[
    {
        "id": 204721,
        "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": 24,
        "title": "RAS-1964",
        "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n15\n\nand not knowing what is to happen. At night the police cleared the Square and posted a strong guard.\n\nMarch 25\n\nForeigners employed in all the Factories cooking their own meals and preparing food for each other, some carrying provisions from one Factory to another, and others taking buckets to the river for water.\n\nSome sailors and lascars who happened to be here when the embargo commenced have been distributed amongst some of the residents to assist in cooking.\n\nWe have clubbed together all in our Hong, and make one mess, cooking by turns. We have Mr. Snow our Consul,1 Mr. Forbes2, Green3, Delano, Kings, Low, Spooner, Gilman, Miranda and Dasilva two Portuguese clerks in our office, natives of Macao, and myself, in all eleven.\n\nSome go and milk the cows who have been removed to the yard in front of the Danish [Factory], another cooks, while others wash the plates, knives, forks and so forth. We find it a great bore, while the moment one goes out of the Factory he is watched till he returns.\n\n26th* Mouqua4 tells us the cows shall be looked after today, he had them supplied with grass, and says a shed shall be erected to keep them from the sun.\n\nAt night the Chinese brought into the square all the boats belonging to English foreigners to prevent any escape.\n\nMarch 26, 1839\n\nThis morning a linguist purser10 from Ahtore's establishment brought in a Chinaman to act as cook and left us six loaves of bread which he had secreted in his sleeves.\n\nThe cows, having been compelled to stand in the Square opposite the Danish Hong with a hot sun pouring upon them, are becoming quite desperate. This morning on going there I found a Chinaman who had prepared for them some food and was on the point of giving it to them when the police came and drove him away.\n\n* Hunter wrote 26th at this point although he started another entry for 26th a few lines later.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt",
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    {
        "id": 204728,
        "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": 31,
        "title": "RAS-1964",
        "content_text": "22\n\nW. C. HUNTER\n\nforwarded it let me send a small chit to Mr. Sturgis by the same conveyance.23\n\nWeather very warm.\n\n9 p.m. Houqua came in this evening with a Chop from the Commissioner for Mr. Snow, the Consul, which orders him to give up 1,500 and odd chests of opium which he says he knows are held by American merchants, and does not believe the statement sent him three days since by Mr. Snow wherein was clearly stated that this opium which was held by American merchants had been surrendered to Captain Elliot by his order as it was British property.\n\nA quantity of large Chops left Canton today for Lankeel to receive the opium and bring it to Canton. It appears the vessels outside are to come up to Lankeel and there deliver it, two vessels at a time, so that it may be a month yet before we are released from imprisonment, if so soon. The Chinese do things of this sort very slowly.\n\nAll the vessels at Whampoa remain as before. On the day the Commissioner laid his paw upon us, stopped the trade, surrounded us with soldiers, and deprived us of our cooks, coolies and servants and of all intercourse with the Chinese there were 7 or 8 vessels ready for sea and on the point of sailing, amongst them are three consigned to us, Vancouver, Niantic, and Francis Stanton all loaded except the last and she only wanted a few tons more to complete her cargo.\n\nIt is to be hoped the Chinese government will have to pay all this detention with interest, to say nothing of the violent imprisonment of all foreigners in Canton who are not to be released till opium, not their own, is given up to this scoundrel of a Commissioner. It is nothing more nor less than an act of piracy. Not one of us is allowed to quit Canton, innocent or guilty, till the opium is all in his hands. He has caught us this time in a trap, but please God he may be well thrashed for it yet, and if our lives, as he threatens, are to be the penalty for the non-delivery of the 20,282 chests of opium this place may by and by be made too warm for him,24\n\nSunday 8th*\n\nAchun arrived today from Macao and reports that there are\n\n* A mistake, Sunday was the 7th and the 8th was a Monday,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt",
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    {
        "id": 205786,
        "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": 92,
        "title": "RAS-1969",
        "content_text": "86 \n\nR. BRUCE \n\nmonopolies abolished whilst levies on imports were to be limited, and vessels were to pay a tax on their size. But Burney failed to get permission for a British Consul to reside at Bangkok. Nor was he able to free British nationals from Siamese law. \n\nNext came the Americans. A merchant, Mr. Edmund Roberts, was commissioned by the President to secure a treaty at least as good as the British one. This was seven years later, in 1833. Although a President seemed to the Siamese a much less august personage than a King and America was both remote and less important, Roberts secured his treaty. It was almost exactly the same as the Burney agreement. \n\nIn the next two decades, especially in the \"forties, trade became more difficult. In fact the treaties with the British and the Americans gradually eroded away, and the old monopolies were taken back by the Court. Imports and exports were farmed to Chinese merchants by the King. Duties were arbitrary and heavy and trade dwindled. Everywhere else the British had greatly expanded their commerce by mid-century. Singapore was growing rapidly, the China trade had increased still further after the Opium War, the northern coast of Borneo was open to British commerce. It seemed only natural and civilised to the bold merchant princes and sea captains of Victorian England that Siam should, willy-nilly, share in the new prosperity, especially now that the first steamships had reached the Gulf of Siam. \n\nSir James Brooke, the White Rajah of Sarawak, was the next British envoy to sail up the Menam to Bangkok. He came in August 1850 on board H.M.S. Sphinx accompanied by a merchant vessel of the Company, the Nemesis, both steamers. Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary, cautioned Sir James to be careful in his quest for better trade. \n\n\"In conducting these negotiations\", he directed, “you must be very careful not to get involved in any disputes or hostile proceedings which would render our position in Siam worse than it now is or which might compel Her Majesty's Government to have recourse to forcible measures in order to obtain redress. It is very important that if your efforts should not succeed they should at least leave things as they are and should not expose us to the alternative of submitting to fresh affront or of undertaking expensive operations to punish insult”.'",
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    {
        "id": 205787,
        "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": 93,
        "title": "RAS-1969",
        "content_text": "KING MONGKUT AND THE KINGDOM OF SIAM\n\n87\n\nPursuing this conciliatory line Brooke came to Bangkok determined to win the confidence of the Siamese and to allay their fears. He wrote to a friend:\n\n\"I shall not seek to make a treaty in a hurry. I shall try to remove apprehensions and obstacles and pave the way for the future. The King is old and a usurper; he has two legitimate brothers, clever and enlightened, who ought to be raised to the throne.... A treaty extorted by force would be but a wasted bit of parchment... The Prince Chow-fa Mongkut is an educated man, reads and writes English and knows something of our literature and science\".2\n\nWith such admirable sentiments Rajah Brooke arrived at the mouth of the Menam. Everything went wrong. The Sphinx ran aground attempting to cross the bar at Paknam. When he met the Praklang (the Foreign Minister), every point he raised was opposed. Was there any need for a treaty? What was wrong with the Burney treaty of 1826? When Brooke asked for more freedom of trade the Praklang replied that trade was already free. As for the British having a Consul at Bangkok and being exempt from Siamese law, both proposals were unnecessary and improper. Later talks with the Siamese Ministers made no more progress. They asked Brooke to put his points in writing but letters between the two sides made no more progress than conversations. It was clear that the Siamese did not want a treaty or any improvement in trade or diplomacy with Britain.\n\nThe Brooke mission was obviously failing. And as frustration grew Sir James's conciliatory attitude changed. Finally he advised force. In a dispatch to the Foreign Minister he wrote:\n\n“Should these just demands firmly urged be refused, a force should be present immediately to enforce them by a rapid destruction of the defences of the river which would place us in possession of the capital and by restoring us to our proper position of command, retrieve the past and ensure peace for the future, with all its advantages of a growing and most important commerce.\"3\n\nBrooke alleged, with some justice, that the Burney Treaty had been broken by the Siamese. Monopolies had been restored, trade was no longer free and taxes on British vessels had increased. In",
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    },
    {
        "id": 205977,
        "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-1970",
        "page_number": 57,
        "title": "RAS-1970",
        "content_text": "52 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\n12 Malcolm Struan Tonnochy (1840-1882). Educated at Blackheath Proprietary School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Hong Kong Civil Service 1862; died in office while Superintendent of Victoria Gaol. Obituaries of Tonnochy are to be found in the Hong Kong Telegraph, December 14 and 15, 1882, and China Mail, December 15, 1882. The Telegraph tells us \"that yesterday the deceased was in good spirits and played tennis in the afternoon, dined out with a friend, and was in the Club until shortly after midnight\", A Chinese barber found Tonnochy dead in bed when he came to shave him in the morning. He was a bachelor. \n\n13 Walter Meredith Deane (1840-1906). Educated St. Paul's School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Hong Kong Civil Service 1862; Captain Superintendent of the Police, 1866-1891. Deane was severely wounded on duty in 1878 and resigned in 1891 on account of ill-health. \n\n14 Sir Cecil Clementi Smith (1840-1916). Educated at St. Paul's School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Hong Kong Civil Service 1862; promoted from Colonial Treasurer, Hong Kong, to Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements, 1878. Administered Government 1884-85; appointed Lieutenant-Governor and Colonial Secretary, Ceylon, 1886; Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Straits Settlements, 1887; H. M. High Commissioner and Consul-General for Borneo and Sarawak, 1889. \n\n15 Alfred Lister (1843-1890). Educated at University of London. Hong Kong Civil Service 1865; prepared detailed index to the Ordinances of Hong Kong in 1870; Colonial Treasurer 1883-90. Died on board ship near Yokohama while on sick leave, Lister held the office of Treasurer as an adjunct appointment only, and with an almost nominal salary, in conjunction with his substantive appointment of Postmaster-General, Lister left a wife and four children in England. See Hong Kong Telegraph, 15 June, 1890. Governor Des Voeux referred to Lister as an \"excellent officer\". \n\n**\n\n16 Sir James Russell (1843-1893). Educated at Queen's University, Belfast. Hong Kong Civil Service 1865; private secretary to Governor Sir Richard MacDonnell 1868; Police Magistrate 1870; Chief Justice of Hong Kong 1888. The Hong Kong Telegraph, 4 September, 1893, in an editorial entitled \"Sir Judas' Russell: His History\" declares \"You could not have been much of an expert in the Chinese language two short years after your appointment to a cadet-ship, yet in 1867, you were Government ‘Interpreter'\". The editorial referred to Russell as \"the Gargantua of Hong Kong social life\" and \"the Jeffries of the Hong Kong Bench\". The writer of the editorial was the atrabilious Robert Fraser-Smith, who founded the Hong Kong Telegraph in 1881. Since Fraser-Smith had been jailed several times for libel, he had reason to dislike the Chief Justice. (See Frank H. H. King and Prescott Clarke A Research Guide to China-Coast Newspapers, 1822-1911, Cambridge, Mass., 1965). Russell, a bachelor like Lister, died at Strathpeffer, Scotland, shortly after resigning from Government. \n\n17 Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845-1929). Educated at Repton School. Hong Kong Civil Service 1867; retired on pension as Police Magistrate in 1898. One son, Peveril, was the first baby born on the Peak and brother of P. G. Wodehouse, the novelist. Wodehouse was the last of the batch of officials originally appointed to the Colony in the capacity of student interpreter. \n\n18 Sir James Haldane Stewart Lockhart (1858-1937). Educated at King William's College, Isle of Man, Watson's Academy, Edinburgh (gold medallist), and Edinburgh University (Greek medallist), Hong Kong Civil Service 1878; attached to the Colonial Office for one year; Registrar General 1887; Colonial Secretary 1895-1902; Special Commissioner to Inspect and Report on the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong, 1898; representative of Great Britain to delimit the boundaries of the extension of Hong Kong; first civil Commissioner of Weihaiwei, 1902; retired 1921.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241",
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    },
    {
        "id": 206211,
        "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": 28,
        "title": "RAS-1971",
        "content_text": "22\n\nSTEPHEN UHALLEY, JR.\n\nIn Ningpo itself, the preparations were underway. British officials persuaded all missionaries of British nationality to withdraw from the city, a step which Consul Harvey indicated would \"simplify considerably our future relations with the Taipings at Ningpo.\"14 British naval Captain Corbett concurred, reasoning that in the event of any difficulty with the Taipings the missionaries would otherwise \"prove a source of great embarrassment to us.\"15 It is a matter of record that many of the missionaries who did comply and therefore lived apart from the Taipings during the duration of their occupation did come to share the negative or hostile attitude toward the insurgents.16\n\nAs the British intervention policy developed, an anti-Taiping propaganda campaign mounted. One of the most interesting and telling samples of this effort was the reporting of Consul Harvey. His dispatch of March 20, 1862, is perhaps the best example.17 Completely in contradiction to the report of the already noted China Overland Trade Report of less than a month earlier, Harvey declared that although three months had elapsed since the Taiping takeover they had still to take a single step in the direction of good government. Curiously, he repeatedly stressed his lack of bias and dispassionate judgment. He even conceded that “personally I have received every mark of courtesy and proper regard from the Tae-ping Chiefs; and further, I have found in official dealings with them a rough and blunt sort of honesty quite unexpected and surprising, after years of public intercourse with the Imperial mandarins.” But despite such lack of bias, repeatedly emphasized, and such acknowledgment of Taiping honesty and courtesy, Harvey went on to say: \"Nevertheless, the Taepings with their frank demeanour and bluff energy have a fume of blood and a look of carnage about them, from which I, for one, recoil with horror.\" Harvey noted that the occupation of the Taipings, termed an \"experiment\", had produced \"exactly what was expected - ruin, desolation, and the annihilation of every vital principle in all that surrounds the presence, or lies under the bane, of the Taepings.\" Still underlining, undoubtedly, his lack of bias, Harvey noted: \"I now, therefore, take the liberty of declaring, once for all (and for ten years I have fairly adhered to and been consistent in this opinion), that the Taeping rebellion is the greatest delusion, as a political or popular movement, and the Taeping doctrines the most gigantic blasphemous imposition...",
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    },
    {
        "id": 208299,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1978",
        "page_number": 23,
        "title": "RAS-1978",
        "content_text": "7 presumed resigned as we have no information—among this number seven members notices were returned address unknown. Thirteen local members failed to pay their 1977 subscription and 4 overseas members paid no subscription. Nine members are still paying only $30. Might I again urge you to please let us know if you are leaving Hong Kong for good, and at the same time if you would like to become overseas members? This means you continue to receive our Journal which at present day prices in the book world is, I think you must agree, good value for the money. Will you also please let us know of any change of address? Even if you are close personal friends with any of the Council members know of your change of address persons who this information does not get automatically fed into our records.\n\nIt is necessary for us to be formally informed of any change this also applies to leaving for good. Could anyone who has not altered their Banker's Order to the new subscription rate also please do so now?\n\nWe are always very ready to welcome new members and have recently sent out to all of you a membership form which you might want to give a friend who is interested in our activities. The more members we have the more we are in a financial position to provide, so please bear this in mind when you discover that somebody you know is interested in the sort of things we do as a Society.\n\nDeaths\n\nDuring the year we heard with great sorrow of the death of a past President. Sir Lindsay Ride was President from 1970-71 and RAS had long been our sponsor for use of a lecture room at the Hong Kong Club. Members of your Council attended Sir Lindsay's funeral and a wreath was sent in the name of the Society. The Society is also planning to contribute to the cost of a memorial plaque to be placed in the old English cemetery in Macau. Most of you will know that Sir Lindsay devoted much time and effort to preserving this cemetery, himself with his wife cleaning the old grave-stones and cutting down grass. Another much regretted death was that of M. Geoffroy-Dechaume, formerly French Consul General in Hong Kong, who was member of our Council from 1974-76 when he left Hong Kong for Burma. It was with much regret that we learnt of his death in a tragic accident while holidaying in that country.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593",
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    },
    {
        "id": 208672,
        "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-1979",
        "page_number": 129,
        "title": "RAS-1979",
        "content_text": "102\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\n8-Mr. Southare and Mr. Bourne, the former, American Consul General, the latter our Council Secretary, to go to Hong Kong, presumably on repatriation business and while in the city, they met Sister Paul by chance. We understand that we Maryknollers may have a choice of either repatriation or to go to Hong Kong but will not be allowed to proceed to our missions in the interior, at least directly, and this, on condition that we can support ourselves or that someone will vouch for us, and guarantee our support. Thereupon we considered the question: there were many minds on the subject. Some were for direct repatriation, others wanted to stay in Hong Kong; some wanted to stay in Camp. Finally a list was made up, or rather two lists: Fathers Bauer, Quinn, Walsh, Callan, Reardon and Allie, and Brothers Michael, Lawrence, Anselm and William to be repatriated, and Fathers Toomey, Troesch, Meyer, Downs, Keelan, Hessler and the nine new language school students to go to Hong Kong. Later we learned that there will be no choice: that is, if we are not repatriated, we must remain in Camp. Another hurried meeting was held at 9:30 in the evening and further steps taken. At this meeting, a vote was taken and the majority decided on repatriation. Some of the minority were willing to abide by any decision reached by Father Toomey, as Superior, while others wanted to remain in Camp if necessary. Fathers Troesch and Hessler would try to get to Hong Kong as third nationals if possible. Accordingly, a second list was made out and handed in to our Council officials, only to be informed that our first list had already been submitted to the Japanese and that we had to await further developments.\n\nDuring the day, Mr. Bourne succeeded in contacting Bishop Valtorta at our request, and we learn that the Bishop is opposed to the repatriation of all Maryknollers and he is willing to guarantee the support of 14 of us, that is the House staff and the language school men, until Bishop Paschang or Maryknoll can assume the burden. The Maryknoll Sisters still in Camp, in the absence of any further instructions from Sister Paul, contemplate remaining. Incidentally, we later understood that Maryknoll had cabled to the effect that we all should be repatriated, but this message did not reach us until too late.\n\nFirst Communion and Confirmation at 8:30 on the ninth, when some 21 persons, mostly children, received the Sacraments, the",
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    {
        "id": 208706,
        "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-1979",
        "page_number": 163,
        "title": "RAS-1979",
        "content_text": "136\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nFathers Downs and Madison, with Sister Paul and four of her Sisters, journeyed on by bus to Liuchow, then by train to Kweilin.\n\nAt Kweilin, we met the members of the first group and here left Sister Paul and her Sisters. As it was the time of the Chinese New Year, we had to remain in Kweilin for about a week, then Fathers Downs, Siebert, Gaiero and Madison set out by train and bus on the long hike to Kaying. We reached Kaying on the 19th of February, just one month to the day after stepping aboard the steamer at Hong Kong, and just in time to attend Kaying's First Synod. From Kaying, a few hours by bus brought us to Siaoloc, where the Language School once more resumed its oft-interrupted classes, and here at Siaoloc this chronicle of the wanderings of the Stanley Maryknollers comes to a glorious end! Laus Deo!\n\n(By Father William J. Downs)\n\nPART III: FATHER MEYER ON INTERNMENT: JANUARY 12, 1942 - AUGUST 15, 1945\n\nNearly sixty priests, Brothers and Sisters were interned at Stanley in January, 1942. Within a year, all but three priests and four Sisters had left on exchange repatriation or been released into Hong Kong and gone back to their Missions. In September, 1943, occurred the last repatriation, when Father Murphy, a Canadian missioner who was ill, and the four remaining Sisters left for Canada.\n\nA special cable had come through the Swiss Consul in Tokyo, \"All Maryknollers are to leave occupied areas.\" When Father Hessler and I told Mr. Maejima, the Camp Superintendent, that we chose to stay, he seemed nonplussed. Weren't we ordered by the cable to return? We explained that in the Catholic Church such an order was always contingent on providing for the needs of souls, and that since the Italian Fathers of Hong Kong were not permitted to come into the Camp, we had volunteered already a year ago to remain.\n\nNothing more was said, but our names did not appear on the repatriation lists, and we learned later that Mr. Maejima and his colleagues of the Hong Kong Foreign Affairs Office had been impressed by the Catholic position.",
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    {
        "id": 209434,
        "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": 91,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "69\n\nance, where the former French consul at Shanghai, M. Lemaire, on his way to become Resident in Hue, was in residence, waiters refused to serve him. Moreover, the crew of the hotel launch also refused to take him to his ship, and he had to be taken by a government launch instead.1\n\nWhen the strike first became general, there was a consensus in the English newspapers that the fines imposed were the cause. There were doubts as to the legality of the fines, the Daily Press reported,18 and it expressed sympathy for boatmen who had been blackmailed into staging a strike against the French, and then had been fined by the local government for this.19 The strikers themselves protested against the fines. A proclamation posted at Queen's Road by boat people made this clear. It explained that the strike was in consequence of their having been fined by the British authorities for refusing to convey cargo for the French. It went on to implore \"eminent and intelligent gentlemen of your firms [to] be good enough to assist us with the strength of one arm in order that we may not be laughed at by the French.\"20\n\n21\n\nThe Government must also have realized the fatal part the fines played. The Attorney-General himself expressed doubts about their legality. Section XVII of Ordinance 8 of 1858 under which the cargo boats were fined applied only to workers who refused to work unless they were paid more than the stated scale, and not to workers who refused to work at all.22 It is not difficult to see why the Attorney-General should have had doubts.\n\nThe Government, however, chose not to do anything about the fines. At an Executive Council meeting on the 1st October, this issue was discussed, but it resolved not to interfere with the magistrate's decision to fine. The reason given was that, while the strike lasted, the Government should not give the impression that it was yielding to pressure.23\n\nThe English newspapers' attitude to the strike hardened from about this same stage. Withdrawing whatever earlier sympathy it had had for the strikers, the Daily Press suggested on the 3rd that they should be replaced by workers hired from other places even if only to alert the boat people to the possibility that their livelihood was threatened. It sounded the alarm that the",
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    {
        "id": 210339,
        "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": 310,
        "title": "RAS-1984",
        "content_text": "289\n\nHere we have a practical proof that religion has no longer any fear of science. We see a Roman Catholic clergyman about to lecture on what was once considered the dangerous science of geology, and I am surprised we have not the Bishop ready to applaud him, but I am sure it must be owing to some accident that my friend Bishop Raimondi is not here today. (applause) In the sixteenth century, as we all know, the great astronomer Galileo was persecuted because he contended that the earth goes round the sun, and until quite lately geology was considered a more irreligious science than astronomy. This feeling was not confined to the Church of Rome. At the end of the last century an eminent Bishop of the Church of England ridiculed the pretensions of geologists — and we know that ridicule is often a more dangerous weapon than hatred; . . . by saying that for a man crawling on the face of the earth to pretend that he knew what was going on in the interior of our planet was like a gnat on the shoulder of an elephant pretending that it knew what was going on in the bowels of the huge animal. (laughter) But behold what progress! Here we have Mr. Woods, at the end of the nineteenth century, about to tell us living in Hong Kong what is going on in the bowels of the Malay Peninsula. (applause)\n\nDuring this visit, some time before 9 February, Woods managed to visit Canton for five days. There he met the British vice-Consul, Dr. H. F. Hance, with whom he shared an interest in botany, and membership of the Linnaean Society. He cited Hance's work in his own publications. When Woods returned to Hong Kong, he wrote to a friend in Australia:\n\nI had a little trouble in getting off to Canton. The war has upset everything, and the C. River is full of sunken ships and torpedoes, so that a special pilot is wanted to take one up, and he has to be obtained from the Chinese gunboats. However, I got up there and spent five days most pleasantly. I got all about the city without molestation except from the curiosity of the passers-by and the importunity of the beggars. My time went all the more pleasantly, as the Vice-consul is Dr. Hance F.L.S., the greatest authority we have on Chinese botany. He has a splendid herbarium and when tired of sightseeing in the city I",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210402,
        "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-1985",
        "page_number": 9,
        "title": "RAS-1985",
        "content_text": "Wai bund. Constructed in 1916, this encloses the large area of fish ponds that will become the site of Tin Shui Wai new town by the late 1980s. On this visit we also went to a lookout point above Deep Bay and entered the Mong Tseng Village with its interesting temple.\n\nOn 23 November 1985, over 80 members of the Society attended, by invitation, the 10 yearly Ta-chiu (FTA) rituals at the Kam Tin group of villages in the New Territories. This was a splendid opportunity to attend and understand a long-established important local event which is now in its 31st cycle, the latest in a series begun in 1685.\n\nOn 7 December 1985, Dr. Michael Lau, Curator of the Fung Ping Shan Museum and one of our Councillors, arranged a tour of the museum including an exhibition of paintings by Lui Shau Kwan. The tour was conducted by Miss Flora Chan, a former pupil of the artist.\n\nOn 11 December 1985, Professor Cameron Hurst III, the Japan Foundation visiting Professor in History at the University of Hong Kong, gave a talk entitled \"Martial arts and the martial way - the Samurai martial culture in Japan\".\n\nOn 7 January 1986, follow-up talks entitled \"Kam Tin Revisited\" were held at the Museum of History by Drs. Patrick Hase and David Faure and Mr. Chan Wing Hoi who had all led the group to Kam Tin in November.\n\nOn 22 February 1986, Major Willie Shiel and Mr. Philip Bruce conducted a successful visit attended by 50 members to Lei Yue Mun Fort, a late 19th century imperial coastal defence project of considerable interest.\n\nOn 22 January 1986, Mr. Jeff Lanham of the Hong Kong Polytechnic gave an interesting talk on the Fanling-Sha Tau Kok branch line of the old Kowloon Canton Railway 1910-1928.\n\nOn 21 February 1986, Mr. John Lundin, US Consul at Canton, gave an illustrated talk on the history of the Shameen\n\nviii",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211121,
        "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": 182,
        "title": "RAS-1987",
        "content_text": "157\n\nthat the cruisers might become involved in some incident which would impinge on British sovereignty,\n\nA consul in Hongkong could supervise the collection of duties less expensively and more efficiently, but their request was consistently opposed by the Hongkong Government and foreign merchants.\n\nWHEN A BLOCKADE HITS OPIUM SMUGGLING\n\nIn 1874 a petition signed by eighteen Chinese merchants and the resolutions of a public meeting held by the European community in Hongkong were sent to England.\n\nBoth protested against what was termed \"the blockade of Hongkong.\" They pleaded with Her Majesty's Government to take decisive action to stop what they believed to be the deliberate harassment of Hongkong by China.\n\nThe Chinese petition, drawn up with the assistance of Messrs. Caldwell and Brereton, solicitors, was originally handled in a hush-hush manner. It received no publicity and copies were not given to the press, though it was sent to a few influential residents.\n\nWhen, about a month after the petition had been submitted, the editor of the China Mail saw a copy, he immediately drew the public's attention to it.\n\nHe questioned the secrecy which had surrounded it.\n\nIn that day suspicion was the usual reaction to activities within the Chinese community. The editor laid it down thus: \"Either the Chinese are working with us or they are not. If they are, they must learn that the surest way of bringing their complaints to the notice of the executive is to make them as public as possible.”\n\nThe reason for avoiding publicity may simply have been to prevent the Chinese authorities from learning of it.\n\nIt was later stated that when they did hear, two mandarins were",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211128,
        "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": 189,
        "title": "RAS-1987",
        "content_text": "164\n\napparently withdrew from the meeting. All the other resolutions were passed unanimously.\n\nThough the great majority of those at the meeting did not agree with Mr. Whittall's views, the editor of the Daily Press told its readers that “it was impossible to overlook the fact spoken of by Mr. Whittall that a nation possesses a right to take steps for the protection of its revenue.”\n\nThere was little Britain could do against this, for \"at the present day it has become an established principle to treat China as an equal in all matters of international law or courtesy.”\n\nThis was a principle of expediency, for in the view of the editor, \"the Home authorities are alive to the importance of political complications which might arise by treating China otherwise than as an equal. The effect of which would be to relieve her from the obligation to treat us in the same way, albeit she but little acts up to her duty in this respect.”\n\nThough admitting that as an abstract truth of principle, China might have the right to take whatever measures it might think necessary to protect its revenue in its own waters, the editor claimed, however, that “this privilege is being used to invade the independence of a friendly neighbour and of harassing and oppressing the trade of a particular port.”\n\nA problem affecting Hongkong might be viewed differently by those concerned with protecting their local financial interests and those responsible for diplomatic relations between two nations.\n\nBRITAIN COOL TO BLOCKADE HYSTERICS\n\nCertain frustrations and insecurities were behind the rejection of proposals to appoint a Chinese consul in Hongkong and the indignation created by what was felt to be a blockade of Hongkong by China.\n\nThe majority of Europeans in China were there to trade and make money. China was a market to be exploited. Any hindrance",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211131,
        "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": 192,
        "title": "RAS-1987",
        "content_text": "167\n\nthe country he represented and the Government and people of the foreign territory where they reside.\n\nInstead, it was claimed, “there would be little friendly relation manifested by him. He would simply be a spy. He would in fact be an enemy to the Government of this place.”\n\nThis totally negative view of a Chinese consul reflects a generally low estimate and distrust of Chinese character held by many foreigners at that time.\n\nAnother speaker, Mr. Granville Sharp, categorically stated that the Chinese nation and its people lacked integrity: “Her inhabitants from the highest official to the lowest coolie appear to be utterly incapable of understanding the social as well as moral necessity for truth.”\n\nHe analysed the suffering China was causing Hongkong. To him the resolutions of the meeting were cries of distress.\n\nIn his diagnosis he said: \"We were all of us in pain: that we suffered. If anyone at the meeting said we did not, were we to believe him?”\n\nThis appeared to be a reference to Mr. Whittall's remarks that Hongkong trade had not been affected by the blockade.\n\nMr. Sharp regarded what had happened to Hongkong as producing cries of distress: \"Every man, woman and child, and almost every animal had the power of expressing suffering, and by its cry of petulance, irritability or anger showed the nature and degree of its sufferings. No real cry of suffering should be disregarded.\"\n\nLet Britain respond with sympathy and understanding to Hongkong's feelings.\n\nMr. Sharp attempted to put the resolutions not only within a general psychological framework, but also in an international political setting:",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211143,
        "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": 204,
        "title": "RAS-1987",
        "content_text": "179\n\nIn an article in a Shanghai paper, the author contended that China was not a civilised nation in the European sense of the term. He explained the difference: \"She has a high civilisation of her own, but she has methods of governing her people which are barbarous to us, and which would give a Chinese Consul in Hong-kong a power over his fellow countrymen which is repugnant to our ideas.\"\n\nOn the other hand, the author was not satisfied with his own country's policy. He charged it with absolutism. He objected, as did Hongkong, to the arbitrary way the Foreign Office imposed its will on Hongkong without prior consultation.\n\nIt was his view that, “absolutism is getting shabby and worn out, at any rate in English-speaking communities, and any minister with a spark of appreciation of modern sentiment, not to mention common courtesy, would have communicated his intentions beforehand to those principally affected and allowed them to state their objections, even if he subsequently overruled them.”\n\nThe Hongkong protesters did state their objections in resolutions which were to be discussed and approved at a public meeting. The resolutions embodied the arguments that had been advanced over the years.\n\nA Chinese consul would make it more difficult to govern the Chinese. One resolution stated that, “the appointment will have a bad effect on the resident Chinese population, weakening their sense of the power and authority of the English Government, setting up in their midst a rival authority to which they will be encouraged to appeal to on all possible occasions.\n\nThe consul would become a rallying point for anti-foreign feeling. The foreign community in China was uneasy and one resolution read thus: \"That in the face of the recent recrudescence of strong anti-foreign feeling... throughout the Empire, it is most unfortunate that a centre should be set up around which any feeling of that sort existing among the heterogeneous mass of Chinese collected in the Colony must necessarily gather.”",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211683,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1989",
        "page_number": 98,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "73\n\ntwin Thorneycroft semi-diesel engines drove the craft at six or seven knots, a speed by no means excessive when we remember that during the summer the Yangtze ran five knots. Furthest aft were quarters and a galley for the Chinese crew, the “laodah” and his assistants in crime, the engineer, and two deck-hands.\n\nThree of us were now accommodated in the \"Hsun Si\", and settled down to pass the time of day, assisted by the Consul's gramophone, which we had had the foresight to borrow, and his tantalus, which it had fallen to our lot to escort. We did well enough so long as the weather remained calm, but the houseboat was top-heavy, and when the east wind got up against the flow of the river, raising a short choppy sea, the boat would roll alarmingly and bump heavily against the side of the destroyer. The first lieutenant would come along and throw a jaundiced look over the side at his paint, and order us off. We would have to turn out the engineer to start up the engines, and away we would scurry, slapping into the chop, heading for a bend some miles up the river where we could find a lee under the north bank.\n\nThe Chinese authorities on shore had issued orders that no Chinese subject was to communicate with the foreigners in their ships: but the Navy had left guards in the hulks, to which launches passed back and forth; and it was not long before contacts were again established through this channel. For seventy years Chinese and foreigners had lived next door to each other in peace and friendship, and the ties thus formed could not so easily be broken. They had traded together to mutual advantage, they had feasted and toasted each other, they had helped each other in times of difficulty; on either side were memories of pleasant days and kind deeds.\n\nSo at night sampans would creep out in the dark; little gifts of food would be sent off from the shore, and news would be given of the situation. How much damage had been done? Were the native banks still open? Were our servants being ill-treated? Had the Garrison Commander issued any proclamation?\n\nMeanwhile the Rear-Admiral, commanding the Yangtze British Gunboat Flotilla, had chartered a middle river steamer for the evacuees. The S.S. “Kiang Wo\" had sufficient cabin and dining accommodation to take us all, and anchored in the Yangtze for three months the foreign population of Kiu Kiang lived in what came to be known as the \"Floating",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 211689,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1989",
        "page_number": 104,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "79\n\nCommandant of the near-by Gendarmerie post promised us protection, he took no steps to implement his promise, and we had a number of invasions from parties of Japanese soldiers, on and off duty, sometimes searching for arms, sometimes frankly looting watches, jewellery and other small valuables. My wife had a polite but firm way of dealing with these intruders, and in the end they got nothing from us but some cigarettes.\n\nOn January 3rd Mr. Gimson (the Colonial Secretary) and Mr. Alabaster (the Attorney-General) came up the hill to find out what had happened to us. They told me that they had spoken to Mr. Yano (who had come back to Hongkong temporarily as Consul-General) and the Gendarmerie people about us and the other Embassy and Consular personnel who were in Hongkong (Mr. and Mrs. Martin, Mr. and Mrs. Rich, Evans, Herrett and Miss Howkins) and we were to be given special consideration. This was comforting but in the event did not mean very much as there was the usual confusion between the different Japanese authorities, none of whom seemed to pay the slightest attention to the others.\n\nThen on January 5th notices were posted up in different places instructing all enemy aliens to report at the Murray Parade Ground between 10 a.m. and noon for internment. The notice said they could take what luggage they could carry in their hands and that they must leave the rest of their property in charge of some responsible person. This notice only came to our knowledge on the Peak at 9 a.m. People didn't know what on earth to do. If they started off immediately, walking down the Peak, they could get to the Murray Parade Ground in time. But there were old people, babies and invalids. Most people thought it would be dangerous to disobey a peremptory order like that, and they struggled down the hill as best they could, taking a suitcase or pushing a pram and abandoning everything else to the looters.\n\nFor my wife and myself there was no problem as we couldn't walk, so we decided to stay and hope for the best, and a good number of others followed our example. As it happened, things turned out all right, as Sir Arthur Macgregor called later in the day to say that he had arranged with the Gendarmerie that the people still on the Peak might remain temporarily but must be ready to move at a minute's notice. However, the Police post had gone, we were in difficulties about food and water (we had eaten the last crust of three-weeks-old bread that morning), and we had had an unpleasant visit from a party of Japanese soldiers at 2 a.m. We were completely alone in the flat, other flats in the building had already been looted, and generally the situation was unpromising. So we asked Sir Atholl to try",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 211691,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1989",
        "page_number": 106,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "81\n\nwhich had been allocated for that purpose, but as they had to start with exactly nothing it was difficult. I was dumped off my lorry in front of the hospital-to-be at about 1 o'clock, and it was 5 p.m. before the staff had cleared a room and found enough beds to get the most elementary of wards going. There I stayed exactly two months. Meanwhile my wife had found a corner for herself in a room with three other married couples and a baby. She got on very well with two of the other couples (and the baby), but the third couple were very disagreeable and behaved in an almost incredibly disgraceful way towards the other people in the room, but particularly to my poor wife. So when I was fit to be moved from the hospital we tried to get quarters elsewhere but the billeting committee couldn't fix us in anywhere and the Japanese Chief Supervisor was unhelpful, so I just had to make one more in an already overcrowded room. And there we stayed, with one brief excursion to the French Hospital to have my knee X-rayed, until the Americans were repatriated early in July when we were moved into the block vacated by them where we shared a room with Mr. and Mrs. Witham and their baby and one other couple. Here we were perfectly happy and were facing with equanimity the prospect of internment for the duration when on July 20th we were told that we could, if we wished and if we paid our own fares, go to Shanghai. No further explanation was forthcoming and the permission did not extend to the rest of the Embassy and Consulate personnel in the camp. Of course I said we would go (the Swiss Consul sent in enough money for the fares) and we were shipped to Shanghai with some 60 other people who had also been allowed to leave the camp. I assumed that once I was in Shanghai I would be entitled to be repatriated with the rest of the Embassy people; but as soon as the ship berthed in Shanghai a Japanese Vice-Consul came on board and told me that though I had been allowed to come to Shanghai I was not going to be repatriated. It looked as if I was going to share with Sir Mark Young (who is interned at Woosung) the melancholy distinction of being the only British officials in Japan and occupied China. We were taken to the Cathay Hotel where the outport Consulate staffs and other persons destined for repatriation were being collected. We were given a comfortable suite and, except for the restriction in our movements, had nothing to complain about. I telephoned to Mr. Le Rougetel who had not been told that we were coming. He got the Swiss Consul-General to inform the Foreign Office and it seems that a special exchange agreement was made for me and my wife. So on August 17th we embarked on the \"Kamakura Maru\".\n\nAs regards conditions in Stanley Internment Camp I wrote a few notes,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 211842,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1989",
        "page_number": 257,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "232\n\nnot heard before and of which the best that can be said is that they are decidedly original. They seemed an imitation of the noise of braying of donkeys, but still they elicited great applause from the gallery [which was generally not regarded as very complimentary JH] perhaps from a certain feeling of sympathy. An amateur played Weber's \"Aufforderung zum Tanz\" with a \"perfect feeling\". To conclude the evening Mme SIMONSEN sung the \"Valse de concert\" (composer unmentioned) in which \"she displayed her powers more than in any other piece she has sung\" (SCR 22.5.1865).\n\n24.5.1865 (Wedn)\n\nH. MAYHEW: \"The Wandering Minstrel“ (1834)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nJ.P. PLANCHE: \"The Knights of the Round Table” (1854)\n\nT: Drama (5 acts)\n\nC: Amateurs of the Shanghai Mounted Rangers\n\nF: Music by the Band of the 67th Regiment; prologue read by Capt. Markham\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\n―\n\nR: In lieu of the old time favourites, Messrs Brushwood, Pickwick, Newcome and Mrs. Nesbit had come new faces. Most foreigners had not yet made Shanghai their permanent place of residence, so turnover in the theatre too was rather high. Tonight could be admired Mr. SMALLWEED who, in the Knights of the Round Table, as \"the blameless king shewed a keen appreciation of his part and while he delivered the burlesque passages with much humour, proved by the taste with which he pronounced the prophetic eulogium on the Queen of England that he need not necessarily confine himself to broad burlesque in order to gain well-merited applause\"; Mr. Edmund (also a member of the Amateur Burlesque Company) won golden opinions as Launcelot, whereas Mr. PEEKT as Merlin \"displayed much cleverness in personating feeble old men\". In The Wandering Minstrel \"Mr. R.T. Larff, better known to the theatrical world as Mr. Wynnge (did this mean that he had two stage names? JH) sustained the reputation he has already gained as a low comedian and makes us the less deplore the absence of the well known and inimitable Brushwood” (last recorded performance 10.5.1860). Of course the female roles were taken by men, which led, as it always does, to some ridiculous scenes: \"The company possesses great strength in the important particular of lady performers. The only drawback which, however, is immaterial in burlesque, lies in the great height and muscular development of the fair ones\". Yet Miss Mary MIDDLESEX \"bore away the palm for natural feminine get-up\" and \"nothing could excel the dash which Kate COVENTRY threw into the part of the vivandière\", (NCH 27.5.1865). That not all patrons were equally pleased became evident from the Shanghai Commercial Record (5.6.1865) when it wrote: \"an allusion which was considered too personal led to a corresponding in our columns\" (i.e. the \"Shanghai Recorder\" which to the great regret of all historians treating the history of foreign Shanghai can no longer be found). At the end of the evening a number of toasts were proposed, among others to \"Alabaster, to whose exertions much of the success of the company was due\". This was a reference to Chaloner Alabaster (1831-1890), the British vice-consul who was also active in the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. In conclusion the Herald reported that \"the arrangements were excellent and notwithstanding the warmth of the evening and the crowded state of the theatre, the air within the walls did not become oppressively hot. Punkahs were slung over the front seats and during the temporary pauses kept up a current of air\",\n\n27.5.1865 (Sat)\n\nPerformance by Mr. Benjamin Seare. Programme unknown (reading, etc)\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nR: Both the Herald and the Record agreed that Mr. SEARE \"is possessed of great talent\"",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 212187,
        "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-1990",
        "page_number": 129,
        "title": "RAS-1990",
        "content_text": "106\n\nburst all round us. There were three Japanese aircraft, whose pilots circled and dived repeatedly. The gunboats were caught by surprise and it was only on the third attack that they got their Lewis guns into action, thereby possibly disturbing the aim of the attacking planes, because again fortunately there were no direct hits.\n\nThe first bomb attack took place at 1.30 p.m. At about 2.30 p.m. three larger machines, in formation, approached at a height of 6000 feet. They were seen to drop a pattern of six heavy bombs, which fell near one of the Asiatic Petroleum Company's steamers, but once again did little damage, owing to what appeared to be poor lateral splintering qualities. This time the gunboats opened with both their \"pom-poms\" and their 3\" guns but without effect.\n\nThe Staff Captain together with the British Military Attaché and the British Consul, who had been in the \"Scarab\", had boarded one of the merchant ships the previous night to go 60 miles up the river to Wuhu to contact the Japanese troops, in the hope that they would be able to arrange to avoid further incidents. Following on these raids, signals were made to the Staff Captain at Wuhu enquiring whether it would not be better to move the ships. At that time we did not know that the U.S.S. \"Panay\" and the three Standard Oil ships had already been sunk, and we were still awaiting a reply from Wuhu, when a third attack was made at about 4 p.m. by three aircraft which made a succession of dives to 600 feet, but they received such a warm welcome from the gunboats that they missed their targets and soon made off.\n\nAll the British ships had Union Jacks painted across their decks: on my ship, for instance, the Jack was 25 feet wide. There could be no further illusion regarding the possibility that these attacks had been made by mistake. The continuous raiding, following on the shelling of the previous day, began to demoralize the Chinese crews, and the numerous Chinese refugees from the various British offices in Nanking, with whom the holds of the ships were packed. It became imperative to take action of some sort.\n\nThe \"Ewo\" hulk, lashed alongside the S.S. \"Whangpoo\", had had the worst of it. The pair of them offered the largest target at which it was natural for the Japanese pilots to aim. It was fortunate that the refugees had been taken out of the hulk after the first attack, because the thin plank walls of her deck house were now riddled",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299",
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    },
    {
        "id": 212750,
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        "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": 59,
        "title": "RAS-1992",
        "content_text": "44\n\nacknowledging the initial concept having been his, or so he claimed.\n\n+\n\nHe has been described as 'an adventurer and an explorer, a plant collector and a Chinese general. He was certainly an adventurer though nowadays he would be referred to as a soldier of fortune, an adviser, an opportunist, and even a mercenary.\n\nThe question remains, how successful was he? Money certainly came his way at times though judging from his Will, he was not a particularly successful businessman. He certainly collected plants and sent them back to the British Consul in Canton and has one specimen, Jasminum Mesnyii, named after him. He bore the brevet rank of Lieutenant General in the Chinese Imperial army but to what extent this was a genuine rank rather than an honour and a courtesy rank, though fully earned during his military service, is hard to judge. Again, though accurately described as an explorer, he was in fact much more of a traveller in parts of China already settled by Chinese and visited earlier by other foreigners. The trek he made, as recorded by Captain Gill, from Ch’eng-tu in Szechuan province to Burma through what was then called lower Tibet has a different slant to what would have been Mesny's account. In Gill's Mesny is scarcely mentioned and he would appear to have been taken along by Gill as his interpreter. It would have been interesting to have read what Mesny would have, and indeed may have written about his journey of very nearly four months with Gill.\n\nHe saw himself as what nowadays would be called a go-between, a consultant, and in those days regarded, perhaps, as a fixer. Mesny had a few major bees in his bonnet the most barefaced of which was the value he put on the advice he constantly proffered to every senior Chinese official whose ear he could reach on how to modernise China. He had, for example, prepared a list of some nineteen items, suggestions presented to the Viceroy Chang Chih-tung, and although Mesny assures us that Chang accepted the list there is no evidence that he did anything about it or if he did, that he even mentioned Mesny in any memorials to the throne. Mesny wrote indignantly at one point in his Miscellany about his list of suggestions to Chang having been ignored, or put into practice piecemeal and inexpertly, penny pinching and ineffectually without any reference whatsoever to Mesny.\n\nIn 1906 at the very end of his fourth and final volume of his Miscellany he prided himself on his advice with the words 'All those great industrial",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 212823,
        "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": 132,
        "title": "RAS-1992",
        "content_text": "117\n\nwithdrew partly into India and partly back into Yunnan. Kokang was left high and dry. Undaunted the Myosa from his own funds purchased what weapons he could from the retreating Chinese troops and the disbanded men of the Burma Rifles, who had been instructed to disperse to their villages with their weapons, which were to be retained for local protection until the British returned. He acquired several hundred rifles, a small stock of ammunition, and a few Bren guns, and organised his own force, the Kokang Defence Force. Fortunately the prowess of the force, which could scarcely have proved high in the face of the battle-trained troops of Japan, was not put to the test. The Japanese advance stopped at the Salween, a convenient barrier on which to consolidate their East Wall in Burma.\n\nThe Myosa, left thus in a most dangerous situation, in the front line, as it were, of the Allied positions, applied to the nearby ally, China, for assistance. The Chinese who were themselves receiving equipment from America for their forces in this part of the world, could spare him no equipment, but undertook to train officers for his force. The quality of the training so provided will grow evident as this story unfolds.\n\nIn 1943 the Myosa made the journey to Kun-ming to apply to the British authorities for assistance and it was at the British Consul General's* house in Kun-ming that I met him. I saw an alert slight figure, young looking and brisk for his 45 years, dressed in a western suit of Palm Beach cloth. He looked Chinese, but I believe there is also an admixture of tribal blood, possibly Shan; there is, of course, a good deal of intermingling throughout all that border country. The prince spoke Burmese and Chinese, but very little English: though his schooling on the border had probably been rough and ready, he possessed in a strong degree that charm, which goes with a courtesy so cultivated that it becomes natural and can conceal the aptitude for decision based on a habit of command. The prince was accompanied by his son, a capable young man in his early twenties, who had been educated at the Princes' School in Taungyi and spoke excellent English. The Myosa explained to us, his son serving as interpreter, the difficulties of his position, the trouble he was having with Chinese troops, a battalion of whom had been stationed in Southern Kokang, and the hope that we might be able to come to his support. We discussed the situation and the nature of the\n\n*Strangely, he had been the Consul at Kiu Kiang in 1927, from whose house we retired to the warships",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 212832,
        "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": 141,
        "title": "RAS-1992",
        "content_text": "126\n\nforeigners treat them. To misrepresent conditions to the public, by only dwelling on favourable aspects and avoiding unpleasant truths, is, in my opinion, no service to posterity. Unlike many writers about the East, whose main ambition appears to be to disparage the British by retailing every slanderous rumour they can collect, I am only recounting what I saw with my own eyes or heard with my own ears; and as already explained much of that even I cannot recount.\n\nTo finish here with the Hongkong members of our party all except one were thoroughly cowed by the threats to which they were continuously exposed. At a much later date I found that not only had they been compelled to act as spies on us, and to report weekly to the nearest Chinese commander on all our doings, but also they were persuaded to try to break the cypher system we used for our signals. The threats were not confined to themselves, but included their families, left behind in Kweilin. Under such pressure I cannot find it in my heart to blame them. In practice the spying did not worry me, because we had nothing to conceal; but to one who had always stood up for the Chinese cause it came as a most unpleasant surprise. On reflection I can understand the attitude of those zealous supporters of intimidation by Kuo Min Tang doctrine; brought up in an atmosphere of intense suspicion of the foreigner, their behaviour is not unnatural. But what may be excused in a small backward nation, can not be excused in a nation which is preparing to join the ranks of the great powers. Let us hope that the Chinese authorities will realise that this sort of thing will not make for harmony; that it is unworthy of a great people.\n\nWe found another small American detachment at Tetang, attached to the Nth Chinese division, and as at other headquarters mortars, Brens, rifles, such like.\n\nIn addition to missing the Myosa I was to suffer a further disappointment at Tetang. When the news of the attack on the Myosa had reached Kun-ming the Consul General had sent a Hongkong-trained Chinese doctor to attend on him. I met the doctor before he left; he had a fine reputation and amongst other things had been ship's doctor on a Blue Funnel boat for a number of years. I arranged that he should join our party in due course when we arrived in Kokang. But I now found that he too was under arrest and was being detained, in some place undefined, with the Myosa. This left us without a doctor.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 212915,
        "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": 224,
        "title": "RAS-1992",
        "content_text": "209\n\n1935 was a memorable year because it was the Silver Jubilee of King George V. The British Consul in Chefoo put on a great fair to which we all went. Here we were given bank notes specially drawn for the occasion, which entitled us to rides and ice cream and so forth. The bank notes were so attractive that I could not bring myself to spend them all and kept some for years.\n\nFrom time to time ships of the Royal Navy called at Chefoo and there would be sure to be some entertainment. Sometimes it was open day on the ship, once they dressed up as pirates and came ashore on our beaches and gave us a party there. We also played football against them. The main port for the Royal Navy was Wei Hai Wei, some sixty miles down the coast. Chefoo was the summer home for the American fleet, who would have come up from the Philippines, and who also took us on boating expeditions to nearby islands.\n\nHolidays at School\n\nAfter two years in the Prep School I was old enough to go to the Boys' School. The transfer took place during the summer holidays which I was, like many others, spending at school. As I said, children came to these schools from all over China. Most were children of missionaries but businessmen also sent their children there. Some came from nearby Tsingtao or Tientsin or Shanghai. These children could go home for the month-long summer holidays and some even went for the two weeks at Easter. A party of us came from Hong Kong and South China and, as it would take us ten days to get to Fatshan, we only made the journey once a year during the two-month long winter holidays. Others came from so far away in Yunnan Province that they never went home. So there were always a good many children in the schools during the holidays. These holidays were made very enjoyable times for us. In the summer it would be swimming and tennis. In the winter some went skating but at all times the staff would think of amusements and games, hobbies and outings which came in great variety.\n\nIn 1937 my father had planned a trip to Peking but the outbreak of hostilities with the Japanese prevented this. Instead my mother came to Chefoo for the summer holidays and we all stayed at the Missionary Home. This was a simple hostel where we had our meals and slept but that was about all. There was an Anglican church nearby and I recall the atmosphere of peace and reverence at my first Evensong there. During",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 213253,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1994",
        "page_number": 75,
        "title": "RAS-1994",
        "content_text": "54 \n\nThere is little doubt they spread rumours and not unnaturally do what they can to incite the Chinese and Indians against us. The proximity of Macao, Canton and Coast ports make it easy for them to get information out of the Colony and home to Germany. Money remittances can be made with very little arrangement from Shanghai and Manila. They go on taking the trade which the present war gives an opportunity of British firms to take hold of. Their presence renders it necessary to take more elaborate precautions in guarding all important places.\n\nPersonally, I should not be sorry to see all fit for service made prisoners of war” (CO129/413, Kelly to May 5 Oct 1914)\n\nHe had not long to wait for an order for internment was issued the last week of October. This action was taken when Germany issued a call-up of their military and naval reserves.\n\nAll Germans in Hong Kong on the reserve list were sent to Stonecutters Island. Soon after they were moved to Hung Hom Bay.\n\nThis move was made before the Hung Hom site was fully ready to receive the internees. The mat huts had dirt floors and were open to the elements. The presence of mosquitoes posed the threat of malaria. The internees were put to work sweeping streets and performing other manual tasks. Word seeped back to Germany that the internees were being treated badly. Through official channels the Germans contacted the Americans, the American Consul in turn contacted the British to ask if the representations made by the Germans were accurate. The Consul was taken to the Camp for an escorted inspection and found conditions satisfactory. One can appreciate the situation of the internees, mostly well-fed, well-cared-for, comfortably-situated merchants before they were caught up in the tides of global politics and swept into the crude conditions of a hastily-built camp for enemy aliens. The contrast between their large well-staffed homes and abundant meals prepared for their individual tastes and the primitive shelters and an institutional British-style mess must have been difficult to adapt to overnight. After two years the internees were moved to Australia.\n\nThose above military service age, wives and children were deported to Shanghai or Manila, the former under international control, the latter under American administration.\n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g",
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    },
    {
        "id": 214464,
        "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": 322,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "289\n\nand a dedication plaque from the Imperial court. This would not have been unusual for a Chinese general killed in action, but for a foreigner it was a great but much misunderstood honour. Missionaries in particular were indignant, and it was only very fortunate that the local peasantry did not take it to its normal and logical conclusion by placing an image of Ward on the altar, otherwise the missionaries would doubtless have forced the authorities to remove it.\n\nThe oral history related in 1993 by the curator of the History Department of Sungkiang county is insignificantly at variance with the story as related by Caleb Carr in his book The Devil Soldier published in 1991, which regrettably I did not come across until it appeared in paperback in 1995, two years after my visit to Sungkiang. Carr explains that the Japanese invaders had sacked Ward's shrine and Memorial Hall and defaced his grave in 1940. And in 1955, six years after the communists came to power, his remains were dug up and the gravesite and shrine were destroyed and paved over. He added that the whereabouts of Ward's bones today are unknown, and have almost certainly been destroyed.\n\nCarr's version is almost certainly accurate though Ward has not been forgotten in Sungkiang and local memory still has Ward's bones under the high altar of the Catholic church.\n\nAs an After Note readers might be interested in Franck's final paragraph providing his version of the end of Ward's natural successor, his second-in-command, Burgevine, who had been born in North Carolina in 1836.\n\n\"The southerner was overbearing and, there remains little doubt, dishonest and disloyal, and he was soon discharged by the financing merchants of Shanghai. He went over to the [Taiping] rebels and tried to get Gordon to join him and establish a new dynasty! But the staid Britisher seems to have had so little imagination in his make-up that he 'peached' on Burgevine instead. [The US] consul deported the Carolinian to Yokohama, but he came back to Amoy, 'got lickered up', and started to rejoin the rebels. He was captured by the Imperial Chinese",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
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    },
    {
        "id": 216052,
        "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": 351,
        "title": "RAS-2002",
        "content_text": "285\n\nrowdies knew that no American official in all the ports of China has the means of checking outrages on the part of American citizens. Accordingly, whenever an English thug gets into a scrape he claims to be American. He then described a case in point 'the Captain of an American boat came to me bringing with him a Chinese who had been badly cut on the arm. He said that the wound had been inflicted by an Englishman, a passenger on his boat and that the Briton was a desperate character. I accordingly applied to Franklin, the Commander of the [British] gunboat lying here for assistance. He very soon had an armed boat alongside the Yankee craft and the swordsman was speedily hauled out and brought before me. I read the Chinaman's complaint to him and he in reply said he wanted to see the American Consul, I told him that as an American had handed him over to me as an Englishman I should deal with him unless he could prove his right to American protection. He defied me so I sent him a prisoner aboard the Banterer gunboat. On the day following I had no less than three witnesses that the scoundrel was an Englishman. At length when he saw his impudence would carry him no further he acknowledged himself to be a Britisher, He was tried accordingly and got six months in Hong Kong jail with hard labour, at the end of which, he is to be conveyed under arrest to England as being too dangerous a character for a quiet country like China'.\n\nIn another letter Adkins explained that 'I am making myself obnoxious and disagreeable to certain of my countrymen who think that Treaties are made that they might have the pleasure of breaking them. I have seized and confiscated three vessels for smuggling and have given a rascal three months hard labour for trading in salt. Really the Chinese have good reason for distrusting us. We sell arms to the Rebels and teach them how to build forts after making treaties of peace and friendship with the reigning power'.\n\nWhen E.H. Parker was Consul in about 1877 roads were just beginning to exist and the Municipal Council had succeeded in providing a respectable walk of three or four miles for exercise. However, a gigantic, old worm-eaten coffin had been left where it lay by the builders planted squarely in the middle of the fine new road, just where it left town. Rumour said it dated from the Mongol dynasty. No one dared touch it, and it was generally supposed that the 'owners were sitting tight and waiting for their chance. The Daotai said that",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278",
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    },
    {
        "id": 216071,
        "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": 370,
        "title": "RAS-2002",
        "content_text": "304\n\nMason's book is fairly thick and contains numerous anecdotes about life on the China coast which in the main have no particular relevance to his later criminal escapade. He explained that he had had no experience of criminal matters and therefore made many mistakes which, with hindsight, he should never have made. He referred also to the American consul in Zhenjiang, General Alexander C. Jones, Mason's oldest and most intimate friend in the port, a southerner who had commanded cavalry on the losing side of the Civil War, and then later, in Hong Kong, Mason assumed the role, in disguise, of an American sailor who had been beached in Hong Kong. He made a great point in his book of how Sir Robert Hart had favoured him as a good employee of the Customs Service, and that looking back he was able to see that Hart had been at pains to try to warn him off doing anything stupid. The tenor of the tale was that Hart and others, including the US consul and the British Consuls in Zhenjiang, had known that Mason was up to something, even, perhaps, what he really had intended to do. Mason ends with no apologies or even any thought of the stupidity of his acts. Out of context, his book would be a \"cracking good yarn\" but taken at face value, it depicts Mason having Walter Mitty fantasies.\n\nHart's letters39 to his London representative reveal that Mason was a 4th Assistant B in Chinchiang [Zhenjiang] in 1887. By mid-1891, in a short sentence within one of his letters, not in any way connected with Mason, Hart refers to the Gelao Hui, whom he did not see as particularly hostile to either foreigners or Christianity but were anti-dynastic and whose activities were incipient rebellion. In the October of the same year, he first mentions the Mason affair and comments on the immense harm it had done to the Service. He attached a draft telegram in which he called Mason ‘a foreign conspirator who had bought arms, seized at Shanghai, with his own money, and whether he himself [Mason] was amateur detective, conspirator, dupe or lunatic remained to be seen, as also whether his disclosures, plot confederates, etc., exist elsewhere than in his own diseased imagination'. There is no indication in any of Hart's published letters that he was aware of Mason's plans, despite, as we learn later, all had already been revealed to the local Customs Commissioner in Zhenjiang.\n\nIn Mason's Confessions, he tells of his attempt to resign from the Customs and of Hart's reply which explained that according to the regulations, this was not possible. He added half-way down his letter to",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278",
        "rank": 0
    }
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