RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 FROM THE HON. EDITOR I have been receiving a relatively large amount of material over the last couple of years and Council has therefore authorised me to continue producing Journals which significantly exceed the '200 page' rule, in order that publication of accepted submissions is not overly delayed. At 532 pages, therefore, this Volume, No. 42 is another bumper effort. There are 11 contributions in the ARTICLES section, which must be something of a record. Andrew Abraham has provided a most scholarly paper on the pros and cons of the transfer of the Straits Settlements from the jurisdiction of the Indian Government to the Colonial Office in 1867. Continuing our review of the Battle of Hong Kong during World War II, there are contributions from Chohong Choi and Anne Ozorio. The former rehearses Allied thinking on an invasion of Japanese-occupied Hong Kong and possibly the Chinese hinterland behind it, which area might then have been used as a base from which to bomb Japan. Chohong then discusses, somewhat novelly, the challenges to such an invasion from the weather. Anne Ozorio's paper shows that, contrary to popular belief, the British military were very much prepared for an attack on Hong Kong by the Japanese - in terms of continuing intelligence gathering and covert resistance during the occupation - and that they were very active in China until the end of hostilities. Our man in Bondi, former President, James Hayes, shares with us his experiences of Chinese ceremonial occasions and the considerable etiquette and pomp that go with them. Lawrence Lai et al. reports on a survey of the World War II military installations on Devil's Peak, Hong Kong. I have reproduced a very pleasant piece from Eve Lam of TVB On HKBRAS which centres on the 40th Anniversary Celebration Conference held in December, 2000 at the University of Hong Kong. Lauren Pfister's account of the life of Ch'ëa Kam-kwong (1800- iii ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 CONTENTS PRESIDENT'S REPORT....................................xix FRIENDS OF THE HKBRAS (UK) REPORT.................................xxxiii FINANCIAL STATEMENTS.........................................xxxix HON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT.......................................xlix ARTICLES Andrew Abraham - The transfer of the Straits Settlements: A revisionist approach to the study of colonial law and administration..........1 Chohong Choi - Between the nine dragons and a divine wind: How Hong Kong's weather might have affected an allied invasion to retake the territory.........................................33 James Hayes - Hong Kong's Chinese associations: Their ceremonial occasions and their helpers..........................................67 Lawrence Lai, Daniel Ho and Leung Hing Fung - Survey of the Devil's Peak redoubt and Gough Battery...............................101 Eve Lam - The Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch): The faces, the stories and the memories..................................139 Anne Ozorio - The myth of unpreparedness: The origins of anti-Japanese resistance in prewar Hong Kong...........................161 Lauren Pfister - The proto-martyr of Chinese protestants: Reconstructing the story of Ch'ea Kam-kwong............................187 Stephen Selby - Chinese archery: An unbroken tradition?...........245 Keith Stevens - The Yangzi port of Zhenjiang down the centuries...255 Dan Waters - Hong Kong in the 1950s and '60s: Reminiscences.......323 xiii ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 James Hayes, is a Past-President of HKBRAS and a former long standing member of Council (mouse1@bigpond.com). Robert Horsnell, is a former civil servant and a Volunteer (of research into and cataloguing of old Hong Kong buildings and monuments) of HKBRAS (argyho@netvigator.com) Lawrence Lai, Daniel Ho and Leung Hing Fung, are, respectively, Reader, Associate Professor and Department Head of the Department of Real Estate and Construction, University of Hong Kong (wclai@hkusua.hku.hk). Eve Lam, has been working in journalism in various capacities for the last nine years. Her current position is news sub-editor/anchor for TVB Pearl in Hong Kong. She holds a master's degree in Journalism from the University of Hong Kong and a bachelor's in Physical and Health Education from the University of Toronto. David Mahoney, is an active member of the Friends of HKBRAS in Great Britain. Martin Merz B.A.(Hons.), studied Chinese at Melbourne University. He continued studies in Taiwan, including a stint at the National Taiwan University Graduate School of History. He worked as a translator and interpreter in Taiwan for several years, acquiring a taste for Oolong tea along the way. He moved to Hong Kong in 1987 to set up a trading company. Robert Nield, is the Hon Treasurer and a Vice-President of HKBRAS (hiflyer@netvigator.com). Anne Ozorio, is an active member of the friends of HKBRAS in Great Britain. Lauren Pfister, is an Associate Professor in the Religion and Philosophy Department as well as jointly appointed to teaching in the Humanities course at Hong Kong Baptist University. He has lived in Hong Kong with his family since 1987. Serving as Associate Editor for the Journal of Chinese Philosophy since 1997, he has continued to pursue research in 19th and 20th century Ruist philosophy, the history of sinology, as well as comparative philosophical and comparative religious studies. He serves also as an Associate Research Fellow of the Centre for Sino-Christian Research at Hong Kong Baptist University (feileren@net1.hkbu.edu.hk). Stephen Selby, is the Director of Intellectual Property, Hong Kong Government (srselby@ipd.gov.hk). xvii ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 161 THE MYTH OF UNPREPAREDNESS: THE ORIGINS OF ANTI-JAPANESE RESISTANCE IN PREWAR HONG KONG ANNE OZORIO [Hon. Ed. - I was initially hesitant to sanction this article because it seemed to me to be significantly under-referenced, even to the extent of "personal communications." It draws significantly upon Hong Kong Eclipse (Endacott and Birch, 1978), which is not acknowledged. Ms Ozorio contends that the referencing is adequate and assures me that, to the best of her knowledge and belief, the article is an accurate resumé of events. In accordance with the general principles of free expression I have left untouched Ms Ozorio's editorial comments on 'colonials,' 'the British,' colonial administration and society, and (Sir) Lindsay Ride.] Hong Kong fell to the Japanese in eighteen days: the wonder was that it took so long. [Hon. Ed. - The doggedness of the resistance and the bravery of the defenders, perhaps? See Lawrence Lai's article in Vol. 39 of the Journal, pp.115-136.] In the cosy, cocooned world of colonial society, the invincibility of Empire was taken for granted. Despite all that was happening in China, many Europeans in Hong Kong just couldn't conceive that any Asiatic might challenge their superiority. There were anecdotes that the Japanese planes bombing China were secretly manned by Germans, since Japanese were night blind. As the colonials sat comfortably mocking them, Japanese waiters, barbers, and menials were listening. Many would appear later, no longer servile, in full dress uniform, revealing their true status as high-ranking intelligence agents. The overwhelming Japanese victory was a shock to those who believed that Empire was unassailable. They assumed automatically, that if they had been caught off balance, then the authorities too must have been unprepared. This, however, is a myth. i In January, 1941, General Ismay declared that there was 'not the slightest chance of holding Hong Kong or relieving it. It is most unwise to increase the loss we shall suffer there. Instead of augmenting the garrison it should be reduced to a symbolic scale.' Defending a city crowded with a million civilians, little air cover, long supply lines and nowhere to retreat but the sea was a logistics nightmare. What may have been unimaginable for the average colonial civilian was clear ================================================================================