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 130 LACEY, J. A. LAI, T. C. - LANYON-ORGILL, Dr. P. A. LAW Chung Kam · LAWRY, R. E. LEE, Harold LEE, J. S.- LEE, The Hon. R. C. LIDDELL, Mrs. M. LINDSAY, Mrs. B. E. LINDSAY, T. J. - LIU, D. H.- - LIU, James J. Y. LIU. Dr. Tsun-Yan LLEWELLYN, J. LOBATO, Dr. P. G. LOTHROP, F. B. LUM, Miss Ada - MA Meng McBAIN, E. B. McCOY, W. J. MCCRARY, M. U.S. Consulate-General, H.K. Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 + Dept. of Extra-Mural Studies, H.K.U. - - - · - · + · · - L 1701 Beach Drive, Victoria, B.C., Canada. Victoria Heights, 43-A, Stubbs Rd. Flat 1-A, H.K. The British Council, 133 Gloucester Building, H.K. 604 Edinburgh House, H.K. 74 Kennedy Road, H.K. Lee Hysan Estate Co. Ltd., 604 Edinburgh House, H.K. 10-F Headland Road, H.K. 364 The Peak, Severn Road, H.K. Butterfield & Swire, H.K. 1 Mercury Street, 1st fl., Causeway Bay, H.K. Flat 14, 16-18 Conduit Road, H.K. 83 Sincere Terrace, Grd, fl., Tai Hang Rd. H.K. Dept. of Geography & Geology, H.K.U. P.O. Box 144, Macau, Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass., U.S.A. 142 Boundary Street, Kln. Institute of Oriental Studies, H.K.U. Geo. McBain & Co., S.C.M.P. Building, H.K. · U.S. Consulate-General, H.K, - 25-A Robinson Road, Top fl., H.K. McDOUALL, The Hon. J. C. S.C.A., Connaught Road C., H.K. McGRATH, D. B. MACK, A. M. - McKERNESS, Miss J. MANEELY, R. B. + T L + MARQUAND, R. A. - MARTIN, Rev. Canon E. W. L. MELLOR, B. MILLER, P. M. - MOK Shu Wah MORGAN, L. G. MOU Jun Sun MOYLE, G. C. - NETHERCUT, R. D. - NEWBIGGING, D. K. NIXON, F. A. NG, Peter Y, L. · - - U.S. Consulate-General, H.K, - - H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., H.K. 5 Magazine Gap Road, H.K. Dept. of Anatomy, H.K.U. 104 Paramount Apt., 2 Shan Kwong Rd. Happy Valley, H.K. St. John's College, H.K.U. Registrar, H.K.U. W U.S. Consulate-General, H.K. + - - - 21 Cochrane Street, 1st fl., H.K. Colonial Secretariat H.K. Dept. of History, New Asia College, 6 Farm Rd., Kln, Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., H.K. U.S. Consulate-General, H.K. Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., H.K. Room 42, Hong Kong Club, H.K. + Dept. of History, H.K.U. NOBLE, H. - Ying Wah College, Bute Street, Kln. O'CONNELL, Miss S. - - U.S. Consulate-General, H.K. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f Nevertheless the monthly meetings of the Society have been consistently well attended with audiences which often have more than filled this room and have averaged well over one hundred at each meeting. This regularity of attendance proves that there is in the Colony a reliable cross section of the community who appreciate what Professor Drake referred to in his inaugural lecture as the Study of Asia and our heritage. In the earlier days of the Society up to 1859 when the Government of the Colony provided a home for the Society and its library it was honoured with the presence on its Council of the Governor, the Commander of the British Forces, the Chief Justice, the Bishop of Victoria, the Colonial Secretary, the Colonial Treasurer and the Attorney General, and it had the active support of the heads of the great merchant houses like Jardine, Matheson and Co. and Dent and Co. Although in these busier days we miss the successors of some of these eminent personages we are still honoured today by the patronage of His Excellency the Governor and the support of leading members of a more cosmopolitan community than in the earlier days. We particularly appreciate the keenness of the Hon. W. C. G. Knowles, who has recently joined the Council, and of the Honourable the Chief Justice whose athletic figure some of us recall striding along the slithery slopes of Lantao on the occasion of our archaeological excursion last year. We hope that this year we may provide a further opportunity for members who do not perhaps know one another as well as it might be desired, to join in a combined social and study expedition either to Lantao or elsewhere in the New Territories. During the year 1961 nine public meetings were held at which unusually interesting lectures were given, most of them illustrated with colour slides- January 23rd James Liu "The Knight Errant in Chinese Literature" "Tibet As It Was (1936-1950)” February 10th Hugh Richardson April 10th May 13th Miss Mary Tregear "Chinese Paintings in Formosa and America" Expedition to Lantao to visit archaeological sites ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f June 12th Dr. T. Y. Li July 10th Mr. G. Findlay Andrew, O.B.E. September 20th Professor B. P. Groslier "Chinese Seals" "Currency Problems in a Cycle of Cathay" "Recent Work in Angkor" October 30th Mr. Holmes H. Welch "The Buddhist Monk's Career" December 11th Professor F. S. Drake "Nestorian Crosses and Nestorianism in China under the Mongols" Some of these lectures will be reproduced in the forthcoming Journal of the Society. We are particularly fortunate in being able to include the memorable address of Professor Drake on Nestorian Crosses, even though the printed article cannot reproduce the warmth and inspiration of his personal eloquence and exposition. The first Journal of the Society produced last year by the Editorial Board and completed, in the absence of Mr. Cranmer-Byng, by Mr. James Liu, had a very good reception. The Editors are to be congratulated on a worthy production which has set a pattern and standard for the future and which I feel will be more than sustained in this year's issue which, it is hoped, will be ready for delivery in May or June next. The report of the Hon. Treasurer, Mr. T. J. Lindsay, will, in his absence on leave, be presented to you by Mr. A. L. Harman of The Hong Kong Bank, who has been good enough to step into the breach. Some features of the Report deserve serious attention. In the first place, we had at the end of 1961 a narrow margin of $2,265.61 over and above our expenditure and $4,790.94 cash in the Bank. In addition, we had a capital investment of $16,247.25 at cost. This apparently favourable financial position is mainly due to donations of $500 each from three leading concerns in the Colony, Messrs. Butterfield and Swire, Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., and The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, together with a magnificent gift of $10,000 from an anonymous donor given in 1960 in memory of Arthur de Carle Sowerby. These are non-recurrent benefactions, however, and I 7 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v 72 J. L. CRANMER-BYNG China hand' of great experience, and a man of forceful character, Sir Harry Parkes. His daughter, Marion, had accompanied him to Peking and in a letter to a friend wrote of the Minister's house: How can I describe the house to you? It is so utterly unlike anything we have seen or lived in before. It really was originally a series of Chinese temples, and has been adapted for the use of Europeans by having odd little rooms built on, at odd and inconvenient corners. The entrance is very fine: first come two courts, with handsome red pillars; the carving and painting of the roofs is very picturesque and the colouring really beautiful. From the court you mount a flight of steps, and enter the hall, or Queen's room as it is called - her picture being there. 車 The grounds here are small but very nice; each person has his little home, and it reminds me much of a cathedral close; it is very peaceful and quiet. + 16 In the following year Parkes had to part with his daughter Marion when she was married in the Legation Chapel to James Keswick, a partner in the firm of Jardine, Matheson and Company, and at that time Chairman of the Municipal Council of Shanghai. In the Spring of 1885 Parkes was unwell and he died after a short illness, the only British Minister to die in harness in Peking. He drove himself too hard and died of overwork. The life of a student-interpreter at this time has been well described in a book called Where Chineses Drive,16 which was published in 1885, the title being taken from Paradise Lost, Book III. The author, W. H. Wilkinson, described the Legation as having a frontage along the Imperial canal of about three hundred yards, and continued: The compound forms an oblong of which the shorter side is about one hundred and thirty yards long. On the north it is shut in by the Han-lin College; on the west for the greater part of its length by the Lüan-i K'u, or as we call it, the "Imperial Carriage Park”. South of this, still on 15 Quoted in Lane-Poole, op. cit., II, 368-9. 16 "Where Chineses Drive". English Student-Life at Peking. By a Student Interpreter. (London, 1885). The name of the author does not appear on the book but Henri Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, I, 217, attributes it to W. H. Wilkinson. I ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v 108 A. D. BLUE provided that the river be opened to foreign shipping. This commenced the modern or more correctly the European history of the river. By the terms of the Treaty of Tientsin three ports on the river were opened to foreign shipping and trade - Chinkiang, Kiukiang, and Hankow, Hankow, by far the largest and most important of the three, was six hundred miles from the mouth of the river. The Franco-Chinese Treaty, signed at the same time, provided for the opening of Nanking. At that time, however, and for a further six years, Nanking was occupied by the Taiping rebels, and no attempt was made to trade there, and it was not until 1899 that the Chinese Maritime Customs opened a station there. When the Treaty of Tientsin was signed in 1858 most of the Lower Yangtse was in a disturbed state because of the Taiping Rebellion, and a great part of the river was under rebel control. In these circumstances, therefore, it was not expected that the river would be opened to foreign trade until the restoration of Imperial authority. Lord Elgin, the British Plenipotentiary, however, was unwilling to wait for this, and persuaded the Chinese authorities to allow him to make a voyage up the river. His expedition consisted of the frigates Retribution and Furious, and three small gunboats, Cruiser, Lee, and Dove. After being fired on by the rebels at two places, Hankow was reached on 6th December 1858, the first time it had been visited by a foreign ship. Lord Elgin went ashore at several places on the river, and made short excursions into the country. He found the people to have no sympathy with the rebels, and thought they welcomed the prospect of foreign trade. He also thought them reasonably prosperous and contented, and not too heavily taxed. At Hankow he found coal and iron, the latter in abundance, also considerable quantities of imported cotton and woollen goods; but he formed the opinion that British manufacturers would have to exert themselves to supplant native goods. It was a pleasing fallacy, he wrote, to imagine that it was only the malign influence of intriguing mandarins which caused the Chinese to prefer native to foreign goods. James Matheson, one of the founders of Jardine, Matheson and Company, frankly admitted on several occasions the superiority of Chinese nankeens over Manchester cotton goods. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g 80 THE CHINA COASTERS A. D. BLUE James Matheson sent his San Sebastian from Canton to ports in Fukien Province in 1820, to open up new markets for opium, and this is generally considered the pioneer voyage in the China coast trade. Although Matheson was Danish Consul at Canton at this time, and the San Sebastian sailed under Spanish colours, it is correct to describe this voyage as a British venture. The men who sailed the opium clippers, therefore, were the first 'China coasters', and since that time 'China coasters' have considered themselves a breed apart, distinct from the rest of the British Merchant Navy. The tradition of more liberal manning, of better pay, food, and conditions in general, pioneered by the opium clippers has continued to the present day. Many of the customs and practices of the lordly East Indiamen and of the Indian 'country ships' were inherited by the humbler 'China coasters'. The East Indiaman's captain could, and was expected to, make a fortune from carrying passengers and private cargo, in addition to the company's, and in self defence the latter stipulated a definite scale of perquisites for each member of the crew, from captain down to bosun and carpenter. Generous as this was, it was invariably exceeded. There was a much greater variety of 'pidgin' (=business) on the China coast, although it did not comprise such a high proportion of the China coaster's total earnings. As on the East India Company's ships, dabbling in certain types of 'pidgin' was considered legitimate and carried no moral stigma. The most common and profitable pidgin came from deck passengers. It was on the emigrant runs to the Straits and Bangkok that this type of 'pidgin' was most prolific. I was introduced to this on my first ship on the coast, the Antung. The Antung was The author served as an Engineer Officer with the China Navigation Company from 1928 until 1938, and was on the Yangtse in 1930 in the Shengking and again in 1934 in the Wuhu. He was captured by pirates in the Newchang river in Manchuria in 1933 and held prisoner for five and a half months. Two of his articles have been published previously in the Journal. "European Navigation on the Yangtse" in Vol. 3, 1963, and "Piracy on the China Coast" in Vol. 5, 1965. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g HUGHES, G. M. HUGHES, Mrs. G. M. HUGHES, Prof. W. I. HULL, G. B. G. HUNG, C. S. HURT, Miss E. J. - - - + HUTCHISON, Miss P. M. HUTSON, P. E. INGLES, Miss J. M. INGRAM, Miss P. • IRETON, Mrs. Polly Hogue* IU, Miss S.* JACKSON, R. N. JAMES, Miss S. C. JAO, Tsung-i - JEN, Prof. Yu-wen JOHNSTON, James J. - JONES, Dr. J. R.* - KEATLEY, R. L. KELLY, Miss E. KENT, M. H. KESWICK, Henry KESWICK, S. L. KEYES, M. P. + KHAN, Dr. L. A. - L + - KIDD, S. T. KINOSHITA, James H. - American International Assurance Co., Ltd., American International Building, H.K. RBL 175 Sassoon Road, H.K. Dept. of Extra-Mural Studies, The University, H.K. 49 Beach Road, Repulse Bay, H.K. 4B, Headland Road, H.K. 601, The Hermitage, 75 Macdonnell Road, H.K. 176 The Avenue, Lowestoft South, Suffolk, England. c/o H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., H.K. Government House Lodge, Garden Road, H.K. 95 Robinson Road, Top Floor, H.K. 10, Peak Road, H.K. Matron, Grantham Hospital, Aberdeen, H.K. The Registry, The University, H.K. D-12, Bay Court, 127 Repulse Bay Road, H.K. Dept. of Chinese, The University, H.K. 2 Stafford Road, Kowloon, United States Consulate General, 26 Garden Road, H.K. 3, Abermer Court, May Road, H.K. Apt. 4-B, 41-C Conduit Road, H.K. P. O. Box 117, H.K. 7B Lincoln Court, Tai Hang Road, H.K. c/o Jardine Matheson & Co., Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. As above. c/o Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. 1, Wing Ying Mansion, 2/F, Soare's Ave., Kowloon, c/o Colonial Secretariat, Lower Albert Rd., H.K. Palmer & Turner, Room 1906, Prince's Building, H.K. * Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d CONTENTS EDITORIAL NOTE PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1967 HON. TREASURER'S REPORT FOR 1967 ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED: ✓ Chinese Religion and Rural Cohesion in the Nineteenth Century MARJORIE TOPLEY The Hankow Steamer Tea Races - T. J. LINDSAY Notes on Hong Kong Libraries in the Nineteenth Century - H. A. RYDINGS Further Notes on the Sung Wong T'oi Being Caught by a Fishnet; On Fêngshui in Southeastern China Fan Lau and its Fort: an Historical Perspective - ARMANDO DA SILVA Plover Cove to Taipo Market: A Study in Forced Migration - MORRIS I. BERKOWITZ Sun Yat-sen and Chinese History - STEPHEN UHALLEY, JR. Review ARTICLE: Capitalism and the Chinese Peasant; Social and Economic Change in a Chinese Village (Jack M. Potter) H. G. H. NELSON ARTICLE REPRINTED: Chinese Street-Cries in Hong Kong J. NACKEN NOTES AND QUERIES: Notes on Some Vegetarian Halls in Hong Kong belonging to the Sect of Hsien-T'ien Tao: (The Way of Former Heaven) MARJORIE TOPLEY and JAMES HAYES Jardine, Matheson & Company's First Site in Hong Kong - DAFYDD EMRYS EVANS Research on Family Values and Culture Change in Hong Kong's Modern Chinese Novels - KLAUS MADING Hong Kong's First Government House - DAFYDD EMRYS EVANS A Reaping Knife from Lantau Island, Hong Kong - JAMES HAYES Itinerant Hakka Weavers JAMES HAYES The Tung Chung Fort (Lantau Island, Hong Kong) - JAMES HAYES BOOK REVIEWS THE LIBRARY LIST OF MEMBERS Page 1 2 6 9 44 56 67 74 82 96 109 119 128 135 149 154 156 161 162 165 168 178 200 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d 208 HUNG, C. S. HURT, Miss E. J.- HUTCHISON, Miss P. M. - HUTSON, P. E. INGLES, Miss J. M. Yuet Ming Building, 17th floor, Flat B, King's Road, North Point, H.K. 601, The Hermitage, 75 Macdonnell Road, H.K. 176 The Avenue, Lowestoft South, Suffolk, England, c/o H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., H.K. Government House Lodge, Garden Road, H.K. IRETON, Mrs. Polly Hogue* 10, Peak Road, All, H.K. IU, Miss S.* - JACKSON, R. N. JAMES, Miss S. C. JAO, Tsung-i JEN, Prof. Yu-wen - JOHNSTON, James J. JONES, Dr. J. R.* - KEATLEY, R. L. KELLY, Miss E. KENT, M. H. - KESWICK, Henry KESWICK, S. L. KEYES, M. P. KIDD, S. T. KINOSHITA, James H. - KHAN, Dr. L. A. KLEIN, Prof. Leonard KNIGHTLY, F. J. Matron, Grantham Hospital, Aberdeen, H.K. The Registry, The University, H.K. D-12, Bay Court, 127 Repulse Bay Road, H.K. Dept. of Chinese, The University, H.K. 2 Stafford Road, Kowloon, United States Consulate General, 26 Garden Road, H.K. 3. Abermor Court, May Road, H.K. Apt. 4-B, 41-C Conduit Road, H.K. P. O. Box 16004, H.K. 7B Lincoln Court, Tai Hang Road, H.K. c/o Jardine Matheson & Co., Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. As above. c/o Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. c/o Colonial Secretariat, Lower Albert Rd., H.K. Palmer & Turner, Room 1906, Prince's Building, H.K. 1, Wing Ying Mansion, 2/F, Soare's Ave., Kowloon, Flat C, 4/F, 70 Conduit Road, H.K. H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., H.K. KNOWLES, Miss Moira G. - Training & Examinations Unit, Electric House, 22A Ice House Street, H.K. KNOWLES, Dr. W. C. G.* Wakes Coine Place, Nr. Colchester, Essex, England. KNOWLES, Mrs. W. C. G. As above. * Life Member Please notify the Hon Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 4 trade and penetration to China and the Far East, and the Society was in part designed to bring together in London members of these societies who had returned to England and allow them to meet and continue publication of their work. It was founded in March 1823 and received its Royal Charter of Incorporation from George IV on 11th August, 1824. It is the oldest and most important Society of its kind in Europe, and its standing as the doyen of Societies promoting the study of Asia has been maintained by the devotion of generations of eminent scholars, explorers, and others who have contributed through its Journal, in public addresses and in many other ways, a rich harvest of knowledge, the practical uses of which serve to promote and aid our understanding of, and our relation with, the East. Before the acquisition of Hong Kong the movement had extended to the mercantile community in Canton, under the influence of Sir John Davis who had become a founder member of the Royal Asiatic Society in London, and of correspondents of the Society who included James Matheson. The Hong Kong Branch grew out of a Medico-Chirurgical Society founded in 1845. This Society, however, in accord with the contemporary spirit of inquiry, and the enthusiasm for better knowledge of Asia in general and of China in particular, had contemplated setting up a Philosophical Society under the leadership of Andrew Shortrede, Editor of the China Mail who drafted the Society's laws based on those of the Royal Asiatic Society. Sir John F. Davis, then Governor of the Colony, by reason of his known literary and scientific acquirements rather than his official rank, was asked to be President. He suggested that the Society should seek to be admitted as a Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society with which, as a founder member, he was in close touch and with whose active President, the Earl of Auckland, he had had discussions on these lines before he left England. So in January 1847 the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was founded and all the members of the Medico-Chirurgical Society who wished to join were admitted on condition of their Society's library being handed over to the new body. Besides the Governor as President, and Andrew Shortrede as General Secretary and Major General D'Aguilar as Vice President, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 LIST OF MEMBERS ORDINARY MEMBERS: HOYNINGEN-HUENE, Baron Ture von + 9A, Stanley Beach Road, H.K. HUMPLE, Mr. & Mrs. George D. 17, Conduit Road, Apt. 2A, H.K. HUTSON, Peter 257 HUYSMAN, Mrs, J. c/o The Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp., P.O. Box 64, H.K. HUYSMAN, J. 21, Broadwood Road, H.K. G INGLES, Miss J. M. c/o Banque Belge pour l'Etranger S.A., 81, Sai Yeung Choi Street, Mongkok Branch, Kowloon, JEN, Prof. Yu-Wen + Government House Lodge, Garden Road, H.K. JIN, Mrs. Jane Dong-Fang 2, Stafford Road, Kowloon. JONES, G. W. E. 3, Yun Ping Road, 4th floor, H.K. Govt. Language School, Lee Gardens, Hysan Avenue, H.K. JONES-PARRY, R. Longman Group (Far East) Ltd., P.O. Box 223, H.K. KESWICK, Simon L. - c/o Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. KEYES, Michael P. · c/o Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. KINGWELL, Mr. & Mrs. A. J.. Flat C/4, Cavendish Heights, 27, Perkins Road, H.K. KINOSHITA, James H. · + c/o Palmer & Turner, Room 1906, Prince's Building, H.K. KINSEY, Miss Margaret J. Department of Social Work, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, H.K. KIRKBRIDE, K. M. G. + c/o The Building Authority, Murray Building, 8th floor, Garden Road, H.K. KIRKWOOD, Mrs. Jean K. Mackenny Court, 1st floor, 65, MacDonnell Road, H.K. KNEEBONE, Mrs. Susan Y. 50, Leighton Hill Flats, 16, Link Road, H.K. KNISELY, Mr. & Mrs. Jay G. 68, Chung Hom Kok Road, Flat A-3, H.K. KNOWLES, Miss Moira G. c/o Public Services Examination Unit, Colonial Secretariat, Lower Albert Road, H.K. KWOK, Robert Chin-kung + c/o Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. LACK, Alan J. 1, Peak Pavilions, 12, Mt. Kellet Road, The Peak, H.K. LAM, Yung-Fai - c/o Ye Olde Printerie Ltd., 6, Duddell St., H.K. LAMBE, Miss Margaret - 21F, Felix Villa, 10 Happy View Terrace, Broadwood Road, Happy Valley, H.K. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 LIST OF MEMBERS 259 ORDINARY MEMBERS: MacCALLUM, I. - c/o Colonial Secretariat, Lower Albert Rd., H.K. MacGREGOR, Keith - 19, South Bay Close, Repulse Bay, H.K. MacLEAN, R. - 326-8, Tung Ying Building, 100, Nathan Road, Kowloon. MAHLKE, William J. - c/o Estates Office, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, H.K. MAO, Dr. Philip W. C., F.R.C.S. - P.O. Box 104, Macau. MARKEY, John C. - 117, Main Road, Kam Tin, N.T. MARTINHO-MARQUES, E. J. - 1, Abermor Court, May Road, H.K. MATHIAS, John R. G. - Johnson, Stokes & Master, Hong Kong Bank Building, H.K. MCCABE, Mrs. S. J. - Dept. of Sociology, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, H.K. McELNEY, Brian S. - 1206, Shell House, 24, Queen's Road, C., H.K. McGOUGH, James P. - 10, Fort Street, 2nd floor, H.K. MEGGITT, Mrs. B. - 34, Kennedy Road, Block C, 9th floor, H.K. MIAO, Miss Irene Hung - c/o Miss G. Ou, P.O. Box 6440, Kowloon. MILLER, A. C. - 36, New Henry House, 10, Ice House St., H.K. MORGAN, Mrs. Carole - 3, Macdonnell Road, Flat 602, H.K. MORROW, Miss Sharon E. - c/o Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd., Insurance Dept., Jardine House, H.K. MOSLER, Mrs. M. - c/o Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. MOYLE, G. C. - Anthropology Section, New Asia College, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T. MUNN, Mrs. E. - Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. MYERS, John T. - 304, Man Yee Building, H.K. NEWBIGGING, D. K. - 8, Abermor Court, 15 May Road, H.K. NG, Peter P. K. - Parker Pen Co. (F.E.) Ltd., Caxton House, 1 Duddell Street, H.K. NICOL, C. A. A. - Sandy Bay Children's Orthopaedic Hospital, Sandy Bay, H.K. NISHIMURA, Masato - c/o The British Council, Star House, 3rd floor, Kowloon. O'BRIEN, Dr. John P. - O'HARA, Mrs. Margaret - Jardine House, 12th floor, H.K. ... Cameraman Ltd., 22A, Westlands Road, 6th floor, H.K. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d EUROPEAN WORKING CLASS IN 19TH CENTURY 107 of the underdog Portuguese or Eurasian communities. The one social event that united—for one evening—all classes of European was that great Scots tribal festival, the St. Andrew's Day Ball. Celebrated on November 30, it ushered in the Hong Kong season, a season that closed with the Volunteer Ball.* The St. Andrew's Day Ball was open to any Scot or his friends who could afford the price of a ticket. Held in St. George's Hall, a spacious ball-room within the City Hall edifice, it was attended normally by over a thousand adults. Although an Army chaplain inquired plaintively: "Why should pig-iron turn up its nose at ten-penny nails (in Hong Kong)?" for one evening at least status distinctions between retailers and wholesalers were partially ignored, although the proceedings were always dominated by the chieftains of Jardine, Matheson and Co., the patriarchal Scottish hong, The European lower orders were excluded not only from the more amusing social life of the colony, they also had little say in its government. In 1885, for example, the total number of ratepayers was eighty-two: from this small group the unofficial members of the Legislative Council normally were elected or chosen. The pong-paân were thus totally unrepresented in this, a British colony. Their names, moreover, are not found on the lists of Justices of the Peace, Special Jurors, and those of members of official and other important committees. They were of course sworn in on occasion as common jurors. Why did the European lower orders experience such treatment from the well-to-do and influential? Partly, it was a consequence of social attitudes formed in the homeland: Victorian notions about the ordering of social classes and occupational groups, such as are analysed in Thackeray's The Book of Snobs. However, in early Hong Kong another notion was also prevalent: the view that there were 'dangerous classes', a term that connoted the lumpenproletariat, a class of persons spawned in the new industrial cities of Europe, 'those who had so miserable a share in the accumulating wealth of the industrial revolution that they might at any time break out in political revolt as in France'.32 Predictably enough, working-class Europeans were often viewed with some suspicion; there was fear that middle-class control over them would cease to prevail in certain For the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Force see James Hayes' article in this Journal Vol 11, 1971: 151-171. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 292 NOTES AND QUERIES tablets showing a major repair or reconstruction in 1897-98 and 1925-26. A large Roman Catholic chapel, now in ruins, once stood close by. It is shown as being in existence in Father Volonteri's 1866 map of the San On District—see JHKBRAS Vols 9 & 10 (1969 & 1970), pp. 141-148 and 193-196 respectively—but unfortunately receives no mention in Father Ryan's The Story of A Hundred Years. The Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions (P.I.M.E.) in Hong Kong 1858-1958. Hong Kong 1975 JAMES HAYES THE NOON DAY GUN The following extract from the Hong Kong Daily Press, January 3, 1870, is not without a historical and for present day residents faced with an increase in our defense contribution—topical interest: It is interesting and just to note that the renewing of the twelve o'clock gun firing is due to liberality of Mr. Magniac of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson and Company, who when the Home Government ceased to provide this small return for the heavy Military Contribution forwarded annually from this Colony, purchased a gun, etc., and had it fixed up at Messrs. Jardine's, where it is fired daily. NOTE: Herbert St. Leger Magniac was admitted a partner in the firm of Jardine, Matheson and Company, July 1, 1862. Hong Kong, 1975 CARL T. SMITH THE GERMAN CONGREGATION IN HONG KONG UNTIL 1914 A note on "Bethesda" and the "Berliner Frauenverein für China” by Pastor Albrecht Plag appeared in vol. 9 (1969) of this Journal. He there asks where Bethesda was located. Early maps of Hong Kong and a search of title in the Land Registry indicates it occupied the site of the present Mid-levels Police Station on the north side of High Street at its junction with Bonham Road. The original lot extended down to Hospital Road. The plot consisted of two Inland Lots numbered 624 and 607. Page 300 Page 301 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 230 BOOK REVIEWS The years following the change-over were not peaceful. The western relations with China were not, on the whole, harmonious. This was largely because a tradition-bound and conservative bureaucracy, loosely ruled from Peking, was reluctant to allow contact with outsiders except within the long established tributary relationship by which the "middle kingdom" dealt with foreigners. Professor Graham uses mainly western (and almost completely British) sources in his research. His extensive use of Foreign Office, Colonial Office, Admiralty and Indian Office Records in London and New Delhi has given him the expertise with which to assess British policymaking and the multifarious problems arising in its implementation in the imperial period of the nineteenth century. He uses private papers to complement official sources, delving into such well known collections as those left by the "actors" of the story, among them Palmerston, Wellington, Russell, Pottinger, Aberdeen, James Matheson, William Jardine. And he does not neglect the less well known diaries and journals left by common seamen and admirals who were participants in the action of the book. The purpose, then, as the author admits, is to see the conflict between China and the west "through European eyes” (p. viii). But here the author is rather modest for he does make excellent use of the best available translated sources to attempt to understand the conflicts from Chinese views. The chapters are roughly chronological, beginning with a discussion of the Canton "system" of trade in tea, silk, opium and silver, and tracing the "campaigns" of the naval skirmishes in 1839-41 and 1856-60. Inserted, at appropriate places, are chapters on the founding of Hong Kong as a colony, the problems of administration and command in the Royal Navy (the China Station was not actually established until a division of the East Indies Station occurred in 1844), and the impact of the Crimean War, Russia and the Indian Mutiny upon events in China. It is curious that rather limited naval skirmishes leading to consular treaties should be denominated by historians as “wars”. Professor Graham defines three separate Anglo-Chinese Wars, viz. 1839-41 ("the Opium War"), 1856-58, and 1860. These limited campaigns were found necessary, according to the preponderant British view, because Chinese officialdom was largely ignorant of western armed strength and must be shown by a demonstration of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 244 ORDINARY LOCAL MEMBERS DE BURE, Mrs. Ursula, 550 Victoria Road, Block 29, Floor 30, HONG KONG. DE SILVA, Ms. Minette, Dept. of Architecture, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG. DER, The Rev. E. B., Holy Trinity Church, 135 Ma Tau Chung Road, KOWLOON. DIAMOND, Mr. A. L., Public Records Office of Hong Kong, 2 Murray Road, HONG KONG. DOHERTY, Ms. Kathleen Rose, 11 Coombe Road, Flat 1A, HONG KONG. DOLFIN, Mr. John, III, 155 Argyle Street, KOWLOON. DRAKEFORD, Mr. Louis S., 124 Miles Clearwater Bay Road, KOWLOON. DYER, Mrs. C. E., 233 Prince's Building, HONG KONG. ELSOM, Mr. Graham, J. B., G.P.O. Box 11508, HONG KONG. EVANS, Prof. D. M. E., School of Law, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG. EVANS, Mr. C. J., Flat 9. 8 Mansfield Road, The Peak, HONG KONG. FABRY, Mr. K. G., Rural Retreat, Taipo Kau, NEW TERRITORIES. FABRY, Mrs. R. G., Rural Retreat, Taipo Kau, NEW TERRITORIES. FAN, Mr. Jack F. S., 1-25 Shu Kuk Street, May Lun Apartment 14/F, North Point, HONG KONG FITZPATRICK, Mr. John, c/o Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd. World Trade Centre, 30/F, Causeway Bay, HONG KONG. FORSYTH, Mr. A. H., c/o Stevenson & Co., 821 Central Building, 3 Pedder Street, HONG KONG FORSYTH, Mr. James J., Flat 102, 80 Macdonnell Road, HONG KONG. GAILEY, Mr. H. G., 81 Mt. Nicholson Gap, HONG KONG GAILEY, Mrs. Norah, 81 Mt. Nicholson Gap, HONG KONG. GAMLEN, Mr. Richard, 62 A-D Robinson Road, 19th Floor, Flat B, HONG KONG. GARCIA, Mr. Arthur, Victoria District Court, HONG KONG. GARRETT, Mrs. Valery M., 19 Vivian Court, 20 Mount Kellett Road, HONG KONG. GATELY, Major Charles, c/o Environment Branch, Colonial Secretariat, Lower Albert Road, HONG KONG. GHOSE, Mrs. Rajeshwari, St. Paul's Convent School, Causeway Bay, HONG KONG. GIBB, Mr. Hugh, c/o Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp., P.O. Box 64, HONG KONG. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 64 1862 (April) -- 1863 (April) › (31.3.1862) Henry Turner (Chairman) x J. H. HAAN Agra & United Service Bank British James Cock (Treasurer) x Watson & Co. British Andrew Brand Smith, Kennedy & Co. British Henry Sturgis Grew Russell & Co. American Alexander Michie x Lindsay & Co. British Note: In April 1863 only those members marked "x" were still in office (A. Brand had died). 1863 (April)- 1864 (April) (4.4.1863) Henry William Dent (Chairman) James Cock (Treasurer) Robert Brand David Reid J. Kearney Rodgers August Wieters George Fairley Heard 1864 (April) — 1865 (April) (16.4.1864) Henry William Dent (Chairman) x Robert Crawfurd Antrobus x James Cock Frank Blackwell Forbes x Rudolph Heinssen x Julius Kahn G. W. Talbot Dent & Co. British Lindsay & Co. British Watson & Co. British Russell & Co. American Siemssen & Co. German Reid & Co. (per 1.1.1864) British ? German Aug. Heard & Co. American Harkort & Co. ? Dent & Co. British Reiss & Co. British ? ? Note: In April 1865 only those members marked "x" were still in office, 1865 (April) — 1866 (March) William Keswick (Chairman) J. C. Coutts Thomas Hanbury James Hogg Nichol Latimer Clement D. Nye W. Probst Jardine, Matheson & Co. British ? ? ? ? Bower, Hanbury & Co. British Hogg Brothers British N. Latimer & Co. British Bull, Nye & Co (?). ? German Note: N. Latimer died during his term of office. As from April 1865 a different mode of electing a Municipal Council was followed (cf. main text). Source: North China Herald 1850-1866. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 230 ! CARL T. SMITH INNOVATIONS In 1886 a musical sketch was introduced entitled “Cups and Saucers". It was written by George Goldsmith, Junior, as a satire against the craze of the day for collecting blue and white china at exorbitant prices. There were only two characters, one male, one female, the latter played by Mrs. Fraser-Smith, wife of the editor of the Hong Kong Telegraph. It contained the song "Foo-chow chan aring, ching a ring China”. The Club announced another serious production for 1888, "The Rivals". There was the inevitable comparison with the earlier performance of "The School for Scandal". When it was announced that the A.D.C. had resolved to play Sheridan's comedy of "The Rivals", many residents entertained the feeling that they had undertaken too much, although against this idea it could well be argued that the performances here of "The School for Scandal” were most enjoyable, it was argued that Sheridan's masterpiece was placed before the Hong Kong public when the A.D.C. was in the heyday of its existence. Furthermore, the successions of costume and scenery possible in "The School" were not available in “The Rivals". Looking at both of these performances, however, and taking into account the gorgeousness of scenery and dressing in "The School" as well as the exceptional ability of several of the actors who have passed away from these shifting scenes, we do not find that the A.D.C. did an unwise thing in deciding upon "The Rivals". The Amateurs and the public have had their share of burlesque and of modern pieces of late; and it was, we think, a healthy change to come back to the legitimate comedy of the last century. The reviewer noted that two of the actors in "The Rivals" were well on their way to filling up a gap left by the retirement of Mr. Hockey (Mr. Atwell Coxon) and Mr. Treab (Mr. Beart), an accomplished comedian. One of the newcomers was Mr. James Whittall, later to become a taipan at Jardine Matheson and Company, A first of a series of Christmas pantomimes was staged in 1889. It had "splendid spectacular effects, light and appropriate ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 161 BLOCKADE FINDS A CHAMPION The Chinese petition to the Queen concerning the evils of what was called the Chinese “blockade” of Hongkong was followed by a public meeting held at the City Hall in September 1874, to draw up resolutions to present to the Government in Britain. The meeting began with the calamitous forecast by the chief manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, Mr. James Greig, that Hongkong's junk trade was threatened with complete extinction and the acts of China in patrolling the waters near Hongkong were an outrage. He proposed the first resolution: "That this meeting regards with feelings of amazement and alarm the organised invasion by the Hoppo of Canton of the freedom and sanctuary of the port and harbour of Hongkong." There was one person at the meeting who had not been carried away by the ground-swell of indignation which pervaded the mercantile section of the community. The unofficial member of the Legislative Council and senior partner in Hongkong of Jardine, Matheson and Company, Mr. James Whittall, stated his opinion that the commerce of Hongkong was not suffering from the blockade. Indeed, he claimed that trade had improved after some recent sluggishness and was as large as it ever had been. Furthermore, China had a perfect right to levy and collect duties on cargoes. Several speakers questioned the accuracy of Mr. Whittall's estimate of the progress of Hongkong trade. One drew attention to the Harbour Master's report for the previous year which showed a decline in junks entering and leaving the harbour. But Mr. Whittall stood firm. He reminded the meeting that his company did a very large business and he ought to be fully acquainted with the situation. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h recounts that the crew of the Sulphur landed on Hong Kong island on Monday 25 January” and as 'the bona fide first possessors' drank the health of Queen Victoria on Possession Mount. Then 'On the 26th the squadron arrived; the marines were landed, the union hoisted on our post, and formal possession taken of the island, by Commodore Sir J. G. Bremer, accompanied by the other officers of the squadron, under a feu-de-joie from the marines, and a royal salute from the ships of war'." Bremer himself was no more expansive. In his official despatch to R. More O'Ferrall M.P. at the Admiralty, written on 24 February but received only on 8 June 1841, Bremer reported that on 26 January he proceeded to Hong Kong ‘and took formal possession of the island, and hoisted the colours on it, with the usual salutes and ceremonies'. 12 News of the acquisition of the island of Hong Kong became public knowledge in England on the morning of Friday 9 April 1841, but yet again there was no description of the ceremony of possession. On this day Elliot's circular of 20 January was printed in The Times, and it was discussed in an optimistic editorial: it was considered good news because Hong Kong was much more convenient for trade than Macao and a settlement there would be able to maintain itself independently of the Chinese." By the following day the tone of the editorial had changed. Its author wrote that 'the nominal cession of the island of Hong Kong to the British crown, though apparently promising considerable advantages to our mercantile interests, has been clogged with conditions which in practice may substantially defeat them', and then referred to the island as an 'insulated and unfrequented locality'. One factor which may have been decisive in settling on Hong Kong in the negotiations was, as the merchant James Matheson noted, the Chinese language, for such, he felt, is its ambiguity that it is difficult to fix in it a definite meaning." Matheson believed that, when Ch'i-shan remarked in one of his communications ‘as we have granted you territory you do not now require another port', Elliot in consequence gave up thoughts of British access to a port in northern China in the hope that he could hold Ch'i-shan to an interpretation of the Chinese characters which meant that the British had been granted the territory of Hong Kong rather than merely being given a trading factory there.'5 Two letters to The Times published in the same week expressed dissatisfaction with the new British acquisition. The first was dated Macao, 22 January and was presumably written by a merchant: 'Regarding the terms of Captain Elliot's treaty with the Chinese, I have ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 10 16 not the temper to speak. He had the Chinese at his feet, and might have had what he wished; and what has he got? A few paltry dollars and a barren island... The Chinese are already chuckling, and say they have got the best of it. It makes me quite sick to think of it, and there are not half a dozen people on shore or afloat who are not quite furious'. The alleged sentiments of the Chinese in this letter are in direct contrast to those reported by James Matheson in a letter to William Jardine of 11 February: 'The cession of Hong Kong to the British is what most mortifies the Canton folks with Ki Shen's proceedings. They cannot bear to speak of it with composure'." It seems that a portion of the British community in the Pearl Delta area (the author of the letter wishes to appear to have as large a constituency as possible, not only within the merchant community) may have presupposed that their feelings of failure with regard to the acquisition of Hong Kong meant a corresponding sense of triumph for the Chinese. The second letter to The Times was equally scathing as it claimed that the British negotiators had been tricked because 'Hong Kong was virtually ours, for it is the place which the opium ships have used as a rendezvous for years'. It was only to be expected therefore that the Chinese would choose to cede that island rather than any other. 19 18 Of the acts of soldiers in the expeditionary force, it might have been expected that the formal taking of possession of Hong Kong would have been worthy of mention even if the author had not been present in person, but it seems that this is not the case. Neither Duncan McPherson nor W. W. Mundy refers to it. Nor did soldiers such as A. Cunynghame20 or Alexander Murray21 who became involved just after the cession of Hong Kong refer back to the ceremony. There is only one reference to the taking of Hong Kong in the official mouthpiece for the forces, The United Service Journal of 1841, and that was in a general article entitled 'The British colonies considered as military posts' written by Lieutenant-Colonel Wilkie. He complained in July 1841 that the rationale for his inclusion of Hong Kong in the article was threatened because arrangements between the British and the Chinese had collapsed, ‘and consequently it is more than doubtful whether I shall have any more authority for treating of this island as a British colony, beyond the simple fact that it has been formally taken possession of as such',22 Contemporary press notices of the event, again in direct contrast to news of the opium war and the expedition to the Bogue, are terse and rudimentary. The Chinese Repository of February 1841, edited by the ================================================================================ 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 12 Hong Kong had been named for the first time as a potential British acquisition only on 11 January 1841.33 Lord Palmerston wrote a letter to the minister of the Emperor of China on 20 February 1840 instructing him that 'the British Government demands that one or more sufficiently large properly situated Islands on the Coast of China, to be fixed upon by the British plenipotentiaries [Admiral G. Elliot and Captain C. Elliot], shall be permanently given up to the British Government'.34 The two Elliots were left to choose the island or islands, and when the Rear-Admiral returned home, the choice was left entirely to Charles Elliot. However the British Government had been expecting the acquisition of the island of Chusan off the northern coast of China. As neither Chusan nor Shachiao were acceptable to the Chinese, Hong Kong was suggested as an alternative. Ch'i-shan wrote to Charles Elliot on 15 January offering him either Hong Kong or Kowloon but not both, and Elliot replied accepting Hong Kong on 16 January 1841. On 15 January James Matheson wrote to his partner that Elliot had arrived in Macao the night before: 'I learn from him very confidentially that Ki Shen has agreed to the British having a possession of their own outside, but objects to ceding Chuenpee; in lieu of which Captain Elliot has proposed Hong Kong'. Consequently there had not been much time for reconnoitre between the suggestion of Hong Kong and the reality of its possession, either on the part of the expeditionary forces or on the part of those members of the merchant community of the Pearl Delta who were conversant with the diplomatic negotiations. James Matheson's curiosity about the island, as evinced by his circumnavigation of it, which was surely not done for show, was matched by that of the Protestant missionaries, eight of whom chartered a lorcha in Macao on 8 February and went to Hong Kong on an exploratory outing." Their verdict that 'Hong Kong will, if retained by the British, rise in importance and influence until it becomes the first insular emporium in these Eastern waters'38 could provide a key to later references to the flag-hoisting 36 ceremony, For although twentieth-century and contemporary historians of Hong Kong have continued in the tradition of downplaying or ignoring the event, there was a period between the late 1870s and the early 1890s when at least two people contended for the honour of having been the person who hoisted the flag on 26 January 1841. That such claims were being made is indicative of the fact that Hong Kong had become a more stable community with a developing sense of identity. The differences between the contenders illustrate the wide-ranging appeal of this honour. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 15 has not materialized is a testimony to the fact that the present and the future in Hong Kong have always been more important than the past, with the result that the recovery of information on Hong Kong's history is now very difficult. CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE NOTES See C. Blake, Charles Elliot R. N., 1801-1875 (London, 1960). 2. W. D. Bernard, Narrative of the Voyages and Services of the Nemesis from 1840 to 1843, I (London, 1844), p. 304. 3. When the British flag was hoisted on Chusan on 5 July 1840, the name of the person responsible for hoisting the flag also went unrecorded as it was considered unimportant. See G. Graham, The China Station (Oxford, 1978), pp. 127-8. I am grateful to Alan Reid for this reference. 4. Captain Sir Edward Belcher, RN, Narrative of a Voyage round the world performed in HM's Ship Sulphur, during the years 1836-1842 (London, 1843). 6. J. Elliot Bingham, Narrative of the Expedition to China (London, 1842). Bernard, Narrative, op. cit. Bernard wrote the book from the notes of W. H. Hall who had commanded the Nemesis, and included his own observations. 7. Bernard, Narrative, op. cit. I, p. 291. 8. Elliot Bingham, Narrative, op. cit. II, p. 120. In the text 26 January is misprinted for 25 January. 19. Belcher, Narrative, op. cit. p. 148. This account is the one usually quoted in an account of the cession of Hong Kong. See for example G. R. Sayer, Hong Kong: Birth, Adolescence and Coming of Age (London, 1937), p. 93 and J. R. Jones, “Who Hoisted the Union Jack?“, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 12 (1972), p. 196. || Supplement to The Times of 12 June 1841. This expression appears to be formulaic as Bremer uses identical words in a letter to the Earl of Auckland who was Governor General of India of 10 March 1841. See Duncan McPherson, Two years in China (London, 1842), p. 274. 12. The Times of 9 April 1841. The editorial went on to say: 'the recognition of a territorial right in the British crown, as well as the terror of the British name, will give our countrymen advantages which were never possessed by the Portuguese in China'. 13. The Times of 10 April 1841. E. Jardine Matheson Archives, Cambridge University Library (hereinafter JMA), C5/6, James Matheson's private letter book, 54. 15. Ibid., C5/6, 60, 22 January 1841. The Times of 15 April 1841. 17. JMA, C5/6, 69. 18. The Times of 13 April 1841. McPherson, Two Years in China, p. 76 and W. W. Mundy, Canton and the Bogue: ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 221 about 20 headquarters staff. Shortly before Hong Kong was founded in the 1830s, this company controlled one-third of all foreign trade with China. Jardine's Today, the best known of Hong Kong's traders is still Jardine Matheson, which predates the birth of the colony by nine years, although some say there has been an over-concentration on Jardine's history at the expense of other firms. Nonetheless it is the oldest, still thriving, western trading house in the Far East, having been established in the reign of William IV (1830-7). In 1817 William Jardine decided to enter commerce, and, on an introduction by Hollingworth Magniac, from 1822 to 1824 he took charge of Charles Magniac and Company (Charles and Hollingworth were brothers) which was in financial difficulties. James Matheson arrived in Canton in 1820 and formed Matheson and Company. In 1828, Jardine and Matheson joined forces. The name Magniac was dropped, and the new enterprise was established by the two Scotsmen in 1832. The name remains the same to this day. William Jardine had been a ship's surgeon in the Honourable East India Company from 1802-16. He retired to Scotland in 1838 (some records say 1839) and died in 1843. Matheson left the East in 1842 and took an active part in running the firm from Britain. He died in 1878 aged 82. Both were Members of Parliament in the 1840s. William Jardine had already returned to Scotland when the firm set up business in Hong Kong. When the first land sales were held in Hong Kong on 14th June 1841, Jardine's built godowns (warehouses) on land purchased in what is now Queensway. In 1842, these were sold to the Royal Navy for stores. Immediately Jardine's started to build an office, wharves, a slipway for ships, workshops, stables, houses, and a junior mess at East Point, on an isolated promontory. They also built godowns which had thick walls of granite blocks. The site was close to the present Yee Wo Street (fi) which takes its name from the Chinese name of the company (meaning 'pleasant harmony'), although the Chinese name for the firm is more often romanised as Ewo. All the original buildings have been demolished. Other places named after the company include Jardine's Bazaar ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 223 the 'Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade', A romantic web has been woven around Jardine's, far more than any other western firm in the Far East. This romanticism stretches to fiction, and Taipan and Noble House, both written by James Clavell, are reputed to be based on the 'Princely Hong'. Also a play named Poppy, about the Opium War of 1840, with comic Gilbert and Sullivan style songs, was staged in London in the early 1980s. Another better-known song, 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen' written by Noel Coward in 1932, has it that: "In Hong Kong They strike a gong And fire a noonday gun There is no agreement, however, as to where the Hotchkiss Mark I, three-pound, quick-firing naval gun came from. Some say documents prove that before 1961 it was owned by the Hong Kong Marine Police. Others believe it came from the Royal Navy although Jardine's maintain the Senior Service has no record of the gun. The colourful myth that appears in guidebooks is that a penalty was imposed on Jardine Matheson by an irate British admiral because the firm fired a salute to its chief manager as he sailed into the harbour. Another tale has it that the gun was fired to honour the arrival of its opium-carrying fleet. From then on, so both stories go, the Navy compelled Jardine's to fire a gun daily. As A.I. Diamond, previously of the Public Records Office in Hong Kong, wrote: "Neither version explains by what authority the Navy could have compelled Jardine Matheson and Company to fire a gun at all let alone daily at noon, presumably in perpetuity." The true account is quite different. In the British Empire the armed forces used to fire guns at set hours to signify the time. In Hong Kong this practice stopped in 1869 because, by then, many people owned watches, and to save the cost of gunpowder. An extract from the Hong Kong Daily Press, dated January 3, 1870, records: It is interesting and just to note that the renewing of the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 224 twelve o'clock gun firing is due to the liberality of Mr Magniac (a partner) of Messrs. Jardine Matheson and Company, who, when the Home Government ceased to provide this small return for the heavy Military Contribution forwarded annually from this Colony, purchased a gun, etc. and had it fixed up at Messrs. Jardine's, where it is fired daily. Although their gun is still at East Point, not far from where Jardine's started trading in 1841, their head office moved to Central District as long ago as 1864. It has been said there is not one field of commerce in which it does not hold a prominent position and its 'tentacles' extend to interests in many other firms. Hong Kong Land The Colony's leading businessmen have usually had considerable interests in land, and it was thus fitting that two of them, Paul Chater (later Sir Paul) and James Johnstone Keswick, should be prime movers in the Hong Kong Land Investment and Agency Company which was incorporated in 1889. The latter, as Taipan of Jardine's, following in the footsteps of his great-uncle William Jardine, was also founding chairman of Hong Kong Land. James was the first of six Keswicks, spanning five generations, to hold the position. The company soon began buying sites and erecting office buildings. Between June 1904 and December 1905 it erected Hong Kong's first 'skyscrapers', five major buildings each of five or six storeys, which dwarfed the two and three-storey structures surrounding them. Hong Kong Land acquired Humphrey's Estate and Finance Company, which owns residential property in Mid-Levels, in 1972, and for 14 years 'Land' had a controlling interest in the Dairy Farm, Ice and Cold Storage Company. Today, the latter is once again an independent public company. In its centenary year Hong Kong Land owned some six-million square feet of commercial space of which five-million is in the so-called 'Core Central' area. The firm has been described as "... perhaps the most valuable property company in the world and certainly in the region ...." Whether this is true is not known. Certainly, today, some Japanese companies hold considerable interests in real estate on a global scale. L ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 12 support my wife and family. In 6 year of Hum Foong (1856) being advanced in age, I handed over all my property to my eldest son Cheng Chuen to manage and sign my name Soong Ke in all business transactions, and he has already managed for several years. In consequence of my having to return home to my native place in the present year to build an ancestor's hall out of my own money, and consequently coming and going I took sick and a large carbuncle broke out on my thigh, getting worse day by day, being now about sixty years of age and my constitution is weak. Hong Kong-Shanghai and Shanghai-Canton-Hong Kong Networks Cantonese compradors were predominant in the nineteenth century. They occupied most of the compradorship in foreign mercantile establishments. They were influential in Hong Kong, enjoying a high status in the business community. Cantonese compradors filled the new posts by personal ties, extending their influence from one place to another. For example, Xu Run was introduced by his uncles Xu Yuting and Xu Rongcun who had been working as compradors to Dent & Co. in Shanghai for many years. Xu was first employed as an assistant comprador and later succeeded his family members as compradors: one of his sons to a German firm; one of his cousins as Dent's Kiukiang (Jiujiang) comprador; and another cousin as Shanghai comprador to Carlowitz & Co. Likewise, Zheng Guanying was also introduced by his relative in Shanghai to serve the compradorship in Butterfield, Swire & Co. Tang Tingshu was introduced by his Zhongshan colleague called Acum (Lin Qin) to James Whittall, the Jardine's Shanghai manager, then he became a comprador to Jardine, Matheson & Co. Tang later guaranteed his elder brother Tang Maozhi as the firm's Tianjin comprador and this brother later succeeded him as chief comprador in Shanghai when Tang Tingshu was relocated to work at the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Co. in 1873. The post was held by the Tang family for several decades. The last was his grandson Tang Jichang. Those three compradors came from the same Zhongshan prefecture and had an inter-relationship. Zheng was a relative to Tang by marriage and also knew the Xu family for generations. Zheng had guaranteed a Zhongshan townman named Yang Guixuan ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 224 P'i) mentioned in the main text. Anne Birrell's Chinese Mythology achieves such distinction that we can easily forgive its minor shortcomings. The book is a delight to read and a joy to give to others. I only hope that her editors see fit to issue a paperback version soon. My own hardbound copy is already rather dog-eared. MICHAEL NYLAN NOTE For example, the apocrypha to the Documents give an amusing explanation of the white fish omen that appeared at the end of the Shang dynasty Frank Welsh, A History of Hong Kong, Harper Collins, 624 + xv pp. Appendices, notes, appendix, maps. This review has been excerpted from The New York Review of Books (7 April, 1994) by kind permission of the reviewer, Dr Jonathan Mirsky, who is East Asia Editor of The Times. The entire history of Hong Kong, as Frank Welsh shows in his magnificent, much needed, and compendious history of the colony, is filled with misunderstandings and cultural collisions. One hundred and fifty years of muddle and injured pride are what permits Peking's leaders to call Chris Patten, whom they perceive as the point-man for an international conspiracy to overthrow the entire Communist system in China, 'a whore.' Welsh, a former Hong Kong banker, starts his dense but wittily written history in the early nineteenth century, and just manages to include the accession of Mr Patten in 1992. He refers to Hong Kong as 'that natural child of Victorian Britain and Ch'ing China... a source of embarrassment and annoyance to its progenitors since it first appeared on the international scene in 1842.' More than an annoyance: for the Chinese, Hong Kong has been a perpetual symbol of national humiliation. There are many instances of mutual disregard, which Welsh understandably enjoys and quotes copiously. In 1831, James Matheson, one of the founders of the 'noble house' of Jardine Matheson, the trading firm whose history ================================================================================