[
    {
        "id": 212829,
        "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-1992",
        "page_number": 138,
        "title": "RAS-1992",
        "content_text": "123\n\nHeadquarters of the C.E.F. was stationed. The British Assistant Military Attache from Kun-ming went with me to introduce me to the Chief of Staff, from whom we were to receive our passes. The Chief of Staff was not particularly affable. There was some talk of wireless and he stated we would have to supply photographs in duplicate for every member of our party: no easy matter in a small upcountry town in a land which had been closed to foreign imports for many years. However, we were lucky and found a small photographer in the place who still had some film and undertook to produce the required photographs. Next day when these were presented at the Headquarters we were informed that after all they would not be necessary; all that would be required was my own photograph in duplicate, a contingency for which I had been well prepared having armed myself with a dozen before I left India. Even then there was delay in preparing the pass and it was not till late on the afternoon of the second day that I was able to leave. The reason for the various delays became apparent later. The parachute party had reported that the Myosa was held a close prisoner by the Chinese at Tetang. My route lay through Tetang, but when we arrived there we found the Myosa had already been removed further into China. They were evidently anxious I should not meet him and wished to allow sufficient time to get him out of the way. They were holding him for trial on a charge of treasonable relations with the Japanese.\n\nOn arrival at Paoshan we found our parachute party living in the American officers' mess; the Colonel in charge was our old friend from Kun-ming. He went out of his way to make us all feel at home; he found us quarters, he fed us, and he sent our signals for us. After talking the position over with the parachute officers, I decided to send one of them back to report: that left us a party of twelve. Stan, the chief parachutist, was an expert in many lines: Bren gun, Tommy gun, machine guns, he had even taken an armourer's course, an additional accomplishment which turned out most useful. Jack had spent most of his life in Burma; he not only spoke Burmese fluently, but he also spoke Kachin, an important point, as we were to enter country bordering on Kachin land and we were anxious to enlist the co-operation of those doughty tribesmen in our work. They had already acquired a great reputation for their fighting qualities further north. We were three British officers and three Chinese interpreters, one Burmese-Chinese interpreter, two Hong Kong wireless operators, a medical orderly, and Rogue and Lao Teng. The interpreters were all men who had escaped from Hongkong and had registered with the British Relief Organisation maintained at Kweilin to...",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x",
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    {
        "id": 212846,
        "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-1992",
        "page_number": 155,
        "title": "RAS-1992",
        "content_text": "140\n\nthough that description is scarcely fair to him. I do not think he was really disloyal to his elder brother, the Myosa; he had merely been caught in a situation which was beyond him. He was a weak character, the Chinese had terrified him, and he was as butter in their hands. I was concerned for our protection; though Lunghtang was ten miles back from the Salween, apart from the unarmed village watchers at the ferries, and an odd post of the K.D.F., there was nothing between us and the enemy. I asked the Puppet to let us have twenty men of the Defence Force. We would arm them, train them, and retain them as our personal bodyguards. He could not refuse.\n\nDuring his reconnaissance Stan had investigated the state of the Defence Force. They were about 200 strong at Sincheng, to watch the Japanese opposite the Kunlong bridgehead; their arms consisted half of British and half of Chinese rifles; they were desperately short of ammunition; their training was poor. I arranged with the Puppet that after training the bodyguards he would send us his five Bren teams for a course and for equipping with new guns, as most of those they had were damaged. Later we would train a platoon at a time, and equip them with further rifles and light automatics. I hoped also to find men of the guerilla type for use in trans-Salween operations, but these men would mostly have to be recruited from the tribes across the river, so that they could return to operate on their own ground.\n\nThe controversy between Tommy and Sten guns had settled itself. I had been for standardising on Stens, but Jack and Stan were both used to the Tommy and insisted on carrying one; I carried a Sten, which with its clip weighed 5 lbs against their 10. I noticed one day a Tommy had been loaded on the pack animals and on going up the line found Stan carrying a Sten! An extra 5 lbs makes a lot of difference when you are marching up and down mountains! Jack too soon fell into line and we made presents of our Tommy guns to the Puppet, who already had one or two. I also arranged to replenish his ammunition supplies.\n\nThe country people were poorly clad; no new cloth had come in for several years. We were able to include in our supplies some bolts of cloth, Shan pants, jerseys, and rubber shoes; they were originally intended as gifts for those across the Salween who worked for us, but we soon found they dared not receive such gifts because the Japanese, when they saw anything new, immediately realised that it came from their enemies, and concluded that those who wore it were helping our",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x",
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    },
    {
        "id": 214209,
        "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": 67,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "30\n\nThe author, as a soldier himself, recalls a 'lecturette,' in Britain, while expecting the country to be invaded by Germans in 1940. His army squad was being instructed how to set booby traps. A thin wire was stretched from tree to tree, across a country road at the appropriate height, so that it could slice off the head of a motorcycle despatch rider. This was effectively demonstrated by a mock-up on film and just about everyone present, who were all generally good-hearted, genuine people, laughed. They were acting 'out of character.' But, after all, there was a war on.\n\nThe author recalls during the invasion at Salerno, in Italy, when there was a possibility that the British and American forces would be pushed off the beachhead, British soldier comrades told how they had gone on patrol and how in order to keep two German soldiers from shouting out, knifed them as they slept in their trucks. A Gurkha who was listening to the conversation immediately piped up. 'That's not fair! You should at least wake them up before you kill them!' Everyone thought it a huge joke. Today, looking back under peacetime conditions, it all seems terribly macabre and gruesome.\n\nLin Yutang is quoted as saying, 'Humour is the product of contentment and leisure.' Yet the British tommy was able to crack jokes even when faced with abysmal conditions. It is recorded that, in the defence of Hong Kong in December 1941, the men of the Middlesex Regiment 'never lost their sense of humour' (Lindsay, 1978; 136). Probably the Chinese Communist soldiers, on the 10,000 kilometre Long March, which lasted over a year in 1934-35, did not either, although their sense of humour was, no doubt, different. For instance, the Chinese soldiers used to sing, 'Don't fall behind, don't get wounded, don't get the eight silver dollars' (Lee, 1999). This can be likened to the English World War Two song, 'Pack up your troubles in your old kitbag ....'\n\nBut jokes can offend and one needs to be careful, in some countries especially, not to give the wrong slant to sexist jokes which can ruffle feathers. When talking to a Chinese, whose traditions value filial piety, you do not in the main tell mother-in-law jokes — although there are a few jokes about mothers and their relationships with sons-in-law. Again, in Chinese society, you do not say, where death is more or less a taboo subject, 'You're too slow for your own funeral', or 'He's got",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
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    },
    {
        "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
    }
]