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J. W. HAYES

exerts itself with unprecedented vigour and hardihood in local affairs. No dispute arises but one or more of these social pests thrusts himself forward between the contending parties, and no fraud on the revenue or wholesale extortion is free from their similar influence". Lockhart (through Governor Blake) says that the New Territory's literati "have hitherto lived by irregular "squeezes" from the people" and he blamed the opposition to British rule to them and to "gamblers and bad characters banished from Hong Kong" and not to the people who were incited by the gentry and elders. See Papers 1899 pp. 520 and 554.

26 Papers 1899 p. 194.

27 Papers 1899 p. 554.

28 Arthur H. Smith Village Life in China (Edinburgh, Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, about 1900) p. 121.

29 These affected the coastal and riverine regions of Kwangtung. See C. F. Neumann's Translations from the Chinese and Armenian with notes. 1. History of the pirates who infested the China Sea from 1807 to 1810, (London, John Murray 1831). This includes, pp. 97-125, a very interesting account of an enforced stay of eleven weeks and three days with the pirate fleet in 1809 by Richard Glasbrooke, the mate of an East Indiaman. The pirates spent a considerable time on and near Lantau, which must have suffered from their depredations. The clan record of the HO family of San Tsuen, Pui O, on the south side of the island mentions pirate raids and a decision to fortify the village with walls which can still be seen, with several embrasures for cannon.

Piracy continued until a much later date. The Cheung Chau police station was attacked and burnt in 1912, necessitating its removal and enlargement, one of the Cheung Chau ferries was pirated in 1923, and in 1925 a band of sixty robbers from the Delta entered Tai O by way of Po Chue Tam creek, killed a woman and made off with young men and a fair amount of booty without any difficulty. The Police Station is situated at the other end of the town and knew nothing of the attack until it was over. See Administrative Reports, District Officer, New Territories 1912, 1923 and 1925.

30 Papers 1899 p. 528.

31 Foreign Office Report 1606 on Trade of Canton 1894.

32 Salt was smuggled into China from Tai O as the government monopoly and price ring made it profitable to do so. See also Enclosure D to Sir Matthew Nathan's despatch No. 59 of 11 January 1905 in Correspondence relating to Kowloon-Canton Railway which mentions rice smuggling from Shum Chun and Deep Bay into Hong Kong. The export of rice from China was forbidden, and checked by the Imperial Maritime Customs.

**F O Trade Report No. 1778 for 1895.

34 F O Trade Report No. 1983 for 1896.

33 Papers 1899, p. 540.

Brenan, with his thirty-two years' service wrote feelingly "The Chinaman is happiest who never sees an official, who does not even know the name of one". J N CBRAS XXXII (1897-98) 37.

31 Foreign Office Trade Report for Canton No. 1606 for 1894.
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149

An expert could say what the ranges of such cannons were, but after you have landed at the pier and walked to the fort, you will appreciate that it is 1,200 yards from the coast. It is unlikely that guns in the fort could be really effective at this range, so that one questions the wisdom of its planners in placing it so far from the sea, if it was meant to be a work of coastal defence.

What of the garrison? In the later Ching period there were at least three military installations on Lantau at Tung Chung, Tai O and Fan Lau, another on Cheung Chau, and a considerable number of troops in the Kowloon Walled City. These were all sedentary garrisons drawn from the Tai Pang (Mirs Bay) battalion of the Chinese regular forces, which was scattered in forts and guard posts all over the eastern and southern part of the Sun On district, of which the present Crown Colony of Hong Kong formed the major part. The garrison at Tung Chung was commanded by a subordinate officer and probably consisted of a score or two men who were very likely without modern weapons. Writing in 1903 Dyer Ball said of the Chinese military forces that "matchlocks, gingals, bows and arrows, spears and lances are still the weapons of many". Their military efficiency was probably very slight. A missionary, who wrote an interesting account of the San On district for the last number of the transactions of the old Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1859, has an amusing description of the guard post at the Shatin Pass. However, they probably had a deterrent value, but owing to the poor state of local communications at that time, they were much too far away to assist if anything happened elsewhere on Lantau, particularly on the south side, though their influence was felt there. When the local leaders of the Pui O community (South Lantau) rebuilt the Hung Shing temple there in 1875, they persuaded the garrison commander at Tung Chung to make a contribution. In the commemorative tablet recording the event he is styled Fu Ye, a respectful form of address for this subordinate officer.

To bring these rather rambling notes to a close, the fort was used after 1898 as a police station. The District Officer who recovered the cannons for the fort has left a vivid picture of his occasional magisterial visits there about 1920:
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43

bad informal connections with Hong Kong's officialdom and that its activities were a foretaste of the future.

By March of 1899, British officials began to appear in the territory. A party was busy near the Sham Chun river, marking out the frontier with China. Meanwhile, the officer in charge of the Hong Kong police was touring the territory, considering alternative locations for police stations. This official—Captain Superintendent F. H. May arrived at Ping Shan on 27th March. His first action was to post a proclamation saying that the Hong Kong government would not interfere with the land, buildings, or customs of the people. He then designated a hill behind Ping Shan as the site for a police station. A crowd gathered and the argument began. “It says that land, buildings, and customs will not be interfered with but will remain the same as before. Why should they, therefore, when they first come into the leased area, wish to erect a police station on the hill behind our village? When has China ever erected a police station just where people live? The proclamation says that things will be as before. Are not these words untrue?”

54

The Resistance Movement -- 28th March to 18th April, 1899.

The day after May's visit to Ping Shan, discussions were held in the ancestral halls of Ping Shan and Kam Tin. In both instances, agreement was reached that resistance should be offered to the British. Following the two meetings, a third took place in an ancestral hall at Ha Tsuen. Representatives of all three Tang lineages were present and previous decisions to offer resistance were ratified. Messages were sent to leaders throughout the marketing area, asking them to attend a meeting at Yuen Long market the next day.

Steward Lockhart later argued that the resistance leaders feared for their positions of power and privilege. At the Ha Tsuen meeting, a wider range of anxieties were expressed: “... that under English law a poll tax would be collected; that houses would be numbered and a charge made therefor; that fishing and wood-cutting would be prohibited; that women and girls would be outraged; that births and deaths would be registered; that cattle and pigs would be destroyed; that police stations would be erected, which would ruin the Fung Shui [Mandarin: Feng Shui] of the place. In short, that the evils that would arise would be so great
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SUNG HOK-P’ANG 

1. Red raw rice cooked and shining scale fish, 

2. Farmers' simple good fare delicious and lasting. 

The grave has two names Sz Tsz Kwan K’au ($*$*£*), Lion playing ball; and Ts'o Mei Shui Chue (44), long grass hanging down pearl. When Lai Paak Shiu was having the grave built he put a brass tablet behind the stone one, with the following words on it. "Three hundred years hence, an ignorant young man named So (#), who knows nothing about "fung shui”, will want to alter the way this grave faces. If he is allowed to alter it, not only will the Tang family have trouble, but So himself will have bad luck”. The existence of the tablet was unknown until the prophecy on it came true. Three hundred years later when the Tangs were having a period of bad luck and unsuccess, they decided that something was wrong with the "fung shui" of the princess' grave. They consulted a young man named So, and at his instigation started to alter the position of the grave. When the stone tablet was removed, the brass one was revealed and in terror So advised them to leave the grave alone. 

In the 50th year of Hong Hei (R) of Ts'ing dynasty, A.D. 1711, the Tang family were repairing the grave when they discovered several sham tombs underneath the ground. This was the custom in ancient China when burying royalty, as by this means it was hoped to prevent their enemies from desecrating the real tomb. The oldest stone tablet that we can find to-day, was put up in the 19th year of Shing Fa (A) of Ming dynasty, A.D. 1483, which gave the dates of the birth and death of the princess. In this tablet was also found the statement that the grave was first made in the 6th year of Shun Yau (*) of Sung dynasty, A.D. 1246, but there is no record of the first stone tablet nor any of the tablets erected before A.D. 1483. After the general repairing of the grave in A.D. 1712 a new stone was erected, but as the dates on the previous one were not considered to be correct, none were written on the stone. 

The princess' husband Tang Tsz Ming was received with honour by the Emperor and had the title of Shui Yuen Kwan Ma (✯✯ #) bestowed on him. It was the custom in China to give the title Kwan Ma to the husband of a prince's daughter. Tang Tsz Ming's grave was made on a little hill called Fat Au Leng ( ##₪) # ). It can easily be seen to this day almost opposite the Au Tau Police Station on the other side of the road to Sheung Shui. It has recently
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to Dr. Peter Young of the Hong Kong Dispensary, but Dr. Young was prevented from building on it by the Governor's Notification of 10 April 1843, that no further building was to continue until after the signing of a Treaty determining the future of Hong Kong as a British possession. Both of the lots were later resumed by Government and a Police Station was built on the site. 

Across the Queen's Road and on the sea front from “Jorrock's Hall" was the business establishment of Gillespie operated in Captain Thomas Larkin's godown. Here he sold general provisions and goods suitable for trade with the Pacific Islands. Larkin's Godowns were just west of another extensive range of buildings called the Albany Godowns. They were built to store the goods of Chinese merchants, but they were not a financial success and stood empty or partially used for a number of years. Finally the land reverted to government in 1847. In 1855 both Larkin's Godown and the Albany Godowns were resold by Government and in the 1860's they were used for McGregor's Barracks by the Military, giving the present McGregor Street its name, 

(3) VISIT TO OLD WESTERN DISTRICT, SATURDAY, 8 JUNE, 1974 

Route Instructions 

Meet at Chinese Recreation Ground, Possession Point (the British flag was raised here in January 1841). 

Enter Possession Street and visit: 1) Offices of the Tung Kwun Trade Assn. (including the roof, from which an excellent view can be obtained); 2) The Foo Lung Restaurant (2nd and 3rd floors only). 

The Tung Kwun District Commercial Association, as the Tung Yee Hop Tong, was founded in 1893. There are several interesting photographs and inscriptions in this office. 

From there the group will go along Fat Hing Street — a lane with many embroidery stores in it to the Shun Tak District Commercial Association at 67, Queen's Road, West. The Association owns the whole building and its office occupies the 2nd floor. The interior is practically the same with photographs, furniture and inscriptions as provided in 1915 when the Association was founded. The Association dates in fact from much earlier, around 1875, under the name of a Tong or 'Hall' (****).
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great blaze they saw was not being fed by the engine sheds and the numerous and extensive buildings of the Company there." (Daily Press, Dec. 17, 1884).

After the fire, the area was laid out into regular lots and the government began disposing of them at public auction. It was at this time that the building sites were regularized and the streets were officially named. Fronting the Dock Company's property and the sea was Bulkely Street, with buildings only on the north side. Behind it was Market Street (now Wuhu Street). The Public Market built in 1886 occupied a block on the north side of this street in the centre of the laid out portion of the village. These were the two main streets running east and west. At the east end of the village was Hill Street, (now Tientsin Street) running north and south, next to the west was Dock Street, then Station Street leading up to the Police Station situated on a hill behind the village, then an unnamed street (now Marsh Street) and finally Temple Street leading up to the Kun Yam Temple nestled under the hill behind Market Street. Also behind Market Street both on the east and west side of the village were rows of small family houses.*

In the 1890's the area of Hung Hom near the present Chatham Road was being developed for industrial establishments. The area was known as West Hung Hom. At the turn of the century, there was at Hung Hom a match factory, a sugar candy factory, a glass factory, and a dozen or so boat building yards. There was also a Hotel and Tavern, owned by an Indian who left a will.

Various Hong Kong capitalists invested in Hung Hom lots. The partners of Lapraik and Company owned several blocks in front of the Market House. These were later sold to the Hong Kong Land Company. When new lots were laid out to the west in the 1890's, Ho Tung and later Lau Chu Pak, of the Yaumati Ferry Company, bought several of the blocks. Li Kwong also owned valuable lots at Yaumati.

(b) Some local institutions: Schools

A Government-subsidized village school was established under the direction of the local community, and several Christian schools were opened. The Church Missionary Society had lots at the east end of the village, the London Missionary Society in 1883 applied

* Two maps showing Hung Hom in 1892 and 1901 are printed respectively at p. 321 and between pp. 322 and 323.

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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).
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supplementary votes. Some D.O.s seemed to pride themselves on saving as much as possible of this vote, but I always thought it a D.O.'s duty not only to see as much of his district as he could, but to let its inhabitants see him.

One of the first questions I had to deal with was a request from the Sheung Tong villagers to make a grant from the small public works fund of $400 at my disposal to enable a footbridge to be built over the deep ravine dividing one side of their valley from the other. This was to be of granite beams, quarried in the Shap Pat Heung, and carried up over 1000 feet to Sheung Tong. I was anxious to get the village to contribute to the cost, as my vote for small public works was only $400 a year, and the cost of the three granite beams, and their transport by coolie up the mountain, would have come to about $160; and a good slice of the vote was usually granted to the Cheung Chau Residents' Association for upkeep and extension of paths there. The villagers could raise no money; they could not furnish coolies for transport; and they would not consider laying anything so ill-omened as an even number of stone beams: so to my regret I felt I could do nothing for people who could or would do nothing to help themselves.

In those days the Cheung Chau ferry was a large one-deck launch and passengers paid 3 cents each for a passage, but for 5 cents the Kaifong committee who ran it, largely in the interests of the fish industry, would give you a bamboo chair on the foredeck to sit on and this ferry was what drew missionaries to settle on the island from about 1907 onwards and build themselves bungalows for summer holidays, so saving the high cost of a Hong Kong apartment. Its timetable rarely suited my official arrangements, as by it I could never spend more than an hour ashore unless I got a night's lodging on the island; so I generally used my hired launch. In the thirties a guest house was opened for visitors in a large bungalow not far up the hill from the police station, and after 1934 I went there two or three times with friends while working on archaeological sites on Cheung Chau and the nearby coast of Lantau. This police station was not built till 1913 or 1914: before then the police had used a large house near the Kaifong pier, about 150 yards south of the later concrete pier, as their station. In 1912 a junk came to the pier by night, the crew and passengers landed, and carried the station by a sudden rush, as they were an armed pirate gang. The sergeant in charge and some police escaped and
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kept the raiders under fire from the slope behind, but they got away with their plunder, including some arms and ammunition. The Captain Superintendent of Police at the time, F. J. Badeley, a cadet officer, retired soon after, and the story went that the Governor, Sir Henry May, who came in July 1912 after about eight years as Colonial Secretary and two years in Fiji, took this opportunity to get rid of him because he was 'persona non grata' to him. (There were said to be several such in the Service). The Government took the hint given by the pirates and built a new police station on a much more commanding site well inland, surrounded by barbed wire.

Talking of New Territory police station siting, the Tai O station was originally to have been built close to the village, but the local elders put up representations against it, and the presence of mosquitoes in the village may have provided an argument for its present siting beyond Shek Tsai Po. Silting of the harbour may also have influenced the Government. But I have heard that what influenced the villagers was the existence of gambling houses which yielded them a good profit, and they knew that with the police among them the hope of their gains would be gone. In 1925 they had their reward. A boatload of 60 pirates from the Delta landed at Po Chu Tam, marched along the creek-side road and plundered the village, murdering a woman and kidnapping two men. They got away without interference. Government promptly 'locked the stable door' by stationing an armed Indian police guard - later replaced by village scouts in a matshed close to the mouth of Po Chu Tam creek for several months, about 50 yards from the site of an old Chinese stone-built guard station dating from the era of Japanese piracy in South China. Apparently the Police knew nothing of the raid till all was over. I think all that happened was that the sergeant in charge was transferred to another station.

When I first took charge of the District Office, the 'black gold' rush had been over for three years, the bottom having dropped out of the tungsten market with the coming of peace; but the lime-burning and sand-digging boom was in full swing because of the roadmaking and building then going on in Hong Kong and Kowloon. (These were times of anarchy in China). Thus I had to deal with one or two applications for land for limekilns. These kilns were thickest on Ping Chau; but Nei Kwu Chau and Tsing Yi also had kilns, and another was put up at Hang Hau. This distribution is due partly
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to nearness to the market in Hong Kong, partly to the presence of coral in the shallow and then comparatively clean waters of the western approaches: in fact the sea near Ping Chau was officially divided into two Marine Lots, Nos. 1 and 2. Not long after, with constant raking of the sea bed for raw material, growing pollution of water from rubbish dumping by the Sanitary Department and increasing sewerage from Hong Kong by increase of the water carriage system, the industry declined for lack of coral to burn: complaints were made about this to me at one time. In Ping Chau this industry employed numbers of Hoklo lime burners and in 1925 they staged a clan fight which cost several men their lives. There was no police station on the island, so investigations were delayed and no evidence of murder could be got: so after taking a lot of evidence in my 'court' in the Hong Kong office, I simply bound everybody over, which at any rate gave a period of peace to Ping Chau. It must not be thought that the decline of lime burning ruined Ping Chau, for the islanders had thoughtfully provided themselves with a lucrative light industry in the shape of six or seven flourishing gambling houses, which naturally emptied whenever a D.O.'s or Water Police launch appeared. 

Communications with the outside world were then pretty elementary. A junk left Ping Chau about 8 a.m. for Hong Kong and returned to the island in the evening; no more encouraging to anyone wishing to 'Come to sunny Ping Chau' than the clouds of smoke and lime dust that rose perpetually from the kilns. Another industry for which Ping Chau and the other western islands were well adapted was distilling, as their inaccessibility was a great assistance to undertakings wishing to short-circuit the revenue regulations. 

Yet another industry flourished at one time in this group of islands. The small islet of Kau Yi Tsai, between Ping Chau and Kau Yi Chau, has a cleft in its granite cliffs which opens inwards into a cave of some size. About 1922 this was the scene of the greatest opium seizure in the Colony's history up till then: 8 tons of Persian opium came from the cave, and the crew of the sampan guarding it were put up for banishment. Only the banishees appeared before me, as I was then in the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, but what became of them I cannot remember. 

The increasing population and prosperity of the Colony caused similar developments at Cheung Chau: building land was greatly
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in demand, part of the foreshore was reclaimed, and houses of reinforced concrete began to appear in the village, modelled on Hong Kong tenement houses. A great difficulty with this development was the problem of ensuring proper inspection of buildings of this type, as the Buildings Ordinance of 1903 did not apply, and there were one or two rogue architects about who would run up such houses cheap, and make their profit by deviating from plans: swindles that can, as I saw in Hong Kong later, cost lives. The best way of controlling knavery of this sort is to refuse permits to erect any more houses to the architect responsible: that, I was told, is London practice.

The Cheung Chau Kaifongs, who in my time were led by a Mr. Lo Yip, a prosperous shopkeeper, were certainly enterprising, and had not only started a ferry to Hong Kong on the funds obtained from the Pak Tai Temple at the north end of the town, but had renovated the Temple and set up an electric light installation for the village on the raised ground in the middle of the isthmus. The Ferries Ordinance was passed about 1917 and replaced the ancient launches plying to Yaumati and Kowloon City by much more suitable craft — some of them second-hand Star Ferry boats — far less likely to turn turtle than the overloaded, overcrowded craft which daily imperilled their passengers in the old days, the disasters to which brought about the new legislation. About 1925 the Ordinance was applied to the New Territory, which meant that the existing ferries had to be thrown open to public tender and their boats brought up to a higher standard. The Cheung Chau Kaifongs were encouraged to bid, and as theirs was the only one, and not unreasonable, they got the concession. The old pier by the former police station had sometime before been supplemented by a new wooden pier some 150 yards further north, and this was the Cheung Chau Terminal of the ferry. The concession expired in 1928, and under my successor, Mr. Wynne-Jones, new ferry concessions were made, which according to Mr. Lo Yip had caused great trouble to the Kaifongs. The timetable was certainly improved from the Hong Kong point of view, and day trips to the island became possible. I once discussed with the Kaifongs the question of making the ferry call at Nei Kwu Chau or Ping Chau, but they never agreed to letting the boat go there or to any other island, though a call at Nei Kwu Chau would have solved the education question there by enabling its children to attend school on Cheung Chau. I once spent a

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fort in 1923. However, it is now ruined. The whole area is covered with shrub and mangrove.

Before the Ming Dynasty, there was no military post on the island. It was not until the late Ming Period that a guard-station or shuen, which was administered by the commander of the Nam Tau Walled City, was set up.2 Before then, the area had only patrol-boats, probably stationed at Tun Mun.3

During the early Ch'ing Period, because of the increased strength of the pirates along the coast, more forts and guard-stations were set up. The Fat Tong Mun Fort on the Tung Lung Island was erected during the K'ang Hsi period (1662-1727)3, and a garrison of 25 soldiers under one pa-tsung or sergeant Tai Pang Battalion✯ was stationed there.6

The fort remained a strong outpost along the east coast of Hong Kong for nearly a hundred years. Then, in the 15th year of the Ch'ia Ching rule (1810), the fort was evacuated and finally abandoned.7 A new fort was built at the place of the present Hong Kong Marine Police Headquarters at Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon.

The fort remains in ruins till now.

Hong Kong, 1979.

SIU KWOK-KIN

NOTES

1 See note 4 of Mr. JAO Tsung-i's Kowloon in Historical Records of the Sung Dynasty九龍與宋季史料, 饒宗頤著

2 Chapter 8 of the San On Yuen Chi, K'ang Hsi edition, records, "In the 19th year of the Man Lik Period of the Ming Dynasty, guard-stations were established at Fat Tong Mun, Tor Ling Ngor Kung O, Kowloon, Tun Mun, Kap Shui Mun, Tung Sai Chung, Ngor Kung Tau, Chak Wan, Lo Man Shan and Long Pak." In the same chapter, it is also recorded, "Six guard-stations were set up during the Ming Dynasty. They were Fat Tung Mun, Lung Shun Wan, Lok Kat, Tai O, Long To Wan, and Long Pak. These guard-stations were administered by the commander at the Nam Tau Walled City." Thus, we know that the Fat Tong Mun Guard Station was established in the 19th year of the Man Lik period of the Ming Dynasty; but the fort must have been built at a later time.

3 Chapter 5 of the Cheong Wu Chung Tuk Kwun Mun Chi records, "Patrol boats from Nam Tau were stationed at Tun Mun. Some sailed through Fat Tong Mun to the region as far east as Tai Pang." The book was completed in the 32nd year of the Chia
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The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46

37

Secretary, Procurator, and all his priests in the other parishes of the City were interned, he did not know where at that moment, but later on he was informed that they were at Stanley, in the prison. That evening our belated supper was eaten in more or less silence, as with guns booming in the distance and the suspense in the air, we did not have much heart for conversation. We retired early, but about eleven o'clock were awakened by the air raid siren, only to find that it was a false alarm. Incidentally, during the hostilities of Hong Kong there were no night air raids. However, after that false alarm, Father Downs in the city, at the Cathedral Rectory, could not get to sleep, and heard the clock strike every quarter of the hour until daybreak. And the next morning at about eight o'clock, the fun began! At that time planes appeared overhead, bombs were dropped at various points and wherever these bombs fell, anti-aircraft guns in the vicinity started barking. A couple of these anti-aircraft guns were set up in a small depression just below the Italian Sisters' Hospital on the hill to the east and south of the Cathedral, and when they began popping we thought they were in our backyard. During the day and those that followed, there were perhaps an average of four or five daily air raids, the targets being mainly gun emplacements, shipping and forts.

However, on the very first day, as narrated by Fr. Downs a couple of bombs hit a portion of the Central Police Station, a block or two just west of the Cathedral. Guns were booming over on the Kowloon side and out in the New Territories along the Pearl River estuary where the Japanese landed, having come down the river from Canton. Whether these guns were land or naval batteries, of course we could not judge, but no doubt the shells came from both sources at times. On the night of the second day, after we had retired, the booming of guns seemed to be nearer, and finally we were awakened by a crash which seemed to be in the Rectory. As the booming kept up we were not desirous of making any personal investigation, and as we waited, another crash shook our building, and then another, a little farther away. The next morning we learned that the Japanese were evidently trying to get the range of the anti-aircraft guns just above us near the Sisters' Hospital, for the shells seemed to fall in a straight line; the first struck to the west of us, the second hit the edge of the roof of the house next door, the third crashed through the roof of the Cathedral, cutting a neat hole
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The next day, the twenty-third, snipers' bullets began pelting our house from the north and we promptly retreated to the south. A couple of these bullets came in through the glass windows in our front hall, and our only casualty was Father Meyer who received a very slight scratch on the cheek evidently from a piece of flying glass. Artillery shells now began coming our way, apparently from the west and north, proof enough that the Japanese had succeeded in getting on the island of Hong Kong. The targets of these shells were evidently gun emplacements in and around Stanley village and near the Prison, for the shells struck along the water's edge—sometimes in the sea itself—and along the military road leading to the fort. A number of these shells actually hit the Anglican School and the Police Station in Stanley village. Some also struck buildings of St. Stephen's College and the various buildings on the Prison Compound. Many shells seemed to fall just between the buildings on St. Stephen's campus, one building of which had been turned into a hospital. From our own hilltop we again had a grandstand view, but our interest was not exactly that which one has when viewing a competitive game.

Bombs also dropped out of the sky on the fort and attempts were made to cripple "Big Bertha", but she came out of the fracas unscathed and continued to hurl her deadly missiles over the hills until the end. One Japanese bomb fell at the foot of our hill, striking a portion of the village market and killing eight or nine people. All around our hill the British had constructed trenches and machine gun nests, and we were in momentary fear of the shells finding these objectives. British soldiers could be seen moving steadily in among the trees, and many came in to our house occasionally for a drink of water.

As a further safeguard against snipers' bullets we barricaded the exposed doors and windows. We also moved our provisional recreation room from the lower chapel to the refectory, this latter being on the south side. During these hectic days we could do nothing but huddle downstairs in the corridors while air raids and shelling were in progress, and look forward to the night time when the din (except from "Big Bertha") was silenced. As we had no electricity we retired early and rose late.

Occasionally we could observe a few straggling soldiers on the mountain just across from us, but could not distinguish whether
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The Tung Chung Fort

NOTES AND QUERIES

Tung Chung15 is a valley which lies on the north coast of Lantau Island. It is surrounded by hills on three sides,16 facing the sea on the north. The valley is well-drained by streams, giving fertile farmlands to the people. A century or so ago, there was a walled area, called the Tung Chung Walled City; and a fort which guarded the coast, the Shek She Fort A6.

The Tung Chung Walled City was erected between the Sheung Ling Pei village #17 and the Ha Ling Pei village 下嶺皮村 T## 18. During the early years of K'ang Hsi period, there was only the Tung Chung Shuen (post)✯✯ under a Tsin Tsung +(or lieutenant) of the Tai Pang Battalion 19. However, the post was quite isolated, and it was far from Tai O where there was the Tai Yue Shan Shuen 大嶼山汎20.

After the surrender of Cheung Po-tsai in the 15th year of the Chia Ch'ing reign2, foreign intercourse and influence increased; and fortifications along the coast were strengthened. In the 22nd year of the Chia Ch'ing reign (1817), the Tung Chung Walled City and the Shek She Fort were erected 22.

The Walled City and the Fort remained strongholds on the island until 1898, when the New Territories were leased to the British. Then the Walled City was used as the Police Station and later as the Wah Ying School **** during the Second World War.23 It is now the site of the Tung Chung Rural Committee's office and the Tung Chung Public Primary School.

The Walled City measures 225 feet by 265 feet. It is backed by the Tai Tung Shan. It has three rubble walls: its front wall is about 15 feet thick. The building stone of the walls came from Chik Lap Kok Island.24

The Walled City has three gateways: The East Gate was called Chip Sau ✩✩, the West Gate was called Luen Kun, and the Main Gate, Kung Sun. The East and West Gates are now blocked by bricks, and the main gate is used as the entrance to the Rural Committee and the Public School.

Inside the Walled City, there is a playground. Behind the playground, there are two old houses, which are the remains of the guardhouses built during the 22nd year of the Chia Ch'ing reign.25 These houses are now used as the office of the Tung Chung Rural Committee.
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NOTES AND QUERIES

213

The Villa was opened in 1936. Regrettably, the hope and promise of the occasion was within little more than a decade dashed by disease, war, and the change of government in mainland China. In the first two years, many of the inmates died, probably from malaria, though the reason given by elderly persons was that the local earth and water were unfavourable. Their death certificates, signed by the Inspector from Tsuen Wan Police Station, are still retained in the Villa. The Japanese occupation of South China and then Hong Kong followed soon after and had a disrupting effect upon member patrons in Kwangtung and their financial condition, and upon the Society and its activities. It also curtailed recruitment of inmates.

The Villa had not recovered from the effects of the war when the influx of refugees from China in the late 40s further worsened its situation. The Villa was quickly overrun with squatters who now occupy most of the building. Only the main hall, which is kept locked, and some rooms at the rear portion of the Villa, which are lived in by no more than 10 elderly ladies, are free from families who have no connection with the latter or the Society to which they belong. The Villa and its property became the subject of dispute. It was sold some years ago to a development company after Court action, but objections to the sale have come in. A number of elderly persons in Hong Kong who are active in the "Three Religions" could still maintain an interest, but from the sidelines.*

Tsuen Wan, December, 1978.

JAMES HAYES

LOCAL REACTIONS TO THE DISTURBANCE OF 'FUNG SHUI' ON TSING YI ISLAND, HONG KONG, SEPTEMBER 1977-MARCH 1978.

I recount below, with photographs, the reactions of a long-settled community of Hakka villagers to the disturbance of fung shui in the course of engineering site investigation works on Tsing Yi island, Hong Kong. Two main events occurred: firstly, interference with a fung shui hill by a bulldozer crew; secondly, the death/illness of villagers at a later stage.

* The villa was resumed and cleared in 1979 for the redevelopment of North Tsuen Wan. It was not possible for it to remain owing to the extensive site formation required in its vicinity.

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W. ALLYN RICKETT

were usually removed and their activities closely controlled by whatever leftist faction happened to be in control at the moment. At this time, the procuratorate was eliminated, as had been the Ministry of Justice in 1959. One of the most important developments during this period was the expansion in the cities of so-called non-criminal sanctions, generally ranging from warnings to three years reform through labour, imposed by local mediation or residents' committees in conjunction with the local police station. The mediation of neighbourhood disputes and the handling of petty local crime and anti-social behaviour by properly supervised local institutions has been, in principle, one of the more constructive developments in China since the Revolution. However, during the Cultural Revolution a vast expansion of informal and arbitrary punishment, including beatings and long-term imprisonment or deportation to the countryside, was instituted by Red Guard and other leftist groups operating in such places as schools, factories, government organizations. These leftist groups merely charged their victims with being "rightists" and then proceeded to take any suppressive action that seemed desirable to them.

Violence and factionalism reached such proportions that in September 1967 the Army was ordered to restore order, but major outbreaks continued to occur throughout 1968 and into 1969. In April 1969 the Ninth Party Congress was held, this marking the official end of the Cultural Revolution, and though some semblance of stability began to emerge thereafter, tension throughout the society continued, especially as many purged Party officials were returned to office and the split between Mao and Lin Biao intensified. During the early 1970s, the Party machinery was restored and under the leadership of Zhou En-lai the country seemed to be entering a new period of stability. However, even after the death of Lin Biao, the leadership remained divided, with the Cultural Revolution forces now being represented by what was later to be called the Gang of Four. It was not until January 1975 that the NPC met to pass a new Constitution designed to formalize the changes in China's political and social life over the past twenty years. According to the new Constitution, the People's Republic was no longer a "people's democratic state," but a "socialist state of the dictatorship of the
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The

There are two similar settlements nearer the Police Station. boatpeople's huts are designed on the model of a sampan or junk, it would seem. Almost certainly the boatpeople are a sign of a non-Chinese element in the population. Several fires have happened, the last in 1930, since when galvanised iron has become popular as roofing, replacing the older roofing of woven palm leaf matting.

Temple funds are often applied to small public works, and in such cases the District Officer gives dollar for dollar from his vote. Works such as repairing tracks, or steps to the water, or paving streets in Tai O often use this source of funding. The District Officer often holds court in the charge room of the Police Station, which is one of the coolest and healthiest in the Territory.

A little to the south of Tai O is Yi O (“Second Heaven"), which is a mere village, and a little further south again Tsin Yu Wan ("Arrow Fish Bay") which has a beautiful sandy beach with a temple, but is otherwise deserted.

1.1

0

On the extreme south-west tip of Lantau is Shek Sun (“Stone Bamboo-shoots") on a typical dumb-bell isthmus of sand between two bays. The isthmus connects Lantau proper with the low granite hills forming Fan Lau point which is the end of British territory in this direction. On one hill is an ancient fort, thought to be Dutch; if so, it was probably built and occupied at the time of their attack on Macao in 1622. (The failure of this attack led to the Dutch occupying Taiwan in Formosa, thus drawing Chinese settlers there, who expelled them about fifty years later.) The fort may, however, in fact be Chinese. The name of this village probably comes from the way the boulders stick out of the hills above it, like low pillars.

There are some fields on the hill above Shek Sun enclosed by dry-stone walls: evidently these were once used for dry crops, but they are now abandoned. They were not pastures: animals are never enclosed when grazing.

Turning to the south coast of Lantau, and moving eastwards from Fan Lau Point, you see in succession three valleys each with a group of villages, all of which are purely agricultural and fishing.
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# STATE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION IN HONG KONG, 1857 TO 1941

R.J. MINERS

From its earliest days the male population of Hong Kong greatly outnumbered the females. Chinese men came to find work leaving their families in Kwangtung and the European community was also predominantly male because of the presence of the army garrison, the ships of the Royal Navy and the crews of merchant ships unloading their goods in the harbour. In 1872, when the first proper census was carried out, there were 3,264 European men compared to 669 European women, a ratio of practically 5:1, and the Chinese men outnumbered women by 78,484 to 22,837, a ratio of 7:2.1 This imbalance continued to exist, though to a diminishing extent, for the next 70 years: in 1931 Chinese men outnumbered women 4:3, but the European ratio was still only 7:2.2 Naturally, in order to satisfy the needs of this predominantly male community, prostitutes quickly moved in to ply their trade, numerous brothels were established and by the 1850s Hong Kong was already notorious for the prevalence of venereal disease.

In 1857, at the urgent request of the naval officer in command of the China station the Hong Kong government instituted a system for the registration and inspection of brothels, the compulsory medical examination of their inmates, the punishment of prostitutes who communicated venereal disease to their clients and their detention in the Lock Hospital until cured.3 This measure was approved by the Secretary of State primarily because it appeared that a system of licensed brothels and government inspection might provide a means of protecting the inmates from ill-treatment and virtual enslavement to their brothel-keepers.4 Ten years later the Hong Kong government was instructed by the Secretary of State to replace the ordinance of 1857 with a new one modelled on the Contagious Diseases Act which had just been passed by the British parliament. This had set up a system of controlled brothels and compulsory medical examination of prostitutes in twelve garrison towns in England. The new 1867 ordinance, though more comprehensive, made few changes in the system already in force, except that the police were given much
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I did not record very much about the role of the Hoklo, Wai Chau, Chiu Chau newcomers. They were actually visible mainly through the flags in their honour and the Chiu Chau performers whom they hired to perform on the main day of the celebration. Their participation was more in contributing money to provide performances in their own dialect than in participation in the processions or in preparation of the offerings.

The number of persons present in the main-day procession and the procession with the Daai Si Wong was impressive. However, they were more sharing the fun and enjoying the novelty than making a collective, disciplined presence as in the case of the same processions in the New Territories jiu festivals, in which the participants wore special clothing and hats, excluded women and were in general more organized at least in appearance.

I did not see many signs of nearby villagers (who did not live in the three participating villages) coming to the jiu to visit or to offer good wishes, as was the former custom. There was a flower basket on display outside the festival office at Shek O. It was presented by the chairman of the rural committee of Cheung Chau. The only fa-paai was from Ma Hang, Laan Lai Wan, Stanley and Tai Tam Tuk, which are nearby. Near noon time on the main day some guests did come. One of them was a police officer, probably the head of the Chai Wan Police Station. Another was the District Officer for South District, who came with some assistants.

Married-out daughters were expected to come back for the festival too. On the bus back to town on the main day of the celebration, I overheard a middle-aged woman telling someone that if a married-out daughter did not come back for the jiu, she could not come back until ten years later, presumably during the next celebration.

Other than the villagers, participants at the jiu included the professionals, among whom the most important were the priests. The yn-sau, or his companion, explained to me that they had hired a team headed by the priest Chan Wa as they did for the last celebration. I had thought, when he explained this was because Chan was 'familiar', he had in mind familiarity with the local
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CARL SMITH

strengthened by his baptism and resolve to study theology.

As a theological student, A-sow was soon preaching and in 1849 Dr. Legge noted that he began to show considerable ability in public speaking. The following year the missionary committee agreed that he should continue his studies for two or three more years. He was urged to improve his Chinese. At the same time he was to assist at the school in teaching English.

In December 1850, Dr. Legge received a shock, A-sow appeared in a hearing before the Police Magistrate. The case concerned the loss and reappearance of bills of exchange worth about $50,000,

In the summer of 1849, the agent of the P and O Shipping Company reported the loss of a valuable parcel from one of its ships. It had been addressed to the firm of Gibb, Livingston and Co, a firm that is still doing business in Hongkong today. About this time a cook's assistant picked up a bill for some £300 near Union Chapel in Hollywood Road not far from the London Mission House and School. Being written in English he could not read it. So he showed it to his employer. It was from the lost parcel.

Now more than a year later A-sow turned up at the police station with two bills worth about £2,000, asking if the owner was known. He told the police he had received these bills and others from a former coolie in Dr. Legge's employ. The coolie in turn said he had received them from two other people, one who had left for California and the other was the same man who claimed to have picked up the £300 bill the year before.

On the basis of this testimony, the latter was charged with robbery. Under oath A-sow deposed that the London Mission Society coolie had brought the bills to him some ten months earlier asking if they were of importance.

A-sow said he took them to the Rev Ho Fuk-tong for his opinion. The reply was they were worthless, whereupon A-sow put them in a drawer in his desk and forgot about them. Ho Fuk-tong at the hearing denied ever having seen the bills, thus putting into question A-sow's credibility.
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also created an atmosphere of vitality and purpose in an otherwise rather sleepy and desolate place.

Meanwhile, parts of the Walled City fell into decay. The south wall soon began crumbling, and by the mid-20s, the Commodore's office, once the grandest building there and used for a time in the early twentieth century as a plague hospital, was in complete ruins. By the '30s, the sixty or so domestic dwellings were mostly in poor repair. Its vegetable gardens, pig farms and traditional crafts gave the "City" a rural flavour.

57

Until the outbreak of war in 1941, it remained a tourist attraction. Foreigners came to seek “a little bit of Old China”. Invariably, Chinese guide books to Hong Kong recommended it for nostalgic, historical sightseeing. Local residents also found it worthwhile photographic material. It must have been rather pleasant to stroll in the shade of ancient trees, take photographs before the cannon and historical buildings, and admire the many inscriptions in them. One inhabitant even made a living by selling copies of the City's inscriptions to visitors.

The rapid development outside the wall from the 1910s onwards - the Kowloon Bay reclamation, the construction of tenement houses, shops and factories, and eventually the airport - passed the City by. Reclamation left it further and further inland. For a while after 1899, the customs station was used as a police station, but in the late 1920s, it had to be abandoned in favour of a site by the new waterfront. The Lung-chin jetty fell into disuse, and only the end portion could be used to serve a ferry running between Hong Kong Island, Hunghom and Kowloon City. After the War, the Yaumati Ferry Company built its Kowloon City Pier near the site.

The Kowloon fort was in decay. The cannon suffered various fates. The British had dismantled them, presumably out of distrust of the Chinese. Some were reportedly sold to old metal dealers. Two were displayed outside the Water Police Station, and four outside the new Kowloon City Police Station. Two more, one weighing 4,000 catties, the other 5,000 catties, were abandoned near the South Gate and much photographed. Apparently these
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Moreover, when the model letter is addressed to someone in authority, at that time, almost by definition a European, the formality and respectfulness approaches servility.

The actual content of many of the expressions used in the book also reveals much about social attitudes and practices. Under "Words in Common Use", for example, one finds "Cumshaw", "We thrashed the thief", and "The teacher flogged this boy”. In "Short Sentences", one sees "Take bribes", "Learn by heart", "Good memory", "Worship at the tombs", "Study hard”, “Give presents", "He Got the Plague”, and “smoke Opium”. The “Long Sentences" include "Humbugging about", "He is fond of drinks”, "I beg you to recommend me”, “Give me a cumshaw”, and “I undersell him". Amongst the model letters, one discovers two applications to hospitals to make their charges moderate (pp. 436-437), as well as formal letters of application, resignation, requests for sick-leave and special leave, etc. (pp. 406-410), which were clearly intended as templates. In the same section, in addition to the routine business correspondence about bills of lading, the sale of property, etc., and the applications to Government departments for licences and permits, one finds letters politely complaining about drains and the failure of the water supply (pp. 439-440), a letter about a scheme to provide aid to a district in China after the onset of a natural disaster there (p. 442), and another about emigration to the United States. But the classic letter must be the one addressed to the Officer in Charge of No. 2 Police Station, bringing to his notice the fact that there is a dead body lying in the road, outside the letter-writer's house, and apologizing for the trouble given. (p. 438).

Only part of the significance of English Made Easy derives from the formal, external poses it presents which appear to accept and condone the excesses of a colonial regime and a discriminatory society. In the very early twentieth century, there was no feasible alternative, other than departure from Hong Kong. Also significant is the fact that a man like Mok Man Cheung took the trouble to write the book. With all its idiosyncrasies and its errors

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Naam-Bin ("South Side") and Bak-Bin ("North Side"). Bak-Bin includes only two villages: Shui Tau and Shui Mei. Naam-Bin includes Kat Hing Wai, Tai Hong Wai, Wing Lung Wai, Ko Po, Kam Hing Wai, Tsi Tong Tsuen, Tai Hong Tsuen and Kam Tin Shi. The division into Naam-Bin and Bak-Bin corresponds to the geographic location of residence as well as to agricultural and ritual activities. The village patrol corps of Kam Tin were also organized in terms of Naam-Bin and Bak-Bin.

B. The Village Guard System

The village guard system continued well into the 1960s. It used to be called cheun-ding, but later was called ji-wai-deui. There was one for Naam-Bin and one for Bak-Bin. The Naam-Bin guards consisted, more or less, of two men from each of Tai Hong Wai, Wing Lung Wai, Kat Hing Wai and Ko Po. The Bak-Bin guards were from Shui Tau and Shui Mei. The guards worked in two shifts, the first from 8 p.m. to midnight and the second from midnight to about 5 a.m. The Naam-Bin village guards patrolled the area reaching Au Tau to the west, gwai-waan to the east, Wong Chuk bei to the south, and the river before Pak Wai chyun to the north. Sha Pui Leng (Sa Bui Leng) was within the scope of their protection. The villagers of this village paid levies to the corps, but none of them were members.

The village corps was rewarded by levies on sweet potato and rice crops. They charged 10% on potato. Before harvest, one in ten rows (laar) of the potato had already been allocated to the village guards. The rate of the levy on rice was a prescribed amount some tens of catties on each mu of cultivation. When the villagers' paddy fields suffered loss from theft, they got compensation from the village corps responsible for its protection. The corps would compensate in full the estimated loss.

In earlier times the head of each village corps was selected by bidding. Each candidate would offer a certain quantity of rice (guk) which he would give back to the member villages. But in the case of the head for the year 1954, who I interviewed, he was appointed by the elders. This was because few people wanted the post.

Around 1954 there was government involvement in the village guard system. "The police station asked us to organize [village corps]”. There were more than ten guards, armed with 6 guns. The guards also had passes issued by the police. They were also given used uniforms for
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recovering them and their stubborness in this belief undoubtedly saved the lives of 21 British seamen.

H.J.W. CHETWYND-CHATWIN

REPORT ON VISIT TO TAI HANG FIRE DRAGON DANCE, MID AUTUMN FESTIVAL 1992

On the 11th September, 1992, a party of Society members, family and children visited the Tai Hang Tsuen Fire Dragon Dance at the invitation of the Tai Hang Residents Welfare Association.*

The Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance started in 1880 when Tai Hang was a small Hakka village of farmers and fishermen on the waterfront of Causeway Bay.

According to local legend, on a stormy night that year, just prior to the Mid-Autumn Festival, some villagers killed a serpent at a stone house in Sun Chun Street. They placed the body of the serpent in a bamboo cage, intending to hand it over to the local police station the next morning. However, by then the body had disappeared. A few days later a plague broke out in Tai Hang and over ten persons died.

One night a village elder in his sleep was told by Buddha (one version says that the message came through Kwun Yum, the Goddess of Mercy) to make a grass dragon and burn firecrackers and incense sticks during the Mid-Autumn Festival. This advice was followed and the sulphur in the firecrackers drove away the disease and the villagers were saved.

It then became customary to hold a fire dragon dance every year during the Mid-Autumn Festival in order to drive away infectious diseases and to bring good fortune. This custom has been followed every year since 1880, with the exception of the Japanese Occupation and during the 1967 disturbances. The arrangements are in the hands of the Tai Hang Residents Welfare Association, and the event is very much a community function which continues a long-standing village tradition in the heart of modern, urban Hong Kong.

* See Plates 14-15.

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Station and shortly after midnight was ambushed at Chung Yuen Ha on the Border Road between Ta Kwu Ling and Lin Ma Hang. The attackers, a gang of more than ten men, fired on the officers and one police constable was killed instantly, while another was slightly wounded. The culprits escaped, taking with them the dead constable's service revolver. The same gang struck again fifteen days later on the night of May 17 with an attack on Nga Yiu Post, near Ta Kwu Ling, where four constables were on duty.

In those days the Post was only a brick structure of two rooms without any form of perimeter fence or facilities of any kind. Two constables left the post to visit a local teahouse, situated about 100 yards away, but out of sight of the post. A third constable decided to take a bath at a nearby matshed structure, leaving the fourth constable on guard duty outside the post. Whilst away from the Post the three constables heard the sound of shots being fired. Three men were seen running from the Post carrying weapons and the body of the constable who had been left on duty was found outside the Post where he had been shot twice in the back. The two constables in the teahouse were prevented from taking action by two armed men in what was obviously a well-planned operation.

The gang escaped in the direction of the Shum Chun River, and took with them a Sten gun and two rifles, and the dead constable's revolver. Three days later, acting on information provided by New Territories officers, a large body of Chinese troops mounted an attack on the gang's hideout in a village four miles north of Shum Chun. In the encounter, three of the gang were killed and five were captured. Seized in the raid were all the weapons stolen from the Post, including the revolver taken from the constable killed in the previous ambush on the Border Road.

It was as a direct result of the Nga Yiu incident that the then Commissioner of Police, Mr. Duncan Macintosh, decided to improve the design of border posts and the conditions of officers deployed at such outposts. On the hilltops lining the Border, a string of strongposts was erected which gave a view across the Border at strategic spots. The imposing concrete structures with their distinctive appearance and outline against the skyline were dubbed the "MacIntosh Cathedrals". The posts, of which seven in all were built up to 1953, provided police
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gland to write the rest of his magnum opus, the five-volume work The Naturalist in Manchuria, and, as we shall see, kept in touch with the nursing sister who had looked after his brother in the military hospital in France.

In 1921 he returned to China by way of the United States and visited the National Museum in Washington where so many of the specimens he had collected were exhibited. Once back in China he could not wait to get on with his next expedition, to southeast China. From Peking he travelled first to Shanghai and then on to Foochow in the spring of 1922 where he met Harry Caldwell, the American missionary famous for his book on the 'blue tiger of Fukien province' but, as luck would have it, the blue tiger eluded him. From Fukien, Sowerby decided to move on to southwest China, to Yunnan province in particular, a place he had long wished and planned to visit. It was not to be as Clark telegraphed an order that he should not risk his life as the bandit situation in Yunnan was extremely bad. And as Clark was funding Sowerby, he obeyed and to his everlasting regret never made it to the southwest. China was unstable for several decades following the Revolution of 1911, during which time banditry was endemic. A generic term for some of the bandits was Red Beards, hung hu-tzu, and Sowerby's own red beard, which he had during his expeditions, was quite an asset and rarely was he trifled with.

By the early part of the 1920s, Arthur found that his chronic arthritis was preventing him from making any more major expeditions and, therefore, when he met and married Clarice Moise in 1922, during her stay in Shanghai on her world tour, they settled in Shanghai where they decided to found the China Journal.

What Sowerby later described as the most tense moment in his life happened immediately after the 30 May incident in 1925 when the Shanghai police had to resort to the use of firearms to prevent the over-running of a police station and to quell a student riot during which some students were killed. This led to a major strike against all foreigners and the city came to a standstill. The expatriate Volunteer Corps was called out and organised into specialist units. Sowerby was placed in charge of the 'Sniper' unit with the sole role of covering the Chinese policemen to ensure that they carried out orders. The 'Sniper' unit had orders to pick off any policeman who failed to obey orders and, though
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CROWN

B.P.36 1844

(Harrison; 1999)

Apart from oral history, no written evidence has been uncovered to confirm that these two cannons, now at Queen's College, once fortified Waglan Island (Lee; 1999).

Badly corroded, an old cannon is set on its muzzle and buried into the rocks up to its trunnions, where the old landing stage used to be. This old cannon acted as a bollard for tying up boats. A small boat would transport supplies from the mother ship to shore. From there drums of diesel, bags of coal, firewood and other material were manhandled up the steps to the top of the Island. Coal and firewood were the only fuels for cooking up to the late 1960s. A new, larger landing stage, a little to the north, was constructed in the 1960s. A cable railway was also installed for raising stores and equipment.

Because it is a restricted area, there were (and still are) few visitors to Waglan although there was a visitors' book. It was considered an auspicious day when the late Sir Robert Black, Governor of Hong Kong from 1958 to 1964, visited the lighthouse in 1963.

Communications

In other parts of the world lighthouse keepers, years ago, would use semaphore for signalling. The author has not seen nor heard of this happening in Hong Kong. Also, in the Hong Kong Marine Police (previously called Water Police), up until about 1926 around 50 pigeons were kept on strength. Half a dozen or so were taken out on each police launch to fly messages back to headquarters. There is no record, as far as the author knows, of pigeons being used to fly messages from lighthouses. Signals used to be sent by flashing lamps, however, using Morse code, to passing ships. In the mid-1950s HMS Tamar operated a radar station on Waglan.

Waglan also had two sets of fog horn signalling equipment (there were also two electrical generators), in case one broke down. When the foghorn was operating it sounded every five minutes. Normally the
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the gunpowder store, on one of the uppermost platforms. (Figure 4) Today it is kept locked, but is no doubt empty. Photographs from about 1900 show there was another building alongside the fort. This has been demolished to make room for the road that now skirts this side of Taipa.

Reclamation was instigated to provide for a pier which is now situated besides the Fort. Today the land in front has been filled in and a pleasant garden occupies the area. (Figure 5) On the slope at the side of the fort is a memorial to the victims of an explosion on the frigate D. Maria II in 1850. This is inscribed A MEMORIA DAS VICTIMAS EXPLOSAO DA FRAGATA D. MARIA II EM 1850. ERECTO EM 1880. It is a sad reminder of the dangers to which seafarers were exposed in those days.

Security of Taipa Island was eventually taken over by the police and the fort was used as a police station until 2000. It is now a base for the Scout Association of Macau. Its continued official use has meant that there has been no pressure to change the facilities and there are no signs of any major modifications to them.

A Nineteenth Century Cannon

Although there are a number of old cannon within the fort, most have been placed there in recent times. However, an original one, dating almost from the time of the fort's construction, is at the front corner nearest to the pier.

This gun is an interesting example from the middle of the nineteenth century, a period of great change in the design of cannon. Similar guns quickly became obsolete and were replaced, so it is very unusual to find such a piece still in place, complete with the original mounting3. Figures 5 and 6 show the cannon, still pointing out across the straight between Taipa and the island belonging to mainland China.

The cannon is marked 'C.A. & Co. Boston,' and dated 1855. The maker was Cyrus Alger and Company, a firm founded in the U.S.A. in 1809. Their foundry was on Dorchester Avenue, Boston and they supplied the United States with cannon balls in the war of 1812 and later in the Civil War. They made both cast bronze and cast iron cannon, the basic alternatives for cannon up till the middle of the nineteenth
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