RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 185 BROWNE, Hon, H. J. C, - BRUCE, R. T BRUUN, F. BUNGER, Dr. K. BURTON, Miss J. V. BUTLER, Miss B. A. T BUTT, Dr. Nancy S. G.. CALCINA, P. G." · CAMERON, N. CAPLAN, M. - CAREY-HUGHES, Dr. J. CARLSON, Miss R. E. - CATER, J. · CENTRE OF ASIAN STUDIES CERRA, R. L. CHAMBERS, J. W. CHAN, Alfred T. CHAN, Gilbert Fook-lam CHAN, Leonard CHAU, Sir Tsun-nin* + CHEN, Prof. Cheng-siang CHEN, Ching-ho L T - c/o Butterfield & Swire, Union House, H.K. c/o Prescott College, Prescott, Arizona 86301, US.A. c/o H. Tonkin & Co., 908 Takshing House, H.K. $32 Bad Godesberg, Lukas-Cranach-Str. 14. Green Pastures, Blackhill Lane, Sevenoaks, Kent, England. Public Services Commission, Room 573 Central Government Offices, 5th Floor, H.K. The Grantham Hospital, Wong Chuk Hang, Aberdeen, H.K. Commercial Investment Co., Ltd., Union House, 12th floor, H.K. A-9 Repulse Bay Towers, Repulse Bay Road, H.K. 6. Homantin Hill Road, Kowloon, Room 315 Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank Building, H.K. c/o Education Department, Lee Gardens, Hysan Avenue, H.K. c/o Trade Development Council, Ocean Terminal, H.K. University of Hong Kong, H.K. Yau Yat Chuen, No. 18 Fa Po Street, Flat B-7, Kowloon. c/o Secretariat for Home Affairs, International Building, H.K. Coronet Court, 14/F "H", North Point, H.K. La Belle Mansion, 118-120 Argyle Street, 7th floor, Flat A, Kowloon. c/o Pfizer Eastern Corporation, G.P.O. Box 2513, Bangkok, Thailand. 8 Queen's Road, West, Hong Kong. Geographical Research Centre, Chinese University of Hong Kong, On Lee Building, $45 Nathan Road, Kowloon. New Asia College, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 6 Farm Road, Kowloon. Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 44 H. J. LETHBRIDGE Hong Kong, needless to say, was not Africa, and the Hong Kong cadet did not spend his working life in the bush adjudicating the disputes of unsophisticated natives. He worked mainly, unless one of the District Officers in the New Territories, in a many-layered urban society, in which were to be found a number of extremely rich and some highly erudite Chinese. The population of Hong Kong was related in terms of race, language and culture to that of China, the home of an ancient civilisation; and cadets spent two impressionable years learning the language of that country and something of its splendours, and its miseries as well. I suspect many cadets were deeply impressed by their contact with the culture and civilisation of the Chinese, that a process of 'mandarinisation' often took place, especially among those working in the Registrar-General's Department (the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs) where official documents were published in the same form and style as those of the Imperial Chinese bureaucracy.31 I suggest that cadets were paternalistic towards the local population, but that their paternalism was Confucian in spirit and understood by Chinese. Their background and training, in its historical context made this era of cadets not unacceptable to, though not necessarily liked by, Hong Kong Chinese with memories of the behaviour of Chinese officials across the border. British officials acquired in Hong Kong, then, a gloss from the population they ruled. Sir Frederick Lugard, 'in gentle derision', called cadets 'the twice-born';32 and Reginald Stubbs, on a special mission from the Colonial Office to Malaya and Hong Kong, exclaimed in 1910 that they were prepared to advance claims to act for the Almighty'.33 Exposure to life in an English public school and then to life in an Eastern Colony, led not unexpectedly to this consummation of belief. The contribution made by cadets and ex-cadets to sinology and scholarship in general is impressive. One has only to take note of the publications of such officials as Alfred Lister, J. H. Stewart Lockhart, R. F. Johnston, G. R. Sayer,34 S. F. Balfour,35 Walter Schofield,36 Soame Jenyns,37 R. A. D. Forrest,38 and K. M. A. Barnett.39 Many were also members of learned societies; and a substantial number acquired not only compulsory Cantonese but a knowledge of other Chinese dialects, such as Hakka and Mandarin; a few specialised in Japanese; and those who worked in the Police, Hindi or other Indian languages. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 54 H. J. LETHBRIDGE St. Andrews 2, Aberdeen 2, Glasgow 1). Sir Joseph Kemp attended Cape University, South Africa and Edward Wynne-Jones the University of Wales. These university-educated gentlemen represent a social stratum lying somewhere between Mathew Arnold's Barbarians and the Philistines. A large number of them had been educated in schools animated by the ideas and ideals of Arnold's father, Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby. 28 Alexander Macdonald Thomson (1863-1924), Educated at Aberdeen University. Lecturer in Mathematics, Naini Tal College, India, 1884-5; Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Aberdeen, 1887; entered the Hong Kong Civil Service, and attached for one year to the Colonial Office, 1887; Treasurer 1898-1918. Retired in 1918. He is the only cadet who retired to live in the United States (San Mateo, California); most cadets, including the Scots, settled in the Home Counties on retirement. 29 Norman Lockhart Smith (1887-1968) was the son of Hugh Crawford Smith, M.P., Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Lewis Audley Marsh Johnston (1865-1908) the son of William Johnston, M.P., Ballykilbeg, Ireland. 30 Robert Huessler Yesterday's Rulers, Syracuse, New York, 1963, p. 98. 31 In H. R. Wells and Lam Tong Chinese Documents and Petitions, Hong Kong, 1931, some examples are given in Chinese, with English translations. There are also some interesting specimens of petitions received by the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs from Chinese in Hong Kong. In the section on the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs in the General Orders of the Hong Kong Government, 1924, we read: "Before taking action affecting bodies or classes of people, the Chinese Government is in the habit of issuing proclamations explaining the action to be taken and the reason for it and the Chinese in Hong Kong expect the same notice to be given. It is desirable that whenever the Head of a Department finds it necessary to take notice of any slackness in complying with the law, or to put a stop to gradual encroachments on the part of individuals, or to bring some new regulation into force, he should first consult the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and ask him to notify the people affected in the same way". 32 Margery Perham Lugard, vol. 2, London 1960, p. 302. 33 Ibid., p. 367. 34 Geoffrey Robley Sayer (1887-1962), Educated at Highgate School, London, and Queen's College, Oxford. Hong Kong Civil Service 1910; Director of Education 1934-6; retired 1938. 35 Stephen Francis Balfour (1905-1945). Educated at King's College, Cambridge. Hong Kong Civil Service 1929; died in internment during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. 36 Walter Schofield (1888-1968). Educated at the University of Liverpool. Hong Kong Civil Service 1911. First Police Magistrate 1934-1937; retired 1938. Schofield was noted for his work pre-war on the geology and archaeology of Hong Kong, in which fields he was a pioneer scholar. 37 Roger Soame Jenyns (born 1904). Educated at Eton and Magdalene College, Cambridge. Hong Kong Civil Service 1926; resigned in 1931 to join the British Museum. He is a noted expert on the arts of the Far East and has written extensively in that field. 38 Robert Andrew Dermod Forrest (born 1893). Educated at Aberdeen University. Hong Kong Civil Service 1919; Inspector of Vernacular Schools; Immigration Officer 1940. Lecturer in Tibeto-Burman Linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 BOOK REVIEWS 203 about migration routes. It is perhaps just as well, therefore, to remember that there are many aspects of migration which can only be studied by visual observations, and Dr. Hemmingsen's studies remind us forcibly of this, In general, the volume is well produced, although the numerous black and white photographs are not of high enough quality to be of much practical use. practical use. Because of its high standards of accuracy, this book will remain a necessary work of reference, in its rather limited field, for many years to come. Hong Kong, 1970, M. A. WEBSTER HONG KONG STUDIES: A BIBLIOGRAPHY. Compiled by M. I. Berkowitz and Eddie K. K. Poon. Hong Kong, Department of Extramural Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1969, pp. xvi, 137. HK$10. Bibliographies are indispensable adjuncts to research and to increasing knowledge but they are not generally subjects that appeal to the student looking for useful work to do. Most of us would rather use them than compile them, especially when their nature renders them so vulnerable to criticism, fair or otherwise: it is much easier to be destructive than constructive in reviewing bibliographies. I welcome this new bibliography since it provides a handy reference to a variety of items on Hong Kong affairs. Its usefulness is immediately apparent to this reviewer in that it has brought items to his attention of which he was not hitherto aware, though working for years on the Hong Kong background. It is more ambitious and ranges more widely, though less deeply, than the bibliography (28 pages in 1963) which until that year used to be included in the Hong Kong Government's Colony Annual Report, and its less useful successor, J. M. Braga's short (17 pages) Hong Kong book list, A Hong Kong Bibliography 1965 published by the Government Press. It also lists articles as well as books. However, this new bibliography is still in no way comprehensive: there is a good deal of material that could have been included. Because of this I feel that the title promises too much. It might, say, have been better to stick to post-war publications Page 210 Page 211 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 238 NORONHA, J. E. - O'BRIEN, Dr. J. P. O'CALLAGHAN, Sean OGDEN, B. J. N. OLIVER, J. R. + ORR, Iain C.. OU, Miss G. - OVERBURY, Miss U. M. OXLEY, C. W. B. - PANG, Potter · PATTERSON, G. N. PAYNE, Miss P. M. PAYNTER, J. L. PENNELL, W. V. - PERESYPKIN, O. P. PICKFORD, J. B. - PIMPANEAU, Prof. J. PLAG, Rev. A.* POLAND, T. D. PORDES, F. - POSTON, Williams S. PRESCOTT, J. A. PYE, Miss Beverley QUESTED, Mrs. R. K. I. + + - c/o W.F. Bollmeyer & Co., (H.K.) Ltd. 408, Yu To Sang Building, H.K. Sandy Bay Children's Orthopaedic Hospital, Sandy Bay, H.K, Y.M.C.A. International House, Waterloo Road, Kowloon, c/o The H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., P.O. Box 64, H.K. c/o Supreme Court, H.K. 17 Crown Terrace, 3rd Floor, Bisney Villas, H.K. c/o French Consulate General, P. O. Box 13, H.K. c/o H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., P.O. Box 64, H.K. Secretariat for Home Affairs, International Building, 10th Floor, H.K. c/o The H.K. Model Housing Society, 908 The H.K. Chinese Bank Building, H.K. 11A, Stanley Beach Road, G/F., Stanley, H.K. c/o Physiotherapy Department, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kowloon. c/o Canadian Trade Commission, P.O. Box 126, H.K. C'an Boyet Mear Puerto Pollensa, Majorca, Spain. P. O. Box 1382, H.K. Flat 2, Buxey Lodge, 37 Conduit Road, H.K. 15 Tung Shan Terrace, H.K. 7000 Stuttgart 1, Roemerstr 41, Germany. (Federal Republic). 3 Coombe Road, First Floor, H.K. Room 209, Gloucester Building, H.K. Flat B-4, 7B Bowen Road, H.K. House 8, 61 Mt. Davies Road, Pokfulum, H.K. c/o B.N.P. Central Building, 2nd Floor, H.K. Dept. of History, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulum, H.K. J Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h 58 HENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE Registrar General's Department at that date was run by the Registrar-General and four clerks. Nevertheless, within five years of his return from Canton Lockhart had become the head of a key department, the Registrar-General's Department (renamed in 1911 more appropriately as the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs). Dr. Ho Kai (later Sir Kai Ho Kai) in a farewell speech in 1902 on the eve of Lockhart's departure for Weihaiwei remarked that 'in 1882 Mr. Lockhart arrived here to find Hong Kong in a depressed condition, owing to the collapse of the great land speculation that occurred during the year previous; and he found also an embittered feeling between two important sections of the community. Young as Mr. Lockhart was then, and although occupying a minor position in the Government, he at once interested himself in the welfare of the Colony, and endeavoured to promote a better understanding between the Europeans and the Chinese. The leading Chinese citizens, who had hitherto been more or less apathetic towards public affairs, came forward in comparatively large numbers and took a keener and more active interest in civic welfare. They gave the Government their full co-operation and support and gave largely to the various local charitable institutions and took a more active part in their management'." Ho Kai was a very close friend of Lockhart's and, needless to say, farewell speeches are normally eulogistic—they are the expression of an understood social ritual in which white must predominate over black—but in truth Ho Kai had not exaggerated the part played by Lockhart over a number of years in drawing prominent Chinese into the orbit of Government. There were several reasons for this: Lockhart always admired the Chinese; as an administrator he saw obvious advantages in securing Chinese support for government policies; he knew that Hong Kong was changing and that the style of governing had to change if only because a Chinese business and commercial elite had emerged, and because a segment of the population could be defined as permanently resident in the Colony; he knew, too, that the future prosperity of the Colony would come to depend more and more on a Chinese bourgeoisie. But the problems faced by Lockhart by the colonial government were not unique to Hong Kong of course; they were typical of some other colonial territories, notably in Africa.10 Hence, with the collaboration of a number of prominent ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q SOCIAL RESEARCH IN THE N.T. OF HONG KONG, 1963 Other field workers, both British and American, are likely to follow them. 4. My own work would have been impossible without the generous help of many officers of the New Territories Administration; I should like to thank them collectively, expressing my gratitude in particular to the District Officer Tai Po and his staff. I have also the pleasure of thanking many officers in other branches of the Government; among them my thanks go especially to Mr. K.M.A. Barnett, Mr. J.W. Hayes, Mr. K.W.J. Topley, and Mr. P.K.C. Tsui; I am in the debt of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, the Department of Co-operative Development and Fisheries, various officers of the Courts, and the Colonial Secretariat Library. To my host in Tai Po, Mr. Tsang For-piu, I am specially obliged. I should like also to thank my colleague Dr. Marjorie Topley for much guidance and several teachers at the University of Hong Kong whom I had the privilege of consulting. 5. In what is to follow I shall discuss the general background to social research in the New Territories, report on some of the problems I have myself looked into, and suggest what further work could be done (and how it might be done) to promote the interests of both scholarship and administration. 6. Until the advent of the Communist regime in China the New Territories did not interest social scientists. (It can also be argued that they were of little interest to anybody outside the New Territories Administration). Chinese scholars could not be expected to concern themselves with territory under British rule, while scholars from the West were far too preoccupied with China to consider the claims of a stretch of the Chinese countryside which, from their point of view, was no more than the railway route into Kwangtung. And of course it must be remembered that the number of social scientists working on Chinese themes was, before the Second World War, extremely small. Since 1949 the New Territories have come increasingly to be appreciated as a field for research: they have been politically accessible and have had the advantage of offering for study perhaps the best living example (however much affected by British rule and modern changes) of traditional Chinese country life. So far three anthropologists have completed field studies in the New Territories: Miss Barbara E. Ward, from London, who was primarily concerned with Tanka fishermen in the Sai Kung area (and who will probably be revisiting the New Territories this ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 264 NOTES AND QUERIES the history and present significance of the Hospital. A Head of the Department of Home Affairs (the former Department of Chinese Affairs, and, even earlier, the Registrar-General or Protector of the Chinese) would possibly have his own unique evaluation of the institution. A medical doctor, a Neo-Marxist critic of elitism and the old compradore system, a sociologist or a historian all could find different things to emphasize in its history and development. The viewpoint of the writer of these notes is of one who has researched various aspects of Hong Kong history and is particularly interested in the historical development of the Chinese community in Hong Kong. I have mentioned the various overlapping roles of the Hospital in the past. One might divide these roles into medical, educational, religious, social and quasi-political. Tung Wah as a Medical Institution As a Hospital there has been a continuity in its medical service from its opening in February, 1872, but there has been a significant shift from an initial exclusive use of traditional Chinese medical treatment to today's most advanced international medical practice. The story of Tung Wah Hospital as a medical institution is a part of the medical history of Hong Kong and the relation and inter-action of traditional Chinese practice with that introduced from the Western medical tradition. The nineteenth century foreign trained medical officer in Hong Kong did not look with favour upon the type of treatment the sick received at Tung Wah. He had little sympathy with Chinese medical lore. As an institution receiving a government appropriation, by the creating Ordinance it came within the province of the Colonial Surgeon to comment on conditions at Tung Wah in his annual medical report. His very first report was critical as evidenced by the following extract, There seems to be a large number of attendants, but I never found them at hand when they were wanted. ... The treatment of surgical cases shows an amount of ignorance which is much to be deplored. Seeing that the Institution was endowed with such a large sum of money by the Colonial Government, I think that the Directors might be asked to set apart one ward of their Hospital for the treatment of patients by foreign Doctors.* * The Hong Kong Government Gazette, 1873 p.228, No. 85. Report of the Colonial Surgeon. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 148 W. SCHOFIELD to nearness to the market in Hong Kong, partly to the presence of coral in the shallow and then comparatively clean waters of the western approaches: in fact the sea near Ping Chau was officially divided into two Marine Lots, Nos. 1 and 2. Not long after, with constant raking of the sea bed for raw material, growing pollution of water from rubbish dumping by the Sanitary Department and increasing sewerage from Hong Kong by increase of the water carriage system, the industry declined for lack of coral to burn: complaints were made about this to me at one time. In Ping Chau this industry employed numbers of Hoklo lime burners and in 1925 they staged a clan fight which cost several men their lives. There was no police station on the island, so investigations were delayed and no evidence of murder could be got: so after taking a lot of evidence in my 'court' in the Hong Kong office, I simply bound everybody over, which at any rate gave a period of peace to Ping Chau. It must not be thought that the decline of lime burning ruined Ping Chau, for the islanders had thoughtfully provided themselves with a lucrative light industry in the shape of six or seven flourishing gambling houses, which naturally emptied whenever a D.O.'s or Water Police launch appeared. Communications with the outside world were then pretty elementary. A junk left Ping Chau about 8 a.m. for Hong Kong and returned to the island in the evening; no more encouraging to anyone wishing to 'Come to sunny Ping Chau' than the clouds of smoke and lime dust that rose perpetually from the kilns. Another industry for which Ping Chau and the other western islands were well adapted was distilling, as their inaccessibility was a great assistance to undertakings wishing to short-circuit the revenue regulations. Yet another industry flourished at one time in this group of islands. The small islet of Kau Yi Tsai, between Ping Chau and Kau Yi Chau, has a cleft in its granite cliffs which opens inwards into a cave of some size. About 1922 this was the scene of the greatest opium seizure in the Colony's history up till then: 8 tons of Persian opium came from the cave, and the crew of the sampan guarding it were put up for banishment. Only the banishees appeared before me, as I was then in the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, but what became of them I cannot remember. The increasing population and prosperity of the Colony caused similar developments at Cheung Chau: building land was greatly ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS 27 than not they were allowed to remain unscathed by the demolition gangs. This was how the apparent plethora of Chaozhou temples was explained by a Chaozhou policeman. Temple Management and Staffing, and Hong Kong Government Controls Until the gazetting of the Hong Kong Government Chinese Temples Ordinance of the 27th April, 1928,* required all temples to be registered, temples were managed by individuals, by groups or organizations and quite often devotees were exploited. A section of the Home Affairs Department of the Hong Kong Government keeps records of property, listed under temples and shrines, private institutions, houses converted into special temples and guild properties. In some temples in Hong Kong which come directly under Hong Kong Government control the keeper's post was tendered out periodically, with the highest bidder having the right to sell joss sticks, candles and paper offerings, and to perform rites and ceremonies for devotees for a fee. This was discontinued in 1967 when the Government began employing its own temple managers. Such managers are now employed at seventeen temples throughout Hong Kong. Many temples are under public control, managed by neighbourhood community committees, by religious groups or by a larger group such as the Tung Wah Hospital Group, with detailed regulations to control the duties of the temple keeper (Si Ju**). The Tung Wah Group runs seven temples and receives a considerable charitable income from, amongst others, the Wongtaisin Temple in North Kowloon. Some temples are managed by private individuals, and a few of the monasteries and temples are private, run for the religious benefit of the small number of occupants. These latter do not encourage visitors though the residents will courteously welcome the occasional one or two. A few of the private Buddhist *("To suppress and prevent abuse in the management of Chinese Temples"). Although enacted in 1928 it has been revised periodically. +This practice followed that long adopted by many bodies or communities owning temples, especially in towns. Hon. Editor. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 32 KEITH G. STEVENS include the burning of incense every day. This amongst other things saves the individual having to perform the rite before his ancestral tablets daily. 4 There are no Confucian temples in either Hong Kong or Macau. 5 Although there are obvious and major differences between Daoism, Buddhism and Folk religion, their beliefs and practices are so interwoven and syncretized beyond description, that in practice there is almost a single religious scheme of things. A handful of folk religion temples, mostly in Chaozhou and Min An community resettlement areas, are also centres for spirit medium activity. Chaozhou and Min An people customarily communicate with the major gods through minor gods and spirit mediums, Folk religion is very occasionally referred to as "Spirit worship” (Shen jiao), albeit more by foreigners than by Chinese. Chaozhou and Min An spirit mediums are usually males who speak with the more junior gods, whilst Cantonese spirit mediums are normally female and speak with the spirits of the dead. * The natives in both Hong Kong and Macau are Cantonese. Immigrants over the centuries who brought their own cultural heritage with them are the Hakka, Min An, Hoklo, and Chaozhou. The Chaozhou are speakers of the Chaozhou (sometimes called Swatow) whose native area is eastern Guangdong province. In folk religion the Chaozhou have more in common with their immediate neighbours to the north, the Min An and other Fukienese rather than with their Cantonese neighbours. The total of 450 temples reflects the number found and visited by the author. The total given by the Hong Kong Government Temples Committee of the Home Affairs Department of over 500 private temples registered in Hong Kong is misleading in that their total includes to the author's knowledge quite a number of small temples which have been destroyed, removed or closed down. The author's number of 450 is also inaccurate as there are bound to be a number of very small temples hidden away in residential blocks of flats which would defy discovery without a visit to every floor of every apartment building. * County towns were the centres for official, commercial and religious activities. Villages within present day Hong Kong before the arrival of the British came under the jurisdiction of the mandarin at the county town of Hsin An (present day Pao An), north of the Sino-Hong Kong border. * However, an engraved title can easily be superseded when a more popular deity has been promoted to the main altar, without the title over the entrance being changed. 10 Images on, beside, before and under altars can be categorised into the deities themselves, and their disciples, guardians and attendants. There are also two other categories of figures, seen only on separate altars in some Buddhist temples. These are the likenesses of the founding Abbot and of major donors and their wives. 11 Urban and rural are terms used for the areas where the temples were established, and many a rural temple is now lost in the centre of a vast modern housing estate. Urban temples do not include village temples, they do however include the temples of the market towns such as Taipo and Yuen Long. 12 These "pensioners" are normally the most needy and worthy elderly males or females of the community, voted or appointed into the post and supported there by subscription. 13 See Hong Kong 100 Years Ago (Hong Kong City Hall, 1970) on the sixth page of photographs, though under another titling. Page 60 Page 61 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS 33 14 Because of the exorbitant rents for such accommodation, temples in shop houses and flats in Hong Kong are few and far between. In Singapore and Malaysia, temples in shop houses are very common indeed, though they are becoming less so as the years pass and rents in urban areas rapidly rise. 15 Occasionally such a temple may be a converted private house, as in the many examples in Lo Wai village, Tsuen Wan, but more often it is a purpose-built but inexpensive hut. 18 Temples containing images of the Buddhist deities Di Zang Wang, Milofu, and Guan Yin are not necessarily specifically Buddhist, as all three of these deities nowadays are also extremely popular deities in folk religion temples. 17 Mahayana is Northern Buddhism and Theravada or Hinayana is Southern Buddhism. 18 "Illegal" is a Hong Kong term for buildings which have been built on Crown Land often by squatters without Government land control or planning permission, but which have been permitted to remain standing under sufferance. In practice, they are temporary structures put up without permission, occasionally ramshackle though more often they are well-built timber, weather-board, and corrugated iron buildings, clean and well-proportioned. (Illustration 17). Some have stood for such a length of time as to have been gradually converted to concrete and brick. All are labelled on the side in rough daubs of paint with the bureaucratic abbreviations and digits prefixed by "TEM" (= temporary) affixed by squatter control staff of the Housing Department. 19 Demons are well known to Chinese to be unable to go around corners and must travel in straight lines, hence these inner doors to prevent the demons from entering the temple. The inner doors originally were opened exclusively for influential people. 20 See also James Hayes' information at JHKBRAS 6 (1966): 129-130. 21 In overseas Chinese areas, this kind of large street shrine is still very common and, in Singapore alone, some four to five hundred exist in all kinds of nooks and crannies. For a Hong Kong example, see JHKBRAS 14 (1974): 203. 22 Chu is one of the 28 Constellations (= xiu). ** See pp. 111-113 of the Hong Kong Government's publication Rural Architecture in Hong Kong (1979) for this pagoda. 24 In Imperial times, such masts were always to be seen outside the local magistrate's yamen. 25 Chinese bells have no internal tongue clapper, being tolled by an external blow with a wooden mallet. 26 For the Evacuation of the Coast, see Lo Hsiang-lin and others, Hong Kong and its External Communications before 1842 (Hong Kong, 1963) Chapter VI. 27 For background, see Jen Yu-wen's article "The Southern Sung stone-engraving at North Fu-t'ang" in JHKBRAS 5 (1965): 65-68. 28 Government action is through the Chinese Temples Committee, serviced by the Trust Funds Section of the Home Affairs Department. 29 Temples according to this Ordinance include Miao (廟), Si (寺), Buddhist and Daoist monasteries, Guan (觀) and Dao Yuan (道院), and nunneries An (庵). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION IN AN URBAN ORGANIZATION: THE MUTUAL AID COMMITTEES JANET LEE SCOTT* The Mutual Aid Committees (MACs), or as they are more commonly known in Hong Kong, were first established in June of 1973. They are organizations composed of residents of a building, or more rarely, a group of buildings, and have the dual aims of promoting a sense of friendship and mutual reliance among all authorized tenants and of cooperating to promote better security, a better environment and more effective management generally (City and New Territories Administration 1982:1). Why are Mutual Aid Committees established? Investigations and interviews with government officials carried out during 1976-1978 suggested the following reasons. The first was the desire of the Hong Kong Government to improve communication with the people of Hong Kong. The MACs were originally created under directives from the Home Affairs Department, and came under the jurisdiction of the City District Offices, themselves set up under the City District Officers Scheme of 1968. As one writer described this Scheme: The CDO Scheme was announced at the beginning of 1968, but the first CDOs were appointed in the middle of that year. The Scheme divides the urban areas into ten districts: four on Hong Kong Island and six in Kowloon. A City District Commissioner on each side of the harbor coordinates the work of the CDOs, each of whom has liaison and other duties. * Dr. Janet Lee Scott is a member of the Department of Anthropology, New Asia College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research on the Mutual Aid Committees was supported by a grant from the Institute of Social Studies of the Chinese University. Doctoral dissertation research carried out during 1976-1978 was supported by a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant, an N.D.F.L. fellowship awarded through Cornell University, and a grant from the Cornell Center for International Studies. The author wishes to express her appreciation for such generous financial support. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 2 JANET LEE SCOTT staff amounting to around a dozen in all. The SCA [Secretary for Chinese Affairs: this title was later changed to Secretary for Home Affairs] is put in overall responsibility for the working of the Scheme. The CDOs are specifically enjoined to a) assess the overall impact of government policies, to explain these policies as well as the difficulties and the achievements of the Government to ordinary people, b) to initiate proposals for the new policies or new procedure when the need for these becomes apparent from the feeling of the public, and c) to become aware of problems and conflicts and trends of public thinking before attitudes have been struck. In short, the new CDO Scheme is a response of Government to the public's by-now-hackneyed outcry for 'closing the gap between the Government and the people' (Wong 1972:223). An official source from 1975 gave a similar description: This [Home Affairs] department runs the City District Office Scheme, which was introduced in 1968 to improve communication between the government and people. There are 10 City District Offices and 12 sub-offices in the most crowded urban areas of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Throughout the urban areas, these offices provide a point of contact with the government where even the humblest citizen can go for help in the knowledge that he will be courteously treated, patiently heard and helpfully advised (Government Information Services 1975:211). The Mutual Aid Committees, it was felt, would help the District Offices achieve this aim of improved communication, as they would offer their members opportunities to participate in local affairs, and to express their opinions to the Government. A second reason for establishing Mutual Aid Committees was to aid the authorities in the promotion of various social campaigns. As described in 1980: In 1973 the Hong Kong government decided to take action against two major city problems: a rising crime rate and an accelerating deterioration of the living and working conditions in a number of residential and business units. The plan of action included the launching of two campaigns, the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 26 JANET LEE SCOTT NOTES It might be mentioned that the adult population of Hong Kong was, at the time of Mutual Aid Committee formation, already well acquainted with the idea and work of urban organizations. While the Mutual Aid Committees had (and still retain) their own unique design, their structure (and their functions) were not unfamiliar and they were not viewed as mysterious committees having no resemblances to other, more traditional, Chinese organizations. * The other five subdivisions are: Kam Kwok Mansion, Luen Hop Building, Mei Tung Estate, Pui Man Tsuen Cottage Area, and Pok Oi Village (Wong Tai Sin District Report 1982:271). * The exact total, provided by the office of the Housing Manager of Lok Fu Estate, was 21,221 at the end of February, 1983. • At the end of 1982, the exact figure was 523,927. * The Mark I blocks include Blocks #1-5, #9, #10, and #12, and the Mark II group is made up of Blocks #13-20 and Blocks #22 and #23. The remaining blocks (#6-8, #11, and #21), already rebuilt, are now referred to as Converted Buildings (Wong Tai Sin District Report 1982:272). • This information was provided by the office of the Housing Manager of Lok Fu Estate. * At the end of February, 1983, there were 26 Mutual Aid Committees in the Lok Fu Area and 286 Mutual Aid Committees for the entire Wong Tai Sin District. * The selection of male members is because all but one of the chairmen of the Lok Fu Estate Mutual Aid Committees interviewed were male. In addition, the opinions of female members towards participation were investigated during the research period of 1976-1978. * Block #23 of Tung Tau Estate is still divided into floors for the purpose of MAC formation. In early 1983, it had five MACs, one for each three floors. 10 In 1982 the old titles of City District Commissioner and City District Officer were changed to District Officer and Assistant District Officer respectively. At the same time the old Home Affairs Department and New Territories Administration were amalgamated into a new department known as the City and New Territories Administration. 11 The official certificates of registration are framed and prominently displayed in the committee's office, or if the committee lacks an office, are kept by an officer, most often the chairman. 19 However, given the apathy of many residents and the low attendance at many MAC meetings, one might wonder if any committee has been dissolved by popular action, the second alternative. 10 This is the schedule as described by the Wong Tai Sin District Office, Tung Tau Sub-office. The office of the Housing Manager, Lok Fu Estate, explained that the conversion has already been completed and that 114 families (the figure as of March, 1983) had already moved in. "These figures have been provided by the office of the Housing Manager of Lok Fu Estate, and are accurate as to the end of March, 1983. 16 The C.C.C. number is a code number found on the Hong Kong Identification Card and is written under the Chinese characters of the individual's name. 10 According to the Tung Tau Sub-office of the Wong Tai Sin District Office, there are no instances of the mishandling of MAC funds known in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 29 Dwyer, D. J. 1971 BIBLIOGRAPHY "Introduction." In Asian Urbanization: A Hong Kong Casebook. D. J. Dwyer, ed. pp. 1-10. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press. Grandpierre, Kathleen 1978 Personal Communication. Hong Kong Government. Census and Statistics Department. 1977 Hong Kong By-Census 1976. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government Press. 1978 Hong Kong By-Census 1976. Basic Tables. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government Press. 1978 Hong Kong By-Census 1976. Tertiary Planning Unit Tabulations, Vol. 1: Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government Press. 1978 Hong Kong By-Census 1976. Tertiary Planning Unit Tabulations. Vol. 2: Kowloon and New Territories. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government Press. 1978 Hong Kong Population. A 20-Year Projection. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government Press. Hong Kong Government. City and New Territories Administration. 1982 Model Rules for a Mutual Aid Committee in a Public Housing Estate. Hong Kong: Government Printer. Hong Kong Government. Government Information Services. 1974 Hong Kong 1974. Report for the Year 1973. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government Press. 1975 Hong Kong 1975. Report for the Year 1974. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government Press. 1976 Hong Kong 1976. Report for the Year 1975. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government Press. 1977 Hong Kong 1977. Report for the Year 1976. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government Press. 1978 Hong Kong 1978. A Review of 1977. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government Press. 1979 Hong Kong 1979. A Review of 1978. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government Press. 1980 Hong Kong 1980. A Review of 1979. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government Press. 1982 Hong Kong 1982. A Review of 1981. Hong Kong: D. R. Rick, Government Printer. Hong Kong Government. Home Affairs Department. 1974 Annual Departmental Report, Director of Home Affairs. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government Press. Hong Kong Government. Wong Tai Sin District Office. 1982 Wong Tai Sin District Report 1982. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government Press. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 19 come. From a religious viewpoint, Taichung is a rather average and conservative town; there are no very old and large temples of provincial reputation, attracting large crowds of tourists or pilgrims. In that respect, Tainan and Taipei are more famous, and of course so are other old places like Peikang and Lukang, once very flourishing fishermen's settlements but unable to keep up with modernization. Still, their temples keep attracting steady flows of pilgrims from afar. In recent years the provincial and municipal governments have taken a more active interest in the religious life of the people. This can be seen as a continuation of the old imperial system, when religion was strongly supervised and even controlled by the officials, but the present day practice includes quite a few innovations. One innovation is the requirement that all temples should be legally registered. In municipalities this can be done at the city hall. The administration of the cities includes a department of population (min-tsu pu), which in turn has a sub-department of religious affairs. In 1976 the Taichung city hall printed a list of all the temples duly registered; upon request I obtained a copy. Later on I was allowed to borrow and photocopy a similar list in Tainan, whereas in Kaohsiung no such list had been printed yet: I was permitted to look through the register containing all the filled out registration papers sent in to the city hall by the temples. I expect that all the major cities in Taiwan (Taipei, Keelung, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Yangmingshan) will have such a list by now, and each county or hsien government has started to register all the temples within their own jurisdiction. Copies of all these registers have to be sent to the provincial government. This will hopefully make future temple research much easier: to me and others it has often been a time-consuming and frustrating experience not to find up-to-date temple lists providing the most basic information, especially in a rapidly changing urban environment, where temples are continuously being broken down and rebuilt elsewhere. The city of Taichung was one of the first to complete a list of the city temples. (Tainan was earlier: my copy dates from 1974.) When I visited the "religious officials" again in the autumn of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 304 couplet engraved on wood bearing the words "presented by the descendants of ancestor Baak-Kau". The exact details of Dang Baak-Kau's line of descent from Ching-Lok, however, remain obscure. It was probably more common that farm land was owned by groups of people who traced their descent from a common ancestor in the form of ancestral trusts than by individual heads of families like Dang Baak-Kau. I overheard two men (one born about 1910, one about 1925) talking about the ownership of fields in the past. They said that among 100 people there were less than 9 who had their own rice fields. Most people farmed ancestral trust land. The rent was cheaper than that for other land. Once somebody had taken up a piece of ancestral land, he never had to return it, and it was quite common for people to sub-let to other people the ancestral land they rented. These ancestral trusts were each founded for the worship of an individual ancestor and for the education of his descendants. The terms "jou" and "tong" are used by the villagers to refer to an ancestor, his trust, and often the segment of the lineage which consists of his descendants. The case of Dang Baak-Kau is representative of the small minority of personally wealthy Dang. Men like him formed the village elite, dominating local and lineage affairs, and monopolising village connections with the government. Most lineage segments and their ancestral trusts among the Dangs seem to stem from personally wealthy elite villagers like Dang Baak-Kau. It is no surprise that his descendants formed an ancestral trust in his name. The power of village elites like Dang Baak-Kau may have been undermined by the abundance of outside employment and business opportunities within Hong Kong in recent years. Among our informants were two men born in the 1920s who had worked outside Kam Tin, one with the Agriculture and Fishery Department and another with a Chinese trading firm. We were told that they were exceptions. But such opportunities have abounded in the last couple of decades. I. THE DANG LINEAGE, ELITES AND LINEAGE SEGMENTS A. Early History The first Dang ancestor to come to Guangdong province was Hon- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 46 monastery in China was founded in 638, in the capital Ch’ang-an (modern Sian), though some Nestorian missionaries may have reached China earlier. In 845, a major attack on the Buddhist church in China was launched by the emperor Wu-tsung, and in an imperial decree of that year providing for the dissolution of the Buddhist monasteries and the return of the Buddhist clergy to lay life, there is a minor clause ordering the expulsion from China of over 3,000 foreign monks, some of whom were probably — though the text of the decree is ambiguous — Nestorian Christians. This decree was rescinded soon afterwards, and may not have been enforced in the more remote cities of China. Certainly, although we hear no more of Nestorians in Ch'ang-an, an Arab writer refers to Christians among the foreigners slaughtered in Canton in 877 by Huang Ch'ao's rebels, and Nestorian Christianity may have persisted in parts of China for some time after Wu-tsung's decree of 845. But it is clear that Christianity had for all intents and purposes died out in China by the end of the tenth century. The Arabian author Abu'l Faraj mentions meeting a Nestorian monk in Baghdad in 987 who had just come back from China: "In the year of the Hegira 377, in the Christian quarter behind the church, I met a monk from Najran who seven years before had been sent by the catholicus to China with five other clergy to set in order the affairs of the Christian church. I saw a man still young and of a pleasant appearance, but he spoke little and did not open his mouth except to answer the questions which were put to him. I asked him for some information about his journey, and he told me that Christianity was just extinct in China; the native Christians had perished in one way or another; the church which they had used had been destroyed; and there was only one Christian left in the land. The monk, having found no one remaining to whom his ministry could be of any use, returned more quickly than he went." The dates for Nestorian Christians in China during the Yüan period are equally vague. Although individual Nestorians are found in various parts of China from about 1200 onwards, including some siege engineers in the Mongol armies, they appear only to have come in force after the final defeat of the Sung regime in southern China by the Mongols in 1279. Most references to Christians in Yüan China are found later than 1280 and earlier than 1340. A special government department, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 81 relations with China were employed for the first time by Richard Nixon. Among a number of measures, he lifted restrictions against Americans wanting to travel to China as a gesture for and, therefore, a step to reconciliation. Nixon approved the visit of the American table tennis team to China. At the White House, the president chatted with members of a table tennis team which was the first Chinese sports delegation that ever toured the United States since the founding of the People's Republic. On 13 January, 1973, he interviewed the Shenyang Acrobatic Troupe. Such meetings were conducted as part of the administration's policy of strengthening the U.S.-China general relationship. Even at a time when the administration could only place cultural exchanges low on its priority list, they still enjoyed the attention and support of the president. At this stage, Sino-American ties in culture were far from sufficient. This does not mean that either party failed to see the importance of such exchanges. Thus, the Nixon Administration repeatedly expressed its recognition of the importance of cultural relations in the Shanghai Communique and the communique on 22 February, 1973 which actually announced a programme to expand cultural relations. The president's meetings with visiting Chinese artists were also expressions of this concern. However, in the two years after Nixon's visit, the administration could not find the time to handle matters other than strategic concerns. Furthermore, the president was bogged down in the domestic political difficulties which eventually led to his resignation. The Ford Administration, afraid of irritating the Soviet Union and the right wing at home, could only maintain the status quo and even sacrificed arts exchanges with China. By doing so it accelerated a general deterioration in Sino-American relations. The Carter Administration made no improvement in either the general relationship or cultural relations with China in its first eighteen months in office. When a new China policy began to take shape in the middle of 1977, the general relationship improved. In May, the State Department prepared a memo for the president which pointed out that unless diplomatic relations were established, the existing cultural and economic relations would possibly stagnate or even be weakened. It also pointed out that Sino-Soviet relations would get closer if the United States failed to have a formal relationship with China. But what played a decisive role in the American efforts to establish diplomatic relations was the soaring influence of the Soviet Union in international affairs, a situation Nixon faced before the Sino-American rapprochement. Clearly ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 219 would have been rakish nonentities in their home country, and it is incontestable that there was an element of 'keeping the numbers up' in the recruitment of British expatriates by the Hong Kong Government. James, though, was never to give anything less than a hundred per cent effort to his work and to Hong Kong in general. After a year's language training, he was posted to the Southern District Office as District Officer. His first assignment was to co-ordinate the clearing of villages soon to be immersed under the new Shek Pik Reservoir on Lantau Island. Thereafter he served with the Resettlement Department, the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, and the Commerce and Industry Department, in addition to his posts within the City & New Territories Administration. A notable posting was as Deputy Commissioner for Labour from 1982 to 1985. The apogee of his career was as Regional Secretary, New Territories, an area and whose inhabitants he had come to know and love. His postings are remarkable in that he spent almost all of his career outside the Government Secretariat, in contrast to the norm which is generally a mixture of work in the policy branches of government and, in James' words, 'key' departments. Generally, postings to the departments, other than to the most senior positions, are not sought after. This book will make a good, informative read for people with little knowledge of Hong Kong and its government. It is written in an informal, pleasant style and there is no impaling of former colleagues or slagging of the system, although James does start drifting towards a characterisation of the political reforms of the eighties towards the end of the book, the impression being that he was not entirely enamoured of the new scheme of things. For 'insiders', there are few surprises and the book is not, therefore, riveting, although it will bring back memories for some, though. Well done, James, a good addition to the shelves from a former leading civil servant. PETER HALLIDAY ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 the Social Welfare Department), co-ordinated by regional generalist officers comparable with NT DOs, leading to advisory Regional Councils which might eventually become the main report's Local Authorities. They pointed up more outspokenly than the emollient main report the shortcomings of an out-of-touch government administering a non-English-speaking population that was only too open to misunderstandings and misconceptions (such as that taxes levied were drained off to the UK Treasury.) Interim steps should concentrate strongly on building up public confidence in the unaccustomed principles and practice of popular elected representation (the ‘political education' mentioned above.) The provisional system of regional advisory councils, coupled with departmental decentralisation and administrative co-ordination, should then lead to full local authorities in about six years. Meanwhile Tsuen Wan was indeed a unique opportunity for immediate action (the new towns to come of Tuen Mun, Sha Tin, Tai Po et al had yet to be envisaged.) These three semi-dissenters did not co-ordinate their Note with the other. Dickinson has been described by one of his working party as “the least understood and worst treated member of the Cadet Service" (the original title of Hong Kong's Administrative Branch of the HMOCS, which survived in common parlance long after the absorption into the Colonial Service of the pre-war Eastern Cadetships.) He chose to retire early for personal reasons. It is ironic that in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution overspill, when special duties officers in the defence branch of the secretariat, the SCA and the Information Services Department became so active in devising new ways to win hearts and minds, to keep in touch with the people and to encourage the use of Chinese language, so much of what had been adumbrated in the Working Party Report re-appeared; but because the new ideas now came from well-established senior sources, they became respectable and it was to be long before they offered electoral participation in executive decisions. The SCA became the Secretariat for Home Affairs; City District Officers were created in ten urban districts, and found much to do that had not been done before; City District Committees were established in 1972; a Tsuen Wan District Advisory Board was at last set up in 1977, followed by others; in 1980 a new pattern for district administration was at last suggested, with direct elections to District Boards. But in all these and still later developments that affect present history, there was no official backward recognition that the ground ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 428 could be slipped past the powers-that-be. Slaughterhouse butchers, villagers in New Territories villages, hawkers in urban street-markets, taxi-drivers, factory-hands forced to commute on wildly inadequate bus-services, all were helped by schemes introduced by Denis. When I first joined the Hong Kong Administrative Service in 1972, I heard a good deal about the problems these "Bray-waves" caused to the bureaucrats who were teaching us the ropes, and who wanted nothing so much as a comfortable life, bolstered by rule-books which never needed to be questioned, but, having looked at what Denis did, and how he did it, I have no doubt at all that what he did was politically essential, well thought out, practicable, and necessary. Letters "B," the Small House Policy, the Hawker Control Force, the Mutual Aid Committees, and so much more, were the right solutions to real problems, and genuinely did alleviate real unfairness. All too often, after Denis moved on, his successors would hamstring his reforms by refusing to implement them in the spirit in which they were introduced, unfortunately, but I do not believe anyone reading in an unbiased way Denis' account of the introduction of Letters "B" (p. 76), or the Small House Policy (p. 163-166) could fail to see the need for the new policy, nor the skill and intelligence with which Denis undertook the work. Reading this book, I was amazed to see just how many of the policies I attempted to implement had been introduced by Denis. In the Urban Services Department, the Home Affairs Department, and as District Officer in the New Territories, almost all the policies that governed my life had been introduced by him. The later part of the book, on the years when Denis was "near the top," and at the top, will prove of interest to political historians in later years, giving glimpses of an insider's view of the negotiations on the future of Hong Kong. I personally found this part of the book duller and of less interest. Loyalty to the system makes the descriptions thin and the reticence is widespread. Nonetheless, this part of the book is without doubt of considerable historical value. At the end of the book is a short “Epilogue” in which Denis gives his views on the political development of Hong Kong after his retirement. His utter rejection of the Patten position is made very clear, and his espousal of a slow-but-steady development towards universal suffrage for the Legislative Council and for the election of the Chief ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 68 All associations were required to be registered under the Societies Ordinance of the Laws of Hong Kong or as limited companies under the Companies Ordinance. Partly because of this, another duty undertaken by officials was to attend or officiate at the inaugurations of new terms of office-bearers, including administration of an oath of office to the new incumbents. This was particularly the case with the rural committees and the kaifong welfare associations, which (as major channels of communication with the local public) had close links with, and came under the supervision of, the District Commissioner, New Territories, and the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and their senior staff in the districts.1 During my fifteen years in the New Territories Administration (NTA), and five more in the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs (SCA, which later became the Home Affairs Department or HAD) both of them to be described as "political" departments whose staff had direct dealings with the public, we were also in contact with a miscellany of other community bodies, including the many clansmen's (same name) and district (same place) associations, in both town and country. From the early 1970s, these were joined by the government-sponsored and assisted Mutual Aid Committees, of which large numbers were formed across the whole territory. Those officials with district responsibilities (including police), were invited to all major local functions as a matter of course, and the officiating officers were either the District Officers, or their superiors in headquarters or in concerned departments. I attended a great many functions during my service in various departments, and thus became familiar with their way of conducting them. This hardly varied, the difference being mainly a matter of degree and extent, depending on the importance of the bodies concerned and the nature and significance of their events. The Nature of the proceedings A marked formality characterized all their occasions. The ceremonies followed set procedures, and each stage was introduced by a 1 For anyone wishing to learn more, the index to Friends and Teachers indicates where information concerning these and other Chinese associations, and their interaction with government departments during my service (1956-87) can be found. Page 135 Page 136 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 follows: to only tackle projects on an ad hoc basis when something interesting turns up, suggested by a Volunteer or by someone writing in to AMO as sometimes happens; to revisit restored buildings and heritage trails and input comments and suggestions on feed-back forms to AMO on standard and quality of conservation works, improvements to management, signage, etc.; to hold Saturday morning workshops with AMO staff to discuss various aspects of conservation and heritage, which might include presentations or talks by Volunteers or other interested parties; to catalogue the store of salvaged architectural materials and artefacts held by the Architectural Services Department with a view to transferring the collection to AMO's store at North Point for restoration and re-use in suitable projects. Any other suggestions for future activities are welcome. Friends of Heritage The Friends of Heritage Scheme was launched in 1997 to recruit volunteers to assist in heritage conservation and promotional work. AMO are now recruiting the Fifth Batch of Friends of Heritage and an application form can be picked up from the AMO Reception Desk, 136 Nathan Road, Tsimshatsui if you are interested in joining up. Further details of the scheme are given in the application form. RAS secretary Mary Painter also has a supply of these forms; if you call her on 2813 7500 she will post one to you. Kom Tong Hall Although the Volunteers did not have any involvement, our President, Dr. Patrick Hase, did obtain a personal assurance from the Secretary for Home Affairs that the building would not be demolished. The present position is that AMO are drawing up conservation guidelines for the architect for the proposed Sun Yat Sen Museum to follow. Rennies Mill Many of you may know the old ruin on top of the hill overlooking the site of the old Rennies Mill. There have been various suggestions regarding the original use or purpose of the structure which consists of a ruined tower and small village-type house. These suggestions are xlix ================================================================================