RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 208 CARL SMITH lency Chen Lan-pin, I had the honour through Dr. Eitel to receive your kind remembrance of me and my family. Your ever affectionate pupil and friend, Ho A-lloy." Time and fortune had not loosened the ties between pupil and master. When a new Chinese Ambassador was appointed to the United States, Ho Shun-chee returned to China. He served for a period as Secretary of the China Merchants Insurance Company at Shanghai. Tong King-sing, a former schoolmate, was the chairman of the company. It was proposed that Ho Shun-chee be put in charge of a newly organised telegraph company, the Wa Hop, formed to build a line between Hongkong and Canton. The company was principally financed by Chinese capitalists in Hongkong. Later the company was taken over by the Chinese Government. The careers of his brothers are not as well documented as that of Ho Shun-chee. The third brother, Chung Sang, was a worry to his elder brother. When A-lloy was teaching in the Government school he wrote to Dr. Legge about Chung Sang, who was then a student in the mission school. A-lloy thought it would be much better if his brother were more directly under his supervision. He requested Dr. Legge to release him that he might transfer to the school where A-lloy was teaching. He expressed a low estimate of his brother to Dr. Legge, describing him as "by nature a very stupid, lazy and disobedient boy..., all play, flying his kite.” Furthermore he had been accused of stealing some money. The boy could not have been as stupid and lazy as his brother alleged for he was later manager of the Wah Tze Yat Po, a Chinese newspaper published in Hongkong. When his lease for the paper expired in 1889, it was taken over by Ho Wyson and Dr. Ho Kai, two of the sons of the Rev. Ho Fuk-tong. A-lloy's second brother was A-fuk. Prospects for his career were bright. He too began by teaching English in a Chinese school supported by the Hongkong Government. From there he went into the Hongkong office of the North China Insurance Office as interpreter and Chinese manager. He died in 1873. Page 225 Page 226 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 220 CARL SMITH Following the religious rites, Ho A-mei gave a short talk on the development of mines in Kwangtung. The European contribution to the programme was an impromptu rendering of "For he's a jolly good fellow." A sentiment not necessarily shared by the European community in Hongkong at all times, as we shall see. HOW A-MEI PIONEERED A MODERN CANTON In addition to promoting modern mining in Kwangtung, Ho A-mei was also connected with other projects to introduce Western technological improvements into the province. In 1882 he was a principal in the formation of the Wa Hop Telegraph Company floated as a public company to build a line between Kowloon and Canton. Most of the shareholders were wealthy Canton and Hongkong Chinese merchants. Kwangtung officials aided the company in overcoming opposition aroused by fears that the wires and poles would disturb the fung shui of the neighbourhoods through which they passed. After the line was built to Shamshuipo, just on the other side of the British-Chinese boundary, the company was refused permission to extend the line to Hongkong Island. There were various reasons for the refusal. One was the connection the project had with the Danish-Russian backed Great Northern Telegraph Company. Its engineers had been employed to supervise the construction and certain rights had been granted to the foreign company in the use of the line. Previously the Great Northern had tried to get monopolistic rights over all telegraph lines in China. This effort had been vigorously opposed by Britain which feared the expansion of Russia's power and influence. In this light a Hongkong editor thought, "the refusal to permit the line to land on British soil is an act of self-defence and the promoters of the Canton-Kowloon line ought, we think, to have ================================================================================