[ { "id": 204514, "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-1962", "page_number": 146, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "131\n\nLAMBIE, Dr. J.\n\nLANYON-ORGILL, Dr. P. A. LAU, Wai-mai LAW, Chung-kam\n\nLAWRY, R. E.\n\nLEE, J. S.\n\nLEE, Harold W.\n\nLEE, Hon. R. C., O.B.E.\n\nLeFEVOUR, Dr. Edward\n\nLE MARE, J. R.\n\nLI, Dr. Tsoo-yiu\n\nLIDDELL, Mrs. Marion LINDSAY, T. J.\n\nLINDSAY, Mrs. T. J. LIU, D. H.\n\nLIU, Dr. Tsun-yan\n\nLLEWELLYN, John\n\nLO, Chin-tang LO, T. S.\n\nLOTHROP, Francis B.\n\nLUM, Miss Ada\n\nLUPTON, G. C. M. MA, Meng McBAIN, E. B.\n\n2\n\nMACKENZIE, Lt. Col. B. D. McKERNESS, Miss Joan.\n\nMcCRARY, Michael\n\nMcDOUALL, Hon. J. C. McGRATH, David B.\n\nMACK, A. M.\n\nMCKEIRNAN, V. Rev. Michael J.\n\nMANEELY, R. B.\n\nMARTIN, Rev. Canon E. W. L.\n\nc/o Director of Medical & Health Services, H.K.\n\n1701 Beach Drive. Victoria, B.C., Canada,\n\nInstitute of Oriental Studies, H.K.U.\n\nVictoria Heights, 43-A Stubbs Road,\n\nFlat I-A, H.K.\n\nBritish Council, 1/F., Gloucester Bldg., H.K.\n\n74, Kennedy Road, Hong Kong.\n\n604, Edinburgh House, Hong Kong.\n\nLee Hysan Estate Co., Ltd. 604 Edinburgh House, H.K.\n\nDept. of History, H.K.U.\n\nc/o Butterfield & Swire, Union House, H.K.\n\n1-C-3-C, Broom Rd., Hong Kong.\n\n10-F, Headland Road, Hong Kong,\n\nc/o Butterfield & Swire, H.K.\n\n1, Mercury Street, 1/F., Causeway Bay, H.K.\n\n83 Sincere Terrace, Ground floor, Tai Hang Road, H.K.\n\nDept. of Geography & Geology, H.K.U.\n\nDept. of Chinese, H.K. University.\n\nc/o Lo and Lo, Jardine House, 7/F., H.K.\n\nc/o Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass. U.S.A.\n\n142, Boundary Street, Kowloon.\n\nThe District Officer, Taipo, New Territories,\n\nInstitute of Oriental Studies, H.K.U.\n\nc/o Geo. McBain & Co., S.C.M.P. Building, H.K.\n\nCRE, Victoria Barracks, Hong Kong.\n\n5, Magazine Gap Road, Hong Kong.\n\n25-A, Robinson Road, Top Floor, H.K.\n\nSCA., Connaught Road, Central, H.K.\n\nMINETT, Major F. R. D.\n\nMORGAN, L. G.\n\nMOYLE, G. C.\n\nc/o U.S. Consulate-General, Hong Kong.\n\nHong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corpn., H.K.\n\nMaryknoll Fathers, Stanley.\n\nAnatomy Department, H.K. University, H.K.\n\nSt. John's College, 82 Pokfulum, H.K.\n\nGarrison Clinic, Whitfield Barracks, Kln.\n\nc/o Colonial Secretariat, Hong Kong.\n\nc/o Jardine Matheson & Co., Ltd, H.K.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205762, "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": 68, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "62\n\nR. G. GROVES\n\n44 Skinner, op. cit., Part 1, p. 27. The markets of the northern district of the New Territory seem to have been dependent primarily upon Sham Chun, rather than upon several intermediate markets. This may be an example of what Skinner terms a marketing system in a \"topographic cul-de-sac\". Ibid., p. 21.\n\n45 Baker, Hugh D. R. \"The Five Great Clans of the New Territories”, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. VI, 1966, p. 31.\n\n46 Freedman, op. cit., pp. 82ff., gives an account of the origins of the Ts'at Yeuk. The character yeuk may be translated as 'covenant', or 'agreement'. The seven covenants' were a confederation of seven groups of villages within the Tai Po marketing area.\n\n47 Papers Extracts, op. cit., p. 192.\n\n48 Hayes, \"The Pattern of Life.\", op. cit., p. 9.\n\n49 Freedman, op. cit., p. 81.\n\n50 Papers Extracts, op. cit., pp. 201ff.\n\n51 Hong Kong 1963, Hong Kong, 1964, pp. 363ff.\n\n52 Papers Extracts, op. cit., pp. 587-8.\n\n53 The following account has been assembled, somewhat in the manner of a jigsaw puzzle, from two sources: Hong Kong. Correspondence (June 20, 1898 to August 20, 1900) Respecting the Extension of the Boundaries of the Colony, Eastern No. 66, Colonial Office, London, 1900; Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 1899. Despatches and Other Papers Relating to the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1900. Specific references will be given only for quotations.\n\n54 Correspondence, op. cit., p. 261. A brief discussion of the activities of the land syndicate mentioned in the preceding paragraph is to be found in Endacott, G.B., A History of Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, London and Hong Kong, and Paperback Edition, 1964, p. 265, who says: \"The main problem of the take-over was not military but administrative. A land syndicate of Chinese among whom it was suspected Ho Kai [Dr. Ho Kai, a Chinese unofficial member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong] was one, had bought land at a fraction of its value by spreading the rumour that the British would seize all land. Blake threatened to restore this property, but the land problem proved too baffling for him to carry out his threat.\"\n\n55 Correspondence, op. cit., p. 261. Wakeman, op. cit., Chap. V, discusses similar charges made against the British at Canton almost sixty years earlier.\n\n56 One recipient was Liu Wan-kuk, of Sheung Shui. His support for the resistance appears to have been half-hearted throughout. On at least two occasions he protested: \"the villages in our Division have no plans. Moreover, our commissariat and arms being insufficient, how can we offer effective resistance? We request your Division [Yuen Long] to decide on the plan of campaign and we will follow your instruction\". The dominance of the Yuen Long Division—and of the Tang lineages within it—was to become increasingly obvious as the resistance movement developed. Papers Despatches, op. cit., p. 72.\n\n57 Translated in Correspondence, op. cit., pp. 138ff.\n\n58 Baker, op. cit., pp. 35ff.\n\n59 Correspondence, op. cit., p. 147.\n\n60 Ibid., p. 148.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208333, "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": 57, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "ALTAR IMAGES FROM HUNAN AND KIANGSI\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nA recent shipment of a score or so grimy and battered altar images were offered on sale at a curio shop in Hong Kong. With China endeavouring to obtain as much foreign currency as she can, the prices of images such as these have increased to some five times what was being asked two years ago. None of the images is perfect. Many bear signs of the ravages of time, with wormholes and limbs broken off. One or two have their original colours but all were covered in a thick, black greasy film acquired over unattended years on altars. The rarity of such images on the market and the poor state of condition they were in suggests that the Chinese are perhaps scraping the bottom of the barrel and that even fewer will emerge in future. One or two were immediately obviously from Hunan province with characteristics which are difficult to describe in words. Seven of them still had the bung in the centre of the back untouched, which is very unusual.\n\nIn some parts of China it was the custom when a deity was \"endowed with life\" at the ceremony at which it is placed on the altar, to put a few objects into a specially hollowed out cavity in the middle of the back and seal it with a tight fitting wooden bung. The contents vary but, in general terms, they symbolise the inner organs of a human. Sometimes they consist of cut-out paper or tin foil, sometimes of small tubes of lead attached to a tiny cotton sac, wrapped in multi-coloured cotton threads. Very frequently a live insect and one or two grains of rice or other seeds were also placed into the cavity, for the life to be transferred to the deity from the creature or seed. Occasionally prayers too were placed there, written on silk or rice paper and folded carefully, and the whole contents folded into a small piece of red paper. (Plate 1)\n\nInside the cavities of the seven images which still had their bungs in place were found short strips of rice paper bearing descriptions of where, when and why the image had been placed on the altar.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208334, "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": 58, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "42\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nIn addition there were scraps of cotton, threads, one or two grains of rice, a tiny sac of cotton cloth stuffed with more cotton and several beads and slivers of mica. There were also two dried sea-horses* in the image dedicated in 1871 though there were no signs of any other remains. The strips of paper are not all that usual and are rarely found in Southern Chinese images. Precis translations of the six strips of paper are included later in this note.\n\nThe papers show that five of the seven images were dedicated and placed on altars in the County of Wu Kang (A) in South East Hunan, one hundred miles due north of Kweilin and three hundred and seventy-five miles NNW of Hong Kong, near the Hunanese boundaries with its neighbouring provinces of Kwangsi and Kweichow. The west and south-west of Hunan were not easily accessible until the 1930's due to the dangerous rapids in the upper reaches of the plentiful rivers. Then a system of highways opened up the area. Prior to that, apart from the occasional traveller, traders and, of course, the petty officials sent to such \"punishment\" posts, all that was known of the area came from tales passed on from mouth to mouth. Wu Kang is in rising country, on the edge of an area marked on old maps as the lands of the Thai minority peoples, the Ko Lao (z) and another larger minority people, the Miao (δ). The other two images come from Chi An prefecture () in Kiangsi province, some two hundred and eighty miles due east of Wu Kang. Chi An, an old walled city and a major centre on the north-flowing Kan Chiang, had closer cultural links with central rather than south China.\n\nThe first image (Plate 2), from Wu Kang and dedicated in 1756, is a household deity to protect the home and family and to bring blessings. The slip of paper relates that Worshipper Fu Shih-hsiang, together with his three sons and others from his family, all of Hsin Wu Chang Village, Yen Shan, Lung Chu district of Wu Kang county in Pao Ching prefecture (now Shao Yang), Hunan, on the 4th day of the 7th moon of the 20th year of Ch'ien Lung (1756), offered sacrifices to the gods at the City God temple in Shih Pei.† He also reported to them in writing that he and his whole family\n\n* Seahorses, found as far inland, would have a rarity value, though they are commonly used by Chinese herbalists & pharmacists.\n\n† Chinese characters are to be found on the illustrations of the slips of paper.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209367, "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": 24, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "2\n\nJANET LEE SCOTT\n\nstaff amounting to around a dozen in all. The SCA [Secretary for Chinese Affairs: this title was later changed to Secretary for Home Affairs] is put in overall responsibility for the working of the Scheme. The CDOs are specifically enjoined to a) assess the overall impact of government policies, to explain these policies as well as the difficulties and the achievements of the Government to ordinary people, b) to initiate proposals for the new policies or new procedure when the need for these becomes apparent from the feeling of the public, and c) to become aware of problems and conflicts and trends of public thinking before attitudes have been struck. In short, the new CDO Scheme is a response of Government to the public's by-now-hackneyed outcry for 'closing the gap between the Government and the people' (Wong 1972:223).\n\nAn official source from 1975 gave a similar description:\n\nThis [Home Affairs] department runs the City District Office Scheme, which was introduced in 1968 to improve communication between the government and people. There are 10 City District Offices and 12 sub-offices in the most crowded urban areas of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Throughout the urban areas, these offices provide a point of contact with the government where even the humblest citizen can go for help in the knowledge that he will be courteously treated, patiently heard and helpfully advised (Government Information Services 1975:211).\n\nThe Mutual Aid Committees, it was felt, would help the District Offices achieve this aim of improved communication, as they would offer their members opportunities to participate in local affairs, and to express their opinions to the Government.\n\nA second reason for establishing Mutual Aid Committees was to aid the authorities in the promotion of various social campaigns. As described in 1980:\n\nIn 1973 the Hong Kong government decided to take action against two major city problems: a rising crime rate and an accelerating deterioration of the living and working conditions in a number of residential and business units. The plan of action included the launching of two campaigns, the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213476, "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": 72, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "39\n\nCivil Code (see also Committee Report 2953. pp. 193 and 251)\n\nIn the matter of the state of YOUNG SING, YOUNG LING SHI & 2 OTHERS vs YOUNG HONG NING (unreported) the original record was destroyed during the Japanese occupation but a contemporary newspaper report is to be found in the South China Morning Post of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th July 1940.\n\n12. I am indebted to the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs for giving me permission to peruse their files on the subject (particularly SCA3/251/51 and SCA2/351/54).\n\nPR File SCA2/351/54\n\nWilson's Notes\n\nWilson's Notes, 61; Van der Valk, op. cit. p. 76 where this custom is described under the title of \"T'ung-yang-hsi\".\n\nMorris, Hong Kong and Malaya, E.T.M.S.O. 1937, p. 14, for the custom generally see Burkhardt, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 173.\n\nHvide Committee Report Appendix IV, p. 120 and Chap. I, para. 13 but in Ping Shan Land Case No. 24 of 1954, JANG LAP TEUNG vs TO SHU KAN (unreported) the Assistant Land Officer (Mr. B.D. Wilson), in the absence of proof that perpetual leases could be made under Chinese custom relied upon the English Rule against Perpetuities. (This case was the subject of Civil Appeal No. 24 of 1954 TO SHU KAN vs. JANG LI YAU TSO (unreported) but Reynolds, J. held that he had no jurisdiction to hear and determine the appeal).\n\n19 (1949) HKLR 58.\n\n1 Wilson's Notes; Gompertz, op. cit. para. 16 and compare Jamieson, Chinese Family and Commercial Law, Shanghai 1921, pp. 30-31.\n\nTM Committee Report, 1953, Chap. V, para. 400 at p. 54.\n\n* Now Cap. 30, and see Committee Report, 1953, Chap. II, para. 17 at p. 9.\n\nDe Wilson's Notes.\n\nCommittee Report, 1953, Appendix IV, p. 120 and Chap. II, para. 13, after Williams, Ag. C.J. in Civil Appeal No. 16 of 1947, CHEUNG SAU TIM vs CHEUNG YUI LAM, (1948) 32 HKLR 1, at p. 6.\n\nThis statement is from Wilson's Notes.\n\nT'ung-yang-hsi = a wife married when both parties were previously unmarried.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213970, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 39, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "4\n\naloof on his return. The present writer can vouch for his active approval of an African-inspired experiment whereby departmental administrative officers in the urban areas would collect and transmit upwards a monthly 'intelligence digest' of local opinion, morale and responses to government action or inaction, and of attitudes to prominent local figures and to Chinese or foreign affairs: this was meant to supplement what was collected in their own specialist manners by the HK Police Special Branch (SB), the New Territories Administration (NTA), the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO)'s Political Adviser (PA) and the Security Liaison Officer (SLO). Some of what was collected may have been too near the knuckle, some was rather too easily discounted as mere \"gossip,\" important though that might be as a reflection of influential belief at the grass roots, and some may have hurt the dignity of those who had the existing duty of intelligence-gathering. The governor was persuaded to drop the experiment as proving trivial.\n\nBut Trench also showed interest in another interloping proposal that, in the absence of any generalist government institutions to supplement the Secretary for Chinese Affairs (SCA)'s advisory staff (who liaised with the various kai fong (Neighbourhood) Welfare Associations, Clansmens' Associations and Residents' Associations, which were often self-perpetuating), District Officers (DOs) should be appointed in the urban areas; these should have certain executive functions, fewer than those of their colleagues in the New Territories so as not to encroach on the licensing prerogatives of the Urban Council, but sufficient to ensure that all should know of their existence and, above all, of where their offices were. Primarily they should oversee and co-ordinate the activities of the various professional and technical departments in their bailiwicks, but also, like paternalistic mandarins, inquire into, report upon and seek answers to the needs and concerns of the inhabitants. This suggestion was effectively smothered by a DCS who was unable to understand what such DOs might achieve in a city that existing institutions did not already adequately do: the concept of such junior, peripheral, government officers being responsive to people, as opposed to being mere executive agents responsible for essential infrastructural public services, was alien. Apart from the SCA's and District Commissioner New Territories (DCNT)'s contacts with often self-appointed élites, there was little by way of direct exchange with the man in the street: the same DCS once said, \"Government must, of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213973, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 42, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "7\n\n(f) their relationship with the departments of Government and with each other; and,\n\n(g) the degree of control which ought to be exercised by the central Government, having regard to the Letters Patent and Royal Instructions\n\nThe wording reflects close secretariat scrutiny of what some thought to be, if not dangerous, then courageous thinking; there should be care not to conflict with established institutions, there should be no derogation from the existing constitution, and the word 'selection' reassured those who feared politically partisan votes. Public criticism of this was immediately heard, upon reading the related press release, from some of the members of the Urban Council who were jealous for their own prerogatives. The Urban Council, little changed from the Sanitary Board created in Queen Victoria's reign, was mainly responsible for environmental public health, recreation & amenities, and provision of cultural services in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon & New Kowloon; it had 12 members appointed by the Governor, and 12 elected on a single limited but anomalously colony-wide franchise (embracing ratepayers and members of 23 qualifying categories of sane, non-bankrupt adults of 21 or over with three years' residence), with a small number of senior official members. It provided excellent services through the Urban Services Department (USD), but its freedom of speech on matters outside its purview gave it a mixed reputation in some powerful circles.\n\nThe membership of the working party consisted of administrative officers from the middle ranks, considered \"promising\" but not yet authoritative. They were a contract officer with much local government experience in eastern Nigeria and Uganda, an officer with happy experience in the USD and of the Urban Council; the most senior Chinese officer, who had served with the British Army Aid Group against the Japanese and now worked in the SCA; and two other expatriates with various past postings including the NTA. Like Dickinson, all continued to perform their current duties, and remained surprised that with his determination they covered so much ground of consultation and discussion and (under pressure from leave entitlements) reported as relatively promptly as they did; that was on 23 November 1966, by which time the Cultural Revolution was spilling", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213976, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 45, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "In the developed areas the working party had its own preferences, but diplomatically decided to let higher authority decide on detail. The general intention was to set up what would be known in the conurbations as Municipal Councils or (minor) Urban District Councils (UDC), and elsewhere as District (or Local) Councils. This might, as the Governor-in-Council chose to decide, produce a Municipal Council for Hong Kong Island and a District Council for the non-urban area, with Aberdeen joining either or becoming a separate UDC; one or two Municipal Councils for Kowloon and New Kowloon; a UDC for Tsuen Wan; and no other change for the NT (but possibly three District Councils one day, where currently the DOS Tai Po, Yuen Long and South held sway.) All would be elected from geographical wards, and not from area-wide rating or electoral rolls; and by preference from single-member wards, with one-third retiring by annual rotation. All these Councils could form Joint Committees with each other, and perhaps have a Joint Consultative Council to co-ordinate their relations with Central Government. It was all deliberately tentative: junior officers must not seem to be handing up tablets of stone.\n\nThe possibility of public apathy (already much noticed in relation to the existing Urban Council), and the dangers of encouraging the involvement of external party politics, led to cautious suggestions that in the first instance whatever overseeing body the Government would assign to this field (doubtless a new branch of the secretariat, if not an amalgamation of the SCA and the NTA) might nominate members to leaven the elected majority; a proportion of 1:3, or in the last resort 2:3, was proposed. For the franchise, while considering adult suffrage as a distinct possibility, the prudent recommendation was for all men and women and their spouses over 21 to enjoy the vote who owned, occupied or tenanted property on which rates were paid or of which the rent might be deemed to include a rating element; provided that they had three years' residence, and therefore a stake in the colony, British citizenship would not be required. Councillors should not be paid, to avoid the growth of a profession of politicians, but should be entitled to attendance allowances within a statutory limit to compensate for any loss of earnings; and they should appoint their own chairmen from any quarter.\n\nThe new Councils' potential powers and functions received close examination. From the start it was accepted that Hong Kong's central\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213979, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 48, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "13 \n\nreject the offer of a local council which they would democratically control but have to support from their pockets. Rating might have to be extended to the NT: a simplified form had once existed for this, but had been repealed before implementation because of the various oppositions to treating the leased territories as an integral part of Hong Kong — it could be tried again. Division of the rating spoils between Government and local authorities would raise arguments, especially if, as at present appeared, rating revenue exceeded the initial likely expenditure by the new councils. The pros and cons of varied grant-in-aid codes were discussed, including equalisation grants to benefit poorer authorities, general purpose grants, and special grants to stimulate particular activities. The broad suggestion was that since revenues must be assured, easy to levy and collect, flexible and readily understood, rating should be introduced where not already levied (modified in rural areas) and be both fixed and collected by the local authorities; the accruing revenue should be shared between Central Government and Councils, the government share being the first charge; licensing fees, services income, agency fees, investment interest and perhaps gifts & bequests would be additional, and Central Government loans should facilitate capital developments.\n\nThe report sketched possible committee structures, emphasising the desirability of co-option of appropriate experts from outside and the need for proceedings to be conducted in the Chinese language. Initially staff would be seconded from the civil service, with prior consultation on selection for 'key' posts, high calibre would be demanded, and the potential for urban DOs with co-ordinating rôles was glanced at. The psychological and organisational implications for the NTA as the only existing link between Government and the landowners and people of the leased territories, and for the USD which provided services for the Urban Council and in the NT and was the obvious holding unit for staff seconded to new councils, would admittedly be considerable. “Guides, philosophers & friends” would always be desirable, however, and NTA & USD would survive in some form. The effect on the SCA was passed over: its head was ex officio a member of the Governor's Councils, and the constitution was implicitly not to be touched. However the anomaly of one small department claiming to be the sole link with the mass of the people would doubtless, as in other colonies, become transparent.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213982, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 51, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "the Social Welfare Department), co-ordinated by regional generalist officers comparable with NT DOs, leading to advisory Regional Councils which might eventually become the main report's Local Authorities. They pointed up more outspokenly than the emollient main report the shortcomings of an out-of-touch government administering a non-English-speaking population that was only too open to misunderstandings and misconceptions (such as that taxes levied were drained off to the UK Treasury.) Interim steps should concentrate strongly on building up public confidence in the unaccustomed principles and practice of popular elected representation (the ‘political education' mentioned above.) The provisional system of regional advisory councils, coupled with departmental decentralisation and administrative co-ordination, should then lead to full local authorities in about six years. Meanwhile Tsuen Wan was indeed a unique opportunity for immediate action (the new towns to come of Tuen Mun, Sha Tin, Tai Po et al had yet to be envisaged.) These three semi-dissenters did not co-ordinate their Note with the other.\n\nDickinson has been described by one of his working party as “the least understood and worst treated member of the Cadet Service\" (the original title of Hong Kong's Administrative Branch of the HMOCS, which survived in common parlance long after the absorption into the Colonial Service of the pre-war Eastern Cadetships.) He chose to retire early for personal reasons. It is ironic that in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution overspill, when special duties officers in the defence branch of the secretariat, the SCA and the Information Services Department became so active in devising new ways to win hearts and minds, to keep in touch with the people and to encourage the use of Chinese language, so much of what had been adumbrated in the Working Party Report re-appeared; but because the new ideas now came from well-established senior sources, they became respectable and it was to be long before they offered electoral participation in executive decisions. The SCA became the Secretariat for Home Affairs; City District Officers were created in ten urban districts, and found much to do that had not been done before; City District Committees were established in 1972; a Tsuen Wan District Advisory Board was at last set up in 1977, followed by others; in 1980 a new pattern for district administration was at last suggested, with direct elections to District Boards. But in all these and still later developments that affect present history, there was no official backward recognition that the ground", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215836, "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": 135, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "68\n\nAll associations were required to be registered under the Societies Ordinance of the Laws of Hong Kong or as limited companies under the Companies Ordinance. Partly because of this, another duty undertaken by officials was to attend or officiate at the inaugurations of new terms of office-bearers, including administration of an oath of office to the new incumbents. This was particularly the case with the rural committees and the kaifong welfare associations, which (as major channels of communication with the local public) had close links with, and came under the supervision of, the District Commissioner, New Territories, and the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and their senior staff in the districts.1\n\nDuring my fifteen years in the New Territories Administration (NTA), and five more in the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs (SCA, which later became the Home Affairs Department or HAD) both of them to be described as \"political\" departments whose staff had direct dealings with the public, we were also in contact with a miscellany of other community bodies, including the many clansmen's (same name) and district (same place) associations, in both town and country. From the early 1970s, these were joined by the government-sponsored and assisted Mutual Aid Committees, of which large numbers were formed across the whole territory.\n\nThose officials with district responsibilities (including police), were invited to all major local functions as a matter of course, and the officiating officers were either the District Officers, or their superiors in headquarters or in concerned departments. I attended a great many functions during my service in various departments, and thus became familiar with their way of conducting them. This hardly varied, the difference being mainly a matter of degree and extent, depending on the importance of the bodies concerned and the nature and significance of their events.\n\nThe Nature of the proceedings\n\nA marked formality characterized all their occasions. The ceremonies followed set procedures, and each stage was introduced by a\n\n1 For anyone wishing to learn more, the index to Friends and Teachers indicates where information concerning these and other Chinese associations, and their interaction with government departments during my service (1956-87) can be found.\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215838, "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": 137, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "In the essentially conservative society of the day, partial to the observance of etiquette and sensitive to social niceties, it was equally necessary for the government departments involved in district administration and community liaison to have the services of similar experts. The former Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, and the old-style District Administration New Territories/New Territories Administration, were the two departments in question. Even more than the associations, they had to do everything in the approved style, and with smooth efficiency.\n\nIn the SCA, there was a Chinese Literary Clerk to advise and assist the senior staff. There was also a Calligraphist, whose duties included writing the apothegms requested by associations to grace the pages of their bulletins and special publications (Plate 1). These posts are listed in the SCA's printed annual departmental reports (e.g. 1966-67, Appendix 21). In the DANT, such assistance was provided by a specially selected senior member of the government's General Clerical Service. A Calligraphist came later, together with an Interpreter/Translator in headquarters (see e.g., the District Commissioner's printed annual departmental report for 1964-65, Table XI). Such help was needed if we and our Offices were to function properly within the old system: meaning, in conformity with the accepted norms of polite (i.e., educated) Chinese society.\n\nOutside the headquarters, a notable contribution was made by the Liaison Officer grade in the two departments. Their senior officers' detailed knowledge of the associations' leaders and general expertise was vital in guiding the expatriate element among their superiors. And although, on one occasion, it was unkindly said of the liaison staff in the former Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, that 'all they were good for was arranging chairs and seating, and ushering guests to their seats,' such remarks overlook the great importance attached to protocol and etiquette in traditional Chinese society and the creation and maintenance of a sense of wellbeing between the guests and their hosts.\n\nIn truth, many persons took notice of performance. Government departments and community associations alike would be criticized for any mistakes or omissions, whilst any \"gaffes\" made during speeches - including the unwary or inadvertent choice of words to whose sounds other, disreputable, meanings could be construed - would be noted at once, and give rise to profane mirth or even ridicule. I can vouch for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]