RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f 44 CURRENCY PROBLEMS 27 consideration. Though the official rate of exchange was issued by the Chamber of Commerce, considerable manipulation was possible on fluctuation, scale, and the grading of the cash. For instance, it was a foregone conclusion that the weight of the piece of silver you offered for exchange, would not agree on the shop scales with your own scales. For the law allowed the exchange shop to weight their scales up to 2% against the customer to defray "exchange expenses". Anything over 2% was an infraction of the law and punishable by such. Therefore the exchange transaction was always preceded by a long wrangle on the question of weight. A very good story is related by Abbé Huc in his "Travels in Tartary & Thibet" in which he tells of the "guileless" Mongol who visited a cash shop in the big city in order to exchange a large "shoe" of silver. The "shoe" had been doctored but this was not apparent to the smart young shop assistant who served him. The assistant took care to effect a considerable discrepancy in weight in favour of the shop. Finally the Mongol professed himself as satisfied but asked for a written statement of the weight and exchange rate so that he would be able to clear himself with his master. The assistant complied and the Tartar returned to his camp with his camels laden down with cash, the proceeds of the deal. When the accounts were made up at the end of the day the assistant presented his returns with considerable pride expecting fulsome commendation from his master for the amount he had been able to fleece the innocent Mongol. What was his surprise, then, to be met with a storm of abuse at his denseness in having failed to detect the adulteration. The following morning the assistant rode out to the Mongol camp and haled the offending Tartar to the court of the district magistrate where he was charged with having circulated spurious currency. When the shoe of silver was produced in court the wily Mongol asked that it might be weighed on the official scales. When this was done he produced the cash shop's own receipt and claimed that the shoe produced could not possibly be the one he had exchanged as the discrepancy in weight far exceeded the 2% allowed by law. The Magistrate was forced to dismiss the case and the exchange shop was only too glad to drop the matter before they attracted further unwelcome publicity. 44 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES 99 three districts in the vicinity of Canton the phrase shui shui, tso shui, tsou shui (£££) literally "sleeping in-come, sitting in-come, walking in-come" which may be thus explained: the incumbent of the first may go to sleep, whilst his emoluments come rolling in; in the second he may sit still, and his emoluments come rolling in; and in the third he must trot around, but his emoluments come rolling in". 12 Lockhart calls these officers assistant and deputy magistrates, Papers 1899 p. 191 and so does Consul Allen in his Trade Report for Pakhoi 1896, FO No. 1983, but there appear in fact, to have been no such titles. There were one or two yuen shing (B) in each district styled to ye (*) who were officers of the sixth and seventh rank and were graduates of kam sang (1) degree. These were appointed from Peking and were transferable every three years like the magistrate himself. They were stationed at places in the district and their powers were very limited. 20 He does not mention officers other than those at the two Lantau forts, but there was another fort on Lantau at Fan Lau, still standing, which may or may not have been occupied at this time, and there were posts on Lamma and Cheung Chau officered by shun tei kun (MILF) (information from Mr. CHEUNG Yau (4) of Tai Ping, Lamma Island, and from a list of donors inscribed on a tablet in the Tin Hau temple on Cheung Chau). There must also have been shun tei kun in the mainland part of the district. More information is sought about their stations and their duties. As far as I know, they were military officers of low rank who controlled ten or twenty men in an out-station, 21 Papers 1899 p. 192. 22 A map showing these divisions, dated July 1899 on the reverse, is to be found in the Registrar-General's Department, in the Supreme Court. It is probably the Map VI referred to on page 192 of the Papers 1899, which was not printed with them. The Councils of the Tung may not have existed in the remoter and more sparsely populated areas. On Lamma for instance the village elders appear to have administered summary justice individually and not in unison. Mr. CHEUNG Yau already quoted, and other gentlemen of similar age, state there was no Council on the island. The map does not assist in this instance, being vague in some details. There were four tung in any district: north, south, east and west. 23 Dyer Ball, The Chinese at Home (London, Religious Tract Society, 1912) p. 189 says "The life of an official in China, if he occupies a high position and rules over a populous district of country, is arduous in the extreme. He knows no hours. His work is never done. He is up before dawn, and official receptions take place in the small or early hours of the morning. The health of many a man is injured by the incessant toil and unremitting anxiety". He calls him "often hard worked, harassed with many cares, and loaded with responsibilities". His is experienced and impartial testimony. 24 Papers 1899 p. 192. 25 Sir Robert Douglas, Society in China (London, Ward Lock & Co., 1901) pp. 120-1 has hard things to say of them. "The mental activity of these men, not having... any power to operate in a beneficent way, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r 38 10 Linguist purser. W. C. HUNTER See note 39, (J.L.C-B) 11 Elliot's last day. On 25 March Elliot formally requested the Viceroy that passports should be issued within three days for all the English ships and people at Canton and that if passports were not issued he would consider the men and ships of his country as forcibly detained and act accordingly. Blue Book, Correspondence relating to China, 1840, p. 367. (J.L.C-B.) 12 Edward Elmslie. Secretary and Treasurer to the British Superintendents of Trade, Captain Charles Elliot and the Deputy Superintendent, A. R. Johnston, (J.L.C-B.) 13 Houqua. Known to Westerners at Canton as Howqua 7. His family name was Wu Ch'ung-yüeh (1810-1863). He was the fifth son of the famous Hong merchant Wu Ping-chien whom he succeeded as head of the firm in 1843. For his biography see Hummel, Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period, II, 867-8. (F.L.C-B.) 14 Nam Hoe. Also written Nam Hoi. This means Nan Hai Hsien #i.e. the Magistrate having jurisdiction over the western part of Canton city and the District lying to the westward of the walls which included the area in which the foreign Factories lay. (J.L.C-B.) 15 Kwang Hup. The author may be referring to the Kwangchou hsieh "the Canton brigade", and so to its commander. (J.L.C-B.) 16 The Governor. The Governor of Kwangtung province at this time was I-liang (1791-1867). For his biography see Hummel, op. cit., I, 389. (J.L.C-B.) 17 K'an-ch'o (J.L.C-B.) 18 An-tsou (J.L.C-B) 19 Columbia & John Adams. According to the Chinese Repository Vol. 8, p. 56 the Columbia was a U.S. frigate and the John Adams was classed as a sloop-of-war. The Columbia was commanded by Commodore George C. Read. (J.L.C-B.) 20 Johnston, Alexander Robert Johnston, H.M. Deputy Superintendent of Trade. When the Government of Hong Kong was set up he was deputy first to Elliot and later to Sir Henry Pottinger and in this capacity he administered the Government of the Colony on various occasions from 1841 until 1843. (J.L.C-B.) 21 Pwan Kei Kua. Probably the merchant whose name was also spelt by Westerners at Canton at that time Ponkhequa and Puan Khequa. This was P'an Chengwei (1791-1850). See Hummel, Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period, II, 605, (J.L.C-B.) 22 Saoqua. His family name was Ma Tso-liang and the name of his Hong was Shun Tai Hong A. (J.L.C-B.) 23 Sturgis. Russell Sturgis (1805-1887) of Boston was first named Nathaniel Russell Sturgis, Jr., but he was always known as Russell Sturgis after his name was changed by decree of the Middlesex County Court. He graduated from Harvard in 1823, married in 1828 but was widowed four months later. After an extended tour of Europe he returned to Boston and for a while practised law. He remarried and in 1833 took his family to the orient where he became a partner of Russell & Sturgis of Manila and Russell, Sturgis & Co. of Canton. Later in 1842 when the latter firm became incorporated with Russell & Co., China, he became a partner in 1842. In May 1844 he retired to Boston, his second wife having died in Manila in 1837. Being far too young to give up work altogether he decided to return to China in 1849 but while passing through London he ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON 39 was persuaded to join the firm of Baring Brothers & Co. In 1873 he became senior partner of the house, finally retiring in 1882. (L.T.R.) 24 Lin Tse-hsü's fate. Hunter long survived Commissioner Lin. Lin Tse-hsü was dismissed from office in 1840 and later sentenced to exile in Ili in Chinese Turkistan, where he remained for three years. He was allowed to return to Peking in 1845. He later served as Governor-General of Yunnan and Kweichow, and retired from office in 1849. He died in 1850 at the age of sixty-seven. (J.L.C.B.) 25 Heang-shan (Heungshan). Former name of the District in which Macao lies. Re-named Chung-shan in honour of Sun Yat-sen. (J.L.C-B.) 26 Morrison. John Robert Morrison (1814-1843) was born in Macao, the second son of Dr. Robert Morrison and his first wife Mary (née Morton). He had some schooling in England but at the age of twelve he came back to Canton with his father in 1826. He became a fluent Cantonese speaker as well as a Chinese scholar, and on the death of his father in 1834 was appointed Chinese Secretary to H.M.'s Commission in China. In 1838 he became, in addition, Interpreter, and in 1841 succeeded Elmslie as Secretary and Treasurer to the Superintendent of British Trade in China. In 1843 he was appointed Chinese Secretary and member of the Executive Council of the newly founded Colony of Hong Kong and was recommended for appointment, by the Governor, as Colonial Secretary. Before the appointment was approved, however, he died in Macao in August 1843, and was buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery there. (L.T.R.) 27 Kwang Chow Foo. Kuang-chou fu The Prefect of the Prefecture of which Canton was the chief city. (J.L.C-B.) 28 Kam Hay Hue. No such title. But I suspect Hunter intended to indicate the Namhoi Hien which title was sometimes written Nam Hoy Hien. See note 14. (J.L.C-B.) 29 Pwan Yu Hue. Also written Punyu Hien. The magistrate having jurisdiction over the eastern part of Canton city and the District lying to the westward of the walls which included Whampoa and the foreign shipping there. (J.L.C-B.) 30 Fearon, Samuel Turner Fearon was the second son of Christopher Fearon and Elizabeth Noad who were married on 14 May 1818 at the Streatham Parish Church. His father served as a midshipman at the Battle of Trafalgar and after being discharged from the Royal Navy he joined the Honourable East India Company's marine service. In this service he made a number of voyages to Canton and when he decided to take a shore posting there he brought his wife and family out with him. Samuel became a fluent Cantonese speaker and in 1838 was appointed Interpreter to the Canton General Chamber of Commerce. After the cession of Hong Kong he was appointed interpreter and clerk of the Chief Magistrate's Court and a couple of months later were added the duties of Notary Public and Coroner. Three years later he was appointed Assistant Magistrate of Police and on 1st January 1845 he became Registrar General and Collector of Revenue. In July 1845 he was granted a year's sick leave and while in England he was appointed Professor of Chinese at King's College, London, an appointment which he held from December 1846 until December 1852. (L.T.R.) 31 Van Basel. Magdalenus Jacobus Senn van Basel, born in Groningen, Holland on 27 September 1808, was appointed clerk in the Dutch Consulate at Canton in 1826, and Vice-Consul in November 1831. He was later in partnership with G. M. Toe Laer and P. Tiedenan in the firm of Senn van Basel & Toe Laer & Co. In 1848 he became Collector General of Taxes ================================================================================ 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 157 The only study of the question which has any pretence to authority is that by Sayer in his work on the first 20 years of Hong Kong under British rule. In that study he makes use of various contemporary descriptions and accounts to fix the site of the first building to which the name 'Government House' has been given on the location of the Victoria District Court at the top of the present Battery Path. Though I do not contest that the site was so used for a period, it would appear that Sayer's conclusion is at variance with other contemporary material which should have been available to him. The problem stems partly from a failure to distinguish between the offices where the Governor performed his official functions and the residences where he lived. When Sir Henry Pottinger, the first Governor, arrived in 1841, he spent one night in a tent. When he returned to Hong Kong after the successful conclusion of the war against China, he lived in a number of houses, though there is positive evidence only about one of them. Though visual evidence from drawings of Hong Kong suggest that he may have resided in a house in the possession of Major Caine, the Chief Magistrate, there is no documentary evidence of the fact and I am not concerned with it; if he did so reside, he must have done so gratuitously, for the Government Accounts of the period do not record any rent payments which might be attributed to this. Sayer is able to state confidently that "the first Government House has disappeared without trace” as a preamble to his attempt to re-trace it. The Canton Press of January 1842 reported that “a public office to serve as a temporary residence for the head of the Government" had just been finished. The same newspaper shortly after this referred to this building as "Government House," but added that it had changed its name to the "Record Office" since "the late Acting Governor has been metamorphosed into a Lieut.-Governor." The reference is to A. R. Johnston, who administered Hong Kong during Pottinger's absences from the Colony. Sayer concludes from this that the building referred to by the newspaper must have been the house undeniably built by Johnston at the top of Battery Path. He further supports this by pointing out that, on Collinson's Map of 1844, Johnston's House is marked 'Government House.' Lest, however, this should seem to answer the question beyond further argument, I have a few observations to offer. As early as the end of 1841, Johnston was writing letters dated 'Government Hill' and there is no doubt that this was the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 8 T. C. CHENG It was as late as February 1880 that an eligible Chinese took his seat as an unofficial member in the Legislative Council. He was Ng Choy, later known throughout China as Dr. Wu Ting-fang. Ng's parents went to Singapore from Chung Shan District,* Kwang-tung Province, and he himself was born in Singapore in 1842. He came to Hong Kong as a boy and was educated at St. Paul's College.2 Having served as an interpreter in the Magistrate's Court in Hong Kong from 1861 to 1874, he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn, London, to study law and was the first Chinese to qualify as a barrister-at-law in January 1877. He was admitted to practise as a barrister in the Supreme Court in Hong Kong in May the same year. Ng Choy's appointment to the Legislative Council was entirely a result of the efforts of the Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy (April 1877 - March 1882), an Irishman, and a great champion of the Chinese community which had changed a great deal since the 1850's.3 In 1880 when Hugh Gibb, a member of the Legislative Council, went on leave, Sir John took the opportunity to appoint Ng Choy to a provisional seat in the Council. When he addressed the Secretary of State on this subject, he quoted a memorial from leading Chinese in which they asked that since the Chinese out-numbered the foreigners by ten to one, they should be allowed a share in the management of public affairs. He then went further and suggested a reorganization of the Legislative Council so as to enable Ng Choy to have a more permanent seat. The Secretary of State was not sympathetic with Sir John's views but agreed to Ng's appointment only on a temporary basis until Gibb's return to Hong Kong, or for three years. One view expressed in the Colonial Office was that should the Governor want to consult the Legislative Council secretly or should relations with China become strained, the presence of a Chinese member on the Council might be awkward.4 In any case, when Ng Choy took his seat in the Legislative Council for the first time on 19th February 1880, it was a great occasion for rejoicings among the Chinese community and a deputation of leading Chinese members called at Government House to congratulate the Governor and themselves on the appointment.5 * Then known as Heung Shan District. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 HONG KONG CADETS, 1862 - 1941 55 19 Kenneth Myer Arthur Barnett (born 1911). Educated at Mill Hill School, London, and King's College, Cambridge, Hong Kong Civil Service 1934. Retired as Director of Census and Statistics 1970. 40 Quoted in James Hope Hennessy's Verandah, London, 1964, p. 186. Hennessy is quoting, presumably, from Sir George Bowen's Thirty Years of Colonial Government, London, 1889, which I have not seen. 41 Margery Perham, op. cit., p. 302. Lugard also liked and trusted A. W. Brewin, the Registrar General: "if he once said, he was very 'pro-Chinese' this was really a compliment. He would allow Brewin to forbid his own delivery of a speech to a Chinese gathering. He could not always understand the reason ‘but I trust implicitly in him'." 42 E. J. Eitel "Chinese Studies and Official Interpretation", p. 8. 43 Alleyne Ireland, Far Eastern Tropics, London, 1905, p. 34. In 1901 Ireland was appointed Colonial Commissioner of the University of Chicago for the purpose of visiting the Far East. 44 Ibid., p. 32. 45 Norman Gilbert Mitchell-Innes (1860-1947). Educated at Repton and Edinburgh Academy, Hong Kong Civil Service 1881; Treasurer 1891; left Hong Kong Service in 1896 and transferred to the Home Prison Service. Des Voeux thought highly of Mitchell-Innes. See G. B. Endacott, Government and People in Hong Kong 1841-1962, Hong Kong, 1964, p. 112. 46 Report on Defalcations in the Treasury, Sessional Papers, Hong Kong, 1893, p. 546. 47 Ibid., p. 546. 48 Norton-Kyshe, vol. 2, p. 447. 49 Ibid., p. 447. 50 Sir Arthur George Murchison Fletcher (1878-1954). Educated at Cheltenham College and Trinity College, Oxford, Hong Kong Civil Service 1901; transferred to Ceylon 1927; Colonial Secretary, Ceylon, 1926-9; Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner for Western Pacific 1929-36; Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Trinidad and Tobago, 1936-38. 51 Geoffrey Norman Orme (1879-1966). Educated at Cheltenham College and Hertford College, Oxford, Hong Kong Civil Service 1902. Director of Education 1924-26. Left Hong Kong Service in 1926. 52 The Report on the Land Court, 1900-1905, Sessional Papers, 1905, gives a list of the presidents and members of the Land Court in order of their appointment, most of whom were cadets. H. H. J. Gompertz was appointed in 1900 and resigned in 1904; Cecil Clementi in 1903; and C. M. Messer and J. R. Wood in 1904. The Registrars in order of appointment - all cadets were: J. H. Kemp, E. D. C. Wolfe, and S. B. C. Ross. The Land Court in 1905 consisted of three members: C. M. Messer, Cecil Clementi, and J. R. Wood. The New Territories became popular with cadets as a place to walk or shoot in on week-ends. Robert Oliphant Hutchison (1880-1920), the Superintendent of Imports and Exports, on his way to shoot snipe at Saikung fell off a launch in a squall and drowned. His body was never found. With him at the time was D. W. Tratman, the Colonial Treasurer. One imagines from the evidence that both had "tiffined" rather too well. 53 "At first British officials were limited in principle to two, dealing with police and land. In 1899 a police magistrate was appointed and also an assistant land officer to deal with land cases, and the police were placed Page 60 Page 61 ================================================================================ 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 107 However with the financial assistance of his wife's share in the estate of Ho Fuk Tong, he was able to study law in England. He returned to Hong Kong to practice law and in time was appointed a Magistrate. In 1880, Governor Hennessy appointed him as the first Chinese member of the Legislative Council. He served for two years, but then resigned to join the staff of Viceroy Li Hung Chung at Tientsin. In 1897 he was appointed the Chinese Ambassador to the United States and continued serving his country in other posts of responsibility until his death in 1922. A classmate and good friend of Wu Ting Fang, named Chan Ayin (陳海亭) alias Chan Oi Ting was one of thirty representatives of the Chinese community to call on Governor Sir Arthur Kennedy to welcome him to Hong Kong in 1872. He is also named among fourteen who, dressed in their official robes as mandarins, welcomed the Governor on his visit to Tung Wah Hospital in 1878. He was baptized while a student at St. Paul's College and, like most of the others whose career we are considering in this section, after completing his education he entered Government service. He was connected with the Magistrate's Court, but in 1871 he left to become a reporter for the China Mail. When the Mail began publishing the Wah Tsz Yat Po in 1872, he was head of this department. In 1877 he surrendered his lease of the paper but continued with The China Mail for a short period after. He then gave up his career in journalism to join the staff of the newly appointed Chinese Ambassador to the United States. As a member of the staff, he was appointed Consul-General in Havana, Cuba. He continued to serve in the Chinese diplomatic service for ten years, but then returned to China where he became director of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company and of the Shanghai-Nanking Railway Administration. He died at Shanghai in 1905.44 While editor of the Wah Tsz Yat Po, Chan Oi Ting was also instrumental in organizing and managing the Chinese Printing and Publishing Company which bought the press and type of the London Mission Press in 1872. This company began publishing the Tsun Wan Yat Po (Universal Circulating Herald) in February 1874. It advertised itself as the "first daily newspaper ever issued under purely native auspices". The paper was registered under the name of Wong Tao (£), a scholar of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h 82 HENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE It is an interesting comment on Johnston that he visited England only twice in twenty-eight years of residence in China. See Johnston's obituary in the Times of 8 March, 1938. 37 R. F. Johnston's, Twilight in the Forbidden City, London, 1934, describes his experiences as an Imperial tutor. 38 Much information on Johnston's experiences as District Officer and Magistrate are given in his book, Lion and Dragon in Northern China. 39 Annual Report on Weihaiwei for 1921, p. 3. 40 Annual Report on Weihaiwei for 1903, p. 5. From time to time the Magistrate's office issued proclamations in Chinese, notifying the people of the wishes of the Government. All the villages of the Territory were provided with large notice boards on which such proclamations were posted. The style of governing in Weihaiwei owed much to Chinese example. 41 Annual Report on Weihaiwei for 1904, p. 26. The statement is taken from Johnston's 'Report of the Secretary to Government for the Year 1904'. This is a most interesting report on Chinese society in Weihaiwei, 42 The China Review was founded in 1872 by N. B. Dennys. The publication terminated with vol. xxv, 1901. It was published bi-monthly. 43 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1937, pp. 391-3. 44 In his obituary notice of E. H. Parker, E. T. C. Werner wrote: "The editor's request to write this notice puts me in a rather awkward position, for I cannot but refer to the very great amount of valuable sinological work which has been done by members of the British Consular Service in China. Considering its relatively small size, the Service has produced proportionately more brilliant sinologists than any body connected with the Far East.” See Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (henceforth cited as JNCBRAS), vol. lvii, 1926, p. vi. 45 Sir Cecil Clementi (1875-1947). Educated at Oxford. Hong Kong cadet in 1899. Governor of Hong Kong 1925-30. He published, among other books, The Chinese in British Guiana, Georgetown, 1915, Cantonese Love-Songs, Oxford, 1904, and Summary of Geographical Observations taken during a Journey from Kashgar to Kowloon, 1907-8, Hong Kong, 1911. 46 Lockhart's interest in the Chinese language is recognised in the dedication to him of Mok Man-cheung's Tah Tsz Anglo-Chinese Dictionary, 2nd edition (Chinese foreword dated 9th October, 1914). Mok had served in the Registrar-General's department with Lockhart, and moved to the Supreme Court as an interpreter in 1891. See also note 71 below. 47 China Review, vol. xxi, 1892/93, p. 405. 48 Vols. xx to xxii. The disputants included E. J. Eitel, E. H. Parker, E. D. H. Fraser, H. A. Giles, and Lockhart. The first edition of Lockhart's book was dedicated to Dr. John Chalmers, the distinguished sinologue, and the second to Dr. James Legge as well. Lockhart spoke of them as 'two famous Aberdonians'. 49 China Review, vol. xxi, 1892/93, p. 412. 50 China Review, vol. xxii, 1893/94, p. 547, 51 T'oung Pao, vol. viii, 1897, pp. 412-430. 52 Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, vol. 6, 1930-32, p. 812. 53 Chinese Recorder, Sept. 1903, p. 464. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 56 H. I. LETHBRIDGE 41 In 1838 Charles Mirfin was killed in a duel on Wimbledon Common. The principal escaped abroad but the seconds were found guilty, sentenced to death, but later reprieved. In 1841 the Earl of Cardigan wounded Captain Tuckett in a duel and was accused of 'assault with intent to murder'. In 1852 a group of Frenchmen were indicted for duelling on English soil, sent for trial, and imprisoned. It must have been well known to both Mayréna and Morès that duelling was a criminal offence under English law and that the guilty could not escape easily from a term of imprisonment, even in Hong Kong. In 1872 the Spanish Consul in Hong Kong and the Peruvian Consul in Macao fought a duel at Chinese Kowloon. The Peruvian Consul was wounded by a pistol shot. They were each fined $200 at the Supreme Court in Hong Kong, although the duel had not taken place on Hong Kong soil! 42 ...the duel is a leisure-time institution... In civilised communities it prevails as a normal phenomenon only where there is an hereditary leisure class, and almost exclusively among that class' (Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class, New York, 1934, p. 239.) 43 Alfred Capus (1858-1922) was a well-known journalist and man-about-town. 44 Maurice Mac-Nab (1856-1890) was a chansonnier, poet and notorious noctambule. The Rat Mort was a well-known café-chantant in Montmartre, the haunt of decadents, harlots and pleasure-seekers. The composer Charles de Sivry (1848-1900) was for a long time accompanist at the Cabaret du Chat-noir. He was the brother-in-law of Arthur Rimbaud. 45 At table, for example, the courtiers were expected to wait until the King introduced a topic of conversation. 46 John Fortescue Owen, born in 1869, entered the Federated Malay States Civil Service in 1889 and was appointed Junior Officer and Magistrate, Pahang, in that year. 47 See W. Lineham, 'A History of Pahang', Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 14, Part 2, 1936, p. 135. 48 Sir Hugh Clifford, 'The King of the Sedangs', Asia, July-Dec., 1926, p. 920. 49 Edouard Drumont (1844-1917) wrote a famous book, La France Juive, (1886), in which he attempted to demonstrate that France was controlled from behind the scenes by a pack of Jews. 50 R. H. Sherard gives an account of a personal interview with Morès in the Santé prison in The Real Oscar Wilde, London, n.d., pp. 401-2. 51 Morès did not mean to kill Mayer: Mayer impaled himself by running upon Morès's foil. 52 The Marquise offered a large reward for the capture of the assassins. There is a story that she tried to hire a number of cowboys to effect the rescue. She died in 1921 and in her will—a copy of which is in Somerset House, London—she left a sum of money for the erection of a monument at Mechiguig. In 1928 a large granite cross was placed on the spot where Morès fell. Lesley Blanch in her book The Wilder Shores of Love (London, 1954) claims that the Arab-loving Isabelle Eberhardt went in pursuit of Morès' assassins, but I have found no confirmation of the story. 53 Times, 20 July, 1896. 54 Soldiering was also an aristocratic sport, better than the chase. Many people volunteered to fight in wars which did not concern them; see, for example, the career of St. Leger Grenfell, who fought with John Hunt ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 176 SUNG HOK-PANG dants, a picture of this is shown on plate. Tang Kuen Hin was very rich and was very proud of his family. He had four sons and twenty-four grandsons and the number of his family and servants together are said to have totalled two hundred. To the northwest of Yuen Long market are some very fine fish ponds situated in particularly pleasing scenery. This land was Tang Kuen Hin's property, it now forms part of the "Ching Sheung" * entailed property, the proceeds of which are applied to ancestral worship. Notes on Some of the Government Examinations of China. The Sau-ts'oi was the first examination and in many respects could be likened to that which is held for the Bachelor of Arts degree. The Candidates for this examination, which was held in the capital and several other towns of each province, were very numerous, as all with any pretence to education, were anxious to graduate in Sau Ts'oi. In consequence it was necessary for each candidate to be guaranteed by a man specially appointed to the office called "Lam Shang," whose duty it was to stand as surety for the identity of each of his examinees. Another examination, Heung Shi, to be attempted was for the Kui Yan degree which was also held in the capital of each Province. Possessed of this degree a man was eligible to hold the office of District Magistrate, etc. Between Sau Ts'oi and Kui Yan were five different titles of Kung Shaang the holders of which could be appointed as District Magistrates, etc. Wui Shi was a higher examination held in the Capital of China. The degree which was known as Tsun Sz, was instituted in A.D. 606, and could be compared with a Doctorate. Candidates who failed in this examination, and yet had written papers of a high standard could have their names put on a list called Ming T'ung Pong ", which made them eligible for holding the posts of Hok Ching, the Director of studies in a “Chau” or department, or in the Imperial Academy, and Kau Yue, the Director of studies attached to a District. After a man passed Tsun Sz degree he attended an examination in the Imperial Palace. This was called Ch'iu Haau, Court examination. If he passed he then obtained the title of Shue Kat Sz 庶吉士, He then went to the Hon Lam Yuen 翰林院 where he stayed for several years drafting documents for the Emperor and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 200 MAURICE FREEDMAN Chinese rule, the remoteness, the danger and the expense of the central courts had left much authority to the local elders, and especially to those entrusted with powers of collecting local taxes: under British rule this authority naturally decayed, though they have continued sometimes to be the medium of dealings with the villagers. But their moral influence has often been of great assistance to the officials in the maintenance of the public peace, and their knowledge of the decisions of questions concerning local customs, disputed successions, fung shui and such like. (Report on the New Territories, 1899-1912, Papers laid before the Legislative Council no. 11 of 1912, p. 45). 17. We shall need to consider who these elders were, but before doing so we must look at a wider context within which local leadership was to be seen. At the time the New Territories were created they were in large part covered by a network of village-groupings, many of them being known under the name of yeuk. A yeuk was a collection of neighbouring villages which had some means of expressing its unity (sometimes in the ownership of property common to the grouping) and which was often combined along with other such yeuk to form what I propose to call a yeuk-complex. This kind of organisation can conveniently be illustrated from material on the yeuk-complex to have survived most fully into our own day. I refer to the Ts'at Yeuk (i.e. the Seven Yeuk) of Tai Po. 18. There for long stood a market town at Tai Po: Tai Po Kau Hui. It was (and physically remains) just by the Tang settlement of Tai Po Tau, but the market was under control of the Tang people further north in Lung Yeuk Tau. As Masters of the Market the Tang taxed sellers and, if the stories told about them now are to be believed as reflecting reality, and not mythical justifications of revolt, they harassed buyers by the exercise of the privilege of claiming choice produce. Their control of the market was from time to time challenged. In 1892, the matter having been brought to the county magistrate's court at Nam Tau, a ruling was given that only the Tang had the right to build shops in the market. This decision (which was inscribed on a stone slab and placed in the local Tin Hau Temple) appears to have been the culmination of a series of challenges to Tang power by the Man of Tai Hang. (Up to 1873, when it was destroyed by a typhoon, the Man had had a settlement next to the market, but by the 1890s their base was Tai Hang). In response to the unfavourable outcome of the lawsuit ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 276 NOTES AND QUERIES Incidentally, the furniture was once owned by the wealthy Canton Co-Hong family of Poon, whose fortunes had fallen on bad times. The Chinese government had seized their property for debt and sold it at public auction. The transfer of the proceedings of the Chinese community from the Kung Soh to the Hospital Hall confirmed the suspicion of portions of the foreign community that the Committee of the Hospital was arrogating to itself too much power and was functioning as an unofficial government for the Chinese community. Even before the Hospital building was ready for occupancy, one of the newspapers reporting on a scheme to recruit Chinese labour for the southern states of the United States, stated that the Board of the Hospital "appear to have constituted themselves the governing body in the colony in all Chinese matters. This we predicted in reference to the Hospital almost from the time it was founded; and on this point there will be much to say at some future date". (Daily Advertiser, 7 Oct. 1871). And indeed there was much more said in the Hong Kong English language press in the ensuing years about these quasi-government functions of the Hospital Committee. With the rising tide of criticism against the alleged usurpation of government authority by the Committee of the Hospital, the views and practices of the Magistrates changed regarding the propriety of recognizing any judicial power exercised by the leaders of the Chinese community. In a case heard at Magistrate's Court in 1875, a witness said that when the prisoner beat him, he threatened the prisoner that he would go to Tung Wah Hospital and complain about being duped and beaten. To this the Magistrate asked the witness, why he should go to Tung Wah Hospital to complain, explaining to him that this was a British Colony, and the Tung Wah had no powers. This was a British Colony and the police station was the place to complain to. If he had been badly injured he would understand his going to the Tung Wah for cure, but to go there for the redress of a wrong was preposterous. (Daily Press, Oct. 22, 1875). It might seem preposterous to a European Magistrate for Chinese to first turn to their own countrymen for justice but to the Chinese it apparently was a most natural procedure. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 136 W. J. HINTON on sanitation and the care of a little system of hill tracks which might serve as a model to the New Territories. Their King is the District Officer South, the "Lord of the Isles," but Kaifong and Residents Association alike show a praiseworthy spirit of independence, and a capacity for governing themselves; moreover, the injunction “Agree with thine adversary quickly" is well understood and followed in China, even under British rule. But we have drifted from geography into politics, like better men before us, and it would be well to pass back to the native community, through the terraced fields dotted with blue-clad figures bowed over the hoe, or shuffling along the narrow paths with a yoke of watering buckets, or cutting and pulling the beetroots, carrots, and cabbages. We will go back to the Eastern end of the village and then traverse its length, completing our brief survey by passing out to our waiting boat over the harbour, and so back to Hongkong. On the stage thus set, it may be that we or someone more competent may stage scenes from the life of the island folk from time to time. There is a strange and interesting feast in the Spring, well worth describing, and at the New Year when the whole fishing fleet lies at anchor in the bay, the little town is all alive. A sitting in the Court of the District Magistrate would be worth describing too, and a meeting of the City Fathers, the Kaifong. We must write, for lack of better witnesses, yet how true it is that those who know do not say, and those who say do not know! But to our walk. There lies our little yacht that brought us from Hongkong, white and strange among the high-sterned junks with their brown mat sails. We have all the afternoon to wander, and half the night to lie in the Harbour before the tide turns and we must up anchor and away. Strolling through the Town We have landed on the beach near the Temple of Kwan Yin and find ourselves among the Hakka people who inhabit this end of the town. Their small, sturdy figures are to be seen clustered about the well where the women are drawing water, or bending over the boats in the boat-building yard that slopes to the water's edge. There is material for a whole study in the types of boat and the methods of building alone, but we cannot stop to watch for more than a few minutes while the skilful ship's carpenters fix the ribs and planking of a brand new sampan. A word of greeting to ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n MEMORIES OF THE DISTRICT OFFICE SOUTH, NEW TERRITORIES OF HONG KONG W. SCHOFIELD My first introduction to the Southern District took the form of journeys by Water Police launches to various parts of it during the summer of 1919, when I lived for three months in the Water Police station quarters before my first leave. After it I sometimes repeated such voyages for purposes of geological research, on which I embarked with Government encouragement. A professional geological survey of the Colony was being planned in order to help in developing the resources of the Empire after the 1914-18 war, and to most people the Colony's geology was, quite understandably, a sealed book. The coasts and islands of the Southern District afforded many instructive sections, often showing the relations of different rock and mosses in a nearly undecayed state, which except in stream beds could hardly be seen anywhere else in the days before great motor roads cut the hills. This work enabled me to prepare a preliminary report on the Colony's sedimentary rocks and granite batholiths which was presented in 1923 not long before the Canadian geologists began their labours. In 1922, while I was working as second assistant to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and deputy registrar of marriages, on the first floor of the Post Office building, Mr. Wynne-Jones, the D. O. South, whose office was just above mine on the second floor, went to hospital with appendicitis, and I was instructed at ten minutes' notice to go upstairs and do his job till he got better. As I had coveted the job for some time, and had told my chief so (then the late E. R. Hallifax), I was delighted. In those days one of the D.O.'s duties was to sit in his office as magistrate for the Southern District, excluding New Kowloon and the Lyemun area.† This court usually functioned from 9 to 10 a.m. * 1888-1968, Cadet Officer, Hong Kong Civil Service 1911-38. This article was written in response to my request to Mr. Schofield and others for memories of their service in the Southern District of the New Territories for which I was then (1958) District Officer - Hon. Editor. † Place names may be found in the official publication A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories (Government Printer 1960, since reissued). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933 trate for investigation.' 151 He has the position, therefore, of chief investigator of and informer against anything suspicious or evil. But his powers of arrest seem to be limited. Meadows reports that while it is his duty to point out any person to police (Yâmen) runners who may be looking for a man, he is not called upon to execute a summons; and likewise that in grave cases of robbery he is not held responsible, but must report to the magistrate as soon as such a case occurs.2 The Ti-pao organizes part of the militia in his district for the use of the magistrate in protecting public granaries and treasuries, or for dispersing bandits.3 Although the agent of the central government in preserving peace and order, the Ti-pao is also the defender of the people. In case of wrongful arrest he should inform the magistrate, giving circumstances, and has the right of bailing out citizens of his own district who are held in the magistrate's gaol. If any of his constituents presents a petition or otherwise has dealings with the magistrate's court it is the Ti-pao's duty to be able to identify him. For this purpose he has a wooden stamp which he must affix to such an application before it will be accepted at the Yamen.4 While it is thus the Ti-pao who is the chief agent of the central government in the rural village, it is the village elders themselves who are held by the government to be responsible for the village as a whole. The village peace and morality is in their hands, and the proper subject of their supervision. This resting of authority in the hands of a few responsible individuals is founded upon several sensible considerations. Firstly, the plan is practicable: villages are compact and coalescent units due to their relative isolation, 1 Ta Ch'ing Hui Tien, Chuan 134, sec. (1% T) translated by Jamieson; ibid., p. 68. "Tithing man" means in Jamieson's translation the Ti-pao. Hsieh seems also to use this passage to describe the duties of the Ti-pao, and cites one or two more malpractices which the officer must report against, such as transport of counterfeit goods and swindling, though he does not mention his source. Hsieh, Pao Chao; The Government of China, p. 309. An ordinance by Hsien Feng (41) in 1852 gives an even fuller account of what was expected of the Pao-chia (T), (presumably Ti-pao). Boulais; op. cit., 162-163. 2 Meadows, Thomas T.; Desultory Notes on the Government and People of China, p. 118, 119. 3 Hsieh; op. cit., p. 309. 4 Meadows; op. cit., p. 117. 5 Leong and Tao; op. cit., p. 36. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933 163 especially because they are the last court of appeal where customary law applies beyond them is the magistral court, which every Chinese has learned to fear. The Ti-pao is an individual whose position is almost the personification of that very thin tie which links the government of the village with that of the nation. He derives authority from both sources, for he is supposed to be one of the villagers, chosen by them, and performing certain administrative duties for them; but at the same time he is specifically sanctioned by the magistrate, receives authority from him, and performs certain governmental duties. In his position as responsible functionary in the village the Ti-pao may handle many of the administrative duties of the village council, in a measure usurping its authority. As agent of the central government the Ti-pao is usually involved in the two spheres where the government touches the village, namely, the collection of taxes and the preservation of peace. In some cases the Ti-pao is himself charged with the collection of taxes; in others he merely indicates who owns the land, and the proper tax. Because of this latter responsibility it is his duty to officiate in all sales of land, and to know the owner and value of all property. On the side of preserving the peace the Ti-pao's duties are multifarious. He is the accredited police head of the village and chief informing officer for the government agents. At the same time he is the defender of the people, and it is his duty to report any miscarriage of justice in which one of his constituents is the victim. Although the Ti-pao is charged by the magistrate with these duties, it is the elders who are given the responsibility for the peace and good conduct of the village as a whole. The government finds this method of delegating responsibility to be effective and inexpensive, and it is in full accord with custom, especially the custom of mutual responsibility. The predominant attitude of the village toward the government higher up is one of avoidance, for on the whole relations between the two are seldom in favor of the people. Every individual counts himself lucky if during the course of his life he has no relations with the government except the necessary ones of paying taxes and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 123 is unnecessary, though, of course, always useful. What has to be proved by the prosecution, before there is a verdict of guilty, is that the accused committed the act in circumstances amounting to murder, not why he did so',16 As there was no reason to doubt that Lock committed the three murders he never denied that and it was certain he was not legally insane under the M'Naghten Rules, the verdict was a proper one. So Lock was executed on March 23, 1926, at Walton Gaol, Liverpool. A French court would have spent much time exploring the problem of motivation; and in the pre-trial period, a French examining magistrate would have rigorously questioned Lock, and other witnesses and parties, and prepared a dossier on the history of the crime. But this is not English legal practice: an English court is concerned primarily with evidence, less so with obscure problems of why men act as they do. Tennyson Jesse maintains that all murders may be reduced to one of six types: murder for gain, for revenge, for elimination, for jealousy, or as a result of lust of killing, or from conviction (such as Orsini's attempt to assassinate Napoleon III, which failed, but led to the death of a number of bystanders).17 She does not include insanity in her typology because a madman is presumed to act irrationally, and it is not easy to unscramble a deranged mind. But if we accept her classification, then we must exclude Lock: he does not fit apparently into any of her divisions. If we return to Lock's biography, we may discover clues that could account for his behaviour. As outlined above, Lock settled in England when he was twenty-three; worked for a time as clerk or assistant for a shipping agency until he became an independent businessman and an agent for three British shipping lines employing Chinese seamen. By hard work and frugal living, he amassed a small fortune, and became a spokesman community leader for the Liverpool Chinese community and, later, a spokesman for all Chinese in England. By 1924, when he was to lose most of his fortune, he was the most respected Chinese in England, certainly on Merseyside where he saw to it ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p NOTES AND QUERIES 283 and also complained about a recent ordinance, passed in April, which had prohibited the use of Chinese copper coins as legal tender in Hong Kong, which he claimed was an interference with the new republican government in Guangdong. After he had made this statement, he was committed for trial at the Criminal Sessions two weeks later. The case was heard there before the Chief Justice, Sir Rees Davies. Li was charged with firing a revolver with the intent to kill and murder His Excellency the Governor. There was an alternative charge of intent to do the Governor grievous bodily harm. Li promptly pleaded guilty to both charges. The Attorney General briefly outlined the facts of the case, and the statement Li had made in the magistrate's court was repeated. No evidence was offered as to Li's background or his state of mind. In passing sentence, the Chief Justice said: 'You have pleaded guilty to a most dastardly crime. The motives which you put forward at the police court relate to conditions which have no foundation whatsoever in fact, and they do not in the least palliate your crime'. Li was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour.7 May reported the outcome of the trial to London, enclosing a medical certificate by a prison doctor that Li was of sound mind. He added the suggestion that the prisoner's statement had been mistranslated and that he was complaining about the compulsory repatriation of Chinese labourers from South Africa (Fei Chau) and not about mistreatment of Chinese in Fiji. He concluded: 'It seems quite clear that the attempt upon me was not connected with any political plot. It seems to have been the act of a man who, if not mad, must be of weak intellect'.8 On the day after the trial, an editorial in the South China Morning Post expressed the hope that this sentence would prove a salutary lesson and deterrent to other criminals. Too much leniency had been shown by the courts, said the editor, and this sentence should put a stop to the recent wave of crime and disorder. Similar views were expressed by the other English-language newspapers. The China Mail thought that the only redeeming feature of the regrettable affair was 'the genuine ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v Chinese call District Officers "father and mother officers" because they are in direct contact with the people, and in China carry on nearly every function of Government, except the making of laws. In Hong Kong the District Officer is a land court judge, magistrate, public auctioneer of land and property, director of small public works, county judge for small debts, land tax collector, registrar of land deeds, rates collector, matrimonial disputes officer, forestry officer, agricultural "expert" (so called), land resumptions officer, and six or seven other things I can't now remember. The District Officer's chief function is certainly to adapt the new 20th century conditions to the ancient agricultural environment of the people he rules. More clearly than anyone he sees the need of going slowly, so as not to break up the rural economy and the whole social order with it, in the name of a badly-thought-out "progress". Economics of the Islands Farming, fishing and forestry are the three chief occupations. Rice is the main crop. Owing to the rainfall coming in summer, two crops a year are raised on most fields, with a third crop of sweet potatoes or vegetables in the winter: the first seedlings are planted in February; in March they are planted out; in July this crop is reaped and the second crop sown; in August that is planted out, and in October and November it is reaped and the winter crop planted. Heavy manuring with everything available alone keeps the soil fertile, and as there is neither meadow nor pasture as we understand it, there is not much animal manure to be had. Milk is not produced except in modern dairy farms, so that very little land is used to support animals. All the conditions favour the production of a dense human population; and this in fact is the object of the whole of Chinese civilisation: not the making of money, but having enough sons to ensure that the father's ghost, and the ancestors, shall always receive due honour and offerings, and so will send prosperity and good luck to their descendants; they can if neglected send the reverse. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 17 JOHN JOSEPH FRANCIS, CITIZEN OF HONG KONG, A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE WALTER GREENWOOD V.H.G. Jarret writing about Francis in the South China Morning Post in the 1930s commented "It seems strange that so well known a man should not be commemorated in any way”. When one considers the number of streets and roads in Hong Kong named after less prominent Government officials and businessmen the force of that comment will, it is hoped, be appreciated by the end of this essay. Francis was born in Dublin in 1839, the eldest son of William Francis Aylward, an Inspector of Irish National Schools, and Mr. Walter Greenwood J.P., M.A. (Cantab.), Barrister of Gray's Inn and the North Eastern Circuit, a Permanent Magistrate in Hong Kong AUTHOR'S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This essay was hurriedly researched and written in snatched hours and does not claim to be comprehensive, much less to do justice to Francis. I hope it may lead to interest in his life and career and I should be grateful if anyone who finds new information about him would send it to me at 26, Great Bounds Drive, Southborough, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4OTR. It is based mainly on skimming through newspapers and dipping into the standard histories of Hong Kong. I have also received generous help from many quarters. First I should like to acknowledge my gratitude to the staff of the Hong Kong Public Records Office for their ever friendly and willing help; my thanks go also to the staff of the Supreme Court Registry and University Library, the Secretaries of the Bar Association, the Law Society, the Jockey Club and the Volunteers, Mrs. Lisa Chee, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Po Leung Kuk, Fathers Naylor, Pagani and Pittavino (for searching church records), Mr. Michael Clancy (for information about “Stonyhurst”), Mr. Carl Smith (for information about Francis' marriages) and Mr. Colin West (for arranging the cleaning of Francis' tombstone) in Hong Kong; the Parish Priest of All Saints Church, Borella, Colombo; Father Turner of Stonyhurst College; the staff of the Public Records Office, Genealogical Office and Public Registry in Dublin; Mr. Julian Walton of Dublin and Waterford (for supplying me with material about the Aylward family which he also presented to Dr. Ken Smith of South Africa for use in his biography of Alfred Aylward); the Editor of the Irish Ancestor, the staff of the Public Record Office, Royal Artillery Institution, University and Crown Agents in London; Mrs. Theresa Thom, Librarian of Gray's Inn; Mr. Leo D'Almada Q.C. in Portugal; Dr. Walter Mautsch in Germany; Mr. Nigel Osner in London; Pamela and Eric Russ in Bournemouth; my wife (for her patience whilst I practised my drafts on her); and Mrs. Mary Whitticase for her great kindness in typing my manuscript. Copyright Walter Greenwood 1986. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 24 WALTER GREENWOOD He was himself once a party when he made a complaint against one Wong Ayow who he found cutting grass in his garden. The defendant said he supplied milk to Francis and thought he could take the grass. However he was convicted and fined twenty-five cents. His views about the organisation of the legal profession appear from a letter he wrote to the Daily Press in 1878 in reply to an editorial critical of barristers' fees. Hong Kong originally had a single profession but later adopted a divided one and he wrote "Now as everybody knows barristers are paid as a rule at a higher rate than attorneys and properly so, as they profess to give and as a rule do give a higher quality of advice and advocacy. Mind, I do not say that all barristers are better advisers and advocates than any attorney. There are attorneys who as advisers and advocates are more skilful and experienced than many barristers. The fact is there ought not to exist in a colony like this a division between the two branches of the profession. It was so here once and ought to be again. The retrograde step was taken through the efforts of a clique as most things are done here”. In 1892 he expressed opposition to making the Attorney General a full time salaried official, saying that there would be a loss of independence and that “no amount of study, no amount of theory will make a lawyer. Nothing but the actual work of the Courts will enable a man to conduct cases. Francis held a number of acting judicial appointments from 1878 to 1880. Because of long absences of officials on leave, or through illness, it was necessary to have a system of acting appointments and from time to time civilians were used. His first appointment was as Police Magistrate in September 1878. The reports of his cases indicate that he was positive and in charge of the proceedings but inclined to be impatient. There was a letter of complaint to the press about him for telling a defendant to stop making signs to witnesses and disbelieving him when he said he had St. Vitus's dance. Another letter urged that non-legally qualified magistrates be brought back. However when he sat again as a magistrate in 1880 his sentences were compared favourably with those of Ng Choy who was more lenient, and there was complaint of the termination of his appointment. In April 1879 he was appointed Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court (stigmatised by The Times of 1863 as the greatest nuisance in the East) and in February 1880 he presided over the Criminal Sessions. In one case he sentenced... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 183 Tong A-chick continued his studies at the Church of England Anglo-Chinese School under the supervision of the Colonial Chaplain of Hongkong, the Rev. Mr. Vincent Stanton. Upon the arrival of the first Bishop of Victoria in March 1850, the school was placed under his charge and was renamed St Paul's College. The bishop took a special interest in Tong A-chick as he was one of his first converts. A-CHICK: IN AND OUT OF TROUBLE When the first Bishop of Victoria, the Right Rev. George Smith, arrived in Hongkong in March 1850, the Church of England Anglo-Chinese School was reorganised as St. Paul's College. Among its senior pupils was Tong A-chick, known in later life as Tong Mow-chee, who only attended part time as he was also interpreter in the Chief Magistrate's office. In the autumn of 1847 the Hongkong Government faced a crisis over the post of interpreter. Daniel Richard Caldwell, who had held the office for several years, found himself in financial difficulties and was declared bankrupt. In consequence he resigned his office with the Government. An appeal was made to the Morrison Education Society School for a replacement. A-chick took over Caldwell's position at a salary of £125, a handsome one for so young a man. This sudden rise to affluence may account for some of his later troubles. Not everyone was pleased with the appointment. In reporting a court case, the China Mail noted that the foreman of the jury objected to having A-chick serve as interpreter. He refused, however, to state the grounds of his objection and the judge compromised by ordering someone to check on A-chick's interpretation. The suspicions of the jury foreman appear to have had some foundation, for in the summer of 1851 A-chick was charged with being in league with pirates. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 184 CARL SMITH A pirate ship had been seized and on board were found documents which implicated A-chick. In particular there was a letter in which he was thanked by "his brethren of the sea" for getting one of their number cleared of the charge of piracy by means of false interpretation in court. In July 1851, a commission investigated the charges against A-chick together with other alleged abuses in the police court. A-chick, however, had influential supporters. A newspaper account says that "both His Excellency the Governor and his Worship the Chief Magistrate of Police were determinedly opposed to Tong A-chick's dismissal; and although Tong A-chick applied for his discharge from public service, Mr. Hillier would not grant it to him." The commission threatened to resign if their recommendation for dismissal was not put into effect, and as soon as Mr. Hillier, the magistrate, left the Colony, about the beginning of September 1851, A-chick was replaced. At about the same time he became involved in a court case which reflected one of the less favourable aspects of social conditions in Hongkong. The case involved a 16-year-old girl whose mother had been connected with a brothel. The woman needed money but had no security other than her pretty little daughter — whom she pledged to a brothel-keeper. The girl was then only nine years old but already she was singing in a brothel. The mother subsequently died, leaving the note unpaid and her daughter in the service of the woman to whom she owed the money. The woman also served as middleman and security for getting a loan to cover the burial expenses of the girl's mother, thus further obligating the girl to her. The brothel in which she was employed was frequented by Tong A-chick. He took a fancy to the girl and ran up a large bill with the brothel mistress. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 185 With the promise of marriage, he induced the girl to leave the brothel and live with him, leaving behind her mother's unpaid debt as well as his own unsettled bill. The brothel-keeper threatened to bring suit for the recovery of her debts. Tong A-chick tried to settle the two accounts with a token payment hoping to delay court proceedings. Meanwhile, he was dismissed from his Government post. This gave the brothel mistress new courage to bring her demands before the court. The girl was imprisoned as a debtor; but when the case was tried in the Court of Summary Jurisdiction, the magistrate dismissed the claims on the ground that it had not been proper to secure the original debt by a pledge of “a body” for obviously immoral purposes. With the case decided in favour of A-chick's friend, he took out a summons in the name of the girl against the brothel-keeper for certain property she had kept when the girl had left to live with A-chick. Before the case was heard, A-chick's uncle, who had been a compradore to a former sheriff and was still rendering service to the Government, tried to use his connections to intimidate the brothel-keeper. The girl, however, lost the case. The publicity connected with this sordid affair did not enhance A-chick's reputation in the community. It seemed better to leave Hongkong to try his fortunes in another place. At this time his uncle was planning to go to California so it was natural for A-chick to join him. Tong A-chick left Hongkong about the middle of January 1852. The departure had been delayed by the disastrous Lower Bazaar fire at the close of 1851. In the four hundred or so buildings destroyed were most of the provisions, clothing and necessaries accumulated by the emigrants for their voyage to San Francisco, together with their written contracts with the captain and charterers of the ship on which they were to sail. The loss resulted in a dispute with the captain. An appeal was made to the Rev. S. W. Bonney at Whampoa, where the arrangements were made. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 53 however, it is interesting to note that Mok's universe of persons and occupations encompasses such categories, as well as the more pragmatically justified "Broker", "Interpreter", "Agent", "Magistrate", "Justice of the Peace", "Compradore", "Stone-cutter", "Tin-smith", "Shroff", "Coolie Agent", et al. It is also interesting to note that the dramatis personae of this section of the book include "Schoolmaster", "Teacher", "Horse-boy", "Bad man", "Fool", "Watchman", "Porter", "Deaf", "Convent Sister", "Midwife", various family relations, "Tenant", "Kidnapper", "Geomancer", "District watchmen", "Juggler", and "Priest". A similar ambivalence, between traditional and modern as well as between East and West, may be detected in other sections of the book. Under "Stores and Business Shops", for example, one finds a Bank, Foreign goods shop, Factory, Dispensary, Tobacco store, Hardware dealers, Ship Chandler's store, as well as a Compradore shop, Opium divan, Pawn-broker's shop, and Chinese Bank. Under "Clothing and Wearing Apparel", the reader could discover a way to pronounce "Pyjama", "Silk stockings", "Breeches", "Chemise", "Mosquito net", "Knickerbockers", "Cholera belt", "Combination", "Pantaloons", and "Swallow Tail coat", while the separate section on "Chinese Clothes" introduced him to the pronunciation of such objects as "Wadded Coat", "Mandarin robe", and "Queue string". The section on "Crockery and Household Articles" and the separate section on "Household Articles" provide an interesting glimpse of some of the personal belongings which Mok Man Cheung assumed would be characteristic of his readership. Such items include "Wine bottle", "Scissors", "Tea cup", "Tea saucers", various other pieces of crockery (including a "Mustard cup"), "Nut cracker", "Cheese scoop", "Pickle fork", "Candle stand", "Soy stand", "Bamboo broom", "Feather brush", "Red tape", "Bay Rum", "Hair oil", "Powder horn", "Bullets", "Horse saddle", "Dagger", "Tooth brush", "Tooth pick", "Chessmen", "Thimble", "Gramophone", "Telephone", "Looking glass", "Lamp chimney", "Scissors", and "Horse whip". Under "Court Matters" and "Punishments", the reader could also find traditional modern, Eastern and Western practices intermingled. For example, in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 27 Of course obscene jokes and a preoccupation with excrement and body functions are common in many societies and have raised smiles, like other familiar jokes, for centuries. For example, instead of saying a Chinese laughed, one can say: 'Saw teeth but did not see eyes.' Because of physiognomy, one is hardly able to use this expression about Europeans. In most countries satire survives partly because it tweaks the authorities. In England, there is the Yes, Minister series, which has stood the test of time, just as there is an assortment of tales about party leaders in China where jokes go back decades. Over the last half century many certainly do not conform with Communist Party intentions. For example, with a play on words, the late elder statesman, Deng Xiaoping, was sometimes ‘insulted' by calling him 'Little Bottle,' which the sound of his given names suggests. Certainly it is not the done thing in China to insult the leaders and humour, like most things, is expected to serve the state. Two other anti-establishment jokes, which went the rounds not too long after the Communist government took over in China in 1949, run as follows: A parrot said, 'I'm smart, I listen to people and mimic what they say.' A government official replied, ‘I'm smarter, I only copy what our leaders say!' The second joke runs: Two men had a fight and one contestant bit off the other's nose. The case went to court. The man being tried insisted his opponent bit off his own nose. 'But how could he possibly do that?,' enquired the magistrate, 'His nose is situated above his mouth.' 'Simple' came the reply. 'He stood on a chair to get at it!' This joke seems to fall rather flat on most Westerners (and indeed on many Hong Kong Chinese) for whom it is not sufficiently subtle. Although not considered good taste today, as mentioned before, just as there are English jokes about the Welsh, the Irish and the Scots, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 203 'it is not paid by the European community. The chief object of the Chinese in paying these Watchmen is to drive away thieves, the cardinal evil of a Shop-keeping population.' The success of the Watchmen was 'not only in arresting actual offenders, but also in keeping away those who live by pilfering.' Due to an administrative oversight 'no records were kept of the doings of the Watchmen until 27th August 1867. Thereafter data was collected and in the following six months the Watchmen were involved in the prosecution of fifty-three cases some of which were serious. By the end of 1868 another ninety-eight cases had been prosecuted due to the actions of the Watchmen and these resulted in the conviction of 117 defendants. Although the number of cases dropped to forty-one in 1869, data collected for the following two years showed that there were eighty-one and seventy-nine cases in 1870 and 1871 respectively. These returns compare favourably with similar data from the following century. As an example, in 1914 there were 109 convictions when the strength of District Watchmen had risen to one hundred. The difference of opinion which had existed in Government circles in 1866 when the Watchmen scheme was introduced continued as the Watchmen went about their business. Cecil Smith was unstinting in his praise but, since he had been responsible for introducing the scheme, he could hardly be regarded as an impartial witness. Others, however, like the Police Magistrate Mr J. Russell and the Coroner Mr F. Stewart commended the Watchmen for their actions. At the other end of the spectrum were political heavyweights such as the perennial Mr Charles May and Chief Justice Smale. May had served as Captain Superintendent of Police between 1845 and 1862 before being appointed Police Magistrate and his low opinion of Chinese constables, whom he considered to be 'utterly untrustworthy,' was well known. His opinion of the Watchmen was similar and, according to Smith in December 1871, May showed 'an antipathy to the Corps which has had a very unfortunate effect.' This unfortunate effect manifested itself in a decline in the Watchmen's activity and energy with a corresponding decrease in the number of arrests. Smith maintained that the Chief Justice, who should have known better because of his legal background, objected not so much to the individual watchmen who appeared before him in Court, as to the whole system which apparently he did not know was established by law."9 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 319 are very inclined and sometimes being lenient and tolerating them. Have confidence in us, Your Majesty. We are not doing this out of any desire to rule nor because we wish to have authority in such matters as these, neither because it has occurred to us to defy Your Majesty's commands, but rather because it is evident to us that it is of the utmost importance that we treat these natives in this fashion so that things can be done among them and with them. This has already been clearly seen, because once the Court arrived and it was known among the Indians that the priests were not allowed to punish them, more was lost in six months than had been achieved since we came here, because with the liberty they now have, they do not even wish to come to Mass nor bring their children to be baptized nor do they give their consent to the children receiving instruction in the faith and the chaste people we had created will be ruined and they are going into the mountains where they can live more freely being hidden from view and in many places they are performing their old rites as before without respecting the priests who are their teachers nor paying attention to what they are told, seeing that they can no longer be forced to do anything and if they are opposed they go to the court to lodge a complaint and they are heard in the court as if it were a question of a lawsuit between parties, and lawyers and clerks of which there is no lack incite them to this and the landowners encourage them and if the decision goes against their ministers then they want for nothing. And in this fashion, everything has collapsed so suddenly that there is no longer any trace of piety and it seems that we have only come to these lands to become involved in lawsuits and disputes and we are so discredited in the eyes of the Indians that they pay more attention to a magistrate's bailiff than to all the friars and priests. God, to whom we must give account of what we write here, knows that we are not stating this for any selfish motive and neither because we are looking for an easy life instead of being involved in so much work as we have in these lands, but we write to Your Majesty in Spain from here because we clearly see that if we do not do so all our work will be in vain. And we are writing in this manner to Your Majesty so that, should our mission meet with Your approval, you graciously command that the obstacles we describe here should no longer be placed in our path, since otherwise we cannot fulfil our responsibilities. And, if our mission does not meet with Your approval or if we are not working in an appropriate fashion, we request Your Majesty's permission to abandon that which we so much wish to achieve. ================================================================================