RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch ORASHKB and author Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 35 To begin with a few examples in poetry: the poet Ts'ao Chih (A.D. 192-232), son of Ts'ao Ts'ao and younger brother of the first Emperor of Wei, wrote about the knight errant in "The White Steed", also known as "The Knight Errant": A white steed decked with a golden halter Galloped past towards the north west. "Who is the rider?' I enquired from a by-stander. 'A knight errant from the north' was the reply. 'He left his native district when he was young, And spread his fame across the distant desert. He always carries a fine sturdy bow With arrows of bramble wood, long and short. Pulling the string, he hits the target on the left; Shooting from the right, he hits it again. Looking up, he shoots an ape in flight; Bending down, he hits the bull's-eye once more. He is more agile than a monkey, And as fierce as a leopard or dragon. When alarms came from the frontier That barbarian troops had made repeated raids, And when a call to arms was heard from the north, He mounted his steed and reached the frontier fort. He rode on right into the land of the Huns, Holding the Mongol tribes in high disdain. He threw himself before the pointed swords Without giving a thought to his own life. He did not even worry about his parents, Let alone his children and his wife. His name entered the register of heroes; His heart had no room for personal feelings. He risked his life at a time of national disaster, And regarded death merely as coming home'.10 This portrait of a knight errant may be a little idealized, for the poet is, in all probability, using the subject as an excuse to express his own frustrated patriotic wishes and military ambitions, being prevented from fulfilling these by his elder brother. Nevertheless, the poem remains a good illustration of some of the ideals of knight errantry. Notice, in particular, that the knight errant did not allow filial devotion to deter him from his heroic task. 10 Ts'ao Tzu-chien shih-chu (with notes by Huang Chieh, Peking, 1957), pp. 69-70. 2000 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 53 the failure of subscribers to return the books on leaving the country-so that there is a large space occupied by books that are of little value to the Society, or to the public. I would recommend that the Library be inspected, and that those books which are not worth binding anew should be disposed of, and the proceeds be devoted to rebinding those that are worth keeping. In this way, the library will be freed from a good deal of trash, and the really valuable part of it, which is by no means small, could be more easily accommodated in the apartment designed for it, and better fitted for the use of subscribers. The reports of the Society for 1844, 1845 and 1846 do not specifically mention the Library, but it is interesting to note that at a meeting of the subscribers in January 1846 it was unanimously resolved, "That a bust of the late Hon. J. R. Morrison (who had also died, at the early age of 29 in 1843) be immediately commissioned from England, to be placed in the public rooms of the institution of the Morrison Education Society; that a copy of Chinnery's painting of his father (the late Rev. Dr. Morrison) engaged in the translation of the Bible into Chinese, be obtained for the same purpose; that the sum of $1,000 be appropriated to meet the cost, and the expense of placing these memorials in China. By 1849 the Society was running into financial difficulties, the premises had to be closed and the Library was packed up. By 1855 it was open to the public again when, according to an advertisement appearing in the Hong Kong Register on 30 October, 1855, "The Library of the Morrison Education Society, now deposited in a room in the Court House, is open every day from 1 to 4 o'clock p.m. to Members of the Society for the giving out and exchange of Books. Parties, not members of the Society, may obtain the advantages of the Library, on payment of an Annual Subscription of $5. By order of the Trustees, James Legge, Secretary.” At the annual meeting of the Society in 1858 the question of the permanent disposal of the Library was scheduled for discussion. In this same year they had accepted on trust a collection of 400 books belonging to the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society which had been founded in Hong Kong in 1847 by Sir John Davis, later revived by Sir John Bowring, but which was now defunct. A report of the founding of the Asiatic Society appears in the Hong Kong Register for 1847 with a list of 44 titles of books, prints, etc., which had been presented. There had been a growing demand for a proper public library and in May, 1863, the Morrison Education Society issued a circular urging the foundation of such a library in a City Hall and offering its own books and those of the Royal Asiatic Society ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 55 lesser degree and the rebinding and repairing which has been done is unskilful in the extreme. The City Hall Library flourished in spite of some administrative difficulties and, in the Annual Report for 1880, it was stated that there had been 1917 readers during the year, that subscriptions amounting to $650 had been received from Europeans and $347 from Chinese and that it was 'fairly self supporting'.2 The salary of the Curator was paid by the Government. The Library continued to justify its existence and in Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong, published in 1908 it is described as follows:- The nucleus of the Public Library was the library received in 1869 from the Morrison Education Society as a free gift for the use of the public, on condition that in consideration of this gift and of the great services of Dr. Morrison to both European and Chinese, the books are to be kept distinct from all other collections in the City Hall, and designated the Morrison Library in perpetuation of the great missionary's memory'. In 1871 the City Hall Library consisted of 8,000 volumes, 3,000 of which were unconditionally presented by the Trustees of the Victoria Library. Since that date it has been added to from time to time, and now contains 3,332 volumes in the Morrison Library, 6,220 including 320 Chinese religious and devotional books, in the City Library, and 3,287 in the lending collection—a total of 12,839 volumes. There are many valuable philological, biographical and other works, including some rare first editions, the department dealing with China and Japan being especially well filled. The Library is freely used, the register bearing the names of nearly 500 borrowers. The visitors to the reading-room, which is well supplied with local, home, and American newspapers and magazines, average about 1,412 non-Chinese and 628 Chinese a month. The library is open from nine to nine. But a few years later the usefulness of the Morrison Library to the general public was in doubt and it was thought that it would have more practical value in the newly founded University of Hong Kong. At a meeting of the Senate on 25 September, 1913, the Vice-Chancellor was authorized to approach those concerned as to the feasibility of the University's taking over the Morrison Library. This was agreed to in the following terms: "Upon the petition of the... Attorney General . . . praying for an Order that the Committee of the City Hall be at liberty to hand over to the University of Hong Kong a collection of books designated the 'Morrison Library' upon conditions IT IS ORDERED that the petition be granted in the terms 2 China Mail, 27 August, 1880. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f # HON. TREASURER'S REPORT ## INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED ### 31st December, 1961 | EXPENDITURE | | INCOME | | |-------------------------|----------|---------------------------------|----------| | Printing & Stationery | 3,230.00 | Annual Membership Fees | 4,133.32 | | Postages & Petty Expenses | 342.50 | for 1961 | | | Receipt Stamps | 33.05 | Annual Membership Fees for 1962 | | | Lecture Expenses | 213.75 | paid in 1961 | 61.44 | | Cost of Journal | 3,881.80 | Life Membership Fees | 1,500.00 | | | | Interest on Deposit | 23.49 | | | | Surplus, Excess of Income | | | | | over Expenditure | 2,265.61 | | | | Income from Investments | 977.96 | | | | Sales of Journals and Articles | 270.50 | | **Total** | **$8,701.10** | **Total** | **$6,966.71 + 2,265.61 = $9,232.32** (Corrected to match original) Actually it should be $8,701.10 | $8,701.10 | $ 6,966.71 $ 6,966.71 ## BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31ST DECEMBER, 1961 | LIABILITIES | | ASSETS | | |----------------------------------------------|----------|---------------------------------------------|----------| | Surplus 31st December, 1960 | 18,861.83| Investments, at cost | 16,247.25| | Excess of Income over Expenditure for year | | (Market Value $19,040) | | | ended 31st December, 1961 | 2,265.61 | Cash at Bank | 4,790.94 | | | | Cash in Hand | 89.25 | | **Total** | **$21,127.44** | **Total** | **$21,127.44** | ### INVESTMENTS 40 Shares H. & S. B. C., London Register @ £18 £500 6% Commonwealth of Australia 1977/80 @ 94 = £720.0.0. £500 6% Commonwealth of Australia 1977/80 @ 94 = £470.0.0. £1,190.0.0. @ /3 = $19,040.00 (Signed) A. M. MACK, Hon. Auditor. (Signed) T. J. Lindsay, Hon. Treasurer, Hong Kong, 8th January, 1962. Page 15 Page 16 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v HON. TREASURER'S REPORT INCOME & EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31st December, 1962 7 EXPENDITURE INCOME Sundry Expenses (including Lecture expenses) $1,481.65 Annual Membership Fees for 1962 $4,779.55 Journal Costs $5,123.50 Annual Membership Fees for 1963 paid in 1962 $23.42 Surplus: Excess of Income over Expenditure $1,708.18 Life Membership Fees 1962 $1,380.00 Interest on Investments & Deposits $1,108.31 Sales of Journals and Articles $911.75 Sundry Receipts $110.30 $8,313.33 $8,313.33 BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31ST DECEMBER, 1962 LIABILITIES ASSETS Surplus 31st December, 1961 $21,127.44 Investments at cost $16,247.25 Excess of Income over Expenditure in 1962 $1,708.18 Cash on Deposit $5,000.00 Cash at Bank $1,569.72 Cash in Hand $18.65 $22,835.62 $22,835.62 INVESTMENTS 40 Shares H. & S. B. C., London Register @ £17 £500 6% Commonwealth of Australia 1977/80 @ 103 £680.0.0. 515.0.0. £1,195.0.0. @ 1/3 = $19,120.00 (Signed) A. M. MACK, (Signed) T. J. Lindsay, Hon. Auditor. Hon. Treasurer. Hong Kong, 28th February, 1963. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r HON. TREASURER'S REPORT INCOME & EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31st December 1963 7 EXPENDITURE INCOME Sundry Expenses (including Lecture Expenses) $2,021.40 Life Membership Fees $1,980.00 Journal Costs $5,438.40 Surplus: Excess of Income over Expenditure Annual Membership Fees for 1963 $6,177.91 Annual Membership Fees for 1964 paid in 1963 $286.62 $2,947.26 Interest on Investments and Deposits $1,198.48 Sales of Journals and Articles $764.05 $10,407.06 $10,407.06 BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31ST DECEMBER 1963 LIABILITIES ASSETS 1962 Surplus 31st December, Excess of Income over Expenditure in 1963 $2,947.26 Investments at Cost $21,113.89 $22,835.62 (Market Value $27,192.00) Cash on Deposit $2,000.00 Cash at Bank $2,317.99 Cash in Hand $351.00 $25,782.88 $25,782.88 INVESTMENTS 57 Shares H. & S. B. C. London Register @ £21 £1,197. 0.0d. £500 6% Commonwealth of Australia 1977/80 @ 100 502.10.0d. £1,699.10.0d. @ 1/3 = $27,192.00 (Signed) T. J. LINDSAY, Hon. Auditor. (Signed) A. L. HARMAN, Hon. Treasurer. Hong Kong, 3rd March 1964. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 HON. TREASURER'S REPORT INCOME & EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31ST DECEMBER, 1964 EXPENDITURE Journal Costs Sundry Expenses Lecture Expenses $ 1,907.20 1,170.00 661.15 INCOME Life Membership Fees Annual Membership Fees for 1964 Annual Membership Fees for 1965 paid in 1964 Interest on Investments $ 1,420.00 6,670.89 139.85 Surplus: Excess on Income over Expenditure in 1964 Sales of Journals and Articles Lecture Receipts Sundry Receipts $ 8,274.18 1,438.96 1,085.33 887.50 370.00 $12,012.53 $12,012.53 BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31st December, 1964 LIABILITIES ASSETS Surplus 31st December, 1963 Excess of Income over Expenditure $24,401.19 8,274.18 Investments at cost (Market Value $31,442.00) Cash on Deposit Cash at Bank Cash in Hand $25,782.88 6,000.00 3,454.27 201.60 $34,057.06 $34,057.06 INVESTMENTS 57 Shares H. & S. B. C. London Register @ £22-5/8 £700 6% Commonwealth of Australia 1977/80 @ £961 p.£100 £1,289.12.6d 675.10.0d £1,965. 2,6d @ 1/3=$31,442.00 (Signed) T. J. LINDSAY, Hon. Treasurer, Hong Kong, 22nd March, 1965. (Signed) O. P. EDWARDS, Hon. Auditor. Page 7 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 HON. TREASURER'S REPORT INCOME & EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31ST DECEMBER, 1965 INCOME EXPENDITURE Sundry Expenses $ 3,254.00 Sundry Receipts $ 4,104.00 Symposium Expenses 1,396.85 Symposium Receipts Macao Tour Expenses 3,665.00 Journal Expenses 14,833.10 Macao Tour Receipts 716.23 Journal Receipts 3,890.00 Lecture Expenses 956.74 Interest on Investments 70.00 Membership Expenses '65 1,742.54 Donation 4.70 Membership Expenses '66 5,000.00 Life Memberships '65 0.15 Life Memberships '66 400.00 Paid in '65 250.00 Surplus Annual Memberships '65 7,412.20 Excess of Income over Expenditure 1,915.96 Annual Memberships '66 Paid in '65 668.05 $25,139.76 $25,139.76 BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31ST DECEMBER, 1965 LIABILITIES ASSETS Surplus 31st December, 1964 $28,431.14 Investments at Cost $34,057.06 Excess of Income over Expenditure in 1965 (Market Value) (See Below) 1,915.96 Cash on Deposit 6,000.00 Cash at Bank 1,312.43 Cash in Hand 229.45 $35,973.02 $35,973.02 INVESTMENTS 114 shares H.K. & S.B.C. London Register @ 94 700 6% Commonwealth of Australia '77/'80 @ 94% 200 China Light & Power Co., Ltd. @ $19. Note: (1) Dividend received from China Light included in 1966 a/cs. (2) Stock of Vol, V of the Journal: In hands of Librarian £1,054-10-0 In hands of Secretary 662- 7-6 £1,716-17-6 @ 16 = HK$27,470.00 3,800.00 TOTAL HK$31,270.00 $129.00 paid 29/12/65 will be 463 49 LINDSAY, (Signed) T. J. Lindsay, Hon. Treasurer. Hong Kong, 16th March, 1966. 512 at cost $2,524.16 (Signed) J. M. Scott, Hon. Auditor. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g NOTES AND QUERIES 163 ter. "The inhabitants, from our knowledge of their character”, wrote another, "appeared to be industrious and obliging.. They seemed in general to have been very peaceably disposed, nor did they exhibit any marked approbation, or disapprobation, on their transfer to the British sway".8 The Villages To-day. There are two villages, Kau Wai and San Wai—the Old Walled Village and the New Walled Village (though only the first has traces of an enclosing wall). Both have seen better days. The inhabitants no longer own the fields (they were resumed in connection with anti-malarial schemes in 1934–36) and the villages are now places where people live and go out to work. Most of the present vegetable growers live in huts beside their plots and not in the old settlements. In the Old Village most of the old houses have gone and many of to-day's dwellings are temporary structures put up on the site of old houses that have fallen into a ruinous state and thereafter have been cleared away. There used to be a temple to Pak Tai, the God of the North, but this became ruined and fell down about 50 years ago.10 The New Village, on the other hand, still retains some of its old houses which, in their present form and decoration are upwards of 60 years old. Their tiled roofs, ornamented ends, moulded plaster friezes, decorated eave-boards and granite lintels are worth a glance, as being some of the few surviving examples of this type of village architecture left on Hong Kong Island. They are typical of the better class of village dwellings of South China, many other examples of which can be found in the New Territories. Also in the New Village is the former house of Sir Shou-son CHOW's family (see below), but this was rebuilt about 1930 and it is of interest only for the photographs and paintings it contains of the CHOW family. The Villages Yesterday. The date of settlement is not certain, though Lobscheid, the German missionary who was also an Inspector of Schools for the Colonial Government, was told by the village head in the 1850s that the first ancestor had taken a lease from "Tang the acknowledged owner of the soil" in 1668.1 In 1893 a group of villagers had to appear before the Squatter Board to help determine and register legitimate holdings. From the information then recorded, and happily preserved, the following facts emerge: ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d NOTES ON HONG KONG LIBRARIES 65 be removed for use within the Court, in Chambers, or the Registry, but were not to be taken further: whether this applied only to barristers and solicitors, who were privileged to use the Library subject to the rules, or also to the Judiciary and Law Officers who were entitled to use it, is not clear. Mr. J. W. Norton-Kyshe, the Registrar of the Supreme Court, whose useful history of the laws of Hong Kong is the source of the information on its Library, managed to persuade the Government in 1896 that an annual grant should be made for the purchase of books. In 1897 this amounted to $500, and in the following year it was doubled,12 Certainly the history of Hong Kong libraries in the nineteenth century is by no means restricted to those which have been considered in this article, although they are probably the most important. There must, for example, have been libraries in the various schools, both Government sponsored and others, though the condition of school libraries in the Colony even today suggests that they would not have been particularly well organised fifty or more years ago. Government departments other than the Supreme Court must also have had collections of books. All these possibilities, quite apart from the existence of private libraries, both Chinese and English, need to be investigated. What has been discovered so far, however, contributes to refute the common notion of Hong Kong as a cultural desert, and to indicate that library history in Hong Kong goes back almost as far as the history of the Colony itself. NOTES 1 V. H. G. Jarrett, under the pseudonym of 'Colonial' contributed a series of articles to the South China Morning Post between 17th June, 1933 and 13th April, 1935 on "Old Hong Kong". Typescripts of these articles were rearranged alphabetically by subject and bound in four volumes (unpaginated) in the S. C. M. P. Office. By kind permission of the Managing Director, a Xerox copy of this set is available in the University of Hong Kong Library. This extract is from the article headed "Public Library." 2 Hongkong Register, vol. 25, 1852, pp. 94-5. 3 At this date (1852) prices were normally quoted in Spanish or Mexican dollars, equivalent to about 4/2d sterling. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d 150 NOTES AND QUERIES canal which would give access to warehouses and so on built in the Valley (a plan which A. T. Gordon, the Land Officer, endorsed in the 'dream' of the future City of Victoria which he communicated to Pottinger in 1843).4 But if Pottinger's description is accurate, it would have taken a good deal of imagination to see it that way. The East Point site was purchased, at the first Land Sale on 14 June 1841, in the name of Captain William Morgan, a ship's captain who may have been Jardine's Hong Kong manager, and the actual area purchased was not specified then or when Pottinger's Second Land Committee was attempting to settle the Land Question in Hong Kong. We learn, from a later source, that it amounted to almost 170,000 square feet (about 3.4 acres). It is, however, often overlooked that the firm also purchased three other marine lots at the same sale: numbers 26, 27 and 28 and it is here that they had already commenced building by the time of the sale. This contention is upheld by a number of contemporary accounts of the sale. The Canton Register (predecessor of the Hong Kong Register) intimates that one purchaser had commenced building before the sale,6 We are told in an unpublished history of the early years of Jardine, Matheson & Co. that in February 1841, within a month of the naval forces taking possession of the island, that they had erected a large matshed godown above the foreshore. An anonymous correspondent of the China Mail, writing 8 years after the event, but who attended the first sale in 1841, states that Matheson, in order to avoid the expenses involved in landing goods at Macao for transhipment, resolved to land a consignment of cotton at Hong Kong. To make this possible, he sent from Macao materials for the erection of a godown. This building, he avers, was four feet above the ground at the date of the sale and was sited on what later became known as the Commissariat Stores. The fact that they were building and had ground cleared, he continues, gave additional value to adjoining lots. As will be seen, Marine Lots 26, 27 and 28 were shortly to become the Commissariat stores. If further support is needed, I may quote from Tarrant's History of Hong Kong, published in 1861 or 1862: he states that "some months before the sale......Messrs Jardine, Matheson & Co, erected those godowns which now form part of the Naval Yard, near the Canton Bazaar.” I ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d NOTES AND QUERIES 153 NOTES 1 Minutes of Evidence, Q. 2260. 2 G. R. Sayer, Hong Kong: Birth, Adolescence and Coming of Age, 1937, p. 99. 3 Pottinger to Lord Stanley, (No. 15 of 1844), 28 February 1844, (CO129/5/£174) The occasion of this despatch was Admiral Cochrane's suggestion that East Point would make the best site for a naval depot and that Jardine, Matheson & Co. should be removed to make way: see Cochrane to Pottinger, 23 February 1844 (CO129/5/£182). 4 Gordon to Malcolm, 6 July 1843 (CO129/2/f.138). 5 See Friend of China, 2 November 1850. 6 Canton Register, 29 June 1841. 7 E. J. Yorke, The Princely House, (unpublished), p. 487. 8 China Mail, 20 December 1849. 9 Apparently published in 1861 or early 1862 in either Canton or Hong Kong. It was a reprint of articles written by Tarrant in his newspaper, the Friend of China, at the time when he was publishing it in Canton. For this extract, see Friend of China, 9 November 1861. 10 Canton Press, 19 February 1842. 11 See Hong Kong Register, 15 January 1850. The siting is amply demonstrated from maps also. And see Minute by Pottinger on the question of accommodation for General D'Aguilar, Saltoun's successor: January 1844 (CO129/5/f.93). 22 12 Malcolm to Jardine, Matheson & Co., 17 February 1842 (CO129/5/f.96). 13 See Hong Kong Register, 15 January 1850. 14 Yorke, op. cit., p. 488. 15 Pottinger to Jardine, Matheson & Co., 3 June 1842 (CO129/5/f.224). 16 The firm claimed later that this godown belonged to their Bombay agent, Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, without whose consent they were unable to comply with a request that it be sold to the military for use as barracks: see Pottinger to Saltoun, 26 October 1843 (CO129/5/f.524). 17 Yorke, op. cit., p. 491. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d HON. TREASURER'S REPORT FOR 1968 On the retirement and return to Britain of Mr. O. P. Edwards of the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank the accounts have been kindly audited by Mr. N. N. Chan of Butterfield & Swire (H.K.) Ltd. Members will note that there is an excess of Income over Expenditure amounting to $6,970, compared with a deficit amounting to $738 in the previous year. This has largely been brought about by the increase in sale of publications, which this year amounted to $6,118 (against $1,708 last year). Such a high figure for the sale of publications cannot be expected for the future since this year's figures include the sales of 2 Journals (1967 and 1968) and the full effects of the sales of the brochure on the 1966 Symposium and Sir Lindsay Ride's booklet "The Old Protestant Cemetery in Macao". There is therefore no room for complacency, and it will be noticed that once again annual subscriptions do not cover our total expenditure, the shortfall being covered by bank interest, income from investments and the sale of publications. In December 1968 the 125 shares in the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation (London Register) were sold at a profit of $9,981 and are responsible for the large current account balance ($23,736). The proceeds of this sale have since been re-invested in buying 400 Hong Kong Electric and 400 Lane Crawford, the latter now showing a gratifying increase in market value together with a rights issue of 50 shares. There has also been a recent bonus issue of 133 shares in the China Light & Power. The cost over market value of 6% Commonwealth of Australia 1977/80 can be attributed not only to the low market value of this stock but also to the effects of devaluation. The Society is expected to meet heavy expenditure in the forthcoming year. The 1969 Journal with offprints will call for an amount of $8,000 to 9,000, and it is expected that Volume I of the Journal will be reprinted in the near future, calling for another $3,000. Members are strongly urged to assist in increasing the membership of the Society not only to help towards the cost of this high anticipated expenditure but also to obtain a more satisfactory income over expenditure for the future. D. A. GILKES, Hon. Treasurer. 28 April, 1969. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 48 R. G. GROVES 7th April includes entries for approximately 999 catties (about 1,332 lbs.), of gunpowder. Meanwhile, the Governor of Hong Kong again asked the Viceroy to take whatever steps necessary to maintain order prior to the take-over. A reassuring proclamation was jointly issued by the Viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi and the Governor of Kwangtung, and Chinese troops were ordered into the area. The Governor of Hong Kong had already issued his own proclamation to the people of the New Territory. Whatever its intention, his message cannot have appeased the resistance leaders: the most respected of your elders will be chosen to assist in the management of your village affairs, to secure peace and good order and the punishment of evil doers. I expect you to obey the laws that are made for your benefit, and all persons who break the law will be punished severely. It will be necessary for you to register without delay your titles for the land occupied by you, that the true owners may be known."62 In other words, control over both land and political institutions appeared to be at risk. By 10th April plans for resistance were sufficiently advanced to allow the establishment of the T'ai Ping Kung Kuk (Great Peace Public Council), at Yuen Long market. The inaugural meeting promulgated several policies: (i) a levy of 100 taels of silver was to be made upon each village and, where necessary, force was to be used to secure payment; (ii) the wealthy, and those who appeared to be associated with the British, were forbidden to leave the area. Those attempting to do so were to be killed,63 The date and place of the formal British take-over — Tai Po, on Monday, 17th April — had been announced in a variety of contexts and must have been widely known. However, the first major clash involved provincial Chinese troops, rather than the British. As part of his undertaking to maintain order the Viceroy had directed a Major Fong, in command of a gunboat and troops, to the territory. The Major sent letters ahead, saying that his intentions were pacific. The implication was that he would not interfere with plans for resistance. These assurances were unacceptable and his landing at Castle Peak Bay, on 12th April, was successfully opposed by militia of the Yuen Long Division, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d CHINESE DESCENT SYSTEM 121 of the two should in fact have proportionately more empty houses than its poorer neighbour22; it is not impossible that the sort of inefficiencies in the descent system that I have described whereby the swelling of a descent line in one generation may leave the next with more house-property than it needs or can redistribute — may account for this anomaly.* H. G. H. NELSON. NOTES 1. Göran Aijmer, "Being Caught by a Fishnet: On Fengshui in South-eastern China", J.H.K.B.R.A.S., Vol. 8, 1968, pp. 74-81. 2. Field data drawn on in this paper are derived from a period of work in Sheung Tsuen, Pat Heung, from June 1967 to October 1968. I was employed as a Research Officer of the London School of Economics, on a project financed by a grant made to Professor Maurice Freedman by the Social Science Research Council. Much of the information from the Hong Kong Government's land records was collected by my wife, whose fare to Hong Kong was provided by the London-Cornell Project for East and South-East Asian Studies, financed jointly by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Nuffield Foundation. I am very glad to acknowledge their generosity. 3. See for example J. E. Spenser, "The Houses of the Chinese", Geographical Review, Vol. XXXVII, 1947, pp. 254-273. 4. Cf. J. W. Hayes, ‘A Chinese Village on Hong Kong Island Fifty Years Ago Tai Tam Tuk, Village Under the Water', in I.C. Jarvie and Joseph Agassi, eds., Hong Kong: A Society in Transition, London, 1969, p. 33. 5. Block Crown Lease, Demarcation Districts Nos. 112 and 114, 1905; various Memorials in Yuen Long District Office; and ‘A-Roll' volume X.14. I am most grateful to the New Territories Administration for their courtesy in allowing me access to the invaluable information contained in their Land Records. 6. The current records conceal the difference between inhabited structures and "house-lots' (Crown Rent being assessed on the site rather than the structure) - a difference of which the villagers are aware. Many of them, when asked how many houses they own, will say, "so many houses and so many lots "(uk-tel_£)". It seems to me possible that some villagers may, in 1905, have been far-sighted ---or fortunate enough to register both their houses and their ruined lots, thereby avoiding the expense and complication of obtaining a New Grant Lot when they wanted to rebuild on an old site. * Groups of houses, bigger and more durable than usual, have also been built as a form of long-term investment (and prestige expenditure) by particularly wealthy men; but their hopes of producing enough sons and grandsons to justify this deliberate over-production of houses are often sadly unfulfilled. * On the subject of this article see also Mr. Hayes' note at pp. 158-160. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 160 NOTES AND QUERIES At the two villages of Old and New Heung Kong Wai near Aberdeen a group of villagers had to come before a Squatter Board in 1893 to help determine and register legitimate holdings. From the information then recorded, and happily preserved, the following facts emerge: (a) the New Village was built entirely by inhabitants of the Old Village; (b) two of the houses in the New Village were built 1860-70 and some earlier, some later; (c) many families owned houses in each village; (d) many families owned 2 or 3 houses; (e) none of the cultivated land in the valley was (1893) owned by outsiders. Elsewhere on the island I obtained and wrote down the following account of house occupation in the small Hakka village of Tai Tam Tuk for the period before this village was removed to make way for a reservoir in 1914: Some of the houses were in a ruinous condition in 1914, which is usually the case in the smaller and poorer villages in South China where frequent typhoons and heavy rains combine to shorten the life of these simply-constructed dwellings. Perhaps in consequence, most families in the village had several houses. For instance, one of my informants, her husband, his parents and his younger unmarried brother shared three houses and one shed, but ate together as one household. These examples seem to bear out Mr. Nelson's reinterpretation of Dr. Aijmer's figures i.e. that at that time (1911) there were about 35 households in Big Stream Village, owning on average 2.2 houses each; and that Plum Grove contained 12 households with 3 houses each.* Hong Kong 1969, JAMES HAYES * Since writing the above I also recall a case at Law Uk, Pui O where, speaking of her early married life there well before 1900, a very old village woman said theirs was "a three table household" with something over 20 persons eating together. It was also a multi-house one. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 179 THE LIBRARY OF THE HONG KONG BRANCH, ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY Report for the Year 1968-1969 The Library has continued to grow during the past year, both through gifts and by purchases. The total number of books added was twenty, of which seven were donations, bringing the total stock to 343 volumes (excluding unbound periodicals). The Branch wishes to thank the following for their welcome gifts: Mr. J. A. H. Saunders (Wayfoong, by M. Collis) Mrs. Crawford, daughter of the late Mr. C. A. Tomes (East India Register and Directory for 1832) Mr. José dos Santos Ferreira (Macau sã assi) also the publishers of various volumes which have been sent for review in the Journal of the Branch. Purchases were made from the small balance of the Asia Foundation grant, now exhausted, and from the Branch's own funds. It is regrettable that the Library must continue to be divided between two locations: the bulk of the collection, comprising 166 books and 60 volumes of bound periodicals, is housed in the British Council, Gloucester Building. The remainder, comprising rarer books and some of less interest totalling 50 volumes, 22 pamphlets, over 200 unbound parts of periodicals, 5 Chinese books and a number of other items, are kept at the University of Hong Kong Library (where also the stock of publications of the Branch are stored). The Branch again expresses its appreciation to these two institutions for providing these facilities, which are however far from ideal, since the Library is not easily accessible, and few members have taken advantage of its existence. Members are reminded that a complete author catalogue of books in the Library is provided, on cards, in the British Council Library. Those books located at the British Council may be borrowed by members, whilst the ones kept at the University of Hong Kong are for reference only. The bookcase at the British Council is now filled, and until the Branch has its own premises it will not be possible to make available a larger number of volumes, except to those members who are able to visit the University Library. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 HON. TREASURER'S REPORT FOR 1969 This year's accounts now before you have been kindly audited by Messrs. Wong, Tan & Co. The Income and Expenditure Account shows a surplus of $5,691 compared with $6,970 in the previous year. However, this seemingly satisfactory position should be treated with reserve. Firstly, as in previous years, the annual membership fees ($10,559) do not cover the total expenditure on Journal expenses, purchase of library books, and sundry expenses, the shortfall being covered by bank interest, income from investments, and the sale of publications. Secondly, there is a drop in the annual membership fees for the first time for many years. Thirdly, the surplus would have been considerably less if the Society had to meet the expenses of re-printing Volume I of the Journal as forecasted last year. The drop in the Sale of Publications from $6,118 to $3,728 was forecasted in my report last year since the 1968 figure reflected the sales of two Journals (1967 and 1968). At the beginning of the year, the Society re-invested the proceeds of sale of the 125 shares in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (London Register) in 400 Hong Kong Electric and 400 Lane Crawford; these continue to show a gratifying increase in market value, with the former recently issuing a one for one and the latter a rights issue of 50 shares in April 1969. Unless there is an increase in numbers, thereby producing more annual membership fees, the Society is very unlikely to continue to show a surplus in the current year. Besides the cost of re-printing Volume I ($4,000), now expected by the end of June, the Society will need to meet expenditure on printing this year's Journal and off-prints ($9,000), and the proceedings of the week-end symposium "The Changing Face of Hong Kong" ($3,800); in addition, the Society has recently sponsored a lecture and performance of Peking Opera costing $2,400. It is anticipated, therefore, the Society will show a deficit for the current year, and members are urged to encourage their friends to become members in order to increase annual fees and help to offset the deficit. 13 May 1970. D. A. GILKES ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 THE BEGINNINGS OF TAIPINGSHAN 75 every piece of ground and every house in the island downwards, morally speaking, were they to do so, they would be little better than robbers." But whatever the morals of the removal of the bazaar lot-holders, the Notification of 25 July produced the desired result for, by the beginning of September, there had already been a movement to the west to the area designated. The Hong Kong Register on 3 September 1844 somewhat uncharitably, and ignorantly since they were at this time still the official Government organ, expressed dissatisfaction with the "Chinese village rising to the westward of Victoria", but modified their opinion on discovering that many of the houses belonged to the 'squatters' dislodged from the Upper Bazaar who were allowed to find temporary sites until they could rebuild on land allotted to them for the purpose by Government. The area referred to was being built up fast during the month of September and opposite it, on the northern side of Queen's Road, a Government Market was erected, 18 Eventually, Davis's expenditure on levelling the site and providing compensation was approved at home.19 But before even the reply had left the Colonial Office, Davis received a petition from the Upper Bazaar lot-holders, praying for monetary compensation in addition to the 'rent holiday' proposed. On consideration of this petition whilst Davis was absent inspecting the new consulates in the northern ports, the Executive Council decided that the rent payable on the new allotments in Taipingshan should commence in January 1849, and not in January 1848 and that the registered holders of "decent Chinese houses", 81 in number, should receive $40 dollars each. Two English lot-holders in the area, Oswald and Porter, were allowed compensation on a rather more liberal scale, having refused to move. In communicating this arrangement to the Colonial Office, Davis commented that if the question of the Upper Bazaar Lots had first come up during his tenure of office, he would have allowed the tenants to retain possession, not only because to do otherwise involved a violation of rights, with a consequent heavy expense for Government in compensations, but also because of the obloquy to which Government had been subjected in the Press20 That is how Taipingshan originated. Its subsequent history is interesting for, between this time and the great Plague epidemic in the 1890's, it seems to the writer that the ability of the Government ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 78 DAFYDD EMRYS EVANS "See their petition, reprinted in Friend of China, 4 May 1844, and also below, P. 10 The contents of the petition, Pottinger's reply and the lot-holders' rejoinder were all published in the Friend of China, 4 May 1844. "I Lo Hsiang-lin, Hong Kong and its External Communications before 1842, (Hong Kong, Institute of Chinese Culture, English translation, 1963) p. 117, maintains that there had long been a settlement in the area of the present Taipingshan, The name is said to have originated from the pacification of the pirate Cheung Po-chai in 1810 who is known to have had a stronghold there. The mountain now known as Victoria Peak was renamed Taipingshan (the Mountain of Peace) and is so known in Chinese today. The Man Mo temple, standing today in Hollywood Road, is said by Lo to have been built by Cheung in the first decade of the 19th Century. There is considerable documentary evidence as to the existence of such a settlement in the early 1840s. 12 Caine, Gutzlaff and Gordon to Pottinger, C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 440. 13 Woosnam to Caine, Gutzlaff and Gordon, 17 April 1844; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 442. 14 Caine, Gutzlaff and Gordon to Bruce, 21 May 1844; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 444. 15 Aldrich to Bruce, 20 July 1844; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 445. 16 Notification dated 25 July 1844. It appeared in the Hong Kong Register on 30 July 1844 and the gist of it was contained in the Friend of China on 3 August 1844. Only in the former, official, version, does the information about the date of possession for the purchasers appear. 17 10 August 1844. 18 Friend of China, 2 October 1844. The site is still occupied by a branch of the present Western Market, 19 Davis to Stanley, (no. 44 of 1844), 26 July 1844 and Stanley to Davis, 3 January 1845; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 438. Under-Secretary Stephen commented on the despatch that, though the expenditure would have to be referred to the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, "it must, however, ultimately be sanctioned " 20 Davis to Stanley, 29 October 1844; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 157. The additional expenditure was sanctioned without further comment: Stanley to Davis 1 April 1845; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 161, 21 Inland Lots Nos. 223A, 223B, 223C, 223E, 224, 224A, 224B, 224C, 224E, 225, 226, 226A, 229D, 231A, 233, 233A, 234, 234D, 238B, 239A, 239B, 240A, 241, 242A, 243, 243A, 244, 244B, 245A, 245B, 245C, 245D, 245E, 245F, 245G, 245H, 245I, 246A, 247B, 247C, 248A, 253, 253A, 272. 22 Inland Lots Nos. 213, 224D, 228, 228B, 229, 231, 232, 232A, 232C, 233E, 234B, 234C, 234E, 238, 244A, 252B, 255B, 256B. 23 Inland Lots Nos. 223, 246, 246B, 246C, 247, 247A, 247D, 248B, 248C, 248D, 249C, 252C, 253B, 254, 255D, 255E, 256. 24 Inland Lots Nos. 214, 234A, 223D, 227, 235A, 241A, 246C, 246B, 253B. 25 Inland Lots Nos. 238C, 239C, 240, 241B, 241C, 242B, 245, 250, 255A, 256A, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 190 NOTES AND QUERIES in the sun, then assorted, and the whitest selected for fine cloth. A partial bleaching is effected on the fibres before they undergo further division, sometimes by boiling, and at others by pounding on a plank with a mallet. When the cloth is finished it undergoes a process of glazing, which is done by a rude machine most effectually. A sort of bed or tray is laid down firmly in the ground, the inside curved or scalloped, and made very smooth. Upon this the cloth is carefully spread; a small cylinder is laid above, and upon that a stone with a smooth face, having the ends turned upwards. A man mounts this stone, and places one foot on each end, giving it a see-saw motion working the cylinder backwards and forwards with great power, and imparting a fine glaze to the cloth, equal to hot-pressing in European factories. It is not known to what part of China this description refers. For details of the plant species and practice in West China and Chekiang see A. Hosie, Three years in West China (London, George Philip and son, 2nd Edn., 1897) pp. 73-74. Hong Kong, 1970. JAMES HAYES COACH TOUR OF EASTERN HONG KONG ISLAND 18TH OCTOBER, 1969 Colonial Cemetery, Happy Valley This is the oldest of the several old cemeteries at Happy Valley. It was opened on 1st February, 1844, covers 23.75 acres and contains 11,680 graves.* There are many old graves and monuments dating from the mid-19th century, some of them scarcely legible. Military and naval graves and monuments, some of them very large, are much in evidence. They record the deaths of officers and men while stationed in Hong Kong or in Far Eastern waters, and on active service during the China Wars of 1856-1860. Unfortunately, there is no register of prominent burials for easy reference, so we shall just have to look around. * Information provided by the Urban Services Department. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 190 NOTES AND QUERIES in the sun, then assorted, and the whitest selected for fine cloth. A partial bleaching is effected on the fibres before they undergo further division, sometimes by boiling, and at others by pounding on a plank with a mallet. When the cloth is finished it undergoes a process of glazing, which is done by a rude machine most effectually. A sort of bed or tray is laid down firmly in the ground, the inside curved or scalloped, and made very smooth. Upon this the cloth is carefully spread; a small cylinder is laid above, and upon that a stone with a smooth face, having the ends turned upwards. A man mounts this stone, and places one foot on each end, giving it a see-saw motion working the cylinder backwards and forwards with great power, and imparting a fine glaze to the cloth, equal to hot-pressing in European factories. It is not known to what part of China this description refers. For details of the plant species and practice in West China and Chekiang see A. Hosie, Three years in West China (London, George Philip and son, 2nd Edn., 1897) pp. 73-74. Hong Kong, 1970. JAMES HAYES COACH TOUR OF EASTERN HONG KONG ISLAND 18TH OCTOBER, 1969 Colonial Cemetery, Happy Valley This is the oldest of the several old cemeteries at Happy Valley. It was opened on 1st February, 1844, covers 23.75 acres and contains 11,680 graves.* There are many old graves and monuments dating from the mid-19th century, some of them scarcely legible. Military and naval graves and monuments, some of them very large, are much in evidence. They record the deaths of officers and men while stationed in Hong Kong or in Far Eastern waters, and on active service during the China Wars of 1856-1860. Unfortunately, there is no register of prominent burials for easy reference, so we shall just have to look around. * Information provided by the Urban Services Department. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG 79 authority and its geographical location made it a base for pirates. One of the stories about the origin of the name of the Tai Ping Shan District on Hong Kong Island is that a pirate named Cheung Po-chai used it as his headquarters. He finally went over to the authorities and left the island. In relief the local population named the mountain side on which he had dwelt "Great Peace Mountain". Since it was easy to slip away by boat if government officials came to check on inhabitants, the islands on the edge of San On District were popular haunts for outlaws and the criminal element. At the time of the establishment of the British claim to the island, The Canton Register under date of 23 February, 1841, predicted that under British jurisdiction the island would become even more popular with these classes: "Hongkong will be the resort and rendezvous of all the Chinese smugglers. Opium smoking shops and gambling-houses will soon spread; to those haunts will flock all the discontented and bad spirits of the empire." Future developments substantiated this forecast. FACTORS WHICH IMPEDED THE EMERGENCE OF RESPONSIBLE LEADERS IN THE CHINESE COMMUNITY. Samuel Fearon, the Census and Registration Officer, in his report dated 24 June 1845, describes the origin of the first settlers of Hong Kong. The arrival of the British fleet in the harbour speedily attracted a considerable boat population, and the profits accruing from the supply of provisions and necessaries at once raised many from poverty and infamy to considerable wealth. The shelter and protection afforded by the presence of the fleet soon made our shores the resort of outlaws, opium smugglers, and indeed, of all persons who had rendered themselves obnoxious to the Chinese laws, and had the means of escaping hither. In course of time the demands for labour, for the public and other works, drew some thousands to the island, the majority of whom were Hakkas or gypsies; people whose habits, character and language mark them as a distinct race. Careless of the ties of home and of those moral obligations, the observance of which is deemed absolutely necessary ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g The District Watch Committee 137 to be the richest man in Hong Kong. When Ho Tung retired as chief compradore to Jardine, Matheson's in 1900, Ho Fook succeeded him. Ho Fook's assistant was Ho Kom Tong, another of Ho Tung's brothers. The members of the District Watch Committee were members of a small circle of businessmen, often related through ties of blood or marriage. When the Tai Yau Bank was established in 1914 with a paid-up capital of $6,000,000, the proprietors were named as Lau Chu Pak, Ho Fook, Ho Kom Tong, Lo Chung Shiu and Chan Kai Ming. Lau Chu Pak was compradore to A. S. Watson and Co., chairman of the Po On Commercial Association and chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce; Chan Kai Ming was manager of the Opium Farm; and Lo Chung Shiu, assistant compradore to Jardine, Matheson and Co., was Ho Fook's brother-in-law. All were or became members of the District Watch Committee. 22 T. C. Cheng writes that Wei Yuk 'was very much concerned about law and order among the Chinese masses because in those early days riff-raff and political refugees from South China continued to come into Hong Kong. Thus it was at his suggestion that the District Watch Force was founded in 1888. Mr. Cheng appears to be mistaken about the date and is no doubt referring to the ordinance of that year, no. 13 of 1888 rather than to its proper date of origin. Wright and Cartright, Feldwick, and Professor Woo all state that the Committee was formed on Wei Yuk's suggestion. See: T. C. Cheng, 'Chinese Unofficial Members of the Legislative and Executive Councils of Hong Kong up to 1941', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 9, 1969, pp. 17-18; Arnold Wright and H. A. Cartright, Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong, Shanghai and other Treaty Ports, London, Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Co., 1908, p. 109; W. Feldwick, ed., Present Day Impressions of the Far East and Prominent Chinese at Home and Abroad, London Globe Encyclopedia Co., 1917, p. 576; Professor Woo Sing Lim, The Prominent Chinese in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Five Continents Book Company, 1939, p. 4. 23 Unfortunately all the records in the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs were destroyed or lost during the Japanese occupation and hence anyone trying to reconstruct the history of the District Watch must work mostly from scraps of information found in government publications, newspapers, books. 24 My guess is that a large number were traditional Chinese merchants from the Five Districts operating on a relatively small scale. The Committee after 1891 represented the views of a more westernised and modernised elite with a knowledge of modern business techniques and modern financial manipulations. Dr. Ho Kai, for example, played the stock exchange with great success and speculated in many fields, particularly land development. He was, properly speaking, a financier although his occupation is often given tout court as lawyer. He had also qualified in medicine at Edinburgh but gave up the practice of medicine soon after his return to Hong Kong in 1882 because of Chinese resistance to western medicine. 25 In 1903, for example, the Committee opposed the re-introduction of the night-pass system but suggested other remedial measures (see Index to Correspondence (General Register) 1894-1904, Hong Kong, Noronha and Co., 1909, p. 100). In 1909 'at the request of the District Watchmen Committee, children who are hawking without a licence are on their first offence sent to the Registrar General who cautions their guardians. This procedure seems to have proved effective in each case' wrote the Registrar General in 1909. It is worth noting that both Registrar General and Committee wanted to end the night-pass system and were opposed by the Captain Superintendent of Police, who was unsuccessful. As for hawkers, very few Chinese regarded them as a serious menace although colonial administrators ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h NINETEENTH CENTURY WATER-COLOURS OF CANTON 27 a loss to them as well as to ourselves, from shells fired by the Navy". On the other hand, Mr. Loch, Lord Elgin's attaché with the attacking forces, reported back to Lord Elgin on 5th January 1858 that "by the bombardment being continued till 9 o'clock instead of ceasing at 6 o'clock a.m., as was originally intended, we came under the fire of our own shells from the ships".12 Once Canton was taken, the Artillery company formed part of the garrison. The authors of the official history of the Royal Marine Artillery make no reference to the "Jingal pic-nic" incident, but do mention a sortie against the Chinese on June 2nd 1858, in which Major Schomberg took part. Col. Fisher also relates this incident, in which the British forces lost several men and suffered from the extreme heat, but again does not give the names of the officers concerned. For the rest of the summer after the voyage to the Peiho (not mentioned in The Royal Marine Artillery), Major Schomberg seems to have spent his time amusing himself as best he could in Canton. In September the garrison was enlivened by the visit of "poor Albert Smith" as Col. Fisher calls him. Their visitor, who seems to have been permanently suffering from stomach trouble and the heat, was taken on a round of the sights, including the Honan Temple (picture number XXXIII), and on 12th September 1858, notes that he had dinner with "Captain" Schomberg. Fisher comments that apart from horse-racing "cricket was one of the first sports we introduced; and the Tartar parade-ground at the foot of the heights formed really a very good ground". Major Schomberg was not much of a cricketer, and the "Hong Kong Register" for the 9th March 1858, reports that in a match played in Canton between two military teams he scored a duck in both innings. The Royal Marine Artillery gives the date of Schomberg's return to England as January 1859, which fits in well with the date on the last of the paintings: curiously, there is no mention of his name on any of the lists of passengers in Hong Kong newspapers for that month, but this may be because he returned on a troop-ship. In later life Schomberg went on to be Deputy Adjutant General of the Royal Marines. He was made a general in 1877 and was knighted in 1896. He died at the age of eighty-six in 1907. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h H.K.'S CENTRAL MARKET AND THE TARRANT AFFAIR 155 which went into his own pocket. The accusations had, of course, been withdrawn because they were impossible to substantiate but doubts still existed on the expenditure of the money which had undoubtedly been collected—Caine's version was that it had been used to run a voluntary hospital for the women but the Hong Kong Register alleged that a sum of about $500 per month was still being collected. To make matters absolutely plain, the Register reported that Afoon had told them that the Compradore's 'squeeze' was known to the Chinese as "Caine's rent" or "tax."20 The finger was pointing at Caine though it is fair to say that Tarrant, whatever his motives, merely recounted the alleged facts. It was the two newspapers which implicated Caine in the dealings of the two compradores, but it was only Tarrant who found himself arraigned, with Afoon, for conspiring to damage the reputation of Caine. He was committed to trial before the Supreme Court by a bench of Justices. As it happened, the three justices were all Government servants (Campbell, Hillier and C. G. Holdforth) and two of them held to be Caine's protégés. It is probably true that the public was taken aback at this and Tarrant had their sympathy. When his case eventually came before the Supreme Court in October, Tarrant being suspended from duty during this period, the Attorney General moved that the trial be postponed because of the absence of a material witness. Lo Een-teen, Caine's Compradore, had disappeared from the Colony. Tarrant was willing for the trial to proceed but the Chief Justice Hulme ruled that it should be postponed and when it came up again, the Attorney General (now Parker, acting) moved before Campbell, now Acting Chief Justice, that there was no case to answer and did not offer any evidence.21 But, although Tarrant was now a free man, he found himself without a job—during his suspension the Government had combined his post with another. He proceeded to petition the Secretary of State, Earl Grey but he was hampered by lack of evidence.22 It is at this point that we return to the account of transactions in the Central Market. On 23 November 1847, Hwei's interest in the Central Market ceased when it was sold by the Sheriff to Le Kip-tye, an interpreter in the Government's employ, in execution of a writ of fi. fa.23 in the suit McSwyney v. Hwei Afoon.24 His interest was said to amount to 5/13 of the whole and this must have been his interest under the deed of 28 June of the same year. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h H.K.'S CENTRAL MARKET AND THE TARRANT AFFAIR 159 forces during hostilities against China to settle and allotted them small lots on the waterfront. The Upper Bazaar which lay in the area of Graham and Stanley Streets consisted also of relatively small areas granted to Chinese who were presumptively useful to the nascent colony as tradesmen. The Lower Bazaar was almost totally destroyed in the great fire at the end of 1851 and the Upper Bazaar was removed in 1844 and its inhabitants resettled in Taipingshan. 3 See Gordon to Pottinger, 10 February 1844 [CO129/V/f.141]. + Evidence given by Colonel Malcolm to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Commercial Relations with China, answer to question 4633. 5 Davis sought to let as many monopolies go as possible to private individuals for what they were prepared to give. Thus, in addition to the markets, he let out also opium, salt, and quarrying monopolies. 6 Lease Register Volume C, f.94. The lot was leased as Marine Lot 38. The lease registers referred to are the Registers of the Land Office in which all dealings in crown land were recorded. The actual transactions themselves are also recorded separately as 'Memorials' and reference is made to them by number. The numbering was done according to the order in which they were registered. I am indebted to the Registrar General of the Government of Hong Kong for allowing me access to the records of the Land Office and for permission to publish material derived from that source. 7 Memorial 122. 8 Memorial 143. 9 Memorial 258. 10 Friend of China, 7 July 1847. 11 Memorial 383. 12 In this article, the romanisations found in the Land Office records are used even where they do not correspond to those either in the Wade-Giles system or current usage. 13 Memorial 304. 14 Ibid. 15 Memorial 345. 16 Hong Kong Register, 27 July 1847. 17 Friend of China, 14 July 1847. 18 And in so doing, incidentally, infringing the provision of the Treaty of Nanking, 1842, which allowed British subjects to proceed only to the "Treaty Ports" and to nowhere else in China. 19 Friend of China, 14 July 1847. Tam Achoy's market was known as the Kwang Yuen and in the disastrous fire in December 1851, the fifty-one houses which comprised the market were destroyed: see Hong Kong Register, January 1852. Tam was referred to a few years later as the "most respectable Chinaman" who made a practice of going into the witness box to speak for the character of accused persons. He remained in Hong Kong until his death in the 1870's and was one of the founders of the Tung Wah organisation, a charitable body still functioning in Hong Kong. 20 Hong Kong Register, 27 July 1847. 21 Hong Kong Register, 19 October 1847; Friend of China, 23 October 1847 and 18 December 1847. 22 The Editor of the Friend (John Carr) claimed to have seen Hwei's accounts and that they revealed the "squeeze" payment. Page 165 Page 166 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h 160 DAFYDD EMRYS EVANS 23 A writ of fieri facias (abbreviated to fi. fa.) is the means whereby a judgment is executed against the property of a person found liable to another in damages in a civil suit. It enables his property to be sold to meet the sums awarded against him. The writ was frequently employed at this time in suits for arrears of Crown Rent. 24 Memorial 359. 25 When property is mortgaged to secure sums advanced by the mortgagee to the mortgagor, the latter is said to have an 'equity of redemption'. The purpose of this is to make certain that his interest in relation to that of the lender is kept in balance, so that the lender can always be forced to release the security when the reasons for giving it are no longer present, i.e., when the sums advanced are repaid. The equity of redemption is treated as an item of property which the mortgagor is free to dispose of—it is the right to reconveyance when the security is discharged or repayment of the loan. 26 Under the Ordinance No. 3 of 1844, all transactions in and concerning land, as well as judgments, wills and so on which involve land, must be registered in the Land Office. A transaction is quite effective even if the Ordinance is not complied with but subsequent purchasers or persons having dealings with property automatically have notice of any registered transaction which will therefore take precedence even over prior unregistered transactions. 27 Ong Chok may in fact have been Ong Lok. The latter frequently dealt in property and is described in Memorials as a 'compradore'. He had extensive property interests in the Taipingshan district. 28 Memorial 384. 29 Memorial 385. 30 Memorial 418. 31 The Chinese used then and still do use to a certain limited extent a lunar calendar. 32 Friend of China, 23 June 1849. 33 Memorial 541. 34 Lease Register Vol. C, f. 219. 35 Lease Register Vol. F, ff. 38 and 47. 36 It was suggested that Chinese merchants were not averse to bribery because they were accustomed to bribing Chinese Government officials. 37 But it should be noted that there are a good many lots in the Taipingshan area in which there were no recorded dealings for a good many years. It is unlikely that there were no dealings at all. It is more likely that the dealings were simply not recorded. 38 Towards the end of the 1840's and in the early 1850's the number of non-residents investing in property in the colony rose markedly, most of them coming from those districts of Kwantung Province adjoining Hong Kong and Macao. The Taiping rebellion may have caused some part of the flow of capital. ================================================================================ 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-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r YAUMATEI TYPHOON SHELTER, HONG KONG 39 course of that storm; but clearly the turning point in the typhoon refuge scheme had now been reached. On the 6th August, 1908 the Governor submitted for the acceptance of the Council the following resolution. Be it resolved that on and from 1st January, 1909 the owner, agent or master of every ship entering the waters of the Colony shall pay the following dues to such officer as the Governor may from time to time appoint. For all river steamers 5/6 ths of a cent per ton register. All other ships entering the waters of the Colony 2 cents per ton register. The Yaumatei typhoon shelter was therefore to be financed by an impost placed on shipping entering Colony waters. The prolonged arguments of the preceding years as to how the Colony was to find the money for the new typhoon shelter were resolved by the introduction of this impost. It was not to be anticipated that such a proposal as this, hitherto objected to by commercial interests, would pass without strong justification for it being advanced by His Excellency himself, and he did this in the course of a speech at the next meeting of the Council on 20th August, 1908. Thereafter matters continued apace. On the 25th February, 1909 a report on the proposed boat shelter at Mong Kok Tsui was tabled and in August 1909 the first reading of an Ordinance to authorize the construction and maintenance of a harbour refuge and the extinguishment of various marine rights was introduced to Council. Thereafter another altercation broke out in the Council on the introduction of the Liquor Ordinance which was to provide for the collection of duties upon intoxicating spirits, so it was not until October, 1909 that the matter of the typhoon shelter could next be proceeded with. However all submissions to the Legislative Council were finally completed in November, 1909. Nearly a year later, in October 1910, the Director of Public Works advised members of Council that a contract worth just over 2 million dollars had been let concerning the construction of the detached breakwater, and completion was anticipated in five years. In 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914 work on the typhoon refuge continued steadily as the papers tabled before the Council indicate. Europe became engulfed in the First World War, but largely unaffected the life of the Colony continued, as did steady progress on the develop- Page 45 Page 46 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r EARLY STEAMSHIPS IN CHINA 49 Alexander and Company of Calcutta. In 1846 she was bought by Jardine, Matheson and Company, and remained in their service until she was lost in the early 1870s. In 1835, Jardine, Matheson and Company brought out the small steamer Jardine, intending to run her as a passenger and dispatch boat between Canton, Lintin, and Macao. She arrived at Lintin on 20th September 1835, but was never allowed to run on the river. The Canton Register of 13th November described one of her first excursions, contributed by a passenger. We all assembled on board the steamer Jardine, alias 'fast ship Greig' (the name of her captain), and getting under weigh went round the different vessels lying in the anchorage, some of whom cheered the little craft on her experimental trip; she then started to make a tour of the island, which she accomplished in a little better than an hour; on her return she made another circuit round the shipping, and being cheered returned the compliment with a salute. It was indeed a pleasing scene; to see the velocity with which the little vessel (although not at her full power) ploughed the waters of the deep, and the readiness with which she answered her helm; to hear the echo of the music (which was kindly supplied by the commanding officer of the Balcarres, and which continued to play during the trip) reverberating from the adjacent hills, and made more distinct still by the still calm of the evening; to see the setting sun gilding the western horizon with his last, expiring rays; the shipping at anchor; the blue hills which on nearly every side bounded the view; the whole scene being heightened by the presence of the colleens, produced a calm in the mind, foreign to those engaged in the busy world; indeed, here you might have beheld in the reality all that the speculative imagination of the lover of romance could picture to itself. Unfortunately, Chinese reaction was much less enthusiastic. No reply was received to a letter signed by all the foreign merchants at Canton and sent to the hoppo through Howqua, the senior hong merchant; which requested permission for the Jardine to run on the river as an unarmed passenger boat. Eventually a trial run from Lintin to Canton was attempted, but the Jardine was fired on from the forts on both sides of the Bogue, and a Chinese district official who was approached said that the orders were peremptory that the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 The Hong Kong Region 127 surprising that the Governor of Hong Kong wrote to London in April 1899, "The Tai Po district is well known in Canton to be turbulent, that to the northeast of Mirs Bay being noted for piracy, and so ill-disposed that I am informed no Customs Official dares to land there except with the support of a revenue cruiser". When making his farewell speech to the Legislative Council of the Colony four years later, he described its residents as 'a large agricultural population with a reputation for turbulence .... and with a rooted objection to any interference with their settled habits or customs'.2 Smuggling was common throughout the region, whether of salt or opium. The older villagers admit to their complicity in these varied activities: an old man born on Lamma Island in 1883 told me in 1960, with a twinkle in his eye, that he had been in all lines of business. During all this time the situation in inland areas of the hsien was apparently no better than on the sea and coast. The situation in the late 1850s was described in eloquent terms by the German missionary Krone who had been in the area since his arrival in China in 1850. He spoke of the large bands of robbers which frequently pass to and from through the country pillaging the villages and parties of travellers ....3 He explained that 'when the Mandarins intend to levy taxes, they announce their intention to the gentry of the villages, one or two weeks, or sometimes a month, before their arrival. They then make a progress through the district, accompanied by a sufficient force to protect themselves against large bands of robbers, which sometimes have the audacity to attack the tax collectors if the escort be not strong'.4 He emphasised 'how troubled and insecure the normal condition of this district is, and for a very long time has been'.5 Krone then noted an additional, and in southeast China characteristic, source of insecurity. 'Not only are robbers and pirates to 1 SP, 1899, p. 528. 2 Hansard, 1903, p. 53. 3 Krone, p. 114. 4 Krone, p. 119. 5 Krone, p. 114. The wider area bore no better reputation. Writing of the Tan-shui district of neighbouring Kwei-shin hsien, the Hong Kong Daily Telegraph of 13th March 1879, quoting from the Catholic Register stated ".... now and then the Chinese authority has to send some military Mandarins with extraordinary powers to clear the place by taking up a good number of robbers: and only last year the great military Mandarin told one of our Missionaries that of one village he has dozens of names in view for the next execution". ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES 183 road,” now Victoria city, and So Kwun Po (7). From the fact that these references occurred in the Leung Ch'aak (##) or Register Book of Tung Kwun district, one may judge that the land was owned by the Tangs before the 1st year of Maan Lik, A.D. 1525, as after that the San On district was formed. To the East of Shui Mei village there is an ancestral Hall called Mau King T'ong (N). It was built by the descendants of Tang Chan (1) Tang Yui (*) and Tang Kuen (#) the three younger brothers of Tang Yam (3) the father of Tang Tsing Lok. When the descendants of Tang Yam completed the building of Sz Shing Tong, the descendants of the three younger brothers felt it was a disgrace that there were no ancestral halls for their respective ancestors. However they were far from being rich, so they decided to combine together and build one hall under the leadership of Tang Man Wai (4X4), who was a man of rank and a descendant of Tang Chan. On the top of the front door they carved the characters §; › §¡› ✯ ✯✯ “Chan, Yui, Kuen, the three Ancestors Hall," and on a signboard the three big characters ✯✯ Mau King Tong, were written by Ts'oi Hok Yuen (4) a scholar of San On, and hung in the hall in the 22nd year of Ka Hing, A.D. 1817, of Ts'ing dynasty. The reason why the name Mau King Tong was chosen was on account of the old story "Tin Shi King fa fook mau” ( # A#*M*) “the Judas-tree of T'in family again becomes luxuriant." The story is as follows:-- T'in Chan (₪) and his two younger brothers T'in Hing (w A) and T'in Kwong (□), natives of Chiu Shing district (#K) of Shantung, during the Hon dynasty, decided to divide their family property between them. Among other things, they owned a Tsz King (**), judas tree, and the evening before the dividing up was to take place they found to their surprise that the tree was withered. This upset T'in Chan's feelings very much, he sighed and said to his younger brothers, "The different branches of the tree come from one root; now that they have heard that they are to be divided up, they have become melancholy and look sorrowful. Now we brothers are human beings, but although we have separate bodies we all came from the same parents, so why should we divide the family property and live separately? Do we not feel ashamed in seeing the appearance of this tree?" Then the younger brothers were moved by this, and they never mentioned the idea of dividing the family property ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d THE GREAT PLAGUE OF HONG KONG 67 disease to man remained a mystery and the two Japanese researchers could only conclude that the bacillus was drawn from the air by breathing. Further investigations soon established a positive relationship between the incidence of plague first among rats and subsequently among man. On this account, Simpson reported in 1902 that “no success is likely to accrue from the adoption of any measure limited to dealing with plague in human beings and which does not take cognizance of the fact that plague in rats and mice also disseminates the infection. It does not serve any very useful purpose to remove the sick and cleanse everything in the infected houses and above the ground if the infection is being carried by plague-stricken rats from house to house or district to district by the subterranean movements of rats, whether this be effected by rat burrows or by sewers and drains. Both rat and human plague possess infective powers and each can spread the disease not only to its own species but also to the other”.* Simpson could offer no explanation as to the medium of infection although he did make a number of observations as to the conditions which appeared to favour the spread of the disease. In particular, he drew attention to the extremely crowded and insanitary conditions under which the majority of the Chinese population lived, the virtually unrestricted migration of thousands of people from infected areas in China to Hong Kong, and the fact that the colony served as a great emporium with hongs and godowns filled with stores and infested with rats. Simpson saw the solution to the problem by way of the strict enforcement of various preventive measures. Besides the already well-established procedures for the disinfection of houses, public latrines, and the like, he recommended in 1902 the appointment of medical men in every health district to register cases and find out causes of the disease. He also urged the strict control over the disposal of dead bodies in the street and harbour, and, to this end, suggested the enforcement of collective fines on all households in any street where a dead body was discovered. He further saw the necessity for the bacteriological examination of rats as part of an * First Memorandum from W. J. Simpson, M.D., to James Stewart Lockhart, Sanitary Board Office, 20th January 1902, p. 1 in Blue Book Reports on Bubonic Plague 1894-1907. Page 75 Page 76 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d EMPLOYMENT OF FOREIGN MILITARY TALENT 63 See Smith, "Foreign-Training,” 83-86. 64 Ward and other foreigners in the Chinese military service are studied in depth in Smith, Ward, Gordon and the Ever-Victorious Army. 65 For basic Chinese documentation on Ward's career, see IWSM TC 4: 25-276; 4: 40a; 4; 51b-52; 5: 6b-8b; 5: 33-36b; 5: 51-52; 5: 54; 6: 2a-b; 6: 14b; 6: 17b-18; 6: 19b-20; 6: 30-31; 7; 47b-48b; 9; 3-4. 66 IWSM TC 79: 11. 67 Ibid., TC 4: 25-26; see also John K. Fairbank, "The Early Treaty System," 270. 68 IWSM, TC 5: 33-36b; 5: 51-52; 6: 19b-20; 6: 30a-b. 69 Li Hung-chang, Letters to Friends, 1: 29. 70 Foreign Relations of the United States (1888), part 1, 211-217. 71 IWSM, TC 6: 17. 72 Ibid., TC 9; 3b. 73 Ibid., TC 9: 4. 74 Ching Wu and Chung Ting, eds., Wu Hsu tang-an chung ti T'al-p'ing r'ien-kuo shih-liao hsüan-chi [Selections of historical materials concerning the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Wu Hsu's archives] (Peking, 1958), 128-129, 75 See Martin Ring, "The Burgevine Case and Extrality in China, 1863-1866," Papers on China 20 (1969). In mid-1863, Prince Kung requested that Burgevine be expunged from the Chinese population register. See IWSM, TC 17: 136 and 20b. 76 Ring, 145-146, 156 note 70. 77 IWSM, TC 10: 46-49. 78 Ibid., TC 10: 50a-b. 79 Ibid., TC 15: 10b-11. 80 I have discussed this combination in Ward, Gordon and the Ever Victorious Army. For some indications of Li's approach, consult J. O. P. Bland, Li Hung-chang (New York, 1917); I. C. Cheng, Chinese Sources for the Taiping Rebellion, 1850-1864 (Hong Kong, 1963), 120-132; Gordon Papers (British Museum), Ad. Mss. 53, 386, Robert Hart to Charles Gordon, October 7, 1863. 81 See, for example, Feng Kuei-fen's Hsien-chih-r'ang chi [Collected essays from the Hall of Manifest Aspirations] (1876), 6: 46. 82 IWSM, TC 22; 3b; 24: 29a-b; 25: 27b-28b; 27: 28-29. On Gordon's return to China in 1880 to assist Li during the so-called Ili Crisis, consult Immanuel C. Y. Hsü, "Gordon in China, 1880," Pacific Historical Review 30.2 (May, 1964). 83 See Kuo T'ing-i, Taiping t'ien-kuo shih-shih jih-chih (A daily record of historical events of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom] (Taipei, 1963), appendix, 165-167. 84 See Smith, "Foreign-Training". 85 See Mary Wright, The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism: The T’ung-Chih Restoration, 1862-1874 (New York, 1967), 216; IWSM, TC 16; 11; 39; 22-29; 70: 38a-b and 41-42b; 85: 39a-b; 87; 31, 34-35. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q IN SEARCH OF THE CHINESE NAME FOR “LI SUN” 111 Lo Hsiang-lin's book translated into English, Hong Kong and Western Cultures (Hong Kong, 1963) which gave this same official name for the interpreter of the Chinese Educational Mission, Thus, it may well be concluded that Chan Laisun was the name given at his birth in Singapore and Tseng Heng-chung was his official name in later years. It is hoped that this article about the search for a Chinese name will stimulate a response from relatives and friends of Tseng Lan-sheng (Tseng Heng-chung) and bring forth corrections and additions to the story of an unusual person and family who lived during the early historical period of China and American cross-cultural exchanges.9 NOTES 1 See pp. 92-106 of JHKBRAS 16 (1976). 2 William N. Armstrong, Around the World with a King (London: Heineman, 1909), pp. 92-93. 3 Tin-Yuke Char, The Sandalwood Mountains: Readings and Stories of the Early Chinese in Hawaii (Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1975), pp. 44-51. 4 Yung Wing, My Life in China and America (New York: Holt, 1909), p. 183. 5 容閎自傳:西學東漸記, 台北文海出版社 1973 重印, 6 Carl T. Smith, "A Register of Baptised Protestant Chinese, 1813 - 1842," Chung Chi Bulletin, December 1970, pp. 23-26; Smith, "Idols on a School Hill: the American Board School for Chinese Boys in Singapore, 1835-1842,” Chung Chi Bulletin, December 1974, pp. 28-30. 7 舒新城編: 近代中國留學史, 上海中華書局 1933. 8 羅香林著: 香港與中西文化交流, 9 Tsung-1 Dow, Chronological Biography of Li Hung-chang - 著: 李鴻章年, 香港友聯社, 1968 does not include King Kalakaua's visit in 1881 nor does it mention Chan Laisun (Tseng Heng-chung), although otherwise most comprehensive. Mr. Char has since added the following extra note: It would add great interest should Hamilton College be able to find Chan Laisun's family photograph of 1872. Also, some one in Hong Kong may be able to add to the family story of his son Spencer who married the daughter of the Rev. Ho Fuk-tong of Hong Kong. Probably Carl Smith has additional materials and will write the next article. The October 1975 issue of Smithsonian carried a good article on Li Hung-chang's visit to New York in August 1896, accompanied by 18 aides and 2 servants, 300 pieces of luggage, a golden sedan chair, several cargoes of song-birds, 2 noisy parrots. He brought along his own chefs, bakers, valets, guards, footmen, secretaries, interpreters, and physician. His chief interpreter was then Lo Fing-luh, a skilled linguist in German and French as well as English. There was no mention of Chan Laisun as an interpreter or secretary. Perhaps by that time he had gone on to other work or may have died. In 1896 he would have been 67 years old (born 1829). Editor's note: Carl Smith's article extending the story of Chan Laisun and his family follows on. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q NOTES ON FRIENDS AND RELATIVES OF TAIPING LEADERS 119 point to Feng as the more active leader in the movement's initial phases. An account given of him by a deserter from the Taiping army and a former member of Gützlaff's Chinese Christian Union, published in The Hong Kong Register, 27 September, 1853, states that when he met Feng in Kwangsi, they recognized each other as fellow members of the Union. According to the account, Feng had studied under Gützlaff. I have carefully gone over the rather detailed reports Gützlaff sent back to Germany reporting the activities of the Chinese Christian Union, hoping that he might have mentioned Feng, but I was unable to find him named. Gützlaff, however, does report trips made by his workers into Kwangsi, where they preached and distributed tracts. These reports were published in the Calwer Missionsblatt and Gaihan's Berichte. When Hung Hsiu-ch'uan left Roberts and Canton in the late spring of 1847, he travelled to Kwangsi in search of Feng, arriving there in August. In the Journal of Roberts published in the Southern Baptist Missionary Journal, vol. 2, no. 10 (March 1848), under date of 25 June, 1847, Roberts states that two of his followers were appointed to visit the inquirer Hung in a different province. Several efforts were initiated to bring the families and followers of the Taiping leaders to Kwangsi from Kwangtung, but the plans were frustrated by the authorities. Some were caught and imprisoned, others scattered and fled. The friends and relatives of the leaders of the Taipings were rooted out of their native districts and at the same time cut off from the troops of the Rebellion as it advanced from Kwangsi to Nanking. Some appear to have had branches of their clan settled in Hsin-an District, adjacent to Hong Kong. Many of the people moved in and out of Hong Kong. These movements left traces in the reports and records of the Missions, but they are not complete enough to provide a comprehensive account. The various adventures and travels of Hung Jen-kan before he reached Nanking in 1856 are documented in the writings of Jen Yu-wen. For an English language account see his The Taiping Revolutionary Movement (New Haven, 1973). A few additional details are provided by missionary archival sources. In 1852, Hung Jen-kan was brought to Hong Kong by a young tailor from Lilong (Li-lang) in Hsin-an District. He was the grandson of a clansman of Hung, who had befriended Jen-kan in his wanderings. The grandson Fung (Hung?) Sen1 had been under ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 130 CARL T. SMITH 4 London Missionary Society Archives, London, England (hereafter given as L.M.S.A.), South China Box 5, Folder 3, Jacket C, letter of Legge, 26 Sept., 1853, and Jacket D, Yearly Report of the Hong Kong Mission, 25 Jan., 1854. For a brief notice of Keuh A-gong see my article, "A Register of Baptized Protestant Chinese 1813-1842, Chung Chi Bulletin, No. 48 (Dec., 1970), p. 24. For Ng Mun-sow see my article, "Dr. Legge's Theological School", ibid, No. 50 (June, 1971), pp. 16-22. 5 L.M.S.A., South China, Box 6, Folder 2, Jacket C, letter of Legge, 28 Jan., 1869, and Folder 1, Jacket A, letter of Wong Foon, 8 May, 1857. Another missionary estimate of Hung Jen-kan is the testimonial the Rev. John Chalmers sent to the Rev. Rudolph Lechler, Basel Missionary Society Archives (hereafter given as B.M.S.A.), Vol. IV, 1857-1862, letter dated, London Mission House, Hong Kong, 24 Dec., 1857: “I have great pleasure in giving my testimony to the Christian character of Hung Jin, the relative of Hung Sew Tauen, who, since his return from Shanghai in the year 1854, has been in the employment of our mission; first as a Christian teacher, and afterwards as a preacher and assistant missionary. His general behaviour has been such as becomes the Gospel; the work which we have given him to do, he has always executed to our satisfaction and not only so, but his zeal for the promotion of the cause of Christ has been marked. He is a young man of superior abilities, and I hope he may yet be honoured to labour successfully in the preaching of the gospel to his countrymen for many years. 6 L.M.S.A., South China, Box 6, Folder 1, Jacket B, letter of Chalmers, 5 June, 1858. 7 L.M.S.A., South China, Box 6, Folder 1, Jacket C, letter of Legge and Chalmers, 11 Jan., 1859, with enclosure of translation of letter of Hung Jan: "Translation of Hung Jan's last letter, sent from Shanghai by Mr. Muirhead, who received it from a Chinaman who had been with Lord Elgin's expedition up the Yangtze. He wrote in 170 or 180 miles on that river below Hankow." Letters from "Shau Kwan, Nan Gan [both on the north boundary of Kwangtung], one from the capital of Keangse, one from imperialist camp at Yaou Chow [in north of Keangse]" are mentioned as having been written by Hung Jen-kan. 8 L.M.S.A., South China, Box 6, Folder 2, Jacket C, letter of Legge, 24 Aug., 1860, and Folder 3, Jacket B, letter of Legge, 14 Jan., 1861. 9 L.M.S.A., South China, Box 6, Folder 1, Jacket A, letter of Legge and Chalmers, 14 Jan., 1857. 10 L.M.S.A., Legge Family Papers, letter of 28 Mar., 1861 and 24 Mar., 1871. 11 For identification of Hung K'uei Hsiu see Jen (Chien) Yu-wan “**太平£Ø*^£$*M”, (Record of Visit with Descendants of the Taiping Hung Family) ***@** (Taiping Kingdom Miscellany), No. 4, and * Lo Hsiang-lin, (Historical Sources for the Study of the Hakkas), (Hong Kong, 1965), p. 409, 12 B.M.S.A., Hong Kong School Report, 14 Feb. 1875, "Teacher Schui Thin will shortly change places with Fung Khui-syu in Tschong Hang Kang, because the last as a son of a Tai Ping Rebellion King, cannot stay anymore in the mainland without danger to the life of himself and family." 13 B.M.S.A., Hong Kong School Report, 16 Apr. 1873, and Die Evangelischen Heidenboten, Jan., 1866, letter of Lechler, 2 Oct, 1865. 14 B.M.S.A., Chinese Mission Yearly Report 1885. The ship Dartmouth left Hong Kong 25 Dec., 1878 and arrived at Georgetown, British Guiana on 17 Mar., 1879. Among its 516 emigrants were seventy Christians. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 132 CARL T. SMITH The fourth son, Li Shen-en alias Li Syong-kong, was baptized in Hong Kong in 1859. Following the footsteps of his father, he served as Catechist in the Sai Ying Poon Hakka Congregation from 1883 to 1888. He then emigrated to Sabah, North Borneo, where, under the auspices of the Basel Missionary Society, he organized a congregation of Hakkas. He married Lin Loi-kyau, a daughter of Rev. Lin Khi-len. She was a teacher at the Girl's Boarding School at Sai Ying Poon from 1882 to 1894. Li Tsin-kau had one daughter, Li En Kyau, born in 1860 and baptized as an infant. She attended the Sai Ying Poon School and also taught there from 1877 to 1902; in addition, she did volunteer church work among the women. The services rendered by the several generations of the Li family to the congregations and schools of the Basel Society well repaid the initial interest and attention given to the young Li Tsin-kau when he first turned up in Hong Kong in 1853 as one displaced because of his connection with the leader of the Tai Ping movement. Details of the family are largely taken from Archives of the Basel Society and a mimeographed Geschichte der Hongkonger Gemeinden kindly lent to me by Mr. James Hayes. JEN YU-WEN'S ADDITIONAL NOTES Professor Jen Yu-wen (MX), the eminent and lifelong historian of the Taiping rebellion, has kindly added the following notes: (1) Feng & Gützlaff Aside from this account [i.e., from the Hong Kong Register, 27th September 1853], there were a few others alleging that Feng, having been taught and baptized by Gützlaff, was a member of his Chinese Christian Union (4). Nevertheless, I find great difficulty in believing this story. First, there is no documentary evidence supporting it. Secondly, a careful checking on the time that Gützlaff founded and promoted the Union since 1844 does not permit Feng, who went to Kwangsi with Hung Hsiu-Ch'üan also in 1844, to come to Hong Kong to establish any relationship with Gützlaff, as Feng was at the same time busy running the affairs and directing the activities of the God-worshippers' Association in Kwangsi. There is no persuasive evidence that Feng and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 260 MAURICE FREEDMAN are discarded, inscriptions neglected. I have already referred to the cast out stone in the Tin Hau Temple in Tai Po Kau Hui. The stock of genealogy books and old land deeds is being fast depleted by loss and decay. The apparatus of ancestral halls is in many cases being allowed to disintegrate. (I came across a village where only the initiative of the Village Representative restored to the ancestral halls the honours boards which villagers had filched to make beds). Now people are at liberty to do what they like about their past and I am not in favour of any artificial antiquarianism; but it is surely a good argument that both the world at large and their own future generations will be grateful to the New Territories people for the preservation of their historical relics. Would it not be possible for the Administration to undertake to register all monuments, to collect unwanted documents, to copy those which their owners are unwilling to part with, and generally to preserve what can stand as a witness to the past of an interesting corner of civilisation? I am told that it is the intention of the new City Hall Museum in Hong Kong to start collecting at some future date objects illustrating the art and material culture of the New Territories, but I fear that if action is long delayed there may be little to survive. 101. I have covered many subjects in this report and made a number of suggestions for research. In many cases I have implied the degree of priority I should give to particular kinds of investigation, but I have not attempted to offer a neat arrangement of subjects on a scale of usefulness, because it is for the Administration and not me to say what is more or less important to its needs. I have tried to indicate the kinds of research that I should sponsor if I were in a position to do so and within the limits of the talent and money at our disposal my colleagues and I hope to be able to pursue some of the investigations I have proposed. If the New Territories Administration is interested in the private research to be undertaken and should itself wish to sponsor investigations then a plan could be drawn up to co-ordinate more closely the needs of the Administration with the interests of the social scientists. Hong Kong, Singapore May-July 1963. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n TWO ESSAYS ON THE CH'ING ECONOMY OF HSIN-AN 67 12 Lockhart lists 255 villages occupied by Hakkas, with a total population of 36,070 in the Tung Lo in 1898. Assuming a population of 250,000 for the total district in 1900, Hsin-An probably had a Hakka population of around 90,000. 13 Rawski's bibliography in Agricultural Change and the Peasant Economy of South China offers the most complete listing of works bearing on perpetual tenancy. p. 64. 14 CSO280/04 Extension. See note 4, Essay 2. 15 Hsu T'ien-tai, Fu Chien Wen Hua (福建文化), Vol. 1, No. 1, (1941), 16 Correspondence Respecting Affairs of China, March 1898-September 1900. "Report on the New Territory at Hong Kong," (Presented to both Houses of Parliament, November 1900) p. 19. 17 The Shih Chien T'ang Chia P'u (世鑑堂家譜), a collection of genealogies from Kam Tin, gives the following settlements of lineal descendants in Tung Kuan: Chuh Yuan (竹園), Yen Tien (燕田), Fu Lung (福龍), Huai Te (懷德), Shih Ching (石井), Tu Kao (土高), and Ping Hu (平湖). 18 "These clans gain their local influence, not through numbers alone, but owing to the fact that certain of their numbers have official rank, gained through competitive examinations, or obtained by purchase, which keeps them in touch with the Magistrate and even higher officials." Correspondence Respecting Affairs of China ibid., p. 20. The Shih Chien T'ang Chia P'u records that, from Cheng Hua (Ming Dynasty) to Tao Kwang (Ch'ing Dynasty)—that is, from roughly 1470-1820—fourteen Kam Tin Tangs passed the state examination. Several of these became office holders. Another indicator of gentry connections with officialdom was the construction, in Kam Tin, of a temple (祠堂) dedicated to the two officials (Chou Yu-te (周有德) and Wang Lai-jen (王來任)) who petitioned the Emperor, on behalf of the inhabitants of the coastal areas, to allow resettlement. 19 Introduction to the Nan Yang Tang Shih Tsu P'u (南陽堂世族譜), compiled by the Ping Shan Tangs. 20 Sung Hok-P'ang, in his articles on the Kam Tin Tangs in the Hong Kong Naturalist, claims to have seen references to Tang lands on Hong Kong in the Land Register (土地冊) of Tung Kuan. "One may judge that the land was owned by the Tangs before the first year of Maan Lik, AD 1525, (sic) as after that the San On District was formed” (Vol. VIII, nos. 3 and 4). 21 HKTCSMTC, "Details of Cultivated Land” (耕地詳情). 22 ibid. 23 The landlord clans were often referred to by the British as "first cultivators." See, for instance, CSO3172/1915 cited in the essay on tax-lordism. 24 Correspondence Respecting Affairs in China, ibid., p. 16. 25 Hsin-An Hsien-chih, ch'uan 8. 26 In this regard, note the high degree of correlation among the different "tax-burdens" in Table II. One is tempted to speculate that a native formula for the conversion of rent rates from tax-rates existed. 27 In the 1934 edition of the Chung-Kuo Ch'ing-chi Nien-chien (中國經濟年鑑), chapter 7 (Chinese Tenancy Systems), contains the following description of the Fen Chih Chih (分種制) system, a form of perpetual lease found in the East River counties of the Kwangchow Prefecture: "This ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 68 J. T. KAMM system of land distribution had its origins several centuries ago. At the time when the land was distributed, the tenant paid the landlord a certain sum; this sum represented the rent which the tenant thereafter handed over each year. The landlord could not increase the rent, nor could the tenant refuse to pay it. Furthermore, the landlord could not investigate his tenants in order to take back the land.” (G236). 28 Data from the land memorials, which register sales of subsurface values, indicate that a one-mow plot of land seldom exceeded 6 taels during the late 18th century. As we shall see later in the text, these prices necessarily remained constant into the 19th century. In the Hong Kong Almanack and Directory for 1846, we learn that the tenants valued each mow of rice paddy at $40.00 (1 tael = 1.11 Mexican dollars in 1846). Granted that tenants made good profits from the sale of land, still this example tends to illustrate the great potential disparity between the two values. (Hong Kong Almanack and Directory for 1846, Note on the Island of Hong Kong by A. R. Johnston; written in 1843). 29 Correspondence Respecting Affairs in China, ibid., p 7. 30 CSO306/1899 Extension; "With reference to the petition of Tang Yung Ping and others they naturally, at present, prefer the old feudal system of payment of rent in kind." 31 HKTCSMTC: Hong Kong Almanack, “Note on the Island of HK”. 32 CSO150/1901 gives a detailed account of these negotiations. 33 In general, the maintenance of perpetual tenancy systems presupposes the existence of communal landownership. The British found over 25% of all lots held in clan names in 1898; later Chinese sources place the estimate at 30%. These figures are probably not reliable for the earlier part of the century. The Tangs, as we have seen, held landlord rights over all of Hong Kong Island. They similarly held over 60% of the territory in Kowloon ceded to Britain in 1860, Land in North Kowloon was lost by "fraudulent sale” in 1898 (CSO2982/1898). Other clans, besides the Tangs, apparently lost sizable tracts as “individual initiative” replaced clan solidarity throughout the period, 34 CSO150/1901. 35 CSO109/1902. 36 Nan Yang Tang Shih Tsu P'u, "Notes on Land Tax." 37 Correspondence Respecting Affairs in China, ibid., p 18. ESSAY II: TAXLORDISM The peasants and gentry of Hsin-An witnessed two concrete manifestations of the growing power of foreign countries in China during the waning years of the nineteenth century. In April 1887, the Kowloon Customs House of the Imperial Maritime Customs was established under provisions of the Anglo-Chinese Opium Agreement of September 1886. As was the case with all customs houses established during the era, supervision of the revenue stations was entrusted to a European career officer in Sir Robert Hart's service, J. McLeavy Brown. A great expansion in customs activity ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 228 NOTES AND QUERIES A FURTHER NOTE ON FENG YUN-SHAN AND GÜTZLAFF Since the publication of my Additional Notes on Carl T. Smith's Notes on Friends and Relatives of Taiping Leaders in the last issue of this Journal (Vol. 16, 1976: 132-134) I have acquired some fresh materials on Feng's relationship with Gützlaff (Additional Note (1)). The material is found in Prescott Clarke's paper The Coming of God to Kwangsi (Department of Far Eastern History, The Australian National University, No. 7, March, 1973) and Carl T. Smith's copy of "The full report of a Taiping deserter" from the Hong Kong Overland Register, 27th September 1853. A critical study of the contents therein enables me to arrive at a more definite conclusion on the subject under discussion. Clarke's able and well-written paper deals with the life and works of Karl Gützlaff on the basis of exhaustive research in Europe and Hong Kong. He believes that Gützlaff's influence on the Taipings has either been "dismissed or forgotten" (p. 147). Its title suggests the close contact of Gützlaff's work with the promotion of Christianity in Kwangsi, but immediately calls for clarification. Should it imply that the worship of God was mainly, if not wholly, through the introduction of Gützlaff's work, it seems to me that the credit due him is overestimated. Undoubtedly, a few points in the paper which are well-documented and verified can be accepted as Gützlaff's contribution to Taiping Christianity. For example, there were six stations established in Kwangsi in 1848-50, including Kwei-ping, each being run by a few members of the Chinese Union as a unit. Some members did join the Taipings after the uprising in 1851, but they could only hold unimportant positions in the lower echelon thus being unable to exert any significant influence on the movement. Indeed, they had to forsake what had been taught by Gützlaff and assimilate the Christian faith and obey the military rulings of the Taipings. However, a decidedly significant and valuable contribution that Gützlaff made to the Taipings was the use of his version of the translated Bible and some tracts he had written. Through the new version of the Bible the Taipings adopted the term "Huang Shang Ti" (1) for God a term which Gützlaff had borrowed from the Chinese ancient classics. This process identified the Chinese God with the Christian God more closely than the term "Shang Ti". ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n NOTES AND QUERIES 229 Concerning the Taiping leader's relation with Gützlaff's Union, Clarke draws a conclusion which cannot be lightly accepted; i.e. "it is more likely that Feng Yun-shan visited Gützlaff, and was possibly baptized by him in 1848” (p. 164). It appears that the only seemingly persuasive evidence that he could produce is an "eyewitness" who claimed to be a "deserter" from the Taiping ranks in Hunan. This man had been a Union member before being dismissed in 1851. He returned to Hong Kong in 1853 announcing publicly that he had joined the Taipings in Hunan and that Feng Yun Shan was pleased to recognize their old acquaintance (p. 165). He was appointed a low officer. Afterwards he deserted and returned to Hong Kong. The Register published his report on 27th September, 1853. (Carl T. Smith refers to the same report but mistakes Kwangsi for Hunan). It can be easily shown that the whole report was a fabrication of the poorest quality, for everything he stated therein was false. In the first place, the deserter could never have seen Feng Yun-Shan in Hunan because Feng had died near Chuan-chow in Kwangsi in early June 1852, before the Taiping army entered Hunan. This fact was not known to the outside world until long afterwards, so that it is no wonder he made the false statement. A critical study of the full document reveals the following mistakes point by point. (1) Hung Hsiu-ch'üan was crowned Heavenly King ( ) and the new Kingdom was named Tai-Ping-Tien-Kuo (  ) right after the uprising, and Hung was not called Tai-ping wang'. No title of "Royal Father" was in use, and the Taiping army could not be identified with “Ming” ( ) which was only used by the Triads. (2) The Taiping army had not passed through Nan-ning of Kwangsi and Lo-ting of Kwangtung on its northward expedition, but marched directly north from Yung-an through Kweilin to Chuan-chow thereby crossing a mountain path to enter Hunan. (3) The total enrolment of the Taipings at that time was only some tens of thousands, and not several hundred thousands. (4) In the lowest echelon of the Taipings' military organizational system, there was no such rank as "vexillary" such as he claimed to have been appointed to by Feng, but there were four ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 230 NOTES AND QUERIES Liang-ssu-ma (梁司馬) each in command of 25 soldiers, all under the command of a Centurion (Tsu-chiang † †). (5) Chien Chiang, the Chekiang literatus, never joined up with the Taipings, but later enlisted in Lei I-hsien's (†) headquarters in 1853 near Yang-chow. He was shortly afterwards executed by Lei after proposing the Li-kin system of taxation. (6) Lo Ta-kang at the beginning of the uprising was appointed a Chun-Shuai (軍帥) and never appointed Wang (king) or Great General. (7) There were no other two Los each with title of Wang and Assistant General, (8) Yang Hsiu-ch'ing was East King (東王), not Assistant Councillor. He was the number two man in the Tai-Ping-Tien-Kuo next only to the Heavenly King, while Feng Yun-Shan was the number four in rank. (9) The Taiping forces were organized into five main armies, Central, Front, Rear, Left and Right, and was not divided into left and right wings. (10) Concerning religious faith, the deserter knew nothing about the distinguishing features of Taiping Christianity, but reechoed a superficial doctrinization very vaguely recalled from Gützlaff's teaching. For general references to the above historical facts, see my book The Taiping Revolutionary Movement (New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1973) relevant chapters. Thus, it can easily be seen that this ex-member of Gützlaff's Chinese Union, aside from being ignorant of Feng's death, did not know the personnel, itinerary, enrolment numbers, titles, organizational structure, and the Christian religion of the Taipings. In other words, we may reasonably presume that he had never joined up with the Taipings. But his return to Hong Kong with such a false report in 1853 did create a sensation, and provided a seemingly firm ground for general belief in the fable of Feng's relation with Gützlaff. Even the editor of the Register proclaimed "it worthy of credit". Readers generally still ignorant of Taiping affairs of course, took both the account and the connection as bona-fide fact. Clarke states (p. 164) that the first Anglican Bishop of Victoria, George Smith, publicized being informed by a Union Member that Tien-Teh-Wang and Feng Yun-Shan were identical and that Feng had been a member of the Union. He also consulted with Robert ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m EDUCATION AS A BY-PRODUCT OF FISH MARKETING 129 work organisation in 1978; it was found that of 263 respondents living in 4 large typhoon shelters, even though only 17 percent were active fishermen still, only 13 percent were not from fishing families. ** In my conversations with long-term boat-dwellers in Yaumatei and Castle Peak, all of Shui-sheung-yan origin, the problem appeared to be that many had not registered for public housing until their boats were about to fall to pieces, many had for years not even bothered to register as Hong Kong residents. ++ Such organisation as has arisen among the poor ex-fishermen has been very different to that promoted by the F.M.O. Its main aim has been to secure public housing on land for the poor boat-people (not private housing, as is the case with the "Better-living societies"). Methods used have been classic oppositional pressure group tactics: petitions, demonstrations, press conferences. 35 Government reaction, using the extraordinarily wide powers of the Public Order Ordinance, has been uncompromising and often unyielding. "Nevertheless, some groups have succeeded in being rehoused and as they have, of course, so they have ceased to organise and agitate. In consequence, this type of organisation is episodic and ephemeral. Such continuity as it has is given by outside community organisations, especially SoCO, the Society for Community Organisation, a Christian-inspired, privately funded community work group, founded in 1970, which first obtained re-settlement for a group of boat people as early as 1972. They used 200 student volunteers to carry out the survey referred to above. They found in the whole territory some 2,266 boat-people residences: possibly an under-estimate, but well within the limits of the population forced out of the fishing industry since 1971. 37 This survey found many social problems among the boat people. They had to live in dark, difficult and insanitary conditions, without running water, overcrowded because new boats were not allowed. There was usually no electricity. Children were unsafe, and from time to time drowned. Typhoons were an especially dangerous time. Poor educational achievement and low aspirations were also identified as a problem. Attendance at nearby schools was poor. Parents tended to want their children to start earning at an early age. 32.5 percent of the respondents bluntly declared they wanted only primary school education for their children. Another 42.9 percent indicated that it would be impossible without financial help and provision of study facilities for children. (i.e., the “study rooms" which are located in the basements of many Hong Kong public housing estates, which are filled every evening with ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m THE HONG KONG ORIGINS OF DR. SUN YAT-SEN'S ADDRESS TO LI HUNG-CHANG 177 Translation from op. cit., vol. 3, p. 1. # The school was set up in 1870 and was originally named the Diocesan School and Orphanage for Boys and known in its short form as the Diocesan Home. The orphanage was closed in 1896, but the school has continued as the Diocesan Boys' School. Its early history is given in W.T. Featherstone, The Diocesan Boys' School and Orphanage, Hong Kong, 1869 to 1919 (Hong Kong, 1930).* The Central School was set up by the Hong Kong Government in 1862 as a result of a proposal from the famous sinologue James Legge. It was the first government school put directly under the supervision of a government officer recruited from Britain. The school was meant to be a model school for the promotion of teaching of English and Western learning. For its history, see Gevenneth Stokes, Queen's College, 1862–1962 (Hong Kong, 1962). 7 The article was written in 1937, when the early school register was still in the possession of Queen's College. The Yellow Dragon, vol. 37, p. 94. It is still not clear when Sun entered the college. It is generally known that Sun was transferred to Hong Kong in early 1887, but the college was not opened until October of the same year. It is possible that Sun had been transferred to work at the Alice Memorial Hospital as a student before the college was officially opened. For Sun's student life in the college, see Lo Hsiang-lin, Kuo-fu chih ta-hsüeh shih-tai (Chungking, 1945). 10 A brief survey of the significant role of the Central School in this respect is given in Ng Lun Ngai-ha, “Role of Hong Kong Educated Chinese in the Shaping of Modern China”, paper presented to the 8th IAHA Conference, 1980. 11 “For more information on these and other early Hong Kong newspapers, see Ng Lun Ngai-ha, “A Survey of Source Materials in Hong Kong Related to Late Ch'ing China”, Ch'ing-shih wen-t'i, 4, (December 1979), 145–146, appendix A. 12 The China coast newspapers are valuable sources for the study of modern Chinese history. For a brief survey of these materials, see Frank H. H. King and P. Clarke (eds.), A Research Guide to China Coast Newspapers, 1822-1911 (Camb. Mass., 1965). 13 It was said that Sun might have contributed articles to the local newspapers and also to the Wan-kuo kung-pao, of which Cheng Kuan-ying was a patron. See Sun Chung-shan nien-p'u (Peking, 1980), p. 24 and Lo Hsiang-lin, "Kuo-fu yü Ho Chi chüeh-shih ti kuan-hsi", Kuo-fu ti kao-ming kuang-ta (Taipei, 1965), p. 129. 14 The Hao T'ou yueh-k'an 14 and 15 (1947), a magazine published by a secondary school in Chung-shan county, noted that it was first published in the Macao Daily in 1892. Its full text can now be found in Sun Chung-shan Shih Jiao chuan chi (Kuang tung wen shih tzu-liao, Canton, 1891), pp. 271–273. 16 For a brief comparative study of the two letters, see Huang-yen, “Chi-shao Sun Chung-shan 'chih Cheng Tsao-ju shu'”, Li-shih yen-chiu (1980:6), pp. 184–189. 10 For a short description of Ho's life and career in Hong Kong, see Wu Hsing-lin, The Prominent Chinese in Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 1936), II, pp. 1–2. Ho's contributions to the reform movements in China have been studied in a number of works. The more recent ones are Chiu Ling-yeong, The Life and Thought of Sir Kai Ho Kai (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Sydney, 1968) and Tsai Jung-fang, “Comprador Ideologists in Modern China: Ho Kai and Hu ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 218 CARL T. SMITH Sim-ple Assemblies for young he's and shees, Races, Regattas, Croquet, Sunday Teas. But, hark, the Prompters warning whistle blows, And bids me bring my prologue to a close. Some of the local references are lost to us today, but then they brought smiles, if not laughter. A history of the Amateurs picks up some of the lighter side of life in Hong Kong in the past. THE CURTAIN RISES Soon after Hong Kong was established as a British military base in China officialdom encouraged amateur theatricals as a wholesome diversion from the tedium of military life. The first attempt to bring drama to Hong Kong was to have been a combination of professionals and amateurs, but the project came to an abrupt end before it was well under way. A flamboyant Frenchman from Singapore named Gaston Dutronquoy announced in November 1842 that he had obtained the permission of the authorities to erect a theatre "on a grand and imposing scale" behind his tavern, the London Hotel, which was located on Queen's Road. He informed an interested public that though the Theatre was not yet built, the actresses had already arrived. Backed by a claim of official sanction and available talent, Mr. Dutronquoy with his own flair for the theatrical announced "to the nobility, gentry and clergy of this flourishing and opulent Colony that their Theatre is advancing rapidly towards completion. It is on a most splendid scale, and what with the pieces that will be performed, the scenery that will be produced, and the splendid assemblage of rank, beauty and fashion which they hope to be honoured with, there is no doubt but that the blaze of splendour will dazzle the eyes of all beholders". He assured his public that the actresses' "beauties and talents are only to be surpassed † As I wrote this paper more for entertainment than scholarship, I have not included documentation. The notices and reviews of the plays have been found in the local press: The Friend of China, The China Mail, The Hong Kong Register, The Daily Press, The Hong Kong Telegraph and The South China Morning Post. The appended list of performances and dates has been compiled from the same sources. Page 240 Page 241 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 221 The ground had been originally purchased from the Government as a speculative venture by one of Hong Kong's early entrepreneurs, George Duddell. His name is perpetuated in Duddell Street. THE VICTORIA THEATRE Duddell sold the southern half of the lot in March 1846 to the Trustees of the Hong Kong Theatrical Company. They were John Cairns, editor of the Hong Kong Register, Robert Strachan, a small-scale merchant, and Edward Farncomb, Hong Kong's first enrolled solicitor. Two years later, after the building was erected, the Trustees had to convey the lot back to Duddell due to financial difficulties. The new theatre was described as "large and well adapted to the climate, it affords good accommodations both for the dispensers of the drama and the audiences". It was named the Victoria Theatre. The first performance in the new building was on 1 November 1848 under the patronage of H.E. Governor Bonham. The announcement stated that "The Proprietors of the above Theatre, having received assistance from a few young Gentlemen, lovers of the Drama, whose desire is to add to the few amusements of the Colony; the Public are respectfully invited to witness their feeble efforts at an Amateur performance". The programme consisted of "the popular farce, 'The Weathercock', to be succeeded by a comic song, the whole concludes with the Farce, 'The Rival Valets'". Newspaper reviews reported that the Theatre was "well ventilated and brilliantly lighted in short the arrangements and decorations throughout reflect the highest credit on the manager". Unfortunately the Governor was unable to be present due to a recent injury. The reporter remarked that this was "a circumstance to which doubtless is attributable the absence of a number of fair colonists, who would have otherwise graced the occasion. Nevertheless the house was filled with an audience of highest respectability”. "Respectable" audiences were necessary to make the venture ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 259 hope of raising the income of the teachers and improving their conditions of teaching. Annual reports given by the inspectors show a constant cancellation and replacement of the schools on the subsidy list. Numbers of schools receiving subsidy varied from forty to a hundred before World War II. More direct supervision was exercised from 1921 onwards when the 1913 Education Ordinance, which required all schools with nine pupils or more to register with the government, was applied to the New Territories. In 1926, a government Vernacular Normal School was set up in Taipo in the hope of "producing capable vernacular teachers for the country districts."20 Political events and cultural movements in China during the first few decades of the 20th century brought about important changes in traditional Chinese educational concepts. Modern schools were set up alongside the traditional ssu-shu, and the classical primers were revised or replaced by new sets of textbooks, the first stage in a major change in the contents and aim of education. This process of modernization, coupled with the changes induced by the economic and social pressures mentioned above, led to changes in the education provided and the level and types of popular literacy achieved in this village community at Sheung Shui which can be documented in some detail. The first departure from traditional educational practices in Sheung Shui was the beginning of female education. For a long time, education was confined to boys only. Amongst the five old ladies above the age of 76 whom we interviewed, all admitted that they were unable to read and write, and they had no knowledge of any woman of their age who had been to school. According to the male informants, they did not see any girls attending class in the village until the first girls' school was opened in 1912, and neither had they any knowledge of girls being tutored at home. The first two ladies resident in the village who were known to be literate came to the village from outside and had received their education in Hong Kong. They were sisters, one of whom had married an early Christian convert from the village who became, in time, a pioneer in the promotion of modern education in the district. Our informants admitted, "In spite of our efforts in building study halls and securing success in the civil ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v In fact a pair of monkeys liked the place and seemed to want to join up. They would scamper all around the house as if they owned it. However, as they were not housebroken they were a nuisance. One day a very religious monkey was found in the chapel. He ran into the sacristy and the door was slammed on him. Then the tennis net was brought up to capture him. The door was flung open, and in charged the priests with the net flying. The monkey was so frightened that he smashed right through the window and disappeared in the woods. Apparently he had decided he didn't want to be a monk after all. There were no great incidents at the house till the war came in 1941. Incidentally, I was ordained in 1941 and arrived in Hong Kong the night before Pearl Harbor on the last of the Pan Am Flying Clippers. And today happens to be the anniversary of the starting of the war! It was dusk on that Dec. 7th as we drove from the airfield out to Stanley, so we didn't see much of the city. Next morning when I was saying Mass in the lower chapel, there were big explosions and the altar jumping around. I thought this is probably the way they start every day in the East. Then when I came down to breakfast, the news had been received on the radio that the Japanese were attacking Hong Kong. We also got the first uncensored reports on Pearl Harbor. As the Japanese army gradually conquered Hong Kong Island, many refugees came to take shelter in the house. The Salesian Fathers had brought out a group of orphans and taken over a part of the house. Some military were also quartered in the house. With us nine new arrivals, the staff etc. there were some thirty people. The war started on Monday, so on Tuesday we as aliens had to go downtown to register. The bus went through Aberdeen, right past Mt. Davis, a big British military installation. The Japanese were bombing this all day, and so we spent practically all day jumping on and off buses, diving into the gutters along the roadside or darting into air raid shelters. We arrived in town just in time to catch the last bus home. However, after dark, the bus only went as far as Repulse Bay and we had to walk the rest of the way. With us were two Carmelite Sisters who had been to town to buy provisions for the siege. As we came down the road into Stanley ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v REVD. CARL T. SMITH'S NOTES ON THE SO KON PO VALLEY AND VILLAGE So Kon Po can be translated as "the straw broom plain", or possibly, "the straw broom landing place". The valley is a pocket with hills closing in at its seaward end. The hill to the north is the site of Tai Hang Village and Tiger Balm Garden. To the south-west is Jardine's Lookout, and to the south-east is Caroline Hill. There are two principal roads, both circular, the Eastern Hospital Road and the Caroline Hill Road. The original So Kon Po district extended to the north-west of the valley itself, that is, to the north-east side of the old East Point Hill, now the area of Hysan Avenue and Lee Gardens. In the present area of Jardine's Bazaar, Irving Street and Keswick Street there was probably a Chinese settlement at the time the British occupied Hong Kong. In 1842 the population of this village of So Kon Po was given as eighty. The valley drained into the sea near the present junctions of Yee Woh Street, Causeway Road and Tung Lo Wan Road. Tung Lo Wan was the name of the bay at the seaward end of the valley; the bay has now been reclaimed to form the Patterson Street and Victoria Park area. The original cultivators of the valley seem to have been the Wong (#) family. A few people in the village were engaged in ship-building and fishing. Capt. Belcher, commander of H.M. survey ship "Sulphur", landed on Hong Kong island in January 1841. As the most suitable site for a settlement, he suggested a spot "at nearly the east end of Hong Kong bay, in two small indents; one opening into the valley of Wongneichong and another to the north-east [the So Kon Po valley]. A small promontory [East Point] of about 220 yards in length and 120 in breadth, with a frontage on both sides, has a landing place for boats at the point at all times of the tide. Both of these small bays are dry at low water spring tides, and would be easily gained from the sea". (Canton Register, 7 Dec. 1841) Captain Belcher's suggestion was not followed, but Jardine, Matheson and Company considered the East Point promontory, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 14 interfered, and had the fence removed, to the detriment, we think, of the villagers, who had they hereafter been ousted from their homesteads, would have been glad, as the amount of compensation uniformly adjudged to the aborigines, has far exceeded their expectation". (Friend of China, 25 May 1843) The bay of Tung Lo Wan where the village of So Kon Po was located became the centre for the salt trade. Early Government-financed improvements in the area included a road from Wong Nei Chung to So Kon Po built in 1845 at a cost of $2,000, and a sea wall under three contractors employing some six thousand men (C.O.129-11 No.73). In 1844 an order was issued forbidding the cultivation of rice in the Wong Nei Chung and So Kon Po valleys. It was thought the miasmic vapours arising from the paddy fields made the area unhealthy. The cultivated land of the Wong Nei Chung valley was seventy-five acres and of So Kon Po thirty-seven acres. Following this prohibition of rice growing, the land was purchased by the Government from its Chinese owners. The area was drained, and health improved. The Governor, in a report submitted to the Colonial Office dated 10 March 1845, said he was contemplating letting the So Kon Po valley to Chinese for market gardening (C.O.129-11, No.28). An advertisement in the Hong Kong Register dated 16 July, 1846 indicates that the introduction of the new crops to the valley took place very shortly afterwards: "Farm to let the Hinton Farm, district of Su-kun-pu, comprising about 30 acres, six and upwards of which are of the best arable land. Possession can be given immediately on removal of present Crops, consisting principally of Flax and Vegetables. Apply to the Proprietor at the Land Office, Mr. Tarrant." 52 At the time William Tarrant was clerk in the Land Registry Office. After purchase from the Chinese, the valley was laid out into five Farm Lots. These were sold at a Land Sale on 1 July 1846 on twenty-one year leases. The purchasers were George Duddell, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 149 the repeal ordinance of 1894.23 Fear of being forced to close down business could be used to compel brothel keepers to register their inmates and submit them for medical examination, just as had been done in the past, without the need to rely on any other legal enactment or penalty. Since there is no documentation available it is impossible to trace the development of the new system of tolerated houses, but by 1923 a highly complex system of regulation had been elaborated. The system was so well established that when the Colonial Office asked for information in that year in order to reply to a parliamentary question a full account was sent to London.24 The Hong Kong government was quite open in describing its system of regulating prostitution and was obviously unconcerned or ignorant of the fact that the Secretary of State had ordered an almost identical system of control to be abolished thirty years earlier. The administration described the arrangements as based on the recognition both of the impossibility of stopping prostitution but also of the need for a broad supervision to prevent abuse.25 The Secretary for Chinese Affairs (the official who had formerly been entitled the Registrar-General) kept a full list of tolerated houses, their mistresses and their inmates. Brothels were classified into those catering for Europeans (with subclasses of those with European, Japanese or Chinese prostitutes), brothels for Indians, and brothels for Chinese (subdivided into first class, second class and third class houses). The Secretariat fixed charges which the mistresses might levy on their girls for board and lodging. All those wishing to practise the profession had to attend before the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, bringing three photographs with them, and were closely questioned to ensure that they were entering the profession of their own free will. When the authority was satisfied on this point, and that the girl was over nineteen, she was given a card with her number, name and address, and photograph attached. One photograph was retained by the Secretariat and the other by the brothel mistress who pasted it in a record book kept in the brothel. The girl was also given a card informing her that she was free to leave the profession at any time and could appeal to the authorities for protection in the case of any ill treatment. If any client complained to the Secretariat that he had been infected with venereal disease by a licensed prostitute the girl would be instructed... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 154 R.J. MINERS instructions were sent to Hong Kong so long as the Conservatives remained in power. However, as soon as the minority Labour government of 1929 came into office, various pressure groups, such as the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene and the National Council of Women of Great Britain, set to work, writing to the Prime Minister and the new Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Passfield (formerly the Fabian Society reformer Sidney Webb), demanding that Hong Kong should follow Singapore's example and suppress all its brothels. There were also more parliamentary questions from Lady Astor and other sympathetic M.P.s.32 In 1930, there was a change of Governor in Hong Kong: Sir Cecil Clementi left to govern the Straits Settlements, and Sir William Peel from the Federated Malay States was promoted to Hong Kong. Clementi had never shown himself very receptive to policy suggestions from London, and his transfer gave the Colonial Office an opportunity to initiate a change of policy. Before taking up his appointment, Peel saw Lord Passfield in London and was informed that it was the policy of the Labour government that all brothels should be suppressed, but that he should first look into the question and submit a report to London. Peel sent his views to the Colonial Office in August 1930, three months after his arrival.34 He stressed that the abolition of licensed prostitution and tolerated houses was opposed by the military and naval authorities, senior government officials, and the leading members of the Chinese community who sat on the District Watch Committee. Abolition would probably lead to an increase in the number of sly brothels and streetwalkers, and a greater incidence of venereal disease. It would also make it impossible to deal effectively with the international traffic in women: in Singapore, some measure of control could be exercised at the point of entry where immigrants arrived in a few large vessels, but this was out of the question in Hong Kong, where thousands arrived daily in river steamers, junks, and by land; so the licensing and interrogation of intending prostitutes at the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs was the only way of checking that they were entering the profession of their own free will. The Governor finally suggested that if the Secretary of State was determined upon the suppression of brothels, a start could be made by refusing to register any new prostitutes; but he would prefer to await full details of the results ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 336 This book contains several technical flaws. Many of the Chinese works and place names romanized in the text do not appear in the glossary and place name index. The first two chapters present differing numbers for the size of the Dutch military force found on Taiwan. Hsu (p. 15) using a Japanese translation of the Dagh-Register, Batavia and an article by Nakamura Takashi, states that the Dutch forces never exceeded 2000 while Wang (p. 36) gives no source but states that the Dutch troops numbered 2200. A similar figure to Wang's can be found in James W. Davidson's The Island of Formosa. There are also some technical mistakes such as no scale nor direction indicated on a map (p. 149) and lack of unified spelling for the city of Jilong (Keelung, p. xv; Chilung, p. 140). The map on page 40, presumably indicating migration routes in Taiwan during the late seventeenth century, shows Fort Zeelandia (near modern Tainan) on the mainland portion of Taiwan as it is today due to silting at the mouth of the Yanshui River. Other maps or pictures display the fort on a sandspit, in some cases connected to the main island (pp. 29 and 119) and in one case on a separate small island (p. 13). On the linguistic side, the character for a Chinese picul which is pronounced dan (tan) is romanized by its other pronunciation (shih) which means a rock or stone. More crucial is the lack of a central theme to the essays selected as a whole. This is perhaps an inescapable problem of a book in which several authors are presenting their findings on singular aspects of a vast and complex subject. The contribution of this book, therefore, lies in the collection, within one English volume, of articles on various aspects of Taiwan's historical geography. RICHARD LOUIS EDMONDS The University of Hong Kong The Birth of Vietnam, by Keith Weller Taylor, Berkeley, The University of California Press, 1983. xxi + 397pp, tables, maps. Keith Taylor has provided a much needed and detailed account of Vietnamese history during the first millennium — its formative ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1985 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x 18 CARL T. SMITH Cemetery in 1889 is June 1841 and the latest date is January 1845. After the new cemetery was opened, the old was allowed to fall into neglect. An article in the China Mail of 23 November 1865 calls public attention to the desecration of the abandoned cemetery. "Part of it”, the writer says, “has been cut away for building lots, where now stand some tenantless houses, and day after day headstones are stolen by the Chinese to be refaced and sold to some newly-made mourners”. The remaining stones were removed in 1889 and the ground was sold for development. Upon a part of it Hong Kong's first electric power plant was built. The new cemetery at Happy Valley A large tract of land on the hill on the west side of Happy Valley was designated in 1845 as cemeteries for Protestants and Roman Catholics. St. Michael Cemetery, administered by the Roman Catholic Church, lies to the north of the Colonial Cemetery. In the same year that the cemetery was opened a mortuary chapel was built. The cemetery was placed under the charge of the Colonial Chaplain, who kept a register of burials. Maintenance costs were borne by the Government as a part of the Ecclesiastical Establishment. The first burial record book begins in 1853 with grave number 807. By the end of the century the cemetery was placed under the jurisdiction of the newly created Sanitary Board. There were complaints about the state of the cemetery in 1865. An article in the China Mail (23 November 1865) stated that it was nearly full. At the time there had been some 3,100 burials. The writer expressed the hope that "Happy Valley will ever be sacred to the dead, and that we never again behold in Hong Kong a graveyard desecrated and as filled as was that to the south of Queen's Road East by St. Francis Hospital". He made some suggestions "so that the Happy Valley Cemetery be ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1985 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x 87 in Kau Sai and elsewhere where a boat was known as well as on board, everyone knew who was master.“ 48 47 The local term in most common use was Si t'au (lit: business head, affairs head). Widely used colloquially, perhaps rather more in reference than address, for the head of any kind of group or business concern, including the head of a household, it is a term the referent for which must by definition be unambiguous. Only rarely and, as we shall see, during the transition periods which occurred sometimes while active control was being more or less gradually relinquished by a member of one generation into the hands of his successor of the next, might there perhaps be some doubt among outsiders as to who really was the si t'au at any given moment. It is possible, as I shall argue later, that the very nature of living on board a sea-going boat puts a premium upon the clear-cut allocation of authority to one person. The reader should note that the account of boats' masters in this and the two next chapters relates to their managerial role alone. Questions of the "ownership" of boats and gear are reserved for consideration in the later chapters on family structure as such. Partly for this reason, and partly also because of the existence of transition situations of the kind just mentioned and examined in detail below, it would be unwise to assume that the man listed as “owner” on the license issued annually by Hong Kong's Department of Marine was in fact the boat's master in the sense used here. Usually he was; but often there appears to have been a reluctance to change the name on the license book even long after a change in actual management had taken place. Often, too, there have been genuine errors, or carelessness, and sometimes, as we shall see, more subtle reasons for not wishing to register changes of "ownership". For our immediate purpose it is enough to observe that the boats' masters of this account are so called not because they were listed as "owners" on their boats' licences, but because they were referred to as si t'au and performed as such. One further caveat must be entered: in respect of local fishing craft and certain other categories of vessel the Marine Department uses the word “master” in a quite specific sense to refer to ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 30 KOWLOON WALLED CITY: ITS ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY ELIZABETH SINN The Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong is one of history's great anomalies. Until recently, it was a place over which two governments claimed jurisdiction but with neither actively administering it; anarchy reigned while secret societies presided. Above the maze of dark filthy narrow alleys with open drains hovered high-rise apartment buildings, constructed with neither respect nor reference to Hong Kong's building ordinances. Drug pedlars, addicts, pimps and prostitutes operated openly in this favoured hideout for criminals. Small factories, some supplying food for the rest of the territory, proliferated beyond the prying eye of factory and sanitary inspectors. For many years it did not have any water supply. Dentists and doctors unable to register with the Hong Kong government served the poor while lining their own pockets and upholding their professional dignity. Outsiders were immediately recognized and suspiciously watched. The Kowloon Walled City, in fact, was a world unto its own. It has always aroused curiosity, and fear, and few dared venture inside. Since the announcement in January, 1987 of its demolition under the auspices of both the British and Chinese governments, interest has multiplied. Hardly a day passes now without some group of visitors trooping down the alleys hoping to see this unique physical, legal, historical and social edifice before it is gone forever. But, in a way, the City remains an enigma. This paper attempts to unveil some of the mystery by tracing the origin of the historical anomaly and revealing its pre-War development and the unusual role it played in the history of the region. The City's site at the northeastern corner of Kowloon peninsula was first fortified in 1668 when a signal station was established. About 1810, a small — and according to one account, “miserable” Dr. Sinn is Resources Officer at the History Department, University of Hong Kong. Her book on the history of the Tung Wah Hospital will appear shortly. Author's note: I am grateful to Mrs. Eunice Price, Mr. Liang Tao and Dr. James Hayes for drawing my attention to many interesting sources. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 149 These local views were expressed in the dispatch of the Governor, Sir Richard MacDonnell, to the Colonial Office in London and in a memorial from the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce. Both reflect, as we shall see, the uneasiness underneath the comfortable life of the expatriate in nineteenth century Hong-kong. COLONIAL PRESSURE STOPS CONSUL MOVE In 1891, Ho A-mei wrote to the newspapers supporting a proposal of the British Foreign Office that a Chinese Consul be appointed for Hongkong. It was an issue which in the past had sharpened differences between Hongkong and the Home Government. The matter had first been raised in 1868. When news reached Hongkong at that time that it was being considered by the Foreign Office in London, there was an immediate outcry. The Governor, Sir Richard MacDonnell, rushed off a protest to the Colonial Office. He objected not only to the proposal, but also to the manner in which the British Minister at Peking had ignored Hongkong. The Governor was not on good terms with the Minister, Sir Rutherford Alcock. He complained that it had been his experience that Sir Rutherford was not concerned about the interests of Hongkong and in his negotiations with China paid little attention to Hongkong opinion. The Governor wrote to the Secretary of the Colonies that it was no surprise to him that Sir Rutherford had sent the suggestion of a Chinese Consul to the Foreign Office without consulting or informing the local government, nor had he given Hongkong an opportunity to register its opinion on the matter. When the Governor had eventually heard the British Minister's suggestion, he immediately called together his Executive Council to consider the issue. At that time all the members of the Council were Government officials. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 Ny 49267 陳 Hell 34 135 ༩ COPY OF AN ENTRY IN A REGISTER KEPT IN THE COLONY OF HONG KONG. IN TERMS OF THE BIRTHS AND DEATHS REGISTRATION ORDINANCE. (CAP. 174) Able Lane 1941 Kam Din Boat 10. Chan She Tang My The Kwan Ying Mi Seilor 168 水 樹 Midwife 4 Jardine Matheson Get. fl. Ток June 17 1941 妹 -ffith ..... February 11.6 Tyme Depy. Plate 26. Copy (1956) of the birth certificate of one of Hong Kong's own boat people, 1941. (Courtesy Mr. Chan Kam-shui) Page 345 Page 346 Page 346 Page 346 Page 346 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 15 NOTES The Author is grateful to the Reverend Carl T. Smith for providing material about vocational training in early Hong Kong, and to Mr. C.L. Ko and Mr. M.H. So for the photograph. T.F. Ryan, 'The Story of a Hundred Years: The PIME in Hong Kong, 1858-1958', Catholic Trust Society, Hong Kong, 1959. Hong Kong Daily Press, 20 July 1876; and Hong Kong Catholic Register, Vol. II, No. 39, 29 June 1879; and South China Morning Post, 16 November 1936. Hong Kong Telegraph, 30 January 1905; and Hong Kong Telegraph, 17 September 1901; and Daily Press, 25 January 1906; and Hong Kong Telegraph, 17 June 1914. T.C. Cheng, "The Education of Overseas Chinese: A Comparative Study of Hong Kong, Singapore and the East Indies' (University of London MA thesis, 1949), p. 141; and Hong Kong Telegraph, prospectus of evening courses to be held at Queen's College. *Imperial Education Conference Papers, Education Systems of the Chief Colonies not possessing responsible Governments' (Hong Kong, 1914), p. 5. 4 Ibid, pp. 27 and 28. 7 Watt Hoi-kee, "Technical Education in Hong Kong Today", Appendix I (undated), p. 26 (c. 1964). # 'Opening Ceremony New Technical College' (booklet), (2 December 1957), p. 3. *Aberdeen Technical School 1935-1965, 30th Anniversary Souvenir Number'. C 'Far East Flying and Technical School Ltd' (prospectus) (undated). Monica Yeung, 'Air-minded men who never get off the ground', Hong Kong Standard (15 September 1974) p. 19. 12 'Hong Kong Technical College 1970-71', prospectus p. 1. 11 Information given verbally by pre-war Trade School student. TH 'Tang King-po School Speech Day and Prize-giving' (brochure) (19 November 1976). 15 'Technical Education Investigating Committee, Report on Technical Education and Vocational Training in Hong Kong' (30 October 1953). 'Opening Ceremony of the Polytechnic's First New Building' (brochure) (26 October 1976), p. 1. 17 TH 19 'Opening Ceremony of the New Technical College' (2 December 1957), last page. *Report on the Cost Study of the Hong Kong Technical College' (December 1968). *'Opening Ceremony of the Polytechnic's First New Building', loc. cit. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 228 It reads in translation: + + "There are two sorts of rice huller. One is made of wood. The other sort is made of mud. This sort is made with a round bamboo frame, filled with clean yellow mud. Bamboo teeth are pressed into both the upper and lower hulling faces. The upper frame of the huller has a hollow to receive the grain, the capacity of which is double that of a wooden huller. If the grain is at all damp when it goes into the huller, it will be crushed. After hulling 200 shek (E) of rice, a mud huller will start to fall to pieces. Wooden hullers require strong men to operate them, but mud hullers are suitable for operation by women or young people. The ordinary peasants use mud hullers of this type." I am grateful to Mr. Yau for drawing my attention to this description. James Hayes A GLIMPSE OF THE LAND SETTLEMENT AT SHEK PIK VILLAGE, LANTAU ISLAND, HONG KONG In the opening years of this century, following the lease of what is now the New Territories of Hong Kong, all land that was being utilised or had been occupied was surveyed by the new government. A Land Court was set up to settle all claims to ownership of land, and any disputes were adjudicated. Finally, a register of ownership for each of the 355 Demarcation Districts was prepared and bound into a folio together with a survey sheet and a Block Crown Lease. Whilst the work of the survey and land court are well-documented in the official reports of the time,1 few materials showing the process in the villages have survived. To my mind, the most interesting of these are the small printed "chits”, known to villagers and government staff alike as Chi Tsai ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 1} American missionary, the Reverend Elijah Bridgman,1 merely noted the formal possession of the island in its journal of occurrences; it gave no precise date nor any details.24 Another reference in the same journal in a historical review of events in China was only marginally fuller.25 The Canton Press, published at this point from Macao, expressed itself slightly puzzled by the lack of information about the event: 'On Tuesday last, the 26th January, the Island of Hongkong, the new settlement ceded by the Chinese to the English, was taken possession of in the name of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. The English colours were hoisted, and saluted from the ships; we have not yet heard any further particulars of the ceremony.' Two weeks later the incident was mentioned again, but no further details were forthcoming.26 The Canton Register made no mention of the possession of Hong Kong except in the context of Elliot's treaty with Ch'i-shan; it seemed unimpressed by the terms and referred to 'the paltry island of Hong Kong'. › 28 The two groups with the most immediate interest in the acquisition of Hong Kong for the British were the merchants and missionaries. Unlike the troops, for whom the possession of the island was just one part of a long and arduous expedition in a foreign and unhealthy part of the world, the merchants and missionaries were already operating from the area and found Chinese restrictions on their movements irksome. And unlike the British government and its officials, the traders and propagators of salvation were most cognizant of the advantages that a piece of British territory in South China would afford them. They were not politically or ideologically committed to punishing China for the 'disrespect' it had shown to Britain. It is not known whether any missionaries attended the ceremony on 26 January, but some merchants who were late to have their fortunes inextricably bound up with the colony turned up to witness its official birth. According to a study of the Indian community of Hong Kong, at least four Indian merchants were present in Hong Kong at the flag-hoisting: Cawasjee Pallanjee, the representative of Cursetjee Bomanjee and Co. of Bombay; F. M. Talati; Albert Sassoon;29 and Rustomjee Dhunjee Shaw of P. F. Cama and Co. of Bombay. James Matheson of Jardine Matheson and Co.30 went from Macao to Hong Kong precisely in order to witness the hoisting of the British flag, and afterwards, as he wrote to William Jardine in a postscript to a letter of 30 January, he circumnavigated the island.32 Thus the future character of the colony can be gauged from the type of person with most to gain from its possession by the British. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 16 the Narrative of an Eventful Six Months in China (London, 1875). 20 A. Cunynghame, The Opium War, being Recollections of Service in China (London, 1844). 21 A. Murray, Doings in China: being the Personal Narrative of an Officer Engaged in the late Chinese Expedition (London, 1843). 27 The United Service Journal, 1841, part 2 (July 1841), p. 307. 23 C. Smith, Chinese Christians: Elites, Middlemen, and the Church in Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 1985), p. ix. 24 Chinese Repository, 10 February 1841, p. 119. 25 Ibid., 11 November 1842, p. 579. 26 The Canton Press of Saturday, 30 January 1841. 27 Ibid., 13 February 1841. 28 The Canton Register of 16 February 1841. * For general information on the Sassoons, see C. Roth, The Sassoon Dynasty (London, 1941) and S. Jackson, The Sassoons (London, 1968). 30 K. N. Vaid, The Overseas Indian Community in Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 1972), p. 15. 31 For further information, see the centenary volume by [J. Steuart], Jardine Matheson and Co., 1832-1932 (Hong Kong, 1934) and M. Keswick ed., The Thistle and the Jade: a Celebration of 150 years of Jardine, Matheson and Co. (London, 1982). 32 JMA, C5/6, 65. 31 See J. Y. Wong, 'The Cession of Hong Kong: a Chapter of Imperial History'. The Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia, 11 (1976), 52-3 and ibid., Anglo-Chinese Relations, 1839-1860 (Oxford, 1985), p. 51. H. B. Morse, The International Relations of the Chinese Empire 1 (London, 1910), p. 624. 35 Wong, Anglo-Chinese relations, p. 52. J6 JMA, C5/6, 51. 37 See the report by the missionaries in The Canton Press of 27 February 1841, reprinted from one in the Canton Register of 18 February. 38 C. Smith, Chinese Christians, op. cit. p. 173. 39 40 Vaid, The Overseas Indian Community, op. cit. p. 22. For further information on the Madras Native Infantry, see J. B. R. Nicholas, 'Madras Native Infantry, c. 1845', Tradition, 42 and 43. 42 See The Canton Press of 16 January 1841. See B. Mollo, The Indian Army (Poole, 1981), pp. 64-5. For further information on the Bengal Native Infantry, see F. G. Cardew, A Sketch of the Services of the Bengal Native Infantry to the year 1895 (Calcutta, 1903) and A. Bharat, The Bengal Native Infantry, 1796-1852 (Calcutta, 1962). 43 P. Fay, The Opium War, 1840-2 (Chapel Hill, 1975), p. 208. 44 Vaid, The Overseas Indian Community, op. cit. p. 22. 45 Mollo, The Indian Army, op. cit. p. 50. 46 India Office Library and Records, London, China Medal 1842 and Bengal Army Lists. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 215 role in this “secularization” process, comparing Legge's leadership in the new Board of Education with the manner of a “born bishop” I believe his motivations must be read in the light of his postmillennial leanings. See n. 55 on postmillennialism. Also see James Legge, "The Colony Of Hong Kong", The Journal Of The Hong Kong Branch of The Royal Asiatic Society, op. cit., p. 188; also E. T. Eitel, Europe In China: The History Of Hong Kong From The Beginning To The Year 1882 (Hong Kong: Kelly & Walsh Ltd, 1895; reprinted in Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1983), pp. 347, 390-394, 466. See Gwenneth and John Stokes, Queen's College: Its History 1862-1987 (Hong Kong: Queen's College, 1987). A number of the details of the origins of the school in relation to Legge are not correct, and should be compared with my article in Ching Feng (1988), op. cit. 51 Prof. Legge's participation in the initial stages of the drafting of the Somerville College rules is not mentioned in some of the more recent texts on Somerville College, but his role as a member of the council (1881-1883) is found in Somerville College Register, 1879-1959 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961), p. 272. In the minutes of the Provisional committee which later incorporated the College, Prof. Legge apparently helped to draft and support a college rule which, in its final form, read as follows: "Prayers will be read daily in the house, and on Sundays the students will be expected as a rule to attend a place of worship chosen by themselves or their parents"; an earlier proposal to eliminate family prayers, and a later proposal requiring instruction in the Bible provided by each House, were both voted down. It is also significant that the provisional committee set a rule that the members of the Council should include equal numbers of women and men. See the Notes of the Provisional Committee meetings for the year 1879, dated February 7, 15, and 28, held at Somerville College. * This picture is kept at the Library of the Oriental Institute at Oxford, and was recently used for the cover of T. H. Barrett's Singular Listlessness: A Short History Of Chinese Books And British Scholars, op. cit. His reaction was primarily against the legalistic trends of Scottish Reform theology, particularly as it related to the harsher restrictions enforced on the Sabbath. At one point Legge, writing about his youthful days in Huntly, complained: "The voice of Moses was allowed in our household too often to overpower the voice of Christ". See Notes Of My Life, op. cit., p. 15, and James Legge, John Legge, ed., Lectures On Theology, Science, And Revelation (Papers by the late Rev. George Legge), XXII-XXIV. Still one must point out that the memorization of the Shorter Catechism left its mark in many of the themes discussed in Legge's The Religions of China. He may have rejected its ethics, but he was nursed and matured in its theological worldview. 34 Legge gave his views on the sixty-fifth anniversary of the London Missionary Society, celebrated at Moorfields Tabernacle. See his "The Land of Sinim," (London: John Snow, 1859). +4 — This perspective was technically supported by nineteenth-century "postmillennialism," a view which generally interprets Biblical prophecies regarding the end of human history as one in which there will be no personal return of Christ. Postmillennialism claimed that God will reign on earth indirectly in a kingdom of peace established by his own people, the Church. This view normally involves the corollary that human achievements, particularly the advance of Christian civilization, would bring about the final state in which the Kingdom of God would be achieved. James Legge had been exposed to this position through the theology of his older brother, George Legge, and apparently accepted its arguments. See George Legge, Lectures on Theology, Science, and Revelation, ed. James Legge, et al., op. cit. Belief in a postmillennial view of history explains two important aspects of James Legge's academic work. First, it explains why he was concerned to locate a trace of revelation in the foundations of Chinese ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 222 and Jardine's Crescent, both in Causeway Bay, and Jardine's Corner on the Peak. Bulkeley Street market, and streets named Perceval, Irving, Anton, Landale, Matheson, Paterson, Johnstone and Keswick are named after Jardine taipans. There is also Jardine's Lookout. It was from this 433 metre high vantage point that observers galloped down by 'pony express' to head office, in the days before modern communications, with the news that a Jardine ship was approaching. In early Hong Kong the company is said to have had a fleet of 12 ships which were faster than those of rival firms, The late Richard Hughes, wrote that, of the two founders, Jardine was the older and tougher, and the planner. He was respected and even feared, and nicknamed 'Iron-headed Old Rat', in Chinese, because of his insouciant attitude when attacked and hit over the head with a club in Canton (Hunter, 1844). Except for the one on which he sat, there were no chairs in his office. Visitors were not encouraged to dally. Matheson was more genteel, although not of exalted stock, and some of his family had been clergy and others army officers. He was more liberal, suave and affable, and even, so it is believed, regarded with some affection. Unlike most businessmen at the time, he was a person of some taste and culture. In 1827, he supplied a small hand printing press so the Canton Register, an English newspaper, could be published. He owned the only piano in Canton or Macau. But as Hughes writes, no one laughed when he sat down to play'. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (UK) on the 19th February 1846. Matheson was a good organiser and administrator. He could draft a dry, caustic minute as the following illustrates: "The 'Gazelle' was unnecessarily delayed at Hong Kong in consequence of Captain Crocker's repugnance to receiving opium on the Sabbath. We have every respect for persons entertaining strict religious principles, but we fear that very godly people are not suited for the drug trade. Perhaps it would be better that the Captain should resign." Incidentally David Matheson, a member of the 'clan', did resign some years later to become chairman of the executive committee of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 233 Hong Kong for several years, Bill Wyllie, was seconded to Hutchison in 1975 by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, as 'company doctor' to put the business house's finances in order. After he had achieved this he left Hutchison's in 1981. Then in the early 1980s Li Ka-shing, believed to be the richest man in Hong Kong, became the largest shareholder in Hutchison's. His company, Cheung Kong (meaning long river and signifying 'everlasting'), held a 37 per cent stake. With a Chinese Taipan the company was no longer the bastion of British management that it had been in earlier days. However, under Chairman Li Ka-shing there is an English Group Managing Director, Simon Murray. Today Hutchison-Whampoa is thriving, and its activities range from general trading, including importing and exporting, to property, engineering and building materials. The group also has major interests in such subsidiaries as Hong Kong United Dockyards (in the past Hong Kong and Whampoa Docks), Hong Kong Electric Holdings, and A.S. Watson and Company of which more later. These firms, which in the past were basically British, are thus now largely Chinese controlled. Dockyards The first Hong Kong built vessel, the 80-ton Celestial, was launched from a slip at East Point on 7th February 1843, and a Royal Naval Dockyard started in 1854 (this was phased out in the late 1950s). Docks were also built by Douglas Lapraik and J. Lamont at Aberdeen in 1857. Nevertheless, it has been claimed the first 'great firm' to be established in the Colony was really the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company, although the industry had its origins, regionally, in Canton. That is why the word Whampoa (a place in Canton) is included in the above name. The firm is No.1 on the Register of Companies. Austin Coates maintains in his book, Whampoa, Ships on the Shore, that the formation of Union Docks (which was absorbed into the Hong Kong and Whampoa Docks in 1870), in 1863, was the most significant commercial and industrial moment in Hong Kong's history. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 235 completed in 1908 on a site of 53 acres. These were more impressive and more modern than the Kowloon Whampoa Docks, with larger machine shops and greater electric power. But public opinion still supported the Whampoa Docks and many people considered the new establishment to be a direct and unwarranted attack on one of Hong Kong's most esteemed institutions. Like Kowloon Docks, Taikoo Dockyard also had a built-in clientele, including Butterfield and Swire's China Navigation Company, Blue Funnel line, and other shipping connected with these two lines. Quarters and other facilities were provided for staff at Quarry Bay, and the aim was to make them into a 'big friendly family'. The 88-year-old F.K. (Uncle Pat) Pattinson recalled (in 1989): "We were a separate 'colony' within the community. We worked, lived and breathed ships and shipping." The author visited Taikoo Dockyard and had continuous contacts with its staff in the 1960s and early 1970s and endorses Pattinson's remarks. Long before the days of cross-harbour tunnels, the hammerhead crane, erected in 1937 in the docks at Hung Hom, provided a landmark as one traversed the harbour by ferry. Even though, in the early 1990s, Hong Kong has the largest container port and is one of the busiest ports in the world, and dockyards are still situated in the Territory (but moved to another site), the harbour looks empty to some old residents without that crane. — Kowloon Docks at Hung Hom have been developed into vast housing estates. Today, Hong Kong United Dockyards (HUD) operate on the west side of Tsing Yi Island, and this was after the merger of Hutchison International and the old Hong Kong and Whampoa Docks. This was the combining of two of the largest commercial enterprises in the East. The Hutchison group of companies is now known as Hutchison Whampoa Limited. A decision was taken to build no more ships. Ferries and other vessels for Hong Kong's needs are now constructed elsewhere. HUD concentrates on conversions and repairs. The last vessel built was a tug, appropriately listed No.1066 on the Company building register. It is hoped a smaller, scaled-down dockyard will be viable. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 2 The name apparently derives from a city in Germany, but records indicated they had for a time lived in Egypt or Turkey before arriving at the China coast. This study is one-dimensional. I do not have sufficient knowledge nor have I undertaken the necessary research to put the story of the Germans in Hong Kong in a proper international setting or to relate it to the complexities of the internal and external developments of the German states and, subsequently, the German nation. This study is based on Hong Kong sources and hence is seen only from the Hong Kong view. The story could be greatly enlarged and enriched by a scholar with broader knowledge than the present author. Sources for the study Documentation of sources is usually of little interest to the average reader but they are important to the scholar who might want to check the facts or further develop aspects of the subject. I am not aware that there has yet been published so detailed a history of the German-speaking community in Hong Kong as the present study. Even so, I have not dealt with the subject in a thoroughly exhaustive way. I have confined myself to data found in Hong Kong and I have not included every detail or fact I have in my files. Readers who check the notes will find that most of my information is from a limited number of sources: Hong Kong newspapers; the Hong Kong section of directors for China and the Far East; the Hong Kong Government Gazette contains jury lists, annual probate calendars, the medical register, notices of changes in the partnership of firms and authorisation to sign; reports of the Spirit Licensing Board; the China Repository lists of residents on the China coast 1833-1851; Colonial Office records, especially for the World War I period; selected Series in the Public Records Office of Hong Kong, especially those from wills, rates and valuations, and surrendered deeds; and the memorials in the Land Office. With so many references, there may have been some mistakes in transcribing dates and names. I hope these errors are at a minimum. I should like to express my appreciation to the staff of the Public Records Office, the Secretariat Library, the Special Collections Room at Hong Kong University Library, and to the Registrar General for permission ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 11 Doctors - The Medical Hall The missionaries were in Hong Kong to relate to the Chinese; doctors from Germany served the health needs of the German community and any others who consulted them. Dr. Carl Friedrich Arnold Schetelig was in practice in Hong Kong in the 1860s. In 1861 he was also the steward of the German Club and in 1867 its librarian. He was married to Julie von Pustau; presumably she was connected with the merchant family, though her brother was an attorney in Hamburg. Dr Schetelig returned to Hamburg where he died. His will was probated in Hong Kong in 1901. The list of enemy alien properties in liquidation in 1914 gives the date of the establishment of the Medical Hall as 1853. Its proprietor was Dr. Harold von Kauffman. He married a Spanish woman, Emelia Manuela. When he left Hong Kong in 1873 with his wife and four children, a relative Mr. Theophil Koffer took over the management of the Medical Hall, which was located on a central site on Queen's Road. Dr. Kauffman died at Wiesbaden in May 1891. A year before Dr. Kauffmann left Hong Kong, Emil Niedhardt arrived to assume the position of chemist in the pharmacy. Upon the departure of T. Koffer, Niedhardt became the proprietor of the business. He retired in 1913 after forty-one years in Hong Kong. His friends tendered him a farewell dinner at the German Club. H. Kammel, an apothecary, was admitted a partner in 1897. In 1914 at the time of liquidation, the pharmacy was on Ice House Street opposite the King Edward Hotel. Two pharmaceutical chemists were in charge, A. Kucy and W. Kornelz. Dr. Carl Clouth practiced in Hong Kong from about 1876 to 1883 or later. His seven-year-old daughter died at Wiesbaden in 1883; at the time Dr. Clouth was referred to as being "of Hong Kong". (DP 6 Nov, 1883) The 1873 Hong Kong Directory lists only two doctors with German-sounding names, H. Kauffmann and G. Gerlach. Johann Heinrich Karl Gerlach passed the Prussian State Medical Examination and qualified to practice in 1868. He appears on the Hong Kong Medical Register through the year 1900. Dr. Gerlach practiced in Hong Kong nearly thirty years; others came and went. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 12 Ludwig Braun graduated from the University of Graz, Austria and qualified in 1899. He was in Hong Kong in 1903 and 1904. His address was that of the acting Consul for Austria, Mr. Post. Carl Georg Johann Rohrmann held a diploma from the German State Medical Examination qualifying him to practice medicine from 1897. He appears on the Hong Kong Medical Register in 1900. Erich Hermann Paulan was admitted to the Hong Kong Medical Register in February 1896, by 1898 he had moved to Shanghai. While in Hong Kong he had his office at the Bank Building, No. 16 Queen's Road Central. He died in March 1909 at Shanghai. His obituary published in the Hong Kong Telegraph on 13 March 1909 gives details of his life. He was born at Pasewalk in 1862. At an early age he became an orphan. He was educated at the grammar school at Wolfenbuttel, the Friedrich Wilhelm Institute, and the Berlin Army Medical Institute. After qualifying in 1887 he was a naval doctor. In 1895 and 1896 he was an assistant in the office of Dr. Zedelius in Shanghai, but then came to Hong Kong for a few years. Dr. Zedelius died in January 1899 and Dr. Paulun returned there to take over his practice. He founded at Shanghai a charitable hospital for Chinese which in time became the German Medical School in Burkill Road, Shanghai. His wife had been a Miss Zedelius, probably a daughter of Dr. Zedelius. The surgery of the medical firm of Muller and Justi was for some years at the same address as had been that of Dr. Paulun. In 1905 they moved to the Hotel Mansions Building, newly built on reclaimed land in Central (DP 1 Aug, 1905). The firm was established by Oskar Muller, a graduate of the University of Munich. He qualified in 1897, and was registered as a medical practitioner in Hong Kong on 2 November 1900. Dr. Carol Justi joined Dr. Muller in 1903. He was a graduate of the University of Marburg and qualified to practice in Germany in 1897. He left Hong Kong in 1913 (HKT 2 May 1913). Karl Hoch joined the practice of Muller and Justi in 1907. He received his medical education at the University of Kiel and qualified in 1904. Theodore van Wesel, a graduate of the University of Freiburg, became a member of the firm in 1912. He had qualified in Germany in 1903. Friedrich Piers Grone was a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians who qualified in 1901. He first appears on the Hong Kong Medical Register in 1906. He became a member of the medical firm of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 17 Frederik Reichmann had left Germany in 1897 at the age of sixteen. For some time he was in London where he rose to the position of chief inspector of the popular restaurants of Lyons and Co. He then spent a short time in Australia where he married the daughter of Mr. A.B. Crew, a former head of the Land Record Office in Sydney. Mr. Crew wished to set up his new son-in-law in business in Hong Kong. As a German, Mr. Reichmann was eager to take over an establishment that had most of the German trade. There are a number of difficulties presented in the material available on the background and identity of Mrs. Uschmann. In the correspondence concerning German women and children interned in 1914 it was stated that Miss Petersen is the daughter of Mrs. Uschmann and that she had a sister in the Colony that might be willing to support her. The sister was probably Mrs Arthur G. Seidel. On a list of the internees the names of Mrs. Uschmann, Mrs Seidel and Miss Petersen follow each other. The next clue for establishing relationships is the obituary of Mrs. John Sanderson Smith, who died on 9 March 1936, aged forty-one. She was born in Hong Kong and had been the proprietress of the Station Hotel which had been closed in March 1930. She was survived by her husband, J.S. Smith of the firm of Lubing and Smith, two sisters in Shanghai, a brother in London and a brother-in-law A.C Seidel. Wreaths were sent by "Sister Maggie, Harry and family, Sister Martha, Arthur and family, Sister Lizzie, Franz and family" (CM 9 May 1936, emphasis supplied). This information can be related to the children of Christian Friedrich William Petersen and his wife Mary recorded in the baptismal register of the London Missionary Society's Chinese congregation. Maggie Mary born on 15 October 1887, Martha Louise born on 5 January 1889 and Henry William born on 4 January 1892. These were presumably the brother and sisters of Mrs. Sanderson Smith who was born in 1895 but not recorded as baptised in the church records. If these conclusions are correct it would identify her mother, Mrs. Uschmann, as the wife of Mr. Petersen, the long-time proprietor of the German Tavern. Mary was his second wife. He died in 1896 aged sixty-four leaving his wife to administer his estate which was valued at $16,000. Was Mary Petersen a Chinese? Children of Caucasian parents were not baptised in Chinese congregations, except under the most unusual circumstances. On the other hand, if she were Chinese, why would she have been interned as a German alien in 1914? The statement in 1911 that Mrs. Uschmann had been connected with the German trade some twenty or twenty-five years suggests that she... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 45 Before that he had been an assistant in Siemssen and Co. He went into business for himself in 1875 and two years later took on as a partner his brother Gustav Adolph Grossmann (DP 19 Jan. 1878). Christian Friedrich died in Hong Kong February 1899. A few days before his death Alexander Heinrich Alfred Finke became a co-partner (GG 7 Jan. 1899). Mr. Finke had been an assistant in the firms of Stolterfoht and Hust 1892-1895, Stolterfoht and Hagan 1896 and Lauts, Wegener and Co. 1898. Ships and Stores Backhard and Company Friedrich Johan Berthold Schwarzkopf, a ship's captain who took the name Blackhead, was in China by the year 1853 for in February of that year he was married at St. John's Cathedral, Hong Kong, to Sarah Bullen, the youngest daughter of William Robert Bullen of West Hackney, Middlesex, England (FC 19 February 1853 and St. John's Cathedral Marriage Register No. 131, 16 February 1853). He was an assistant in the firm of Murrow and Stephenson. He named his first child, who died in infancy, after William Murrow. Mr Blackhead began business on his own. In 1856 he opened a ship chandlers store on a hulk at the Whampoa anchorage on the Pearl River (FC 24 July 1856). His store shop "Hornet" was an old sailing vessel turned into business premises. When hostilities broke out between Britain and China over the Arrow lorcha incident at Canton, and foreign shipping had to leave Whampoa, the “Hornet” was moved to the Hong Kong harbour. Mr. Blackhead began building warehouses and an office by the seaside at the foot of Aberdeen Street. In September 1860 the company announced it had removed its ship chandlery, sail making and auction business from the "Hornet" to "those new buildings lately erected in Queen's Road West, opposite Messrs. Gibb, Livingston and Co. and next door to offices of Messrs. Phillips, Mone and Co." (FC 13 September 1860). John Morris was admitted a partner in March 1860 (GG 31 March 1860) but he died in January 1861 (FC 21 Jan. 1861). He held a one third share in the business (PRO, Probate File No. 19 of 1861 [f/104]). Captain Henry A Bell was in charge of the business at Whampoa in 1860 and 1861, but Mr. Blackhead was the sole proprietor of the company until he left Hong Kong in 1872. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 12 Ordinances of Hong Kong is the governing law unless its application would be unjust or oppressive when Chinese customary law may be let in. It is fortunate, therefore that there is available a most comprehensive and authoritative memorandum describing the land tenure found in the New Territories when the area was taken over from the Chinese authorities in 1899. I refer to the "Memorandum of Land” which forms an appendix to the Report of Mr. J. H. Stewart Lockhart, Colonial Secretary and Registrar General of Hong Kong, dated 7th February 1900. Chinese law regarding land is there stated to be as follows:- “Land according to Chinese tenure is held as freehold by grant from the Crown. The land comprised in the original grant can be sold by the proprietors in sub-divisions and is most usually sold in perpetuity or for 1,000 years. The proprietors record their names in the district registry as responsible for the tax, and their possession is legally secure so long as that is paid. Deeds of absolute sale have been brought in from the New Territory for registration which were made in the reign of the Emperor KA TSING and of subsequent Emperors of the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1519 to 1626) and which have been recognised by the present dynasty. Strictly, a grant issued by the present dynasty should be attached to all grants made by the previous dynasty. The present owners under such grants are all the existing male descendants of the original grantee and in one case the proprietors now number over 700. All land under cultivation is supposed to pay a land tax and... must be registered or is liable to confiscation. On registration stamped title deeds are issued by the District Magistrate. Officially registered title deeds are called "red deeds” (Hung K’ai) because they are stamped with the official stamp in red. Private deeds of sale are called “white deeds" (Pak K’ai) because they are simply written on plain paper and do not bear the official red stamp; but the purchaser has the right to register his purchase and obtain a red deed. There are also mortgages, operating as deeds of sale, redeemable Page 45 Page 46 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 201 'Will some kind hand in a foreign land place a flower on my son's grave.' Avril Williams has answered that call countless times. She looks upon the departed, including of course the two Chinese, as members of her extended family. It is important they all have visitors. NOTES 1 J Keith Stevens, 'British Chinese Labour Corps' Labourers Buried in England', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society vol. 29, 1989 (1991), p 390 and Plates 24 and 25 2 Michael Summerskill, China on the Western Front, Britain's Work Force in the First World War, published by Summerskill (1982), passim 3 The Register at Foncquevillers Military Cemetery *S M Bard, Report on Survey and Study of old Service Graves at Stanley Military Cemetery, Antiquities and Monuments Office (Hong Kong, c 1990), p.10, and S M Bard, Annex to Board Paper Antiquities Advisory Board/21/91, Study of Military Graves and Monuments Hong Kong Cemetery (Hong Kong, 1991), p 17 4 In large Chinese families children are still sometimes known by numbers eg 'Number Four Sister' 5 British soldiers in World War Two each wore two identity discs on a cord around their necks. On these plastic discs were stamped their army number and their name. If a soldier was killed one disc was buried with the body and the other was sent back to base for record purposes 6. Four proverbs were used. The other two were, 'A noble duty bravely done', and 'Though dead he still liveth'. All four have a hint of a Christian message 7 Tim Sebastian, 'Haunted by the Ghosts of Heroes', South China Morning Post (1 July 1995), Features p.3 8 Ibid PLATES Plate I Although an army number is inscribed, this grave of a Chinese labourer in Foncquevillers Cemetery is unnamed. This is not uncommon Plate II The inscription on this grave shows the name of the labourer and his native place in China ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 121 4. Such as Muxía San Lang (p 695), Hagoo Wu Lang (p. 1802), Hupe Wu Lang (p 1802) and Mu Ping San Lang (p. 308) 12 See for example, Yi Yuan of Southern Dynasties15 p. 1, Shoku edition. The passage reportedly appears also in Hua Yang Guo Zhi of earlier Jin dynasty, and the Hou Han Shu of the Southern Dynasties "Kainan Xhuan Xin" 4, Shoku edition pt Hht No Gan p 5 in Shankar edition 14 For Tarshan Shi(4) Lang see p. 297 21b Tarshan Sau Lang | 298 p 24b Huayue San Lung | 300 p 30 and ↑ 301 p 33, Huashan San Lang | 303 p 39. There is even a Ji (7) Lang son of Daryue San Lang in) 305-p-490). By in Xiaoshuo Daguan edition reprinted Yangzhou 1983 ** J 4 p 21 in Shrakat edition "The Wudu HaYao", quoted by Wang Jiayon Daojiao Tungan, hengdu Basu Shushe, 1987, $49 IN Nanbu Xusha, Simoku edition mp4 Hong op out p 508 * Quoted by Rolf A. Stein "Religious Laoism and Popular Religion from the Second to the Seventh Centuries”, in Holmes Welch and Seidel eds. Facets of Taoism. Yale University Press, 1979. He dates the collection as from Tang dynasty (p. 67). The text is in the Daoist Canon, vol 704 4) Garyu Congkao | 37, p 677 in reprint by Hefei Rennin Chubanshe 1990. 52 Hong mp of, pp. 916, 1692 * The most curious example is abid, pp. 328-110, quoting an abridged document submitted to a temple as petition. The quoted passage gave an additional name of himself in the form Ediscuss here. The quoting passage seems to have overlooked the fact the author of the quoted passage was the husband of the female ghost who made trouble. DIYLp 41, p 25 "He may be related to Zhan Hou of Jin dynasty who appeared in a legend about a stone horse and stone rider, related in the Yi Yuan a work of the Southern Dynasties quoted by Taiping Guangji4 (top en ↑ 284 p 1969). Perhaps the same Zhao Hou is referred to by Zhao Hou Nan Fa (Southern Magic) and Zhao Hou Da (register) mentioned by the Ming Daoist manual [Tan Huang Daojiaoling Yu Ce, in the Daoist Canon vol. 1109-1110]. There are a few schools of magic, that calls themselves Nan Fa. One is mentioned in Du Guangting op cit 12 p 5, and another in Hong op cit pp. 1733 and 1736] Page 150 Page 151 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 204 Hong Kong to Beijing. Speculation arose over whether Li would really depart from Canton. The Governor was informed by the Chinese Legislative Councillors that while Li did not dare to disregard the imperial edict, he would welcome an excuse for refusing. In the meantime, the Governor of Hong Kong sent an urgent telegram to London asking for permission to detain Li by military force. London called upon the British Consul in Beijing for advice. This Consul, always on good terms with Beijing, advised that Britain should remain neutral. On the day when the Governor met Li, he recorded something very interesting: The Viceroy then asked... whom the Powers wanted to see to be Emperor. Who would England like to see Emperor?... I answered that in such an event the Powers would probably ask the advice of the strongest man in China that they could find as to what was best to be done. Ending his record, the Governor predicted that Li would remain in Shanghai until "the tide turn[ed]”. His prediction proved to be correct. Through Hong Kong, Li travelled northward, and stayed in Shanghai for three months, before he departed for Beijing probably after the "tide really turn[ed]". The Late Qing Reforms To curb this rising provincialism, the Manchu government put forward a constitutional reform in 1904. Part of its aim was to institutionalize and to centralize the practice of networking. The Manchu government introduced reform to re-define élite status in China - the imperial examination was abolished, a merchant charter was introduced, China's first legislation on chambers of commerce came about, and the first company laws were implemented. Accordingly, all commercial associations were to be reorganized as chambers of commerce. Through the medium of these chambers, merchants and companies were required to register with the Beijing government. These policies intended to organize a national system of chambers of commerce which corresponded to a hierarchy of regional assemblies leading all the way up to the Senate in Beijing. In economic terms, several Commissioners of Business Promotion were appointed by Beijing to supervise the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 22 disobeyed he would be scolded or beaten. At that time an employee was compelled to register with the only union of scaffolding workers in order to get a job. Some apprentice scaffolders will tell you they enjoy the view from on high, where they are 'king of all they survey', although others maintain that, unless one has a natural head for heights, at first, being a scaffolder takes a lot of getting used to (Plate 3). Many youngsters are put off from taking up the trade by their parents who see it as a dangerous occupation. A short evening course entitled, "The Craft of Chinese Scaffolding" was run by the Morrison Hill Technical Institute in the early 1970s, when the author served there as Principal. This course was taught by the late Mr Ho So, an experienced bamboo scaffolder and the editor of The Craft of Chinese Scaffolding. Unlike the usual practice of learning on the-job, a certificate was issued on the successful completion of this course. Mr Ho left Kao Yao, Guangdong Province, as a boy of 15 and came to Hong Kong to serve a three-year apprenticeship. He gained considerable experience as a master scaffolder before setting up his own business which he ran for upwards of 30 years. Later, he taught not only at the Morrison Hill Technical Institute, but he also became a full-time scaffolding instructor at the Kowloon Bay Construction Industry Training Authority Centre. When the author visited the premises of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Bamboo Scaffolding Merchants Association, in Spring Garden Lane, Wanchai, in August 1997, the late Mr Ho's photograph was prominently displayed. This was placed alongside pictures of other persons who had made significant contributions to the Association and to the scaffolding industry. An altar and pictures of groups of scaffolders were also displayed in the Association's Headquarters. Opposite, on Spring Garden Lane, on the top floor, are dormitories where a number of elderly scaffolders reside. Earth god shrines are in evidence together with bundles of nylon lashings, for tying bamboo scaffold poles together. As at 1995, with a highly fragmented trade which relies largely on ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 TRACING GRAVES IN HONG KONG: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY DAN WATERS 395 In a letter dated 4 April 1998, the RASHKB received a request from the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA) to try to trace seven graves in Hong Kong. The BACSA had received these requests from the dead persons' relatives, living in Britain, who were seeking information regarding the whereabouts of the graves. Apart from names and in four cases exact dates (in the other three cases approximate dates) of deaths, no other information was, I was informed, available. We were not told, for instance, the dead persons' religions or denominations which made the search more difficult. The first attempt to track down the graves amounted to the best part of a Saturday afternoon which I spent in what, up to the early 1970s was known as the Colonial Cemetery, in Happy Valley on Hong Kong Island. It is now called the Hong Kong Cemetery. This is mainly Protestant although there are a few Japanese and Chinese buried there who were not Christians. On plan, the cemetery is divided into sections. There, with the help of Mr Pau Chi-sing the full-time cemetery attendant, after searching the register, I was eventually able to find three graves. Names, dates of deaths, sections in the cemetery and grave numbers are as follows: Boyle, Shirley Florence, 5 November 1945, Section 16F, Grave 10232 Boyle, Florence Ruby, 12 August 1968, Section 45, Grave 7423 Cornell, Francis Heawood, October 1908, Section 16, Grave 11772 Bearing in mind the ages of the graves, with no relatives or friends locally (one supposes) to look after them, they are in reasonable condition. Some settlement has taken place and gravestones are in need of repairs in some cases. Cleaning and re-polishing are necessary. As a result names are not always easy to read which made finding the graves more difficult. The last headstone mentioned above (Cornell), which is surmounted by a cross, has settled especially badly. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 396 A week or so later I spent a second afternoon in Saint Michael's Roman Catholic Cemetery. With the help of the Cemetery Attendant, Mr Law, the register was referred to and I managed to trace one more grave. This is recorded as follows: Knox, Lucy Elizabeth, 18 September 1937, Section 9, Grave 6501 It has a granite headstone and the grave has been 'slabbed' over and rendered with Shanghai plaster. Although the grave has settled it is still in reasonable condition. The following words may be read on the headstone: For all your patient care, For every anguished prayer, For tact with awkward ways, For love on wayward days, For all you ever thought, For all you ever wrought, We thank you Mother dear, For every anguished prayer. Having traced four graves, with three remaining, I sought the help of the Reverend Carl T. Smith, Honorary Vice-President RASHKB. He soon responded by saying he had found some details of one of the remaining three deceased in his card-index system. This was concerning Thomas Tolliday whose death had been given by his relatives, in England, as at some time between 1893 and 1899. From the details of the copy of the newspaper cutting filed by the Reverend Smith, it was possible to establish that Tolliday had died on 9 August, 1895, in Ning Po (Ningbo), China. There is no record of his body having been brought to Hong Kong. He had joined the China Maritime Customs in 1862 and, late in his career, he became their Chief Examiner. Now that, out of the seven names, four graves and brief details of Tolliday's death have been traced, two graves remain. Of these, both persons died after World War Two. They are: Knox, Ivy Muriel, 15 March 1976; and Moss, Lilly Beatrice, exact date unknown but, given by a relative ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 375 ANOTHER DONATION TO THE HONG KONG BRANCH OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY DAN WATERS Our Branch possesses a number of archives and artefacts, including photographs. Details of these are given in an article by Dan Waters entitled, Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society: Possessions on Permanent Loan to other Institutions (JHKBRAS, Vol. 37, 1998, p. 177). In addition, 515 books and a number of items were kindly donated to our Branch by the late Arnold Graham. Please see Arnold Graham 1905-1996 by Dan Waters (JHKBRAS, Vol. 38, 1998-99, p.305), In order to build up our collection, in February 2001, HKBRAS member Barbara Park suggested I write to Douglas Franklin who lives in Brisbane, Australia. Mr Franklin was very helpful and replied that he had some photographs in good condition and that he would be pleased to donate some to HKBRAS. We are extremely grateful to him for this donation. The late Frederick Percy Franklin (father of Douglas Franklin who made the donation) emigrated from Bournemouth, England, to Sydney, Australia, in 1912. He joined the Australian army in 1915 and served in France. He first came to Hong Kong in 1922, when he was appointed Manager of the Hong Kong Telegraph. This was the daily afternoon paper published by the South China Morning Post. As the Japanese approached the Colony all able-bodied British subjects were required to register for essential services. Frederick Franklin joined a British Royal Engineers unit. He was wounded on Christmas Day 1941, the day Hong Kong fell. His wife, two daughters and son, Douglas - who was 14 at the time - were evacuated on British Government orders to Sydney in August 1940, together with 3,000 women and children. When Hong Kong fell Frederick Franklin was captured and spent the whole of the war in the Argyle Street Prisoner of War Camp. After the war he returned to the South China Morning Post offices, then in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 329 account. It was an old colonial style building with paddle fans suspended from ceilings. This structure was replaced by an air-conditioned building in 1959, which was, in turn, replaced by another new Standard Chartered building opened formally in 1990. In the 1950s many buildings were old, roomy, colonial style, low-rise buildings, with colonnades, wide balconies and large windows or French doors in order to allow for "through draught." That was important. Windows usually were fitted with louvres or jalousies. I was taken to meet the Director of Education whose office was then in the lovely old French Mission Building (now the Court of Final Appeal) at the top of Battery Path. I had to sign the visitor's book at Government House. 'Unless you do this,' I was warned, 'you will not be invited to the garden party on the Queen's birthday.' In spite of what people would often have you believe they were generally proud to receive an invitation from the Governor. Just as today they like to receive an invitation to the reception, in the Convention and Exhibition Centre, on China's National Day. (When a HKBRAS group visited Government House in January 1997, shortly before The Handover, just about every member was keen to sign the book.) There was no doubt, too, that Hong Kong people felt greatly honoured if they were decorated by the Queen just as they feel honoured today if they receive a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region award. My Yorkshire colleague, back in early 1955, also introduced me to a reliable comprador. In this sense, I mean a grocer. In fact I still deal with the Asia Company to this day. Compared to the aseptic, soulless supermarkets I have wonderful memories of street-corner comprador shops stocked with goodies, including kam wa hams hanging from ceilings. I am, of course, talking of times when cheung saams were far more common and years before Big Macs and Kentucky Fried Chicken had made their debuts in the Territory. Regarding the latter, one person commented to me, 'We Chinese have a 1,000 ways to cook a chicken. Kentucky will never make it!' But although they failed once they returned to Hong Kong, Kentucky Fried Chicken has been a success story. When I arrived I had to register and obtain an identity card. I was quite embarrassed. On arrival at the North Point office, as I was a European, I was taken by my Chinese colleague straight to the front of ================================================================================