[ { "id": 204720, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 23, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "14\n\nW. C. HUNTER\n\nLinguists were licensed Chinese interpreters. (See note 39). Compradore was a Chinese national in charge of workers in a factory.\n\nColoured buttons attached to caps determined the rank of Chinese officials.\n\nThe term Hoppo was coined by Westerners to designate the official appointed by the Emperor to look after trade at Canton and to remit the resulting revenue to the Board of Revenue (the hu-pu) at Peking. His full title was Yüeh Hai-kuan-pu which means \"Superintendent of Customs for the province of Canton”.\n\nChop was an official pronouncement by Chinese authorities.\n\nChop boats carried cargo from Whampoa to Canton; in design they resembled a melon with circular decks and sides and could provide for 500 chests of opium.\n\nJOURNAL OF OCCURRENCES AT CANTON 1839\n\nMarch 24, Sunday\n\nThe Chinese are building bridges across the street in the rear, to the roofs of our Hongs in order the better to keep a lookout.\n\nOur servants, coolies, cooks, and compradore as well as those from all other Factories, quit the Hongs this evening. It looked as if they were running from a plague, each person carried off his bed, trunk, or box, and for a short time the Square was all in confusion. The linguists permitted ours to remain till the last moment, and from the time the order for them to quit was received, which was about 8 p.m., till after 8 when not a Chinese was left in any Hong, the coolies made out to secure for us outside and bring in about 60 fowls, 15 tubs of water, a tub of sugar, some oil, a bag of biscuits, and a few other things.\n\nThe Square now is one blaze of light, innumerable lanterns from the different Hongs are disposed all over it, and the noise of some three or four hundred coolies stationed to guard any foreigner from leaving Canton makes it resemble a large wild encampment.\n\nCaptain Elliot landed at the Factory steps about 5 p.m., hoisted the British colors and called a meeting of all the foreigners in Canton. He then went to Mr. Dent's Factory and took him to the hall. Thousands of Chinese in the Square greatly excited", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204748, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 51, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "40 \n\nW. C. HUNTER \n\nat Samarang where he served for 3 years. He died at Delft in 1863. (L.T.R.) \n\n32 Viceroy. The Governor-General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi at this time was Teng Ting-chen who held this post from early 1836 until early 1840. See Hummel, op. cit., II, 716. (J.L.C-B.) \n\n33 Hoppo. The Superintendent of Maritime Customs at Canton in 1839 was Yu (?). (J.L.C-B.) \n\n34 The Yum Chae. Cantonese pronunciation for the characters (mandarin Ch'in-ch'ai) meaning \"an Imperial Commissioner”. (J.L.C-B.) \n\n35 Innes, James Innes (1787-1841), the \"storm petrel\" of Canton was the 7th Chieftain of the Inneses of Dunkinty, Scotland. He came out to China about 1825 and operated as a Free Trader mostly on his own, but for a time in the firm of Innes, Fletcher & Co. His dealings in opium had not a little to do with precipitating the trouble in 1839. He died in July 1841 and was buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery, Macao. (L.T.R.) \n\n36 Chaye Beale. Thomas Chaye Beale was a member of the firm of Magniac & Co. in Canton as early as 1826. He severed his connections with this firm in the early thirties, and operated on his own till 1845 when he set up a house of agency in Shanghai with Lancelot Dent under the name of Dent, Beale & Co. In 1851 he was Portuguese Consul and Vice-Consul for the Netherlands at Shanghai. (L.T.R.) \n\n37 Se-yin. This is probably a reference to the characters Ssu-ying, the officer in command of a ying which corresponded in some ways to a battalion. However, the rank of a ying commander corresponded more to the Western rank of captain or major. (J.L.C-B.) \n\n38 Ta-lao-yeh. The phrase ta-lao-yeh signifies \"revered elder”. (J.L.C-B.) \n\n39 The linguists. Linguists (t'ung shih) were supposed to be able to act as interpreters between the Canton officials and the foreign merchants when instructions needed to be conveyed. The foreigners, for their part, usually enlisted the help of the Hong merchants when they wanted a document translated into Chinese or they needed an interpreter at an important interview. They repeatedly declared that the linguists were useless when it came to linguistic matters. In fact, the linguists appear to have been rather low-grade men of not much education, and able to speak only pidgin English. However, by law a foreign merchant trading at Canton was bound to employ a linguist. Since it was forbidden by the statutes of the Ch'ing dynasty to teach the Chinese language to foreigners, it was reasonable that linguists should be licensed to cope with their language problems. However, in order that the foreigners should not learn much about affairs in the interior, the qualifications needed by a linguist were low and their pidgin vocabulary was restricted to matters of trade. This was part of a deliberate policy which grew up among the officials at Canton, and the linguists merely acted as another cog in the mechanism whereby communication between the foreign merchants and the officials, however minor, was prevented, and the foreigners dealt instead with a number of different unofficial functionaries such as the compradores and linguists. Thus, the foreign merchants were kept at an arm's length and also kept in ignorance. \n\nThe linguists and their servants mentioned in this journal appear to have acted as general clerks and messengers, as much as linguists. The prefix A or Ah (ya) signifies the status of servant. (J.L.C-B.)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205018, "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": 126, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n117\n\nthat the official title for the Superintendent of Maritime Customs for Kwangtung was Yueh hai-kuan chien-tu. Yueh hai-kuan pu means the Kwangtung Maritime Customs Office. In the footnotes on page 38, note 15, the term Kwang Hup, or Heep, is translated by Dr. Chang as 'police commandant'. Note 33: the Hoppo at this time was Yü-k'un.\n\n豫堃\n\nThere are three further points for which I feel some responsibility since I was still editor of the Journal when this contribution was originally accepted. The editorial note on page 9 states that the manuscript of Hunter's journal was 'discovered' in the library of the Boston Athenaeum by Professor Ellsworth. This is misleading since the ms. was already known to Dr. Chang and, I imagine, a few other scholars. Also I now see no reason to be so cautious over the authorship of the ms. journal and I think it can safely be attributed to Hunter. Finally I was sorry to see that no acknowledgement was made to the Trustees of the Boston Athenaeum for permission to print from the microfilm which they allowed to be made. This can now be rectified by thanking the Trustees for their kind permission.\n\nUniversity of Toronto\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-Byng\n\nA MAP OF THE PEARL RIVER ESTUARY\n\nReaders of Volume 4 of this journal, especially those living outside the Colony of Hong Kong, must have been troubled from time to time by the plethora of local place-names which occurred in four of the articles dealing with the Kwangtung area. The sketch maps printed on pages 27, 83 and 106 of that volume, although of some help, were inadequate for identifying all the places mentioned. In case any reader of Volume 4 still wishes to identify certain places may I refer him to A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories (Hong Kong, Government Printer, 1960) if he does not already know it. This publication contains a pocket map, and is useful for a start. However, what is now needed is a specially compiled map of the Pearl River estuary from Canton to Macao and from Macao to Hong Kong as far as Tai Pang (Mirs Bay) showing names of places which occur in accounts of this area relating to the first half of the nineteenth century. A second map for the second", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205410, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 172, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n165 \n\ntimes) as the sole export agent for producers of a special kind of incense which, then as now, was widely used for ritual worship in temples and in the home. Incense is said to have been shipped to Aberdeen by sea from Kowloon Point, to which it had been brought from various parts of the San On and Tung Kwun districts. It was then re-shipped in large trading vessels to Canton, from which it was carried overland to the north to such cities as Soochow. (It is not entirely clear to me why such a round-about route was taken to bring incense to Canton.) The cultivation and trade in this specially-favoured type of incense is said to have received a fatal blow in the early Ching period when the government evacuated the coastal areas to deny the aid and collaboration of their inhabitants to the anti-Manchu ruler of Formosa and his sympathisers.14\n\nSir Show-son CHOW (1861 - 1959). Sir Show-son CHOW who died only a few years ago, at a great age, was one of the most famous members of the Hong Kong community. He was truly a local man as his ancestors had lived in Little Hong Kong for several hundred years. His successful career, though the result of his own merits, was made possible through his father, whose abilities removed him from a farming village to the business centre of Canton and the position of compradore to the Hong Kong and Canton Steamship Company. He was in business in Canton and it was there that his son, the future Sir Show-son, was educated. By reason of this opportunity, and his own undoubted capacity, the son was selected as a free scholar by the Chinese Government as one of the first batch of Chinese youths to be sent to America for a Western education. This was in 1874, when the boy was only 13 years old. He returned to China in 1881 and for the next 16 years held important posts in Korea in the Korean Customs Service and the Chinese consular service in that country. He was President of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company at Tientsin, 1897-1903 and was managing director, Imperial Chinese Railways of North China, Peking-Mukden line, 1903 - 1907. From then until 1910, he was Customs Superintendent of Trade and Counsellor for Foreign Affairs at Newchwang, North China. On his return to Hong Kong after the 1911 Revolution his wide experience, undoubted ability and excellent reputation led to his being appointed to directorships in many firms and public utility concerns. He was appointed a member of the Legislative and Executive Councils and was knighted in 1926. He also", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205743, "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": 49, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "MILITIA, MARKET AND LINEAGE\n\n43\n\nbad informal connections with Hong Kong's officialdom and that its activities were a foretaste of the future.\n\nBy March of 1899, British officials began to appear in the territory. A party was busy near the Sham Chun river, marking out the frontier with China. Meanwhile, the officer in charge of the Hong Kong police was touring the territory, considering alternative locations for police stations. This official—Captain Superintendent F. H. May arrived at Ping Shan on 27th March. His first action was to post a proclamation saying that the Hong Kong government would not interfere with the land, buildings, or customs of the people. He then designated a hill behind Ping Shan as the site for a police station. A crowd gathered and the argument began. “It says that land, buildings, and customs will not be interfered with but will remain the same as before. Why should they, therefore, when they first come into the leased area, wish to erect a police station on the hill behind our village? When has China ever erected a police station just where people live? The proclamation says that things will be as before. Are not these words untrue?”\n\n54\n\nThe Resistance Movement -- 28th March to 18th April, 1899.\n\nThe day after May's visit to Ping Shan, discussions were held in the ancestral halls of Ping Shan and Kam Tin. In both instances, agreement was reached that resistance should be offered to the British. Following the two meetings, a third took place in an ancestral hall at Ha Tsuen. Representatives of all three Tang lineages were present and previous decisions to offer resistance were ratified. Messages were sent to leaders throughout the marketing area, asking them to attend a meeting at Yuen Long market the next day.\n\nSteward Lockhart later argued that the resistance leaders feared for their positions of power and privilege. At the Ha Tsuen meeting, a wider range of anxieties were expressed: “... that under English law a poll tax would be collected; that houses would be numbered and a charge made therefor; that fishing and wood-cutting would be prohibited; that women and girls would be outraged; that births and deaths would be registered; that cattle and pigs would be destroyed; that police stations would be erected, which would ruin the Fung Shui [Mandarin: Feng Shui] of the place. In short, that the evils that would arise would be so great", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206389, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 206, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "180 \n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nChinese Customs' service, and a greater energy which has of late years been manifested by the Chinese Government itself. I have been told that the Customs' cruisers confine themselves to the inner waters, and act against smuggling and not piracy. It may be so; but smuggling and piracy may be considered as frequently only different branches of the same profession, the members of which will take to either as they think it safer, and likely to be more profitable for the occasion. That law and order are the rule increasingly in Hongkong and along the coast is a growing impression, and that impression is a surer preserver of the peace than the gallows, the axe, and the sword. Bad men are kept habitually obedient to the law by the form of justice armed with power in their mind's eye more than by outbursts of indignation occasionally aroused against them, and from which they always hope to escape.\n\nEre I leave the subject of crime, I may be permitted to say a few words on the police force of the colony. All along its history, the good organization of this has been perhaps the most difficult part of the duties of the Government. Experiment after experiment has been tried as to the constituents of the force; and as long as I can remember, that is, since the very first attempts at its formation, charges have been advanced against it of inefficiency, drunkenness, and openness to bribery. My own conviction has been for many years that the strength of the police force ought to consist of Chinese. I pressed my views on this point on Sir Richard MacDonnell soon after he arrived in the Colony, and he put them on one side. I stated them to the Commission which held its sittings on the subject during the present year, and I was glad to find that about one half of its members were disposed to coincide with me. I believe that the Chinese people are in the mass law-abiding and fond of order. I believe that there is a large body of Chinese merchants who have as great a stake in the Colony as the British and merchants of other nationalities have. I believe that by a cordial communication with them a body of native policemen might be obtained who would be sufficiently reliable, and who, with a smaller number obtained from home as the Government has lately done, a considerable proportion of its present force would keep the Colony almost free from crime. Give me a superintendent well skilled in the business of his department, and able to communicate", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206504, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 52, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "46\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nwere still to be administered by the imperial commissioner of the five ports not only would he be unable to look after them all effectively also the foreign countries might not agree to it. Moreover the foreign countries trade at the port of Tientsin which is very close to the capital. If there is no great official residing at Tientsin with whom they can consult and transact affairs we are afraid that inconvenience will arise. We recommend that a superintendent of foreign trade be appointed for Newchwang, Tengchow and Tientsin to reside at Tientsin specifically to regulate affairs at those three ports. In Chihli, which is the vital metropolitan area, the governor-general has to control the entire province and cannot reside at Tientsin alone. Neither can the provincial financial and judicial commissioners, who each have their specific duties, conveniently hold the office of trade superintendent concurrently. So it is proposed that, following the precedent of the two Huai regions, the office of the salt administration of Ch'ang-lu be abolished and its administrative duties be transferred to the governor-general of Chihli. The salary of the salt administration office can then be given to the superintendent of trade entailing no additional establishment in order to economize. Control over the former customs revenue shall be administered concurrently by the superintendent for foreign trade who will make a separate report on it. We also recommend that an official seal without the title \"Imperial Commissioner\" be given to the superintendent in charge of foreign trade in the three ports. He should be allowed to take with him several secretaries to assist him in the administration. Whenever an important matter occurs he should be authorized to act in conjunction with the governors-general, governors and prefects of the three provinces concerned in the hope that matters may be dealt with smoothly.\n\nThe original imperial commissionership in charge of the five ports was held by the governor-general of the Liang-Kuang. In the ninth year of Hsien-feng [3 Feb. 1859-22 Jan. 1860] it was transferred to the control of the governor-general of Kiangsu, Kiangsi and Anhwei. We note that now there are three ports on the Yangtze newly added as well as Ch'aochow and Ch'iungchow in Kwangtung, Taiwan and Tamsui in Fukien, and therefore business will become more extensive. In fact we fear not only that governor-general Tseng Kuo-fan, who concurrently is in charge of the business, will find that 'however long the whip it will not", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206506, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 54, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "48\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\ntendent of Trade for the Northern Ports and Superintendent of Trade for the Southern Ports would find some material of use in this section of the six-point memorandum. For instance, it states that at Newchwang, the staple trade commodity is soya-bean cakes, but that this trade is not open to foreign ships. Details of the suggested method of collecting and reporting the customs revenues of this port are then given. At Tengchow, the memorialists state, an illicit foreign trade has been going on for a number of years, unbeknown to the Court. Now that it has officially become a treaty port, officials must be appointed to administer foreign trade there. As regards the five original treaty ports of Canton, Foochow, Amoy, Ningpo, and Shanghai, no changes in the regulations need be made. As regards the newly opened ports of Ch'iungchow, Swatow, Taiwan, and Tamsui, as well as Chenkiang, Kiukiang, and Hankow on the Yangtze, the governors-general and governors in whose jurisdiction these ports lie should jointly memorialize with the imperial commissioner at Shanghai concerning officials to be appointed to take charge of these places. Monthly reports on the volume of foreign trade at these ports are to be sent to the Tsungli Yamen and the Board of Revenue.\n\nSuggestions are also made for arrangements to be made for trade with Russia at the newly opened trading places of Urga, Kashgar, and Kalgan.\n\nAccording to the treaties, twenty percent of the duties on foreign trade are to be held for the payment of the indemnity. A counterfoil will be provided so that the total amount of revenue collected can be checked against the amount withheld.\n\nThe memorialists then return to the point they were making near the beginning of point 3 [as translated above].\n\nThus, the amount of foreign duty collected each year being clearly shown, the officials through whose hands it passes will be unable to enrich themselves through peculation. Not only will they be deprived of the means of living, they will secretly resort to other malpractices. It is further feared that wily clerks, when they see there is no money to be made, may provoke trouble, thus endangering the public interest. If we do not clearly lay down regulations providing them with expenses for transacting official business, we very much fear that unforeseen malpractices will arise. It is therefore proposed to request that an order be given to the superintendent", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206507, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 55, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TSUNGLI YAMEN\n\n49\n\nof trade at Tientsin and to the imperial commissioner at Shanghai to draft, in conjunction with the governors-general and governors of the provinces concerned, regulations to govern the payment of expenses involved in transporting revenue silver collected at the ports to the Board [of Revenue] and also for the salaries of customs inspectors, and clerks, for stationery and other items, and then to memorialize requesting permission to put them into effect, in the hope that this will speedily clear the withheld portion [for the payment of the indemnities] and lead to the eradication of abuses.\n\n4. In each province where foreign affairs are dealt with your servants recommend instructions be sent to the Manchu garrison commanders, the governors-general and governors that they should keep each other informed in order to avoid discrepancies. We note that hitherto, in the management of affairs involving foreign countries, because the Grand Council has not issued copies of memorials submitted and edicts respectfully received, the governors-general and governors have also not communicated with each other. Originally this was in order to maintain secrecy and to prevent leakage of information. Now, however, since instructions have been sent to the provinces, to the superintendent of trade and to the imperial commissioner that they should regularly report to the Tsungli Yamen at the capital, the Manchu garrison commanders, the prefect of Peking, and the governors-general and governors should regularly inform each other of whatever they ought to do, and only then will there be no discrepancies at all. Moreover, when one province manages affairs satisfactorily another province can copy it, when this province manages affairs unsatisfactorily that province can be on its guard against it. We note that in the second month of the ninth year of Hsien-feng, Ho Kuei-ch'ing, the former governor-general of Liang-Chiang memorialized that:\n\nhitherto all matters have been memorialized secretly, and that the authorities do not keep each other informed, and that there are no files which can be consulted. It has reached such a point that colleagues in the same office are not fully informed. As a result numerous discrepancies and complications have arisen. This certainly is a great source of abuses. Your servant requests that instructions be issued that those concerned should notify each other so that there is uniformity in this matter.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206512, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "54\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nCouncillors at Jehol at this time: Mu-yin; K'uang-yüan; Tu Han; Chiao Yu-ying. Information on all these officials can be found in Hummel, Eminent Chinese, especially in the biography of Su-shun. Their power relationships are discussed in Banno, China and the West, passim, but especially 55-56. The term \"minister of the imperial presence\" (yü-ch'ien ta-ch'en) is rendered by Brunnert and Hagelstrom, Present Day Political Organization, p. 28, no. 101, as adjutant-general.\n\nII Tengchow is on the northern side of the Shantung promontory. In fact it was not opened to foreign trade which was carried on at Yen-tai near Chefoo. S. Wells Williams, The Chinese Commercial Guide, 211-212. Ch'aochow was the old name for Swatow; Ch'iungchow is in Hainan. Taiwan City and Tamsui were ports on the island of Taiwan which came under the administration of Fukien province.\n\n12 Ch'ung-hou was appointed to this post by an edict of 20 January with the designation superintendent of trade for the Three Ports, with his headquarters at Tientsin. Hsueh Huan, governor of Kiangsu and acting imperial commissioner at Shanghai, was made responsible for the newly opened ports along the Yangtze and the coast to the south of it, by the same edict. As far back as 1844 the imperial commissioner at Canton was currently designated imperial commissioner for the Five Ports. With the addition of new ports it was made a concurrent post of the governor of Kiangsu in 1861, until 1868 when it was made a concurrent post of the governor-general of Liang Kiang residing at Nanking. In 1870 the post of superintendent of trade for the Three Ports was raised to an imperial commissionership and held concurrently by the governor-general of Chihli. It is not clear when the commonly used designations for these two posts viz: superintendent of trade for the southern ports and superintendent of trade for the northern ports were first used. Meng, The Tsungli Yamen, 40-41; Banno, China and the West, 233-5.\n\n13 Article 3 of the Convention of Peking between Britain and China refers. See W. F. Mayers, Treaties Between the Empire of China and Foreign Powers, 8. The phrase to avoid complications arising is a euphemism for 'to avoid peculation'.\n\n14 Tentatively we have translated the Chinese phrase hui-tan as counter-foil. Note 19 also refers.\n\n15 The term is fuyin. See Brunnert and Hagelstrom, Present Day Political Organization of China, 793.\n\n16 See Frank H. H. King, A Research Guide to China Coast Newspapers, 1822-1911.\n\n17 Translated in collaboration with Mr. Vei-Tsen Yang. Chinese text in Ch'ow-pan wu shih-mo, Hsien-feng, 72: 2-3. A second edict was issued on the same day, and on the same subject, to the Grand Secretariat. This edict was translated by T. F. Wade along with the six-point memorandum. Note 2 above refers.\n\n18 Not to be confused with the Russian Hostel nor with the language school for the Russians in Peking, both of which were often referred to in Chinese documents as O-lo ssu-kuan, thus making confusion likely with the Russian language school referred to here. See Meng, The Tsungli Yamen, 111, note 48.\n\n19 Lit. 'draw up a joint document'. Glossed by T. F. Wade as a paper signed by both parties showing that the amount deducted is in due proportion to the collection'. Translation of Peking Gazette in F.O. 17/352 p. 42.\n\n20 Presumably referring to Robert Hart, the Inspector General of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, and the westerners serving under him. On the general subject of foreigners taking part in the administration of China after the middle of the nineteenth century see Fairbank, The Chinese World Order, 273-5; also Fairbank \"Synarchy under the Treaties\" in Fairbank (ed.) Chinese Thought and Institutions, 204-231.\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206788, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 65, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "PERSIANS, ARABS IN T’ANG CHINA\n\n59\n\nManichaean whose doctrines were proposed to the court in A.D. 694.5 There were students from Japan, who, after enjoying a few years of study on Chinese classics, preferred to remain in China permanently. There were also aristocratic Tibetan youths sent by their parents for traditional Chinese scholarship. There were Khoten painters who later became great masters in Chinese artistic circles. There were Sogdians, who introduced polo to the Chinese. Above all, there were Persians and Arabs, whose activities and contributions had tremendous influence on T'ang political and social history.\n\nI\n\nMany Persians, Arabs and others lived in Tang China. The Turks, Uighurs, Tocharians, Sogdians, Koreans and Japanese for the most part lived in Ch'ang-an and the Chams, Khmers, Javanese and Singhalese in Canton. Persians and Arabs, however, were also to be found in these two places and in Yang-chou and Ch'üan-chou as well. All these foreigners in the early Tang period shared the same kind of life as the T'ang Chinese. In A.D. 714, the T'ang government had to establish a special office known as Shih-po-ssu (Superintendent of Customs) to look after the foreign affairs in Canton and in other cities along the coastal region.\n\nForeigners in T’ang China were not all law-abiding. Uighur nationals sought out Chinese businessmen and young Chinese wastrels and made shady deals with them in the capital. Persians and Arabs, on the other hand, would lure young beautiful Chinese girls to become part of their possessions and even engaged in the slave trade in Canton. Also, some of them would purposely encourage those Chinese who were in need of money to pledge their land, furniture and sacred relics for ready cash.\n\nThe Chinese pawn-shop came into being in late T’ang period and this kind of practice is believed to be the embryo of the modern pawn-shop. The moneylenders' business was regarded as a plague in the beginning of the ninth century and the emperor had to issue a decree in A.D. 822 prohibiting such practice or every Chinese in the Empire would be in debt.7 The Turks were as notorious as the others. A Turk stabbed a Chinese merchant to death in broad daylight and was rescued by his Fan-chang (Sheikh) without any...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207289, "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": 57, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "INCIDENT: H.K. MERCHANTS & B.E.I. co.\n\n49\n\non the E.L.C.'s China trade. These documents he read in the India Office Library in London, in the early 1920s, at a time when there was no such thing as xeroxing or microfilming. Morse, therefore, had to read through this enormous mass of documents in the different original handwritings, and always within the confines of the old India Office Library. Morse used his own judgment on what to quote verbatim from the documents, and how much space, if any, to allot to each episode or problem. Often he simply made a brief summary in his own words. Thus what we read is Morse's version of the gist of the E.I.C. records. But this is a personal view, and whenever possible, it is useful to be able to compare his account of an incident with that of another eye witness. This is the justification for printing Lindsay's account in this article, and comparing it with the half page précis given by Morse.\n\nBefore beginning, however, it is necessary to sketch in the background to this incident. Lindsay states vaguely that \"the Hong merchants had some pecuniary demands which the supercargoes thought it their duty to resist....\" Morse devotes nine pages to the relations between the Hong merchants and the supercargoes in Canton, and to explaining the bankruptcy of two Hong merchants and the measures being taken by the other merchants, and also the senior Chinese officials in Canton, to get the E.I.C.'s representatives to pay their debts. This imbroglio was confused still further by the murder of a Chinese man in January 1810. Suspicion pointed to one or more seamen serving on the E.I.C.'s ships, but no positive proof was forthcoming so no one was arrested. According to Chinese legal principles someone must be arrested and punished in the case of a homicide, even if the guilt of the arrested man was only circumstantial. The magistrate in whose jurisdiction in Canton the E.I.C. supercargoes lived began to exhort them, in December 1810, to produce the culprit(s), and threatened that failure to comply would result in a stoppage of trade. This was a familiar threat which the supercargoes themselves were quite adept at using under the right circumstances since neither they, nor the Chinese officials, really wanted trade to stop; it was mutually lucrative. On the 23rd January, 1811 the Viceroy (Governor-general of Kwangtung-Kwangsi) left his post on transfer, and the Governor of Kwangtung and the Hoppo (Superintendent of Maritime Customs for Kwangtung) were left in charge.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207291, "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": 59, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "INCIDENT: H.K. MERCHANTS & B.E.I. CO.\n\n51\n\nI might have been able to have furnished you and my country with some lasting memorial of services rendered in that naval field where so much fame has so honourably been acquired; but you are aware that my career in that service was cut short by the entire stop to promotion which took place at the close of the American war in the year 1782; and the sea service of the East India Company, which I then adopted, gave but little scope for anything worth relating; however, on one occasion, in China, I was placed in a situation the account of which you may perhaps think worthy of a place in your collection.\n\nIn 1811 I was commodore of a large and valuable fleet belonging to the East India Company, then lying in the port of Canton.\n\nIn Canton all mercantile business is carried on by Chinese appointed by the Government and styled Hong or security merchants; they are selected from the richest and most respectable persons in Canton, and through them only can the supercargoes, our residents in China, have intercourse with the Hoppo, or Viceroy.1\n\nThese merchants have therefore the power of withholding all representations to the Government which may be against their private interest, or otherwise disagreeable to them by exposing the extortions and impositions they frequently attempt on the English.\n\nOn the occasion I am now going to relate the Hong merchants had some pecuniary demands which the supercargoes thought it their duty to resist.— the consequence of which was that misrepresentations were made by them to the Viceroy, and, when the fleet was ready to sail, the port-clearance was refused.\n\nAfter various ineffectual efforts to obtain our despatch, Mr. Brown, the chief supercargo, sent for me and expressed his anxiety at the unlooked-for detention of the very valuable fleet which was ready for sea. He informed me he had sent several petitions by the security merchants to the Hoppo, but he had reason to believe that\n\n1 Hoppo, or Viceroy. This mistake shows how dangerous it is to read the account of an eye witness of that time without making sure that his/her facts are correct. The Viceroy was the Westerners' name for the Governor-general of two provinces. Working in association with him was the Governor (Fu-yuan) of Kwangtung with his headquarters at Canton. Independent of these two great mandarins stood the Superintendent of Maritime Customs for Kwangtung who was the Emperor's direct financial representative at Canton, and was known to the English merchants as the Hoppo, this being a corruption of the Chinese name of the department of government at the capital under which he served, the hu-pu (Board of Revenue).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207741, "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": 129, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "114\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\n“And you liked the manners and customs of the women in the United States?”\n\n\"Oh, yes\".\n\n\"And having returned to China, how is it? Are you diligently seeking for a young lady with bound feet for a wife? one who must stay at home because she can't walk?”\n\n\"No, indeed\", Yung Wing said, adding with a touch of humour that he wished for a wife who would be able to run with him should ever the need arise.\n\nThe conversation had struck a sensitive issue for these Chinese who had been trained in values different from their contemporaries. With some feeling, Lai-sun's wife spoke out.\n\n\"How can this cruel custom be abolished, when Christian women, by binding their own and their children's feet, are handing it down to future generations?\"\n\n\"Aside from religion\", remarked Yung Wing, \"the practice is barbarous, cruel and atrocious.”\n\nTheir changed attitudes toward certain aspects of Chinese life were not only reflected in their conversation but also in the furnishing of their home. The missionary lady comments on the Chan's “nice parlor” fitted out with both foreign and Chinese furniture. \"Most conspicuous was a very nice organ, with which the good man accompanies himself in singing the songs of Zion.”\n\nChan Lai-sun died on 2 June 1895 in Tientsin. His obituary, published in the North China Daily News, on which his son Spencer was a reporter, was republished in the Hong Kong Daily Press (12 June 1895). In addition to the biographical data given by Mr. Char, there is an account of his early business connections in Shanghai. He first entered the firm of Messrs. Bower, Hanbury and Company, where he became a close friend of Mr. Thomas Hanbury, one of the partners. He then set up his own business in partnership with Mr. H. E. Clapp of the firm Clapp and Company, but the venture was not a success, so Lai-sun joined the staff of Viceroy Tso Tsung-tang at Foochow, where he was appointed instructor and subsequently superintendent of the Foochow Naval School. He left the school to become a member of the Chinese Educational Mission in 1872. Returning to China in 1874, he then joined the staff of Viceroy Li Hung-chang.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209255, "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": 158, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "# JUAN YÜAN'S MANAGEMENT OF SINO-BRITISH RELATIONS IN CANTON\n\n## 1817-1826\n\n## WEI PEH T'I\n\nIn November 1817, Juan Yuan (1764-1849) was appointed Governor-General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi. He had formerly served as Governor of Chekiang and of Kiangsi. The Governor-General at Canton was the highest Chinese authority dealing with foreign trade and relations in China on a day-to-day basis and on specific issues. During his tenure at Canton, for almost a decade, with the Governor of Kwangtung and the Superintendent of Canton Customs, he handled foreigners in accordance with rules set out under the Canton system.\n\nAt the end of 1817, there were several potentially explosive problems involving Sino-British relations and trade. The failure of the Amherst mission the year before had left certain controversies unresolved. The fact that the five ships carrying the mission to Taku had managed to evade Chinese surveillance after being provisioned, and had surveyed the China coast from Taku to Canton, had left the Chia-ch'ing Emperor and the court more sensitive than ever to the issue of British naval presence in Chinese waters. Jurisdiction over foreign nationals in port was also a source of serious disagreement between the Chinese authorities and foreigners in Canton. The importation of opium and exportation of sycee silver, both prohibited by imperial decree, were to become a major area of controversy in time. Diplomacy as an art of managing foreign relations was outside the Chinese experience. As Westerners at Canton were neither tribute bearers nor alien conquerors, Juan Yüan chose to manage his dealings with foreigners as a matter of security and control.\n\nThe Canton system governed all foreign (except Russian and tributary) trade in China, which had been confined to this port since 1760. Essentially, under this system, foreigners carried on their buying and selling through franchised hong merchants. As time went on, these hong merchants performed an increasing number of functions. By the time Juan Yuan came to Canton, they \"not only settled prices, sold goods, guaranteed duties, restrained the foreigners, negotiated with them, controlled smuggling, and leased the factories to them, they also had to manage all the aspects of a banking business, act as interpreting agencies, ...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209653, "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": 310, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "288\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe reply from the Secretary of State, Lord Salisbury, was, “I approve your proceedings\" (F.O.228, v.605, p.237, dated Dec. 9, 1878).\n\nThe letter from the Foreign Office to Mr. Herton which he referred to in his letter to Mr. Keswick has not been traced in F.O.228. Perhaps he would have been less pleased with Foreign Office action if he had been aware of the above exchange.\n\nNothing further appears to have happened until 24th July 1879, when Sir Thomas Wade, who as H.M. Minister in Peking had meanwhile taken over from Chargé d'Affaires Fraser, wrote to Mr. Scott enclosing a memorandum on the Herton claim (F.O.228, v.630, p.101-2), and instructing him to inform the Superintendent of Customs at Kiungchow that the firm's claim for $909.57 was supported, and that the attention of the Chinese authorities in Canton had been directed to the case. It is not entirely clear whether this was before or after Scott's letter of 3rd July, enclosing one from Herton of 2nd July to Sir Thomas Wade (F.O.228, v.630, p.134-6), had reached Peking, though the latter are filed later. Herton claimed that, because of his \"unfair treatment at the hands of the Authorities\" his business had been \"entirely crippled\", and he was \"now in most pressing need of the money,\"\n\nIn accordance with Sir Thomas Wade's instructions, Scott wrote on 22nd August 1879 to the Customs, claiming $909.57, and rehearsing the whole affair on the lines of Wade's memorandum (F.O.228, v.630, p.165-7). No reply of substance was received until November, when, on the instructions of the Governor General of the two Kwangs, the old argument was reiterated, that no instructions for issue of transit passes were drawn up until January 1879 and as Herton had made his journeys in 1877 the duties paid were legally charged (F.O.228, v.630, p.174-5). In reply, Scott referred Acting Taotai Liu to the Treaty of Tientsin, art. XXVIII (see note 3 below), and pointed out that transit passes had been obtainable at Shanghai and other open ports for many years. He continued, \"Are the Canton Authorities then alone to be free to carry out their individual opinions under pretext of drawing up rules, refuse to issue passes and levy any dues they please in opposition to Treaty rights?\"\n\nIn", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209654, "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": 311, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n289\n\nThe conclusion of the matter is shown in F.O.228, v.654, p.146-152. In a letter to Sir Thomas Wade, written from Hong Kong on 28th Aug. 1880, Byron Brenan describes how he went to Canton \"in obedience to your instructions\", and finding the Governor General would not be available for two weeks owing to a death in the family, argued the case with the Superintendent of Customs. This did not go straightforwardly, and involved Brenan in a trip to Hoihow to obtain the receipts required as evidence that the sums had been paid as claimed. Eventually, however, he was able to obtain payment of $787.12 as the amount of tax in excess of what would have been due under the transit pass system, plus interest of $118.06, being 5% for three years, $905.18 in all. The last paper on the matter is a receipt for the refund, signed by Louis Jüdell, who is mentioned in Mr. Herton's letter to Mr. Keswick, in the capacity of his duly authorized attorney. It also appears from the covering letter of Acting Consul Scott that Mr. Ebell had severed his connection with the firm in August 1879.\n\nThe other letter to Mr. Keswick is less interesting, as it does not lead one into such a long paper chase (albeit on microfilm) through Foreign Office records. Nevertheless, it adds to the picture of problems faced by foreign merchants in China at that time. It reads as follows:\n\nHong Kong 12th March 1879\n\nDear Mr. Keswick,\n\nIn compliance with your request that I should give you a statement of the position of the Transit Pass Question at Pakhoi when I was at that port a month ago I beg to submit the following remarks.\n\nI was informed that a proclamation was to be issued on the day I left the 21st Feb. authorizing the issue of passes for cloth, specifying linen and camlets, but the Commissioner stated that the word cloth would be construed liberally as to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209656, "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": 313, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n291\n\n$45 whilst Annisced Oil pays $5 duty and the value is about $145 altho' last year it was about $115.\n\nI am Yours very sincerely David Welsh\n\nIt has not been possible from the China trade directories available in Hong Kong to find out anything about David Welsh. The first quarterly intelligence report from the British Consul at Pakhoi, dated 5th February 1878, states \"There are only two foreign mercantile residents, both British\" (F.O.228, v.616, p.411), and it is probable that Welsh was one of them, report continues that one of these was a general merchant and commission agent, while the other had formerly been a hotel keeper in Canton, now describing himself as an auctioneer, but who had come to Pakhoi without any clear idea of his intentions.\n\nThe\n\nA further report by Acting Consul T. L. Bullock stated that duties had to be paid at both Licuchow and Chiu Chow on Pakhoi goods, and that transit passes were not issued because of the lack of instructions from the Superintendent of Customs at Canton, exactly the same situation as has been described at Kiungchow (F.O.228, v.616, p.432-6). A little later in the file is a copy of a letter from David Welsh to Bullock dated 13 March 1878 (p.443-5), in which he reminded the Consul that he had written three months before (letter not traced), pointing out the desirability of being able to obtain transit passes. In support of this he quotes the rates of Lekin payable at Nanning (南寧) in Kwangsi. \"The result of the issue of Transit passes would of necessity be the opening of Pakhoi to foreigners practically as hitherto it has only been theoretically open.\" He concludes with statistics of the trade, mainly in yarn, piece-goods and cotton, from Macao to Pakhoi.\n\nOn May 14, 1878 there is a despatch from the Chargé d'Affaires in Peking, Hugh Fraser, to J. G. Stronach, H.B.M. Consul in Pakhoi, referring to previous correspondence from Bullock, and saying that the Acting Consul in Canton had been asked to persuade the provincial authorities \"of the inexpediency of withholding a treaty right\" (F.O.228, v.616, p.469).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213106, "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": 174, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "156\n\nbecoming \"import\" or \"export\", and subject to all these controls.\n\nVillagers from Wo Hang or Nam Chung buying a new plough animal, or seed-pig, were \"exporting live animals\"; if they bought a new plough, or reaping knife, they were \"exporting ironwork\"; if they took cloth to market to be made into a pair of trousers, or to be dyed, then they were \"importing cloth\" - duty in all these cases had to be paid. Traditionally, sugar was grown in this area, carried as cane to Sham Chun, pressed and refined there, and then carried back for sale in the New Territories markets. This now became “importing sugar” in the first instance, and “exporting sugar\" in the second.28 In the 1930s, the Chinese Government imposed a heavy import duty on fish, causing the very important carrying trade in fish from Sha Tau Kok to Sham Chun to face the same problems.29\n\nAs soon as the new frontier was established, the Kowloon Customs (the local division of the Imperial Maritime Customs) moved to control it. The Kowloon Customs was headquartered in Hong Kong, but established its new operational headquarters at Sham Chun. Below this, work was initially conducted through three Divisions: Duty Collection, Border Patrol, and Sea Patrol. The Border Patrol duties were conducted from Patrol Stations, which were arranged in Districts, with a Patrol District Headquarters in each District. Duty was collected at only a relatively few Duty Stations, which were the only places where dutiable imports and exports could legally be handled. The Kowloon Customs also had half a dozen steam launches as gun-boats: each had a Sea Patrol District to control, centred on a Sea Patrol District Headquarters.\n\nSha Tau Kok was chosen as the Patrol District Headquarters for the Patrol District running from Lin Ma Hang to Siu Mui Sha (Xiaomeisha), with sub-stations at Yim Tin (Yantian) and Chan Hang (Chenkeng). It was the Duty Station for the north-west quadrant of Mirs Bay. It was also the Sea Patrol District Headquarters for the Mirs Bay Sea Patrol District. It was one of the centres of the Mounted Horse Patrols which, from 1932, patrolled the area behind the zone covered by the foot patrols of the Border Patrol staff. After 1934 it was one of the centres of the new Automobile Patrol, which patrolled the newly completed motor road along the frontier. The Customs Station at Sha Tau Kok was headed by an expatriate Assistant Superintendent of Customs. For most of the time, there were between 70 and 100 customs staff working in Sha Tau Kok.30", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213122, "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": 190, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "172\n\nThe guesthouses (), lower down Wang Tau Street from the gambling house, were three-storeyed shop-houses. The ground floor was the residence of the owner; sometimes a small shop was run as well. Above, on the first floor, was a dormitory for villagers and poor travellers staying the night in town. A few large beds stood here - for one or two cents, you could share a bed with whoever else was looking for a place to stay. For the more fastidious and wealthy, small cubicles on the top floor offered privacy and an unshared bed. Military officers visiting the town would stay in these private cubicles. The guesthouses did not serve meals; guests took food at the adjacent noodle restaurant. The 'totally comfortless' guesthouse used by the Basel missionaries in 1859 must have been of this type.\n\nThere was only one full-time opium divan in the market, although opium could be taken in the prostitutes' houses as well. Up until 1917, there had also been several low-class opium divans in sheds in British Sha Tau Kok - these were closed in that year, as part of the agreement to end trade in opium between Hong Kong and China which, it was hoped, would allow the Chinese Government to end all opium imports, and to control the sale of opium in China. The chaos in the border area, however, made it impossible for the trade on the Chinese side of the frontier to be effectively controlled, and the Sha Tau Kok opium divan continued to trade unmolested until 1951. Opium could also be bought for home consumption from the two tobacco shops in the market. These shops were also heavily engaged in smuggling opium into Hong Kong.\n\nNext to the opium divan was the market barber. In 1853 there had only been itinerant barbers in the town. This shop should be seen, to a large degree, as one of the service trades attracted by the opportunities brought about by the new frontier and garrison, like the prostitutes and the gambling house.\n\nBeyond the guesthouses, near the sea, Wang Tau Street was occupied by the fish laans and the Kowloon Customs Station. The Customs Station was rebuilt several times during this period. The Station building in existence in the 1920s was a solidly built, European style, single-storey structure, with a verandah, built of brick and tile. One end was the residence of the Assistant Superintendent. In the middle were the offices, and the barrack quarters for the junior staff were at the further end. The Customs also rented some nearby houses for stores and quarters. After the Station", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215574, "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": 351, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "301\n\na Petty Officer in the Hong Kong Royal Naval Reserve (Lack; 1999).# Deakin later became Assistant Superintendent of Lights, the Number Two to Terrence Vincent Courtney, an Australian. When the latter retired Deakin took over as Superintendent although he himself never actually served as a lighthouse keeper. He proved to be an excellent man-manager (according to Lack), and he significantly raised the efficiency and morale of the Lighthouse Section. He followed in Courtney's footsteps in improving the living conditions of lighthouse staff. He was described by Lack as the \"salt of the earth.” Attempts were made, it is understood, unsuccessfully, to get him a decoration in the Queen's Honours List for which competition was keen.\n\nAt one time Deakin started, so he told the author in 1990, to write a history of lighthouses. It was never finished. He was buried in the Chiu Yuen Eurasian Cemetery, at Mount Davis, in 1995. On his gravestone, in both English and Chinese, are the characters, ‘A fighter to the end.\" The author attended his funeral.\n\nAt one stage Deakin told the author, when Waglan Lighthouse was managed by the Chinese Maritime Customs from 1893 (which is the date on the lighthouse bell), it was manned by German keepers. That was before it was taken over by the British Colonial Government on 1st January 1901. After it was handed over to the British it soon became the practice for lighthouses to be manned by Eurasians, in the same way that railways in India were staffed to a large extent by Anglo-Indians.\n\nThe post of lighthouse keeper was seen rather as a middle management, technician-type of job, which offspring of, typically, British military fathers and Chinese mothers, could handle adequately. Indeed servicemen sometimes took their discharge in the Crown Colony. The job of lighthouse keeper required a reasonable amount of intelligence, integrity, attention to detail, personal discipline, self-sufficiency and the ability to live communally,\n\nUp to about 1960, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank recruited Eurasian and Portuguese as clerks, secretaries and typists. The Bank only recruited Chinese as janitors and for similar, low-level posts. Likewise, in those days Chinese were not employed as lighthouse keepers. In the late 1990s a (Chinese) member of staff of the Marine", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215580, "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": 357, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "307\n\nand Monuments Office and the Government Marine Department and to everyone mentioned in the text. Without their help this paper would not have been written. Special thanks are also due to Yip Kin-sang Superintendent of Aids to Navigation of the Marine Department. Thanks are also due to many other helpful people including Master Mariners Roger Parry and Alan Lack, Dr James Hayes, Simon Lord, Paul Brown, Phillip Bruce, Louis Thomas and S J Chan. This paper would not be complete without photographs and those published here are indeed rather special. For these, a very sincere thank you to Charles Slater.\n\nNOTES\n\nPart One\n\n1. T. Roger Banister (1932). The Coastwise Lights of China, Shanghai: Inspectorate General of Customs, Statistical Department.\n\n2. Lee Krystek - http://unmuseum.mus.pa.us/pharos.htm\n\n3. Trinity House - http://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/\n\n4. A day in history - http://www.sis.gov.eg/calendar/html/cl171196.htm\n\n5. It was named after James Horsburgh (1762-1836), an eminent hydrographer for the East India Company, author of the book Sailing Directions, which became the most widely used nautical directory of Eastern waters during the first half of the 19th century. He was also a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The lighthouse has a cone-shape tower painted with black and white horizontal bands. http://www.lighthouseclothing.com/database/searchdatabase.cfm.\n\n6. It was rebuilt in 1875 in the form of a white conical cast-iron tower with black trim. The 30-foot high tower with lantern constructed of oyster shells had a light visible for 20.5 nautical miles.\n\n7. T.R. Banister concedes that the claim is good only in its literal sense. '...if we except such primitive lights as the old open beacon at north-east promontory, or the ancient native light on Fisher Island in the Pescadores. The Tungsha Lightship, in the Yangtze Estuary, was established in 1855, and the Taitan Light was apparently first shown by the Chinese priests in 1863. But neither of these were exactly light [houses].'", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216324, "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": 83, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "32\n\ncould see, and it seemed as if it were one vast garden'.\"\n\nParkinson, Trade in the Eastern Seas (1937) writes: \"When the whole [EIC] China fleet was collected there, twelve or sixteen of the largest merchantmen in the world, together with the country ships, the spectacle must have been magnificent.\" He records that sometimes the Viceroy at Canton would come down to visit the fleet. The ships would be decked to receive the great man, with yards manned and officers in full dress.12\n\nCanton\n\nCanton was, and is, the capital of the Guangdong Province. One of the larger and richer cities of the Chinese Empire, and dating back to pre-Han times, it had long been a major sea port for overseas trade, notably in the Tang Dynasty when it had a significant Arab and Muslim population. During the turmoil which accompanied the change of dynasty from Ming to Qing, it upheld the Ming, endured an eleven-month siege in 1650, and suffered a wholesale massacre of its inhabitants. However, it recovered, and by the mid-nineteenth century was credited with a population of around one million persons. It was renowned for its manufactories, carried on by human industry, without the aid of machinery, particularly in silk and cloth, women and children included, whilst trade - international and regional trade - was described as being 'the great business of life'.13\n\nCanton was a walled city (actually two walled cities in one, the Old and the New) with major suburbs along the Pearl River, and to the West.14 As befitted its status, it contained the yamens (office-residences) of many senior government officials, including those of the governor-general of the two linked provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi, the governor of Guangdong, the Canton prefect, two county magistrates, the Tartar general, the provincial naval commander, and the like, as well as those officials with charge of other, specialised concerns, and (of special status, since he was responsible directly to Beijing) the Hoppo or Superintendent of Maritime Customs, who oversaw the foreign trade and its accruing revenue.\n\nThe Foreign Factories (British, French, Swedish, Spanish, Danish and Dutch) of the river suburb were so-called from their being the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]