in schools animated by the ideas and ideals of Arnold's father, Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby. \n\n28 Alexander Macdonald Thomson (1863-1924), Educated at Aberdeen University. Lecturer in Mathematics, Naini Tal College, India, 1884-5; Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Aberdeen, 1887; entered the Hong Kong Civil Service, and attached for one year to the Colonial Office, 1887; Treasurer 1898-1918. Retired in 1918. He is the only cadet who retired to live in the United States (San Mateo, California); most cadets, including the Scots, settled in the Home Counties on retirement. \n\n29 Norman Lockhart Smith (1887-1968) was the son of Hugh Crawford Smith, M.P., Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Lewis Audley Marsh Johnston (1865-1908) the son of William Johnston, M.P., Ballykilbeg, Ireland. \n\n30 Robert Huessler Yesterday's Rulers, Syracuse, New York, 1963, p. 98. \n\n31 In H. R. Wells and Lam Tong Chinese Documents and Petitions, Hong Kong, 1931, some examples are given in Chinese, with English translations. There are also some interesting specimens of petitions received by the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs from Chinese in Hong Kong. In the section on the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs in the General Orders of the Hong Kong Government, 1924, we read: \"Before taking action affecting bodies or classes of people, the Chinese Government is in the habit of issuing proclamations explaining the action to be taken and the reason for it and the Chinese in Hong Kong expect the same notice to be given. It is desirable that whenever the Head of a Department finds it necessary to take notice of any slackness in complying with the law, or to put a stop to gradual encroachments on the part of individuals, or to bring some new regulation into force, he should first consult the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and ask him to notify the people affected in the same way\". \n\n32 Margery Perham Lugard, vol. 2, London 1960, p. 302. \n\n33 Ibid., p. 367. \n\n34 Geoffrey Robley Sayer (1887-1962), Educated at Highgate School, London, and Queen's College, Oxford. Hong Kong Civil Service 1910; Director of Education 1934-6; retired 1938. \n\n35 Stephen Francis Balfour (1905-1945). Educated at King's College, Cambridge. Hong Kong Civil Service 1929; died in internment during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. \n\n36 Walter Schofield (1888-1968). Educated at the University of Liverpool. Hong Kong Civil Service 1911. First Police Magistrate 1934-1937; retired 1938. Schofield was noted for his work pre-war on the geology and archaeology of Hong Kong, in which fields he was a pioneer scholar. \n\n37 Roger Soame Jenyns (born 1904). Educated at Eton and Magdalene College, Cambridge. Hong Kong Civil Service 1926; resigned in 1931 to join the British Museum. He is a noted expert on the arts of the Far East and has written extensively in that field. \n\n38 Robert Andrew Dermod Forrest (born 1893). Educated at Aberdeen University. Hong Kong Civil Service 1919; Inspector of Vernacular Schools; Immigration Officer 1940. Lecturer in Tibeto-Burman Linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206307, "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": 124, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "118 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nreception of mandarins passing through the Colony, negotiated the sale of official titles, and formed an unofficial link between the Chinese residents of Hong Kong and the Canton Authorities”. Such evidence is not conclusive, but it seems plausible to assume that by the 1860s Chinese in Hong Kong had acquired some experience in managing their own affairs typical behaviour in other Overseas Chinese settlements and had acted with some secrecy so as not to alarm the colonial authorities. \n\nWhat was, in effect, the first District Watch Committee was formed after a meeting of the Chinese community held on 1 February, 1866. Presumably this was a meeting of the Kaifong leaders, the more prosperous shopkeepers and merchants. According to the Registrar General's Report for 1867, after much discussion, the Community of the Five Districts to the west of the Parade Ground, agreed to elect a certain number of their body to act as Watchmen, whose pay should be disbursed by themselves and be collected by men especially appointed for the purpose'. It appears they agreed among themselves to send a petition to government asking for permission to organise a force of Chinese watchmen. In this petition they claimed a rumour had reached them that the roughs of Canton intended to celebrate the approach of the Chinese New Year by making a descent upon Hong Kong 'with the object of committing extensive robberies under cover of a conflagration'. Their intention, they wrote, was to protect their families and aid the police. \n\nThe rumour of a possible criminal foray from Canton was treated with some scepticism by government officials, but the suggestion of a district watchmen force, organised and paid for by the Chinese themselves was readily accepted by the Governor, Sir Richard MacDonnell, and became embodied in the Victoria Registration Ordinance, No. 7 of 1866. As Norton Kyshe affirms : 'This may be taken as the origin of the system now known as \"District Watchmen”. \n\nIt seems reasonable to infer that the Chinese notables present at this meeting used the rumour of a foray from Canton to camouflage their real desire — their own Chinese police force. They wanted an amalgamation of the numerous private watchmen and street guards already employed by merchants, shopkeepers, householders and Kaifong. At that date — 1866 — the regular", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206308, "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": 125, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n119\n\npolice were commonly reputed to be corrupt, inefficient, drunken and lazy. The police force, mainly composed of European and Indian policemen with a small contingent of Chinese, was officered by European inspectors and sergeants and controlled at the top by a European Captain Superintendent of Police, often at loggerheads with the Registrar General, the 'Protector of Chinese'. The main duty of the regular police was to protect the central business district of Hong Kong, where most of the great European firms clustered, and the docks and wharves on which the prosperity of commercial Hong Kong depended. Principally, though, the regular police were there to overawe the Chinese lumpenproletariat, composed in European eyes of the sweepings of Kwangtung Province. The Chinese residential and commercial areas on the fringes of the core central district were more arbitrarily policed—and policed of course by aliens, most of whom as ex-Indian sepoys, ex-soldiers or ex-British policemen were unable to speak Cantonese.11 Chinese merchants, therefore, thought there would be advantages in maintaining a force of district watchmen Chinese to a man—selected, vetted, paid for, controlled, and if needs be, dismissed by the Chinese community.\n\nThe establishment of a body of Chinese district watchmen by the Registration Ordinance of 1866 was at first strongly opposed by some officials. In 1866 Sir Richard MacDonnell reported to the Secretary of State that the scheme was 'working admirably'12; but two years later the Chief Justice, Sir John Smale, laid on the table of the Legislative Council a memorandum inveighing against the inefficiency and corruption of the Force and suggesting that, to avoid the constant friction between the Superintendent of Police and the Registrar General, the district watchmen should be embodied in the Police Force under one head13. Soon after the Chief Justice's animadversions were made public in the Legislative Council, MacDonnell was forced to set up a commission to inquire into the working of the regular police as a result of a number of police scandals. In his memorandum setting out the reasons for holding such an inquiry, MacDonnell also asked the members of the commission to 'report as to the expediency of continuing to maintain, with Chinese co-operation and pecuniary aid, an auxiliary force of District Watchmen, and to ascertain whether the latter body has", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206309, "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": 126, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "120 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nrendered any useful service to the Colony, also whether, as at present controlled, there is any real danger to be apprehended from allowing such a force to be maintained'14 \n\nThe commission concluded that district watchmen performed a useful service for the Chinese community. The system was thus left unchanged and the statutory control of the Registrar General was not tampered with. The Regulation of Chinese Ordinance, No. 13 of 1888, reaffirmed the principle that 'every such watchman shall be under the control of the Registrar General'. Thus the link forged in 1866 between the Registrar General and the District Watch Force was maintained intact until the radical change in the nature of the force brought about by the District Watch Force Ordinance of 1949, which ended the life of the Chinese Committee of Management and the system of voluntary subscriptions. \n\nOsbert Chadwick in his 1882 report on the sanitary conditions of Hong Kong recommended that the duty of enforcing cleanliness should be added to the duties of the district watchmen and that, if necessary, their numbers and pay be increased. Chadwick also informs us that 'the idea was suggested to me by the Chinese'15. Chadwick, the son of the great Edwin Chadwick, recognised the importance of maintaining a body of police auxiliaries, for such watchmen could be detailed to work on tasks not normally undertaken by regular police and used where the presence of European police would engender hostility or lack of co-operation. The Chinese notables also recorded their satisfaction with their own force and in a petition asking for the registration of Chinese partners in Chinese business firms claimed they could weed bad elements out of the force because only Chinese could understand the workings of the Chinese community16. Soon the district watchmen were performing a variety of tasks17—acting as census enumerators, providing guides for census officials, tracing runaway girls for the Po Leung Kuk, intercepting young girls brought into the Colony for purposes of prostitution, engaging in detective work for Chinese welfare societies, and generally just keeping the peace in the Chinese quarters. The Head District Watchman became a figure of some importance and his salary placed him far above the run-of-the-mill Chinese artisan or labourer. Inevitably, there were reports of district watchmen receiving 'tea money' but there is no reason to suppose they were any more...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206310, "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": 127, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "The District Watch Committee\n\n121\n\ncorrupt than regular police18: Chinese could at least understand the rationale of the tariff and no doubt accepted it as a normal condition of life in their time.\n\nIt was, however, J. H. Stewart Lockhart19, the occupant of the combined posts of Registrar General and Colonial Secretary at the end of the century, who perceived the strategic importance of a Chinese advisory council for the colonial government and who, at the same time, helped strengthen and expand the network of committees and boards on which prominent Chinese sat. In 1891 Lockhart took a decisive step: he recommended that twelve Chinese gentlemen, including such influential Chinese as Dr. Ho Kai (Ho Ch'i), Wei Yuk (Wei Yü), and Ho Fook (Ho Fu), should be appointed by government to form a far stronger committee20 than the informal body that had supervised the Force since its inception, so as to improve co-operation between the force and the Registrar General's Department. As Lockhart stressed in his report for 1891, 'it is hoped with the aid of the Committee the efficiency of the District Watch will be increased, and that the advice of the gentlemen forming the Committee will be of great assistance to this office in dealing with the affairs of the Chinese community'. The following year he was pleased to note that ‘its advice on several important questions connected with the affairs of the Chinese community has been of great help to this Department'. Lockhart saw the Committee, then, as a key advisory body for his own department and, it follows, for the colonial government in general. In this, it appears, he was strongly supported by the rich compradore, Wei Yuk, an unofficial member of the Legislative Council and a collaborator of Lockhart's. Wei Yuk had urged that a new committee should be nominated and that this reorganised committee should be given official recognition, backing and status.22 I have been unable to ascertain the names of the members of the Committee before 189123 but I suspect that many must have been nonentities in the eyes of the Registrar General and prominent Chinese local worthies and local leaders rather than Chinese conspicuous for great wealth, prestige and power24.\n\nIt is not possible to reconstruct Wei Yuk's reasoning at this date; nevertheless it is plausible to surmise that Wei Yuk understood that the tighter the connection between the Committee of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206312, "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": 129, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "The District Watch Committee\n\n123\n\nDistrict Watch Committee. In 1920 the post of Advisor (Ku Man) was created and the first occupant — and it would seem the only one — was the distinguished Sir Boshan Wei Yuk, the founding father of the Committee.\n\nBy the end of the nineteenth century, relations with the Police had improved. In 1897 the district watchmen on duty in Victoria were placed on police beats and subjected to the supervision of police inspectors and sergeants on patrol duty. This was done on the recommendation of the Captain Superintendent of Police, F. H. May (a Cadet Officer like Lockhart), who remarked in his annual report for that year that 'the object was to improve the efficiency of this very useful auxiliary Police Force, and to bring them into closer touch with the Police'. The reputation of the regular police had improved by that date and the Committee concurred with the innovation. The efficiency of the District Watch was further raised by the secondment in 1918 of a European police officer27 to take charge of and train the detective staff, a practice that continued until 1949. As a result of this change, the number of convictions obtained by the district watch detective force tended to rise from year to year. The force became steadily more professionalised, especially its detective branch. The Secretary for Chinese Affairs claimed in 1922 that 'the connection with the Regular Police has been effectively used to the advantage of both sides, and without interference with the essential character of the District Watch'; and in 1924 he wrote 'the Captain Superintendent of Police was on occasion present by invitation at the Councils of the Committee, and it is satisfactory to note the close co-operation between the two forces'. However, the force did not increase markedly in size over time — there were only 48 watchmen in 1891 and 120 in 194128 — although the area patrolled and the urban population both increased over this period. In 1910 it was found necessary to extend patrols further as the Chinese population spread up to the higher levels of the town; in 1913 the Committee was obliged to raise money for District Watchmen's Quarters in Kowloon; and by 1925 the districts of Yaumati and Mongkok were being patrolled; and by 1930, Shamshuipo. The rate of voluntary subscription was also raised slightly29.\n\nThe District Watch was a Chinese and not a European police force and its duties were more diverse than those normally", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206313, "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": 130, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "124\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\ndevolving upon the regular police by law or custom. As early as 1868, the Registrar General reported that the Head District Watchmen from their age and authority are often accepted as arbiters of perplexing disputes'. Clearly, these extra-police duties increased year by year, for in 1935 the Secretary for Chinese Affairs wrote 'it is not generally realised that in addition to their normal ordinary police duties the District Watch carry out a great deal of useful investigation in purely civil cases, wages and family disputes'. Watchmen were also active in counting the number of children at vernacular schools, controlling queues during periods of acute water shortage, gathering information about family budgets, and in the more general task of making known to the Chinese public the policies of the government30. Primarily, of course, the members of the force spent most of their time in apprehending shoplifters, thieves, pickpockets and loiterers in those districts where there were Chinese shops. Their special anti-pickpocket squad, a plain-clothes unit, helped to control an offence once very common in Hong Kong. This was what the subscribers expected them to do31, for the subscribers were nearly all shopkeepers and merchants, members of the propertied and moneyed class in Hong Kong. The District Watchmen, armed and uniformed, must have been a conspicuous sight in the Chinese quarters of the town before the war, well-known as individuals to the citizens in the districts they patrolled. In most cases the watchmen spoke Cantonese like the majority in the urban areas, whereas Chinese regular police were often recruited from Shantung32 and spoke another dialect. The police constables from Shantung, given the complexities of Chinese provincial and dialect differences, were comparative strangers -- tall, muscular men from the North.\n\nThe day to day running of the force was left mainly in the hands of the Head District Watchmen and their aides, the Assistant District Watchmen, and later to the European officer seconded from the police; and all clerical work was done in Chinese in the office of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, which became the headquarters of the force. The Committee met formally once a month, though extraordinary meetings were often held. But when the Committee did meet, it usually had more important matters to discuss than the routine doings of the force. The Committee of Management, since its advice was solicited by the Secretary for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206322, "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": 139, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n133\n\nAffairs, and so recruitment for the force was suspended and vacancies caused by death or retirement were not filled.\n\nIn 1948 the Secretary for Chinese Affairs wrote that 'even before the outbreak of the Pacific War it was becoming evident that this system of raising money (i.e., by voluntary subscriptions) would have to be abandoned. Plans for the reorganisation of the Force were under consideration at the time when the Japanese invaded the Colony'. By the District Watch Ordinance, No. 15 of 1949, the force became the direct responsibility of government and the pay and terms of service were brought into line, rank for rank, with those of the Police Force. The Committee was not mentioned in the new Ordinance, and the names of its surviving members were no longer given in the Civil Service Lists.\n\nThe reasons for this change were never made clear by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs. But it seems reasonable to conclude that the utility of the force declined once the regular police became more professionalised. There was probably some resistance within government and the community to the idea of a few prominent Chinese controlling a private police force and, on occasions, putting it to their own use. It could also be argued that since the returned Governor, Sir Mark Young, had promised a far greater participation of the many rather than the few in public life, the need for a small body of rich Chinese to act as a key advisory body was seen as not quite 'democratic' in the new Hong Kong; moreover, a few prominent Chinese, members of the Committee, had been a little too prominent in the organisations set up by the Japanese. For these and other reasons, then, the District Watch Force and its Committee after eighty-three years of life and service to the public came to an end in 1949.\n\n—\n\nAn analysis of the District Watch Committee terminates in a number of broader sociological enquiries: the role of associations in Overseas Chinese communities and the nature of leadership in such societies. It is not my intention to pursue such comparative questions in this short and mainly descriptive paper; but of course some comparisons should be suggested. The system that evolved in Hong Kong was not imposed on the Chinese by a colonial government; there were no Congrégations or Kapitan Chinas in Hong Kong63 nor, for that matter, did secret societies supply leaders as they did in Malaya at one stage.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206324, "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": 141, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n135\n\n4 The first census of the Island in 1841 gave a population of 5,650. In 1844 the population was given as 19,009. See Historical and Statistical Abstract of the Colony of Hong Kong, 1841-1931, Hong Kong, Noronha, 1932. The validity of the first census has been questioned by G. R. Sayer in his Hong Kong: Birth, Adolescence, and Coming of Age, London, Oxford University Press, 1937, p. 104.\n\n5 The China Review, vol. 1, 1872/73, p. 333.\n\n6 Ibid., p. 334.\n\n7 E. J. Eitel, Europe in China, The History of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Kelly and Walsh, 1895, p. 282. The Man Mo Temple stands at the western end of Hollywood Road. It was originally a shrine patronised mostly by fishermen before 1841. For a description of the temple see Charles J. H. Halcombe, The Mystic Flowery Land, London, Luzac and Co., 1896, ch. xxvii. The temple was run by a committee appointed by the Five Districts and the committee used to hold an annual ceremony at Mount Davis for the dead... in celebration of the gods of literature and war: see the Hongkong Government Gazette (henceforth cited as the Gazette), 12 February 1879, p. 52. The properties of the Man Mo Temple were transferred to the Tung Wah Hospital by the Man Mo Temple Ordinance, No. 10 of 1908. Before the committee of the Tung Wah Hospital was organized, the Man Mo Temple Committee appears to have been recognised as representing the opinions of respectable Chinese.\n\n9 J. W. Norton Kyshe, History of the Laws and Courts of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Noronha and Co., 1898, vol. 2, p. 86. See also the reports of the Registrar General for 1866 and 1867 in the Gazette.\n\n9 Ibid., p. 86.\n\n10 In 1867 the police force consisted of 89 Europeans, 377 Indians (chiefly Bombay sepoys) and 132 Chinese, many of whom were employed as marine police. See Eitel, op. cit., pp. 445-6.\n\nAs late as 1893 there were only two European policemen who could act as proper interpreters and only five who could speak some Chinese. See the Report of the Commission on the Po Leung Kuk, Hong Kong, Noronha and Co., 1893, p. 81.\n\n12 Correspondence on Hong Kong Gambling Houses, London, H.M.S.O., 1869, p. 21.\n\n13 Eitel, op. cit., p. 447.\n\n14 Gazette, 6 January 1872. The Police Commission set up by MacDonnell was not unanimous: broadly it agreed to recommend an Anglo-Chinese police force. The recruitment of Chinese police had been strongly advocated by Dr. Legge, as most likely to bring good understanding between the government and respectable Chinese', G. B. Endacott, History of Hong Kong, London, Oxford University Press, 1958, p. 160.\n\n13 Osbert Chadwick, Reports on the Sanitary Conditions of Hong Kong, London, H.M.S.O., 1882, p. 42.\n\n16 'Registration of Chinese Partners', Hong Kong Sessional Papers (henceforth cited as Sessional Papers), No. 43 of 1901, p. 22. The text reads: 'Head and District Watchmen employed to patrol the streets by day and by night, are to be recommended by the Chinese themselves, because they know whether they are trustworthy or not. If these men, however, should fail to maintain their good character and should be found to be unfit for the post by the Chinese residents of the district to which they belong, they should be dismissed at any time, in order that they may have something to fear'. The translation is clearly a bad one.\n\n17 In 1883, the Registrar General, Frederick Stewart, used the district watchmen to conduct an enquiry into all Hong Kong schools. In the 1897", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206325, "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": 142, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "136 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\ncensus 13 of the 76 Chinese enumerators were district watchmen; in the 1901 census 5 out of 107 were. In the 1906 census the 120 enumerators were shown round the blocks (census sub-divisions) by district watchmen. They also gave help in the 1911 census, and in the 1921 one the bulk of the force was placed at the disposal of the commissioner of census, who wrote 'each Chinese watchman engaged was in charge of two sections; they helped clear up misunderstandings and kept a check on enumerators'. The Committee was thanked on many occasions by government for its public service; it was praised for the help it rendered to the police during the riots which occurred in 1894 during the great epidemic of plague. The Committee did all it could to help its sister organizations the Tung Wah Hospital and Po Leung Kuk. Thus district watchmen were always employed on special duties at the Tung Wah Hospital during outbreaks of plague and the Chinese Public Dispensary Committee used Watchmen to prevent the dumping of bodies in the streets. The Po Leung Kuk's two principal detectives were serving district watchmen at the turn of the century. Co-operation was easy because most members of the District Watch Committee had served or were serving on the committees of the Tung Wah Hospital and Po Leung Kuk. In 1895 head district watchmen were paid $240 a year, assistant head district watchmen $180 and watchmen from $84 to $96. \n\n18 For examples of police corruption in nineteenth century Hong Kong see numerous references in Norton-Kyshe, op. cit. \n\n19 After a distinguished academic career at Edinburgh University, J. H. Stewart Lockhart became a Hong Kong Cadet in 1878; Registrar General in 1887; Colonial Secretary in 1895. In 1902 he was appointed first Civil Commissioner of Weihaiwei and retired from this post in 1921. Among his numerous publications there are several of sinological value. See particularly: 'Contributions to the Folklore of China', China Review, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 352-353 and vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 37-39; also 'Some Chinese Folk-lore', Folk-lore, vol. 14, 1903, pp. 292-298. Lockhart was local secretary in Hong Kong of the International Folk-lore Society. \n\n20 In 1892 new rules were drawn up under Ordinance No. 13 of 1888, with the advice of the Committee, for the regulation and guidance of the watchmen. 'Copies of these rules have been distributed among the contributors of the District Watchmen's Fund, by whom more interest seems to be evinced in and more assistance asked from the force than formerly': See Report of the Registrar General for 1892. Lockhart also persuaded two Chinese newspapers—the Tsun Wan Yat Po and the Wai San Yat Po—to publish weekly lists of cases brought before the magistrate by the District watchmen for the information of subscribers to the District Watchmen's Fund. Lockhart realised that publicity was good for the Committee: he saw that they got it. The report of the Registrar General/Secretary for Chinese Affairs always contained a section on the District Watch and news about members was given: deaths, resignations, appointments, etc. \n\n21 Wei Yuk (1849-1921) was the son of Wei Kwong, compradore to the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China. He was educated at the Government Central School in Hong Kong and in 1867, at the age of 18, became a pupil at the Leicester Stoneygate School and in 1868 of the Dollar Institution, Scotland. He returned to Hong Kong in 1872 to become assistant compradore in the Chartered Mercantile Bank. He succeeded his father on the latter's death in 1879. Wei Yuk married the eldest daughter of Wong Shing (Huang Shêng). He was the fourth Chinese to be appointed to the Legislative Council, the other three being Ng Choy (Wu Ting-fang), Wong Shing and Ho Kai. He was knighted in 1919. During his public career he served on all the commissions appointed by government to inquire into matters affecting the Chinese. Ho Fook (1863-1926) was the younger half-brother of Sir Robert Ho Tung, reputed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206326, "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": 143, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "The District Watch Committee\n\n137\n\nto be the richest man in Hong Kong. When Ho Tung retired as chief compradore to Jardine, Matheson's in 1900, Ho Fook succeeded him. Ho Fook's assistant was Ho Kom Tong, another of Ho Tung's brothers. The members of the District Watch Committee were members of a small circle of businessmen, often related through ties of blood or marriage. When the Tai Yau Bank was established in 1914 with a paid-up capital of $6,000,000, the proprietors were named as Lau Chu Pak, Ho Fook, Ho Kom Tong, Lo Chung Shiu and Chan Kai Ming. Lau Chu Pak was compradore to A. S. Watson and Co., chairman of the Po On Commercial Association and chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce; Chan Kai Ming was manager of the Opium Farm; and Lo Chung Shiu, assistant compradore to Jardine, Matheson and Co., was Ho Fook's brother-in-law. All were or became members of the District Watch Committee.\n\n22 T. C. Cheng writes that Wei Yuk 'was very much concerned about law and order among the Chinese masses because in those early days riff-raff and political refugees from South China continued to come into Hong Kong. Thus it was at his suggestion that the District Watch Force was founded in 1888. Mr. Cheng appears to be mistaken about the date and is no doubt referring to the ordinance of that year, no. 13 of 1888 rather than to its proper date of origin. Wright and Cartright, Feldwick, and Professor Woo all state that the Committee was formed on Wei Yuk's suggestion. See: T. C. Cheng, 'Chinese Unofficial Members of the Legislative and Executive Councils of Hong Kong up to 1941', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 9, 1969, pp. 17-18; Arnold Wright and H. A. Cartright, Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong, Shanghai and other Treaty Ports, London, Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Co., 1908, p. 109; W. Feldwick, ed., Present Day Impressions of the Far East and Prominent Chinese at Home and Abroad, London Globe Encyclopedia Co., 1917, p. 576; Professor Woo Sing Lim, The Prominent Chinese in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Five Continents Book Company, 1939, p. 4.\n\n23 Unfortunately all the records in the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs were destroyed or lost during the Japanese occupation and hence anyone trying to reconstruct the history of the District Watch must work mostly from scraps of information found in government publications, newspapers, books.\n\n24 My guess is that a large number were traditional Chinese merchants from the Five Districts operating on a relatively small scale. The Committee after 1891 represented the views of a more westernised and modernised elite with a knowledge of modern business techniques and modern financial manipulations. Dr. Ho Kai, for example, played the stock exchange with great success and speculated in many fields, particularly land development. He was, properly speaking, a financier although his occupation is often given tout court as lawyer. He had also qualified in medicine at Edinburgh but gave up the practice of medicine soon after his return to Hong Kong in 1882 because of Chinese resistance to western medicine.\n\n25 In 1903, for example, the Committee opposed the re-introduction of the night-pass system but suggested other remedial measures (see Index to Correspondence (General Register) 1894-1904, Hong Kong, Noronha and Co., 1909, p. 100). In 1909 'at the request of the District Watchmen Committee, children who are hawking without a licence are on their first offence sent to the Registrar General who cautions their guardians. This procedure seems to have proved effective in each case' wrote the Registrar General in 1909. It is worth noting that both Registrar General and Committee wanted to end the night-pass system and were opposed by the Captain Superintendent of Police, who was unsuccessful. As for hawkers, very few Chinese regarded them as a serious menace although colonial administrators", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206353, "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": 170, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "154\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\naccount which is intended to provide a factual background to, and trace the major influences on, local volunteering over this long period.\n\nDEVELOPMENT AND ORGANISATION\n\n(a) 1854-1914\n\nThe different motivations, needs and attitudes of changing times provide some of the most interesting aspects of the history of the Hong Kong Volunteer Force. Danger is always a stimulus to volunteer efforts and the first Volunteers owed their origin to a foreign 'scare' occurring at a time of war with Russia and imagined insecurity in Hong Kong. This led the colonial authorities in June 1854 to take the initiative in calling for a corps of Volunteers for the defence of the lives and properties of themselves and their families in the temporary absence of a naval force sufficient to deal with an emergency. (It is interesting that Government called for an Auxiliary Police Force at the same time.) This call lost its magic when the emergency did not materialise and naval protection was restored, and for a few years there were no Volunteers in being.7\n\nAttempts to form a new Corps in 1857 proved an utter failure, the subject was mooted in the press in 1860 without result, and the eventual establishment of a new body of Volunteers on 7 April 1862 can be traced to an enthusiast, Captain Frederick Brine, Royal Engineers, a regular officer who had formed the Shanghai Volunteers in 1861 and went on to form other corps at Hankow and Yokohama. This second Hong Kong corps was disbanded in May 1866.\n\nA third Volunteer Corps was formed in May 1878, arising out of the danger of war with Russia the previous year. It was entitled the Hong Kong Artillery and Rifle Volunteer Corps. Endacott gives a succinct account of this body:\n\nIt numbered 150 by the end of the year, but when the crisis passed interest waned; there were quarrels, and all\n\n7 See Vol, 1954, pp. 17-23 and Endacott, A History of Hong Kong, (Oxford University Press, 1958) pp. 90, 119.\n\n8 Endacott, pp. 119-120. The Hong Kong Volunteers were organised as a battery of artillery with a band and rifle company added within a year see Major Arthur Chapman's article in Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong, Shanghai, etc. (1908) p. 274.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206357, "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": 174, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "158\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nundoubtedly due to the Volunteer Movement and to the succession of small imperial wars in the last 25 years of the 19th century which popularised the Army, and fed the emotional needs of imperial Britain in the Victorian age. Between 1902 and 1914 it was due to the sobering effect of the Boer War and the growing realisation by many of the need to reform and rearm against a possible European enemy. Soldiers, in short, were in the public eye, and Hong Kong was no exception to the general rule.\n\nHere, and in the treaty ports, another factor in the popularity of, and support given to, the volunteer corps was the pool of potential recruits provided by the employees of the major European firms, many of whom had attended public schools in Britain and were well suited by their education and sentiment to play a leading part in the volunteer movement.\n\n(b) 1914-41\n\nThe 1914-18 War saw many Volunteers go off to the War in Europe, and led to increased duties for the Corps due to the need to employ regular forces on active service elsewhere. Numbers dropped and compulsory service was introduced in 1917.18\n\nIn 1920, shortly after the War, a new Volunteer Ordinance was introduced to replace those of 1893 and 1910 which regulated the existing Volunteer Corps and Volunteer Reserve. When introduced into the Legislative Council, it was stated to closely follow the old Ordinance, but with a few changes to meet altered times. The Volunteer Force was now \"considered desirable for two reasons for defence against foreign enemies, and also in order to assist the Police and regular forces in case of any serious local disturbances'19 (my italics). We are coming nearer our own times in which the present Regiment was called upon in 1966 and again in 1967 to assist with “duties in aid of the civil power” i.e., internal security. The obligation to serve was also to become more serious. Every Volunteer was to be deemed to have engaged himself to serve for a period of three years and if he left before this without showing good cause he would henceforth have to\n\n18 For the war period see Vol, 1954, pp. 58-67 and Endacott, pp. 284-285. See also the Military Service Ordinance, No. 19 of 1917,\n\n19 Han., 1920, p. 15.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206387, "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": 204, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "178\n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nI once witnessed from my house in D'Aguilar Street an engagement between nearly a hundred Chinese coolies on each side, on the ground now occupied by the Club-house. Bamboo on bamboo, and bamboo on skull, resounded pretty equally, until the parties were obliged to give up from exhaustion. I thought that nothing wilder or better-sustained had ever been seen at Donnybrook Fair.\n\nTaking occasion to speak here on the subject of violent crime in the Colony, and affecting it, I would distinguish two eras;— that of violent burglary, and that of piracy. Not that there were not piracies in the earlier time, and burglaries in the later; but the one and the other preponderated in the two eras, and may be considered to characterize them. The former may be said to have continued down to the beginning of 1856, when a daring attack was made on several native shops at East Point. For several years, however, before that, it had been declining, owing mainly to the increasing numbers and greater vigour of the police force.\n\nThese robberies were at first conducted with an astonishing audacity. In January, 1844, to give only one instance, what is now Mr. De Souza's printing office was occupied by Mrs. White, the wife of one of the present members for Brighton, who was himself in Shanghai at the time. He was one of the early notabilities of the Colony, and founded the Friend of China, which was published here and in Shanghai for many years by very different hands. Well on the night of the 23rd January, the bungalow was attacked by an armed band of about 30 individuals. Their object was plunder; and without attempting any violence to Mrs. White or a young lady who was staying with her, they proceeded systematically to accomplish their purpose.\n\nA little down the hill were the head-quarters of a Madras regiment of which I have spoken. The young lady tripped down, and gave the alarm there, and soon a party of sepoys was led up to the scene by an officer; but the brigands stood one discharge of their muskets, and, it was said, did not flee till the ramrods were ringing in the barrels for a second, one of their number being left bleeding to death on the floor.\n\nWhen burglary on this scale could no longer be attempted with success or safety, bands of robbers attempted to carry out their attempts by tunneling from the large drains under the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206389, "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": 206, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "180 \n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nChinese Customs' service, and a greater energy which has of late years been manifested by the Chinese Government itself. I have been told that the Customs' cruisers confine themselves to the inner waters, and act against smuggling and not piracy. It may be so; but smuggling and piracy may be considered as frequently only different branches of the same profession, the members of which will take to either as they think it safer, and likely to be more profitable for the occasion. That law and order are the rule increasingly in Hongkong and along the coast is a growing impression, and that impression is a surer preserver of the peace than the gallows, the axe, and the sword. Bad men are kept habitually obedient to the law by the form of justice armed with power in their mind's eye more than by outbursts of indignation occasionally aroused against them, and from which they always hope to escape.\n\nEre I leave the subject of crime, I may be permitted to say a few words on the police force of the colony. All along its history, the good organization of this has been perhaps the most difficult part of the duties of the Government. Experiment after experiment has been tried as to the constituents of the force; and as long as I can remember, that is, since the very first attempts at its formation, charges have been advanced against it of inefficiency, drunkenness, and openness to bribery. My own conviction has been for many years that the strength of the police force ought to consist of Chinese. I pressed my views on this point on Sir Richard MacDonnell soon after he arrived in the Colony, and he put them on one side. I stated them to the Commission which held its sittings on the subject during the present year, and I was glad to find that about one half of its members were disposed to coincide with me. I believe that the Chinese people are in the mass law-abiding and fond of order. I believe that there is a large body of Chinese merchants who have as great a stake in the Colony as the British and merchants of other nationalities have. I believe that by a cordial communication with them a body of native policemen might be obtained who would be sufficiently reliable, and who, with a smaller number obtained from home as the Government has lately done, a considerable proportion of its present force would keep the Colony almost free from crime. Give me a superintendent well skilled in the business of his department, and able to communicate", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206390, "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": 207, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE COLONY OF HONG KONG\n\n181\n\nfreely with all the men under his command; cultivating, moreover, the confidence of them all, and seeing that distinguished fidelity and efficiency are liberally rewarded; who shall be proud of his position, and feel that his own happiness and honour are identified with his success;-give me such a superintendent and such a force, and I will undertake that in a few years crime shall be as rare as in any city at home, while the expense of the department will be very considerably reduced.\n\n—\n\nIt is thought, I know, by many that my views on this subject are visionary and Utopian derived from my acquaintance with Chinese literature more than from acquaintance with the Chinese people. I will only say that during many years of my long residence here, my intercourse was quite as much with the people as with their books. Several hours of every day were spent in visiting them from house to house, and shop to shop, conversing with them on all subjects, and trying to get them to converse with me on one subject. When I went home in 1867, I could say that, excepting the brothels, there was hardly a house in Victoria and the villages in which I had not repeatedly been, and where I was not known as a friend. I am confident of this, that, keep away the calamity of another war with China, my views as to the constitution of the police force will be the prevailing views of the Colony, and acted on by its Government.\n\nHaving said thus much about the police force, let me say further that I think that that department is at present, in 1872, in a better and more efficient state than it ever was. Let me give expression also to a protest against the doctrine which I have sometimes heard and read, that our laws are too lenient for the Chinese population which we try to govern by them. By all means let the treatment of crime be deterrent; but that we must institute a new code of penalties taken from Chinese or other barbarous practice is an outrageous suggestion, the birth of reckless thoughtlessness, or of minds soured from their own distemperature. But the laws of the Colony should be fully made known to the Chinese population. This is a work that yet remains to be done, the preparation of a clear, distinct, intelligible translation of most of our statutes, purchasable by the inhabitants at a small price.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206391, "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": 208, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "182\n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nI have drawn, you probably think, sufficiently long on your attention and patience already, and yet, that we may get a sufficient view of the growth of the Colony, I must ask you to go back with me to the time at which I had arrived when the unhealthiness of 1843 led me away into all these digressions. I will try, however, to be brief in what I have further to say.\n\nSir Henry Pottinger, I observed, was governor of the Colony when I came to it, and I was surprised to find that he was not by any means popular. He was a good man, people said, to conquer China, and a bad man to rule Hong Kong. The impression which I received from my intercourse with him was of a man condensed, reticent, powerful, who would have his own way, and was able to force it. Mr. Davis, afterwards Sir John Davis, arrived and relieved him in May, 1844; and his coming was hailed with eager expectation. He had been in China before in the East India Company's time, was a Chinese scholar, and had written a book on China, which is still the most readable and entertaining work on the country up to the time to which he was able to bring it down. He, it was thought, was just the man for the place. How it came about, I hardly know; but of all our governors he left his office under the greatest cloud of popular dissatisfaction. In his time, however, the Colony made very considerable advances. The arrival of Judge Hulme was almost contemporaneous with that of Sir John Davis, and a Court of Supreme judicature was constituted. Mr. May, whom we all know, arrived in March, 1843, and the police force began to take shape. Not long after, the tax on house property was proposed, and never was there a greater clamour in the place. It was argued that it was unconstitutional, an imperilling of that palladium of English liberty that taxation must go hand in hand with representation; and the revolt of the American Colonies in the last century was alluded to. It was not my lot, however, to be in Hong Kong during the greater part of Sir John Davis's administration. I was laid down with Hong Kong fever in the autumn of 1844, which returned with other complications in the following year, till I was carried on board ship on the 18th November, to make the passage round the Cape, my friends all supposing that Hong Kong had seen the last of me.\n\nTwo days after I had left, Ke-ying, the Chinese statesman, paid a visit to the Colony, and gave a grand entertainment to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206525, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 73, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART\n\n67\n\nthe charge of the North Division magistrate, who was also Secretary to Government. The Secretary held a dormant commission to administer the affairs of the Territory in the Commissioner's absence. The South Division contained all the rest of the leased Territory, i.e., seventeen out of the twenty-six districts, and it was presided over by the South Division Magistrate, who also acted as District Officer. This gentleman controlled a diminutive police force of a sergeant and seven men, all Chinese; all his other staff were Chinese. Apart from the District Officer, there was only one other European official resident in the South Division, which contained 231 out of the 315 villages of the Territory.\n\nUntil 1906, however, Lockhart as Commissioner could call upon the services of the Chinese Regiment in any emergency which the police were unable to cope with. This Regiment was raised in early 1899 and owed its origin to a suggestion made by Field-Marshal Sir Garnet Wolseley, the Commander-in-Chief, that Chinese troops could be organised at Weihaiwei for use in other places. According to R.F. Johnston: 'They did good service in promptly suppressing an attempted rising in the leased Territory, and on being sent to the front to take part in the operations against the Boxers in 1900, they behaved exceedingly well, both during the attack on Tientsin, and on the march to Peking.' Johnston, it seems, over-praised their contribution for between 1899 and 1901 over 800 deserted and many of them moved straight into Chinese service after having passed through what came to be known as \"the Wei Hai Wei Military School\". As the India Office pointed out, Great Britain was in effect furnishing a \"steady annual supply of trained soldiers\" to China. At its greatest strength the Chinese Regiment numbered 1,300 officers and men but in 1906, the year the Regiment was disbanded, their numbers had fallen to about 600. A few picked men were retained as a permanent police force, and three European non-commissioned officers were provided with appointments on the civil establishment as police inspectors. In 1910, therefore, the entire Territory was policed by only fifty-six Chinese constables and three inspectors. There was no permanent garrison of British troops.\n\nWeihaiwei was officially designated not as a Colony but as a Territory, which meant that Lockhart as Commissioner was head of the local government and subject only to the control of His Majesty exercised through the Secretary of State for the Colonies in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206734, "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-1973", "page_number": 11, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "5\n\nour application for acceptance as a constituent Society was agreed by the Arts Centre, and we will have a nominated member of our Council on its Management Committee on all future occasions it meets to discuss plans for facilities.\n\nThe two tours held during the year were organised by two of your officers. One, to the Chinese University, was arranged by Mr. D. A. Gilkes, Honorary Treasurer. The other, to places of historical interest in the Pokfulum area, was arranged by Mr. James Hayes, Vice-President and Honorary Editor. Both events appear to have been very successful.\n\nIn November we had our 5th symposium which took place as usual at The Hong Kong Club--one of the few moderately priced places appropriate for this kind of event in Hong Kong. The subject was \"Hong Kong: Chinese Tradition and the Development of a Town\" and papers were read by people either actively involved in original research, or in the practical aspects of their subjects. It was accompanied by an exhibition of photographs arranged with the kind help of the City Hall staff, and an exhibition of ritual paraphernalia connected with Triad Societies, provided by the Royal Hong Kong Police Force in conjunction with a paper read by one of its officers. The very useful material emerging at this symposium will be published in our brochure series. The material from our previous symposium on the botany of Hong Kong is in process of publication, and this coming week-end we will have our 6th symposium, on Hong Kong Fauna, organised by Professor B. Lofts of the Department of Zoology, University of Hong Kong.\n\nSince the end of the last calendar year several other events have already taken place and might be mentioned here. The first meeting of this year, at which Mr. James Watt of your Council spoke on recent archeological discoveries in China, was attended by our Patron, Sir Murray Maclehose and Lady Maclehose. A very successful tour to Thailand was organised by Mr. Smithies, who has been our Honorary Secretary for the past financial year. It was preceded by a panel presentation on Thailand in which Mr. Smithies participated, together with Mr. James Watt, and the Royal Thai Consul General. Nineteen members and their guests attended the tour itself, which took place over the Chinese New Year in February. I am pleased to report that the event was a great social success, those taking part organising a party on their return.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207277, "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": 45, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "MERCHANT ORGANISATIONS IN IMPERIAL CHINA\n\n37\n\nthat it became a coordinator of commercial activities between Swatow merchants living at home and elsewhere.31\n\nBut neither of them became fully community-wide organisations. In Newchuang, the city was divided into two parts, east and west, and each elected one president and one vice-president on an annual basis. These four officers then formed a governing committee with all the business transacted in their names. In Swatow, the assembly was divided territorially into two divisions, each electing annually twenty-four leading firms as representatives. From them officers were selected and again paired to assure each division equal representation.\n\nA variant of these guild assemblies was the Chungking Assembly (Pa-sheng hui-kuan), which was composed of the eight major provincial Landsmannschaften in that city. The assembly operated as a committee made up of the presidents of the Landsmannschaften of Kwangtung, Chekiang, Fukien, Hukuang, Kiangsi, Kiangsu, Shansi and Shensi.32 Its responsibilities were to represent the merchants' interest vis-a-vis the local government. It also performed municipal duties such as running a fire brigade, a police force and a social welfare service.33\n\nWhether an assembly of this sort was composed of Landsmannschaften or trade guilds seems to be determined by whichever group happened to dominate the local scene. In Chungking, the dominant group was the provincial Landsmannschaften. In Canton and Swatow, where commerce was controlled by the native Cantonese and Swatowese, there was no confederation of provincial Landsmannschaften to play a leading role. Hence Swatow's Wen-nien-feng Assembly was based on a number of the large firms from the various trade guilds. In Canton, a somewhat different arrangement took place. Prominent merchants from the community joined the boards of the large charitable halls which then performed roughly the same roles as the guild or Landsmannschaft assemblies.\n\nIn Shanghai, both the Landsmann guilds and the trade guilds were influential. Since there was no prominent group of merchants who were natives of Shanghai, one assumes that practically all the prominent trade guild leaders were leaders in the various Landsmann guilds as well. There was, however, no consolidated assembly in a formal way, although we know that informal consultations between them often took place when decisions had to be made on issues of community-wide interests.34\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207332, "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": 100, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "92\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\ncolony of Hong Kong. In 1845, Charles May, a London police officer, was brought out to organise the new force. Most of the early police recruits were obtained locally from the army, navy, and merchant marine; but in time policemen were recruited directly from Britain or from other colonial territories. The quality and morale of the force was never high. Norton-Kyshe writes that in 1850 a European constable got only $15 a month,\n\nvery far below what the humblest in the Colony required, so that, in the case of steady men, they only accepted the position in the hope of something better turning up. But to this class, unfortunately, the chief objection was the readiness with which they yielded to the temptation offered by the many public houses about, and many of the deaths among the European constabulary were ascribed to their excessive indulgence in ardent spirits, a great portion of which, sold by the low tavern-keepers, was of the most abominable and deleterious description.4\n\nBecause of the demoralised state of the police, Sir Richard MacDonnell, Governor of Hong Kong, reported in 1869 to the Secretary of State that he intended to substitute Scottish for English constables. Altogether forty-five Edinburgh constables were enlisted in 1872. But the Scots contingent proved as susceptible as their English colleagues, for the next year several were dismissed from the force. As a group, they, too, had succumbed to the blandishments and corruptions of Hong Kong. In 1897 it was found that almost all the police—European, Chinese, and Indian—were receiving money illegally from Chinese gambling syndicates, including a British Deputy Superintendent of Police.\n\nBecause of the general shortage of European personnel in Hong Kong, police were often seconded to, or allowed to apply for, positions in other departments. The scarcity of suitable Europeans was, in the main, a consequence of the growing attractiveness of Australia as a land of opportunity, especially after the discovery there of gold in 1851, and of the rapid development of Shanghai, which soon became viewed as an arena more accommodating than Hong Kong for the adventurous and ambitious. Turnkeys at Victoria Gaol were often policemen; and the various Inspectors of Brothels (a post established in 1858), who came under the control of the Registrar General, were in nearly every case former police officers, for the principal duty of such functionaries was to detect", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207336, "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": 104, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "96\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\nand China Gas Company, the Hong Kong Electric Company, the Hong Kong Distillery Company, all needed skilled European labour.\n\nThe Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company employed European foremen, clerks, book-keepers, shipwrights, engineers, boiler-makers, storekeepers, and superintendents. 'Where the eastern seas', J.S. Thomson enthuses, 'bubble up hot to the flame of an equatorial sun, Chinese workmen, with Scotch overseers, turn out six thousand ton steel ships and do battleship repairing worthy of Woolwich or Devonport.' The skilled British mechanic experienced a degree of upward social mobility in Hong Kong: the skilled worker became an overseer, with all the compensations of improved status and salary.\n\n13\n\nApart from any non-qualified engineers, mechanics and artisans, there were a number of Europeans employed in other low status occupations. We should mention lighthouse keepers, employed by the Harbour Master's Department (later Marine Department), tide-waiters in the Chinese Maritime Customs, whose duty it was to board ships and junks at the various treaty ports, some of whom were domiciled in Hong Kong. They were, like the skippers and engineers of the vessels owned by the Hong Kong, Canton, and Macau Steamboat Company, mostly retired A.B.s from the Royal Navy and non-commissioned officers who had served their time. Lastly, there was a sprinkling of European tailors, hairdressers, milliners, confectioners, bakers, booksellers, printers, photographers, owners of sporting-goods shops, livery stable keepers, and gunsmiths. Most bars and tap-rooms employed Europeans as managers and barmen, though many were not of British nationality. As Macmillan concludes:\n\nThe bulk of the foreign population is employed in commerce, but the police, revenue, and sanitary staffs, schools, public works, docks, etc., give employment to a large number of overseers and supervisors, mostly engaged direct from home or from military and naval men whose service with the garrison is completed.1 Macmillan, however, forgot to mention the important beachcomber element in the overseer force.\n\n14\n\nEuropean outcastes were mainly prostitutes, nearly all of whom were of working class origin. Many of these women were professionals from the red light districts of San Francisco, Honolulu, Sydney, and Melbourne, who, for one reason or another (usually", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207342, "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": 110, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "102\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\nRow in Tai Ping Shan was then known as 'Samshu Corner' because many Europeans resorted to it for cheap topping. The commissioners ascertained that much drinking went on in barracks, troops sending Chinese 'boys' out to buy bottles of samshu or whisky for them. Drunkenness was a direct consequence of boredom and idleness.\n\nThe problem of venereal disease was related to that of drinking, for bars and brothels clustered together. From 1867 to 1887, the Contagious Diseases Ordinance, patterned on the English act of 1866, was in force in the colony to protect the health of British servicemen. Briefly, the 1867 ordinance made all prostitutes working in licensed brothels for Europeans only (Chinese brothels for Chinese only were exempted) subject to compulsory medical inspection at the Lock Hospital. European prostitutes, on the other hand, could undergo examination at home. It was claimed that the repeal of the Hong Kong ordinance in 1889, following the repeal of the English act in 1886, led to an upsurge in the rates for venereal disease. In 1895, admissions into hospital for venereal infection in the home army were 173.8 per 1,000; in India, 522.3; in Hong Kong, about the same figure.\n\nIt follows, then, that the chance of a male member of the European lower orders becoming infected with venereal disease was always high during the period under review here, 1842-1900. The police, for example, were so prone to catching this social disease, almost an occupational disease for them, that at one time they were also subject to compulsory medical inspection. The practice was stopped in 1873, but before that date, there was a monthly examination of all foreign members of the force.\n\nMiddle-class Europeans did not escape entirely from all these afflictions from alcoholism, syphilis, boredom, and loneliness. Both classes Taipans and pong-paan — also fell victim at times to a variety of diseases, such as malaria, typhus, cholera, and bubonic plague, as the Colonial Cemetery at Happy Valley amply testifies. But the well-to-do could at least escape to the Peak from Hong Kong's enervating summer, or recuperate in cooler latitudes, in Japan or northern China; and since many of the prosperous were respectably married and lived a normal family life, cosseted by a houseful of servants, they were protected to some degree by domestic circumstances from the temptations that soldiers, sailors, seamen, and their kind, had to face day and night in the city.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208061, "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": 100, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "2\n\n84\n\nJ. T. KAMM\n\nThe clans and farmers agree that the farmers are absolute owners of the soil in perpetuity, but have been paying money or produce to the clans for generations, which the clans claim to be rent payable to them. The case for the farmers is that the land has always been theirs absolute free from rent, and that the amount paid by them to the clans was the Government land tax.\" p. 23, Report on the New Territory at Hong Kong.\n\n42 Chinese civil administration across the border offers interesting contrasts to the British colonial model. After the fall of Ch'ing, the county was renamed Pao-An (†), and was subsequently divided into seven \"wards\" or ch'ü (E). These wards generally followed the topographical features of the countryside, with the result that tung and ch'u were probably quite homogeneous (the evidence for Sham Chun certainly indicates this). As we noted above, agricultural production within the tung tended to follow specific, if not unique, patterns; the authors of the Kwangtung Nung Yeh Kai-K'uang T'iao-ch'a-pao-kao Shu Hsuan-pien (***)'s chapter on Pao-An link this phenomenon, which they note in the various ch'u, with the relative availability of arable land within the district. Aside from the presence of elements of the police force, the Nam Tau government kept a low profile in the ch'u, and depended on these areas to collect the land tax and hand it over by themselves (see Kwangtung Ch'uan-sheng t'i-fang Chi-yao (✯✯✯****★)), p. 189.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208282, "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-1978", "page_number": 6, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "185\n\nthey were knocking on every door in the village to force villagers to act as their porters. Mr. Chung had little choice but to obey. For the next week, he and quite a few of his fellow villagers were taken away from the village. He remembered having to march up Fei Ngo Shan, down to Ma Yau Tong, and then to Lei Yu Mun, until he successfully escaped.66\n\nIt was probably on December 11 that Mr. Chau T'in Shang in Sai Kung Market saw the Japanese cavalry pass. The Japanese did not enter the market. There was no disturbance or fighting. The police had been withdrawn before the Japanese arrived, and people just stayed indoors.67\n\nQuite a few villagers from Sai Kung and nearby villages were in the city when the War broke out. Mr. Wan Ts'eung of Tai Po Tsai was living in Kowloon City at the time. He must have learnt of the beginning of the War when he saw Kai Tak Airport bombed. But he recalled that one morning, he was in the street, and was shocked by machine-gun fire behind him. He hid behind some stone pillars, and then saw Fifth Columnists, known as the \"victory fellows\" (shing lei yau) who proclaimed that they were members of the Asia Prosperity Institution (Hing A Kei Kwan). Mr. Cheung Wing of Wo Mei was in Shaukiwan when he heard of the outbreak of war. He immediately went with several people back to the village, and feared all the way that they might be spotted and shot at by the Japanese. He arrived in the village before the Japanese came down from Keng Hing Shek. Mr. Tse Koon K'au of Tan Ka Wan spent the night of December 7 in the Nathan Hotel in Kowloon. This hotel was frequented by New Territories villagers when they went into the city. The next morning, he heard the aeroplanes and the bombs, and went out to ask what the matter was. When he saw that people in Shamshuipo were wounded, he realized that it was not a practice exercise, and started immediately to return to Sai Kung. A Mr. Chan Shing of Tai Po had a petrol station on Waterloo Road, and Mr. Chan drove Mr. Tse and five other people towards Sha Tin. They were stopped at a roadblock and were not allowed to drive into the New Territories. He left the car, with some difficulty bypassed the roadblock, spent some time with a friend in Chap Wai Kon (Sha Tin), and spent the night at Wu Kai Sha. He arrived in Sai Kung the next day, before the Japanese appeared", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209440, "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": 97, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "75\n\nnumber of Chinese women moved to safety in Canton from the 6th onwards.11 On the night of the 7th, a procession going from Hunghom to Yaumati created some anxiety for the police, but it did not lead to any violence.12\n\nThe Executive Council met on the 8th to review the situation, and on the following day, at an extraordinary meeting of the Legislative Council, a bill was passed without any opposition. It was the Peace Preservation Ordinance of 1884 which was to be in force until April of the following year. It gave the Governor power to banish for five years from Hong Kong 38 persons regarded as being suspicious and dangerous characters. It prohibited Chinese possession of firearms, and it enabled the Governor-in-Council at any time to extend the provisions of the Night Pass Ordinance14 of 1870.48\n\nOnly seven of the thirty-eight persons whose banishment had been decreed were found, but the Government believed the rest had already left the Colony. As for arms, 16,000 items of different arms were reported to have been surrendered on the 10th.44\n\nPerhaps because it was now armed with emergency powers, and could now see the return of order, the Government felt it could afford to show leniency toward those rioters who were still awaiting sentence. On the 10th they were tried; several of them were defended by Ho KaiE, a Chinese barrister, and were fined $20.45 This was much lighter than the sentences imposed on the 3rd. The Magistrate had then said that sentences would depend on the progress of affairs, and the new leniency certainly reflects the return of the Government's confidence.\n\nYet, as late as November, cargo boats and coolies still refused to work for French ships. On the 1st, when coolies discovered that they had been unloading cargo transferred from a French ship, they became very agitated. It was reported that upon making the discovery, they yelled, \"This cargo is French! Don't touch it!\" In the midst of great excitement, they walked off, leaving the cargo on board the lighter unattended.46\n\nSo far what we have done is to relate what had happened. Questions as to why and how are yet to be answered. Some of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209647, "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": 304, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "282\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nGeneral Post Office (where the World Wide Centre now stands). He slipped out into the road between the soldiers, who were presenting arms as the governor passed, and rushed to the governor's chair. He rested his elbow on the beam of the chair and fired a revolver at the governor at point-blank range. Just as he fired, one of the Sikh constables escorting the governor was able to strike his hand upward and deflect the bullet. At the same moment, the police sergeant leapt from behind and seized the gunman's right hand. Before he could be overpowered he attempted to recock the gun with his left hand, in order to fire again, but he was quickly pulled to the ground and arrested. There were cries from the crowd of ‘Lynch him', ‘Kill him', ‘Let us have him' as he was led away.\n\nThe action of the constable in knocking the revolver aside probably saved Sir Henry's life. He was sitting well back in the sedan chair and the bullet passed about a foot in front of him and then passed through to lodge in the woodwork of Lady May's chair on the other side. Sir Henry stood up in his chair, waved away the smoke from in front of his face and made sure that no-one was injured. He smiled to Lady May, who had given out a cry, and then ordered the procession to proceed according to plan. The rest of the morning's ceremonial then proceeded as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.\n\nAs the prisoner was led away he was reported to have said: 'I am sorry I missed my aim; I do not care whether I die or not'. The revolver was found to be loaded in all the four remaining chambers which had not been fired. The assailant was identified as Li Hon Hing, and he was said to be the son of a man imprisoned fifteen years previously for bribery at the time when May was head of the police force.\"\n\nFour days later Li was brought before the magistrate and pleaded guilty to the charge of attempted murder. Police witnesses described the events in detail, but had been unable to uncover any evidence of accomplices or of any widespread conspiracy. The defendant made an incoherent rambling statement from the dock in which he accused May of ill-treating the Chinese in a high-handed way both in Hong Kong and in Fiji,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209649, "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": 306, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "284\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nsympathy of all right-thinking Chinese who have not been slow to express their profound abhorrence of the action'. This was certainly true of the Chinese elite. A deputation of forty leading Chinese, including Legislative Councillors, the Director of the Tung Wah Hospital and members of the Committee of the Po Leung Kuk and the District Watchmen's Committee, waited on the Governor two days after the crime to testify to the loyalty of the community and their profound horror at the outrage.\n\nThere is little evidence to show how far such sentiments were widely shared by the rest of society. The only surviving Chinese newspaper made no comment and did not even carry a report of the incident.10 The police intercepted a letter from the landlady of the place where Li had been living in which she mentioned casually that her lodger had fired at the Governor 'and most unfortunately missed him'. At least one man saw a good omen in the affair; an Indian shopkeeper when told the news reportedly smiled and said, “Very good joss. That means there will be prosperity for Hong Kong.”\n\nAny deterrent effect of the sentence passed on Li did not last for long. Four months later the Hong Kong government made a further attempt to outlaw the use of coins minted in Canton by persuading the Tramway company to refuse to accept them. Agitators convinced the public that this was an insult to the new Republican government and a boycott of the tramway began in November, accompanied by widespread intimidation and violence directed against those using the trams and Europeans in general. In December the emergency powers under the Peace Preservation Ordinance were once again brought into force by proclamation.12\n\nOn\n\nLi Hon Hing only served six years of his life sentence.13 On 18 June 1918 Sir Henry May informed the Executive Council that he proposed to pardon the prisoner and order his release from prison. No reason is given in the Minutes of the Council for this act of clemency.19\n\nN. J. MINERS", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210193, "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-1984", "page_number": 164, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "143\n\n# STATE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION IN HONG KONG, 1857 TO 1941\n\nR.J. MINERS\n\nFrom its earliest days the male population of Hong Kong greatly outnumbered the females. Chinese men came to find work leaving their families in Kwangtung and the European community was also predominantly male because of the presence of the army garrison, the ships of the Royal Navy and the crews of merchant ships unloading their goods in the harbour. In 1872, when the first proper census was carried out, there were 3,264 European men compared to 669 European women, a ratio of practically 5:1, and the Chinese men outnumbered women by 78,484 to 22,837, a ratio of 7:2.1 This imbalance continued to exist, though to a diminishing extent, for the next 70 years: in 1931 Chinese men outnumbered women 4:3, but the European ratio was still only 7:2.2 Naturally, in order to satisfy the needs of this predominantly male community, prostitutes quickly moved in to ply their trade, numerous brothels were established and by the 1850s Hong Kong was already notorious for the prevalence of venereal disease.\n\nIn 1857, at the urgent request of the naval officer in command of the China station the Hong Kong government instituted a system for the registration and inspection of brothels, the compulsory medical examination of their inmates, the punishment of prostitutes who communicated venereal disease to their clients and their detention in the Lock Hospital until cured.3 This measure was approved by the Secretary of State primarily because it appeared that a system of licensed brothels and government inspection might provide a means of protecting the inmates from ill-treatment and virtual enslavement to their brothel-keepers.4 Ten years later the Hong Kong government was instructed by the Secretary of State to replace the ordinance of 1857 with a new one modelled on the Contagious Diseases Act which had just been passed by the British parliament. This had set up a system of controlled brothels and compulsory medical examination of prostitutes in twelve garrison towns in England. The new 1867 ordinance, though more comprehensive, made few changes in the system already in force, except that the police were given much", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210694, "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-1986", "page_number": 45, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "28 \n\nWALTER GREENWOOD \n\nfervent supporter of representative government. He was ever an outspoken critic of the Government. The Hong Kong Telegraph in its obituary described him as “an entertaining and instructive companion and full of anecdote. At public functions he joined in heart and soul, ever ready with a cheery word for all. Many were helped by him financially and with advice. He never made a parade of charity but anyone who went to him in trouble seldom left without help. He was a staunch friend and a generous enemy\". The Daily Press said of him that he had a genial breezy presence, a ready eloquence and a cheerful willingness to assist in the promotion of any public measure or social institution. He met with many rebuffs and suffered many reverses but always met them manfully and never bore malice\". The China Mail observed that true to the instincts of his race he was always best in opposition. \n\nA coincidence which affected his life and career was that Hennessy, a fellow Irish Roman Catholic, arrived to take up his appointment as Governor shortly after he was admitted to the Hong Kong Bar. He admired Hennessy describing him as “probably the most eloquent of Irishmen\" and supported him. The Daily Press said in its obituary that Francis \"obtained his acting appointments through the influence of Hennessy whose side he consistently espoused in his long quarrel with the British and Foreign Community, and that on the whole his friendship with Hennessy cost him more than he gained by it, and there was little reason to impute to him self-interest as a motive for his advocacy of the Hennessian regime”. In May 1877 Francis was presented to Hennessy at a General Levee at Government House (though his wife was not presented to Mrs. Hennessy) and that may have marked his arrival in society. He took Hennessy's part at the public meeting held in October 1878 to consider the existing state of insecurity of life and property and in effect to censure Hennessy. Francis was against putting the blame on Hennessy's policies. He said his present house had been burgled three times but the remedy was to amend the law and reorganise the police force. He caused much offence by saying that there was opposition to Hennessy even before he arrived in Hong Kong. His support for Hennessy on this occasion was remembered against him for many years. (In 1880, appearing for a man charged with libel in that he had carried on a bitter, active and ceaseless opposition to the \n\n! \n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210749, "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-1986", "page_number": 100, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "83\n\nthe right direction. At that time the Shek O men worked as seamen and their farm land was idle. The newcomers did vegetable gardening and fishing, renting farm land from Shek O people. To explain why the locals accepted the newcomers, Mr. Lau said that the local population was only some 300 at that time. The newcomers had built their houses on Crown land, which Mr. Lau said was ba-wong-dei, i.e. land which was claimed by the exertion of physical presence in force.\n\nBesides the predominately Western residents of the “villas”, there were newcomers from the cities too. One woman who started a brief conversation with me when preparing among others the final offerings to the ghosts told me that her husband who worked in an accounting firm moved to Shek O some 20 years ago in his forties because he liked the place. Among the newcomers was also a Tanka family.\n\nShek O has a temple for Tin Hau, who was the main god of the jiu celebration. According to Professor Tanaka Issei, the oldest dated object found in the temple was a bin-ngaak inscription dated the eighteenth year of Gwong-seui (1893).* Immediately to the left of the Tin Hau temple is a Residents' Association which organized an annual celebration in honour of Tin Hau. Third in the row of houses is the Man San Sports Association. I remember that the primary school is also named Man San, and at one of the shops or tea-houses near the bus stop, there was a poster announcing the results of football matches organized by the Man San Sports Association.\n\nAccording to Mr. Wong, the Shek O Residents Association takes care of local public affairs, relaying messages from the Hong Kong Government. It liaises with the South District Office and the Chai Wan district police headquarters. I saw a poster inviting entries for a South District Festival competition, with \"forms available from the Shek O Association” added in handwriting. The officers of the association also organize the annual opera performances in honour of Tin Hau. Mr. Lau saw the association as essentially a development of the village office (heung-gung-so) of pre-War times. The association has almost 2,000 members, although some of the Shek O residents do not join. Mr. Lau could", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211655, "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": 70, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "45\n\nOn another occasion the main Wang Yeh of the Five was on his way to Hsikang in central Taiwan on a tour of inspection when he encountered a demon causing trouble. He had gathered together a large force of spirit soldiers from the Underworld and was causing great hardship and harm to the local people. The Wang Yeh summoned the other four Wang Yeh and, with help from Kuan Yin, the local City God, and the Ma Tsu from Peikang, he defeated the demon and his army but suffered a wound to his head. Although repeated efforts have been made by craftsmen to repair the damage to his head the wound can still be seen today. Some say that the wound on the Wang Yeh's head was the result of his fight with the Yu Ying Kung, but whatever the reason might be, the people look upon the deity as a hero.\n\nIn Fulai, a village near Chia1 in central Taiwan, the main Pestilence Wang Yeh of the five on the altar is afforded an honour generally reserved for powerful major deities like Kuan Kung. He possesses a horse whose image stands alongside the side wall of the main hall of the temple.\n\nThough the Pestilence Wang Yeh are 'popular' deities they have their demonic aspects as well as their divine and are in general looked upon as dangerous, awesome and fearsome spirits to be approached with great circumspection. A number of devotees believe that the task of the Pestilence Wang Yeh is to police the World and control demons. While a small minority regard them as healing gods the majority believe that their function is to ward off and even attack demonic influence. If the attack is successful, it leads to a cure.\n\nBeing awesome deities the Pestilence Wang Yeh are only worshipped when devotees have a problem which requires the dispersal or destruction of malignant and demonic forces. Only very rarely are these deities approached by worshippers seeking advice and therefore the use of fortune slips and forms of communication such as divining blocks between the devotees and the deities are not usually to be found on the altars dedicated simply to them. Divining blocks are used however when temple committees wish to ascertain the views and wishes of Wang Yeh concerning his personal circumstances such as the location or use of his images.\n\nPestilence Wang Yeh are not approached for aid and advice as are, say, agricultural or fertility deities. Their role is limited to protection, and by extension to cures from pestilential diseases. They are, however,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211666, "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": 81, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "56\n\nbeaten and thrown out by his two partners. Having lost everything the mother had to take in washing even though she was seven months pregnant. One day whilst washing clothes by the river she slipped but luckily the local Earth God seeing her falling, changed into a dog and rescued her, dragging her out of the water. When she regained consciousness the Earth God had changed into an old woman who helped deliver her of a healthy boy, Hsu En-te (4). The beating had caused the father injuries which prevented him from working and the family lived in poverty. The father, unable to stand it any more went out to hang himself but met with a local dignitary named Kuan who, when he had heard the sad story took the family back to his house and cared for them. The father slowly recovered and when fully back to his old self he became a rent collector for Mr Kuan. On one of his trips out collecting rent he encountered his two former partners from the silk shop who again robbed him and took the rents he had just collected, beat him up again and this time the father died of his injuries as he crawled back to the Kuan household. By this time En-te was seven years old and he swore never to forget those who had done his family such great wrongs. He worked at looking after the accounts for Mr Kuan and secretly started to learn martial arts. He was accomplished by the time he was fifteen. When he was sixteen the Kuan household was attacked by bandits and to everyone's surprise En-te not only beat them off but detained three of them. At first he turned down the offer from a local magistrate to become the head of the local police force but as his mother wished him to serve the people he finally accepted the offer and served three years.\n\nWhen, after the three years, he returned to live in the Kuan household he discovered that one of the two partners who had killed his father was also living in the Kuan household together with his daughter. The killer was hated by everyone but being afraid of him they left him well alone to live in peace. The killer fell ill, repented and expressed his deep sorrow at his heinous crimes. Hsu En-te gave some money to the daughter so that she could buy medicines for her father.\n\nAfter many incidents En-te eventually married the daughter of his father's killer and when, much later, En-te himself died he was revered by the local population as a benefactor and was looked upon by them as their protective deity. The cult was carried across to Taiwan, to the temple in a village near Tainan where the immigrants from Kiangsu established it as Hsu Wang Yeh,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211672, "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": 87, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "62\n\nthe British Concession at Kiu Kiang. The mud, waist-deep and soft in the autumn, when first exposed by the receding waters of the snow-fed river, was now dried firm, and streaked with gutters, where the drainage from the houses along the Bund had cut out little evil-smelling runnels.\n\nA broad gravel walk reached the full length of the Concession, half a mile or so along the river front to a small creek at the western boundary. Plank gangways led from the bund across the mud to each hulk. A thoughtful municipality had provided benches, where on a warm day you could sit under the shade of the large trees planted by an earlier generation, rest your feet on the iron railings erected along the Bund edge, and watch the junks go by; or listen to the coolies chanting as they carried cargo between godown and ship. At the eastern end of the Bund and at the back, gates gave access to the narrow teeming lanes of the Chinese walled city and the congested suburbs, that hedged in the Concession on the two landward sides.\n\nWithin this small space lived a mixed community. There were several dozen British, a few Americans and some Japanese, with the odd Frenchman, Italian or Portuguese; also a small Russian group, who kept much to themselves and were mainly concerned with compressing and exporting brick tea, stamped in designs calculated to appeal to Muscovite taste. For a long time Chinese had not been allowed to live in the Concession, as they would soon have crowded out the limited space set apart for foreign occupation, but at this time exceptions had been made. The odium of owning the Concession, as was not infrequently pointed out by their kind friends, lay with the British; but all shared in its benefits alike under the \"most favoured nation\" clauses included in the treaties with China.\n\nThese benefits in retrospect did not appear small. Here within the Concession, in contrast to what went on without, law, order, and security prevailed. The law was known, the administration was honest, the small police force of Chinese constables under a British superintendent was reasonably efficient, taxation was equal for all, and the expression of opinion was free.\n\nSocial activity centred round the Club where the times were often good. In 1927 it was housed in the unrequired portion of an ancient godown, in the other half of which amidst an aroma of tar reclined large", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211685, "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": 100, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "75\n\nhad developed to a point where Borodin and the other Russian advisers found it expedient to depart hurriedly overland for Russia.\n\nIn Kiu Kiang, though situated in between these centres of disturbance, the local tension eased and we returned to the shore in April; it was not, however, until the end of the year that the British authorities considered conditions sufficiently stable to justify the return of the women and children who had been evacuated.\n\nKiu Kiang is a small, relatively unimportant place: the interest in the change of the status of the Concession lay rather in the new precedents set than in the local readjustments. A Chinese Commissioner was appointed to supervise the various municipal services, and if the change resulted in the removal of a long-felt grievance in the alleged loss of sovereignty, the advantage outbalanced such small inconveniences as the fact that the drains smelt a bit more, the police force was a little less efficient, and the number of clerks in the municipal office increased five-fold.\n\nThe political disputes in the ranks of the Kuo Min Tang party before the end of the year brought about no less than three changes of the official appointed to administer the Kiu Kiang Concession; and each change also involved a complete displacement of the municipal staff and police, as the new man always had his own henchmen to provide for. In one instance the departing official went in such fear of his life that he applied for a safe-conduct on a British gunboat and hurriedly left for Shanghai.\n\nIn August revolt broke out in the Revolutionary Army in Nanchang, a hundred miles south of Kiu Kiang. Two divisions under Generals Yeh Ting and Ho Lung mutinied and marched south to establish a communist state on the borders of Kiangsi and Hunan provinces. These communist forces, while guilty of the grossest cruelty to any rich Chinese \"capitalists\" they might catch, were able to attract the support of the poor, and more particularly of the landless peasantry to whom the communist policy of agrarian reform greatly appealed.\n\nConsequences of importance to the future of China flowed from these events. In the first place Chiang Kai Shek looked more and more for his support to the wealthy Chinese merchants and bankers of Shanghai.\n\nIn the second place, the seeds were then planted of the irreconcilable", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211696, "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": 111, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "86\n\nwiring and piping ripped out. The ravage was so extensive that many people in the camp thought it must be part of a deliberate policy on the part of the Japanese. This I doubt: whatever pickings there were to be had the Japanese wanted for themselves, and I think the true explanation is simply that they could not at first spare enough men for effective policing. The looters were dangerous, and a party of five Swedes who were foolhardy enough to remain on the Peak were murdered.\n\nIt was not long before the Japanese themselves entered into competition with the Chinese looters, but on an official basis. Foodstuffs were their first objective, followed by metals of all kinds and medical stores. Hongkong had been stocked with supplies for 6 months: it held out for only 18 days, so enormous stocks fell into Japanese hands and these were shipped off to Japan as fast as they could be loaded. Of the Hongkong Dairy Farm's herd of 1500 cattle, over 1000 had been shipped away by the end of March.\n\nAll the European members of the Police Force were interned at Stanley. The Sikhs and Chinese accepted service under the Japanese. The guards round the internment camp and the gaol warders were principally Sikhs. If drawn into conversation, they would say they must work for the Japanese or starve; but Pennyfeather-Evans, the Chief of Police, told me that the Sikhs had been practically in a state of mutiny during the last days of the fighting.\n\nAs regards the Chinese or semi-Chinese members of the Legislative Council, Sir Robert Hotung was, I think, in Macao when the war broke out. He subsequently returned to Hongkong, but I do not know what line he took or what became of him. Sir Shouson Chow, Mr. Kotewall, and Mr. M.K. Lo joined the \"Rehabilitation Committee\" set up by the Japanese and had to attend official ceremonies such as receptions for the Japanese Governor. Lo, who met A.J. Evans on the street one day shortly after the Japanese occupation, told him that he had at first refused, and that he had then been imprisoned without food till he gave way. I have no doubt similar measures were taken with the others.\n\nI have already referred to the eviction of the staff and patients from Queen Mary Hospital and the War Memorial Nursing Home. The Matilda Hospital was cleared at the same time. Japanese wounded were pouring into Hongkong from other places, and it is clear the Japanese needed all the accommodation and the medical supplies they could get for their own.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211751, "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": 166, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "141\n\nless than $400 a year clear from the ferry.\" The power of the Cheungs can be seen from the map. For several miles around their village, no other settlement was ever established. The whole area from the outskirts of Sham Tsun (the village of Heung Tung, ô, Xiangdong) to the Sham Tsun river, and back to the mountains, was Cheung territory. Outsiders entering this territory along the road were required to recognize this.\n\nThis, however, the Ta Kwu Ling villagers refused to do. In the mid-nineteenth century, they initiated a programme to improve the road from Kan Tau Wai to Sham Tsun. Bridges were built across all the marshland ditches, and a causeway was provided across the marsh. They then proceeded to start bridging the main river, across the line of the Cheungs' ferry. This the Cheungs could not accept. They would not only stand to lose $400 a year clan income, but the successful building would demonstrate publicly that their control of their territory was not as absolute as they had always maintained. The result of the Ta Kwu Ling people's insistence on proceeding with the bridge was outright war between them and the Cheungs.28\n\nThe need to respond to very bitter fighting demanded a complete rearrangement of the local structure of inter-village alliances. Previously, as noted above, the strongest and best-organised area was the Ping Yuen Hap Heung, and its wider alliance centred on the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz. This area, however, was furthest away from the likely fighting area near the bridge, which was precisely the area where inter-village alliances had previously been weakest. The villages decided to establish a network of Yeuk, centred on Kan Tau Wai. Any invading force had to negotiate the bridge over the Law Fong river and the causeway over the marshes before it could arrive at the road intersection at Kan Tau Wai and the paths that ran from there along the higher ground to the other villages.\n\nJust north of Kan Tau Wai, a small hillock rises out of the marshes (just opposite the present Ta Kwu Ling Police Station). Here the villagers stationed a watch with an alarm drum to alert the area if the Cheungs attacked. This hill was called Ta Kwu Ling (‡T, “Drum Beat Hill”), and gave its name to the whole area. When the alarm was given, Kan Tau Wai had to send out runners along all the roads and paths out of the village to alert the other villages further away. The individual Yeuk were arranged as long, thin strips along each of these paths so that the villagers would respond, village by village, as the runner reached them, and thus their defenders reach the critical Kan Tau Wai area in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211843, "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": 258, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "233\n\n(SCR 5,6. 1865). \"The gentleman is gifted with rare powers of voice and action which enable him to throw an immense amount of dramatic spirit in his readings and recitations\" (NCH 3.6.1865). It was his second (recorded) performance; earlier he had been successful on March 3 1857.\n\n1.6.1865 (Thur)\n\nPerformance by the Shanghai Amateur Burlesque Company Ltd.\n\nNo titles have been recorded. (NCH 3.6.1865; SCR 5.6.1865)\n\nR: It was \"not quite so successful as some of their previous representations\" (SCR).\n\n3.6.1865 (Sat)\n\nPerformance by Mr. Benjamin Seare.\n\nTh: N.N. (I)\n\nEarly June 1865\n\nConcerts by the Police Band on the Bund.\n\n17.6.1865 (Sat)\n\nC. SELBY: \"The Unfinished Gentleman\" (1834)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs of the 67th Regiment\n\nF: Music\n\nTh: N.N.\n\nR: Whereas in days gone by it was quite usual that there were only a couple of theatrical or musical entertainments during the whole season, now, after a fortnight since the last occasion, the Herald complained that \"considerable dullness has prevailed in Shanghai during the week owing to the lack of any public amusement of any description\" (NCH 17,6,1865). The night of the 17th was \"well attended and gave great satisfaction” (NCH 24.6.1865).\n\n30.9.1865 (Sat)\n\nW. BROUGH & A. HALLIDAY: \"The Area Belle\" (1864)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nH.J. BYRON: \"The 'Grin' Bushes or Missis Brown of the Mississippi\" (1864)\n\nT: Burlesque extravaganza (1 act)\n\nC: Shanghai Amateurs Burlesque Company Ltd\n\nTh: N.N. (1)\n\nR: This was the first night of the new season (NCH 30.9.1865). No review was published in the Herald or the Record.\n\n10.11.1865 (Fri)\n\nH.J. BYRON: \"Princess Springtime\" (1864)\n\nT: Fairy extravaganza\n\nJ. KENNEY: “Turn Out!\" (announced as \"Turn Him Out!'')\n\nT: Musical farce (2 acts)\n\nC: Amateurs of the Shanghai Mounted Rangers\n\nF: Prologue spoken by Capt. Markham\n\nTh: N.N.\n\nR: The evening \"proved a complete success. The acting throughout was excellent and not a single hitch occurred\" (NCH 16.11.1865)\n\n20.11.1865 (Mon)\n\nRepeat of 11.11.1865,\n\nR: The proceeds of this performance went to the Shanghai Hospital, an institution founded", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212196, "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-1990", "page_number": 138, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "115\n\npromotion and increases of pay. Brilliance and initiative are not requisite. In fact, unless well controlled they are a definite handicap. It is fatal to the career of the young official if events prove he was right where his senior was wrong. He will soon be stowed away on some remote shelf. All that is required of him is that he shall answer \"Yes\" at proper intervals; and not advance new ideas, or disturb the even tenor of the way of his superiors.\n\nAnother unhappy manifestation of colonial administration was seen in 1940, when the Japanese menace caused the authorities to issue an order to British women to leave the colony. You would have thought that the wives of colonial officials would have been proud to set an example. But not at all. The majority of the female relatives of Hongkong administrators used their influence to have themselves declared indispensable in order that they might stay in the colony. They wangled jobs as nurses, secretaries, and so on, while the less fortunate — as it then appeared — wives of the commercial community, who were not in a position to pull strings, were shipped out to Australia and other places. It naturally produced a lot of ill-feeling, but not, so far as I am aware, any Colonial Office enquiry.\n\nThe police force in Hongkong consisted of 14 British officers, 255 British other ranks, and 803 Sikh and 1022 Chinese constables. Despite its heterogeneous composition the force was quite efficient. The wealth of Hongkong attracts evil-doers from China, which has its full share of the criminal element. After decades of civil war they are usually well enough armed; but in Hongkong the statistics of serious crime, and particularly of malefactors brought to book, compare quite favourably with, for instance, those for Kentucky.\n\nChinese of the lower classes generally wear a short jacket, while Chinese of the gentle class wear a long gown buttoning up the side and reaching down to the ankles. Chinese gun-men also invariably wear long gowns, I suppose, the easier to hide their weapons. They are often of sleek appearance, but there seems to be a look about them which makes them easy to recognise. When I was staying at the Gloucester Hotel I noticed there were usually one or two long-gowned Chinese in the hallway outside my room. I asked my Chinese boy who these men were and he told me that in the bedroom on one side of me I had Mr. Tu Yuen Seng, and on the other side Mr. Wang Shao Lai. They were the chiefs of the Green and Red \"Tongs\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212216, "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-1990", "page_number": 158, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "135\n\nPolice Station, and were allocated various districts to patrol. We worked in pairs. Sometimes a regular French policeman accompanied us, in addition to several Chinese constables of the French Police Force. We would walk along as the spirit moved us; and on arriving at a cross-roads would take up a position in the middle of the street, cock our pistols, and stop all cars to look inside them. The idea of this was to catch kidnappers, as they usually carried off their gagged victims by car. One day we stopped a large car, only to find the venerable Mr. Yu Ya Ching in it. He was the senior of the five Chinese representatives on the Municipal Council. I do not know who was the more astonished, he or we! On another occasion when we looked into a car we found a complete thuggery of Russian gunmen; there is a large White Russian community in Shanghai, a survival of the Russian revolution, and many of the men were engaged by rich Chinese as bodyguards. They looked ugly, as if they were more used to holding people up themselves than being held up. The next car turned out to contain the puppet Mayor of the Chinese Municipality, who durst not venture abroad without a heavy escort. All passed off with mutual compliments. In my time we fortunately never ran into a real gangster: I have difficulty in hitting a haystack even with a snug little weapon, let alone with so heavy a piece of ancient ironmongery.\n\nUntil about 10 p.m. a heavy traffic would continue in the Avenue Joffre, the main highway on our beat. Sometimes, when we went out on bicycles, a form of sport to which I had been unaccustomed for at least a quarter of a century. I found it rather tricky moving in patrol formation amidst the traffic. If we came across an obstreperous drunk, we would turn tactfully in the opposite direction. It at least gave the Chinese some confidence to see armed foreign patrols out at night, a confidence which, I fear, may have been exaggerated. Sometimes we would stand at the corner of the street, at about the time the cinemas came out, and watch our families go home; and, when the time was up, we might go into that little bar on the ground floor of the Cathay Mansions for a bottle of \"Ewo\" Beer.\n\nAt the police station the French Municipality provided sandwiches, crumbly French rolls split in half, buttered, and holding a slice of ham, which we would munch, while our leader made his report. Then early in the morning we would go home, feeling we had earned our sleep.\n\nThe cinemas of Shanghai are as luxurious as any in the world.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212668, "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": 222, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "203\n\nNobody seemed to care.\n\nIn very short time we established ourselves. Patrols picked up stray Japanese and we asserted control over the Colony. Food, we soon discovered, was a black market commodity and could not be bought with money due to the fact that the Japanese had flooded the economy with forged bank notes. We had the answer to that one. The ships had brought in a supply of new currency.\n\nThe population was invited to take all its money to various points of exchange within a certain number of days. It was a common sight to see rickshaws with suitcases crammed with worthless money and, later, owners emerging from banks with somewhat slim wallets of new notes in exchange.\n\nI found the chief bartering medium for Hong Kong citizens was packets of cigarettes. Imagine what these packs looked like having passed from hand to hand in some cases for up to almost four years. A tablet of Lux soap would buy almost anything. I 'bought' a pair of leather, hand-stitched, snake-proof boots for one such tablet. I was amused to think we hadn't any snakes aboard ship.\n\nFood was the next problem. We had an abundance brought in by freighter but how to distribute it equitably was a headache. How this was finally resolved I didn't stay in Hong Kong long enough to find out.\n\nThe organisation that was put into force was fantastic. We had all our time cut out to stabilise the economy, to get the people back to work, and to restore law and order. One of the things we needed to do was find guns and munitions the Japanese had abandoned. We discovered a number of suicide boats. These were roughly made of plywood, packed with high explosive, but sea-worthy enough for one-way trips. Two of these were taken back to the United Kingdom to present to Belfast Naval Museum. We also had to re-establish the rather small police force and set up courts; medical supplies and clinics were, of course, needed.\n\nWe employed some young girls aboard ship to scrub and clean and to do other general tasks. They were paid a dollar or so for which they were grateful. The women I had in my charge were very cheerful and took a delight in watching soap bubbles. I gave each one a small piece of soap and, on completion of their duties, I allowed them to keep the...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212939, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 7, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "CONTRIBUTORS\n\nKarina Lam Wai-Ling, M.A., is the Marketing Communications Manager SE Asia for Philips Semiconductors. The article is an edited version of her master's dissertation.\n\nJanet George, Ph.D., is a senior lecturer at the Department of Social Work and Social Policy, University of Sydney. She has researched deeply into various aspects of Hong Kong's early maternity services.\n\nKeith Stevens, B.A., served with the British Army and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office before his retirement in 1991. He has an abiding interest in Chinese deities and temples and has written numerous articles for the Journal.\n\nGerald Choa, M.D., was a former Director of Medical & Health Services of the Hong Kong Government and Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has written extensively about early Hong Kong medical figures and services.\n\nPatrick Hase, B.A., Ph.D., is a council member of the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch) and a former editor of the Journal. He has written extensively on early life in the New Territories.\n\nMary Pang, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Business and Management at the City University of Hong Kong.\n\nDan Waters, M.Phil., Ph.D., is a retired Assistant Director of Education of the Hong Kong Government and a council member of the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch). He has written extensively on the history and culture of Hong Kong.\n\nGeoffrey Roper, is a retired Assistant Commissioner of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force. He chairs the Activities Committee of the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch).\n\nvi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213094, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 162, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "143\n\nnewspapers were to recall that 'he was an exceedingly courteous and popular official and earned the respect of all with whom he was brought into contact' all except Lowson perhaps.\n\nJohn Jonathan Francis was first admitted as an attorney and solicitor in 1870 and called to the Bar in 1877. In 1887, he became the third barrister in Hong Kong to become a Queen's Counsel. He had served as a police magistrate and a puisne judge. For public service, he was once a captain in the Hong Kong Volunteers Corps, standing counsel for the Hong Kong College of Medicine when it was being established, and Chairman of the Permanent Committee of the Sanitary Board. There is an amusing and unflattering story about him told by Norton-Kyshe which gives us an insight into his character. He was presented with a silver ink-stand in 1895 in recognition of his services during the Epidemic but he returned it because he considered himself slighted by the treatment he received as compared with Mr. May who had been his colleague on the Committee.' May was awarded the CMG which Francis thought should also be given to him instead of a mere ink-stand.\n\nHowever, two other government officials, the Colonial Surgeon and the Captain Superintendent of Police, whose parts were of great importance, apparently escaped Lowson's wrath. Dr. Phineas Ayres held the office for twenty-four years, from 1872 to 1897, the longest ever in the history of the medical service. After he took up his post, he had been very critical of the sanitary conditions in the native quarters in his annual reports. Despite his warnings, it was almost ten years later than Osbert Chadwick was asked to conduct a survey. In his Report published in 1882, Chadwick made many recommendations to improve the conditions. Although a Sanitary Board was constituted to take action, still not much was done for another ten years until the Plague Epidemic burst upon the scene. Endacott wrote that Ayres criticised the Sanitary Board for its 'long, wordy, windy, desultory rambling discussions, ending in nothing being done' in 1895, the second year of the Epidemic. One can see why Lowson had some respect for him. Again quoting from Endacott, Robinson described Ayres as 'having a rather foolish manner, but he is in perfect possession of his senses', and acknowledged that 'he had warned the Colony continuously of the evil sanitary conditions.'\n\nMr. May won universal acclaim and admiration for the drive and energy he showed in carrying out his duties as head of the police force. Sayers", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213147, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 215, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "197\n\nconditions, under which the pickets contented themselves with exacting 'squeeze' from the local trade over the border1. Administrative Reports for the Year 1925, Appendix J, \"Report on the New Territories for the Year 1925\", p. J2. In Administrative Reports for the Year 1926, App J, \"Report on the New Territories for 1926\", p. J3, the District Officer notes that the fishermen in Mirs Bay suffered particularly seriously from the boycott, as they were unable to fish except close inshore, because of the \"disturbed conditions”.\n\nThese Communist guerrillas had appeared in various parts of the East River area since at least 1925. They were the direct descendants of the rebels who had operated near Yim Tin in the first decade of the century, and were closely related to the groups who took over the Hoi-Luk Fung area to form the \"Hoi-Luk Fung Soviet\" on three separate occasions between 1925 and 1928. They were the original nucleus of the \"East River Guerrillas\" of the war years and just after.\n\n40 The agreement specified that goods for the guerrillas would be treated as duty-free.\n\n41 Juntonghanguan Bainian Dashup, op cit passim.\n\n42. The son of the executed man had committed a robbery in the market, and left a \"paper\" at the scene of the crime which implicated him. He had fled back to his home near Yim Tin, where the soldiers could not get at him. So they took the father and shot him instead, behind the Man To Temple in the market, in the presence of most of the district's young people. The fact that the son fled to the rebel-held area, and the \"paper\" left at the scene, suggests that the robbery was politically motivated, and the execution, too.\n\n43 Shatoupaode Lishe, op cit.\n\n44 Administrative Reports for the Year 1910, Appendix I, \"Report on the New Territories\", p. 16. The bulk of the Sha Tau Kok marketing district was in the New Territories, and there was a satellite market at Yim Tin, which could service the part of the marketing district in China if the Sha Tau Kok market did cross the frontier.\n\n45 Administrative Reports for the Year 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, Appendices J, pp. J8 (and Table IV), J3, J2, and J17 (and Table IX), respectively.\n\n46 Administrative Reports for the Year 1937, Appendix J, pp. J7-10. \"The typhoon of September the 2nd will long be remembered in the eastern parts of this District, where it caused much damage and suffering. Unfortunately, the height of the gale coincided with a very high tide, so that the swollen waters of Mirs Bay were driven with double force westward up Starling Inlet, whence they had no outlet. The sea rose, about 2-5 am, in places 20 feet and more higher than it had been known to rise for many decades. The resultant damage was astonishing. All round the shores of Starling Inlet roads, bridges, paths, piers, and bunds were breached and broken up, and buildings overthrown.\n\nAll the big bunds on Starling Inlet were [almost wholly overthrown].\n\nCasualties were heavy, about 100 in \"Brush\" Sha Tau Kok.\n\nAt Sha Tau Kok the Officer in Charge of the Police Station displayed initiative in [getting the dead buried, animal corpses burned, and obstructions cleared] and in arranging for a supply of rice and peanut oil from Kowloon, which broke a ring at Sha Tau Kok Market who had greatly raised the prices of these two.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213603, "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-1995", "page_number": 199, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "The MacIntosh Cathedrals\n\nR.G. Horsnell\n\n171\n\nIntroduction\n\nThe author of this article has been working in Hong Kong since 1971. He started in the Architectural Office of the old Public Works Department, and is at present a Chief Maintenance Surveyor in the Architectural Services Department which celebrated its Tenth Anniversary in 1996. He has been assisting the Antiquities and Monuments Office in recording historical buildings and structures since 1992. In this article, he gives a brief history of the police border observation posts known as the MacIntosh Cathedrals, which were named after Commissioner of Police, Mr. D.W. MacIntosh, whose idea it was to build them. The article has been compiled from information in the Hong Kong Police Force Library, also the Force Museum in Coombe Road to which due acknowledgements are made.\n\nIn 1945, when Hong Kong was liberated, the population was estimated at 500,000. As the Territory regrouped and normality returned, it saw an upturn in immigration and by the end of 1947, the population had increased to an estimated 1,800,000. In 1948/49, as a result of unsettled conditions in China caused by the civil war and the increasing successes of the communist armies, a large influx of refugees from the mainland commenced. Approximately 750,000, mainly from Kwantung Province, Shanghai, and other commercial centres, entered Hong Kong during 1949 and early 1950. This reached its height in the Spring of 1950, when the estimated population was 2,360,000.\n\nAmongst the refugees were the defeated remnants of the Kuo Min Tang Nationalist armies and also a fair number of common criminals. Arms of all descriptions were available, and gangs of armed men raided villages near the Border. There were frequent gun battles between the police and gangsters, and there were several cases of policemen being killed and their revolvers stolen. In May 1949, two incidents occurred on the Border, which were to lead to a change of design and use of police posts in that particular area.\n\nOn May 2, 1949, a four-man police patrol left Ta Kwu Ling Police", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213605, "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-1995", "page_number": 201, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "173\n\nwith a strong visible presence along the colony's first line of defence.\n\nA very comprehensive description of the new observation posts was given in an article by Sub-Inspector M.E. Davis* which appeared in the HK Police Magazine in December 1953:\n\n\"The land frontier of the Colony of Hong Kong extends from Mirs Bay in the East, to Deep Bay in the West, following for the most part the tortuous course of the Shum Chun river. The country is intensely varied. The arable plain at Sha Tau Kok soon gives place to rugged mountains and deep gorges, which gradually fall away until the extensive marshy tracts near Mai Po are reached. Along the border for 16 miles of the length runs the frontier fence. It is, without any overstatement, difficult territory. The frontier area forms part of the New Territories Division of the Hong Kong Police Force, and is commanded by Mr. N.B. Fraser, M.B.E., Senior Superintendent of Police. One of the most important of the several methods of border control in effect in this area is the operation of a chain of Observation Posts\n\nThere are seven of these posts in the chain, covering the whole of the land frontier. Each is within sight of one or more of its neighbouring posts. All are accessible from the frontier road, or by means of jeep track from the roads. Most are located on prominent hill features which gives them an excellent field of observation. The elevation of the highest is over 700' above sea level. The frontier is divided into three sections, each with its complement of observation posts, which are controlled by a parent station in each section. From East to West the stations are Sha Tau Kok, Ta Ku Ling and Lok Ma Chau. The first has only one post, Pak Kung Au, under its control. Ta Ku Ling, the central and largest area has four, Kong Shan, Pak Fa Shan, Nga Yiu and Nam Hang. On the Western flank Ma Cho Lung and Pak Hok Chau posts are controlled by Lok Ma Chau\n\nThe posts are all almost identical in construction. Centrally there is a round, two storied, tower, and jutting from its sides are two long, one storied arms. The plan of the whole is roughly in the shape of a chevron. The upper storey of the tower is the Control Room, equipped\n\n* Deceased-Editor", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213607, "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-1995", "page_number": 203, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "175\n\nthere are rainwater catchments discharging into underground water storage tanks.\n\nOuter defences consist of a dannert or barbed wire topped chain link fence, slit trenches, barbed wire entanglements, and at some locations concrete bunkers sunk into the hillside. Dense thickets and tangled undergrowth form a natural defence outside the perimeter. A later Police Commissioner, Charles Sutcliffe, who came to Hong Kong from Tanganyika, had the idea of improving the natural defences by planting the Mauritius or Cape Thorn. His idea was to cultivate the thorn all along the border fences and around the observation posts as a general security measure. The plan was not successful as the plant did not grow very well and in most areas never really developed as expected.\n\nThe man who gave his name to the new observation posts and whose idea it was to build them, was Duncan William MacIntosh, C.M.G., O.B.E., who assumed command of the Hongkong Police Force on Nov. 22, 1946. At the age of sixteen he joined the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1920 and served with that force until 1922 when he joined the Airdrie Burgh Police. In 1929 he was appointed an Inspector of Police in the Straits Settlements and was interned in Singapore during the occupation. After the war he became Acting Commissioner of Singapore Police, from where he was posted as Commissioner to Hong Kong in 1946.\n\nCommissioner Macintosh was responsible for reorganising the Hong Kong Police Force after the liberation, and to him goes the credit for laying the foundations on which so much of the present efficiency of the force depends. One of his most important tasks was to improve the low morale among the men under his charge. He set about this by beginning a long battle to upgrade police pay, conditions of service, and above all living accommodation. He also concentrated on improving professional standards, and reorganised the Police Training School. He succeeded in his efforts in boosting morale, improving recruitment, and established an esprit-de-corps essential to the running of an efficient police force.\n\nAfter leaving Hong Kong in 1953 on retirement, Mr. MacIntosh accepted appointment as Adviser to the Iraqi Police and spent some time in Baghdad. He died at his home in Surrey, England on September", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213608, "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-1995", "page_number": 204, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "176\n\n14 1966, at the age of 62. His name is remembered in Hong Kong not only in the MacIntosh Cathedrals, but also in the MacIntosh tartan kilts of the Force Band. In the Force Museum in Coombe Road a special display case is dedicated to Commissioner MacIntosh and is full of memorabilia including a brass model of a MacIntosh Cathedral which was presented to him on his retirement by his Chief Inspectors and donated to the museum by his widow.\n\nIn conclusion although the MacIntosh Cathedrals are perhaps not architecturally significant, they have a certain appeal and are historically important as a key element in the development and improvement of Hong Kong's frontier defences and in the control of illegal immigration in the post-war years.\n\nREFERENCES\n\nPolicing Hong Kong, pamphlet by D W MacIntosh, CMG, OBE, Commissioner of Police, Hong Kong, 1952\n\nObservation Posts, by Sub-Inspector ME Davis, The Hong Kong Police Magazine, Vol 3 #4. Dec 1953\n\nAsia's Finest : An Illustrated Account of the Royal Hong Kong Police, by Kevin Sinclair, Unicorn Books Lid, 1983\n\nForce History: Origins of Border MacIntosh Cathedrals, by Mike Watson, \"Off Beat\", Mar 22, 1989\n\nByways of History : Territory Regroups After the War Years, South China Morning Post, Dec 12, 1989", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213611, "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-1995", "page_number": 207, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "Mr. Duncan William MacIntosh, C.M.G., O.B.E., C. St. John,\n\nCommissioner of Police 1946-1953\n\n(Photo by courtesy of the RHKP Force Museum)\n\nPage 179\n\n \n \n\nPage 179", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214154, "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": 12, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "council member of HKBRAS.\n\nRobert Nield, F.C.A., F.H.K.S.A., is a certified public accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the Hon. Treasurer of HKBRAS.\n\nPenny Robbins and Meredith Tong-Draper are longstanding members of HKBRAS who have taken a very active role in recent activities, both locally and on the mainland.\n\nGeoffrey Roper, B.A., is a retired Assistant Commissioner of the (Royal) Hong Kong Police Force and a former long serving council member of HKBRAS.\n\nRonald Bishop Smith, lives in Portugal and is a private researcher into 16th century Portuguese history, notably the exploits of the Portuguese into the Middle and Far East, and China. He has written prolifically on this subject and is one of the very few people familiar with 16th century Portuguese paleography.\n\nKeith Stevens, B.A., served with the British Army and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office before his retirement in 1991. He is an authority on Chinese temples and deities, and Chinese history generally, and has written prolifically on these subjects.\n\nDan Waters, M.Phil., Ph.D., is a retired Assistant Director of Education of the Hong Kong Government. He is a long-time council member of HKBRAS and has been President since 1997. He has written prolifically on the history and culture of the HKSAR.\n\nJennifer Welch, M.A., now lives with her husband in Hong Kong having spent a number of years in Singapore, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Australia. Her interests are varied and include French culture and language, China and the Chinese, porcelain and history.\n\nxi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214375, "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": 233, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "199\n\nTHE DISTRICT WATCH FORCE\n\nSHEILAH HAMILTON\n\nIn general the Force now appears to the Police to be an unwelcome anachronism, to the Chinese population to perpetuate a valued tradition, and to all civil servants not serving in the Secretariat of Chinese Affairs (as well as some who are) as an imperfectly comprehended mystery.\n\nIn the 1960s the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, Mr John C. McDouall, described the District Watch Force in the above terms. This telling statement by the Government official in charge of the District Watch between 1957 and 1966 illustrates the opposing views held about the 'Force' by various sections of Hong Kong society. Indeed, the solo use of the word 'Force,' without its more familiar qualification, 'Hong Kong Police', would have been an anathema to many members of the Hong Kong Police Force whose officers considered that they, and only they, represented the true 'Force.' This 'them and us' notion neatly illustrates the problems faced by the District Watch Force throughout its long history.\n\nIn 1971 the sociologist Henry Lethbridge contributed a paper about the District Watch Committee to the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and, seven years later, it was reproduced as a chapter in his book Hong Kong: Stability and Change.2 Although these early works included the District Watchmen and their duties, their main thrust was the political significance of the District Watch Committee rather than a commentary on the work of the lowly Watchmen and, in the years that followed, the contribution of this band of local private security personnel has received little attention. This paper examines the birth and development of the District Watch Force, a group of Chinese men who may be regarded as comprising the first organised body of Chinese private security personnel employed in Hong Kong. More specifically, it explores the interaction between the Hong Kong Government and the District Watch Force.3\n\nThe District Watch Force existed, in fact if not in name, for more than a century between 1866 and 1970. During this period it", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214376, "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": 234, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "200\n\nunderwent many changes both in scope and organization. However, one thing which remained constant throughout its life was its racial composition. It was always a Chinese force. As such, in the context of the colony's private security heritage, it is an important organization even though its numbers never exceeded 160. Not surprisingly, because of its traditional origins, it was also a gendered 'Force' and no District Watchwomen were ever employed even when, in 1949, women were permitted to join the Hong Kong Police.\n\nEarly Days\n\nThere is little doubt that in the 1860s the growing number of wealthy Chinese merchants residing in Hong Kong required the services of a security force since this was not provided by the Hong Kong Police. Lethbridge claimed that by the mid-1860s there were 'numerous private watchmen and street guards already employed by merchants, shopkeepers, householders and Kaifong. The need for these private security personnel was distressingly obvious. Members of the regular police force, which was composed mostly of European and Indian policemen with a few Chinese, were more concerned with the safety of the European dominated central business district of the city than with the protection of the occupants of the Chinese quarter. Language was another barrier since most of the non-Chinese police were unable to speak Cantonese, a situation which made effective communication with the local population an impossibility. However, even if the Hong Kong Government had possessed the funds, manpower and inclination to provide the Chinese quarter with sufficient policemen, it is debatable whether the Hong Kong Chinese merchants of the 1860s would have welcomed the attention of members of the predominately foreign Hong Kong Police. It is more likely that they would have resented men of an alien culture intruding into their business and private lives even if this resulted in a decrease in crime. The ideal solution to this local security problem was a 'police force' made up of Chinese men whom the merchants knew and could trust.\n\nAt the beginning of 1866 in the weeks before Chinese New Year, Hong Kong's English language newspapers reported rumours of unrest in Canton.3 There was also considerable alarm that an uprising would spread to the colony but this fear proved to be unfounded. Whether these rumours were 'massaged' to suggest a more serious state", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214377, "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": 235, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "201\n\nof affairs is not known but it is a possibility which cannot be discounted entirely. What is beyond dispute is that these widely publicized fears were used by the leaders of the Chinese community as a reason to petition the Government for permission to organise a force of Chinese watchmen who would help the public police. The scheme received the blessing of the Governor, Sir Richard MacDonnell, though it met with less than wholehearted approval from some other members of the administration, most notably the Chief Justice, Sir John Smale. The feature of the plan which appealed most to Government officials was its economy. Since the expenses of operating the scheme would be borne by the Chinese merchants, the Government would not need to spend any money yet it would, in effect, gain additional police constables.\n\n\"The Victoria Registration Ordinance 1866\" (No. 7 of 1866) provided the authorization for the formation of this body of men and came into effect on 1 January 1867. By its provisions the Governor, on the recommendations of the inhabitants of a particular District, could appoint a Chief Watchman and Watchmen who were under the control of the Registrar General and had the same powers as a constable. Thus, although both the words 'District' and 'Watchmen' appeared in the Ordinance, the combination 'District Watchmen' was not used. Two of the most informative early accounts of the District Watch Force appeared in the Registrar General's Reports for 1867 and 1868. In 1867 the Registrar General's post was held by a young Cadet Officer, Cecil C. Smith, who also acted as Colonial Secretary whilst in 1868 Alfred Lister, a Cadet with even less experience, acted as Registrar General. From the tenor of the earlier report it seems that Smith favoured the establishment of 'a body of men acting as a help to the Police Force.' The introduction of the scheme was not easy and 'Much jealousy was at first displayed as to the powers which were to be exercised in controlling the Watchmen.' Although the wording is ambiguous and the sentiments could have applied equally to some Europeans, the tone of the following sections of Smith's report suggest that this 'jealousy' prevailed within the Chinese community. This political in-fighting amongst the Chinese merchants and shopkeepers had long-lasting consequences for the future direction of the watchmen and undoubtedly led to the subordinate position of the Chinese in its operation.\n\nAs had occurred with earlier attempts to give the local population", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214378, "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": 236, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "202\n\nany real degree of authority in matters affecting their own security,7 the introduction of the new scheme met with considerable opposition from some Europeans. Smith noted that 'there is much diversity of opinion as to the desirability of employing Chinese at all as Police.' The comparatively restrained language used by Smith probably understates the intensity of the opposition. In addition to the 'jealousy,' Smith hinted that the question of the watchmen's remuneration was also a problem. He reported that 'After much discussion the community of the Five Districts to the West of the Parade Ground agreed to elect a certain number of their body to act as Watchmen, whose pay would be disbursed by themselves and collected from house to house by men specially appointed for the purpose.' The monthly pay of each of the five Chief Watchmen was $20 whilst each of the forty Watchmen received $8 per month. Uniform coats were to be provided from a special fund and the accounts could be inspected at the Registrar General's office. Not only was the Registrar General charged with ensuring that the financial side of the scheme was sound, he was also responsible for the Watchmen themselves even though their wages were paid by the Chinese community.\n\nThis was not the way that the Chinese merchants had envisaged running the scheme although it was better than having European or Indian policemen interfering with their everyday business arrangements in order to combat crime. However, because of their internal squabbling and the colonial administration's greater experience in shaping such matters to its advantage, the Chinese merchants had allowed themselves to be outmanoeuvred by Government officialdom. Smith stressed that he did not expect the Watchmen 'to take a very prominent part in apprehending criminals.' That was not the aim. It was expected that the strength of the scheme lay elsewhere and, ‘according to the recognized Chinese Custom, those who pay for their support expect them to keep the vagabonds and bad characters from congregating in their districts,' an example of what, in modern criminological terminology, is referred to as Displacement Theory. The Chinese merchants and householders funding the scheme were not particularly interested in curtailing crime throughout Hong Kong but merely wanted to ensure that it did not occur in their area.\n\nThe tone of Lister's 1868 report was more direct than that of his predecessor. Lister contended that, whilst it was true that a force composed of Chinese would 'never carry out some of the views of the European Community,' this was to be expected because", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214380, "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": 238, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "204\n\nIn the late 1860s the regular police came in for massive criticism because of claims of corruption and general inefficiency. As a result of public and other concerns, a Commission of Enquiry was convened in December 1871 to inquire into and report as to the present organization of the Police Force generally, and to suggest such improvements and reforms therein as may be thought expedient by this Commission.'10 Although the Commission's main raison d'être centred around the many defects of the Hong Kong Police, its ambit also included the District Watch Force. Thus, in the last days of his Governorship, MacDonnell tasked the Commission to 'report as to the expediency of continuing to maintain, with Chinese co-operation and pecuniary aid, the auxiliary force of District Watchmen,' and to determine whether the latter body 'has rendered any essential or useful service to the Colony, also whether, as at present controlled, there is any danger to be apprehended practically from allowing such a force to be maintained'. The pseudo-apologetic language used by the outgoing Governor suggests that the community still contained many who wished that the force of District Watchmen would just quietly disappear or at least be swallowed up by the Police Force.\n\nThe Commission's Report was finally published on 27 June 1872, by which time Sir Arthur Kennedy had succeeded MacDonnell as Governor. It was a lengthy document, and the District Watch Force seemed to be one of the least contentious issues, with the majority view holding that they were 'a useful body of men.' The Commission recommended that they should be left alone for the present, but, with the reorganization of the regular Police, 'they should be gradually disbanded or absorbed into the latter force.'11\n\nSanitary Matters and the District Watch\n\nMany books about Hong Kong have documented the problems which have existed in sanitary matters since the colony's earliest days. Indeed, the lamentable lack of adequate sanitation was one of the main reasons cited for the high loss of life in the military and the police. Throughout the years, the considerable growth in population was accompanied by a corresponding increase in waste materials of all kinds. Despite the directions of the Building Ordinance, No. 8 of 1856, that 'every house should be provided with a latrine, or privy and ashpit,' no adequate sewage system existed, and there was a general reluctance to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214382, "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": 240, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "206 \n\nnot only recommended changes but tried to respect the sensibilities of the Chinese community. His hard-hitting report to the Colonial Office described how 'the dwellings of the Chinese working classes are inconvenient, filthy and unwholesome. Accumulations of filth occur in and around them, both above ground, and below ground, in the drains, especially in the latter.' In Chadwick's opinion it was unfair to condemn the Chinese as being 'a hopelessly filthy race till they have been provided with reasonable means for cleanliness. Furthermore, it was the Government's duty to see that these means were provided and applied. There was also 'the strongest necessity for inspection and supervision, especially whilst the new conditions are being introduced.' Chadwick had very definite opinions about the type of person who should perform these inspections. He noted that the existing sanitary staff, under the joint orders of the Colonial Surgeon and the Surveyor General, consisted of only one head and three sub-inspectors and, because these men were drawn from the same class as police sergeants, they commanded very little respect from the Chinese community. Additionally, their inability to speak Cantonese and the resulting reliance on interpreters caused frequent problems. Chadwick's solution was to introduce a post of Sanitary Officer under the control of the Registrar General. In Chadwick's view it was vital that this position was filled by a man who was not already engaged in other Government work and he considered an annual salary of £400-£500 to be appropriate.\n\nThere was another reason why the proposed Sanitary Officer should report to the Registrar General rather than either the Colonial Surgeon or the Surveyor General and that was the existence of the District Watch Force. Although Chadwick was well aware that the duties of the District Watchmen 'were connected with the preservation of order only,' he perceived the District Watch Force to be 'a powerful apparatus for enforcing sanitary law.' This would get around the problem of Chinese people objecting to foreigners entering their homes. He proposed that 'their powers should be extended to include cleanliness as well as order' and 'if necessary, their numbers might be increased, and an addition made by Government to their salary, which is now paid wholly by the people of the district.' In case any further justification was required, Chadwick also stated in his report that the idea of having the District Watchmen perform these duties 'was suggested to me by the Chinese.' He omitted to specify which particular Chinese made this suggestion. The notion that 'the Chinese' thought as one and had no individual\n\nPage 240\n\nPage 241", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214385, "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": 243, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "209\n\nBook, no District Watchmen appeared under the Sanitary sub-department.\n\nWhy were the District Watchmen employed in sanitary duties for only three years? It is tempting to suggest that one reason was because the Chinese merchants were not prepared to continue paying for a scheme which should have been funded by the Government and, by 1886, the merchants finally had found sufficient courage to make their point. After all, the entire force of District Watchmen was involved with sanitary work, which left no District Watchmen available for purely security functions. The rules issued by Government were very specific about where loyalty was expected to lie since all the Watchmen ‘must understand that their sanitary duties are of equal importance with their police duties.' In case any Watchman was left in any doubt, there was a final sting in the tail. The rules further warned the Watchmen that “if the Government does not receive from them that hearty co-operation and assistance in the detection of nuisances which it has the right to expect, such of them as may be found neglectful of their duties or otherwise inefficient shall be reported to the Registrar General for dismissal.'\n\nA less likely reason is that the Watchmen themselves did not wish to continue working in what must have been an unpleasant and uncomfortable atmosphere. However, even if this were the case, it is unlikely that these objections would have carried much weight with the Hong Kong Government. Undoubtedly, the Head District Watchmen, who had been in charge of the day-to-day running of their respective 'branches' for many years, would not have taken kindly to being instructed by Inspectors of Nuisances and would have viewed this as a loss of 'face.' For all their elevated title, these 'inspectors' were simply police sergeants in different clothing. Despite Chadwick's contention that the Chinese were ‘a most docile people ... accustomed for countless generations to implicit submission to authority,' the Government officials responsible for the changeover may have anticipated trouble if there was direct contact between the ordinary Watchmen and the Inspectors of Nuisances since the rules stated that 'The Inspectors of Nuisances shall avoid, except in cases of emergency, giving any instructions to the Watchmen direct.' The chain of command was Inspector of Nuisance: Chief District Watchmen: District Watchmen. The answer may even lie in the crime figures for these years. In 1883, minor crimes increased by 41.5% over the previous year's figure and a further 43.4%", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214386, "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": 244, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "210 \n\nincrease in offences of a less serious nature was reported in 1884. Yet another possible reason for the brief presence of the District Watchmen as sanitary workers may be found in Chadwick's own words since he stated that the need for proper checking was most important 'whilst the new conditions are being introduced.' \n\nIn light of the foregoing it is interesting to note that in October 1885 a short Rule appeared in the Government Gazette relating to the transfer of District Watchmen. This was a Rule, made by the Registrar General under Section 14 of Ordinance 7 of 1866, whereby 'The Registrar General shall be empowered to transfer the Watchmen of the various Districts including the Chief Watchmen, from time to time as may seem to him expedient.' It is unclear from the wording of the rule whether this transfer referred merely to the movement of District Watchmen from one location to another or whether it legitimized the transfer of the Watchmen from one kind of duty to another. If the latter, this may have been intended to refer to the transfer of the District Watchmen from security work to sanitary duties. If this was the intention it is peculiar that the timing of the publication of this Rule coincided with the end rather than the beginning of the District Watchmen's involvement in sanitary duties. \n\nPerhaps the reason for their removal from sanitary duties was not recorded and what is most important in the context of this study is that it was a successful, if short lived, attempt to transfer a group of people from the private sector to the public domain and change their working conditions in a major way. We have seen that the District Watch Force was created for a very specific reason, namely to provide proper protection for a particular ethnic group within Hong Kong society which was not being served by the public police. Since official enquiries into the efficiency of the Hong Kong Police Force had confirmed the latter's shortcomings in 1872, there can be little doubt that in the early 1880s a need still existed for the District Watch Force as a security force. Additionally, the Chinese business folks almost certainly still preferred having their own people patrolling their streets rather than members of the Police Force. Perhaps in 1883 the merchants employing the District Watchmen were neither strong enough nor motivated enough to refuse to co-operate in Chadwick's scheme. After all the District Watch Committee was not formed until nearly a decade after Chadwick's report was published and thus the power exerted by this Committee in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214388, "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": 246, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "212\n\nThe following year the Government exercised its authority by withdrawing the $2,000 grant which had been awarded annually to the District Watch Force since 1870. The purpose of this small grant was to augment the contributions from the Chinese merchants for the running of the Force. However, Mr A. M. Thomson, the Acting Registrar General, considered that, because of the large surplus which the Committee had accumulated by 1893, there should be no need to resume the grant until 1905. The background to the distribution of this grant is of interest since it shows once again the interaction between the District Watch Force and the Hong Kong Government. During the years 1870-1873 an annual grant of $1,600 was paid to the 'Native District Watchmen' from a Miscellaneous services vote.18 In 1874 this amount was raised to $2,000 p.a. and remained listed as a miscellaneous expense until 1879. However, an important administrative change occurred the following year when the annual grant payable to the District Watch Force became a Police expense and remained as such until it was withdrawn in 1894.\n\nIncreased Government Influence\n\nIn mid-1897 the control exerted by the Government over the District Watch Force increased still further. Francis May, the Captain Superintendent of Police who had become a member of the District Watch Committee in 1894, had recommended that the District Watchmen on duty in Victoria between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. should be placed on Police beats and be 'subjected to the supervision of Police Inspectors and Sergeants on patrol duty.' In his Annual Report for 1897 May took pleasure in informing its readers that this scheme had been introduced in June 1897 'to improve the efficiency of this very useful auxiliary Police Force, and to bring them into closer touch with the Police.'\n\nAs time went by the number of the District Watchmen increased gradually. Before the creation of the District Watch Committee the number had remained static with six Head District Watchmen and thirty-seven or thirty-eight District Watchmen. In 1892 and 1893 this grew to forty-two and fifty-seven District Watchmen respectively and the following year the addition of a further five District Watchmen and a detective bought the total number to sixty-nine men. In 1895 four new posts of Assistant Head District Watchmen were created and by 1903 the Force had grown to eighty-two men including six Head District Watchmen.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214389, "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": 247, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "213\n\nWatchmen and six Assistant Head District Watchmen. In 1900 the Force became even more entwined with the Government when the latter, after several years of deliberation, finally granted a site for a Central Watch-house on the Taipingshan Resumption Area and promised a contribution of $1,000 towards the cost of its construction. Whilst this house was intended to accommodate the Watchmen of Districts 3, 4, 5 and 6, the premises were to include quarters for two European sergeants. When the building was completed in August 1902, far from being merely a house to accommodate the Watchmen, the quarters on the top floor were described as being 'sufficient for the accommodation of one married European Police Sergeant or for two unmarried Sergeants, who will be placed there by the Captain Superintendent of Police.' In 1903, two years earlier than anticipated by Mr A. M. Thomson, the allocation of an annual Government Grant of $2,000 was resumed and remained in force until 1936 when it was reduced to $100 p.a. because this was 'considered sufficient.'\n\nIn 1904 a further thirteen District Watchmen's posts were added and the reasons behind this increase illustrate, once again, the influence which the Hong Kong Government exerted over this force of supposedly private security men. According to the section of the Registrar General's Report of 1904 dealing with the performance of the District Watch Force, 'During the year 1904 the Force had been increased by thirteen men consequent on an understanding come to with the Government by which a piece of land in the Eastern part of the town was given as a site for a District Watchmen's House on condition that the number of the Force was increased.' Stripped of the convoluted language, this meant that the District Watch Committee had to agree to the employment of more Watchmen if they wanted the extra space. The cost of building the quarters in Stone Nullah Lane near Wanchai Market was to be $4,000 and a contract to that effect was drawn up. In the same annual report the Registrar General noted rather critically that the condition of the Force during the year was not quite satisfactory. Because of the difficulties in attracting and retaining good men, a pay rise was introduced in August 1904 which brought the pay scale into line with that of the Chinese Police. Problems concerning remuneration were nothing new. In April 1897 an allowance of $2 per month was awarded to each Watchman because of the high price of rice but even this was insufficient to entice good quality men into the Force during 1901. By 1908 the total number of personnel in the Force ex-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214390, "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": 248, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "214\n\nceeded one hundred and the same year two District Watchmen were deployed to work in the emigration sub-division of the Registrar General's Department. During 1910 and 1911 it was felt necessary to employ 124 District Watchmen of different ranks but in 1912 the number was reduced to one hundred and remained unchanged until 1924.\n\nExpansion into Kowloon\n\nSince its formation in 1866 the District Watch Force had operated only on Hong Kong island. In May 1915 this changed when the new District Watchmen Station at Yaumati was opened and six District Watchmen were 'sent over.' In 1913, following the addition of a Cadet officer to the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, the Government decided to expand the duties of the District Watchmen to include work connected with the registration of householders under the Registration of Chinese Ordinance. Perhaps the Government felt some apprehension that those responsible for paying for the Watchmen's services might balk at the addition of these duties because the Financial Secretary, in presenting this matter to the Legislative Council, maintained that this work 'if efficiently carried out should be of great value in checking serious crime in the Colony.' It is also clear from this speech that these extra responsibilities had required the expansion of the Force into Kowloon.19 Despite the fact that Legislative Councillors were only advised about these additional duties in October 1913, it is clear from the Annual Report of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs that the District Watchmen had begun making house calls in connection with the registration campaign at the beginning of May 1913. Daily reports were made by the Chief District Watchmen to the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs and the Police were informed immediately about the large number of opium divans and sly brothels which the District Watchmen's investigations uncovered. Thus, once again, the Hong Kong Government appropriated men from this privately funded organization to carry out work which was essentially public in nature.\n\nBetween 1897 and 1918 the District Watchmen continued to patrol on police beats under the supervision of European police. The following year saw an important change in the supervision of the District Watch Force, one that would bring its members into even closer contact with the regular police. At the end of 1919 Police Sergeant Timo-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214391, "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": 249, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "215\n\nthy Murphy was seconded from the Police to take charge of the twenty-three detectives in the District Watch Force. The official report of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs for that year enthusiastically noted that 'His work at once had the effect of inspiring the men to greater energy and of fostering co-operation with the Regular detectives' and 'A marked improvement in this department may confidently be expected under the new system.' In 1919 Sergeant Murphy, a Cantonese speaker, had sixteen years experience in the Hong Kong Police. The following year Murphy was promoted to sub-Inspector but despite his promotion he remained with the District Watch Force until January 1922 by which time he had attained the rank of Inspector. Of course detectives had existed in the District Watch Force before 1918. As early as 1894 a single detective appeared in the Registrar General's Annual Report. In 1910 the annual bill for allowances to 'Chief District Watchmen and detectives' amounted to $514 but it was not until 1911 that detectives' wages were listed as a separate item amounting to $1,212.\n\nTroubled Times\n\nIn 1922 the colony reeled from the disruption caused by a massive seamen's strike which spread to involve Chinese men and women in other occupations including the Governor's own domestic servants. The Governor, Sir Reginald Stubbs, commissioned Mr A.G.M. Fletcher, CBE, to investigate the background of the strike and to determine why the intimidation tactics of the strikers had been so successful. The resulting report together with a long covering letter from the Governor were forwarded to the Secretary of State in mid-March 1922. Stubbs was highly critical of the leading members of the Chinese community including members of the District Watch Committee who, he claimed, had not been of the 'slightest use' in either 'calming the fears of the ignorant populace' or obtaining information which would have enabled the Government to deal with intimidation. It was Stubbs' opinion that the information departments of both the Police and the Secretary for Chinese Affairs should be 'drastically reorganized.'20 Fletcher had harsh words for the District Watchmen and considered them to be 'entirely useless' when it came to collecting information about the causes of intimidation since the Watchmen 'must have had the amplest evidence available.' Whilst agreeing with Fletcher in principle, Stubbs downplayed the deficiencies of the Watchmen citing their lowly status as a probable reason for their poor performance. Given the critical tone", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214392, "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": 250, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "216\n\nof these two documents, we might have expected a complete overhaul of the workings of the District Watch Committee and, indeed, the running of the Force itself. That these changes did not happen is due in no small part to differences in personalities at the top of the Hong Kong Government.\n\nIn late August 1922 Claud Severn, the Colonial Secretary who was also the Officer Administering the Colony, wrote to Winston Churchill regarding the remedial action taken by Government following the strike.22 The Acting Governor noted that an investigation into the running of the regular Police Force had found the calibre of some of the men working in the 'Chinese Police Force' to be decidedly wanting in the loyalty stakes. As a result of the inquiry a total of fifty Chinese sergeants, constables and detectives were either dismissed, ordered to retire, reduced in rank or otherwise censured. Severn noted that the situation regarding the District Watch Force was 'somewhat delicate' and one which he had discussed at length with the Secretary for Chinese Affairs. Both Severn and Edwin R. Hallifax, the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, recommended that, contrary to Governor Stubbs' proposal, no reorganization of the District Watch Force should be attempted. Severn stressed that any 'enquiry and action would necessarily be a matter for the [District Watch] Committee, which shows the greatest reluctance to carry the subject any further.'23 There can be no doubting the considerable power and influence exerted by the District Watch Committee at this time since the Acting Governor was worried that any 'action taken \"by order\" would certainly create unnecessary and serious trouble and might put an end to the Force, a result which is to be deprecated, since the District Watch Force is ordinarily of the greatest value to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs.' Without mentioning Timothy Murphy by name, Severn concluded his letter to the Secretary of State by noting that the District Watch Force was under the charge of ‘a very efficient Inspector of Police.' Thus, Stubbs' suggestion that the District Watch Force should be revamped was discarded. It would have been most informative to know how Governor Stubbs reacted to this news when he returned from leave on 18 November 1922 but unfortunately this was not recorded in accessible official documents.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214393, "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": 251, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "Closer Liaison with the Hong Kong Government \n\n217 \n\nIn the early 1920s, due ostensibly to the increase in population and rapid development of the colony, it was decided to increase the number of District Watchmen and also develop closer liaison with the regular police. During 1924 an additional twenty men were added to the establishment of the District Watch Force bringing it to 122. At the same time a police sergeant was detached from normal police work and placed in charge of the 'regular duties and non-detective members of the Force.' With the benefit of hindsight it is not unreasonable to suggest that the decision to develop more formal contact with the regular Police was due, at least in part, to decisions at the highest level to regulate the District Watch Force following the criticisms associated with its performance during the seaman's strike. However, despite this closer association with the Hong Kong Police, the official reports of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs continued to stress that the essential character of the District Watch Force had in no way been sacrificed.' A police officer of inspectorate rank continued to be in charge of the detective branch of the Force and continuity was achieved by having the same inspector as liaison officer. Still closer association with the regular Police Force occurred around 1922 when the District Watchmen started attending the Police Training School and were also armed. Since 1889 there had existed special provision under successive Arms and Ammunition ordinances for District Watchmen to be exempt from requiring licences in the same way as the Police and the Military. During 1925 some additional changes occurred within the Force with particular reference to their employment in Kowloon. Work commenced on new quarters in Yaumati at an estimated total cost of $25,000 and the Chinese shopkeepers in Yaumati and Mongkok were asked to contribute to the funds of the Force in the same way as their opposite numbers on Hong Kong island. This amounted to 1% of the rental and raised a total of $2,500 during the last three months of 1925. The image of the Force was the subject of discussion during early 1925 and its own members petitioned the Committee for a change in the 'archaic nature of the uniform' which the Watchmen believed was an impediment to younger men joining the Force. The fact that this petition was shelved until the return of the permanent Chairman illustrates the ultra-conservative nature of the Committee and, whilst the detective branch was praised in official reports, the Secretary for Chinese Affairs considered that 'the uniformed branch left much to be desired.' In the 1926 departmental...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214394, "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": 252, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "218\n\ntal Annual Report we read that 'Arrangements have now been defi-nitely made to alter the uniform to one of a more modern pattern.' The inclusion of the word 'definitely' suggests that this was a thorny issue and the change in the style of uniform had not met with universal approval from all members of the Committee.\n\nThe policy of having a police officer seconded to supervise the uniformed branch of the Force had been short-lived and the Annual report of 1926 deplored the lack of a police officer for this duty. It appears that in future years the police officer seconded to oversee the detective force was also expected to act as liaison officer between the Police and the entire District Watch Force. In November 1927 the control of the detective branch of the Force was taken over by sub-Inspector Kenneth Andrew who, like his predecessors, spoke fluent Cantonese and continued to be associated with the Force until June 1936. By the mid-1920s the number of men serving in the District Watch Force had reached 122 and their success in bringing cases to the Police Court continued to rise. In the years between the establishment of the District Watch Committee and the mid-1920s the number of arrests/convictions never exceeded 415 but we can see how this figure increased dramatically during the fifteen year period 1925-1937.\n\nArrests by District Watchmen 1925-1939\n\n \n Year\n Arrests\n \n \n 1925\n 371\n \n \n 1926\n 467\n \n \n 1927\n 606\n \n \n 1928\n 848\n \n \n 1929\n 737\n \n \n 1930\n 845\n \n \n 1931\n 867\n \n \n 1932\n 1,084\n \n \n 1933\n 1,274\n \n \n 1934\n 1,236\n \n \n 1935\n 1,322\n \n \n 1936\n 1,546\n \n \n 1937\n 2,067\n \n \n 1938\n 1,214\n \n \n 1939\n 1,228\n \n\nI corrected \"3937\" to \"1937\" as it appears to be a typo.\n\n becomes just the corrected text as per rule 12.\n\nThe final output is:\n218\n\ntal Annual Report we read that 'Arrangements have now been defi-nitely made to alter the uniform to one of a more modern pattern.' The inclusion of the word 'definitely' suggests that this was a thorny issue and the change in the style of uniform had not met with universal approval from all members of the Committee.\n\nThe policy of having a police officer seconded to supervise the uniformed branch of the Force had been short-lived and the Annual report of 1926 deplored the lack of a police officer for this duty. It appears that in future years the police officer seconded to oversee the detective force was also expected to act as liaison officer between the Police and the entire District Watch Force. In November 1927 the control of the detective branch of the Force was taken over by sub-Inspector Kenneth Andrew who, like his predecessors, spoke fluent Cantonese and continued to be associated with the Force until June 1936. By the mid-1920s the number of men serving in the District Watch Force had reached 122 and their success in bringing cases to the Police Court continued to rise. In the years between the establishment of the District Watch Committee and the mid-1920s the number of arrests/convictions never exceeded 415 but we can see how this figure increased dramatically during the fifteen year period 1925-1937.\n\nArrests by District Watchmen 1925-1939\n\n \n Year\n Arrests\n \n \n 1925\n 371\n \n \n 1926\n 467\n \n \n 1927\n 606\n \n \n 1928\n 848\n \n \n 1929\n 737\n \n \n 1930\n 845\n \n \n 1931\n 867\n \n \n 1932\n 1,084\n \n \n 1933\n 1,274\n \n \n 1934\n 1,236\n \n \n 1935\n 1,322\n \n \n 1936\n 1,546\n \n \n 1937\n 2,067\n \n \n 1938\n 1,214\n \n \n 1939\n 1,228", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214395, "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": 253, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "(Source: Annual reports of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs)\n\n219\n\nThe 1928 Annual Report of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs stressed that it was 'gratifying to note that close co-operation exists between the District Watch Force and the Police Force. This was certainly a considerable improvement from the situation which existed a mere decade earlier when District Watchmen had been specifically excluded from searching passengers who arrived at or left Hong Kong by ship.24\n\nIn 1930 a new Ordinance, No. 23 of 1930, was passed entitled the District Watch Ordinance and, although its provisions differed very little from Chapter IV of the 1888 'Regulation of the Chinese Ordinance,' it is useful to repeat the justification given by the Attorney General at the first reading of the new Bill since it illustrates the apparent high regard in which the Force was held at this time: 'It has been decided that this very valuable Force should have an Ordinance of its own and the name of the Committee had been changed from The District Watchmen's Committee to the District Watch Committee as more suitable and as preferred by the Committee themselves.'25 Only when the replacement Bill was read for a second time do we see that a new ordinance was a necessity since other parts of the \"Registration of the Chinese Ordinance' were considered to be of no further use in the interests of the Colony generally.' Along with the new ordinance, a new pay scale was introduced in 1930 and the establishment of the District Watch Force rose to 133 which enabled the patrols to extend to Shamshuipo.\n\nDuring the next few years more Watchmen were recruited and by 1934 the full strength of the Force was 140. Not only did they attend the Police Training School, they participated in revolver courses organised by the Police. 1933 was particularly glorious for the Force since every one of the 131 District Watchmen who took part in the revolver course passed.26 Although the District Watchmen had considerable success in bringing suspects of minor crimes to Court, they were much more than a duplicate Police Force, even though they did assist the Police in dealing with serious crimes such as the riots of 1894 and Communist infiltration in 1929. We have seen that as early as 1883 they were engaged in sanitary duties and in 1899 'during the outbreak of plague in the summer months 8 District Watchmen were employed on special duty at the Tung Wah Hospital.' In the censuses of 1896 and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214396, "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": 254, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "220\n\n1906 the Government used these men as enumerators and during the 1929 water shortage, it was District Watchmen who undertook the thankless task of maintaining order amongst the queues of people waiting at street fountains.\n\nIn 1938 the District Watchmen were called upon to accompany vaccinators on a door-to-door campaign during the smallpox epidemic of that year and, as the clouds of war gathered, it was the District Watchmen who ensured the security of the refugee camps. When these extra duties are considered, it is easy to explain the decrease in the number of Court cases in 1938 from a high of 2,067 the previous year. In 1939, the last year for which detailed figures are available before the Japanese invasion, the strength of the District Watch Force stood at five Head District Watchmen, six Head Assistant District Watchmen, twenty-six Detectives and 103 uniformed men. The District Watch Force continued to be funded by local Chinese business men augmented by a small annual donation of $1,600 (later $2,000) which Government made to the Fund between the early 1870s and 1893 and from 1903 to 1936. There had been no change in this important financial principle since its inception in 1866.\n\nConclusion\n\nThe District Watch scheme is an important example of how the Hong Kong Government, over a very long period of time, successfully controlled a private security enterprise whilst ensuring that the colonial authorities contributed no more than a token amount towards its upkeep. Given the political climate prevailing in the colony during its formative years, it would have been naive to expect a completely Chinese organization of this nature to operate without some kind of interference from the Government. Security has always been - and continues to be - a topic which can make normally placid people become very nervous. However, from its inception, the District Watch Force's ties with the Registrar General and the Captain Superintendent of Police were more restrictive than had been envisaged by its founding fathers. To some extent the Chinese merchants were their own worst enemies because of their inability to overcome petty internal bickering. However, the merchants who proposed the District Watch scheme may have been thankful that they had been able to persuade the Hong Kong Government to grant them even the limited degree of autonomy which", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214397, "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": 255, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "221\n\nthe 1866 Ordinance allowed them. The non-confrontational attitude identified in the pre-1920 Chinese merchant class by Ku Hung-ting,1 coupled with a pragmatic belief that half a bowl of rice is better than none, could also explain why the merchants were prepared to go along with the Government's decision. Whilst they would have preferred to have complete control over their security force and did not relish having their businesses scrutinized more than was already the case, a limited degree of control was preferable to none.\n\nThe 'hijacking' of the whole of the District Watch Force for three years 1883-85 to work on non-security sanitary duties following Osbert Chadwick's Sanitary Report has been discussed at length and this change in direction of the Force need only be mentioned again to emphasize the point that, whilst the Chinese merchants may have been paying for this Watch Force, the latter's duties could be, and were, decided by the colonial authorities. The fact that the Chinese merchants continued to fund this scheme during these years whilst the Government contributed a mere $1 per person per month illustrates the lack of a level playing field in this particular game between the colonial power and the local community. Although it is possible that some Chinese people in Hong Kong may have wanted improvements in their sanitary conditions, it is by no means certain that this number would have been substantial. Even if some Chinese residents placed great store on improved sanitary conditions, it is unlikely that the local merchants would have wanted this to be done at their expense particularly if this sanitary work stopped their security force from performing their duties.\n\nThe years following the creation of the District Watch Force showed how certain ultra-conservative factions within the European community would have preferred the District Watch Force to disappear or, failing that, at least be merged with the regular police. That this did not occur is a testament not only to the Chinese merchants who stood their ground but also to some of the first young Cadet officers who were more open-minded than their less enlightened colleagues. With the introduction of the 1888 ‘Registration of the Chinese Ordinance,' the establishment of the District Watch Committee in 1890-91 and the appointment of the Captain Superintendent of Police as a member of the District Watch Committee in 1894, Government influence became even more effective and continued to grow during the twentieth century. Furthermore, the addition of duties such as the house-to-house checks\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214756, "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": 171, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "135\n\nSupplement, 29 January 1948; A Record of the Actions of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps in the Battle of Hong Kong December, 1941 (1953). For the official Hong Kong account of the surrender, see Hong Kong Government (1948).\n\n3 The literature referred to in this section is not exhaustive and focuses on books and reports only. English and Chinese newspapers and periodicals from time to time carry articles on the Battle. Post-war annals of universities, university halls and secondary schools in Hong Kong are also a good source of materials about the Battle. There are also a number of novels on war events,\n\n+ The emphasis is placed on attacking the enemies' \"line of least resistance\" or \"line of least expectation\".\n\n5 As quoted in Ko and Wordie (1996), p.18.\n\n\"They were influenced by the views of Air Chief Sir Robert Brooke-Popham, the British Commander-in-Chief in the Far East.\n\n7 During the initial stage of the Battle, BBC broadcasts (Orwell, 1987) placed high hopes on the availability of Chinese forces in the vicinity of Hong Kong. Such forces were never to come.\n\nLiddell Hart (1999): footnote at 219.\n\n\"Colonel Hewitt is the author of a number of books on the Battle and Japanese occupation of the Colony.\n\n10 The title of the book is a misnomer as the police force obtained the royal title only in the late 1960s.\n\nBlackburn gave an account of the anarchic situation of Hong Kong shortly before the surrender (Blackburn 1989).\n\n12 On 23 October 1937, the Joint Overseas and Home Defence Committee considered re-fortification or demilitarisation of Hong Kong, assuming that it took 90 days for the British fleet to relieve Hong Kong. Rollo (1992): 113. According to Aldrich, the British Chiefs of Staff considered the abandonment of Shanghai and demilitarisation of Hong Kong to avoid confrontation with Japan. Aldrich (1993): 261.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214835, "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": 250, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "217\n\n \nwar, did his best to maintain control of his forces and to restrain the troops. Indeed, the more I read about Gough and his conduct, the more I admire the way in which he sought to conduct his operations. A few indications of his undoubted humanity may be given here:\n\n \nAt Amoy, Sir Hugh had published an Order of the Day, that \"private property was to be held inviolable, and that which in England obtains the name of robbery deserves no better name in China.” Camp followers who did try their hand at looting in Amoy were condemned to death on the spot.\" Such condign punishment is confirmed by an account from the Chinese side. The poet Chu Shih-yun of Chinkiang area mentions that the British executed two sepoys and put up a placard warning against rape and looting.22 Sir Hugh was equally solicitous in smaller matters. After the capture of Chenhai, he had stopped sailors who were hacking off Chinese prisoners' pigtails with their jack knives.23 In a more serious intervention, and with the Admiral in full support, he sharply opposed Sir Henry Pottinger's wish to plunder Ningpo “as a reprisal for the maltreatment there of British prisoners.”24\n\n \nSir Hugh's behaviour at Ningpo must indeed be regarded as exemplary. Anxious to save the place from the looting from which Amoy had suffered (from the Chinese rabble as much if not more than from his own force) as soon as the city was occupied he had called together some of the principal inhabitants and enlisted their cooperation in organizing a corps of Chinese police to protect private property. He was especially insistent that the troops should take good care of the buildings in which they were given sleeping quarters. \"When the Royal Irish and a company of the Westmorelands were stationed in a temple, he gave orders that they must not use the painted and gilded central hall, where examinations were held, for fear it might be spoilt.\"\n\n \n925\n\n \nUnfortunately, Gough's hopes for the city were dashed. Following the unsuccessful Chinese counter-attack on Ningpo, Chinese looters had taken advantage of the confused situation to loot the city with disastrous results. Sir Hugh wrote home, \"When I look at this place, I am sick of war.”26\n\n \nBrigadier Colin Campbell\n\n \nOther senior British officers also had scruples and set high standards", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214917, "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": 13, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "CONTRIBUTORS\n\nSolomon Bard, O.B.E., E.D., is a long-time, well-known resident of Hong Kong and amongst his many other accomplishments is a musician, archaeologist and historian. His published works include the following: In Search of the Past: A Guide to the Antiquities of Hong Kong (Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1988); Traders of Hong Kong: Some Foreign Merchant Houses, 1841-1899 (Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1993); and Garrison Memorials in Hong Kong: Some Graves and Monuments at Happy Valley (Antiquities and Monuments Office, Hong Kong, Occasional Paper No. 4, 1997).\n\nBrian C. Fawcett, was born in the Far East where his father served with the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation. He also joined the bank and served from 1961 to 1978, being based in Hong Kong from 1971 to 1978. During that time he was also a volunteer with the Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force, now the Government Flying Services. He is a life member of HKBRAS.\n\nPeter Halliday, M.A., Ph.D., is an Assistant Commissioner with the Hong Kong Police Force and is in charge of the Information Systems Wing. He has been the Hon. Editor of the HKBRAS Journal since 1993 (peterhalliday@police.gov.hk).\n\nJames Hayes, Ph.D., D.Litt. (Hon.), is a Past-president of HKBRAS. He is a noted scholar and Hong Kong historian, and has written several books, the most recent being Friends and Teachers: Hong Kong and its People, 1953-87. He has contributed prolifically to the Journal (mouseh1@bigpond.com).\n\nTeresa Kowalska, Ph.D., is a professor of physical chemistry at the Silesian University, Katowice, Poland. She has a distinguished academic record in her chosen field and publishes widely. Her interest in and admiration of, the writer Han Suyin is an extracurricular pursuit (kowalska@uranos.cto.us.edu.pl).\n\nJack Lao Mou Chi, is a retired Assistant Commissioner of Labour of the Hong Kong Government and a member of HKBRAS.\n\nBarbara Park, is a landscape designer and a long-time member of HKBRAS.\n\nxii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215134, "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": 230, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "187\n\nvirtually cut off the supply to the waterfall other than when they are overflowing, for instance after a heavy storm.\n\nApart from pleasure boats and other small craft, Tai Tam Harbour was used more in the 19th century than it is today. During the period 1806 to 1819, long before Hong Kong was taken over by Britain, James Horsburgh, a hydrographer with the East India Company, surveyed the waters around the Island. He wrote that Tai Tam afforded shelter from almost all winds (Liu Shuyong, 1997:24). It is not of course a harbour as we sometimes know it with wharves and godowns. It is an inlet, which provides a place for ships to shelter. To illustrate again the Harbour's use as a place for protection from the elements mention is made of ‘tactical manoeuvring and target practice,' in February 1878, by the Royal Navy (White Ensign-Red Dragon, 1997; 39). It continues, 'The 20th February being very misty the fleet remained at Tytam Bay.'\n\nPeople naturally ask when exactly were the two Obelisks first erected; who erected them; and what purpose did (or do) they serve? As a start, with the aims of answering such questions, two Chief Inspectors, H J W Chetwynd-Chatwin and Keith Francis, both then serving in the Royal Hong Kong Police Force, arranged an informal meeting, in 1994. The meeting took place in a bar at a police officers' mess in Wan Chai. It was followed by a curry lunch. About a dozen people were invited who, it was felt, could contribute. They included the Government Director of Marine and RASHKB member R S Hownam-Meek who spent his career in shipping with Jardine. A couple of weeks or so after the meeting the topic of the Obelisks was raised by Radio Television Hong Kong. Little of real substance emerged from the meeting or the ‘phone-in radio programme. The late Arthur May, then a retired civil servant, did however ‘phone in to say that, as a youth, he went to live at Tai Tam in 1919. He also recalled that when he sailed around the Harbour in the 1920s the two Obelisks were definitely already there.\n\nThe Hydrographic Data Centre, at Taunton in England, maintains that information was received from the Commander-in-Chief, China, that two beacons, each 30 feet high, had been erected. These were first inserted on Admiralty charts by 'Notice to Mariners 755' of 1900 (Atherton, 1996:94). I have a chart showing Tai Tam Harbour, dated 1894, which shows the Obelisks, but Atherton informs me that this is a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215238, "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": 15, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "Police Force and was its chief information officer for the last seven years of his service. He is now the managing director of an IT services company. He is the Hon. Editor of JHKBRAS (peterhalliday@netvigator.com).\n\nPatrick Hase, B.A. Ph.D., is the current president of HKBRAS. He is a noted scholar and Hong Kong historian, and has written prolifically on the culture and history of Hong Kong (phhase@hkusua.hku.hk).\n\nJames Hayes, Ph.D., D.Litt.(Hon.), is a past-president of HKBRAS. He is a noted scholar and Hong Kong historian and has written several books, the most recent having been Friends and Teachers: Hong Kong and its People, 1953-87. He has contributed prolifically to JHKBRAS (mouse1@bigpond.com).\n\nProfessor Anthony Headley, B.B.S., J.P., M.D., F.R.C.P. (Lond., Edin., Glas.), F.F.P.H.M., F.H.K.C.C.M., F.H.K.A.M., F.A.C.E., D. Soc. Med., was trained in the medical schools of Aberdeen and Edinburgh and formerly worked in endocrinology and internal medicine before moving to the field of public health medicine. In 1983 he was appointed to the chair of public health in the University of Glasgow and since 1988 has been Professor of Community Medicine in Hong Kong and honorary consultant to the Hong Kong Department of Health and to the Hospital Authority. The involvement of four graduates of his alma mater, Aberdeen University, including Kai Ho Kai, in the founding of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese in 1888, has stimulated his interest in their many contributions to several aspects of educational, social, and political developments in Hong Kong in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (commed@hkucc.hku.hk)\n\nKo Tim-keung is a council member of HKBRAS and a keen researcher into Hong Kong history.\n\nRosemary Lee spent thirty years abroad in Pakistan, Switzerland, Iran, and Hong Kong. During this time she was able to indulge her interest in archaeology and in Hong Kong was one of a team of Antiquities and Monuments Office volunteers. She was a member of the Archaeological and Palaeontological Committee and Programme and Events Organiser of the Council of the HK Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. On returning to England, she became Co-Events Organiser of the Friends of HKBRAS, as well as becoming actively involved with the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford (rosemary.lee@talk21.com).\n\nDr. Alfred H.Y. Lin, B.A., M.Phil. (Hong Kong), Ph.D. (London), was trained as an historian at the University of Hong Kong and the School of Oriental and African Studies (London). He is currently an associate professor of modern Chinese history at HKU. His research focuses on the history of South China, particularly Guangzhou politics and society in the 1920s and 1930s. He recently published an article entitled The Founding of the University of Hong Kong: British\n\nPage 15\nPage 16", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215726, "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-2002", "page_number": 25, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "CONTRIBUTORS\n\nAndrew Abraham, is a noted Singaporean academic.\n\nPaul Bolding, works as a financial journalist at the news and information organisation Reuters in London. He has been with Reuters since 1974. He lived in Hong Kong from 1993 to 1997 and has travelled widely in Asia. Mr Bolding has previously worked in Europe and the Middle East including Brussels, Berlin and Nicosia. He is a co-author of the Insight Guide to Turkey (pbolding@onetel.net.uk)\n\nJulia Chan, is the Hon Librarian of HKBRAS and a member of Council (jlychan@hkucc.hku.hk).\n\nChohong Choi, obtained a B.A. in History from Queens College of the City University of New York, and an M.Phil. in History from the University of Hong Kong. He is currently a research assistant in the Department of Real Estate & Construction at HKU.\n\nThe late Arnold Graham, was an old China hand. He was well known for his steady stream of Letters to the Editor in Hong Kong under the pseudonym Ancient Gweilo (a play on his initials). He donated a large number of books to the Library of HKBRAS in 1994. He ultimately relocated to New Zealand where he passed away in 1996.\n\nPeter Halliday, was formerly an assistant commissioner with the Hong Kong Police Force and its chief information officer for over six years. He now heads his own information technology consulting and training company, Elite IT Services Ltd. He is the Hon Editor of HKBRAS and a member of Council (Peter.Halliday@e-liteitservices.com).\n\nPeter Hansell, is an active member of the Friends of HKBRAS in Great Britain.\n\nPaul Harrison, started his conservation career as a volunteer at Leicester Museum, U.K., in his school holidays. He has a B.Sc. in Archaeological Conservation and a M.Sc. in Archaeometallurgy from the Institute of Archaeology, now part of University College London. He has also worked for the Scottish Urban Archaeological Trust, the British School at Athens in Crete, studying an ancient Minoan City - Palaikastro - and Bradford University's Department of Archaeological Sciences. He was formally with the Central Conservation Division (Metals), Museum of History, Leisure and Cultural Services Department. He now heads his own conservation company, Phoenix Conservation Ltd., (paulehar@netvigator.com).\n\nxvi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215935, "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-2002", "page_number": 234, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "168\n\nparticularly vulnerable to guerrilla harassment. SOE targeted China in its plans, but had to hold them in abeyance pending the outright declaration of war, since Britain was supposed to be neutral.\n\nKendall and his friend Eddie Teesdale were trained at the SOE base at Singapore. Kendall also had explosives experience from his days as a mining engineer. Kendall organised a group of hand-picked volunteers, who included the talented Administrative Cadet Ronald Holmes, a Russian-born businessman named Monia Talan, a PE instructor Colin McEwan, Dr Harry Talbot, Bobby Thompson, Hugh Williamson, all to play a role later in underground services. In addition, two police officers trained with them to learn SOE techniques. Intriguingly, with the group was also at least one Chinese, a man recorded only as ‘Brigadier Lee of North China.'\n\nKendall's men met secretly at a camp near Kam Tin, each weekend, usually trained by Teesdale, as Kendall was often in China. They received training in cipher and intelligence work, weapons, wireless and explosives. They also spent much time literally walking through the scrubland, often in the dark, getting to know the trails and terrain at first hand, in preparation for the day that they would have to work behind Japanese lines. Weapons were stored in Kendall's bungalow near Shing Mun, where Holmes and Teesdale lived for extended periods. They also set up five hidden stores, for supply in the event of a prolonged campaign behind Japanese lines. In the event, the Japanese found the main store, in a cave on Tai Mo Shan about 1,800 feet up on the south-east slope. Another was in an old lead mine at Lin Ma Hang, near the border at Sha Tau Kok. It was later raided by villagers, who would have seen troops of Indian soldiers carrying supplies there on mules. On the outbreak of battle, Col Newnham ordered Kendall and Talan out of the New Territories and into Lyemun Pass, to fix limpet mines to scuttle a ship being used by the Japanese as an observation post.\n\nThe remaining SOE men in the New Territories, led by Holmes and Teesdale, spent a month behind Japanese lines, crossing back and forth across the border, collecting information, setting up contacts and reconnoitring.\n\nZ Force was by no means the only undercover agency operating in Hong Kong: there are hints and rumours of a much wider, high-level series of groups, but firm proof is hard to substantiate. By definition such work would be secret. For security reasons networks had to operate", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215940, "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-2002", "page_number": 239, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "173\n\nHong Kong had symbolic meaning: he could not be seen to desert until the last minute. The drama of his escape with such a show of force and British aid was a clear and explicit political statement. The KMT had their own escape network but this particular escape was a means of showing that the British, too, had a credible system for dealing with the exigencies of occupation.\n\n+ XY\n\nMany reasons were circulated at the time to explain the escape. A smokescreen had to be concocted to disguise whatever the true purpose of the mission might have been. Much has been made of the story of a plot by the triads to massacre thousands of Europeans in Hong Kong during the Battle. The source of this story was GS Shaftain, head of Criminal Intelligence in the Police Force. He said an informant told him of the plot on 11th December to activate two days later. He then claimed that he assembled hundreds of triads leaders in a hotel, where, through the intervention of a senior Shanghai triads leader, they were persuaded to desist, in the nick of time, on payment of a large bribe. This story passed unquestioned and lauded by the kind of European whose racial stereotypes assumed that Chinese were basically untrustworthy criminals, motivated only for money. (Shaftain claimed the triads leaders stole the silverware from the hotel). However, it is, as even Shaftain himself was to admit 'an implausible and fantastic story'. As a police officer, he would have known that the idea of hundreds of triads leaders meekly turning up for a mass meeting in the middle of an invasion was bizarre. The triads were originally political secret societies as well as criminal, and many had strong links and loyalties to the KMT. Indeed, the Nationalists had long been working with the triads sympathetic to themselves against the Wang Ching Wei faction and the triads who supported them. A pragmatic police officer would also have understood the sheer logistics of preparing and indeed calling off such a huge plot in the midst of battle. Certainly there were fifth columnists, but violence towards foreigners was minimal, particularly considering the intensity of anti-foreign feeling and riots during the 1920's and 30's. In any case, the triads rank and file were gainfully employed looting and extorting in the wake of the Japanese advance. The idea seems to have developed because some of the Japanese propaganda leaflets advocated killing white people, but there does not seem to be any evidence that this was taken seriously, except perhaps by the Europeans, aware of being defeated by an enemy who believed in Asia for the Asiatics. Shaftain must have been delighted at the ease with", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215941, "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-2002", "page_number": 240, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "174\n\nwhich the Police Commissioner handed over $20,000 without question when advised of the plot, though it was claimed that the bribe money came from the Shanghai triads leader Tu Yueh Sheng, then a refugee, albeit wealthy, in Hong Kong. Whatever the truth behind the story, it gained currency as it made the escape of General Yee and Admiral Chan Chak palatable to colonials by portraying it as an honourable act by the British to reward Yee for his assistance in saving them.\n\nIt was almost certainly also a smokescreen to disguise the removal from Hong Kong of something important to the British. MacDougall claimed in 1942 that he had not planned to go but had been persuaded at the last moment by senior government officials. MacDougall however was circumspect, careful not to betray sensitive information in an open letter. He could, however, say that during the last two years his work had 'become increasingly political in character. Officially neutral in the Sino-Japanese War, I had nevertheless behind the scenes consistently exerted what influence I possessed toward blocking and hampering the propaganda and other activities of the Japanese and the adherents of the Wang Ching Wei....I had worked very closely with Chinese organisations and did all in my power, consistent with the interests of the Colony, to aid them.' It should also be noted that he was not an officer of the colonial establishment but belonged to the Ministry of Information. He was to return to Hong Kong on liberation to reinstate the administration. While no high-profile officers escaped with the Chan Chak group, it is probable that some were carrying information. There were men from Army, Navy, and Air Force, and they were chosen for the mission, only one man being a \"guest.\"\n\n* xviii Major Goring was to spend much of the war attached to various strategic planning groups in the China theatre.\n\nThe extent of KMT activity in Hong Kong was considerable. Hong Kong was a sort of open house where all factions of Chinese politics from left to right could operate, as long as they were discreet. Overt acts of terrorism and subversion in other colonies, like the Malayan federation, were suppressed. The territory was also the port through which arms and armaments flowed into China. Technically this was in breach of the Hague Convention as Britain was supposed to be neutral, but there were ways of smuggling and circumventing the system. Baileys, the Hong Kong shipyard, built river gunboats that were outfitted with guns once they entered China. The same technology that enabled\n\nPage 240\n\nPage 241", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215942, "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-2002", "page_number": 241, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "175\n\nHong Kong shipyards to do marine engineering could also be used to make armour cladding for ships and vehicles. Hong Kong was also the base from which British aircraft manufacturers wanted to penetrate the Chinese market - the Far East Flying School wanted to train Chinese to fly so they would buy British rather than American or German planes. Hong Kong was also a centre for financial transactions both within and outside the banking system, a source for remittances and money transfers, more secure than Shanghai after the Japanese conquest. A large KMT community operated out of and lived in Hong Kong: almost a parallel government. While there was sympathy for the Nationalists, the colonial administration was uncertain how to maintain a balance between the Japanese and the Chinese Government. Riots against Japanese living in Hong Kong had been suppressed, and no protests made against Japanese attacks on the junk fleet. When the St Johns Ambulance wanted to send an ambulance to bombed Canton, the Colonial Office refused permission. Groups of Chinese 'terrorists' were arrested and deported from time to time. As late as May 1941 the colony's police force raided premises at 98 Robinson Road and destroyed a wireless transmitting station which had been operating for three years. The leader of this group was Chan So, an agent of General Wu Te Ching. When Governor Northcote sought guidance, the Colonial Office was advised by the Foreign Office that British policy had to vary according to circumstances, and support for China should be rendered 'compatible with the safety of Empire and avoidance of actual hostilities with the Japanese.'xix Nonetheless, there was a significant understanding between the Goumindang and the British when it came to matters of mutual benefit. When war officially broke out, their clandestine relationship could come out into the open. When Phyllis Harrop,\n\na civilian consultant working with the police reported for duty right after the outbreak of hostilities, she was assigned to work with the KMT who had already started to occupy offices with the police.\n\nThe Japanese were all too aware of the importance of Hong Kong to the KMT. The Japanese Foreign Minister had softly but firmly reminded the British Ambassador to keep the KMT under control. Even before their push to the south, the Japanese had identified KMT activists and targeted educated, articulate overseas Chinese as a threat and source of resistance. In Malaya and Singapore, they were to massacre thousands of Chinese in the wake of their advance, a fact obscured by the emphasis on the sufferings of Europeans interned in camps. In Hong Kong, on", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216065, "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-2002", "page_number": 364, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "298\n\nhad been destroyed and burned down. Thousands of rioters had arrived there in boats and destroyed foreign property. These enigmatic statements suggest that Mesny believed that ‘charity funds for famine relief' were being misused by the Viceroy and others to buy off bandits, even if he does not actually spell it out. There is no indication in his Miscellanies to whom he reported after his fact-finding mission or what he did with his information about the famine, or whether he actually provided physical relief for some of the unfortunate victims.\n\nAs so often happened a very minor incident, in this case concerning a Sikh policeman, grew in a matter of hours into a major riot. It was riots in 1889 referred to by Mesny, when the Sikh, a member of the municipal police force of the Zhenjiang Concession, was alleged to have struck a Chinese. According to Arlington it was started by the Concession Chief of Police, an Indian, accidentally killing a coolie who 'dared' to have his head shaved on the Bund [a terrible thing to shave the head on the Bund!]. The events followed a not unusual pattern with the mob throwing stones and the Europeans managing to escape to a ship on the Great River but not before telegraphing for assistance to Shanghai. The Chinese authorities too had been called upon for help and though both Chinese police and soldiers arrived they simply stood around and did nothing. Both the British and American consulates were destroyed; meanwhile Shanghai replied requesting additional information and advising the westerners in Zhenjiang that a gun boat was being prepared. Order was restored by Chinese troops on the following day. Three days later the British gunboat arrived and was boarded by the Consul who was greeted by a gun-salute. The very first report of the guns sent every Chinese off the Bund and out of the Concession like a cloud of smoke being dispersed by a typhoon. A benefit arising from the riot was the construction of a new consulate office and house with its own garden. A slightly different picture of the cause was given by Consul Parker which he had obtained from hearsay.*4 The Zhenjiang municipal police had arrested a Chinese military officer for 'reckless riding'.\n\nAfter the riots of the 1880s strong, double riot gates of stout iron bars were constructed, each with a span of some twenty feet, so that the whole of the width of the Bund, some forty feet, would be barred when they were closed. The Concession police during the first decade of the 20th century consisted of some sixteen Shandong men from the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216067, "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-2002", "page_number": 366, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "300\n\nSilver Island forts. I did not answer his letter, but noted the date thereon and the date on which I received it. I was requested to send an answer to someone in Zhenjiang. I gave the letter to Consul Mowat.35\n\nAs I did not answer Mason's letter he called early one morning and I asked who he was and what he wanted. He replied that he was the United States consular marshal at Hankou and had come down to see the machine gun I had offered to sell to the Municipal Council at Hankou and wished to know if my machine was a single action or double action gun. I showed him the gun and how to work it, and he decided to buy it. He then wished me to send it somewhere on the Yangzi, I said I could not let it go out of my house until it was paid for, and would not deliver anywhere outside the limits of a treaty port unless provided with a special passport or huzhao. Mason then said that he was going to Ningbo and would call for the gun on his return. He did not do so. He went to Hongkong engaged a lot of foreigners, instructed them to come and report themselves to me for duty, etc., etc.\n\nOn Mason's return to Shanghai he brought a lot of firearms he had bought in Hongkong. They were seized, and the men he had engaged were looked after. He himself was introduced by Mr R.E. Bredon, Shanghai Commissioner of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, to the Daotai of Shanghai who invited him to dinner and to witness a theatrical performance as if he, Mason, had been a popular hero.\n\nHe lived in the Central Hotel and was a frequent visitor at the Shanghai Club where he had been introduced by Mr Bredon.\n\nMeanwhile all sorts of tricks were being practised to inveigle me into a trap. Conch shells were blown at all hours of the night about my house under the direction of Mason. A host of extra police officers and detectives were placed on special duty on my property, at the switch-back railway. I suddenly remembered the letter that had been sent me. I thereupon called on Mr acting-consul Mowat and insisted on his reporting the matter to H.M.'s Minister at Beijing. Mowat pooh-poohed the whole thing as a farce and so it proved in reality though very costly and dangerous to me.\n\nInstructions were soon received from H.M.'s Minister at Beijing and Mason was removed from the Central Hotel on the Bund to H.M.'s", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216098, "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-2002", "page_number": 397, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "331\n\nTram with an open-neck shirt and an off-white, wet-wash Saigon-linen suit. He had a necktie in his pocket to put on for meetings. He carried a Hong Kong (rattan) basket: no briefcase for him. One thing you did not do, in those days, was to mention the expiry of the lease and the hand back of the Territory to China in 1997, I did once, at a reception, and regretted it. You could hear a pin drop. It really was a 'borrowed place on borrowed time.'\n\nWhen I arrived conscription was still in force and every able-bodied British subject had to serve. If you were young, in your twenties, you usually joined the Regiment (the Volunteers). People like me, in my thirties, served in the Special Constabulary (in 1959 it became the Auxiliary Police). Those over 40 were drafted into Essential Services, such as air-raid warden duties. New recruits such as me, in the police European contingent, did three months basic training and 10 days at camp every year. At the latter the European contingent was grouped with the Portuguese and Eurasian contingent. There was a separate camp for Chinese. This was said to be largely for language reasons. Of course we all turned out during the five days of the 1956 riots. These were sparked when a junior civil servant pulled down a Nationalist flag, on the \"Double Tenth\" (10 October), from a Shek Kip Mei resettlement block in north Kowloon. The riots were very much Communists against Nationalists. Later, triads stepped in and took advantage of the situation.\n\nRoutinely, we Special Constables went on street patrol a couple of nights a month and raided opium dens and brothels. One of the interesting places we enjoyed going to was Circular Path, to the south of Queen's Road Central. With urban renewal this path has now disappeared. It contained, among other accommodation, a number of back-street workshops where reputedly stolen jade items and the like were \"re-worked.\"\n\n**\n\nI remember being on police patrol in Central, in April 1956, when we received news that the twice knighted, grand old man, Sir Robert Ho Tung, had passed away. He was 93, although for much of his life he did not enjoy good health. A Eurasian, he had \"gone the Chinese way.\" With his fabulous wealth he lived the life of a Chinese gentleman. It is sometimes said, 'All rivers which run into the China Sea turn salty.' In other words, all ethnic groups living in China get assimilated sooner or later.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216109, "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-2002", "page_number": 408, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "342\n\nthey would have provided (had they been left) and for the urban lineage they would have represented. Those wonderful old buildings are no longer with us to provide anchors in times of need.\n\nThey were replaced within a few years by high-rise air-conditioned buildings. Many depend upon artificial lighting and ventilation and have windows which do not open. Today, so many live and work in an artificial atmosphere. This major change led long ago to people discarding shorts and open-necked shirts and wearing two-piece suits and more formal and more uncomfortable clothing. The new lifestyle meant the better off were stepping from their air-conditioned homes, carrying brief cases, into their air-conditioned cars and then being conveyed to their air-conditioned offices.\n\nAt the end of World War Two the Chinese Nationalist Government was waiting in the wings just over the border to take over Hong Kong. But the British beat them to it. If the Americans had had their way, and British rule had been terminated in Hong Kong in 1945 and the place had been returned to China, it is possible to speculate what would have happened. In 1949 Hong Kong, like other big cities in China, would have been taken over by the People's Republic Government. This would have meant that, after 30 or so years of communist rule, Hong Kong would have been as backward economically as the rest of China. There would have been no 'Hong Kong miracle'. After 1978 the Territory would not have been able to form a nucleus for the economic development for the rest of China with its 'Open Door Policy.'\n\nPigeons\n\nUp until 1914 every marine launch of Hong Kong's Water Police (as the Marine Police were known then) took a few pigeons on board. These were used to fly messages back to headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. But in spite of the introduction of radio the pigeons were kept on strength. Members of the force contributed to buy them food. The flock of about 50 birds came to be looked upon much like the Barbary Apes at Gibraltar or the Ravens at the Tower of London. It was said when the pigeons departed from Marine Police Headquarters so would the British from Hong Kong.\n\nThe pigeons disappeared during the Japanese occupation but were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216431, "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-2003", "page_number": 190, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "140\n\nthe Russian military with a major headache. Russian attempts to destroy brigandage inadvertently increased the dislike with which they were regarded by the local inhabitants. It was not long before Chinese peasants supported the bandits who also received secret encouragement from Chinese and Manchu officials. The native officials hated the foreign usurpation of their power, but were impotent to openly protest against it.\n\nThe Russians tried to avoid any interference with the Chinese provincial administration in Manchuria which remained intact, continuing in the hands of Chinese officials, though the Russians instituted their own police service. However, the Russian occupation was distasteful to the official class as a whole, as it diminished both their prestige and, consequently, their emoluments. So that from the official class the Russian met with a hostility which took the form chiefly of passive resistance.\n\nA number of snippets in the illustrated War in the East refer to the 'Chunchuses' operating alongside Russian troops on the road to Mukden. One such reads 'On 15th June 1905 took place the battle of Telissu while on the 12th General Kuoki reported the occupation of Huairen Xian by a detachment of his (Japanese) troops, who expelled a force of six hundred Russians and Chunchuses.'\n\nThe Red Beards were to all intents and purposes soldiers of fortune, and as such fought for whomsoever they wished but only for as long as it suited them. In view of their general attitude towards the Russians it was surprising that they ever co-operated with them in the field. However, the Red Beards resembled the Cossacks with their habits of free life and distrust of military discipline, a common love of their horses and a shared prowess at horsemanship.\n\nBandits serving with Japanese forces\n\nThe Japanese were quick to appreciate the potential of the Hong Huzi as guerrillas. The large contemporary two-volume Japan's Fight for Freedom, a contemporary illustrated popular history produced in Britain, included several references to the Hong Huzi, describing them in the text as 'Hunhuses, serving under Japanese command.'", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216504, "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-2003", "page_number": 263, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "215\n\nbasis of the 'School for Language in Education' (p. 229) that she mentions as the first of the Schools formed in the Institute of Education.\n\nIt is not true that the British Hong Kong Administration considered that knowledge and use of the Chinese language were not necessary to their work in Hong Kong (p. 244). From the beginning, there was considerable consciousness of the need for Chinese Language skills, and considerable effort was made to provide for appointees who would study the language and also, whenever pragmatically possible, to appoint persons who had studied Chinese already. At the time of the return of Hong Kong to Mainland China, westerners in the Administrative Service and the Police Force were still required to have or to acquire these skills.\n\n——\n\nIt is not true that 'the policy of mother tongue instruction' (i.e. the policy of using the mother tongue as the medium of instruction) in Hong Kong was ‘introduced only in 1997' (p. 244). The policy had been in place for decades, but in the face of parents' and teachers' objections, the British Administration had judged it inappropriate to do more than highly recommend compliance.\n\nIntroducing her earlier book, the highly-commended China's Universities, 1895-1995, Hayhoe explains (new edition of 1999, p. xiv) that her objective is to tell a story, not a history, and she admits that, while she had conducted hundreds of interviews with well-informed, relevant witnesses, she had not burrowed in the archives as a historian needs to do. To some extent her Autobiography seems to have followed a similar method and to be based on the same assumptions. For this, however, she did have the inestimable treasure of all her letters home to her Mother, written twice-weekly in her early years away, and handed over to Hayhoe not quite six years after her Mother's death. -- Her own diary, unfortunately, Hayhoe lost during a move. -- But she also had her early, unpublished creative writing, written in 1970s Hong Kong and the 'torrent' of her published academic writing.\n\nWhether writing history or story, however, a mind trained by a Classical education to operate like a steel trap (Full Circle, p.196) can lead to discomfort for its owner as well as for others if the facts it bases its operation on are not scrupulously correct. An exclusive or very heavy reliance on oral history (China's Universities, op. cit., p.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]