[ { "id": 211792, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 207, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "182\n\n500 or 600 p.a.), without any prospect of being able to use it the subsequent season. Apparently it was also the custom to sell all the scenery, etc., at the end of the season and this too could only be done at a heavy loss (for 1865 it had cost Tls. 2,400 and fetched but Tls. 200).109 In order to investigate the feasibility of a permanent, i.e., stone, theatre, a provisional committee was appointed in September 1866.10 The chances of realising the object in view did not seem very rosy though. At a meeting of the committee held on November 10, 1866, it was decided that the \"circulation of a subscription list towards a permanent theatre should be deferred for the present\" and instead guarantors for the construction of a temporary theatre (i.e., one of wood, which was much cheaper) should be sought.11 In this they were successful and on November 16, it was announced at a meeting that Tls. 3,500 had been subscribed. This, however, was not deemed sufficient to cover all the expenses and an amended motion was adopted stating that instead of fitting up a godown, a temporary theatre, on the plans submitted to the meeting, be built and fitted up, provided a sum of Tls. 6,000 be guaranteed within a week\".12 And despite the rather severe limitations under which a number of merchants had to operate due to the collapse of the building boom - an adjourned meeting was informed on November 22 that this sum had indeed been guaranteed.\"\n\nThe new theatre would be built in wood and was designed by a local architect, Mr. William Kidner; originally it would contain 700 seats, but this was considered too much, 500 or 600 being enough. The firm of Dent & Co. showed itself willing to provide a plot of land for the sum of Tls. 250 annually and the cost of the theatre itself was estimated at Tls. 3,900. Some months later, on March 1, 1867, the wooden Lyceum Theatre opened on Yuanmingyuan Road* (later, Museum Road), with Morton's Whitebait at Greenwich and Faust and Marguerite (author not mentioned: F.C. Burnand?, T.W. Robertson?, J. Halford?).\n\nOne may well ask why the foreign residents had not found the courage and the money to erect a really “lasting structure\" for, naturally, wooden buildings were prone to fire and it should come as no surprise that the \"temporary'' theatre proved to be very temporary indeed, for on March 2, 1871, it burned down. Once again a substantial sum of money had been wasted on what turned out to be an ill-advised scheme. Sadder and wiser, it was finally decided in 1872 to construct a brick theatre on an adjacent site on Museum Road, stage entrance on Yuanmingyuan Road. On\n\n*This is the theatre marked \"b\" at Appendix III.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213220, "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": 42, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "21\n\neconomic growth of the colony \"While naturally trading for their own benefit, they think that they may justly claim to have contributed in no small way to the development, growth of prosperity of the Colony, and in their capacity as peaceful traders they consider themselves and their businesses a valuable asset to the community It has taken decades of hard work to create such an asset which they consider particularly valuable to the Colony since they have as impartial traders been instrumental to a great extent in attracting to this part business from all quarters of the globe thereby promoting British trade more than that of any other nation.\" As reasonable as this argument might seem to those who could differentiate between trade and politics, it found no sympathetic response among those who were responsible for the defence of the island and the patriotic call of God and King (CO129/144, p.573 No.520005)\n\nThe letter was signed by the following firms with the date of their founding:\n\nSiemssen and Co. 1848\n\nArnhold, Karberg and Co. 1865\n\nMelcher and Co. 1866\n\nSander, Wiele and Co.\n\nF. Blackhead and Co. 1854\n\nReuter, Brockelmann and Co. 1846\n\nGarrels, Borner and Co. 1860\n\nWilliam Meyerink and Co. 1889\n\nCarlowitz and Co. 1866\n\nDeutsche-Asiatische Bank 1900\n\nCarl Bodiker and Co. 1860\n\nRaderkers and Co. 1868\n\nThe Medical Hall 1853\n\nJebsen and Co. 1894\n\nBerblinger and Co. 1908\n\nBume and Reif 1905.\n\nFerd. Bornemann and Co, 1888\n\nKruse and Co 1868\n\nC.M. Schellhass\n\nHans Schubart\n\nG. Prien 1880\n\nUlerup and Schluter 1905\n\nChina Export Import and Bank Compagnie 1856\n\nCharles J. Gaupp 1859", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213230, "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": 52, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "31\n\nHermann Emil Hubener was admitted a partner in 1868. In 1861 Behre, Emil Hubener and A Booth were assistants in the firm. Frederick Clause, another assistant, subsequently became a partner but left the firm in 1871 (DP 2 Jan 1872). Gustav Adolph Wieler and his brother Oscar were assistants in 1866. Gustav became a partner in 1873. After the closure of Bouijau, Huberer and Co, the two brothers formed the firm of Wieler and Co. It subsequently merged with Sander and Co to become Sander, Wieler and Co.\n\nMeyer and Co = Sander, Wieler and Co\n\nMeyer, Schaeffer and Co. was established at Hong Kong in April 1851. The partners were Julius Meyer, F.A. Schaeffer and William Fiedler (FC 24 April 1851). In the notice the name is given as F.A Schaeffer. In the notice of Fiedler's retirement it appears as H.T.A. Schaeffer; in other documents it is Hermann Schaeffer. Mr Fiedler retired from the firm four months later (FC 25 July 1851). They were charterers of ships for the Chinese emigration to California during the 1850s. The firm also had business connections with the Chilean port city of Valparaíso, which suggests they were also active in shipping coolie labour to South America (FC 1 July 1852). Their office in Queen's Road Central was burnt out in December 1858 (FC 8 Dec 1858). The partnership between Schaeffer and Meyer had been dissolved in April 1855 and only Hermann Schaeffer was in charge of the business at the time of the fire (FC 18 Apr. 1855). Hermann's brother Walter, an unmarried twenty-year-old, died of consumption at Macao in July 1857 (FC 1 July 1857). After the fire H. Schaeffer and Co. found temporary quarters on Gough Street and then moved to Hollywood Road. They were agents for the Compagnies d'Assurance Maritimes de Paris and Marseilles (FC 6 Oct, 1860). The firm shut down in 1863.\n\nFritz Sander, who had been an assistant in Schaeffer and Co., entered into partnership with Thomas Henry Elmenhorst in 1862 (CM 26 June 1862). The partnership was dissolved in January 1865 (GG 21 Jan. 1865). They executed a deed of assignment to Charles Henry Maurice Bosman and Adolph Meyer in December 1866 (GG 22 Dec. 1866). Bosman was interested in the shipment of Chinese labour overseas. The connection implies that the firm of Elmenhorst and Sander was connected with the same trade, as had been the firm of Meyer, Schaeffer and Co. with whom Sander had had a link in the past.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213231, "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": 53, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "32\n\nAfter the firm of Elmenhorst and Sander had closed under financial pressure, Elmenhorst was declared a bankrupt in July 1866 (DP 24 July 1866). Fritz Sander continued business under his own name. Fritz Adolph Riscius Grobien joined him as a partner in 1869 (DP 20 Apr. 1869). Mr. Grobien had formerly been an assistant in Oxford and Co. After his association with Sander ceased, he conducted a brokerage business in Hong Kong on his own account. He became a naturalised British subject in 1888 (GG 21 Feb. 1888).\n\nBrune Herbert Becker became a partner of Sander, who returned to Hamburg. When Mr. Becker left for a visit home in 1892, he appointed as his attorney in Hong Kong Gottlieb Lebricht Theodor Bunge, an employee of his firm, and his brother Albert Wilhelm Arthur Becker, from the firm of Wieler and Co. in Hong Kong. Sometime between 1896 and 1911, the two firms of Wieler and Co. in Hong Kong amalgamated under the name Sander, Weiler and Co.\n\nWieler and Co. was operating in Hong Kong in 1876 under the management of Oscar Wilhelm Wieler. Mr. Wieler returned to Germany in the year 1887, where he died on 25 August 1895. After his departure, the Hong Kong office was managed by his brother Gustav Adolph. Both the brothers had been assistants in the firm of Bourjou, Hubener and Co.\n\nAt the time of the liquidation of Sander, Wieler and Co. in 1914, the partners were G. Wieler and R. Becker of Hamburg, A. Becker of Hong Kong, A. Sander, and B. Mielek of Shanghai.\n\nMelchers and Company\n\nSiemssens and Melchers were the two largest of the German firms in China in the nineteenth century. Melchers was established at Bremen in 1806 by Anton Friedrich Carl Melchers (DP 9 Jan 1906). Sixty years later, they opened a branch in Hong Kong. The partners were Hermann Melchers and Adolf Andre (DP 30 Aug. 1866). Soon after they opened their offices at No. 4 Graham Street, the old firm of Dent and Company failed. This provided the opportunity for the German firm to acquire a large and convenient office and godown on the seafront at Pedder's Wharf (DP 21 Nov. 1868). Before the office was opened, Hermann Melchers had been an assistant in the firm of Schellhass and Company. He remained with Melchers and Company until it was liquidated in 1914. The interest", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213237, "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": 59, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "38\n\nWilhelm Detmers became a partner in Radecker and Co. in the 1880s and was still with it, though living in Hamburg, at the time of liquidation of the company in 1914.\n\nThis somewhat tortuous account of the partnerships, changing of firm names, and former employees forming new companies illustrates some of the complicated relationships in the business community in Hong Kong, especially among the individuals who never developed such large trading interests as companies like Melchers, Siemssen and Co. and Arnhold, Karberg and Co.\n\nRadecker, Hagedorn and Co., Krummenacher and Co., Vogel Hagedorn and Co.\n\nRadecker and Co. was among the German firms placed in liquidation in 1914. Richard Hermann Radecker from 1862 to 1864 was an accountant in Schellhass and Co. He was briefly with Elmenhorst and Co. before he went into partnership with F.W. Hagedorn as Radecker, Hagedorn and Co. in July 1865 (GG July 1865). Mr. Radecker retired from the firm in 1867, but the business was continued by the remaining partners as Hagedorn and Co. (GG 5 Jan. 1867). Mr. Radecker continued as an independent merchant until he joined with Joseph Krummenacher in the firm of Krummenacher and Co. (GG 2 Jan. 1869). From 1876 to 1882, Richard H. Radecker appears in the jury lists as a merchant in the firm of Radecker and Co. He died in Hamburg on 12 April 1884, aged forty-four years (DP 23 May 1884).\n\nJoseph Krummenacher, who joined up with Mr. Hagedorn in 1869, had been since 1866 a partner in the firm of Sander and Company (DP 29 Sept. 1866, GG 8 Feb. 1868). Mr. Krummenacher last appears on the jury list in 1872.\n\nFrederick William Hagedorn began his business career in Hong Kong in 1864 as an assistant in the firm of Hesse, Ehlers and Co. In July 1865, he and Richard H. Radecker became partners. He continued the business when Mr. Radecker left the firm in 1867 (GG 1 July 1865, 5 Jan. 1867). Hagedorn and Co. took on two new partners in 1868, and the name of the firm was changed to Vogel, Hagedorn and Co. The new partners were Emil Vogel and Heinrich Kirchhoff (GG 15 Feb. 1868). In 1877, Mr. Hagedorn retired from this company (DP 3 Sept. 1877).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213252, "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": 74, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "53\n\nGerman Firms and Insurance Agents\n\nNine German firms subscribed to the Ross Testimonial Fund in 1880. Mr. William Ross was the head of the Volunteer Fire Brigade and had suffered severe injuries in December 1879 in fighting a fire. Upon his release from hospital some ten months later the insurance companies of Hong Kong raised a fund for him to show their appreciation. Among the subscribers were Arnhold, Karberg and Co., agents for Lancashire Insurance Co.; Garlowitz and Co. agents for Hamburg Bremen Fire Co.; Melchers and Co. agents for North German Fire Insurance Co. and Royal Insurance Co.; Meyer and Co. agents for Prussian National Insurance Co. in Stettin; Pustau and Co. agents for Fire Insurance Co. of 1887 of Hamburg and the General Life and Fire Assurance Co.; Sander and Co., agents for Hamburg-Magdeburg Fire Insurance Co.; Scheele and Co. agent for Lubeck Fire Insurance Co.; Eduard Schellhass and Co. agents for Hanseatic Fire Insurance Co.; and Siemssen and Co. agent for Transatlantic Fire Insurance Co. (HKT 3 Oct. 1880)\n\nSteamship Lines\n\nWilliam Pustau and Co. was appointed in 1848 an agent of the Austrian Lloyd Steam Navigation Co. The route was from Trieste to Alexandria, then by land to Aden on the Red Sea where the traveller could connect with the P. and O. Line to Galle in Ceylon (FC 5 Dec. 1848). In 1886 the German Lloyd Steamship Co. opened an office in Hong Kong. In 1914 it and the Hamburg Amerika Line had Hong Kong offices.\n\nInternment of Germans in 1914\n\nWar declared between Britain and Germany on 5 August 1914. A few days later the Hong Kong Government placed enemy aliens under parole. They were restricted to certain areas and had to report to the police at stated times. This arrangement was not sufficiently tight to satisfy Major George F.H. Kelly, the Officer Commanding British Forces in Hong Kong. He saw the German residents of Hong Kong as a distinct threat to the speedy end to the war. He conveyed this opinion to the Governor of Hong Kong.\n\n\"I look upon every German, man or woman, at large in the Colony, as a potential factor for evil, and possibly for prolonging the war", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 } ]