[ { "id": 209589, "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": 246, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "224\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nWith children performing there was no question of respectability. It was announced some weeks after the first performance that \"several ladies having expressed regret at not witnessing the late performance of the Portuguese children, Mr. Souza, with the consent of the parents, and at the request of the Committee, has consented to repeat the performance at an early date\".\n\nIn 1866 the Portuguese community built a club house at Shelley and Elgin Streets. Attached to it was a small theatre. It was used not only by Portuguese amateurs but, before the opening of the Theatre Royal in the City Hall in 1869, it was the venue for the productions of the Amateur Dramatic Club. The Theatre portion of Club Lusitano was demolished in 1873,\n\nThe Germans built a club house on Wyndham Street in 1872. It contained a small auditorium. German amateur groups used it for plays and operettas. More appreciated by the non-German speaking community were the concerts and the appearance of Liedertafel singing groups.\n\nTHE A.D.C—BORN IN A MATSHED\n\nAn Amateur Theatrical Society was formed in 1860. Its membership was made up of both civilians and military officers.\n\nFor the 1860-61 season they erected a new matshed. It was said that in its internal arrangements there was \"no lack of comfort, indeed elegance has received its share of attention\". It included a continental innovation the prompter's box was placed in the centre in front of the curtain \"according to the French custom”.\n\nThe Committee of the Society came under attack for alleged misuse of funds. At the second performance of the 1861 season it was deemed necessary to make a public statement refuting accusations which had appeared in the local press. The Committee had been charged \"with spending the profits in cold fowl and sherry behind the scenes.\" Two professional ladies of the stage also figured in the accusations. The newspaper account of the public explanation concluded with the sentiment that \"Hong Kong thanks the Amateurs and has fullest confidence in the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210226, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 197, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "176\n\nR.A. BOWLER, D.S.C. YANG AND A.J.E. SMITH\n\nper cultch and a 25 g wet weight the estimated net productivity is 0.67 kg/m2 year.\n\nThe Chinese oyster farmers indicate that a mau (畝) of oyster bed is equivalent to 60 jing (畝) of land area, where 1 mau = 667 m2. The jing is an ancient Chinese unit meaning different things depending on context. Although the mau is equivalent to 60 jing of land it can support an annual production of 3 to 4 jing of oysters. Twelve jing of oysters in the four year age classes up to marketable size requires a land area of 27 jing. Thus only 45% of the mau of oyster bed is actually productive, with the remainder being taken up with access paths or not utilised. Some beds are undoubtedly more fertile than others, and the \"not-utilised\" area can be reduced without detrimental effects to the oyster growth. The best beds are about 75% productive. An estimated gross productivity from an averagely productive bed is 0.105 kg/m2 year (Binnie & Partners, 1984).\n\nOyster harvesting and marketing\n\nOyster harvesting is carried on throughout the year with no account being taken of the breeding season, (Morton and Wong, 1975). Demand for oysters is particularly great during the winter (October to March). Oysters are harvested by removal of the whole cultch, from which the oysters are then prised. In deep water beds diving is now the most common method, with wet suits being worn in winter-time for warmth. The 3-4 m long traditional tongs are hardly used anymore.\n\nOysters, having been removed from their cultch, are sold by the basket. Each basket takes about 160-180 catties (1 catty in HK = 0.61 kg) of shelled oyster, which provides approximately 5 kg of meat in summer and 9 kg in winter when oysters have been fattened. The cost of a basket, irrespective of the weight of meat obtained, is HK$140-150. Some of the oysters purchased in this manner by Hong Kong farmers from Chinese sources, may receive further fattening along the Hong Kong coast prior to shucking and sale in the market. Oysters are also bought and sold by the bed, and a price of HK$2 per cultch has been quoted.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211086, "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-1987", "page_number": 147, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "122\n\norder the suspension of the ordinance. When the crisis passed the measures it provided to control the Chinese population would no longer be needed, however, they would remain on the statute books to be reintroduced by the Governor in Council if a future situation warranted it. Once enacted, however, they were never officially suspended. Instead they came to be regarded as a way of reducing crime at night, though for long periods there was great laxity over its enforcement.\n\nThe introduction of the rule that the Chinese must carry lights and passes at night was the result of the outbreak of the Sino-British conflict, sometimes referred to as the Second Opium War.\n\nThe spark which set fire to the smouldering tensions created by the frustration of the foreigner in his desire to force open China to unrestricted trade was the seizure at Canton in October 1856 of the crew of a Hongkong-registered vessel, the Arrow.\n\nThe Chinese authorities claimed the crew members were pirates. Their detention and the alleged hauling down of the British flag provoked an escalating series of demands, threats and incidents between the British and Chinese. These eventually climaxed in the looting and burning of the Imperial Summer Palace at Peking in 1860.\n\nThe Chinese would not meet the demands for an apology for \"the insult to the British flag\" nor the return of the crew in a manner satisfactory to the English. To force the issue, the British breached the walls of Canton, penetrated to the Viceroy's stronghold and then withdrew. They met no resistance. Then boats were seized, forts were shelled, troops marched back and forth.\n\nFor the British it all seemed like a military lark, with their superior power meeting no resistance from the Chinese, but only threatening proclamations issued by the Viceroy urging the destruction of the barbarians, with a price set upon the heads of certain prominent foreigners.\n\nAffairs took a more serious turn when the area along the river at Canton, where the foreigners lived and did their business, was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214288, "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": 146, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "109\n\nships of the line. The largest ships employed were the equivalent of battleships. They were mounted with up to 74 guns generally of a size of 32 pounders (the calibre of guns was usually quoted as the weight of the round shot, the cannon ball, which they fired), but up to 64 pounders. Field pieces were of smaller size so that they could be moved about the countryside. The forces in the first China war had six and nine pounders as well as 12 pounder howitzers. The main projectile was round shot. The guns would fire round shot to demolish the walls of forts etc. and they could do this very effectively, especially with the larger sizes of shot. Round shot would also plough through troops.\n\nThe other projectiles that the cannon used were shells and grape or canister. The common shell was filled with explosive which exploded when the fuse burnt down. The early fuses were not very reliable and it was not until the 1850s that accurate and reliable fuses had been developed. However, even in the first war, there are reports of shells being effective against the Chinese forts. In the second war, the Chinese were surprised by the effectiveness of the improved fuses, when their troops were shelled behind Canton. Caseshot, grapeshot or canister was also used, which was a tin of the size of the bore filled with bullets which burst open as it left the muzzle allowing the bullets to spread out in an arc. The number of bullets used varied, but the following were the normal loads:\n\n9 pounder gun\n\n41 5-oz. bullets\n\n6 pounder gun\n\n41 1-oz. bullets\n\n100 2-oz. Bullets\n\n24 pounder howitzer\n\nA variation of caseshot was the spherical caseshot which was fitted with a fuse so that the casing did not burst until it was well on its way to the target, thus increasing the effective range. Grapeshot could be used to clear men from the decks of ships as well as any massing on shore. Lieutenant Ouchterlony describes the effect that it could have in a confined space: \"The effect was terrific, for the street was perfectly straight, and the enemy's rear, not aware of the miserable fate which was being dealt out to their comrades in the front, continued to mass forward, so as to force fresh victims upon the mound of dead and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214296, "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": 154, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "117\n\nleading their men to an attack.\n\n5 Mackenzie, op. cit., p. 138.\n\n6 Lord Jocelyn. Six Months with the Chinese Expedition. London, 1841, p. 41.\n\n7\n\nAlthough the benefits of rifling to give more consistent trajectories were known, no one had yet been able to come up with a practical means of taking advantage of it in a cannon.\n\n8 Lieutenant John Ouchterlony, The Chinese War: An Account of all the Operations of the British Forces from the Commencement to the Treaty of Nanking, London 1844, p. 98 notes that at Tycocktow the Gunboat Nemesis \"threw shells into the upper fort.\"\n\nD. Bonner-Smith & E.W.R.Lumby. The Second China War 1856-1860. London, 1965, p.53 records that Rear Admiral Seymour reports that \"The Barracuta at the same time also shelled the troops in the hills at the back of the city, from a position at the head of Sulphur Creek.\"\n\n19 D. Bonner-Smith, op. cit., p. 173 records that Commander Forsyth of the Hornet reports \"..commenced firing grape and shrapnel, with ricochet shot,into the whole mass of junks, which must have done dreadful execution, as they were crowded with men to excess.\"\n\nOuchterlony, op. cit., p. 239.\n\n12 Mackenzie, op. cit., p. 23 reports \"a Congreve rocket, which was fired at the Admiral's junk, went through the deck into the magazine, upon which she immediately blew up.\"\n\n13 Loch, op. cit., p. 40.\n\n14 Mackenzie, op. cit., p. 149 notes \"In artillery they are very backward, their guns being of enormous weight in proportion to their calibre; some of the pieces of ordinance which we captured weighing seven ton, although only 42 pdrs; yet notwithstanding the immense thickness of metal in many cases the guns burst.\"\n\n15 Mackenzie, op. cit., p. 157 notes \"in the great arsenal at Amoy, a large two-decked junk was found nearly ready for sea with guns, as well as something bearing a resemblance to gun-carriages.\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214761, "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": 176, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "140\n\neverything off just before dark. The AIS is full of naval personnel all trying to find accommodation and food. After a mad scramble, manage to find a bed and retire early, tired and hungry.\n\nThursday eleventh. Commander Millet OC AIS asks me to form antiaircraft and defence posts for Aberdeen as RAF only people with machine guns. I fix up four posts on the roof with tommy gun posts on the verandahs. The AIS makes a wonderful target being only half a mile from the naval dockyard. A hospital has been set up next door to the armoury. For breakfast we get one slice of bread and a little butter and tiffin is the same. For supper, if we're lucky, we get hot stew. Intensive bombing of Aberdeen harbour causing heavy casualties. How we curse the bombers and wish we had a few Gladiators which would make short work of them. Jap fighters are quite slow.\n\nFriday twelfth. Up early and drive in to HK. Buy food, cash a cheque and have a steak at Jimmies. Send cables to Pam and Mother. HK shelled from Kowloon. All our troops evacuated from Mainland. Hear that Walter Rosa, Dick Stanton, Houston Boswall and Bell who messed with us at Kai Tak have all been killed. Small party of Indians still fighting on Devils Peak. Royal Scots fired on in Nathan Road by Chinese fifth columnists using automatic weapons but Scots wipe the whole lot out. Chinese reported assisting Japs on large scale. Amazed at sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse, also Jap successes against Americans. No one however doubts the final outcome and we realize that HK is only small fry in a tremendous issue.\n\nSaturday thirteenth. I set up antiaircraft positions on Bennetts Hill and Reservoir Hill with RAF personnel. CO goes to battle HQ, leaving me in charge. Dolly goes to Little Saiwan and the Colonel to Stanley. After much sweated labour get guns etc. in position. Whimpeys is in charge of Reservoir Hill and I of Bennetts Hill. I return to AIS for the night and at midnight there's a hell of a commotion and everyone is roused as the Japs are supposed to have landed on Aberdeen Island. Whole thing a farce and return to bed.\n\nSunday fourteenth. Set up positions on Bennetts and start digging holes in side of hill for billets. Junior and I dig like mad but, owing to rocks, make little progress. Quiet day except for a few air raids. Bed extremely hard and rain comes in.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214764, "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": 179, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "143\n\norders us to evacuate our positions and retire to Aberdeen. We are amazed at such an order but apparently the Japs have broken through over Mt Nicholson turning our left flank. We collect our small force and start our retirement. Heavy firing coming from Wanchai Gap where fierce fighting is going on. What a forlorn sight we make groping our way back through the hills in the dark. Finally reach Aberdeen, the Canadians going to Mount Gough and I take my men to the AIS. Atmosphere depressing and everyone falls to sleep through exhaustion. Up early, lucky for me, as a bomb lands on my bed just as I leave the room wrecking everything including my kit. AIS heavily shelled causing many fires and casualties.\n\nWed twenty fourth and Thursday Xmas day. The retirement order was a mistake and back we go to Bennetts with guns and equipment. Just as we reach the top the Japs open up on us with mortars. We have no protection and lie flat. The shells land amongst us. Man next to me hit, also several others. Piece of shrapnel glances off my helmet and am half buried in flying debris. If we stay we shall all be killed so order the men to disperse and dash for cover and miraculously we make it. During the barrage I had noticed that one of our previous posts was still manned by Canadians who obviously had not received the order to withdraw. Cpl Blueman AC, Canadian, volunteers to go with me to try and get them out. We climb on our bellies through the thickest undergrowth but are fired on several times. Finally we get within hailing distance and get them all into a pillbox. We collect all the arms and equipment which we can't carry, pile them into the pillbox, and throw a couple of grenades into the pillbox. As we start back everything goes off at once and we have to duck flying bullets. Eventually we arrive intact at the AIS.\n\nNo one seems to know where the Japs are so back we go to a new position guarding the bridge over Aberdeen reservoir. My party consists of twelve Canadians and ten RAF. Up to midnight all is quiet although every sound indicates Japs to the men. Soon after midnight heavy firing starts just across the bridge. The Japs weird war cry is plainly heard and soon a small party of Canadians retire over the bridge. They report a heavy attack by Japs who crept up on them and broke through. We open up with everything we have across the bridge. The Canadians are badly rattled, even their officer seems to have lost control of his men. The Japs start shelling us and confusion sets in and the", "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": 215900, "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": 199, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "indicated the establishment for the battery observation post (BOP), battery plotting room (BPR), and Eastern Fire Command. A total of 88 officers and soldiers were proposed.\n\n30 December 1936 The 12 Heavy Battery dismantled the 9.2-inch gun at Gough Battery (The two 9.2-inch guns at Pottinger were left for the moment).\n\n23 October 1937\n\n1939/1940\n\nJoint Overseas and Home Defence Committee considered re-fortification or de-militarisation of Hong Kong, assuming that it took 90 days for the fleet to relieve Hong Kong. Bokhara Battery constructed.\n\n1940\n\nThe guns at Pottinger Battery removed.\n\nA Japanese military map shows the details of defence deployment at Devil's Peak. It states that for the Devil's Peak defence works, \"underground passages have been altered and barbed wire added.\"\n\n12 December 1941 During the early hours, the 5/7 Rajputs and 1 Mountain Battery took up positions at Devil's Peak. The six 3.7-inch howitzers of the 1st Mtn Bty fired 400 rounds at the advancing Japanese, who were at Black Hill.\n\nThe 5th Anti Aircraft Regiment also moved to Devil's Peak with 6 Lewis Guns\n\nAt 1800 hours, the garrison received orders to withdraw to Hong Kong Island. The evacuation took place the next morning.\n\nRollo, 1992, p.119\n\n2\n\nRollo, 1992, p.113\n\nRollo, 1992, p.120, p.201\n\nEmpson, 1992, p.146 (Plate 2-12)\n\nThe arcs of fire of Devil's Peak's batteries can be found in Rollo, 1992, at p.123\n\nRollo, 1992, p.130, p.171, 173\n\nPRO 16947\n\nPRO 17849\n\n15 December 1941\n\n13 December 1941 Coast defence batteries on Hong Kong Island shelled Devil's Peak, now in Japanese hands.\n\nPak Sha Wan Battery hit by Japanese light artillery fire from Devil's Peak.\n\nRollo, 1992, p.131\n\n18 December 1941\n\nPak Sha Wan Battery fired at Devil's Peak Village.\n\n1944\n\nA USAAF aerial photograph shows Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, including the Devil's\n\nRollo, 1992, p.133\n\nRollo, 1992, p.135\n\n132", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]