[ { "id": 204926, "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-1965", "page_number": 34, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "27\n\nTHE POPULATION OF CHINA\n\nA LETTER ON THE POPULATION OF CHINA,\n\naddressed to the Registrar General, London:\n\nBy SIR JOHN BOWRING. Read to the Society, 8th August, 1855.\n\n(Editor's Note:-Beginning with the present volume the Society will reprint a selected article from the Transactions of the old China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society whenever it is convenient to do so. There were published in Hong Kong six Transactions of the China Branch between the years 1847 and 1859. The only known complete extant sets of the Transactions in the Colony are the microfilmed sets recently acquired by the Library of the University of Hong Kong and by the Society. The present selection is taken from Transactions, Part V, 1855, pp. 1-16. The author was Governor of Hong Kong, 1854 to 1859, and an able early President of the Society. The subject is one of continuing, intriguing interest. The article is reprinted here in its original, unrevised form.)\n\nGovernment House, Hong Kong, 13th July, 1855.\n\nSir, I wish it were possible to give a satisfactory reply to your inquiries as to the real Population of China.\n\nThere has been no official census taken since the time of Kia King, 43 years ago. Much doubt has been thrown upon the accuracy of these returns, which give 362,447,183 as the total number of the inhabitants of China. I think our greater knowledge of the country increases the evidence in favour of the approximative correctness of the official document, and that we may with tolerable safety estimate the present population of the Chinese Empire as between 350,000,000 and 400,000,000 of human beings. The penal Laws of China make provision for a general system of registration; and corporal punishments, generally amounting to 100 blows of the bamboo, are to be inflicted on those who neglect to make the proper returns. The machinery is confided to the Elders of the district, and the census is required to be annually taken; but I have no reason to believe the law is obeyed, or the neglect of it punished,\n\nIn the English translation of Father Alvares Semedo's history of China published in London A.D. 1655, is the following passage\n\n\"This kingdom is so exceedingly populous, that having lived there two-and-twenty years, I was in no less amazement at my", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204965, "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-1965", "page_number": 73, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "66\n\n: JEN YU-WEN : \n\nIn the summer of 1958 a number of Chinese and Western historians, writers, poets, reporters and government officers accompanying the author, who had taken the principal interest in and had organized the research project, made three trips to the place to see and study the historic object. As a result of painstaking research and study, we are now able to decipher and read every character engraved there and to understand the exact meaning of the whole text. The full text is rendered more clearly on the opposite page.\n\nThe inscription and engraving were done by the Administrator of the salt field, Kuan-fu-ch'iang (Kwoon-fu-ch'eung) a place which is identified as present-day Kowloon Peninsula. The text describes the Administrator's full name and position, his visit to the site, the construction of the Stone Pagoda on South Fu-t'ang (the islet south of North Fu-t'ang now officially named Tung-lung Island), the repairing and renewing of these two places successively by several persons, the erection of another stone tablet (now disappeared), and finally, the elaborate repairs carried out by a local celebrity, Lin Tao-yi (Lum To-yi), who caused the text to be engraved on the rock on the aforementioned date.\n\nLin Tao-yi was also responsible for the construction of the Temple of T'ien-hou at North Fu-t'ang. The author, after visiting the place, had the privilege of being invited by some of his descendants in Kowloon to read their Genealogical Record mentioned above. It was found that Tao-yi's great-grandfather originally hailed from P'u-t'ien (P'o-t'in), South Fukien, and was the first ancestor of their clan to migrate to Kwangtung settling down in Kowloon sometime during the Southern Sung period. His own son had had two sons, Sung-chien (Ch'ung-kin) and Po-chien (P'ak-kin). The two brothers engaged in the transportation business with large sailing vessels between sea ports along the coast and Kowloon. Once while returning south they met with a typhoon near the Fu-t'ang gap. The ship was wrecked and sunk, but they held on to the matshed-cover of the ship which kept them floating. On the cover was a tablet of the Goddess Lin Ta-ku whom they had been worshipping aboard the ship. They tied their loosened hair to it and swam to South Fu-t'ang. Landing in safety they firmly believed that the Goddess had saved their lives and immediately made the matshed-cover", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206260, "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": 77, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS AND KAIFONGS\n\n71\n\nthey really lack the funds to employ professionally qualified staff. Therefore, many Kaifongs ran into financial problems soon after their establishment. Their activities are therefore not only conducted on a charitable basis. Some have organized recreational and educational classes, charging participation fees for them, and others run large-scale fee-paying schools.\n\nOn the other hand, the work of the Kaifongs is very much under the influence of Government policy, although theoretically the Kaifongs are independent associations. In the 1950s the Hong Kong Government was relying a great deal on the voluntary organizations for providing social welfare, because the Government itself had limited financial resources during the post-war years. However, when a Social Welfare Department was established in 1958, it seemed that the Government was ready to extend its own hand over many branches of welfare work. A special section for Community Organization was formed within the new Department, the specific purpose of which was to organize and assist residents in community development projects. Thus, again with Government encouragement, the Kaifongs began to change their emphasis to community organization in the early 1960s. Both the Government and the Kaifongs' attention was caught by the so-called youth problem, considered to have reached threatening proportions after the 1966 Riots. Earlier the 1961 Census had shown that 50% of Hong Kong's population was below 21 years of age and that 40% were under 15 years of age. The youth programme has thus claimed a good deal of both the Government's and the Kaifongs' effort in the present decade.\n\nIn addition, the Kaifongs have increasingly made representations to the Government. Such representations cover mainly social and economic policies, particularly those concerning local Kaifong districts, such as involving urban renewal, public health and sanitation, and business control. Although the Kaifongs have always claimed to be representatives of public opinion, before the 1960s the Kaifongs mainly transmitted Government policies to the general public. They also helped the Government departments in organizing community drives such as Road Safety, Keep Your City Clean campaigns, Anti-epidemic campaigns etc. But they had seldom exerted any pressure over Government decision-making. But since the mid-60s, particularly since the 1966 and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207408, "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": 176, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "168\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nthe administration of the hospital. Though his wife and family had been safely evacuated in 1940 he had continued to live in his house, and sometime after our surrender I well recall him telling me that he had never in his life felt more care-free, for having lost practically all his possessions he had little left to worry about.\n\nLieutenant Colonel Cedric Shackleton was a powerfully built man, not very tall but with strong facial features. He was polite enough to the Japanese but to me he always seemed to carry a “be damned to you\" expression. Much of this was simply natural to him as I recognised from having known him for years, but though I do not recall any incidents, I think the Japanese, sensitive as they were, may have felt that they had met a formidable character.\n\nSome dogs had been brought by V.A.D's and others when they mobilised for duty from their homes, and it was gradually borne in upon their owners that feeding and other problems made it undesirable to keep the animals and with one exception they were put down. The exception was a splendid Dobermann being cared for by our Corporal Thompson for a friend of his in Victoria. Thompson was on the quartermaster's staff and had a way of doing things with impunity for which less skilful men would have been soundly punished by the Japanese. We profited in our rations from this talent and eventually he got the dog back to its home in Victoria though I believe that few dogs survived long in civil life.\n\nOne of our own men returned to us gravely wounded very early in January 1942. Corporal Norman Leath had been working in the Army Medical Stores at Shau Ki Wan near the Japanese landing points on the Island. When the store was overrun the staff who remained were lined up on the steep hillside by their captors and used for sword practice. In most cases the men were killed outright. In the present case the blow aimed to cut off the victim's head was directed at the back of the neck. The force of it toppled him down hill off the track on which he was standing. Some time later he discovered to his surprise that he was still alive and could move, and after a time he crawled away unseen and reaching a road, was picked up in a car which took him to the Queen Mary Hospital in Pokfulam. There he was succoured and shortly afterwards was transferred to Bowen Road. His wound was both wide and deep and his spinal cord had escaped by a miracle. Major Anderson did a splendid job of surgical repair and in due course the victim returned to take charge of the hospital office until our", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207763, "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-1976", "page_number": 151, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "136\n\nW. A. REYNOLDS\n\nport for the work came from American United China Relief (UCR) funds through the American Friends Service Council (AFSC); there were members from Canada, U.S.A., New Zealand, as well as China itself; and the self-sufficiency required was much greater than that of other FAU groups.\n\nThe original plan, worked out in late 1940 and early 1941, was for a group of forty men, equipped with 20 trucks, a mobile operating theatre and mobile workshop, to undertake two tasks. The first was the transport of medical supplies into China from Burma and the second provision of medical teams to work with civilian and military hospitals. The proposals had the support of the British Fund for the Relief of Distress in China under Dr. H. Gordon Thompson, the Foreign Office, the U.C.R. and the AFSC. The trucks and equipment were purchased in the US and shipped to Rangoon where they were assembled and driven up to China. Dr. R. B. McClure, a Canadian medical missionary born in China, was appointed to lead the Unit.\n\nIt will be remembered that in 1941 Japan occupied all the coast of China, transport up the railway to Kunming from Hanoi had ceased and the only land routes into the western provinces still held by the Government of the Republic of China under Marshal Chiang Kai Shek were the Burma Road and the road from the USSR via Sinkiang. When the Sino-Japanese war widened into the Pacific War on December 8, 1941, about half of the FAU group had arrived in Burma and China, the first trucks were being assembled in Rangoon and the rest of the party and equipment were on the high seas. All arrived safely and the Unit undertook a number of interesting tasks during the Burma fighting of 1942.1\n\nMedical Services and Supplies in China\n\nDespite the diversion of manpower and loss of trucks and fuel in Burma the work of transporting medical supplies in China got underway in 1942. In 1941 there were four organizations concerned with military and civilian medical services:—\n\n1) the Army Medical Administration (AMA)\n\n2) the Chinese Red Cross (CRC)\n\n3) National Health Administration (NHA) Weishengshu (衛 生 署) with its civilian hospitals and clinics.\n\n4) Over 100 mission hospitals, responsible to their own Mission Boards.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208385, "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": 109, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "POLITICIZATION OF CHINESE CRAFT ORGANIZATION\n\n93\n\nwould hold a meeting. Attendance usually ran upwards of twenty people and various items of business to which the union had to see were dealt with, such as: a response to a letter from the Registry of Trade Unions of the Hong Kong government; preparations for the October 1st celebration; discussion of the wage raise to be demanded and ultimately attained in 1973, planning of a picnic which was to take place on the birthday of the historic founder of the carpentry and carving trades, Lupan (discussed below), etc.\n\nOn occasion a representative from the Federation of Trade Unions would sit in on a meeting to see how the union was doing, bringing with him or her news of significance to the labor movement in general for workers to discuss, and these discussions were usually fairly lively, most participants doing their best to give a favorable impression of the workings of their union.\n\nOnce a month the union receives copies of a Federation of Trade Union newspaper entitled Hong Kong Worker (*1st) in which various sorts of articles concerning the working class in Hong Kong appear. There are also articles about China, explanations of current policy initiatives, sports news, a regular women's column and political cartoons as well. On March 29, 1973 I was invited to sit in on a discussion of the articles in the latest issue. The headline article concerned the death of several construction workers who had fallen from scaffolding during the construction of the new Connaught Center Building on Hong Kong island. A free-ranging discussion followed the reading aloud of the article, with those workers who could read with facility taking turns reading successive paragraphs. Industrial safety and industrial accidents in Hong Kong were the main topic of the discussion and the question of how this topic applied to workers in the art carved furniture industry was raised and discussed as well. Lest one think the extrapolation to the furniture industry a bit strained, Labor Department figures for industrial accidents for the first four months of 1973 \"were the worst in Hong Kong's history, with an average of one death and 70 injuries every day\" (Hong Kong Standard, June 29, 1973).\n\nA high degree of class identity was expressed by the workers during the discussion and the question of industrial safety linked to relations between workers and capitalists, the drive for profit, lack of concern for workers' welfare, etc. The sessions occur on a regular", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208667, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 124, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n97\n\nOld road boundary stones are being made into headstones, and as for coffins, we have only one and that is used for every funeral, the body being sewn up in a burlap sack and buried thus after the mourners leave. Rumors of more extensive repatriation persist, and according to the Bamboo Wireless now, we are going back to the States by June first. However, according to the super pessimists in Camp, of which there is no dearth, there is to be no repatriation at all; it is only a hoax. Incidentally, also we have in our ranks, some very able statesmen and generals who, if the devil were given his due, could settle all the world's problems. Father Bauer improved under his new treatment and diet. Evidently Dr. Kirk has found the root of the trouble.\n\nEXTRA: Our flour ration has been stepped up to 8 ounces per person per day, and today, we get one bun and a piece of bread for tiffin. Our garden and other tools have been returned but they must be kept locked up at night in the community storeroom lest we dig our way to safety.\n\n23—Funeral Mass at 8:30 for Mr. Simmons. Burial service at 6 p.m. in the cemetery, conducted by the Rev. Mr. Martin, former Head Master of St. Stephen's College. This was occasioned by the finding of some human bones around St. Stephen's which may be those of soldiers, British or Canadian, who fell during the fighting at Stanley. Included among the names of those on the small box containing the bones were those of Dr. Black, Capt. Whitney and the three English nurses (one a Catholic lady) who were killed in St. Stephen's College Hospital on Christmas Day.\n\nIn the early days of the Camp, a number of unburied bodies of soldiers were found at various spots, and when possible, buried by the internees, and as we take our evening stroll, we often pass and repass these graves of unknown soldiers. A few, however, have been marked and a small wooden cross erected, and in some instances, friends of the dead soldier have fixed up the grave quite attractively with stones. In the cemetery, too, a few very industrious and charitable men are working, making paths and in many ways trying to beautify the grounds with the limited material at hand.\n\n24----His Excellency, Bishop O'Gara, preached a eulogy this morning at a Requiem Mass, said by Father Hessler, for those whose remains were buried last evening. Another death among the British, of cancer. Quite a good-sized piece of bread today.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209241, "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-1981", "page_number": 144, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "130\n\nTA ACTON\n\nearnest students of all ages doing the homework impossible to do in crowded one-room flats) The report suggests that even though land-based jobs had increased awareness of the need for secondary education, drop-out rates of those who started on it remained high because of the physical difficulties in the way of studying. The F.M.O. schools are not, however, mentioned in the report, nor have I seen any F.M.O. comments on these findings.\n\n38\n\nThe report of the survey concludes that the plight of the poor boat-people is an indication of a more general social malaise, the devil-take-the-hindmost atmosphere of Hong Kong. They suggest that the Government should accept responsibility for re-settling the casualties of the mechanisation of the fishing industry from which the rest of the community has benefitted. In the long term, a better understanding of the Shui-sheung-yans' needs was required by the housing authority, who should plan in accordance with forecasts about the manpower needs of the fishing industry. The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries should extend the availability of its loans so that less initial capital is required of the borrower. New fishermen's villages could be built by the Housing Department, and the Labour Department and the Education Department should co-operate to increase the general levels of education and training in industrial skills. In the short term, the report urges immediate improvements in safety, rubbish collection, sanitation, and disinfection. Regular checks on boat safety should be made by the Marine Department. The Urban Council should provide study rooms for children, and the Education Department evening literacy classes and industrial training.\n\n39\n\nThe report spurred a campaign which gained wider sympathy. In January 1979 a coach-load of boat-people were arrested on their way to take a petition to Government House. Children as young as seven years of age were finger-printed and charged with illegal assembly, although magistrates refused to proceed with the case against those under the age of 12. The adults, social workers, students, a Catholic missionary and Shui-sheung-yan, were found guilty, but discharged.\n\nAfter this incident, however, the groundswell of liberal support for the boat-people diversified into a general civil rights attack on the Public Order Ordinance itself. This has left the boat-people to fight their housing struggle by themselves, with the help of a few community workers linked to SoCO, such as Fr. Cunbo Franco, an Italian Roman Catholic priest actually living on a boat in the Yaumatei typhoon shelter.\n\n40", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211436, "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-1988", "page_number": 152, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "128\n\ngreat anxiety whenever Grandmother stepped gingerly into the deep water at its source to gather watercress. I believe this spring still supplies water to the Kaneohe area today.\n\nHook Sung Wai was reached from Kamahameha Highway via a narrow unpaved road, but at one point passed by a wide stream, where many rocks and large boulders could be seen in the clear water and which became a terrifying dangerous torrent of rushing water during heavy rainstorms. As there was no bridge over the stream, Uncle found it both difficult and worrisome when he had to drive his horse-drawn buggy across it in bad weather. The children, who walked to Benjamin Parker School, somehow managed to get to and from school safely, regardless of the weather.\n\nIt must have been before the family went into farming that Grandmother found a husband for Chun Moy. He was a middle-aged Hakka farmer surnamed Heu, who took her to Wailuku, Maui, and then to a farm in Kula. After his death and after raising a large family, Chun Moy got in touch with her relatives, a Chang family running dry goods business on Nuuanu Avenue, between King and Hotel Streets. I remember her vaguely as a plain woman, with a worn outlook that clearly reflected her hard life. She died in her sleep on her last visit with these relatives. My generation came to know her children as a result of a meeting at their home between my cousin, Helen, and Robert Zane, whom she married. Two of Chun Moy's sons were Heu Fook and Heu Sam Fat, both now deceased. The latter was eager to learn something about his mother's background, wondering how she had come to Hawaii. He was told that Chun Moy had been adopted by my grandmother. Some of Chun Moy's grandchildren have done well, and are active politically in Hawaii.\n\nGrandmother thought it would be mutually beneficial to advance money to bring her two nephews, Chang Lum Gin and Chang Lum Tim, from China to help on the farm. Following this, she welcomed into the household a 16-year-old girl, Wong Fung, said to be a native of Shanghai and brought to this country by Chun Kwai Ha, a neighbour who was taking his family back to China. It was an acceptable cultural practice in those days to bring a young maid into a household and marry her to a member of the family at a later date. Grandmother had intended Wong Fung to be the bride for Lum Gin, but\n\n+", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212184, "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": 126, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "103\n\nwould decide to defend their capital and how long it would take the Japanese to reach it. Such questions as whether the time had arrived to send up to Hankow for the winter clothes, forwarded there for safety in August, became of secondary importance. When to get out and how to get out was all that mattered. Some decided to join the ships leaving for Hankow; others decided to board the ships proceeding down river to Chinkiang, where they proposed to wait until the expected opening of the fortified boom, with which the Chinese had blocked the Yangtze lower down at Kiangyin. By the end of the month all foreigners had left, except such as had been able to arrange for accommodation on the few gunboats and commercial vessels, which were to stand-by in the Yangtze off Nanking, until the approaching wave of warfare had passed over, and except also a few newspaper correspondents and certain gallant missionaries, mostly American, who intended to remain in the city, refusing to desert the Chinese friends with whom they had so long associated.\n\nIn the opening days of December there was increasing evidence of the rapid approach of the Japanese forces. Much of the motor traffic, which during the days of the removal of the Government had roared down Chung Shan road, left by the highways for Kiangsi and Hunan; and there was a marked diminution of troop movement through the City. One by one the city gates were closed and filled in solid with earth and timber to the full depth of the wall, until only two were left ajar. The air raids increased in intensity. Throughout these trying days the excellent discipline maintained by the Chinese troops impressed onlookers. Later in Shanghai I again heard criticism of the way the troops acting under instructions burned the suburbs outside the city wall so as to provide a good field of fire for the defence of the town. Few nowadays probably remember that it was the Chinese who first gave currency to the expression \"scorched earth\".\n\nSounds of distant gun-fire were first heard on December 8th. By the following day all the members of my office staff were embarked on a ship which had been reserved for us. From the deck, on the morning of December 11th, shrapnel could be seen bursting over the South wall, on the far side of the city. Besides a number of barges and tugs, the collection of ships included two British gunboats, 'Scarab' and 'Cricket', two river steamers belonging to Messrs. Butterfield and Swire, three Standard Oil ships, two ships of the Asiatic", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212199, "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": 141, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "118\n\n1 left by steamer for Canton, the great southern Chinese town, which sprawls along the shore of the Pearl River; and spent a few days on the Shameen mud-bank, just off the city, where the small British and French Concessions are. The Concessions were untouched; but, across the narrow creek that separates them from the shore, the city had suffered heavily from bombing, and from the fires which raged furiously in the congested native districts after each raid. One morning I crossed to the South bank and took the branch line to Samshui on the West river, where I caught the steamer for Wuchow in Kwangsi province.\n\nAlthough owned by a Chinese company, the small river steamer flew the British flag. That was a phenomenon common enough on the inland waters of China. The foreign flag protected the ship from being commandeered by the local war lord. Sometimes for months on end steam traffic, on this water-way or that, would be completely disorganised. The Chinese ships would be impressed to carry the troops of the various armies contending for power. It was only under a foreign flag that they could find the security which would justify their remaining in operation at all. The British government did not welcome this use of the British flag, and introduced regulations to control abuse of the privilege. In order to qualify for British registry a ship must at least carry a British captain and a British chief engineer, and must comply with the Board of Trade regulations in regard to safety measures. But even so, the Chinese owners would make every effort to obtain British registry for their ships, thus in one direction taking advantage of the treaties between Britain and China while, in the other, probably contributing to the Kuo Min Tang party funds, which were used to denounce the iniquities of those very same treaties. In order to comply with the letter of the regulations, the particular ship I now found myself on carried three British officers, whose aggregate age exceeded 200 years. They were, of course, mere figure-heads, the actual work being done by the Chinese officers and crew. These river-boats kept communications open and provided a measure of security for travellers - owing to the presence of British gunboats these small ships moving on inland waters were seldom attacked by bandits which otherwise would have been lacking.\n\n―\n\nIn Kwangsi the road system had been extended to connect Wuchow with the other large towns of the province and I left by car for Kweilin, the capital. An American aviator, who had been down to Hongkong on a shopping expedition, travelled with me as far as", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212201, "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": 143, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "120\n\nwhich the government was hurriedly building from Hengyang, on the Canton-Hankow line. The embankment was finished, the culverts and bridges were in, and the construction gangs laying the rails were only a few miles off. The rails had been salvaged from sections of line abandoned to the invader in the distant north, and brought to Kwangsi despite great difficulties.\n\nI drove on to Hengyang and on the way observed one of those curious inconsistencies to which you grow accustomed in China. The Ministry of Communications, all the handicaps of the war notwithstanding, continued resolutely with its programme of road building. Where rivers were too wide to justify bridges, ferries were used. The ferry boat, a wide pontoon long enough to carry two lorries, one behind the other, would be poled across the river, or rowed over those stretches where the water might be too deep. As the current often ran fast some skill was needed to bring the ferry safely to the far side, and it took time. You would have thought that on these main roads, on which the movement of war supplies depended, relays of ferries would have been installed at the wider rivers to avoid unnecessary delay. Not only was that not so, but the ferry men, who were controlled by the Provincial Road Bureaux under the Ministry of Communications, refused to work after dark, or at meal hours. The consequence was that again and again a long string of vehicles would be held up waiting to cross, and if the ferry-trip took half an hour, as it usually did, you might have to wait a whole day for your turn. The wooden ferry boats were of local construction and not difficult to build. It would have been easy to increase the number of boats and ferrymen, but these serious bottlenecks in transportation continued to hamper the Chinese war effort. Only too often have Japanese bombers taken advantage of the target presented by a group of vehicles bunched at a ferry.\n\nBetween Kweilin and Hengyang you pass the watershed that separates the Yangtze basin from the West river basin. An ancient narrow canal, five feet wide, recently repaired, connects the two headwaters. There is an old story of a British gunboat having come up from the West river past Kweilin to a point whence those on board could see the mast-tops of a sister ship which had sailed up from the Yangtze. The masts must have been very tall; or perhaps the story is tall, because actually the gap between them could not have been less than thirty miles.\n\nWithout stopping at Hengyang I went straight through the same", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212609, "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": 163, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "143\n\nerected, to look like a Japanese post. The Commando men were to attack it by unorthodox methods. The function of the mock defenders was to touch off electric wires, leading to 4 oz. sticks of gelignite buried in various places round the fort, to simulate the burst of trench mortar shells. The distinguished visitors were lined up and, while their attention was directed to the explosions and smoke round the fort, a charge of 50 lbs. of dynamite, which had been lashed to a tree somewhat to the rear of the exalted party, was set off with a most colossal bang. The tree, cut in half, fell across the road, the distinguished visitors all ducked, and the troops unanimously voted the party a great success.\n\nWe had graduated as experts in demolition. The subject is quite fascinating; I never pass a bridge now without making a mental calculation of where best it could be cut, how much explosive would be required, and in what way it should be attached to the structure. The details will bore most soldiers, but may be of sufficient interest to the uninitiated. In order to blow a thing up, besides the explosive, you need a detonator, a piece of safety fuse - unless you are using electricity - and a match or other form of igniter, of which there are a number. The safety fuse burns at the rate of half a foot in thirty seconds. The length required depends on how far you must remove yourself from the explosion and that depends on the amount of explosive, and the type of material you are cutting. Having cut your fuse to the correct length, you insert one end gently into the detonator; you then bore a hole in the explosive with a pencil or other non-metal implement, insert the detonator in the hole, light the fuse and retire. We were taught not to run away, but to walk away; it is better for morale.\n\nThe explosives themselves vary. The pound slab of guncotton, though very effective is going out of use because, being rigid, it is difficult to attach. One explosive, 808, comes in small cartridges of 4 or 8 oz., wrapped in waxed paper, and is gelatinous, but too stiff to mould easily. It contains a high proportion of nitro-glycerine, which gives one a very severe headache after handling. The effect is brought about by absorption through the skin of the fingers, and can be avoided by wearing rubber gloves: I have, however, never seen rubber gloves issued for the purpose. Constant exposure to the stuff builds up immunity. Some explosives, incidentally, such as 808, in addition to a detonator, require a primer to send them off. These are made of dry guncotton, shaped like a large cork, with a ready prepared hole in the middle to receive the detonator. You tie on the primer somewhere towards the middle of your charge.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212629, "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": 183, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "163\n\nJapanese planes were reported to be patrolling the road. We rolled back the hood from the rear half of the lorry and posted two sentries, one looking forward and the other aft, to sound the alarm should any planes be seen. The stores made such a rattle that in the cab you could not hear a shout from the rear, and so a string was led forward and tied to my wrist where I sat next to the driver. Three sharp tugs meant: \"Plane in sight, stop and get out quick\". Our lorry was always full of odd people, besides our own party, as in those days of transportation shortage there would be a crowd of passengers, civilian and military, male and female, at all stopping places, hoping for a lift. The trouble was that their idea of when the lorry was fully loaded and ours seldom agreed, and they would continue to pile in with their bundles long after, in our opinion, the safety margin had been passed.\n\nThe thought of our cargo made my hair stand on end. We had broken every safety rule inscribed in the manuals of the Royal Ordnance Corps. In addition to four large drums of petrol, we had a ton of ammonal, several boxes each of primers and detonators, some Mills and 69 grenades, rolls of instantaneous and detonating fuse, and a number of odd boxes of other types of explosive, such as gelignite and 808; each of these materials should have been segregated, and here they were all higgledy-piggledy with a quantity of shovels, picks, axes, and other metal implements jangling in the steel body of our lorry, and only too liable to spark. Our casual passengers liked to smoke and in their delightfully inconsequential way could not understand why we should object. It was a situation that would have pleased the \"Mad Hatter\", and the climax came when after a particularly bad bump over a pot hole one of the petrol drums burst a seam. The alarm signal was given and I pulled up in quick time to learn that the trouble was not a hostile plane but to meet a reek of petrol that spread a mile and to see the whole of our cargo soaked in the precious fluid which poured away to the earth from a corner of the vehicle. It did not take me long to turn off the engine. The members of our party jumped out and seized any handy can or bucket to catch the jetting petrol; others threw out part of the cargo so that we could reach the drum, which we eventually succeeded in turning over with the burst seam on the upper side. Having escaped disaster thus far, I ordered the whole of the party well away from the truck till the cargo had dried out and the spilt petrol had evaporated.\n\nOn the fourth day a van full of American aviators passed us. They were some of General Doolittle's men, who had parachuted into China", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213115, "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": 183, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "The road and terry junction in this area attracted attention from the military authorities from an early date. While the Salt Commission and the Pearl Monopoly were active in Mars Bay, law and order were probably maintained by the special salt and pearl troops. After these were withdrawn, a military post was established at Shek Chung Au, with a watchtower nearby. This was close to the Wu Shek Kok ferry pier, and near to the road junction at Wo Hang Au. Other troops were established at Yim Tin. In various formulations and strengths, this military position remained at Shek Chung Au for several hundred years, until the mid-nineteenth century - eloquent testimony to the continuing importance of this traffic node.\n\nSha Tau Kok's position in the road system of the area gave it two economic advantages. The first was the Sha Yue Chung Ferry. There was only one a day in the early twentieth century, and this can safely be assumed to have been the case earlier as well. Many travellers, therefore, would be obliged to spend the night in Sha Tau Kok, or at least several hours, waiting for the ferry, and, if the weather was bad, these enforced waits could stretch out to several days. There was, as a result, plenty of opportunity for merchants in the town to profit from servicing travellers held up there. As noted already, in the 1920s Sha Tau Kok had more guesthouses, restaurants, and entertainment facilities than most towns in the area, and although most of those facilities were new, servicing the new frontier garrison and Customs staff, some at least were certainly a feature of the town from an earlier period.\n\nThe other great economic advantage was the geographical location of Sha Tau Kok in relation to Sham Chun. Sham Chun was at the head of navigation on the Sham Chun River, and was a busy port for the small junks that came up the river from Deep Bay. Sham Chun was, therefore, well located as far as water-borne traffic from the west went. But Sham Chun had no water route to the east, to Mirs Bay. By sea from Sham Chun to Sha Tau Kok is a good hundred miles: by land, barely seven. There were three important commodities not available in the Deep Bay area which could be had from the Mirs Bay area - rice, some sorts of quality fresh fish, and salt. Sha Tau Kok was, in effect, the port of Sham Chun to the east, where these commodities in particular were landed, and then carried by coolies over the Miu Keng pass to Sham Chun.\n\nMirs Bay was usually - despite occasional famines - a rice surplus area. The Sham Chun and Deep Bay area was a rice shortage area, even", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213379, "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-1994", "page_number": 201, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "188\n\nThese sites and their associated trees, which are usually of a great age and which villagers often claim were planted when the village was founded, are of fundamental importance to the fortunes of a village, more so than the fung shui woods themselves. In some villages, such as Ma Mat Wei, during the last war fung shui woods were felled so that rice could be bought for the impoverished villagers. The important individual fung shui trees, however, were never felled. Villagers will go to great lengths to protect these sites from private development and from government projects. Roads may be diverted to avoid harming such sites. While the importance of certain trees can be determined on fung shui principles, villagers who do not possess any fung shui knowledge may just call any tree they want to protect a \"fung shui tree\".\n\nShrines are in various states of repair or dilapidation according to the devotion and resources of the villagers and shrines may sometimes be completely rebuilt, such as at Tai Om where one of the main shrines was first built seventy years ago, but was rebuilt in the last few years and is surrounded by a small garden. Sometimes shrines may also be relocated, usually because of a road widening scheme, and the relocation of a shrine is a very serious fung shui matter. The relocation shrine at Wo Hop Shek, near Fanling, is an example.\n\nOccasionally a shrine may be abandoned, presumably due to a loss of efficacy by the residing deity. The Tai Wong shrine in the wood at Ho Sheung Heung is no longer worshipped, while it is the earth god, Fuk Tak Gung, who resides in the comfort of the village temple. There are also three Tze Jik shrines, which are more important than Paak Kung, protecting the village to the north, east and south. These shrines are particularly worshipped by farmers and protect the whole community.\n\nA typical layout of village shrines may be seen at Man Uk Pin, north east of Fanling. The Tai Wong shrine on the northern arm of the fung shui wood protects the whole village. The water spirit Paak Kung, by the dam on the stream which borders the fung shui wood, ensures the safety of the drinking water supply. There are also four other Paak Kung facing each of the four directions, with trees planted to protect them, including two within the fung shui wood, and one in the middle of the village. The villagers of Man Uk Pin take their spiritual protectors very seriously. Several villagers claim to have seen the spirit of Tai Wong himself while they were walking along the path at night. He was seen to be dressed in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214310, "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": 168, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "132\n\nArthur Sowerby was recorded in the Directory & Chronicle of China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China, etc. for the years 1932 and 1938 as manager of China Industries Ltd, with an office in Museum Road, Shanghai and in 1938, as a director of the Post-Mercury Company Inc., USA in Avenue Edward VII, also in Shanghai. The latter was involved in printing and advertising.\n\nArthur was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the Zoological Society, a member of the RAS North China Branch and also President [1928] of the China Society of Science and Arts [in Shanghai], as well as being Honorary Director of the Shanghai [RAS] Museum.\n\niii\n\nHe married three times, the first time in about 1910, at the age of twenty-five, to Mary Anne Mesny, the daughter of John Mesny of the Chinese Customs Service. She would have been just about the same age as Arthur though more than likely his elder by a few years. She seems to have disappeared from the scene almost immediately, perhaps dying comparatively young but not before she bore him a son. She does not appear in any notes after their marriage even when his parents and sisters were evacuated from Taiyuan to the safety of Tientsin during riots. This suggests that she was no longer present after about 1911 or 1912. As Mary Anne's father, John Mesny, was married to a Chinese lady whom he married in Hankow in 1866, Mary Anne was half-Chinese. This was a time when mixed marriages and even more so, marriage to someone with native blood, was frowned upon by the more bigoted expatriates.\n\nHis second wife, to whom he was married at the age of forty-two in 1927, was Clarice Moise, the American with whom he founded the China Journal. Clarice died in 1944 during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai.\n\nHis third wife was Alice Cowens, an old friend and the lady who had nursed Arthur's brother when he had been gassed during the First World War. She was invited to join Arthur in Shanghai in the Autumn of 1946 at a time when he was too ill to travel back to England alone and promptly flew out, first to Hong Kong and then, five days later, she arrived in Shanghai and married him.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214760, "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": 175, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "139\n\nappear heading our way. There's no time to do anything except to man our defence posts. The bombers pass overhead but the fighters swoop down on us and pour a concentrated fire into our planes. We give them all we've got which is precious little. Some Indian troops get panicky and rush into a shelter, in their excitement they fire their Lewis gun. There is a mad rush for safety and by a miracle no one is hit. After twenty minutes of concentrated attack by the fighters the Beeste with bombs goes up in smoke and the two Walrus are left blazing and sink. Finally they make off, not unscarred we hope, and we inspect the damage. Both Walrus are gone, one Beeste is ablaze, another badly damaged, leaving one plane intact. We attempt to put out the fire praying that the bombs won't explode. The blaze is too fierce and she is completely burned with two red hot heavy bombs amongst the ruins. One aircraft left but no casualties to personnel. Eight civil machines are burnt out including the American clipper. In the afternoon, bombers come over again bombing the docks and Kowloon, one stick dropping on the aerodrome. Heavy fighting reported on the frontier, the Japs said to be using one division with another in reserve.\n\nTuesday 9th. After a quiet but sleepless night comes a hectic morn with rumour and counter rumour. Heavy bombing of docks and shipping and a big blaze is started in Kowloon. The Japs make a breakthrough on the Castle Peak Road. Chang Kai Shek's army reported to be coming up behind the Japs and we realize it is our only chance of holding the mainland with two brigades against two divisions. Oil dump at Lai Chi Kok set ablaze by bombs.\n\nWednesday tenth. News of fighting on mainland bad and we are ordered by the GOC, Major General Maltby, to evacuate to the island. We smash up all valuable equipment and burn all secret papers. All arms and ammunition to be carried with us, parties taken off by lighters proceed to Aberdeen and thence to the AIS. I left late in the afternoon on the last lighter with twenty men and all the arms and ammunition. Aerodrome strewn with all kinds of obstacles to prevent use by the enemy. Chinese loot our mess as the lighter leaves. When just off the waterfront bombers appear and our skipper takes fright, have to use force before he will proceed. Heavy shelling and bombing of Stonecutters which is bombarding the Japs advancing down Castle Peak Road. We are fired on by our coast defences after rounding Davis but we run up a Union Jack and all is well. Arrive Aberdeen and get", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214765, "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": 180, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "144 \n\nmen start leaving their posts. A scene I never wish to see again. I am in an awkward position as I have no command over the Canadians. Just as they start moving back the road Major Baillee advances down the road waving a revolver and shouting to his men to get back to their posts. Some obey and some don't. The Major is highly excited and his voice rings out through the night calling his men all the names he can think of. The Japs must have a good idea of our positions. He calls his officers and men all the names under the sun and shouts for volunteers to cross the bridge. The Canadians refuse to budge so I, more of a desire to back the Major than of any thought of heroics, go across with him. We reach the other side safely whereupon he is violently sick and I realize he is drunk. Through overwork he worked himself into a state of complete collapse and should have been relieved of his command earlier. We retire still intact. We can hear the Japs wild animal calls and they appear to have gone another way. Most of the Canadians have disappeared and with the few left we set up a mortar which fires its first shell into a nearby tree, explodes, blowing the operator's right arm off and another man nearly loses a leg. Get the wounded into a dugout where there are some others badly wounded and try to stop their bleeding. We only have bandages and several of them are in danger of bleeding to death. Their moans are terrible and although I keep ringing up for an ambulance, none arrives. What a horrible mess and I try to restore some kind of order. After a good talking to, the men pull themselves together and \n\ngo back to their posts. Thank God the ambulance arrives at last, also Lts Campbell and Park, Campbell threatens to put the Major under arrest and Baillee threatens to put every Canadian under arrest. Comes the dawn and most of the Canadians have disappeared. \n\nWhat a Xmas day, empty stomachs, tired out, and heaven knows what is going on. At ten am a message arrives saying there is a truce until midday. This news is immediately followed by a terrific bombardment of our positions. Not my idea of a truce. More Canadians melt away leaving our line practically undefended. I gather the few remaining men together and proceed to climb Mt Gough hoping to join up \n\nwith our main forces. When we reach the top and strike the main road we run into several hundred Canadians retreating from Wanchai Gap. Wanchai Gap is the most vital sector of all and this means the end. We are told that the island surrendered at three thirty, over an hour ago. The troops have no arms and are completely worn out. A scene I will never forget with ammunition dumps going up everywhere and the \n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214766, "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": 181, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "145\n\nJaps pouring hundreds of shells just over our heads into blocks of houses across the road. Finally the barrage stops and white flags appear from all the houses. The troops have got hold of quantities of beer and are singing to relieve their shattered nerves.\n\nI am too stunned to describe my own feelings but decide to try and escape. The Japs are reputed never to take prisoners. With Junior and three of my men we grab an Austin Seven and decide to make a dash for Aberdeen to try to get a boat. The engine won't start but it's all downhill. By now it's dark and the road is very narrow and tricky. We throw away our arms and get aboard. What a ride, crashing through barbed wire and road blocks in the dark but the old Austin showed her worth and we finally coasted into Aberdeen without seeing any Japs. We go straight to the AIS and get hold of a Chinese boy who says he will try to get us a boat with food and water. Then, to our horror, we discovered that the building had been locked and we could not get out as the Japs were outside. What a disappointment and we had nothing to do except find somewhere to sleep not having had a real one for ten days. My old room was a complete shambles so slept on the floor.\n\nFriday twenty sixth. Woke to a beautiful morning being unnaturally quiet and peaceful so that the last few weeks seemed as a nightmare. We were all under orders for the dockyard. Spent most of the morning smashing up thousands of bottles of beer and spirits for fear the Japs would get drunk and run amok. Got a car and set off for the dockyard passing hundreds of Chinese laden down with loot. On arrival at the dockyard we're told to go to the detention barracks, the men being locked up in the cells and we went to China Command. Had a real wash and shaved off my fortnight's growth of beard. The Colonel was in hospital having received a bullet through the neck, eight of our men were dead, and several missing. We had no kit so I decided to try and get back to the AIS. The only transport I could find was an old dairy farm lorry. Whimpey and Frank came with me. Soon we ran into several thousand Japs marching along the road looking tired and ragged. An officer signalled us to stop made me turn the lorry while troops climbed in the back. He indicated by signs that I was to drive them to HK. The troops seemed baffled by our blue uniforms but were quite friendly. Dropped our load and once more set off for the AIS. Passed hundreds more Japs but after some nasty moments finally reached our destination. Found most of our kit and got safely back.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214769, "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": 184, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "148\n\nhave no lights and go to bed soon after dusk. We have one meal at nine and another at five consisting of soggy rice and are permanently hungry. And so ended nineteen forty-one.\n\nJan first. A new year which we hoped would see the end of the war. We hear no news, only wild rumours, and we all wonder what our people at home are thinking as we are unable to tell them of our safety. Soon adapted ourselves to our surroundings and began fixing our rude quarters into some sort of shape. Bits of wood and attap made windows and no kind of scrap was wasted. Had no eating utensils, any old tin had to suffice. Cigarettes very scarce but luckily we had brought some with us.\n\nSecond. Our camp adjoins the main road and the Chinese sell us food stuff at exorbitant prices. We have three hundred dollars and add considerably to our stock of food. My boy, Ay Cheung, brings a basket of food and I slip him some money to get some more.\n\nThird. Take it in turns to go to the wire. Often the Chinese, usually boys, grab the money and run away without giving anything in return. Junior put in charge of messing and we open a tin a day.\n\nFourth. Our chief danger is flies which swarm everywhere, spreading dysentery and the added menace of cholera. We have practically no medical supplies as the Japs have taken them all for their own wounded, which run into thousands. Just as we get to bed a lorry arrives and we are disturbed by the squealing of pigs. Thirty for six thousand men. We all assist in chasing them and put them in a hut.\n\nFifth. Each receive a small lump of fat with our rice, very unappetising.\n\nSixth. My batman Cpl Moulton, who was my fitter, is a great little scrounger and handyman. Manage to buy a camp bed for ten dollars at the fence. Sheer luxury but the canvas is rotten and during the night it collapses and lands me on the floor.\n\nSeventh. Moulton fixes my bed but breaks my rice bowl. Buy a tin of coffee and some vegetables. We make a stew in a bucket and do we enjoy it. Many of the troops have Chinese wives and girlfriends", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215144, "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": 240, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "198\n\nNo.26, which, during the early 1980s had a marvelous garden presided over by Mrs. Heddenstett, a keen cook who grew every imaginable type of herb.\n\nSedan chairs were, of course, the method of transport, in the 1930s on these roads, and photograph No. 4 shows the handlers taking a rest, with a bare Kowloon in the background. The text reads: \"The chairs are comfortable, the springy movement imparted by the bamboo poles, so long and flexible, is delightful, and the steady, almost automatic stride of the men inspires confidence in their ability to bear us safely to the topmost points and down the steepest slopes.' (Presumably these photographs and remarks were taken from the S.C.M.P. of the day.)\n\nLastly, photograph No. 5 is a faint image of an Englishman showing his pith helmeted son the view of Kowloon, with not a building to be seen, taken in the 1930s.\n\nToday of course, the snakes are still active, and recent sightings (and, in some cases, deaths) include pit vipers and cobras. On the subject of wildlife, the author recently heard the coughing sound of a barking deer, high above the road, but hasn't seen the small red-shelled land crabs for years now.\n\nCivet cats and porcupines are still about late at night, the latter shedding quills on the roadway.\n\nUntil a few years ago, a stone monument to the Middlesex Regiment stood at the junction of Harlech and Lugard Roads, but has been removed. The author does not know of its present whereabouts.\n\nThe Geotechnical Department has had a busy time over the last few years, spraying shotcrete on many of the slopes above Harlech and Lugard Roads, to the distress of many of us, but, despite this, the area still has great charm. Current plans from the Government are to upgrade the area to make it more “tourist-friendly” and the author is liaising with the relevant Government Departments to make sure that this is done in a sensitive way. In the absence of major typhoons for many years, the vegetation on Harlech Road has grown wildly and former beautiful views to the south are now obscured. Permission was granted two years ago to cut \"windows\" into the vegetation, and this has proved very popular with visitors and locals alike.\n\nPage 240\n\nPage 241", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215626, "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": 403, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "354\n\nobtained on those occasions, he made a great noise outside, kicked, lost his temper and finally made use of some very nasty words which did not exactly come within the scope of his teaching. This sort of thing occurred several times, and on two or three occasions he passed the night in unpleasant quarters.\n\n'Then he adopted a very unwise plan. He laid a one-sided account of the affair before the military mandarin, and commenced to preach at the people in no unmeasured terms. As his practice was, he continued to stump the town, and soon began to experience a thorn in the flesh during his daily ministrations. He made no attempt to smooth down the growing dislike of the people towards him. The end of it was he was hustled and pelted; made a bolt for it, and reached home in a thoroughly exhausted condition.\n\n'After this he ventured no more among the people, but caused a bamboo scaffolding to be erected in front of his house, about sixteen to eighteen feet high, from which elevated position he continued his preaching. From this comparative place of safety he held forth vehemently against the ungodliness of the people, which soon brought matters to a climax.\n\n'Two or three children happening to die, our reverend missionary was accused of having killed them in some occult manner, for the purpose of stealing their eyes to convert into photographic chemicals. Many Chinese believe that photographic chemicals are made out of deceased children's eyes; if they are not, they say, how could a little water and white powder see to make such correct pictures, especially when they are shut up in the dark in a little black box.\n\n'The natives also complained that the bamboo structure interfered with their fung shui, so down it must come. Our friend rushed to save his property, but was immediately seized by the excited people. Others captured his wife and children; and his furniture and effects, together with the remains of the bamboo, were carried off by numbers of willing hands, only too glad to have found an opportunity of getting rid of him and his belongings. They and all their household gods were quietly deposited on the banks of the broad and rapid Yangtze, with the intimation that, if ever he attempted to show himself in the town again, it would be a dangerous and unwise thing, for he would be summarily", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215818, "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": 117, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "50\n\ninto the territory. Kai Tak Airfield would presumably serve as the base for the B-29s. It was right on the shores of Victoria Harbour, which would make supporting the logistical requirements of the B-29 easier. On paper, its runways of between 4,500 to 4,800 feet long (1,372 to 1,463 metres) were just long enough to accommodate a B-29, which needed at least 4,375 feet (1,333.5 metres) of runway on a soft surface at sea level to take off.36 But such numbers were theoretical, because in practice a runway had to be much longer before it could safely operate a B-29.37 Lengthening Kai Tak's runways would be time consuming, if not impossible, because the area around Kai Tak consisted of mountains and dwellings.38 While there were other places in Hong Kong that were under consideration for airfields, none were as well-equipped or logistically supportable as Kai Tak.\n\nFurthermore, a B-29 needed sturdier, preferably all-weather, runways to support its maximum 70-ton weight, and Kai Tak's runways were still mainly grass with a maximum load factor of 35 tons, although the Japanese began to convert them to concrete during the occupation. Prisoner of war labour was used to make this conversion, and sabotage ensued. By some accounts, the sabotage was so effective that in certain places the concrete could not even support the weight of a bicycle!??\n\nThe B-29 was built to withstand extreme weather conditions - at least on its exterior. During its manufacture in the U.S., the first batch was fitted out in blizzard conditions outdoors. When this first batch arrived in India, the weather shifted to the other extreme. Midday temperatures in India went as high as 115°F (46°C), which limited takeoffs to the early morning or late afternoon. Also, India was humid during the summer, which was monsoon season. Its rainfall during this time was even heavier than that experienced in Hong Kong. Rains caused the fields in which the B-29s were parked to become muddy, and much effort had to be spent freeing them, thereby wasting time.\n\nAll of these factors combined to affect the serviceability of the B-29s if they weren't maintained properly. In India, maintenance could only take place at night, which posed another problem. The maintenance crews required light to work during this time of the day, and the lights they used attracted insects, including malaria-bearing mosquitoes.?? Even without the weather, a good number of B-29s were out of order at any one time because such a new piece of equipment was bound to have defects.\n\n1", "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": 216204, "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": 503, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "437\n\nAssociation on 3 December 1999. Behind the church over 100 steps led up to a tall statue of St Francis Xavier. Beside the steps were 14 stone posts bearing Chinese numbering and inscription. The pedestal of the statue bears worn inscriptions in Chinese and Portuguese - ‘Aqui foi sepultado S. Fran.co Xavier da Comp.a de Jesus, Alpo do Oriente. Este Padrao se levantou no anno de 1639.'\n\nThe current caretaker, Mr Lam, took over in 1996 from a Christian caretaker aged 86, who had cared for the church since 1984. We had the pleasure of meeting this delightful old man in the village beside the church. The current caretaker suggested that for further information we could contact the Religious Affairs Dept. of Tai Shan Municipal Government on Tel 075 552 5980.\n\nWe returned to the port for a good seafood lunch. The ferry arrived a little late but took us safely back to Shen Ju in good time for us to hire a taxi to Zhuhai. There we crossed the border to Macau and enjoyed our dinner accompanied by a bottle of good Portuguese wine, and a toast to the memory of St Francis.\n\nA visit assisted by China Travel Service\n\nBy chance, in June 2001, I (Chris Bailey) had read an article in HK Magazine about the Jesuit-run Xavier Retreat House on Cheung Chau - dedicated to the missionary Saint Francis-Xavier. The article quoted the resident priest, Father Kane, as follows: \"Xavier was one of the founding members of the Jesuits, and came to Asia in 1542. He was a tough guy, a trailblazer and died very near to Hong Kong, on an island about 60 miles west of Macau. His letters describe travelling from Japan and trying to get to Guangzhou, and stopping somewhere nearby to get fresh vegetables and water. There is one historian who theorizes that he stopped at the Old Port in Hong Kong. In any case, he must have passed through Hong Kong waters and seen the islands here. So I stand here (in the Xavier Retreat House) and see what he saw over 400 years ago It's very private, on top of a hill and overlooking the sea. It's a very beautiful sight.”\n\nThis information inspired me to speak to Father Kane who said he knew the island well, had been there several times via Macau and that there was a non-active church dedicated to Francis Xavier, built close", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216328, "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": 87, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "36\n\npeople and goods over and along the river. They also helped to load ships in the river and carry goods to the European merchantmen at Whampoa. Their presence was useful to the occupants of the Foreign Factories during periodic conflagrations. For instance, a painting of the Great Fire of 1822 shows residents viewing the fire from these boats, their main refuge in time of such emergencies.28\n\nInterestingly enough, people of this type - perhaps even from the Canton group accustomed to foreigners - were of immense help to the British when they first established themselves in Hong Kong as providers of many essential services.29\n\nOther groups of Tanka constituted the sea fishermen whose craft, large and small, were to be found all over the Delta and the islands outside it; and as we shall see further on in this talk, they provided the 'outside pilots' who assisted foreign merchant vessels to get safely into the Macau Roads.\n\nPersonnel directly connected with the China Trade\n\nWe may now consider seriatim, the various personnel encountered by foreign merchants and ships' officers during their time in China over the trading season of the year.\n\nThe Hoppo30\n\nThe Hoppo was the official at the head of the maritime customs, controlling the revenues accruing from the foreign trade. Representing the ministry of finance in Beijing (hu pu) he was dubbed with this title in error by the foreigners. This lucrative office was often filled by a Manchu. The Guangzhou Custom House is shown in Plate 5.\n\nThere were Hoppo in other maritime provinces of China, but the Canton Hoppo was the most important owing to the foreign trade being confined to Canton. His circuit eventually included five sub-stations and some sixty other collection points, the catchment for the coastal and inter-national trade. International trade was itself divided into Chinese, Asian and European, each taxed at a different rate; the Governor was left with control over internal trade.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]