RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART 79 relationships between ruler and ruled, proper behaviour according to status. Lockhart was a scholar-administrator in the Confucian sense. The profession of Colonial Civil Servant is coming to an end with the dissolution of the British empire. Lockhart, then, is a representative of a stage in the evolution of English society — the stage of imperial expansion that is now over and can never return. In contemporary Hong Kong the European official is not likely to be a Chinese scholar, for the system of language training that produced a Lockhart has been radically curtailed?. Yet if an official is of a scholarly turn of mind, he is now more likely to be found reading history, politics or economics. The scholar-administrator of Lockhart's type is not to be found. He has become a specialist or bureaucrat. There is no doubt that Lockhart would have been saddened by this consummation. NOTES 1 Sir William des Voeux, My Colonial Service..... London, 1903, vol. 2, p. 211. 2 George Watson's College was founded by George Watson, first accountant of the Bank of Scotland, who died in 1723. It became a day school in 1878. The Senior School has now about 890 boys. 3 Sir Everard Duncan Home Fraser, K.C.M.G. (1859-1922). Educated at Aberdeen University. Passing a competitive examination, he was appointed a student interpreter in China in 1880, being promoted Acting Consul at Foochow in 1886. At the time of his death, Fraser was Senior Consul in Shanghai and, therefore, chairman of the Consular Body. 4 In Britain the first chair of Chinese was created in 1838 at University College London. In 1846 Samuel Fearon, the Registrar General of Hong Kong, was appointed Professor of Chinese Language and Literature in King's College, London. The next incumbent of the chair at King's appears to have been James Summers, who was twenty-four at the time of his appointment in 1852. Summers had been for a few years a tutor at St. Paul's College, Hong Kong; but Hong Kong society was highly critical of the elevation to a chair of a mere stripling (see J. W. Norton-Kyshe, History of the Law and Courts of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1898, vol. i, p. 348). Summers resigned at the end of the 1872/73 session and apparently departed for China and Japan. He was succeeded by Robert Kennaway Douglas (1838-1913), who was also Senior Assistant in the Department of Printed Books in the British Museum. It was presumably Douglas who first introduced Lockhart to Chinese. (On Douglas see the short obituary in T'oung Pao, vol. xiv, 1913). For a long time the sole chair of Chinese in Britain was that at King's College until a chair was created in 1876 for Dr. James Legge at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Professor Douglas had few full-time students, only a Frenchman and a Pole; Legge had only one student and Sir Thomas Wade at Cambridge 'n'avait qu'un auditeur: il est vrai qu'il était Chinois'. (See Henri Cordier, 'Les Études Chinoises', T'oung Pao, 1898, p. 48). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r CHINA MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 23 • Lancer and cross: biographical sketches of fifty pioneer medical missionaries in China, comp. by K. Chimin Wong [Shanghai] Council on Christian Medical Work, 1950, p. 14-16. Europe in China: the history of Hongkong from the beginning to the year 1882, by E. J. Eitel, Hongkong, Kelly & Walsh, 1895, p. 180. * Information on the officers and committee members during the brief history of the Society in these two paragraphs, except where otherwise noted, derives variously from the Friend of China, the Hong Kong almanack and directory for 1846, and the Hongkong register, as well as the Transactions. 9 As well as in the Transactions, p. 1-2, the record of this first meeting appears in the Friend of China, v. 14, no. 40, May 17th 1844, p. 754, and the Chinese repository, v. 14, 1845, p. 245. 10 Presumably John Williams & Co., Book Sellers & Publishers, 18 Wellington St. "next house to the Roman Catholic Chapel.". From an advertisement in the Hongkong register, v. 18, no. 40, Oct. 7th 1845, p. 162, it appears that the shop also sold everything from fowling pieces to "rare old aniseed brandy". 11 Royal Society of London: Catalogue of scientific papers, 1800-1900, London, 1867-1925. 12 U. S. Surgeon-General's Office: Index-catalogue of the Library: authors and subjects, Washington, 1880-1950. Periodical articles are entered only under subject. 13 The chronicles of the East India Company trading to China, by H. B. Morse, v. 5: Supplementary, 1742-74. Oxford, 1929, p. 101. 14 Trans. p. 27 gives June 8th, but this must be an error, as Dr. Hobson's letter was dated June 15, 15 "The history of medical education in Hong Kong" by Sir Lindsay T. Ride, in Inauguration of the Li Shu Fan Medical Foundation, 3rd March 1963: commemoration volume [Hong Kong, 1963] p. 41. 16 The medical missionary in China... by William Lockhart, London, 1861, p. 141. 17 Royal Asiatic Society. China Branch, Transactions, v. 1, 1847, p. 76. 18 Chinese repository, v. 14, 1845, p. 288-91. 19 Anonymous writer quoted by V. H. G. Jarrett in the South China Morning Post; and H. A. Rydings in JHKBRAS, v. 8, 1968, p. 63. 20 Catalogue of works in the Morrison Library, City Hall, Hongkong, including also a synoptical index. Hongkong, printed at the China Mail Office, 1873. 21 The names adopted were, successively, the Philosophical Society of China (5 Jan. 1847), the Asiatic Society of China (19 Jan, 1847), and the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (7 Sept. 1847). 22 Royal Asiatic Society. China Branch. Transactions, v. 1, 1847, p. 71. 23 Ibid. p. 23. 24 J. R. Jones, op. cit., p. 2. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 68 E. G. PRYOR intelligence service to pin-point danger spots and proposed the distribution of 100,000 hand bills publicising the causes and symptoms of plague, the destruction of rats and the addresses of places where sickness could be reported. Another recommendation was the establishment of a plague department with wide powers for the discovery, prevention and cure of plague including inoculation with a highly potent horse antiserum prepared at the Haffkine Institute in India. A final recommendation made by Simpson was a general improvement of sanitary conditions and stricter control over the design of tenement blocks which he described as follows: "The rooms, as a rule, are far too deep, the object of this depth being to subdivide each room into a number of cubicles for the accommodation of families or lodgers. Though there may be windows at each end of the room, the great depth materially obstructs the light to take an example from the better class of buildings, many of the houses that are being erected are eighty feet deep without lateral windows and contain long, narrow rooms of fifty-five feet in depth, by twelve or thirteen feet in width, lighted in front by a window and also in the rear by another window which looks into a backyard of twelve feet. . . .”* From the recommendations made by Simpson arose the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance of 1903 which set new standards for the design and occupancy of buildings and which remained in force until 1935. By 1904 a considerable amount of deductive evidence had accumulated to link the occurrence of plague to the fleas carried by rats. Dr. J. M. Howie of Changpoo, for example, was of the opinion that the main cause of plague was inoculation through the bite of fleas, lice and mosquitos. Dr. H. Dobson of Yung Kong also noted that the cases he had observed appeared to have been caused by "the bites of insects (fleas), contamination of open wounds on legs or elsewhere (or) through food containing the germ." William Hunter, the Government Bacteriologist of Hong Kong also noted * Second Memorandum from W. J. Simpson to James Stewart Lockhart Sanitary Board Office, 20th March 1902, p. 15 in Blue Book Reports on Bubonic Plague 1894-1907. + W. J. Simpson, Report on the Causes and Continuance of Plague in Hong Kong and Suggestions as to Remedial Measures, London, 1903, p. 31. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 24 30 Sir George Thomas Staunton, a member of the 1793-94 Macartney Embassy, whose translation of Ch'ing Law was the first published in Britain, had been at pains to emphasize this: Ta Tsing Leu Lee, Being the Fundamental Laws... of the Penal Code of China (London, Cadell and Davies, 1801), p. 185. For its application in practice see the cases translated with commentary in Derk Bodde and Clarence Morris, Law in Imperial China, Exemplified by 190 Ch'ing Dynasty Cases (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1967).21 Cited in Corinne K. Hoexter, From Canton to California, The Epic of Chinese Immigration (New York, Four Winds Press, 1976), p. 136. 11 Dr. William Lockhart of the London Missionary Society, writing in 1861, cites the case of the old scholar who so greatly assisted Dr. W.H. Medhurst with his translations and researches. See his The Medical Missionary in China (London, Hurst and Blackett. 2nd edition, 1861), pp. 21-22. "He was a living concordance of the entire range of Chinese literature. He could find any passage without hesitation, repeat page after page of most of the works, and could easily take up any citation which had been begun in his hearing, and finish it without hesitation. This is not an uncommon thing amongst the educated Chinese, but this man possessed the faculty in a remarkable degree". 23 Arthur Evans Moule, The Chinese People, A Handbook on China (London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1941), p. 262. See also his New China and Old, Personal Recollections and Observations of Thirty Years (London, Seeley and Co., 1891), p. 271.24 Some of the literary material to be found in villages of the Hong Kong region is described in Dr. Patrick Hase's most useful paper. "Research Materials for Village Studies", Chapter 4 of Alan Birch, Y.C. Jao and Elizabeth Sinn (eds.) Research Materials for Hong Kong Studies (Hong Kong. Centre of Asian Studies. University of Hong Kong, 1984), pp. 31-46, especially between pp. 32-37. 25 — By great good fortune, some of their libraries have survived and are in safe keeping. One of them came from Hoi Pa Village, Tsuen Wan, and had belonged to the builder of the traditional village house there which is now a listed monument. He lived between 1865 and 1937, and after his return from Jamaica engaged in educational pursuits in a literary club and at the Luen Fong School in Hoi Pa Kwan Mun Hau. When what had survived of his library was presented to the Urban Services Department in 1982, it consisted of some 200 books of various kinds, as well as manuscript essays and poems, including some of the famed "eight-legged essays" written in preparation for the imperial examination; all providing valuable documentation for the educational, social and intellectual activities of their period. South China Morning Post, 26 May 1982. See also the Chinese press of that date. 16 What Francis C.M. Wei calls the operation of the principle of retributive justice" featured prominently in Chinese stories. See his The Spirit of Chinese Culture (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1947), p. 151. See also Yao Chin-nung, "The Theme and Structure of the Yuan Drama", in Tien Hsia Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4 (November 1935), p. 392.27 The Tsuen Wan experience is echoed in the fine description of what it meant to be a village boy in late 19th century Kwangtung, contained in the memoirs of a successful Hawaiian Chinese, born in a village near Macau in 1865. In them, he describes what one might call the "extra-curricular" part of education. This included the telling of traditional stories by the family elders and by itinerant minstrels and story-tellers, and through the plays performed by visiting opera troupes, as well as in literary pastimes: Chung Kun Ai, My Seventy Nine Years in Hawaii (1879-1958) (Hong Kong, Cosmorama Pictorial Publisher, 1960), pp. 6, 26-29. 28 Francis C.M. Wei, The Spirit of Chinese Culture (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1947) p. 149. 24 For the former, see the chapter "Symbol and Tradition" between pp. 50-75 of Ronald ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 139 July 2nd Lockhart and Governor now making themselves obnoxious bloody fools They are now walking into the mite properly July 4 Saw Governor about suggested plans, gave him a lecture as to what to do and who to take advice from July 6th Governor and ADC round hospitals Governor said to Chater (Sir Paul Chater, the well-known Hong Kong personality) in Club (Hong Kong Club) before me "We expect to go to Laichikok tomorrow" This was a boast that he was actually thinking about running into some danger at last July 7th Lockhart, Cantlie and Hartigan at Laichikok, (2) did not visit graveyards at all Castle, II and L to Hygeia Never visited graves July 8th Preston and Westcott to Laichukok, no graves visited Cantlie was Dr. (later Sir James) Cantlie, dean of the Hong Kong College of Medicine. He and Dr. William Hartigan were asked to visit Laichikok Hospital and report to the Governor. Also asked were two army medical officers, Surgeon Colonel A.F. Preston and Surgeon Captain S. Westcott. Lowson paid much attention to the way the plague victims were buried. He insisted that the graves should be dug down to a certain depth so that the coffins could be properly covered up with soil and lime and not exposed. A reporter from the Hong Kong Weekly Press described what he saw in Laichikok before the two visits as follows: 'The average depth of the graves was not more than nine inches. In some cases, not a few, the coffin was actually above the level of the ground and merely had a little mound of loose earth above them. Lowson's specifications had therefore not been properly carried out. In spite of Lowson's question mark, Cantlie and Hartigan did visit the graveyard. They wrote: 'We saw eight graves ready for use; they were in a row about 2 ft. apart and quite 6-1/2 ft deep.' They added that the official accompanying them volunteered the information that for the first graves the depth was insufficient because burial had to be done in a hurry. Preston and Westcott wrote that they did ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 145 a file-brand, his actions were dictated by his intense interest in his native town and its welfare.' A final judgment: “No matter how bitterly he might differ with any of his colleagues, and in his early years in the Council particularly he figured in many a heated scene, he left all rancour behind at the Council table. Next day he would greet his opponents as cheerfully as though nothing had happened to ruffle them and be good friends." We know that in Hong Kong, Lockhart and Francis had not responded to him, In the end, how should we appraise Lowson and his diary? You will agree with me that he would appear to have been a rather difficult man; otherwise, he would not have clashed with authorities wherever he worked, in Hong Kong, India, and Forfar. You will recall that at the early stage of the Epidemic, he, a relatively junior doctor, offered to take sole charge but was turned down. This shows that he was probably the type who would prefer to give rather than take orders. But he was undoubtedly a forthright and strict character, uncompromising in disputes when he thought he was right and entirely honest in his intentions. I am sure all of us have come across such traits among our friends and colleagues. But neither Lowson nor history should accuse any of the people he criticised of mishandling the situation in any way. There was nothing else they could have done without the means that we now have at our disposal and the knowledge of the disease we now possess. Lowson's diary, though covering only the first phase, is undoubtedly a valuable addition to the literature on the Hong Kong Plague Epidemic now that it has become available. In recent years, there has been much talk about Hong Kong's resilience, its capacity to recover quickly from one financial crisis after another, becoming even more prosperous each time. We seem to have forgotten Hong Kong's resilience in having survived the devastations of diseases, such as malarial fever in its infancy, bubonic plague in its adolescence, and occasional outbreaks of cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, and others all through the years. There was a time when living in Hong Kong was a hazard, for one never knew when life or health would be threatened. The Plague Epidemic of 1894 was a real calamity for Hong Kong, as Sir William Robinson had said. But it can be regarded as a watershed for, after it, Hong Kong became a healthier and cleaner place. To mark its centenary, let us pay tribute to all those who contributed in the long fight against the Epidemic in their various capacities, as administrators, legislators, and medical and health officers, among them our unsung hero, Dr. J. A. Lowson. ================================================================================