[ { "id": 204378, "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-1962", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "# PRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\n1961\n\nA little over two years ago, in December 1959, the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was revived after the lapse of a century. This, then, is its second Annual General Meeting. We can confidently say that the initial success of the first year has during the year that is past been well sustained and that the Society has been placed on a solid foundation for the future.\n\nAt the end of the first year—1960—we had 182 members. Of these 20 were life members, and their number included several eminent scholars from overseas. By the end of the second year—1961—a total of 278 members had been enrolled. Of these one died, four resigned, and seven left Hong Kong. There were left 25 life members and 241 ordinary members, making a total of 266 and an increase of 84 during the year. I hope, however, that this gain in membership will not be affected by the delay on the part of 59 members in paying their subscription of $20 for 1962, and a note has been sent out to remind those who have overlooked this modest contribution due three months ago. It would greatly help the Society if members would be good enough to give a banker's order for their subscriptions. It would not commit any member to continuing the subscription longer than he wishes but it would save members themselves the trouble of writing cheques or paying cash each year, and save the Hon. Treasurer and the Hon. Secretary, who are very busy people, the burden of much correspondence which should be unnecessary.\n\nIt would also be a matter of satisfaction and encouragement if more members would evince their interest and support of this Royal Society by becoming life members. At present there are only 25. There must be many more than 25 in this prosperous Colony who would, I am sure, be prepared to pay $250 for a life membership and, as His Excellency Sir Robert Black, our patron, said a year ago when he presided over one of our meetings, \"there are many times 200 people who are interested both in the cultural life and history of this part of the world, which has great riches to offer to anybody interested in research or in studying and enquiring about the inheritance which we all enjoy who live here\".", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204825, "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": 128, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "A RECONNAISSANCE OF MA WAN\n\nSecondly that the great extent of our commercial concerns in China requires a place of security as a depot for such of our goods as cannot be sold off or shipped during the short season that is allowed for our shipping to arrive and depart; and that for this purpose we wish to obtain a grant of a small tract of ground or detached Island, but in a more convenient situation than Canton, where our present Warehouses are at a great distance from our ships, and where we are not able to restrain the irregularities which are occasionally committed by the Seamen of the Company's ships, and those of private traders4.\n\n107\n\nIn fact in his Journal under an entry dated 2-7 January, 1794, after discussing the possibility of obtaining Macao, he went on to mention the possibility of a settlement on an island.\n\nOr with as little trouble and with more advantage we might make a settlement in Lantao or Cow-hee, and then Macao would of itself crumble to nothing in a short time. The forts of the Bocca Tigris might be demolished by half a dozen broadsides, the river would be impassable without our permission, and the whole trade of Canton and its correspondencies annihilated in a season. The millions of people who subsist by it would be almost instantly reduced to hunger and insurrection.\n\nTherefore it was natural that Macartney should send Lieutenant Parish to survey the coast of Lantao and the neighbouring islands in search of a harbour and a possible place for a settlement. In his report Parish refers to \"a situation for a settlement, intended to protect the large and valuable ships employed in the China trade\". It was unfortunate that the bad weather during the short time available for the survey prevented Parish from obtaining a more detailed description of the area. However, he did manage to land on an island which he calls Cowhee and his report to Macartney contains information of interest which, together with his sketch map, is worth reproducing3. It reads as follows:\n\nMacao 28th February, 1794.\n\nPursuant to your Excellency's orders, Mr. Alexander and myself embarked on board the Jackall in the Typas, at seven", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204826, "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": 129, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "108\n\nCRANMER-BYNG AND SHEPHERD\n\no'clock on the morning of the 13 inst. We shortly after got under weigh with a fresh breeze from the north, and worked up with the tide to the point anchor in the plan, near the Nine Islands where we anchored. The weather was squally with rain and so thick that we could scarcely discern land. At day break we weighed and worked up to Lintin, where at twelve o'clock we anchored. I went immediately on board the Lion and delivered Your Excellency's Letters to Sir Erasmus Gower. As it rained hard and blew fresh, I remained there for the night, and at seven in the morning I returned to the Jackall, when as there was some appearance of its clearing up, Captain Proctor got under weigh, and stood towards the Island of Lantao. The soundings are expressed in fathoms in the plan, and they point out the track of the vessel. We inserted the rocks marked A.B. which we did not observe in any former plan. The weather continued so thick above, that we could not discover the Peak of Lantao, nor with any precision the land along the shore. At the point C the island marked Shatlapko in the charts, wore so favourable an appearance, that we stood towards it, although as it had been laid down between it and the island of Lantao, little hopes could be entertained of finding shelter for shipping from westerly winds. At one o'clock find that we suddenly shoaled our water, we anchored in 44 fathom water over soft mud at the inner point marked anchor. The uncertain state of the weather, and the short time it was probable we could allow for the examination of Cowhee, made it necessary to hasten from this anchorage. Whilst we took angles in the ship, the boat was dispatched to sound, with directions to stand over to the South East side, as soon as she should find, towards Shatlapko so little as three fathoms water. This she very shortly did and her track and soundings are expressed in the plan. The Island of Shatlapko we found to extend towards the shore of Lantao; by which it appears, that the whole of this bay is sheltered from westerly winds. The officer who sounded in the boat, reported his having seen boats pass through the channel marked D, that the land in its neighbourhood on Lantao was low and cultivated, as was that marked E which he discovered through the opening!\". The point to the north west of E, has been hitherto laid down as an island; as well as", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204827, "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": 130, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "A RECONNAISSANCE OF MA WAN\n\n109\n\nthe thick weather would allow us to judge, we thought to the contrary, and it is sketched in according to the concurring opinions of the gentlemen on board\". Immediately after dinner we weighed and worked out of the bay, we anchored in the evening at the outermost anchor the weather again became thick and squally with rain. At break of day we weighed and worked over to anchor on the north shore which is laid down in the charts as a part of the main. It was now so thick that we could only see the Bottoe Islands12 at intervals, and very rarely the shore of Lantao. At eleven it cleared a little, we again got under weigh, and stood eastward along the shore, having a fine deep bay with a sandy beach to our left. We saw some large fishing boats and several huts, apparently the habitations of fishermen along the shore marked G. When we got off the point G we had irregular and very strong gusts of wind off the high land, and we could get no bottom with a hand line of 14 fathoms. Westward of the point H is a beach of about three quarters of a mile on which is a village consisting of ten or twelve houses13; some of these appeared very lately to have suffered from fire. On seeing the vessel approach, five or six men ran to the top of a small, but rather high conical rock, at H, as if for protection, here they remained till we passed them. The wind still blew fresh in puffs off the land, and we could get no bottom, at length however we got up to anchor eastward of H. and anchored in 13 fathoms hard gravel and shells, with 15 fathoms under the ship's stern. From the strength and irregularity of the squalls, the rapidity of the currents in this narrow channel, and the badness of the ground on which we had anchored, Captain Proctor wished to get away again with the vessel as soon as possible; we therefore went on shore on the island of Cowhee, agreeable to your Excellency's instructions.\n\nWe first stood over to the point I, we found no bottom with the hand line till very near the shore, where we had seven fathoms with a rocky bottom. We could not land here owing to the sea occasioned by the wind and current. We rowed eastward along the island six or seven hundred yards, where we turned a rocky point, close to which we had 34 fathoms with a rocky bottom, and a little way further out 17 fathoms. East of this is a small bay about 300 yards from point to point, and 80 or 100 yards in depth. In this bay we had 7, 6, 5 and 44 fathoms over soft mud,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205794, "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": 100, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "94\n\nR. BRUCE\n\nnecessary for the late King? He would be welcome then, that is in 1852. At the same time he took the initiative in improving trading conditions. Monopolies were partly removed and duties on imports and exports reduced. For a moment it seemed that Siam's foreign relations could be improved without formal treaty and the British Government did not press the matter. But in fact there was much to be done, and with a new British Plenipotentiary at Hong Kong it was opportune to resume discussions.\n\nSir John Bowring was a very different diplomat from his three British predecessors, Crawfurd, Burney and Brooke or the American envoys Roberts and Ballestier. He was an intellectual, a radical reformer, a disciple and editor of Jeremy Bentham, a linguist who could prattle in a dozen languages, an ex-Member of Parliament and a writer of hymns, an inveterate talker, a man with limitless energy and a Victorian capacity for pomposity and self-glory. After a career of business, politics, writing and self-appointed diplomacy in the courts of Europe, Bowring, being short of money, accepted public office as Consul at Canton. That was in 1849 when he was fifty-seven. Some five years later he became Governor of Hong Kong, Superintendent of Trade and, most glorious of all, Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary responsible for relations with China, Japan, Siam and all countries in the Far East.\n\nBowring's five years' Governorship of the island colony on the coast of China was anything but successful. Some of his senior officials were incompetent and even corrupt, and he was unpopular among the British merchants. Worst of all he precipitated the second Anglo-Chinese war by sending warships to bombard Canton over a quite unworthy incident. But he was completely successful when he sailed to Bangkok in March, 1855, to negotiate a treaty with the Siamese.\n\nMost of the detailed business of the negotiations was done by Bowring's young assistants, his son John C. Bowring, an employee of Jardine, Matheson and Co. in Hong Kong, and Harry Parkes, his secretary, who was later to have a distinguished career as Consul at several ports on the China coast, (Mongkut referred to the young men as \"Mr. Parkes and Your Excellency's upspring\".) But it was Bowring and King Mongkut who created the favourable atmosphere which allowed progress to be rapid and the discussions congenial. It was clear from the start that the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206212, "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": 29, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE TAIPINGS AT NINGPO\n\n23\n\nas a creed, or ethics, that the world ever witnessed.\" Warming to his task, Harvey declared: \"The first impression of a sensible and reasoning Englishman, on coming into contact with Taepingdom is one of horror, then of amazement, with contempt and disgust following each other in succession. Taepingdom is a huge mass of 'nothingness'... It is a gigantic bubble, that collapses on being touched, but leaves a mark of blood on the finger.” In such light, Harvey's advice was simple: \"Your Excellency may rest assured that we shall only arrive at a correct appreciation of this movement, and do it thorough justice, when it is treated by us as land piracy on an extensive scale — piracy odious in the eyes of all men — and, as such, to be swept off the face of the earth by every means within the power of the Christian and civilized nations trading with this vast Empire.\"\n\nIn his dispatch to London of April 10, 1862, British Minister Frederick Bruce enclosed Harvey's \"very able report” and added: \"No commerce can co-exist with their presence, and no specific relations are possible with a horde of pirates and brigands, who are allowed to commit every excess, while professing a nominal allegiance to an ignorant and ferocious fanatic.\" In another dispatch eight days later Bruce emphasized this theme saying that the presence of the Taipings in any district is \"accompanied by the utter destruction of the materials of trade.\"19 Thus all evidence to the contrary from Ningpo and elsewhere of Taiping efforts to encourage trade were totally ignored, to be drowned out as a matter of fact, by such sustained propaganda, so that the impression has remained ever since that the Taipings were somehow anathema to commerce.\n\nThus the stage was carefully being set for the climax. The British, with the French, awaited the opportune moment, or more precisely, an opportune pretext. This came on April 22, 1862. The occasion was the triumphant return to Ningpo of General Fan who had been away at Nanking. During a cannon salute, unfortunately aimed in the direction of the foreign settlement, some shots reportedly killed one or two Chinese within the settlement, although the report itself seems questionable. On the same day, some Taiping soldiers fired musket shots toward the H.M.S. Ringdove. The ship's Captain immediately protested, and the very responsive Taiping General Huang replied apologetically, on the very same day, promising punishment for the offenders.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206328, "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": 145, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n139\n\n36 In 1917 there were 31 guilds for employers only (in trades such as silk, sandalwood, wicker furniture and copper), 35 skilled craftsmen guilds (sandalwood workers, masons, tinsmiths, etc.) and 5 guilds with mixed membership (employers and workers). There were also 17 district societies, such as the Heung Shan (Hsiang-shan) resident merchants association and the General Commercial Association of the Tung Kun (Tung-kuan) merchants resident in Hong Kong. See the list of exempted and registered societies in the Gazette, 27 April 1917.\n\n37 Wei Yuk was appointed in 1891 and served until his death in 1929. He resigned several times in order to allow a newcomer to join the Committee but was soon re-appointed. Lau Chu-pak was appointed in 1902 and served until his death in 1922. Sir Shouson Chow was appointed in 1917 and was still a member in 1949, the year of the demise of the Committee.\n\n38 During the years 1929 to 1931 and in 1936 the Committee met four times a year at Government House. Lennox Mills states that members had the right to a guard of the District Watch Force on the occasion of weddings and other festivities'. The Secretary for Chinese Affairs tells us in his report for 1936 that through the kindness of His Excellency the Committee was able to meet the members of the Mui Tsai Commission on the occasion of their first visit to the Colony, 'All members attended and there was a valuable discussion with frank interchange of views'. When the Governor, Sir Henry Blake, left the Colony in 1903 on the day of his departure he inspected the District Watchmen. Clearly, everything was done by the government to give prestige and éclat to the Committee and the force.\n\n19 T. C. Cheng, op. cit., p. 18.\n\n40 Of the Chinese land population in the 1901 census 227,615 returned themselves as natives of Kwangtung Province, 179,296 of this number belonging to the Kwong Chau Prefecture, 28,844 came from Tung-kuan hsien, 28,587 from P'an-yü hsien, and 27,221 from Nan-hai hsien. The situation was substantially the same in the censuses of 1911, 1921 and 1931. In 1911, for example, 311,992 out of 350,418 Chinese in Hong Kong, exclusive of the New Territories, spoke Cantonese,\n\n41 Op. cit., pp. 399-400.\n\n42 Heung Shan, present-day Chung Shan, is the arid county on the west side of the Pearl River, stretching down to Macau. It was the Heung Ha, the Cantonese term for the province, district or village from which each person derives his ancestry, of many prominent Chinese, including Ng Choy (Wu Ting-fang), Yung Wing (Yung Hung), Wong Shing (Huang Shêng), and Sun Yat-sen. Many Chinese merchants in Hong Kong came from this county; for example, Wei Yuk, Ma Ying-piu (founder of the Sincere Company), M. Y. San (before 1941 the largest biscuit manufacturer in China), Tsang Foo, Look Poong-shan (founder of the Bank of Canton). Su Chao-cheng, organiser and leader of the Seamen' Strike in 1922, came from this county; in 1928 Su was elected to the Central Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party. The anarchist, Liu Ssu-fu, was also born there. In 1938 the Chung Shan Commercial Association had a membership of over 4,000 in Hong Kong.\n\n43 In 1905, for example, at least seven members of the Committee were compradores to important western firms; one was manager of a native bank; another of a prosperous pawnshop; a third ran a large export firm. Ho Kai was primarily a financier rather than an entrepreneur. See on this point the Chinese speculator Marie-Claire Bergère, \"The Role of the Bourgeoisie' in M. C. Wright, ed., China in Revolution: The First Phase 1900-1913, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1968, p. 236.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206562, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 110, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "104\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nSection 151 of the new Ordinance restricted the depth of domestic buildings to not more than 40 ft; greater depths could be permitted, however, if every storey were provided with windows to ensure that the whole storey was adequately lit. Another provision prohibited rooms in existing domestic buildings which had neither a window nor skylight. Cubicles were limited to no more than two per room and each cubicle had to have a minimum floor area of 64 sq. ft. and a minimum depth or width of 7 ft. In rooms with no adequate natural lighting and ventilation, cubicles were prohibited.\n\nSection 179 of the Ordinance when first mooted required every domestic building to be provided with open space at the rear equivalent to not less than half the roofed-over area of the building; however, due to opposition from property owners, this provision was made to apply only to buildings erected on land leased after 1903. For buildings erected on land obtained before that date, the amount of open space to be provided was not less than one-third the roofed-over area.\n\nIn the case of building heights, opposition from vested interests also resulted in differential controls being applied so that on land obtained after 1903 the height of buildings was limited to a dimension not greater than the width of the street whereas for land that was leased before 1903 the maximum height was set at one-and-a-half times the street width. A maximum height of 76 ft. and a maximum of four storeys also applied in addition to the above limitations. These provisions remained in effect until 1935.\n\nIt was not long before the new regulations came under attack, and in 1906 a commission was appointed to look into the effectiveness of the Ordinance and also the existence of corruption in its application. The Commission was very sceptical over the value of many of the new regulations and, in particular, criticised the prohibition of cubicles as this was frequently the only means by which Chinese families could obtain accommodation at a rental they could afford.18 The Commission also found that corruption amongst all grades of the officers of the Sanitary Board was prevalent which, in turn, reduced or nullified the effectiveness of the regulations.\n\n18 Report of the Commission Appointed by his Excellency the Governor to Enquire into and Report on the Administration of the Sanitary and Building Regulations Enacted by the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance 1903 and the Existence of Corruption among the Officials Charged with the Administration of the Aforesaid Regulations, Hong Kong, 1907, p. 10.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206760, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 37, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "YAUMATEI TYPHOON SHELTER, HONG KONG\n\n31\n\nOn 13th September, 1906 it again became time for His Excellency to speak on the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the coming year. In the course of that speech he said—\n\nOne of the items which I wished to appear on the Estimates for this year but which does not appear is the typhoon shelter. So long as we have those waterworks on hand to which I have referred there is very little chance of doing anything in connection with the shelter; unless the Chamber of Commerce would suggest raising the light dues to provide funds for its construction, in which case such a reasonable suggestion might be adopted.\n\nEvents were then to take a tragic turn. A week later on 20th September, 1906, His Excellency returned to the Legislative Council and informed the members that (as they well knew)—\n\nHong Kong had just suffered from catastrophe as calamitous, if not more so, than any which had previously befallen the Colony, the loss of life and property between the hours at 9 and 11 on Tuesday morning were as far as can at present be judged greater than those incurred in the great typhoon of 1874.\n\nHe went on to say--\n\nNone of us are likely to forget the scenes of that morning, first of all we saw when the typhoon gun was fired about 9 o'clock crowds of helpless shipping drifting to the east before the wind, then the whole scene was wiped out by the blowing sheets of rain, and an hour later the atmosphere being again clear, we saw that the junks and small craft had disappeared and that many of the larger ships were aground or in distress. What had happened to the Chinese boats was evidenced by the appalling scenes of desolation along the prayas or the Kowloon shore. I need not, however, dwell on those scenes nor account the losses which were witnessed and known to all of you.\n\nHe went on to detail and pay tribute to various acts of heroism which had occurred during the course of the storm.\n\nThis typhoon had occurred just after the budget for 1907 had been presented and before the Council had had an opportunity to comment on the proposed expenditure at its next sitting. Now the Governor had suggested the construction of a typhoon shelter could not be started unless perhaps it were financed out of increased light dues. Despite the typhoon in which an estimated 10,000 people", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206761, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 38, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "32 \n\nA. J. S. LACK \n\nhad died the reaction of the Chamber of Commerce to the Governor's suggestion was not perhaps what one might have imagined. \n\nOn 27th September 1906, Mr. E. A. Hewett* the unofficial member of the Legislative Council appointed by the Chamber of Commerce rose to comment upon the budget proposals for the year ahead, and in the course of his speech said— \n\nWith regard to the typhoon shelter, your Excellency referred to the necessity for this which is admitted by all and went on to suggest the Chamber of Commerce might see their way to suggest the means of raising funds, I am sorry to say the Chamber of Commerce do not see their way to meet your Excellency's suggestion. For many years it has been strongly urged by all those interested in shipping that tonnage and light dues should not be levied for the purposes of general revenue. \n\nHe claimed that in 1897 Mr. Chamberlain, the then Secretary of State in reply to a telegram from Sir Wilfred Robinson, “practically admitted that in future light and tonnage dues were not to be raised for such purposes.\" He then said, \n\n\"the shelter benefits all classes of the community and should be borne by the Community and not by the shipping section, we all depend on the native craft, the merchant and the house owner as well as the ship owner and the refuge here is just as much a benefit to the merchant and the house owner as to the ship owner. Consequently, it would be manifestly unfair to ask a portion of the community to raise a large sum of money for the benefit of the whole Colony.\" \n\nMr. Hewett then questioned various sites which had been proposed for a typhoon shelter and raised the possibility of the Colony incurring a loan to pay for it. Then he went on to say that he did not suppose that even had there been a shelter it would have had any effect in avoiding the great loss of life which had occurred on 18th of the month. He considered that a few boats in the immediate vicinity might have gone into the refuge, but it would not have benefitted the native shipping at large. \n\n* Edbert Ansgar Hewett, listed in Who's Who in the Far East as Superintendent, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, b. 1860, member of the Shanghai Municipal Council 1897-1901 and its Chairman in 1900-1901. Chairman of the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce since 1903.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206765, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 42, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "36 \n\nA. J. S. LACK \n\nAt the same meeting another unofficial member, Mr. Osborne,* mounted a quite blistering attack upon Government's past failure to provide adequately for the shelter of the boat people in Hong Kong. He referred to the typhoon of 1841 and to the storm of 1874 in which over 2,000 lives were lost within the space of 6 hours and 35 foreign vessels were wrecked or badly damaged. He claimed that the screaming of those in distress on the water could be heard in the mid levels of the town above the noise of the storm. He went on to refer to subsequent and more recent typhoons, one of which (1906) had exacted a toll of 10,000 lives in two hours. He demanded to know what it was that had been done with the lessons of previous years, and came to the reluctant conclusion that very little had been done. He castigated Government's lavish expenditure on various new public buildings, notably the Supreme Court, the Harbour Office, and the intended Post Office Building, as being quite beyond the bounds of what was required, and ended with these remarks,\n\nDuring a rather long residence in the Colony, I have had exceptional opportunities of coming into contact with the boat population. Though, like most humanity, their character is a blend of the good and the bad, there is one quality they possess in marked degree, which has always commanded my deep admiration, and that is their patience and philosophic bearing under circumstances of trial and suffering. In their name, Sir, and apart from the commercial aspect to which I have alluded, in the name of thousands who have already suffered in silence the misery wrought by these destructive storms, I appeal to your Excellency that there shall be no further delay in giving them the shelter which it is our clear and bounden duty to provide.\n\nThese words put the officials on their mettle. At the next meeting of the Council, the Director of Public Works and His Excellency the Governor were at pains to assure members that something was going to be done about the typhoon shelter: in fact, they had purchased a dredger on which to begin work on the foundations of the shelter. This provoked an unexpected row because some members considered that another dredger also for sale in the harbour at that\n\n* Edward Osborne, listed in Who's Who in the Far East as Secretary of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Co., b. 1861, with P & O Steam Navigation Co. in London and Hong Kong 1880-1889. Director of Hong Kong Hotel, Dairy Farm, Steam Laundry, etc.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208636, "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": 93, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "66\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\n1942\n\nNew Year's Day. The cleaning up process continues and we have little heart in celebrating the day. We are allowed to walk down to the village at the foot of our hill, but no farther, without special permit. Japanese gendarmes have taken up quarters in some of the rich Chinese houses in and around Stanley and soldiers occasionally visit the top of our hill and walk through our house. As Carmel is within our limit of walking, we visit the Sisters, and find them and Father Hessler well. During the hostilities, a portion of their garden wall was broken down, and soldiers demanded admittance from time to time, but otherwise they were not molested. Besides the three Belgian Sisters, there are some twenty Chinese Carmelites and four Italian Canossian Sisters with a number of orphan girls in the convent. These latter had been sent out by the Bishop with the hope that, by reason of their residence in the convent, the Belgian Sisters might not be interned.\n\nThe next few days are uneventful, and we continue our work of cleaning up and getting back to normalcy as best we can. There is still no electricity so we burn vigil lights and candles. We have managed to get a little kerosene oil and found two Aladdin lamps in the attic. We use these on our dining room table and recreation room, but have to be very sparing of oil. As before the war, we retire early and rise late, and each day expect to hear something concerning our fate.\n\nOn the fourth, Father Toomey pays a courtesy call on an officer in one of the Chinese houses below us, and is received very well.\n\nThe next day we were agreeably surprised to see His Excellency, Bishop Valtorta, who had walked the eleven miles from Hong Kong to see what had happened to us. He shares our rice and beans and stays overnight. He tells us that food is very scarce in the city and the priests in the Mission House are on rations, so we decide to do the same. Accordingly, we get one dish of rice, a ladle of stew (meat, vegetables and beans) and an ounce of sugar per day. For breakfast we have three prunes, a little oatmeal and a cup of coffee, with a portion of that ounce of sugar allowed. Tiffin and supper are much the same, with rice, stew and a little Jello occasionally. In the village below, it is becoming increasingly difficult to buy meat or vegetables. The porkers are gradually being killed off, and the price is rising, and our supply of money rapidly diminishing.\n\nT", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208642, "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": 99, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "72\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\ngot together. Father Toomey went on ahead to arrange for our quarters, and all bid good-bye to Maryknoll on the hill. Just as we are leaving, His Excellency Bishop Valtorta walks up our hill, not knowing that we were being evacuated. At the foot of the hill, we meet a truck, and are surprised to find sitting on it, Father Norris, C. P., who has been brought out from town. The truck was on its way to the refugee camp just below our house, in order to pick up a few rice caldrons and some firewood for our kitchen equipment at the camp. At any rate, we are going to have rice!\n\nWe pass the Carmelite Convent, struggling under our burdens; go through the village of Stanley, which looks deserted and desolate, and we continue on our way, after having first been stopped by a group of soldiers, to the Prison Warders' apartments. We find we are to be billeted in Blocks “E”, “F” and “G” and the British and Dutch, some of whom have already arrived, are to occupy the other Blocks as well as St. Stephen's College buildings and the Indian Quarters below. We are directed to the top or third floor of Block \"E\", and as there was no order or assignment of rooms, we took the first available space and put our belongings on the floor. We also find that we have been allotted two flats on this third floor, each consisting of three rooms, with a small bath and an equally small kitchen and pantry. In these six rooms, there will be eventually (Father Bauer, with Brothers Michael and Thaddeus still being in Queen Mary Hospital, and Father Feeney still in Kowloon) thirty-two people, we having lost His Excellency, Bishop O'Gara and Father Charles Murphy; they, being Canadians, going to the British quarters, and gaining Brothers Cornelius and Anthony, two Christian Brothers who, with Fathers Norris and Benson, were here ahead of us. We are billeted four to seven in a room and have camp cots for beds. There is little other furniture save a chair here and there, or a small table and a wardrobe or bureau in some of the rooms. We have the whole top floor of our Block, except the servants' quarters, very tiny rooms at either end. After stowing away our belongings under camp cots and in corners, we make up our cots and prepare to retire.\n\nAs we have no electricity, we sleep until daylight and then rise to begin our first day in an Internment Camp. Having brought with us a number of Mass kits, we immediately set about putting up some temporary altars. For these, we use some tables and bureaus", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208646, "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": 103, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "76\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\n2 Feast of the Presentation: Once again, we start classes in the language, but under manifest difficulties. One classroom is our tiny, six by six combination chapel, laundry and kitchen. The other classes held forth in rooms occupied by from four to seven people. The fish we received today for our rations was spoiled and as a result, we had only rice and vegetables. Some of the internees went to \"The Hill\" this afternoon for various purposes, and while waiting to transact their business with the authorities, sat on the low wall at the edge of the road, which incidentally happens to overlook the prison below, now occupied by Japanese. As a result, three Sisters had their faces rudely slapped, and one or two were kicked around, because of their behavior. In the evening, just in front of our Block “A”, a number of internees gathered around a piano impromptu and began singing popular songs. This was immediately stopped, as no permission had been requested.\n\n3-Fathers Keelan and Downs bless throats at the little chapel at the Maryknoll Sisters quarters. Misty weather. Meat ration spoiled and unacceptable. We organize ourselves into morning duty squads and sweep and dust and help out in the kitchen by turn. (Our private kitchen, by the way, where Father Troesch has an iron range, and for which Father Meyer \"scrounges” faggots and coal dust, the latter being made into coal briquettes on the roof). Before leaving Stanley, Father Meyer had purchased a pig and had salted it down in a small barrel. This we managed to bring with us, and today when our meat ration failed, we fell back on this piece of fat, hairy salt pork, and we were glad to even eat the hide. On the Hong Kong Prison grounds (now within our Camp confines) there is a small field of alfalfa, which was grown as an experiment in feeding the prisoners. I do not know whether the experiment worked or not, but at the present time, we are eating alfalfa with our rice and other short rations, and “like” it. Father Meyer has also given us some \"grass\" tea, and we find anything goes these days.\n\n4-Bishop O'Gara called a meeting of his priests and appoints a Council: namely, His Excellency himself, and Fathers Toomey, Charles Murphy and Haughey, the latter a Salesian. Father Meyer is Pro-Vicar, and Father Keelan, Chancellor. Bishop Valtorta gives everyone all faculties. A series of sermons is also to be given.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208675, "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": 132, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n105\n\n23-We are notified today that swimming will soon be allowed at Tweed Bay just to the south of the Prison. Rules governing this permission will be issued later.\n\n24-Sunday. As usual. Our days now follow each other in much the same way, and apart from rumors, there is not much to chronicle. Father Moore follows Father Quinn with the \"flu\" and goes to bed.\n\n25-His Excellency, Bishop O'Gara, finally gets permission to leave the Camp, as also Father Chaye, a Belgian M.E., and quite a crowd gather to see them off. Father Meyer now becomes the Vicar Delegate of Bishop Valtorta.\n\n26-Father Madison succumbs to the \"flu\" and room number 9 seems to be hard hit.\n\n27-Canteen opens. Fathers Quinn and Moore improved and Father Downs back from Tweed Bay Hospital. One thing about the Hospital in the Camp, the doctors have a splendid cure for dysentery and within a short time the patient improves.\n\n28-The Sisters take over bread-baking for all the Maryknollers.\n\n29-After reconsidering the matter, four of the new men decide to remain, and take their names off the list.\n\n30-The American community meets and discusses the coming repatriation. It seems each repatriate will be allowed only such baggage as can be carried by him; in other words, no more than five bags as a maximum.\n\n31-Camp was agog this morning as a report spread that a tiger, or tigers, were seen within the Camp precincts. During the morning we did see a few Japanese soldiers clambering among the rocks on the hill to the south of us, and wondered what was up. Later, the police killed a tiger which is said to have weighed 240 pounds and was 3 feet high. A photo of the kill appeared in the next day's local paper. The other tigers remained in the vicinity for a few days and were later reported near Hong Kong.\n\nSunday. Father Meyer takes over the preaching, and loses no time in starting Catholic Action, with a meeting in the afternoon at 3:30. About 35 people were present. May Devotions close this evening, with an outdoor crowning of the Blessed Virgin. Mr. Fisher, a very good Catholic, 75 years of age, died in Tweed Bay Hospital.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209596, "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": 253, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "231\n\nmusic, a dazzling transformation scene, and a rollicking harlequinade.\" It enlisted a great many people for the leads, chorus and orchestra.\n\nNot everyone in Hong Kong was happy about pantomimes. In 1891 in the \"Beauty and the Beast\" \"the indiscreet censure lately passed by the Bishop upon the Pantomime was noticed in a verse or so--and a comical but somewhat misplaced representative of his Lordship appeared in the Harlequinade\".\n\nThe A.D.C. tried its hand at light opera in 1894 with the performance of Gilbert and Clay's \"Princess Toto\". It was described, however, as \"vapid and unattractive\". The Choral Society had for some years been presenting light operas and had already given \"Iolanthe\" and \"The Gondoliers\". In subsequent years the A.D.C. did \"Trial by Jury\", \"Yeomen of the Guard\", \"His Excellency\", and \"The Gondoliers\".\n\nDuring this same period, along with the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, other currently popular musical plays were staged.\n\nTHE GENIUS OF MR. SINCLAIR\n\nWith more frequent visits of professional companies, the A.D.C. increasingly found it difficult to sustain interest and attendance. This resulted in financial losses and threatened the future of the Amateurs. A new era arrived when Mr. Walter Sinclair assumed direction of A.D.C. productions in 1912.\n\nSinclair was imaginative and venturesome and mounted productions that were different from those presented by the travelling companies. The A.D.C. took on new life.\n\nAmong Sinclair's innovations was his introduction to Hong Kong of the playwright Lord Dunsany. In 1921 he presented an evening's programme of four Dunsany plays. One of these was \"The Compromise of the King of the Golden Isle\". It was the play's world premiere. The setting was Chinese. During the interval preceding it, to set the mood, a group of Chinese amateur musicians played Chinese music. It was particularly noted that the music \"was not unpleasing, for people who have heard only the cymbals and tom-toms may find music in the sweetness of some of the native banjos and fiddles\".", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209648, "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": 305, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n283\n\nand also complained about a recent ordinance, passed in April, which had prohibited the use of Chinese copper coins as legal tender in Hong Kong, which he claimed was an interference with the new republican government in Guangdong. After he had made this statement, he was committed for trial at the Criminal Sessions two weeks later.\n\nThe case was heard there before the Chief Justice, Sir Rees Davies. Li was charged with firing a revolver with the intent to kill and murder His Excellency the Governor. There was an alternative charge of intent to do the Governor grievous bodily harm. Li promptly pleaded guilty to both charges. The Attorney General briefly outlined the facts of the case, and the statement Li had made in the magistrate's court was repeated. No evidence was offered as to Li's background or his state of mind. In passing sentence, the Chief Justice said: 'You have pleaded guilty to a most dastardly crime. The motives which you put forward at the police court relate to conditions which have no foundation whatsoever in fact, and they do not in the least palliate your crime'. Li was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour.7\n\nMay reported the outcome of the trial to London, enclosing a medical certificate by a prison doctor that Li was of sound mind. He added the suggestion that the prisoner's statement had been mistranslated and that he was complaining about the compulsory repatriation of Chinese labourers from South Africa (Fei Chau) and not about mistreatment of Chinese in Fiji. He concluded: 'It seems quite clear that the attempt upon me was not connected with any political plot. It seems to have been the act of a man who, if not mad, must be of weak intellect'.8\n\nOn the day after the trial, an editorial in the South China Morning Post expressed the hope that this sentence would prove a salutary lesson and deterrent to other criminals. Too much leniency had been shown by the courts, said the editor, and this sentence should put a stop to the recent wave of crime and disorder. Similar views were expressed by the other English-language newspapers. The China Mail thought that the only redeeming feature of the regrettable affair was 'the genuine", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210173, "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": 144, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "123\n\noccupied lands. We shall carry out investigation of the case when the barbarians are somewhat pacified. Advice on the proper course of action to be taken will then be sought from the higher authorities.'\n\nThus far the complaint was against the English barbarians. But two years later, in another petition to the district magistrate dated 28th day of the fifth moon of Tao Kuang 23rd year (25 June 1843) there entered a new aspect, the behaviour of the Tangs' tenants on the land in question. The petitioner wrote,\n\n\"It happened that the treacherous barbarians have usurped these lands for building purposes and the crops in the area are destroyed. Following this the dishonest tenant Yip Shin-tak (#) and others made use of this chance and declared their own the field behind the houses at Wong Nei Chung, which was the same piece of land leased to them [by the Tangs], and sold it to the English barbarians. Thus my land was usurped and sold. I have lost this piece of land, together with the rent and grain that I should receive from my tenants. I have reported this case to the former magistrate begging him to defer my payment of taxes, and he had granted permission to investigate my case. I also beg your excellency to order the arrest of the treacherous tenant Yip Shin-tak and help me to recover my land.”56\n\nThe authorities were sceptical of this charge against the Tangs' tenants and commented in reply:\n\n\"You do not seem to have considered the fact that when these barbarians were making troubles on your land, they would not possibly be willing to pay for it. This is not logical. Moreover, we have checked the various letters you sent to the officials concerned, and in them you have never mentioned this Yip Shin-tak case, but had said only that the English barbarians have usurped your land for building purposes. Now you have added this new plaint, your intention is indeed dubious. This will not be permitted. Enclosed are the deeds and bills you have submitted.\"57", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210704, "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-1986", "page_number": 55, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "38\n\nWALTER GREENWOOD\n\nThe members elected in 1899 resigned in April 1901 on the ground that the Board could do nothing effective until it received adequate and independent powers, a view that Francis always held. Hong Kong had to wait until 1936 and the creation of the Urban Council for any further advance toward democratic local government.\n\nThe passing of the plague was followed not only by a post-mortem but also by a consideration of who should be rewarded, and how, for services rendered during the plague. The two outstanding candidates were F.H. May, the Captain Superintendent of Police, who served on the Permanent Committee, and Francis. In September 1894 at a public meeting a committee was appointed, with Edward Ackroyd as chairman, to decide on awards to be made on behalf of the community. In December Ackroyd wrote to the Governor \"The Committee consider that to Mr. Francis their best thanks are due for all his exertions and the time he devoted to the wants of the Colony for so many weeks. As Chairman of the Permanent Committee Mr. Francis had a heavy, troublesome and laborious task to perform, and throughout the duration of the epidemic he was unremitting in his devotion to his duties and gave up a great portion of his time, no doubt to the detriment of his extensive practice, to carry on the work he had voluntarily undertaken. Your Excellency is too well acquainted with his services for any need of further mention. Our Committee decided that his actions are deserving of the fullest recognition, that the best thanks of the community, with a good medal, should be tendered to him, and that his valuable services and useful work should be brought, through Your Excellency, to the special notice of the Secretary of State\". Meanwhile the Government was considering what recommendations it should make. It was chiefly concerned with officials but also considered non-officials including Francis. In September the Governor in writing to the Secretary of State expressed the hope that the latter had not failed to notice the untiring and energetic effects on behalf of the public weal of the medical staff and of Francis. However he seems to have been lukewarm to the suggestion, apparently favoured by May, that Francis should have the C.M.G. saying that he had no objection but \"it was easily earned\". He appears to have suggested that silver inkstands be given to the Colonial Surgeon and Francis but to no", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210859, "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-1986", "page_number": 210, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "193\n\nUS$3 a month on all non-American miners. The Chinese believed the legislature \"had spoken wisely. The Chinamen love to labour, but hate to fight. We will pay the tax willingly.\"\n\nAmerican xenophobia produced the charge that the Chinese were exporting vast amounts of gold. They replied: \"Why then is it that the Chinaman is so prosperous in this country? Because as we have told your Excellency before, he (the Chinaman) does not drink, gamble, or idle, or spend his money foolishly. Because he is thinking of his parents and his children, and the future, and works hard and saves what he makes.\" Perhaps a somewhat idealised version of Chinese life in California, but certainly it contained a degree of truth.\n\nThe letter also pointed out that mutual interchange would be beneficial to both Americans and Chinese. \"Our intercourse may benefit us both very much, and that will be better than quarrelling about our respective merits. Why should East quarrel with the West? God made them both, and placed the day between them, that the nations should use it in doing good works to one another.\"\n\nThe letter was signed by Tong K. A-chick of the Tun Wo company and Chun A-ching of the Sam Wo Company. Though the writer is not named it was probably composed by A-chick. Some of the sentiments, particularly those last quoted, reflected his missionary education.\n\nSeveral bills were introduced in the legislature in 1853 proposing that “no Asiatic or person of Asiatic descent or Chinese should be permitted to work in any mine in this state.\" The heads of the four Chinese associations testified at the hearings for the bills. Tong A-chick acted as their interpreter and presented the Chinese position.\n\nThe Rev. Mr. Speer remarks on the good work done by A-chick as the representative of the Chinese. \"This is the individual whose efforts on behalf of his countrymen were the chief means in turning the tide of public opinion in their favour, when those unfriendly to them made the attempt to expel them from the country. And if he remains here, there is no man whose influence will be more\n\nPage 210\n\nPage 211", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210925, "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-1986", "page_number": 276, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "259\n\nstorm.\n\nIn commenting on the hawker problem, Dr. Ho Kai had said: \"This nuisance I feel sure is widely felt by many residents in this colony, and will, if not removed, be the occasion of much complaint and perhaps another public representation to Your Excellency. Of course, none of us grudge the poor fellows a means of livelihood. Still we cannot see why people should render their occupation a serious inconvenience to their fellow townsmen. Besides we must not forget the interests of the small shopkeepers, who have to pay heavy rents and taxes simply to be out-competed in their line of business by their brethren of the street.\" This spurred the police to take action. The day after the meeting a large group of hawkers were arrested and fined for obstruction and creating a nuisance. It was stated that this was only the beginning of the crackdown.\n\nA representation was made to Dr. Ho Kai that these measures were not what the Chinese community favoured. He was charged with not adequately presenting their true views on the matter.\n\nDr. Ho Kai replied through a letter to the press in which he acknowledged that his remarks were “too brief and not clear and might be a cause of hardship to the poor, unfortunate hawkers.”\n\nHe said he felt he needed to render an explanation as a respectable Chinese gentleman had written to him pointing out that he had not expressed the sentiments of the whole delegation. The gentleman may have been Ho A-mei, though Dr. Ho Kai does not say so. At any rate, a few days later A-mei voiced the same charge with some heat at a public meeting at Tung Wah Hospital. At the time of the delegation, however, he had only made a few remarks, expressing \"his concurrence with the views expressed by Dr. Ho Kai.” In the light of subsequent events, he must have soon had second thoughts about his concurrence.\n\nIn his letter of explanation, Dr. Ho Kai confessed he had not consulted all the members of the deputation but only a few of them. To correct misunderstandings he set forth the real meaning of his remarks, writing: “No doubt all Chinese merchants feel the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211139, "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": 200, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "175\n\nnot able to satisfy the request. Somewhat apologetically he stated that \"as far as this Government is concerned, they would willingly lay on the table all this correspondence, and as the matter is one which appears to have been dealt with on Imperial grounds, I thought it better to request by telegram permission of the Secretary of State immediately I received notice of the question, but I have not yet received a reply. Therefore I must postpone the question to the next session.”\n\nMr. Whitehead was not to be put off so easily. He attacked from another quarter: \"Your Excellency, in Lord Knutsford's despatch of May 21 he refers to his despatch of March 26 and His Excellency Governor Des Voeux's reply. Would it be possible for the Government to lay this correspondence on the table?”\n\nHis Excellency felt unable to comply as in his opinion the question of Mr. Whitehead related to the entire correspondence on the matter and his action in regard to this was dependent on instructions from London.\n\nMr. Whitehead stated his reason for pressing his request. A public meeting was to be held the following week to pass resolutions on the matter. The recent correspondence would be of great value in determining how best to challenge the official reasons given for the appointment.\n\nThough Mr. Whitehead had asked for the correspondence from 1868 to 1876, they were in fact not needed as the Chamber of Commerce had copies of these. Before the meeting they were published in Hongkong newspapers as background information for those attending.\n\nThe Governor suggested that the meeting be postponed until he had received a reply from London to his request to make the correspondence public.\n\nIn concluding the exchanges, Mr. Whitehead complained of the way in which Hongkong was being treated: \"It is on the face of it a most arbitrary proceeding on the part of the Imperial Government, and cannot be justified in any way.”", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212332, "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": 274, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "251\n\nbeing until this century. In the last decade of the 20th century, however, it provides three-quarters of the electricity consumed in Hong Kong. Not long after the Company placed what was reported to be the largest ever single order with British industry, in 1980, six members of the board were made Commanders of the British Empire. There have also been two Knighthoods in the Kadoorie family.\n\nTransport\n\nMotor transport was mainly introduced into Hong Kong in the present century, and, by 1909, the Colony boasted five private cars. Steam power was, however, used at sea before it was employed on land, and by 1876 there were nine steam launches operating in the harbour, and the first regular cross-harbour ferry, employing steam launches, commenced in 1880. In 1898, the Star Ferry was incorporated and took over from Dorabjee Nowrojee the previous ferry owner.\n\nBritish firms were, nonetheless, involved with transport, and a proposal was made by Jardine's, in 1881, for a system of trams on Hong Kong Island. The same year another proposal was made for a tramway to Victoria Gap, and in 1885 the original promoters sold their rights to Phineas Ryrie and Alexander Findlay Smith (Findlay Path on the Peak is named after him) for $2,000. The latter, a merchant who arrived in Hong Kong in the 1860s and who had been an employee of Scotland's Highland Railway, was the driving force. In 1881, it was he who requested approval from Sir John Pope-Hennessy, for this innovative scheme.\n\nAccording to Mrs Maud Grant-Smith, the Governor told her late husband's uncle, Findlay Smith:\n\n\"My dear chap, you are simply throwing your money down the drain. Do you imagine anyone wants to go to the top of the Peak?\"\n\nBecause His Excellency would not help, Smith brought his own engineers from Scotland. As early as the 1840s Doctor William Morrison, the Colonial Surgeon (1847 to 1859), recommended spending the summer on the Peak. He also suggested a sanatorium be built there to alleviate the effects of heat and humidity. This was constructed but by 1868 it had fallen into disrepair, and had been rebuilt as", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212344, "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": 286, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "263\n\nwould be cannot bear being thought about.\n\nThus we have no alternative but to send you a detailed map together with this statement of fact.\n\nWe once again kowtow before Your Excellency, all of us prostrate before your perspicuity and judgement.\n\nWith speed like fire send an official to investigate! Strictly punish your inferior's order and the powerful ruffians, in order to preserve the communications and roads of the mass of the people!\n\nOn the day the bridge is completed, everyone will praise your great deeds!\n\nA petition!\n\nTo the Provincial Governor of Kwangtung, Chan, for his approval and action.\n\n[The success of this bridge is entirely due to Tsok-san and Sheung-yan's efforts. This is inserted here so that people of later generations will remember]\n\nThis petition was successful. The Provincial Governor, in his response, stated his view that this was \"not a matter of Fung Shui, but a matter of the loss of ferry revenue\". Since this was a public place, the Cheungs had no right to object to the ferry being replaced by a bridge, nor had they any right to \"convert their opposition into violence\". He ordered that the bridge go ahead. He also found the accusations against the County Magistrate justified, and the County Magistrate was immediately dismissed from his post. It is not known when the bridge was actually built: the November 1924 aerial photograph shows the crossing still had no bridge there then, but the bridge was certainly in place very shortly afterwards.\n\nIt would seem that, in the 1860 war, the Ta Kwu Ling villagers were successful, but only up to a certain point. The Cheungs were ejected from Ta Kwu Ling, and the Ta Kwu Ling villagers were able to build a bridge over the main branch of the Sham Chun River,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213208, "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": 30, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "subject when Governor John Pope Hennessy planned to appoint him as His Excellency's personal secretary in charge of affairs relating to the Chinese. The British merchants were opposed to the Governor creating an office where he would have more direct communication with the Chinese. Due to their opposition, Eitel never occupied such a position. In 1895, he published Europe in China, a detailed history of Hong Kong up to that date.\n\nClub Germania\n\nA club for Germans was started in 1859 in Wanchai in an unpretentious building. The German-speaking population at the time would have been very small. There were three German firms and two stores conducted by Germans. Within two years, the community almost doubled. It was small, but still large enough to provide a social centre for the community. In 1865, George Michelmore advertised the opening of a hotel in premises \"which were formerly known as the German Club\". It was below the Headquarters House, now Flagstaff House, off the present Cotton Tree Drive. This may have been the second location of the Club, as an article written in 1909 states that the first building was in \"an outlying section of Wanchai\", a description which does not fit a location on what is now Cotton Tree Drive (DP, 17 May, 1865).\n\nThe club moved in 1865 to a new building erected by Gustav Overbeck at the top of Wyndham Street, just south of D'Aguilar Street. But the German population was increasing, and the Germania Club decided to build a more commodious building. This was on the east side of Wyndham Street off Queen's Road. The new building was opened in 1872. It was a brick building in the Gothic style. The architects were Messrs Wilson and Salway. The cost was $21,000. Thirteen granite steps led to the entrance, and the main hall. On either side of the hall was a billiard room and a reading room. On the same level was a library room and a bar. The Concert Hall was approached by a flight of seven-foot-wide stairs. The Hall accommodated 275 persons; on either side was a drawing room and a dining room. There were accommodations for sixty in the dining room. Four bowling alleys were in the rear of the building (HKT, 27 Nov. 1909). The building served the community well until again it became too small, and another building was erected on Kennedy Road. This building became enemy alien property in 1914 and passed into the hands of St. Joseph's College. The College is still located in the building.\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214115, "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-1997", "page_number": 183, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "152\n\nOn the publishing side a bimonthly newsletter as well as a reputable annual journal, which is highly thought of in academic circles, are produced. Other publications like occasional papers consisting of such topics as write-ups of symposia, and books like Hong Kong Going and Gone (1980) and Beyond the Metropolis (1995), have been, and are being published. A number of Branch members have also published on their own account and others have been decorated by Her Majesty the Queen for heritage related work and community service. In Her 1997 Official Birthday Honours' List, four RASHKB members were awarded the MBE and another the Queen's Police Medal.\n\nIn addition to several members serving in their own capacities on Government committees, such as the Antiquities Advisory Board (AAB), a number of RASHKB volunteers have assisted the Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO) with the grading of buildings. Also, the AMO and the RASHKB banded together to mount a four-month long exhibition, entitled Hong Kong Going and Gone, in 1995-96. The Branch has also helped the AMO by providing speakers as well as leaders of tour groups.\n\nPersonalities\n\nObviously the RAS, like most organisations, depends on people. When the Branch was first formed the then Governor, Sir John Davis (1844-48), frequently took the chair as a scholar of both literary and scientific achievement. He retired from Hong Kong a year after the Branch was established. On leaving the Colony Sir John resumed his China studies, founded a chair at Oxford University and died academically revered at 92 showing, yet again, that those interested in heritage are often a long-lived breed (Spurr 1995: 35).\n\nHe was followed by Governor Sir Samuel Bonham (1848-54) who believed the study of Chinese addled the brain, although he did allocate a room in the Supreme Court solely for the use of the RASHKB. But his successor, Governor Sir John Bowring (1854-59), when he chaired RAS meetings, always insisted on being addressed as Dr Bowring and not as \"Your Excellency\". Bowring was fluent in, or had a working knowledge or a book knowledge of upwards of 14 languages (Chambers 1969: 162). He had also spent five years as British Consul in Canton where he learned Chinese. One of his accomplishments was translating", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214421, "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": 279, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "245\n\ncontinuing battle between Fadeev and the coolie, for the basket. I hired a boat and placed Fadeev in it, but the coolie followed him and resumed the fighting. The Chinese in the surrounding boats started shouting; Fadeev was about to sit down in the boat, like a mandarin, holding the basket in both hands, but the coolie wouldn't leave him alone. The boatman didn't want to take us, waiting for a resolution of the matter. Fadeev moved to go ashore again - but they wouldn't let him. \"With your permission, Your Excellency, I'll settle them,\" he said, taking the basket in one hand, and energetically pushing the Chinese aside with the other, he got ashore. I left, leaving him to sort it out as best he knew, only from afar I could see him beating off the Chinese like a bear amongst a pack of dogs, hitting them on their outstretched arms. Then later I saw him proudly moving away on our ship's boat, with just the purchases, and not the basket, which had belonged to the coolie and was, through our slow-wittedness, the cause of the conflict.\n\nAt one end of Hong Kong's extensive roadstead the trading house of Jardine and Matheson has been established. The four of us went to have a look at this example of the indefatigable energy and insatiable greed and enterprise of the English. Sten-Bil, the commander of the Danish corvette \"Galatea\" believes the English have invested too much labour and money in Hong Kong and the undertaking will not vindicate itself. On the appropriation of this island, merchants from Calcutta and Singapore rushed here and some of them sank all their capital, counting on the proximity of the Chinese mainland and on the sale of opium. But so far this has not been justified. Perhaps misgivings about the commercial imprudence of some Jardine may be warranted but nevertheless the possession of Hong Kong, the cannons, their own harbour - all this at China's doorstep, assures the English of trade with China for ever, and this little island will, it seems, be an everlasting eyesore for the Chinese government.\n\nA palace has been built at the Jardine establishment, and a garden and path laid out nearby; other buildings are being erected. While we were there hoards of Chinese were paving the ground with slabs; a few vessels stood by the shore. It was not yet midday when we walked onto the wharf and then hurriedly disappeared into the scant shade of the young garden. The chirping of the insects, with the approach of midday was so loud, that it could have challenged a large orchestra. We sat wearily on a bench, glancing occasionally at the glass doors of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215005, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 101, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "57\n\nan auspicious location to build a palace [of peace] where all the world's powers could meet and create a peace that will last ten thousand years.\n\nThe second letter is not addressed to any specific addressee with the writer also signing himself 'The Spiritual Man Yuan Chun`.\n\nSir,\n\nYour humble disciple learned that your righteous attempt to bring peace to Europe was rebuffed. Your setback was not due to your lack of sincerity for peace, but is due to the Western people's desire for war.\n\nSir, you know that the Chinese people [in Europe] have been placed in great danger by the war. We believe in your powers to make further attempts for peace, and to ensure our safety and our eventual return to China.\n\nThe third letter is addressed to His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief and is unsigned:\n\nThe current situation is one of utter chaos; the people's lives are very hard and we have waited in vain for the government to alleviate our difficulties. Our country is weak and the people disunited. Now is the time for an heroic brave man to take command and launch a crusade to stabilise the nation and unite the people. I hope Your Excellency will not hinder my efforts to carry out this righteous duty and I ask for your assistance in this endeavour.\n\nI wonder if any of the above letters were sent and, if so, whether the contents had any result on the final cessation of hostilities.\n\nWhilst writing this article I was fortunate to find a book on the life of Two-gun Cohen, the well-known personage with strong ties to China. Morris Abraham Cohen was born on 3rd August, 1889 in Stepney, London's East End, of an immigrant Jewish couple from Poland. He was shipped to Canada at the age of 16 after having come into conflict with the authorities. In Canada he learnt to ride, shoot and gamble, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215391, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 168, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "源\n\nAGE. ALAHATAE P\n\n屍體處理問題\n\n**AN ANW8 4\n\n**** A*CM. BAA\n\nBALE MH:\n\n117\n\nnow a prarefully and cordially as ar da maw Uỹ hypo, się woben you gri te dngland, you will be able se reprevent our need to the large hearted and philanthropic people of Great Britain and Ireland, and be enabled phereby zo ger farther denacions, much needed for our University and its endowment fund.\n\nThe text of the scroll adds to this theme:\n\n\"It is education which moulds and forms men's talents. China is now intent on reform and for this purpose education is the most urgent need. But in few of the provinces is there a University and hence the young men who have the aspirations of a scholar and seek a higher education, much against the wishes of their father, their brothers and their elders, have to carry their books and luggage across many an ocean in search of a teacher.\"\n\n\"Since Your Excellency came to give peace to this state, all the business of administration has been carried on by you with success, but you have regarded the development of education and the encouragement of talent as your most important duty, and all your energies and faculties have been devoted to the establishment of a University. Now the foundation stone has been duly laid and the magnificent project is on the way to realisation. We feel confident that in the future the result of the education given in the University will fulfil all expectations.”\n\nThe Disposal of the Dead\n\nIn the text of the scroll, however, this pressing community issue received first mention:\n\n\"Your earnest attention has been devoted to everything that would promote the welfare of the people and the comfort of those who have gathered here from afar. More especially has every movement for the benefit of the Chinese received your heartiest support. Not once have your actions failed to call forth public praise. Your Excellency was moved with great sorrow at the frequency with which bodies have been thrown out into the street in Hongkong, and with the determination of taking measures to stamp the practice out, you consulted the Public Dispensaries Committee as to the best means to your purpose: and now there is hardly a trace left of the evil practice. The sanitary laws are made to preserve the public health, but the Chinese have always feared their strictness. Since Your Excellency took up office, a compromise has been effected in the administration of the laws while at the same time, to the gratification of all classes, better results have been achieved.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215402, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "128\n\nTranslation of the Chinese Address presented to \n\nHis Excellency the Governor, Sir Frederick John Dealtry Lugard, K.C.M.G., C.B., D.S.O., by the representatives of the Chinese Community.\n\nIn a lucky day in April of the year 1910 on the occasion of your Excellency's returning to your ancestral home on a holiday of six months we Chinese representatives of all classes of the community take the opportunity of your departure to present you with a respectful address in token of our esteem.\n\nMore than once have the stars and the hoar-frosts returned in their course since Your Excellency came to Hongkong: the benevolence and clemency of your virtuous administration is in the mouth of every passer-by in the streets. Your earnest attention has been devoted to everything that would promote the welfare of the people and the comfort of those who have gathered here from afar. More especially has every movement for the benefit of the Chinese received your heartiest support. Not once have your actions failed to call forth the public praise.\n\nYour Excellency was moved with great sorrow at the frequency with which bodies have been thrown out into the street in Hongkong, and with the determination of taking measures to stamp the practice out, you consulted the Public Dispensaries Committee as to the best means of effecting your purpose; and now there is hardly a trace left of the evil practice. The Sanitary laws are made to preserve the public health, but the Chinese have always feared their strictness. Since Your Excellency took up office a compromise has been effected in the administration of the laws while at the same time to the gratification of all classes better results have been achieved.\n\nIt is education which moulds and forms men's talents. China is now intent on reform and for this purpose education is the most urgent need. But in few of the provinces is there a University and hence the young men who have the aspirations of a scholar and seek a higher education, much against the wishes of their fathers, their brothers and their elders, have to carry their books and luggage across many an ocean in search of a teacher.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215517, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 294, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "244\n\nin the Happy Valley.'\" The year of 1845 is referred to as the year when the Colonial Cemetery was opened, in a number of official records.24 This was also suggested by a contemporary local historian.25\n\nThe new site for the Catholic cemetery, later to be named St. Michael's Catholic Cemetery and adjacent to the Colonial Cemetery, was granted on 7th January 1848.26 At the same time, it was requested that the use of the old burial ground should be discontinued:\n\nHis Excellency the Governor in Council has been pleased to grant the Ground next to and North of the English Burial Ground in the Valley of Wong-nei-chong, for the purpose of a place of Burial for Roman Catholics, provided you distinctly agree to discontinue for the future all internments whatever in your present burial ground.27\n\nDeath and suffering continued to trouble the troops into the 1850s. A British soldier who was posted to Hong Kong between 1850 and 1854 had recorded not only the sorrowful condition, but also commented about the location of the race-course:\n\nDuring July, August and September [1850], we buried about 300 men. I never seen or heard anything like the epidemic that got amongst the men and every one, native and European has this sickness... Every day at this time July and August three dead bodies into the hearse at once off to the Happy Valley (grave yard named)... At this time October 1850 the remnants of the 59th were about 250 and 150 of these were either in hospital on shore or on board the Minden Hospital Ship across the harbour, so many men dying...\n\nEvery year we had the races at the Happy Valley Course. On the main road running around the Race Course in Happy Valley opposite the Grand Stand was the burying ground where so many of our comrades lay buried... I always considered the Race Course was in the wrong place, as the sight of the grave yard generally dampened my spirits and took all pleasure away at these races...\n\nBy the mid 1850s, it was thought that the Colonial Cemetery had already been nearly full, and it became a subject of discussion in a local newspaper:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216396, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 155, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "105\n\nH.M.S. HERMES1: CHINA STATION, 1930/33\n\nJONATHAN PARKINSON\n\nIn volume 41 of the Society's Journal, pages 326/328, to illustrate his article Keith Stevens kindly reproduced photographs of the aircraft carrier HERMES at Hankow during the great floods of 1931.\n\nThis was not her only rather unusual experience of this commission.\n\nOn passage from Sheerness, where on 3rd October 1930 she had re-commissioned under the command of Captain E.J.G. Mackinnon, DSO, HERMES spent Christmas at Singapore. Approaching Hong Kong on Friday, 2nd January 1931 she passed Gap Rock2 at 0357 hours and four hours later flew off her aircraft of Flights 403 and 440 to Kai Tak. At 1039 she secured to No. 1 buoy in Victoria Harbour.\n\nThe Governor of Hong Kong at the time was Sir William Peel. He spent most of Tuesday, 20 January at sea in the ship witnessing flying exercises. The destroyer THRACIAN, Commander N.L. Veresmith, conveyed His Excellency from and back to the colony.\n\nAfter lunch on 5th June HERMES slipped for Wei-Hai-Wei. There the climate in summer enabled exercises to be carried out with greater zest than in the steamy waters off South China. Once clear of Lyemun Pass her aircraft flew on. She had an easy passage up the coast and through the Formosa Strait. During the morning of 9th June when crossing the Yellow Sea full power trials were carried out during which she achieved 25 knots. Just before noon, HERMES once more proceeding at her economical speed of 12 knots, the easternmost promontory of the Shantung peninsula was sighted.\n\nTwo hours later the atmosphere onboard changed abruptly.\n\nA signal was received from MARAZION,3 Commander E.A. Aylmer, reporting that the submarine POSEIDON had been sunk in a collision.\n\nCaptain Mackinnon altered course and increased speed to 19 knots. Another boiler was flashed up and shortly thereafter our ship was...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]