Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Sunday, 24 June 2007
Party - Tea n' Zongzi / Coffee n' Chocolate Fondue / Wine n' Cheese @ my place 23rd June 2007
Thanks for coming.
We had fun.
Must do this again.
Tuesday, 19 June 2007
Project - Singapore's History Investigated; Extracts 'Annual Reports of the Straits Settlements 1855-1941' (PRIVATE ALBUM)
Report on the Administration of the Straits Settlements During the Years 1855-1906
Extracted from "Annual Reports of the Straits Settlements 1855-1941", Vol. 1-12, Archive Editions, 1998
1855 – no relevant entry
1856 – no relevant entry
1857
Military
“An officer of the Madras Engineers, Captain Collyer has been deputed, under instructions from the Government of India, to Singapore, to report upon plans and projects which have been proposed for the fortifying of that station. His first report comprised the plan, some time since prepared, of fortifying a hill called Pearl’s Hill, as commanding the town, and as affording a place of refuge in case of internal disturbances, and he has since been engaged on a subsequent plan of exclusively fortifying the Government Hill.”
“The following is a Return of the Troops stationed in the Straits on 1st May last:
- Artillery 149
- Infantry 787
- Ordnance 52
- Commissariat 40
“A company of European Madras Artillery has relieved the few men of a former Company remaining at Pinang, and the larger portion of the Company have been brought on to Singapore, where, hitherto, no European Troops of any description have been stationed.”
1858
Convicts and Public Works Department
“Captain Collyer of the Madras Engineers, who arrived here in January 1858, for the purpose of reporting on the proposed plans for fortification of Singapore, was appointed Chief Engineer, and assumed charge of the office on the 1st August 1858. The whole labour of the convict body, both skilled and ordinary, was placed at his disposal. Some of the Military Works comprised in the proposed fortification were at once commenced upon, and the convict body were placed on Government Hill, there to form a powerful battery, and on Fort Fullerton, with the view of rendering the Battery more serviceable by extending and widening it. The work executed by convicts in these two Batteries is considered to be of excellent quality, as good, if not probably better, than would be obtained from free Chinese labour; and so far the convict body has proved most useful in the new scheme of covering the hills and shores of Singapore with Batteries, Redoubts, Barracks, Magazines etc.”
Military
“There have been no changes under this head during the past year, except the arrival of half a Company of European Artillery in the Straits, the majority of whom about 45 in number have been stationed in Singapore. The Garrison of the three Stations are supplied by two Regiments of Madras Native Infantry, and a Company of Madras Native Artillery….When the extensive fortifications now in the course of execution here are completed a very considerable increase to the garrison will be necessary, to man the works and the guns. It has been suggested that a Regiment of European Infantry should be stationed here, and under any circumstances at least a couple of Companies of European Artillery will be required.
1859
Public Works
“The attention of the officers of the Public Works Department, both at Singapore, and Penang, has been for the most part directed to the construction of military works and buildings. At Singapore the batteries at Mount Palmer and Fort Fullerton, with the requisite accommodation for the troops by which they are to be occupied, have been completed, whilst at Fort Canning, the barracks, gateway, and some of the gun platforms and expense magazines alone remain in an unfinished state – many even of these works are fast approaching completion.”
Military
“In January last a draft of European artillerymen arrived to strengthen the company stationed in the Straits, of which the head quarters and main body are located at Singapore.”
1860
Public Works
“In Fort Canning, the Officer’s Quarters, as well as the building directed to be reserved as a Hospital have been completed and the Artillery Barracks are well advanced. At Tanglin, temporary Barracks, capable of accommodating a weak Regiment, have been constructed and considerable progress made in the erection of Officer’s Quarters, the Hospital Canteen and permanent Barracks. The gorge of the Battery at Mount Faber has been closed.”
Military
“Introduction of the Enfield rifle for 20th and 40th Regiments MNI.”
1861
Public Works
“Considerable improvements have been effected to the ventilation of the different Magazines, they were urgently required; it having been found that, owing to their excessive dampness, the powder in store rapidly deteriorated. Pending receipt of final orders, relative to the disposition of the buildings in Fort Canning, a portion of the large building, ordered to be used as a hospital, has been partitioned off so as to admit of it being converted as a temporary measure into a Guard-room.
Military
“The strength of the European Artillery has varied but little from that of last year….The barracks at Fort Canningf having been completed , that have been occupied by the European Artillery, formally located in the buildings on Pearl’s Hill, which are now undergoing alterations, with a view to their conversion into an Arsenal and Commissariat Store-room.”
1862
Public Works
“At Singapore three 13-inch Mortar Platforms and three additional Gun Platforms have been constructed in Fort Canning, and the main gates to the Fort have also been put up. The accommodation for the Troops has been rendered more complete by the addition of a Skittle Alley, Range of Solitary Cells, Stables, Store and Bath-rooms for the Officers’ Quarters, and a Bathing Tank for the men; a supply of water has also been provided by sinking two deep wells, one in rear of the Barracks, and the other close to the hospital. The Drainage of Fort Fullerton, Mount Palmer Battery, and the Native Infantry Lines has been improved. The Butt, with the necessary range for Artillery and Rifle Practice, upon Balestier Plain, has been completed. A new Expense Magazine has been provided for the Native Infantry Regiment. The improvements to the Magazines in Forts Canning and Fullerton, which is believed will render them thoroughly efficient, have been finished, and considerable progress made in the construction of the Grand Magazine. The alterations to the buildings on Pearl’s Hill, to be converted into an Arsenal and Commissariat Godown, have been completed; the Hospital Out-offices, and Guard Room at Tanglin are almost ready, and one of the Captain’s Quarters has been prepared for the reception of a tenant by whom it is now occupied.”
1863
Public Works
“The drawbridge at the main entrance to Fort Canning has been completed. A bomb-proof Guard-room, capable of affording accommodation to seven men, has been constructed in the South Battery. Necessaries for the use of the women and children of the Artillery have been added to the out-offices attached to the barracks in Fort Canning, and the covered drains in the rear of the barracks, formerly very offensive, have all been trapped, and the nuisance thus removed. One of the large wells for the supply of water to the troops has been fitted with a pump, capable of discharging about 400 gallons per hour; the other well has been sunk to its full depth (150 feet), but the pump, which had been secured for it from a local Firm, was lost on its way out from England in the Flowery Land, and no other hitherto been obtainable….The new Stock Magazine in Fort Canning has been completed, but the fittings have not yet been supplied. Lighting Conductors have been attached to the Expense Magazines in Forts Canning and Fullerton, and the Batteries at Mounts Faber and Palmer. The Subaltern’s Quarters at Pearl’s Hill have been improved and made available for the two Conductors of the Ordnance Department. The Barracks for the Ordnance lascars in the vicinity of the Arsenal have been almost completed.”
Military
“The Ordnance Stores at Singapore, previously accommodated in a house hired in the town for the purpose, were removed, in the early part of the year, to the building on Pearl’s Hill, which had been prepared for their reception. The Arsenal and Commissariat Store are now in close proximity, whilst the plateau on which they stand together with its approaches, is fully exposed to the fire of the Guns from Fort Canning….Practices has been carried on, for the first time, by the Royal Artillery under Lieutenant Colonel Bond, from all the Forts and Batteries at Singapore…..in consequence of the increase of the Artillery Force in Singapore, the necessity for keeping up the establishment attached to the Mountain Train Battery having ceased, the ponies have been disposed of by public sale, and the Guns returned into store.”
1864
Public Works
“The Artillery Hospital has been generally improved, gutters and down spouts have been laid along the roof, and a dead house erected, gutters and down spouts have also been fixed to the Artillery barracks. A pump has been fitted to the hospital well (150 feet deep), and over that and the well near the barracks, iron tanks have been raised, from which the water is distributed throughout the wash-houses, kitchens, and the out-offices attached to the officers’ quarters, the comfort of the Troops being thereby increased, whilst a saying has been effected in Establishment. The water from the roof of the barracks is now collected in a reservoir, capable of holding about 5,000 gallons, from which it is conducted through a filter, composed of layers of sand charcoal, and iron stone, into the adjacent well, the arrangement has been found to answer admirably, the ware is excessively pure, and a large supply is collected in the well, after heavy rain, having been raised from 40 to 60 feet in 24 hours. The European married quarters have been each divided into two apartments by means of screens, and thus rendered more private. A guard room had been added to the solitary cells. The mountain train battery having been broken up, the stables have been converted into a barrack for the lascars attached to the European Batteries of Artillery at Fort Canning. At the Arsenal, an addition, much required, of a blacksmith’s shop has been carried out, two Store Serjeants’ quarters have been erected, and the lascars’ barrack completed. Small additions have been made to the Commissariat Store to increase accommodation……On behalf of the Admiralty, the works for the Naval Coal Dept at Pulo Brani, consisting of two coal sheds, capable of containing 8,000 tons of coal, Superintendent’s house, offices, etc, with a quay and pier having 27 feet of water alongside at low tide have been nearly completed.”
Military
“Arrangements have been made for the supplying the European troops at Singapore, with a weekly ration of mutton, in lieu of the salt pork rations, the issue of which has been discontinued. An excellent code of regulations for the guidance of persons in charge of private magazines, has been prepared by the Deputy Commissary of Ordnance, and the rules therein prescribed directed to be strictly observed.”
1865
Public Works
“…Store Sergeant’s quarters at the Arsenal have been completed, and the slopes of Fort Canning have been, to some extent, reduced by means of convict labour….A new flag staff has been erected upon Mount Faber…”
Infantry Units Stationed in Singapore:
14th Madras Native Infantry Regiment 1857
22nd Madras Native Infantry Regiment 1858 in relief of 38th MNI (Penang)
38th Madras Native Infantry Regiment (Penang)
40th Madras Native Infantry Regiment 1859/60 in relief of 14th MNI
20th Madras Native Infantry Regiment 1860 in relief of 22nd MNI (Penang)
34th C.Light Regiment 1862/63 in relief of 40th MNI
8th Madras Native Infantry Regiment 1865/66 in relief of 34th CLI
Artillery Units Stationed in Singapore:
A Company 1st Battalion Madras Artillery 1859/60
B Company 5th Battalion Madras Artillery 1859/60
5th Battalion Madras Artillery A Company 1860/61
No.1 Battery 17th Brigade Royal Artillery 1862-63
D Company Golundauze 1862-65
No.2 Battery 17th Brigade Royal Artillery 1863/64-1865/66 in relief of No.1 Battery 17th Bde RA
No.4 Battery 17th Brigade Royal Artillery 1863/64 in relief of No.1 Battery 17th Bde RA
No.6 Battery 17th Brigade Royal Artillery 1864/65 in relief of Local European Battery of Madras Artillery and Company of Golandauze.
Brigadier Commander of the Troops Straits Settlements:
Lt.Col.McLeod 1856
Brigadier, G.Burn 1860
Major A.Hervey 1861 (acting Brigadier, CO 40th Regiment MNI)
Brigadier Babington 1861
Col.Richard Shubrick 1861/62
Colonel G.De Sausmarez 1862/63
Colonel C.Ireland 1864/65
Commanding Royal Artillery:
Lt.Col.Eaton to 1862/63
Lt.Col.Bond from1862/63
Lt.Col Grant 1864/65
1866 – no relevant entry
1867 – no relevant entry
1868 – no relevant entry
1869 – no relevant entry
1870 – no relevant entry
1871 – no relevant entry
1872 – no relevant entry
1873 – Straits Settlements Papers laid before the Legislative Council by command of His Excellency the Governor 31st October 1873
Public Works
“A new post office is being erected in Fort Fullerton, a site much nearer the Commercial centre of the Town.”
Military
“By revised arrangements agreed to last year the Garrison is to consist of one European Regiment 900 strong, and one Full Battery of Garrison Artillery for which the Colony pays £ (no figure given – blank) per annum.”
1874 – no relevant entry
1875 – no relevant entry
1876 – no relevant entry
1877 – no relevant entry
1878 – no relevant entry
1879 - Straits Settlements Papers laid before the Legislative Council by command of His Excellency the Administrator 24th July 1879
Address of His Excellency – “Again, a sum of $9,449 (now standing at $9,054) is included in the Assets for Defence purposes, to which a further sum of $15,762 has since been added for the cost of 7 ¾ acres of Cocoanut Plantation, purchased by arbitration, for the site of the Fort at Tanjong Katong. These amounts will ultimately, in all probability, have to be written off.”
1880 – no relevant entry
1881 – Report on the Straits Settlements Blue Book for the Year 1881
Military Expenditure
“The usual contribution of $235,976 was paid by the Colony to the Army Pay Department towards expenses of Her Majesty’s troops (one European regiment and a battery of Royal Artillery) quartered in the Straits Settlements. A sum of $26,706 56 was also expended during the year in the construction and up-keep of military buildings, rent and quarters, etc.”
1882 – no relevant entry
1883 – no relevant entry
1884 – no relevant entry
1885 – Straits Settlements Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government
“7. The heaviest item of Expenditure is, as will have been anticipated, for the construction of the Defence Works. The first set of plans were received in the Colony in June, and ground was broken at the close of that month. Before this year expires, it is calculated that the expenditure will have amounted to about $130,000, and you are invited to vote $270,000 in the Estimates of the ensuing year. The total expenditure in the two years will thus be $400,000 (equivalent to about L70,000), and will, in the main, form the Colony’s share of the cost of placing Singapore in what Her Majesty’s Government consider an efficient state of defence. The armament and stores which are to be supplied by the Imperial Government, are now estimated to cost L90,000 ($614, 260), and, according to the latest information which ahs reached me, it is understood that the guns will be sent here from time to time as circumstances permit, so that they should, however, all be received before the close of 1886. I wish to take this opportunity of publicly placing on record the high sense I entertain of the great energy and ability with which the Colonial Engineer in devoting himself with such untiring zeal to the erection of the Defence Works.”
1886 – no relevant entry
1887 – Straits Settlements Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
“13. On my arrival in 1880, the Defence question at once engaged my attention, and my efforts to forward it have been unremitting, both here and in England, ever since. The colony has loyally performed its part and I observe that, in a recent speech at Sheffield, Mr. Stanhope, Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for War, stated; “I am able to say that the armaments “which are required for Singapore, and approximately those for Hongkong, “will be completed in the course of the present year.”
1888 – Straits Settlements Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
“11. The Defences of Singapore yet remain, I am concerned to have to report, in an incomplete state. The War Department has, I learn, been unable to furnish the remaining portion of the armament, owing to the heavy guns supplied by the manufacturers for the Forts not having stood the severe tests now required. Some months more will, therefore, elapse before those guns are received in the Colony. The quick-firing guns will be dispatched from England in November, or perhaps earlier. Three out of the seven Forts have been completed and armed, and are ready to be handed over to the Military Authorities.
12. In connection with the subject of the Defences, I wish to draw your special attention to the formation of the Singapore Volunteer Artillery. Animated by a high sense of public spirit and public duty, a large number of the British residents offered their services as Artillery Volunteers, which, on behalf of the Government, I mot readily accepted. The Corps has been established with the full approval of Her Majesty’s Government, and is now recognized as a portion of the permanent Garrison of the colony. A new Ordinance for the enrolment and organization of Volunteers will be laid before you, and on its passing, I hope that the Volunteer Forces will be considerably enlarged. You will, I feel confident, willingly vote such sums as may be considered necessary for their training and maintenance in a state of thorough efficiency.”
1889 – Straits Settlements Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
“10. With regard to the armament of the Defence Works of Singapore, distinct progress has been made since I last addressed you. Two more of the heavy guns have been mounted, and three more of the same nature were, I am officially informed, to be shipped in August last. The subject of the future Garrison of the colony is still engaging the serious attention of the authorities.
11. In connection with such matters, it is gratifying to be able to record that not only is the Volunteer Artillery Corps being made more efficient in drill and discipline, but its equipment will be shortly advantageously strengthened by the purchase, with money privately subscribed, of four Maxim guns. This exhibition of public spirit has met with the high approval of Her Majesty’s Secretaries of State for the Colonies and for War, as well as of His Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief. I hope to see the Volunteer Force considerably increased so soon as it is supplied with a Drill Hall and convenient arrangements for meeting and recreation. It will, I feel sure, be recognized that all possible consideration should be shewn to the Corps, the members of which devote themselves to the training necessary to enable them when called upon to take a prominent part in the defence of the colony.”
1890 – no relevant entry
1891 – no relevant entry
1892 – Straits Settlements Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
”The is still to be settled the claim of the War Department on the subject of additional Barracks. It will be remembered that this Government was informed that the claim under this head might amount to “even as much as L60,000,” which is equal to about $430,000. Subsequent correspondence has shown that the schemes which have been prepared by the Military Authorities will entail a cost of either $738,793 or $1,136,607, according as one or other style of construction of the new Barracks is adopted. I am in hopes that, it is finally decided that there is any further obligation at all on the Colony to provide for additional Barracks, the duty will be duly performed by the Government providing the accommodation for the excess in the number of Troops which now form the authorised Garrison , over the number formerly allotted to the Colony.”
1893 – no relevant entry
1894 – Straits Settlements Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
“I fear that the execution of any considerable Civil works in the Colony must await the return of better times. I have inserted in the Estimates a sum on account for the building of Barracks at Pulau Brani and Blakang Mati, the plans for the former of which are practically completed and approved of, while those for the latter will shortly be sent home. The execution of this work is rendered necessary by the fact that the temporary buildings now sheltering the troops in those islands will not last much longer. I am directed by the Secretary of State to press on the construction of these barracks without further delay.”
1895 – Straits Settlements Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
“Her Majesty’s Government having finally decided that the two companies of Infantry stationed at Penang, which were held in readiness to join their head-quarters on the first indication of war, shall now in peace as well as in war time, be stationed in Singapore, and having called upon me to take steps for providing the necessary accommodation with the least possible delay, I shall ask you to vote the sum required as a portion of the extraordinary barrack expenditure now being incurred.
When the new Pulau Brani, Blakang Mati and Tanglin Barracks, to the construction of which we are practically pledge, have been finished – and I hope that this will be done during 1896 – there will be, in future years, a considerable sum available for the large Public Works so much needed to ensure the progress and development of the Colony.
Straits Settlement Report for 1895
Public Works
“No other works of any importance were executed during the year, except new barracks for the troops:-
Barracks for the Royal Engineers on Pulau Brani, overlooking the New Harbour, were commenced and pushed on with vigour, and considerable progress was made with barracks for the Royal Artillery on the adjacent island of Blakang Mati.
An addition to the existing Infantry barracks at Tanglin was commenced, to facilitate the future accommodation of the Penang detachment in Singapore.”
1896 - Straits Settlements Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
“I am glad to be able to inform you that the estimated deficit for 1895 of $119,183 was converted into a surplus of $265,904, there having been savings on the total expenditure of $310,248. These savings resulted in part from the inability to carry on the construction for the new Military Barracks with the rapidity that was intended, and may therefore, be reckoned as only postponed expenditure.”
Straits Settlement Report for 1896
Public Works
“Barracks for the Royal Engineers (Officers and Men) at Pulau Brani which were begun in 1895 were finished in June, 1896, at a total cost of $64,000
On Blakang Mati Island, barracks for Royal Artillery (married and single men), Officers’ mess, and detached quarters for Medical and Field Officers were finished in December, 1896, while the construction of the Hospital was well advanced.”
1897 – Straits Settlement Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
“Under the head of Military Defence, the work of preparing emplacements for the new quick-firing armament is making progress. This Council has, by its resolution, already made provision for the Colony’s share of this expenditure, which will duly appear in the Final Supply Bill for this year. The total expenditure on the work is calculated at 59,360, the share borne by the Colony amounting to 23,760.
The progress in completing the works and buildings in connection with the Barracks scheme has not been so rapid as I anticipated when addressing you in 1896, I then stated that it was hoped that the new Barracks at Pulau Brani, Blakang Mati and Tanglin would be completed during the year 1896. Good progress has, however, been made, and it is hoped that the pressing requirements at Tanglin Barracks to meet the withdrawal of the Penang Detachment, referred to by me in 1895, will be completed early next year.”
Straits Settlement Report for 1897
Public Works
“At Pearl’s Hill, 2 warrant officers’ quarters and 6 married staff sergeants’ quarters were commenced.
In addition to these works, a sum of $228,096 was handed to the Military Department for constructing the new emplacements for the quick-firing guns.”
1898
Straits Settlement Report for 1898
Military
“The garrison consists of Her Majesty’s regular forces and Asiatic artillery. No militia force exists.
A valuable volunteer artillery force, 105 strong, exists in Singapore, only Europeans are enlisted in it. It possesses some Maxim guns in the use of which it is proficient, and it has learned to work some of the guns belonging to the regular armament of the garrison.”
General Observations
“At Blakang Mati, the Asiatic Artillery Barracks and quarters for hospital Sergeant were practically completed, and the work of constructing roads and paths well advanced.”
“The construction of emplacements for the new quick firing armament of the harbour defence forts was nearly completed by the Royal Engineers’ Department and a number of the guns have been mounted.”
1899 – Straits Settlement Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
“On the re-vote of $23,000 for New Barracks, Singapore, the following works were carried out :-“
Constructing culverts on Military roads at Blakan Mati - $780
Constructing quarters for 108 men and 4 Non-commissioned Officers, Asiatic Artillery, Blakan Mati – 20,000
Supplying fitting to Asiatic Artillery, Blakan Mati – 1,000
Constructing fire tanks ablution room and latrine at Pearl’s Hill – 870
$22,650
Straits Settlement Report for 1899
Military
“The garrison consists of Her Majesty’s regular forces and Asiatic artillery. No militia force exists.
A valuable volunteer artillery force, 105 strong, exists in Singapore, only Europeans are enlisted in it. Its principal armament consists of a complete battery of six 2.5-inch R.M.L. screw guns, utilised with 7 pr. Limbers as a field battery in pony draught, an experiment which has proved successful. It also possesses some Maxim guns (.45), in the use of which it is proficient. A volunteer rifle corps is in course of formation”
General Observations
“Other important works were: - In Singapore, the completion of the Asiatic artillery barracks, quarters for hospital sergeant at Blaking Mati, and the Tanglin water supply.
The emplacements for the quick firing armament of the harbour defence forts were completed by the Royal Engineers, and the guns mounted."
1900
Straits Settlement Report for 1900
Military
“The garrison consists of Her Majesty’s regular forces and Asiatic artillery. No militia force exists.
A valuable volunteer artillery force, 111 strong, exists in Singapore, only Europeans are enlisted in it. Its principal armament consists of a complete Battery of six 2.5-inch R.M.L screw guns, utilised with 7 pr. Limbers as a field battery in pony draught, an experiment which has proved successful. It also possesses some Maxim guns (.45), in the use of which it is proficient. A Volunteer Rifle Corps, 173 strong, also exists, composed of Europeans. Its armament consists of Lee-Enfield rifles and sword bayonets.”
General Observations
“A European Volunteer Rifle Corps was formed in Singapore.”
1901
Straits Settlement Report for 1901
Military
“The garrison consists of Her Majesty’s regular forces and Asiatic artillery. No militia force exists.
“A valuable volunteer artillery force, 111 strong, exists in Singapore, only Europeans are enlisted in it. Its principal armament consists of a complete Battery of six 2.5-inch R.M.L screw guns, utilised with 7 pr. Limbers as a field battery in pony draught, an experiment which has proved successful. It also possesses some Maxim guns (.45), in the use of which it is proficient. A Volunteer Rifle corps, 173 strong, also exists, composed of Europeans. A company of Eurasians and a company of Straits-born Chinese, each 100 strong, was also organized during the year. These three corps are armed with Lee-Enfield rifles and sword bayonets. A Volunteer Engineer corps, composed of Europeans, and a cadet corps, are in process of formation.”
Public Works
“Completion of Telok Ayer sea wall and reclamation to Fort Palmer Point.”
1902
Straits Settlement Report for 1902
Military
“The garrison in Singapore consists of two battalions of Madras Infantry, two garrison companies of Royal Artillery and other small contingents of His Majesty’s regular forces. No militia force exists.
A valuable volunteer artillery force, 118 strong (including reserves), exists in Singapore, only Europeans are enlisted in it.
A Volunteer Rifle Corps 137 strong (including reserves) also exists, composed of Europeans.
There is one company of Volunteer Engineers composed of Europeans 30 strong. It is proposed to form a second company composed of Eurasians.
There are two companies of Eurasians 56 and 54 strong respectively and two companies of Straits-born Chinese each 62 in strength.”
Public Works
“Reclamation and Mole near Post Office.”
1903
Straits Settlement Report for 1903
Military
“The garrison in Singapore consists of two companies of Royal Garrison Artillery, half a company of Royal Engineers, one battalion of British Infantry, and one battalion of Native Infantry besides Asiatic Artillery (Sikhs), and Malay Submarine Miners, with details of other companies. No militia force exists.
A valuable volunteer artillery force, 151 strong (including reserves), exists in Singapore, only Europeans are enlisted in it. Its principal armament consists of a complete Battery of 10 pr. B.L. screw guns, utilised with 7 pr. Limbers as a field battery in pony draught, an experiment which has proved successful. It also possesses four Maxim guns (.303), in the use of which it is proficient. This corps is armed with Martini-Metford carbines, and sword bayonets.
A European Volunteer Rifle Corps also existed, numbering 104 (including reserves), but very little interest was shown in it, and it has been discontinued since the beginning of this year. This corps had in addition to Lee-Enfiled rifles and sword-bayonets, two .303 Maxim machine guns, mounted on infantry field carriages. A Maxim section ahs been formed to work these guns.
There is one company of Volunteer Engineers, composed of Europeans, 40 strong.
There is one company of Eurasians, 112 strong, and one company of Straits-born Chinese, 116 strong”
Public Works
“Additional accommodation, signal sergeant’s quarters at Fort Canning.
Erection of quarters for the crew of the new Fort Canning light.”
1904
Straits Settlement Report for 1904
Military
“The garrison in Singapore consisted of two companies of Royal Garrison Artillery, half a company of Royal Engineers, one battalion of British Infantry, and one battalion of Native Infantry besides Asiatic Artillery (Sikhs), and Malay Submarine Miners, with details of other corps. No Militia Force exists. The strength of the garrison was 2,585, all ranks.”
“A valuable volunteer artillery force, 123 strong (including reserves), exists in Singapore. Only Europeans are enlisted in it. Its principal armament consists of a complete Battery of 10 pr. B.L. screw guns, utilised with 7 pr. Limbers as a field battery in pony draught, an experiment which has proved successful. It also possesses four Maxim guns (.303), in the use of which it is proficient. This corps is armed with Martini-Metford carbines and sword-bayonets.
A Maxim company, 43 strong has been formed to work the four guns belonging to the Singapore Volunteer Artillery which latter unit is not at present sufficiently strong in numbers to man both the 10-pr. B.L. battery and the four Maxims.
There is one company of volunteer Engineers composed of Europeans, 39 strong (including reserves).
There is one company of Eurasians and one company of Straits-born Chinese, each 91 strong, including reserves.”
General Observations
“In the final report of the Consulting Engineers on the construction of moles for the protection of the harbour was received, and tenders for the works are being invited.”
1905
Straits Settlement Report for 1905
Military
“The garrison in Singapore consisted of two companies of Royal Garrison Artillery, half a company of Royal Engineers, one battalion of British Infantry, and one battalion of Native Infantry besides Asiatic Artillery (Sikhs), and Malay Submarine Miners, with details of other corps. No mMilitia force exists. The strength of the garrison was 2,336, all ranks.”
“The military contribution of the Colony in respect of the year 1905 amounted to $1,911,585.”
“A Volunteer Artillery Force, 125 strong (including reserves), exists in Singapore, only Europeans are enlisted in it. Its principal armament consists of a complete Battery of 10 pr. B.L. screw guns, utilised with 7 pr. limbers as a field battery in pony draught, an experiment which has proved successful. It also possesses four Maxim guns (.303), in the use of which it is proficient. This corps is armed with Martini-Metford carbines and sword bayonets.
A Maxim company, 47 strong including reserves, has been formed to work the four guns belonging to the Singapore Volunteer Artillery, which latter unit is not at present sufficiently strong in numbers to man both the 10 pr. B.L. battery and the four Maxims.
There is one company of Volunteer Engineers, composed of Europeans, 32 strong (including reserves).
There is one company of Eurasians and one company of Straits-born Chinese, 77 and 92 strong respectively, including reserves.”
1906
Straits Settlement Report for 1906
Military
“The garrison in Singapore consisted of two companies of Royal Garrison Artillery, half a company of Royal Engineers, one battalion of British Infantry, and one battalion of Native Infantry besides Asiatic Artillery (Sikhs), and Malay Submarine Miners, with details of other corps. No militia force exists. The strength of the garrison was 2,380, all ranks.
A Volunteer Artillery Force, 134 strong (including reserves), exists in Singapore, only Europeans are enlisted in it. Its principal armament is under alteration. It also possesses four Maxim guns (.303), in the use of which it is proficient. This corps is armed with Martini-Metford carbines and sword-bayonets.
A Maxim company, 47 strong including reserves, has been formed to work the four guns belonging to the Singapore Volunteer Artillery.
There is one company of Volunteer Engineers, composed of Europeans, 56 strong (including reserves).
There is one company of Eurasians and one company of Straits-born Chinese, 120 and 89 strong, respectively, including reserves.”
1907
Straits Settlement Report for 1907
Public Works
Singapore Harbour Works
“In January, 1907, the staff of the contractors, Messrs. Sir John Jackson, Limited, came on the ground, and took possession of a piece of land for their workyard between Robinson Road and the sea front, extending from Telok Ayer Market to Fort Palmer.”
1908
Straits Settlement Report for 1908
Military
“The Defence contribution paid by the Colony was $1,879,182.02”
Public Works
“25. In Singapore the most important works undertaken and completed during the year were the new Tan Tock Seng Hospital, the Pathological Laboratory, rebuilding the Lunatic Asylum at Pasir Panjang, the new Maternity Hospital, converting Pearl’s Hill Barracks into quarters for 30 European police, &c., reconstructing one ward at the Poh Leung Kuk Buildings, building a public morgue, also quarters for two dressers at St. John’s Island, and a dhobi shed and two quarters for Government officials at Sepoy Lines.”
1909
Straits Settlement Report for 1909
Singapore Harbour Works
“There has been deposited on the Inner South Mole during the year 1909, 114,609 tons of rubble.”
1910
Straits Settlement Report for 1910
Singapore Harbour Works
“In the Inner South Mole during the year there has been deposited 210,421 tons of granite rubble obtained from the Quarry at Pulau Ubin.”
1911
Straits Settlement Report for 1911
Singapore Harbour Works
“In the Inner South Mole during the year there were deposited 241,304 tons of granite rubble obtained from the Quarry at Pulau Ubin.”
1912 – Address of His Excellency the Governor Sir Arthur Young, K.C.M.G., at a meeting of the Legislative Council held on Friday, the 4th October, 1912.
Singapore Harbour Works
“The reclamation of the site surrounding the tidal basin has continued satisfactorily, the material for the purpose having been derived from Mount Palmer since the completion of the excavation of the Government property at Mount Wallich.
Good progress has been made with the Mole, a total of 291,000 tons of granite having been deposited during the period under review.”
Straits Settlement Report for 1912
Singapore Harbour Works
“Filling up the reclaimed area with material from Fort Palmer was continued and 49 acres completed.
During the year 301,824 tons of granite rubble were deposited in the Inner South Mole. The rubble was obtained from the Quarry at Pulau Ubin.”
1913 - Address of His Excellency the Governor Sir Arthur Young, K.C.M.G., at a meeting of the Legislative Council held on Friday, the 3rd October, 1913.
Singapore Harbour Works
Work in connection with the sinking of cylinders for the Quay Wall is rapidly coming to a close and the filling up of the reclaimed area with material from Fort Palmer continues, 51 acres being now completed.
There were deposited in the Mole during the year 278,500 tons of granite rubble, obtained from the quarry at Pulau Ubin. The conditions as to stability are now improving so much that it is confidently expected to complete the work in less than another twelve months.”
1914 - Address of His Excellency the Governor Sir Arthur Young, K.C.M.G., at a meeting of the Legislative Council held on Friday, the 2nd October, 1914.
Singapore Harbour Works
“The reclamation has proceeded steadily and is practically completed on the northern section; on the southern section the work is well in hand and satisfactory progress is being made. During the last twelve months the filling materials excavated from Fort Palmer and deposited in the works amounted to 212,500 cubic yards. The dredging is also practically completed; materials dredged and taken to sea during the last twelve months amounted to 409,600 cubic yards.
Straits Settlement Report for 1914
Singapore Harbour Works
“During the year good progress as made with the works. They are now nearing completion. The north and south walls have been completed together with their metalled quays. The north and south piers were practically completed but for the provision of the transit sheds that are to be erected thereon. The depositing of granite rubble on the mole stopped in July. When the landing stages and temporary lights at its heads are erected the mole will be complete.”
1915
Straits Settlement Report for 1915
The Singapore Mutiny
Monday, the 15th February, 1915, was a public holiday. The Chinese New Year, with its attendant cessation of all business, it festivities and bomb and cracker firing amongst the Chinese, had commenced on the preceding day an the usual three days holiday had been proclaimed. The Fifth Light Infantry was on the point of leaving for Hongkong, and ad already sent its machine guns, with their ammunition, to the store, and was preparing to send its small arms ammunition there. Only that morning, His Excellency the General Officer Commanding had made his final inspection of the regiment, and had been favourably impressed by the demeanor of the native officers and men. At about 3 P.M. a shot was fired at the regimental guardroom at Alexander Barracks and a number of the N.C.O.’s and men immediately gathered around the ammunition which was being packed into motor-lorries, and took possession of it. Some of the British Officers made their way from their quarters to the Indian Officers’ Lines, but were persuaded of the impossibility of any attempt to stop the men, and made their way to Normanton Camp, about a quarter of a mile away, where a detachment of the Malay States Volunteer Rifles was undergoing a course of training. Colonel Martin, Commanding the Fifth Light Infantry, telephoned to headquarters at Fort Canning, and the naval authorities were warned. A detachment from H.M.S. Cadmus immediately disembarked and proceeded along the Pasir Panjang Road towards Alexandra Barracks. The Civil Police got information by telephone from Captain Ball of the Fifth Light Infantry, and immediately transmitted it to the Colonial Secretary. A telephone message reached Lieutenant Love Montgomerie at the Prisoners of War Camp just as a body of about a hundred mutineers arrived on the spot, and began firing upon the guard. They killed three British Officers and one Malay Officer, seven Europeans and two Malay Non-Commissioned Officers and men, and one prisoner of war. Having dispersed the guard, the mutineers opened the gate of the enclosure, shook hands with the prisoners of war, most of whom were in a state of terror. They left soon afterwards in the direction whence they had come. When British officers and doctors arrived on the scene all the prisoners of war were still there. After dark, seventeen prisoners of war left the unguarded camp. Four were re-captured later, but the other made good their escape.
During the course of the afternoon a number of dastardly murders of Europeans were committed by separate bodies of mutineers. Two men of the Fifth Light Infantry appeared at Sepoy Lines. They shot two officers of the Royal Garrison Artillery, who were making their way back to cantonments, and wounded two Chinese. After calling upon the native warder at the Central Gaol to surrender the prison keys (and receiving a defiant answer) they held up motor cars containing Europeans taking their afternoon rides, and killed four civilians and a native chauffeur, and wounded a European, who saved his life by feigning death. They then fired upon the Sikh Guard at the Central Police Station, wounding two men. They evaded the fire of the Sikh Guard by dodging behind rickshaws and made good their escape in the crowd. A body of mutineers on the Pasir Panjang Road Killed three European civilians and a lady in their cars. Two other civilians were killed on the Alexandra Road by another body of men, and three Europeans were murdered in a house on the Pasir Panjang Road. There were isolated murders of an officer of the Malay States Guides, two officers of the Fifth Light Infantry, a private of the Malay States Volunteer Rifles, and a civilian. The main residential area of the city lying on either side of Orchard Road was not visited by any bodies of mutineers during the afternoon.
The detachment of 4 officers and 81 men of the Malay States Volunteer Rifles on being warned by the officers of the Fifth Light Infantry that the regiment had mutinied, at once fell in, and moved in skirmishing order towards the Officers’ Mess at Alexandra. They reached this point without opposition. Thence they proceeded towards the house of Colonel Martin (Officer Commanding the Fifth Light Infantry) and came under fire. They made good their advance, however, and without any casualties succeeded in occupying the house in which Colonel Martin and a native servant were alone.
At about the same time the naval force from H.M.S. Cadmus got in touch on the Pasir Panjang Road with a body of mutineers which was advancing on Keppel Harbour, and after brisk firing on both sides, drove them back towards Alexandra Barracks.
By sunset, the entire European community had received the alarm; and during the evening the men collected at the Volunteer Drill Hall or at the Central Police Station where they were enrolled and armed. (Singapore owes more than is perhaps realized to the fact that there was a Drill Hall, to which every one instinctively turned.) The women obtained refuge at Government House, or at the hotels or on board ships in the harbour. Martial Law was proclaimed at 6.30 P.M. All this however, had but little effect upon the Chinese quarter of the city where everything maintained its normal appearance. Holiday makers filled the rickshaws, thronged the street stalls, and crowded the theatres. The street murders meant nothing to them, and they regarded the other events of the afternoon (so far s they had heard of them) with unconcern. The mail train left Tank Road for Penang at schedule time after the arrival of the mail train from Penang. The latter brought in 150 men of the Johore military Forces who, under the command of H.H. the Sultan in person, came in response to a message by telephone.
During the night, 138 men of the Fifth Light Infantry gave themselves up at Bukit Timah Police Station. In this number were two batches of 64 and 53 men.
A small detachment of the 36th Sikhs which had been stationed at Tanglin Barracks reported itself at daybreak of the 16th February to a picket at the head of Orchard Road, and marched into Orchard Road Police Station, whence it proceeded in motor-lorries to the Drill Hall.
The mountain battery of the Malay States Guides was stationed at Alexandra Barracks at the time of the mutiny. Some of the men are supposed to have joined the mutineers, but the remainder retreated in a body to Johore whence they endeavored to make their way to rejoin the regiment at Taipeng. Some were met on the way and proceeded to headquarters by train.
During the night of the 15th February there was a little firing at Colonel Martin’s house, which was perhaps saved from being rushed by the mutineers by its being protected by the search light from Blakang Mati. There was also firing at Alexandra Police Station where Dr. A.F. Legge (Singapore Volunteer Medical Company) and Gunner J Barry (Royal Garrison Artillery) were killed, and sniping at Orchard Road Police Station, where two men of the Fifth Light Infantry were shot by the Europeans and police who occupied the building. In the part of the city where Europeans had mainly collected the night passed without event, though no one will forget its anxiety.
It must not be thought that the whole regiment mutinied. Soon after the detachment of the Malay States Volunteer Rifles had occupied Colonel Martin’s house, a body of 80 men came up and offered to join in the defence. It was considered wiser not to accept their offer, and they were directed to go to surrender at the nearest police station. This they did. During the night the Central Police Station was a much occupied in accepting the surrenders of the men of the Fifth Light Infantry as in enrolling European additional constables. Ninety-one men surrendered at the Central Police Station during the night of the 15th, and the day and night of the 16th.
On the 16th February, at early morning, Lieutenant-Colonel C.W. Brownlow, R.A.., advanced from Keppel Harbour with a force to relieve the party in Colonel Martin'’ house. The force consisted of 80 men of H.M.S. Cadmus, 50 men of the Singapore Volunteer Corps, 21 men of the Royal Garrison Artillery and 25 armed civilians. The detachment from the Cadmus soon came under fire, and the Singapore Volunteer corps advanced in support. The force pushed forward and occupied the barracks which had not been held in strength. A heavy fire from a higher ridge held up the reserve, until the men of the Cadmus, and the Singapore Volunteer Corps, attacked the ridge from the left. The mutineers gave way, and the force reached Colonel Martin’s house without further difficulty. As it was not in sufficient strength to hold the position against superior number of the mutineers, it then retired with the relieved party to Keppel Harbour. In this action two men were killed and four wounded. Of the mutineers, so far as can be ascertained, eleven were killed.
During the morning of the same day, the Veteran Company of the Singapore Volunteer Corps occupied Tanglin Barracks unopposed and took charge of the prisoners of war. The main body of the Volunteers was divided between the Drill Hall and Keppel Harbour. They also provided guards at Government House, the General Hospital, and Fort Canning. The European special constables, numbering about 200, and a force of 190 Japanese special constables raised by the Japanese Consul and armed by the Military Authorities, were detailed off to various police stations, whence they supplied armed patrols in various directions. During the day all ladies and children were, as a precautionary measure, removed from the hotels to the ships in the harbour.
On the 17th February, there arrived in the morning the French cruiser Montcalm and in the afternoon the Japanese cruiser Otawa arrived in response to wireless messages despatched on the afternoon of the 15th. A party of 190 men, with two machine guns, from the Montcalm proceeded by motor transport to the Seletar District, where a body of mutineers was said to be. Before their arrival, however, the mutineers crossed over into Johore territory, where 61 of the surrendered to His Highness the Sultan of Johore. The French force, finding the north of the island of Singapore free of the mutineers, moved over to the west. The east was known to be clear.
On the morning of th 18th February, Lieutenant-Colonel Brownlow’s force, reinforced by 76 men from the Otawa marched out from Keppel Harbour with instructions to retake and effectively occupy Alexandra Barracks. This was done without any opposition being met. Six men were captured in the barracks. A party of Japanese thence proceeded to Normanton Barracks, where it came under fire from snipers. It captured twelve men, all followers and hospital patients. Late in the evening the Russian cruiser Orel arrived, and landed 40 men.
It was now clear that there was no longer a “military situation” (though danger from snipers and desperadoes was to be expected) and an official announcement was issued from Government House declaring that the position was completely in hand. A proclamation by the Provost-Marshal declared a considerable part of the residential area to be safe for occupation and the majority of the women and children left the steamers in the harbour.
Such of the mutineers as still remained in the island were supposed to be in the western part of the island, and arrangements were made on the 19th for “driving” and “rounding-up.” The various parties that joined in the operation were however unable to find any signs of the mutineers who by this time had broken up into small scattered bands, which hid in the jungle by day, and came out in search of food by night. The Japanese cruiser Tsushima arrived during the day and landed 75 men.
On the 20th February, drives were made in various directions in the western part of the island. The British troops only saw one maimed mutineers, who made his escape, whilst one of the French columns came across nine mutineers. One was killed, but the other escaped, throwing away their arms which were captured. The s.s. Edavana arrived in the evening from Rangoon with six companies of the 4th Shropshire Light Infantry (Territorials).
The operations on the 21st and 22nd consisted of drives similar to those of the previous days, and failed to produce any result.
On the evening of the 22nd February, one week after the outbreak, 614 men of the Fifth Light Infantry had surrendered.
The first of the series of executions of mutineers found guilty by the Summary General Court Martial took place on the 23rd February.
The “safe area” for residence by women and children was further extended on the 24th February so as to cover practically the whole of the residential area. On the 25th February, the Russian party from the Orel came in touch with a body of mutineers, who withdrew. In the course of the firing, two Russians were wounded.
His Excellency the Governor inspected and thanked the French detachment on the 23rd February, prior to its re-embarkation an departure. He inspected and thanked the Japanese detachment on the 25th February, the Russian detachment on the 2nd March, the British Naval force and the Malay States Volunteer Rifles on the 12th March, and the local and Johore Forces on the 10th April.
There is no reason to believe that the German prisoners in the Prisoners of War Camp were parties to the mutiny. German money and German Agents doubtless supported the seditionist movement both before and during the war. If any German prisoner of war at Tangling could find any opportunity of talking to one of the sentries of the Fifth Light Infantry and if he could get over the difficulty of finding a common language (for few of the Fifth Light Infantry could speak Malay the ordinary language in Singapore of conversations with an Indian) he would doubtless have seized the opportunity of saying all that he could against the British and for the Germans. But opportunities must have been few. No money that could even be suspected of coming from alien sources was found on any one of the hundreds of men who surrendered. No letters were found amongst their effects, or in the post, that showed any enemy influence. It is established that the prisoners of war were terrified when the mutineers appeared at the Camp, and that none of them attempted to escape until some hours after the mutineers had left. An accident afterwards showed that the prisoners of war had for some time been constructing a tunnel which on the day of the mutiny was only a yard short of the line of the barbed wire entanglements, and would have reached the surface on the following day, affording thereby an easy means of escape under cover of night. It can hardly be believed that the prisoners who constructed and so nearly completed that tunnel, had any expectation of release as the result of a mutiny. Of the many extraordinary facts in connection with the mutiny none perhaps is more extraordinary than the fact that, with such an opportunity, it achieved so little. If the mutiny had been pre-concerted it is almost impossible to believe that in the whole of Singapore there could not have been one man to help it in some overt manner. But not a finger was stirred. When once the mad looting of the ammunition lorries had been made, the regiment as a whole, had no idea what to do next. Singapore was for some hours at its mercy; and yet beyond the attack upon the guard at Tanglin, and the street murders, but little was attempted and nothing was done. When once the first fatal step had been taken, the men were without a plan or a leader. The regiment, with the exception of the more daring or desperate men, seems to have stayed within barracks and, like children to have awaited the coming punishment. They were on the defensive on the day after the mutiny, and were fugitives thereafter.
It is no longer a military secret that the loyal section of the regiment which surrendered to the police, left Singapore some months later for the Cameroons, and that, after excellent work there, it is now on active service in another part of the Empire.
W. George Maxell
Acting Colonial Secretary, S. S.
24th April, 1916
1916 – no relevant entry
1917 – no relevant entry
1918 – no relevant entry
1919 – Address of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government Frederick Seton James, C.M.G., at a Meeting of the Legislative Council held on Monday, the 6th October, 1919
Public Works
“Provision is made in 1920 estimates for these new quarters as well as for a commencement of the construction of new General and Native Hospitals, new Lunatic Asylum and a Tuberculosis Hospital, also for an Elementary School, a Training School, a very necessary extension to the Government Officers and also an extension of the sea wall in front of the old Tanjong Katong Fort; it is hoped that these works will all be under way during the year.”
1920 – Memorandum of Information and Statistics to accompany His Excellency the Governor’s Address to the Legislative Council on the introduction of the budget for 1921
Public Works
“Extension of the Government Offices, the erection of a Laboratory at the Botanic Gardens, the building of six quarters for Hospital Assistants at the Tan Tock Seng’s Hospital, the erection of twenty-two Clerks’ quarters, the construction of a sea-wall off Fort Katong, the building of twelve quarters for Junior Officers at Katong and building quarters for Peons at Mackenzie Road.
Other works provided for are: - A New Police Station at Bukit Panjang, quarters for twenty-two Clerks, twenty quarters for Government Officers, New Quarters for the Chief Justice at Nassim Hill, demolishing the Old Fort at Katong and filling in the moat, a New Leper Asylum for Females, the erection of a drill-hall for the Eurasian Volunteer Company, the erection of a Hangar at the proposed Aerodrome, certain very necessary repairs to the Government House and to the Colonial Secretary’s Bungalow and the removal of the Public Works Department Store and Workshops from Kandang Kerbau to a new site on the Mount Zion Reclamation.”
1921 – Memorandum of Information and Statistics to accompany His Excellency the Governor’s Address to the Legislative Council on the introduction of the budget for 1922
Public Works
“The laboratory at the Botanical Gardens, Sub-post office at the Sepoy Lines and sea-wall at Tanjong Katong have also been finished.
“Further works now in hand include additions to Colonial Secretary’s bungalow, quarters for Lady Medical Officer, Kandang Kerbau, seven sets of second class quarters, Napier and Balmoral Roads, twelve quarters for Junior Officers, Tanjong Katong, six shops and ninety rooms at the Cross Street Tenements, quarters for forty coolies at the Opium Factory, Havelock Road and Mount Zion Reclamation, demolition of the Fort at Tanjong Katong and fencing camps at St. John’s Island.”
1922 – Address by His Excellency the Governor to Members for the Legislative Council at a Meeting held on the 23rd day of October, 1922
Public Works
“The work of demolishing the old Fort and filling the moat at Tanjong Katong is nearly completed as are the alterations to the Public Works Department workshop and store.”
1923 – no relevant entry
1924 – no relevant entry
1925 – no relevant entry
1926 – no relevant entry
1927 – no relevant entry
1928 – no relevant entry
1929 – no relevant entry
1930 – no relevant entry
1931 – no relevant entry
1932 – no relevant entry
1933 – Review of the Affairs of the Colony of the Straits Settlements prepared in the Colonial Secretary’s Office for the information of Members of the Legislative council at a Meeting held on the 2nd day of October, 1933.
Volunteer Force
“Arrangements have now been made for 3.7” Howitzer Battery to work as an Anti Aircraft Battery, this and every alternate year. Three 3in. 20cst. Guns loaned by Malaya Command are installed at Volunteer Headquarters.
Great keenness has been shown by the Battery in their new work and results are most promising.”
1934 – Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of the Straits Settlements, 1934
Public Works
“The Reclamation at Labrador, Pasir Panjang, was completed at the end of the year, 494,500 cubic yards having been excavated and superimposed on the swamp.”
Review of the Affairs of the Colony of the Straits Settlements prepared in the Colonial Secretary’s Office for the information of Members of the Legislative Council at a Meeting held on the 28th day of October, 1934.
Straits Settlements Volunteer Force
“The S.R.A. (v) will carry out training with both the 3.7” Howitzer and Anti-Aircraft Equipment. Four 3 in. 20 cwt. guns loaned by Malaya Command are installed at Volunteer Headquarters. Arrangements have been made for the Battery to carry out Anti Aircraft practice shoots in September in the Changi area.”
1935 – Review of the Affairs of the Colony of the Straits Settlements prepared in the Colonial Secretary’s Office for the information of Members of the Legislative Council at a Meeting held on the 28th day of October, 1935.
Straits Settlements Volunteer Force
“The S.R.A. (v) continue to train on the 3.7” Howitzer and Anti-Aircraft equipments, and arrangements have been made for the Battery to carry out Anti-Aircraft practice shoots in September and with the 3.7” Howitzer equipment in October.
Machine Gun units from Singapore are also to carry out in conjunction with the Singapore Volunteer Fortress Company night firing practice from Blakang Mati in September.”
1936 – Review of the Affairs of the Colony of the Straits Settlements prepared in the Colonial Secretary’s Office for the information of Members of the Legislative Council at a Meeting held on the 26th day of October, 1936.
General
“The S.R.A. (v) continues to train on the 3.7” Howitzer and Anti-Aircraft equipments. No 3.7” practice ammunition is available this year. A full chare Anti-Aircraft Shoot was carried out on Sunday, March 22nd at Beting Kusa, and full charge and half charge shoots are to be carried out in September.
All machine gun units in Singapore are to carry out Filed Firing practice by day and night during August and September at Blaking Mati.”
1937 – no relevant entry
1938 – no relevant entry
1939 - Address By His Excellency The Governor
“When I addressed you at the Budget Meeting of last year, I was able to give expression to the relief which we all felt at being spared the horrors of war and the hope that we might be blessed with real and enduring peace. That hope has not been fulfilled. Great Britain is once again at war, fighting for the freedom of the world from Nazi domination. In this, she has the full support of the British Empire which, as in 1914, has place its whole resources at the disposal of the Mother Country in her hour of need. We know that victory will be our, and we can only pray that the sacrifices that are being demanded of our people and of France, that great champion of liberty, will bring lasting happiness to the world.
Here in Malaya out duty is clear. Last year this country set an example to the Colonial Empire in its contributions to Imperial Defence. The Colony of the Straits Settlements alone made a free-will offering of one million pounds, and decided also to increase its annual contribution by $2 million for a period of five years. Most of the Malay States gave according to their means and I felt very proud that I should be the channel through which these voluntary tokens of loyalty were communicated to the Secretary of State. I have no doubt that in the coming months further examples of this spirit of generosity will be forthcoming; but I wish to remind you that war is a hard taskmaster and that victory cannot be won unless each individual person gives of his or her best. It is not only of the men in the fighting line that sacrifices will be demanded; it is from each one of you here in Malaya.”
1940 – Address By His Excellency the Officer Administering The Government
“At the last reading of these yearly accounts it was possible to survey the situation arising from the outbreak of war with comparative calm. Since then the enemy has occupied Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, has swiftly and easily defeated France and had even enabled Italy to pose as a conqueror. In the middle of June the Empire found itself facing all alone a Germany and Italy in triumphant domination either by occupation, bribery or fear, of the greater part of Europe. Never, it might seem, had the fortunes of the Empire been so depressed. And now, at this moment never has the Empire been so exalted. Where it is exposed to attack it people display the finest qualities of courage and endurance, total acceptance of discipline and ungrudging capacity for sacrifice. Elsewhere it is achieving the loyalty, discipline, sustained effort and readiness to forego profit and private ease which will intensify to the fullest capacity the supply of the requirements of an Empire desperately at war. And so, as the year draw to its close, we can forget the anxieties of summer in the change in our fortunes during the last few months brought about by the valour and skill of the fighting men and the enduring soul of the people and go forward in full confidence of victory.
The main contribution this Colony is asked to make to the prosecution of the war is, in the midst of preparations for its own defence, to supply raw materials essential to it and, incidentally but most importantly, the provision of foreign exchange. In the mechanised form which modern warfare has taken these are vital and although, lacking the banners and trumpets of actual fighting they may not seem enough to shallow minds the grim truth is that any failure of our efforts to satisfy those needs would have results no less disastrous than cowardice in battle.”
1941 – Paper to be laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government
Expenditure
“The increase under Special Expenditure is entirely due to war expenditure on Defence Measures, Military Expenditure and Contributions to the Imperial Government.”
Extracted from "Annual Reports of the Straits Settlements 1855-1941", Vol. 1-12, Archive Editions, 1998
1855 – no relevant entry
1856 – no relevant entry
1857
Military
“An officer of the Madras Engineers, Captain Collyer has been deputed, under instructions from the Government of India, to Singapore, to report upon plans and projects which have been proposed for the fortifying of that station. His first report comprised the plan, some time since prepared, of fortifying a hill called Pearl’s Hill, as commanding the town, and as affording a place of refuge in case of internal disturbances, and he has since been engaged on a subsequent plan of exclusively fortifying the Government Hill.”
“The following is a Return of the Troops stationed in the Straits on 1st May last:
- Artillery 149
- Infantry 787
- Ordnance 52
- Commissariat 40
“A company of European Madras Artillery has relieved the few men of a former Company remaining at Pinang, and the larger portion of the Company have been brought on to Singapore, where, hitherto, no European Troops of any description have been stationed.”
1858
Convicts and Public Works Department
“Captain Collyer of the Madras Engineers, who arrived here in January 1858, for the purpose of reporting on the proposed plans for fortification of Singapore, was appointed Chief Engineer, and assumed charge of the office on the 1st August 1858. The whole labour of the convict body, both skilled and ordinary, was placed at his disposal. Some of the Military Works comprised in the proposed fortification were at once commenced upon, and the convict body were placed on Government Hill, there to form a powerful battery, and on Fort Fullerton, with the view of rendering the Battery more serviceable by extending and widening it. The work executed by convicts in these two Batteries is considered to be of excellent quality, as good, if not probably better, than would be obtained from free Chinese labour; and so far the convict body has proved most useful in the new scheme of covering the hills and shores of Singapore with Batteries, Redoubts, Barracks, Magazines etc.”
Military
“There have been no changes under this head during the past year, except the arrival of half a Company of European Artillery in the Straits, the majority of whom about 45 in number have been stationed in Singapore. The Garrison of the three Stations are supplied by two Regiments of Madras Native Infantry, and a Company of Madras Native Artillery….When the extensive fortifications now in the course of execution here are completed a very considerable increase to the garrison will be necessary, to man the works and the guns. It has been suggested that a Regiment of European Infantry should be stationed here, and under any circumstances at least a couple of Companies of European Artillery will be required.
1859
Public Works
“The attention of the officers of the Public Works Department, both at Singapore, and Penang, has been for the most part directed to the construction of military works and buildings. At Singapore the batteries at Mount Palmer and Fort Fullerton, with the requisite accommodation for the troops by which they are to be occupied, have been completed, whilst at Fort Canning, the barracks, gateway, and some of the gun platforms and expense magazines alone remain in an unfinished state – many even of these works are fast approaching completion.”
Military
“In January last a draft of European artillerymen arrived to strengthen the company stationed in the Straits, of which the head quarters and main body are located at Singapore.”
1860
Public Works
“In Fort Canning, the Officer’s Quarters, as well as the building directed to be reserved as a Hospital have been completed and the Artillery Barracks are well advanced. At Tanglin, temporary Barracks, capable of accommodating a weak Regiment, have been constructed and considerable progress made in the erection of Officer’s Quarters, the Hospital Canteen and permanent Barracks. The gorge of the Battery at Mount Faber has been closed.”
Military
“Introduction of the Enfield rifle for 20th and 40th Regiments MNI.”
1861
Public Works
“Considerable improvements have been effected to the ventilation of the different Magazines, they were urgently required; it having been found that, owing to their excessive dampness, the powder in store rapidly deteriorated. Pending receipt of final orders, relative to the disposition of the buildings in Fort Canning, a portion of the large building, ordered to be used as a hospital, has been partitioned off so as to admit of it being converted as a temporary measure into a Guard-room.
Military
“The strength of the European Artillery has varied but little from that of last year….The barracks at Fort Canningf having been completed , that have been occupied by the European Artillery, formally located in the buildings on Pearl’s Hill, which are now undergoing alterations, with a view to their conversion into an Arsenal and Commissariat Store-room.”
1862
Public Works
“At Singapore three 13-inch Mortar Platforms and three additional Gun Platforms have been constructed in Fort Canning, and the main gates to the Fort have also been put up. The accommodation for the Troops has been rendered more complete by the addition of a Skittle Alley, Range of Solitary Cells, Stables, Store and Bath-rooms for the Officers’ Quarters, and a Bathing Tank for the men; a supply of water has also been provided by sinking two deep wells, one in rear of the Barracks, and the other close to the hospital. The Drainage of Fort Fullerton, Mount Palmer Battery, and the Native Infantry Lines has been improved. The Butt, with the necessary range for Artillery and Rifle Practice, upon Balestier Plain, has been completed. A new Expense Magazine has been provided for the Native Infantry Regiment. The improvements to the Magazines in Forts Canning and Fullerton, which is believed will render them thoroughly efficient, have been finished, and considerable progress made in the construction of the Grand Magazine. The alterations to the buildings on Pearl’s Hill, to be converted into an Arsenal and Commissariat Godown, have been completed; the Hospital Out-offices, and Guard Room at Tanglin are almost ready, and one of the Captain’s Quarters has been prepared for the reception of a tenant by whom it is now occupied.”
1863
Public Works
“The drawbridge at the main entrance to Fort Canning has been completed. A bomb-proof Guard-room, capable of affording accommodation to seven men, has been constructed in the South Battery. Necessaries for the use of the women and children of the Artillery have been added to the out-offices attached to the barracks in Fort Canning, and the covered drains in the rear of the barracks, formerly very offensive, have all been trapped, and the nuisance thus removed. One of the large wells for the supply of water to the troops has been fitted with a pump, capable of discharging about 400 gallons per hour; the other well has been sunk to its full depth (150 feet), but the pump, which had been secured for it from a local Firm, was lost on its way out from England in the Flowery Land, and no other hitherto been obtainable….The new Stock Magazine in Fort Canning has been completed, but the fittings have not yet been supplied. Lighting Conductors have been attached to the Expense Magazines in Forts Canning and Fullerton, and the Batteries at Mounts Faber and Palmer. The Subaltern’s Quarters at Pearl’s Hill have been improved and made available for the two Conductors of the Ordnance Department. The Barracks for the Ordnance lascars in the vicinity of the Arsenal have been almost completed.”
Military
“The Ordnance Stores at Singapore, previously accommodated in a house hired in the town for the purpose, were removed, in the early part of the year, to the building on Pearl’s Hill, which had been prepared for their reception. The Arsenal and Commissariat Store are now in close proximity, whilst the plateau on which they stand together with its approaches, is fully exposed to the fire of the Guns from Fort Canning….Practices has been carried on, for the first time, by the Royal Artillery under Lieutenant Colonel Bond, from all the Forts and Batteries at Singapore…..in consequence of the increase of the Artillery Force in Singapore, the necessity for keeping up the establishment attached to the Mountain Train Battery having ceased, the ponies have been disposed of by public sale, and the Guns returned into store.”
1864
Public Works
“The Artillery Hospital has been generally improved, gutters and down spouts have been laid along the roof, and a dead house erected, gutters and down spouts have also been fixed to the Artillery barracks. A pump has been fitted to the hospital well (150 feet deep), and over that and the well near the barracks, iron tanks have been raised, from which the water is distributed throughout the wash-houses, kitchens, and the out-offices attached to the officers’ quarters, the comfort of the Troops being thereby increased, whilst a saying has been effected in Establishment. The water from the roof of the barracks is now collected in a reservoir, capable of holding about 5,000 gallons, from which it is conducted through a filter, composed of layers of sand charcoal, and iron stone, into the adjacent well, the arrangement has been found to answer admirably, the ware is excessively pure, and a large supply is collected in the well, after heavy rain, having been raised from 40 to 60 feet in 24 hours. The European married quarters have been each divided into two apartments by means of screens, and thus rendered more private. A guard room had been added to the solitary cells. The mountain train battery having been broken up, the stables have been converted into a barrack for the lascars attached to the European Batteries of Artillery at Fort Canning. At the Arsenal, an addition, much required, of a blacksmith’s shop has been carried out, two Store Serjeants’ quarters have been erected, and the lascars’ barrack completed. Small additions have been made to the Commissariat Store to increase accommodation……On behalf of the Admiralty, the works for the Naval Coal Dept at Pulo Brani, consisting of two coal sheds, capable of containing 8,000 tons of coal, Superintendent’s house, offices, etc, with a quay and pier having 27 feet of water alongside at low tide have been nearly completed.”
Military
“Arrangements have been made for the supplying the European troops at Singapore, with a weekly ration of mutton, in lieu of the salt pork rations, the issue of which has been discontinued. An excellent code of regulations for the guidance of persons in charge of private magazines, has been prepared by the Deputy Commissary of Ordnance, and the rules therein prescribed directed to be strictly observed.”
1865
Public Works
“…Store Sergeant’s quarters at the Arsenal have been completed, and the slopes of Fort Canning have been, to some extent, reduced by means of convict labour….A new flag staff has been erected upon Mount Faber…”
Infantry Units Stationed in Singapore:
14th Madras Native Infantry Regiment 1857
22nd Madras Native Infantry Regiment 1858 in relief of 38th MNI (Penang)
38th Madras Native Infantry Regiment (Penang)
40th Madras Native Infantry Regiment 1859/60 in relief of 14th MNI
20th Madras Native Infantry Regiment 1860 in relief of 22nd MNI (Penang)
34th C.Light Regiment 1862/63 in relief of 40th MNI
8th Madras Native Infantry Regiment 1865/66 in relief of 34th CLI
Artillery Units Stationed in Singapore:
A Company 1st Battalion Madras Artillery 1859/60
B Company 5th Battalion Madras Artillery 1859/60
5th Battalion Madras Artillery A Company 1860/61
No.1 Battery 17th Brigade Royal Artillery 1862-63
D Company Golundauze 1862-65
No.2 Battery 17th Brigade Royal Artillery 1863/64-1865/66 in relief of No.1 Battery 17th Bde RA
No.4 Battery 17th Brigade Royal Artillery 1863/64 in relief of No.1 Battery 17th Bde RA
No.6 Battery 17th Brigade Royal Artillery 1864/65 in relief of Local European Battery of Madras Artillery and Company of Golandauze.
Brigadier Commander of the Troops Straits Settlements:
Lt.Col.McLeod 1856
Brigadier, G.Burn 1860
Major A.Hervey 1861 (acting Brigadier, CO 40th Regiment MNI)
Brigadier Babington 1861
Col.Richard Shubrick 1861/62
Colonel G.De Sausmarez 1862/63
Colonel C.Ireland 1864/65
Commanding Royal Artillery:
Lt.Col.Eaton to 1862/63
Lt.Col.Bond from1862/63
Lt.Col Grant 1864/65
1866 – no relevant entry
1867 – no relevant entry
1868 – no relevant entry
1869 – no relevant entry
1870 – no relevant entry
1871 – no relevant entry
1872 – no relevant entry
1873 – Straits Settlements Papers laid before the Legislative Council by command of His Excellency the Governor 31st October 1873
Public Works
“A new post office is being erected in Fort Fullerton, a site much nearer the Commercial centre of the Town.”
Military
“By revised arrangements agreed to last year the Garrison is to consist of one European Regiment 900 strong, and one Full Battery of Garrison Artillery for which the Colony pays £ (no figure given – blank) per annum.”
1874 – no relevant entry
1875 – no relevant entry
1876 – no relevant entry
1877 – no relevant entry
1878 – no relevant entry
1879 - Straits Settlements Papers laid before the Legislative Council by command of His Excellency the Administrator 24th July 1879
Address of His Excellency – “Again, a sum of $9,449 (now standing at $9,054) is included in the Assets for Defence purposes, to which a further sum of $15,762 has since been added for the cost of 7 ¾ acres of Cocoanut Plantation, purchased by arbitration, for the site of the Fort at Tanjong Katong. These amounts will ultimately, in all probability, have to be written off.”
1880 – no relevant entry
1881 – Report on the Straits Settlements Blue Book for the Year 1881
Military Expenditure
“The usual contribution of $235,976 was paid by the Colony to the Army Pay Department towards expenses of Her Majesty’s troops (one European regiment and a battery of Royal Artillery) quartered in the Straits Settlements. A sum of $26,706 56 was also expended during the year in the construction and up-keep of military buildings, rent and quarters, etc.”
1882 – no relevant entry
1883 – no relevant entry
1884 – no relevant entry
1885 – Straits Settlements Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government
“7. The heaviest item of Expenditure is, as will have been anticipated, for the construction of the Defence Works. The first set of plans were received in the Colony in June, and ground was broken at the close of that month. Before this year expires, it is calculated that the expenditure will have amounted to about $130,000, and you are invited to vote $270,000 in the Estimates of the ensuing year. The total expenditure in the two years will thus be $400,000 (equivalent to about L70,000), and will, in the main, form the Colony’s share of the cost of placing Singapore in what Her Majesty’s Government consider an efficient state of defence. The armament and stores which are to be supplied by the Imperial Government, are now estimated to cost L90,000 ($614, 260), and, according to the latest information which ahs reached me, it is understood that the guns will be sent here from time to time as circumstances permit, so that they should, however, all be received before the close of 1886. I wish to take this opportunity of publicly placing on record the high sense I entertain of the great energy and ability with which the Colonial Engineer in devoting himself with such untiring zeal to the erection of the Defence Works.”
1886 – no relevant entry
1887 – Straits Settlements Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
“13. On my arrival in 1880, the Defence question at once engaged my attention, and my efforts to forward it have been unremitting, both here and in England, ever since. The colony has loyally performed its part and I observe that, in a recent speech at Sheffield, Mr. Stanhope, Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for War, stated; “I am able to say that the armaments “which are required for Singapore, and approximately those for Hongkong, “will be completed in the course of the present year.”
1888 – Straits Settlements Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
“11. The Defences of Singapore yet remain, I am concerned to have to report, in an incomplete state. The War Department has, I learn, been unable to furnish the remaining portion of the armament, owing to the heavy guns supplied by the manufacturers for the Forts not having stood the severe tests now required. Some months more will, therefore, elapse before those guns are received in the Colony. The quick-firing guns will be dispatched from England in November, or perhaps earlier. Three out of the seven Forts have been completed and armed, and are ready to be handed over to the Military Authorities.
12. In connection with the subject of the Defences, I wish to draw your special attention to the formation of the Singapore Volunteer Artillery. Animated by a high sense of public spirit and public duty, a large number of the British residents offered their services as Artillery Volunteers, which, on behalf of the Government, I mot readily accepted. The Corps has been established with the full approval of Her Majesty’s Government, and is now recognized as a portion of the permanent Garrison of the colony. A new Ordinance for the enrolment and organization of Volunteers will be laid before you, and on its passing, I hope that the Volunteer Forces will be considerably enlarged. You will, I feel confident, willingly vote such sums as may be considered necessary for their training and maintenance in a state of thorough efficiency.”
1889 – Straits Settlements Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
“10. With regard to the armament of the Defence Works of Singapore, distinct progress has been made since I last addressed you. Two more of the heavy guns have been mounted, and three more of the same nature were, I am officially informed, to be shipped in August last. The subject of the future Garrison of the colony is still engaging the serious attention of the authorities.
11. In connection with such matters, it is gratifying to be able to record that not only is the Volunteer Artillery Corps being made more efficient in drill and discipline, but its equipment will be shortly advantageously strengthened by the purchase, with money privately subscribed, of four Maxim guns. This exhibition of public spirit has met with the high approval of Her Majesty’s Secretaries of State for the Colonies and for War, as well as of His Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief. I hope to see the Volunteer Force considerably increased so soon as it is supplied with a Drill Hall and convenient arrangements for meeting and recreation. It will, I feel sure, be recognized that all possible consideration should be shewn to the Corps, the members of which devote themselves to the training necessary to enable them when called upon to take a prominent part in the defence of the colony.”
1890 – no relevant entry
1891 – no relevant entry
1892 – Straits Settlements Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
”The is still to be settled the claim of the War Department on the subject of additional Barracks. It will be remembered that this Government was informed that the claim under this head might amount to “even as much as L60,000,” which is equal to about $430,000. Subsequent correspondence has shown that the schemes which have been prepared by the Military Authorities will entail a cost of either $738,793 or $1,136,607, according as one or other style of construction of the new Barracks is adopted. I am in hopes that, it is finally decided that there is any further obligation at all on the Colony to provide for additional Barracks, the duty will be duly performed by the Government providing the accommodation for the excess in the number of Troops which now form the authorised Garrison , over the number formerly allotted to the Colony.”
1893 – no relevant entry
1894 – Straits Settlements Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
“I fear that the execution of any considerable Civil works in the Colony must await the return of better times. I have inserted in the Estimates a sum on account for the building of Barracks at Pulau Brani and Blakang Mati, the plans for the former of which are practically completed and approved of, while those for the latter will shortly be sent home. The execution of this work is rendered necessary by the fact that the temporary buildings now sheltering the troops in those islands will not last much longer. I am directed by the Secretary of State to press on the construction of these barracks without further delay.”
1895 – Straits Settlements Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
“Her Majesty’s Government having finally decided that the two companies of Infantry stationed at Penang, which were held in readiness to join their head-quarters on the first indication of war, shall now in peace as well as in war time, be stationed in Singapore, and having called upon me to take steps for providing the necessary accommodation with the least possible delay, I shall ask you to vote the sum required as a portion of the extraordinary barrack expenditure now being incurred.
When the new Pulau Brani, Blakang Mati and Tanglin Barracks, to the construction of which we are practically pledge, have been finished – and I hope that this will be done during 1896 – there will be, in future years, a considerable sum available for the large Public Works so much needed to ensure the progress and development of the Colony.
Straits Settlement Report for 1895
Public Works
“No other works of any importance were executed during the year, except new barracks for the troops:-
Barracks for the Royal Engineers on Pulau Brani, overlooking the New Harbour, were commenced and pushed on with vigour, and considerable progress was made with barracks for the Royal Artillery on the adjacent island of Blakang Mati.
An addition to the existing Infantry barracks at Tanglin was commenced, to facilitate the future accommodation of the Penang detachment in Singapore.”
1896 - Straits Settlements Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
“I am glad to be able to inform you that the estimated deficit for 1895 of $119,183 was converted into a surplus of $265,904, there having been savings on the total expenditure of $310,248. These savings resulted in part from the inability to carry on the construction for the new Military Barracks with the rapidity that was intended, and may therefore, be reckoned as only postponed expenditure.”
Straits Settlement Report for 1896
Public Works
“Barracks for the Royal Engineers (Officers and Men) at Pulau Brani which were begun in 1895 were finished in June, 1896, at a total cost of $64,000
On Blakang Mati Island, barracks for Royal Artillery (married and single men), Officers’ mess, and detached quarters for Medical and Field Officers were finished in December, 1896, while the construction of the Hospital was well advanced.”
1897 – Straits Settlement Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
“Under the head of Military Defence, the work of preparing emplacements for the new quick-firing armament is making progress. This Council has, by its resolution, already made provision for the Colony’s share of this expenditure, which will duly appear in the Final Supply Bill for this year. The total expenditure on the work is calculated at 59,360, the share borne by the Colony amounting to 23,760.
The progress in completing the works and buildings in connection with the Barracks scheme has not been so rapid as I anticipated when addressing you in 1896, I then stated that it was hoped that the new Barracks at Pulau Brani, Blakang Mati and Tanglin would be completed during the year 1896. Good progress has, however, been made, and it is hoped that the pressing requirements at Tanglin Barracks to meet the withdrawal of the Penang Detachment, referred to by me in 1895, will be completed early next year.”
Straits Settlement Report for 1897
Public Works
“At Pearl’s Hill, 2 warrant officers’ quarters and 6 married staff sergeants’ quarters were commenced.
In addition to these works, a sum of $228,096 was handed to the Military Department for constructing the new emplacements for the quick-firing guns.”
1898
Straits Settlement Report for 1898
Military
“The garrison consists of Her Majesty’s regular forces and Asiatic artillery. No militia force exists.
A valuable volunteer artillery force, 105 strong, exists in Singapore, only Europeans are enlisted in it. It possesses some Maxim guns in the use of which it is proficient, and it has learned to work some of the guns belonging to the regular armament of the garrison.”
General Observations
“At Blakang Mati, the Asiatic Artillery Barracks and quarters for hospital Sergeant were practically completed, and the work of constructing roads and paths well advanced.”
“The construction of emplacements for the new quick firing armament of the harbour defence forts was nearly completed by the Royal Engineers’ Department and a number of the guns have been mounted.”
1899 – Straits Settlement Paper laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor
“On the re-vote of $23,000 for New Barracks, Singapore, the following works were carried out :-“
Constructing culverts on Military roads at Blakan Mati - $780
Constructing quarters for 108 men and 4 Non-commissioned Officers, Asiatic Artillery, Blakan Mati – 20,000
Supplying fitting to Asiatic Artillery, Blakan Mati – 1,000
Constructing fire tanks ablution room and latrine at Pearl’s Hill – 870
$22,650
Straits Settlement Report for 1899
Military
“The garrison consists of Her Majesty’s regular forces and Asiatic artillery. No militia force exists.
A valuable volunteer artillery force, 105 strong, exists in Singapore, only Europeans are enlisted in it. Its principal armament consists of a complete battery of six 2.5-inch R.M.L. screw guns, utilised with 7 pr. Limbers as a field battery in pony draught, an experiment which has proved successful. It also possesses some Maxim guns (.45), in the use of which it is proficient. A volunteer rifle corps is in course of formation”
General Observations
“Other important works were: - In Singapore, the completion of the Asiatic artillery barracks, quarters for hospital sergeant at Blaking Mati, and the Tanglin water supply.
The emplacements for the quick firing armament of the harbour defence forts were completed by the Royal Engineers, and the guns mounted."
1900
Straits Settlement Report for 1900
Military
“The garrison consists of Her Majesty’s regular forces and Asiatic artillery. No militia force exists.
A valuable volunteer artillery force, 111 strong, exists in Singapore, only Europeans are enlisted in it. Its principal armament consists of a complete Battery of six 2.5-inch R.M.L screw guns, utilised with 7 pr. Limbers as a field battery in pony draught, an experiment which has proved successful. It also possesses some Maxim guns (.45), in the use of which it is proficient. A Volunteer Rifle Corps, 173 strong, also exists, composed of Europeans. Its armament consists of Lee-Enfield rifles and sword bayonets.”
General Observations
“A European Volunteer Rifle Corps was formed in Singapore.”
1901
Straits Settlement Report for 1901
Military
“The garrison consists of Her Majesty’s regular forces and Asiatic artillery. No militia force exists.
“A valuable volunteer artillery force, 111 strong, exists in Singapore, only Europeans are enlisted in it. Its principal armament consists of a complete Battery of six 2.5-inch R.M.L screw guns, utilised with 7 pr. Limbers as a field battery in pony draught, an experiment which has proved successful. It also possesses some Maxim guns (.45), in the use of which it is proficient. A Volunteer Rifle corps, 173 strong, also exists, composed of Europeans. A company of Eurasians and a company of Straits-born Chinese, each 100 strong, was also organized during the year. These three corps are armed with Lee-Enfield rifles and sword bayonets. A Volunteer Engineer corps, composed of Europeans, and a cadet corps, are in process of formation.”
Public Works
“Completion of Telok Ayer sea wall and reclamation to Fort Palmer Point.”
1902
Straits Settlement Report for 1902
Military
“The garrison in Singapore consists of two battalions of Madras Infantry, two garrison companies of Royal Artillery and other small contingents of His Majesty’s regular forces. No militia force exists.
A valuable volunteer artillery force, 118 strong (including reserves), exists in Singapore, only Europeans are enlisted in it.
A Volunteer Rifle Corps 137 strong (including reserves) also exists, composed of Europeans.
There is one company of Volunteer Engineers composed of Europeans 30 strong. It is proposed to form a second company composed of Eurasians.
There are two companies of Eurasians 56 and 54 strong respectively and two companies of Straits-born Chinese each 62 in strength.”
Public Works
“Reclamation and Mole near Post Office.”
1903
Straits Settlement Report for 1903
Military
“The garrison in Singapore consists of two companies of Royal Garrison Artillery, half a company of Royal Engineers, one battalion of British Infantry, and one battalion of Native Infantry besides Asiatic Artillery (Sikhs), and Malay Submarine Miners, with details of other companies. No militia force exists.
A valuable volunteer artillery force, 151 strong (including reserves), exists in Singapore, only Europeans are enlisted in it. Its principal armament consists of a complete Battery of 10 pr. B.L. screw guns, utilised with 7 pr. Limbers as a field battery in pony draught, an experiment which has proved successful. It also possesses four Maxim guns (.303), in the use of which it is proficient. This corps is armed with Martini-Metford carbines, and sword bayonets.
A European Volunteer Rifle Corps also existed, numbering 104 (including reserves), but very little interest was shown in it, and it has been discontinued since the beginning of this year. This corps had in addition to Lee-Enfiled rifles and sword-bayonets, two .303 Maxim machine guns, mounted on infantry field carriages. A Maxim section ahs been formed to work these guns.
There is one company of Volunteer Engineers, composed of Europeans, 40 strong.
There is one company of Eurasians, 112 strong, and one company of Straits-born Chinese, 116 strong”
Public Works
“Additional accommodation, signal sergeant’s quarters at Fort Canning.
Erection of quarters for the crew of the new Fort Canning light.”
1904
Straits Settlement Report for 1904
Military
“The garrison in Singapore consisted of two companies of Royal Garrison Artillery, half a company of Royal Engineers, one battalion of British Infantry, and one battalion of Native Infantry besides Asiatic Artillery (Sikhs), and Malay Submarine Miners, with details of other corps. No Militia Force exists. The strength of the garrison was 2,585, all ranks.”
“A valuable volunteer artillery force, 123 strong (including reserves), exists in Singapore. Only Europeans are enlisted in it. Its principal armament consists of a complete Battery of 10 pr. B.L. screw guns, utilised with 7 pr. Limbers as a field battery in pony draught, an experiment which has proved successful. It also possesses four Maxim guns (.303), in the use of which it is proficient. This corps is armed with Martini-Metford carbines and sword-bayonets.
A Maxim company, 43 strong has been formed to work the four guns belonging to the Singapore Volunteer Artillery which latter unit is not at present sufficiently strong in numbers to man both the 10-pr. B.L. battery and the four Maxims.
There is one company of volunteer Engineers composed of Europeans, 39 strong (including reserves).
There is one company of Eurasians and one company of Straits-born Chinese, each 91 strong, including reserves.”
General Observations
“In the final report of the Consulting Engineers on the construction of moles for the protection of the harbour was received, and tenders for the works are being invited.”
1905
Straits Settlement Report for 1905
Military
“The garrison in Singapore consisted of two companies of Royal Garrison Artillery, half a company of Royal Engineers, one battalion of British Infantry, and one battalion of Native Infantry besides Asiatic Artillery (Sikhs), and Malay Submarine Miners, with details of other corps. No mMilitia force exists. The strength of the garrison was 2,336, all ranks.”
“The military contribution of the Colony in respect of the year 1905 amounted to $1,911,585.”
“A Volunteer Artillery Force, 125 strong (including reserves), exists in Singapore, only Europeans are enlisted in it. Its principal armament consists of a complete Battery of 10 pr. B.L. screw guns, utilised with 7 pr. limbers as a field battery in pony draught, an experiment which has proved successful. It also possesses four Maxim guns (.303), in the use of which it is proficient. This corps is armed with Martini-Metford carbines and sword bayonets.
A Maxim company, 47 strong including reserves, has been formed to work the four guns belonging to the Singapore Volunteer Artillery, which latter unit is not at present sufficiently strong in numbers to man both the 10 pr. B.L. battery and the four Maxims.
There is one company of Volunteer Engineers, composed of Europeans, 32 strong (including reserves).
There is one company of Eurasians and one company of Straits-born Chinese, 77 and 92 strong respectively, including reserves.”
1906
Straits Settlement Report for 1906
Military
“The garrison in Singapore consisted of two companies of Royal Garrison Artillery, half a company of Royal Engineers, one battalion of British Infantry, and one battalion of Native Infantry besides Asiatic Artillery (Sikhs), and Malay Submarine Miners, with details of other corps. No militia force exists. The strength of the garrison was 2,380, all ranks.
A Volunteer Artillery Force, 134 strong (including reserves), exists in Singapore, only Europeans are enlisted in it. Its principal armament is under alteration. It also possesses four Maxim guns (.303), in the use of which it is proficient. This corps is armed with Martini-Metford carbines and sword-bayonets.
A Maxim company, 47 strong including reserves, has been formed to work the four guns belonging to the Singapore Volunteer Artillery.
There is one company of Volunteer Engineers, composed of Europeans, 56 strong (including reserves).
There is one company of Eurasians and one company of Straits-born Chinese, 120 and 89 strong, respectively, including reserves.”
1907
Straits Settlement Report for 1907
Public Works
Singapore Harbour Works
“In January, 1907, the staff of the contractors, Messrs. Sir John Jackson, Limited, came on the ground, and took possession of a piece of land for their workyard between Robinson Road and the sea front, extending from Telok Ayer Market to Fort Palmer.”
1908
Straits Settlement Report for 1908
Military
“The Defence contribution paid by the Colony was $1,879,182.02”
Public Works
“25. In Singapore the most important works undertaken and completed during the year were the new Tan Tock Seng Hospital, the Pathological Laboratory, rebuilding the Lunatic Asylum at Pasir Panjang, the new Maternity Hospital, converting Pearl’s Hill Barracks into quarters for 30 European police, &c., reconstructing one ward at the Poh Leung Kuk Buildings, building a public morgue, also quarters for two dressers at St. John’s Island, and a dhobi shed and two quarters for Government officials at Sepoy Lines.”
1909
Straits Settlement Report for 1909
Singapore Harbour Works
“There has been deposited on the Inner South Mole during the year 1909, 114,609 tons of rubble.”
1910
Straits Settlement Report for 1910
Singapore Harbour Works
“In the Inner South Mole during the year there has been deposited 210,421 tons of granite rubble obtained from the Quarry at Pulau Ubin.”
1911
Straits Settlement Report for 1911
Singapore Harbour Works
“In the Inner South Mole during the year there were deposited 241,304 tons of granite rubble obtained from the Quarry at Pulau Ubin.”
1912 – Address of His Excellency the Governor Sir Arthur Young, K.C.M.G., at a meeting of the Legislative Council held on Friday, the 4th October, 1912.
Singapore Harbour Works
“The reclamation of the site surrounding the tidal basin has continued satisfactorily, the material for the purpose having been derived from Mount Palmer since the completion of the excavation of the Government property at Mount Wallich.
Good progress has been made with the Mole, a total of 291,000 tons of granite having been deposited during the period under review.”
Straits Settlement Report for 1912
Singapore Harbour Works
“Filling up the reclaimed area with material from Fort Palmer was continued and 49 acres completed.
During the year 301,824 tons of granite rubble were deposited in the Inner South Mole. The rubble was obtained from the Quarry at Pulau Ubin.”
1913 - Address of His Excellency the Governor Sir Arthur Young, K.C.M.G., at a meeting of the Legislative Council held on Friday, the 3rd October, 1913.
Singapore Harbour Works
Work in connection with the sinking of cylinders for the Quay Wall is rapidly coming to a close and the filling up of the reclaimed area with material from Fort Palmer continues, 51 acres being now completed.
There were deposited in the Mole during the year 278,500 tons of granite rubble, obtained from the quarry at Pulau Ubin. The conditions as to stability are now improving so much that it is confidently expected to complete the work in less than another twelve months.”
1914 - Address of His Excellency the Governor Sir Arthur Young, K.C.M.G., at a meeting of the Legislative Council held on Friday, the 2nd October, 1914.
Singapore Harbour Works
“The reclamation has proceeded steadily and is practically completed on the northern section; on the southern section the work is well in hand and satisfactory progress is being made. During the last twelve months the filling materials excavated from Fort Palmer and deposited in the works amounted to 212,500 cubic yards. The dredging is also practically completed; materials dredged and taken to sea during the last twelve months amounted to 409,600 cubic yards.
Straits Settlement Report for 1914
Singapore Harbour Works
“During the year good progress as made with the works. They are now nearing completion. The north and south walls have been completed together with their metalled quays. The north and south piers were practically completed but for the provision of the transit sheds that are to be erected thereon. The depositing of granite rubble on the mole stopped in July. When the landing stages and temporary lights at its heads are erected the mole will be complete.”
1915
Straits Settlement Report for 1915
The Singapore Mutiny
Monday, the 15th February, 1915, was a public holiday. The Chinese New Year, with its attendant cessation of all business, it festivities and bomb and cracker firing amongst the Chinese, had commenced on the preceding day an the usual three days holiday had been proclaimed. The Fifth Light Infantry was on the point of leaving for Hongkong, and ad already sent its machine guns, with their ammunition, to the store, and was preparing to send its small arms ammunition there. Only that morning, His Excellency the General Officer Commanding had made his final inspection of the regiment, and had been favourably impressed by the demeanor of the native officers and men. At about 3 P.M. a shot was fired at the regimental guardroom at Alexander Barracks and a number of the N.C.O.’s and men immediately gathered around the ammunition which was being packed into motor-lorries, and took possession of it. Some of the British Officers made their way from their quarters to the Indian Officers’ Lines, but were persuaded of the impossibility of any attempt to stop the men, and made their way to Normanton Camp, about a quarter of a mile away, where a detachment of the Malay States Volunteer Rifles was undergoing a course of training. Colonel Martin, Commanding the Fifth Light Infantry, telephoned to headquarters at Fort Canning, and the naval authorities were warned. A detachment from H.M.S. Cadmus immediately disembarked and proceeded along the Pasir Panjang Road towards Alexandra Barracks. The Civil Police got information by telephone from Captain Ball of the Fifth Light Infantry, and immediately transmitted it to the Colonial Secretary. A telephone message reached Lieutenant Love Montgomerie at the Prisoners of War Camp just as a body of about a hundred mutineers arrived on the spot, and began firing upon the guard. They killed three British Officers and one Malay Officer, seven Europeans and two Malay Non-Commissioned Officers and men, and one prisoner of war. Having dispersed the guard, the mutineers opened the gate of the enclosure, shook hands with the prisoners of war, most of whom were in a state of terror. They left soon afterwards in the direction whence they had come. When British officers and doctors arrived on the scene all the prisoners of war were still there. After dark, seventeen prisoners of war left the unguarded camp. Four were re-captured later, but the other made good their escape.
During the course of the afternoon a number of dastardly murders of Europeans were committed by separate bodies of mutineers. Two men of the Fifth Light Infantry appeared at Sepoy Lines. They shot two officers of the Royal Garrison Artillery, who were making their way back to cantonments, and wounded two Chinese. After calling upon the native warder at the Central Gaol to surrender the prison keys (and receiving a defiant answer) they held up motor cars containing Europeans taking their afternoon rides, and killed four civilians and a native chauffeur, and wounded a European, who saved his life by feigning death. They then fired upon the Sikh Guard at the Central Police Station, wounding two men. They evaded the fire of the Sikh Guard by dodging behind rickshaws and made good their escape in the crowd. A body of mutineers on the Pasir Panjang Road Killed three European civilians and a lady in their cars. Two other civilians were killed on the Alexandra Road by another body of men, and three Europeans were murdered in a house on the Pasir Panjang Road. There were isolated murders of an officer of the Malay States Guides, two officers of the Fifth Light Infantry, a private of the Malay States Volunteer Rifles, and a civilian. The main residential area of the city lying on either side of Orchard Road was not visited by any bodies of mutineers during the afternoon.
The detachment of 4 officers and 81 men of the Malay States Volunteer Rifles on being warned by the officers of the Fifth Light Infantry that the regiment had mutinied, at once fell in, and moved in skirmishing order towards the Officers’ Mess at Alexandra. They reached this point without opposition. Thence they proceeded towards the house of Colonel Martin (Officer Commanding the Fifth Light Infantry) and came under fire. They made good their advance, however, and without any casualties succeeded in occupying the house in which Colonel Martin and a native servant were alone.
At about the same time the naval force from H.M.S. Cadmus got in touch on the Pasir Panjang Road with a body of mutineers which was advancing on Keppel Harbour, and after brisk firing on both sides, drove them back towards Alexandra Barracks.
By sunset, the entire European community had received the alarm; and during the evening the men collected at the Volunteer Drill Hall or at the Central Police Station where they were enrolled and armed. (Singapore owes more than is perhaps realized to the fact that there was a Drill Hall, to which every one instinctively turned.) The women obtained refuge at Government House, or at the hotels or on board ships in the harbour. Martial Law was proclaimed at 6.30 P.M. All this however, had but little effect upon the Chinese quarter of the city where everything maintained its normal appearance. Holiday makers filled the rickshaws, thronged the street stalls, and crowded the theatres. The street murders meant nothing to them, and they regarded the other events of the afternoon (so far s they had heard of them) with unconcern. The mail train left Tank Road for Penang at schedule time after the arrival of the mail train from Penang. The latter brought in 150 men of the Johore military Forces who, under the command of H.H. the Sultan in person, came in response to a message by telephone.
During the night, 138 men of the Fifth Light Infantry gave themselves up at Bukit Timah Police Station. In this number were two batches of 64 and 53 men.
A small detachment of the 36th Sikhs which had been stationed at Tanglin Barracks reported itself at daybreak of the 16th February to a picket at the head of Orchard Road, and marched into Orchard Road Police Station, whence it proceeded in motor-lorries to the Drill Hall.
The mountain battery of the Malay States Guides was stationed at Alexandra Barracks at the time of the mutiny. Some of the men are supposed to have joined the mutineers, but the remainder retreated in a body to Johore whence they endeavored to make their way to rejoin the regiment at Taipeng. Some were met on the way and proceeded to headquarters by train.
During the night of the 15th February there was a little firing at Colonel Martin’s house, which was perhaps saved from being rushed by the mutineers by its being protected by the search light from Blakang Mati. There was also firing at Alexandra Police Station where Dr. A.F. Legge (Singapore Volunteer Medical Company) and Gunner J Barry (Royal Garrison Artillery) were killed, and sniping at Orchard Road Police Station, where two men of the Fifth Light Infantry were shot by the Europeans and police who occupied the building. In the part of the city where Europeans had mainly collected the night passed without event, though no one will forget its anxiety.
It must not be thought that the whole regiment mutinied. Soon after the detachment of the Malay States Volunteer Rifles had occupied Colonel Martin’s house, a body of 80 men came up and offered to join in the defence. It was considered wiser not to accept their offer, and they were directed to go to surrender at the nearest police station. This they did. During the night the Central Police Station was a much occupied in accepting the surrenders of the men of the Fifth Light Infantry as in enrolling European additional constables. Ninety-one men surrendered at the Central Police Station during the night of the 15th, and the day and night of the 16th.
On the 16th February, at early morning, Lieutenant-Colonel C.W. Brownlow, R.A.., advanced from Keppel Harbour with a force to relieve the party in Colonel Martin'’ house. The force consisted of 80 men of H.M.S. Cadmus, 50 men of the Singapore Volunteer Corps, 21 men of the Royal Garrison Artillery and 25 armed civilians. The detachment from the Cadmus soon came under fire, and the Singapore Volunteer corps advanced in support. The force pushed forward and occupied the barracks which had not been held in strength. A heavy fire from a higher ridge held up the reserve, until the men of the Cadmus, and the Singapore Volunteer Corps, attacked the ridge from the left. The mutineers gave way, and the force reached Colonel Martin’s house without further difficulty. As it was not in sufficient strength to hold the position against superior number of the mutineers, it then retired with the relieved party to Keppel Harbour. In this action two men were killed and four wounded. Of the mutineers, so far as can be ascertained, eleven were killed.
During the morning of the same day, the Veteran Company of the Singapore Volunteer Corps occupied Tanglin Barracks unopposed and took charge of the prisoners of war. The main body of the Volunteers was divided between the Drill Hall and Keppel Harbour. They also provided guards at Government House, the General Hospital, and Fort Canning. The European special constables, numbering about 200, and a force of 190 Japanese special constables raised by the Japanese Consul and armed by the Military Authorities, were detailed off to various police stations, whence they supplied armed patrols in various directions. During the day all ladies and children were, as a precautionary measure, removed from the hotels to the ships in the harbour.
On the 17th February, there arrived in the morning the French cruiser Montcalm and in the afternoon the Japanese cruiser Otawa arrived in response to wireless messages despatched on the afternoon of the 15th. A party of 190 men, with two machine guns, from the Montcalm proceeded by motor transport to the Seletar District, where a body of mutineers was said to be. Before their arrival, however, the mutineers crossed over into Johore territory, where 61 of the surrendered to His Highness the Sultan of Johore. The French force, finding the north of the island of Singapore free of the mutineers, moved over to the west. The east was known to be clear.
On the morning of th 18th February, Lieutenant-Colonel Brownlow’s force, reinforced by 76 men from the Otawa marched out from Keppel Harbour with instructions to retake and effectively occupy Alexandra Barracks. This was done without any opposition being met. Six men were captured in the barracks. A party of Japanese thence proceeded to Normanton Barracks, where it came under fire from snipers. It captured twelve men, all followers and hospital patients. Late in the evening the Russian cruiser Orel arrived, and landed 40 men.
It was now clear that there was no longer a “military situation” (though danger from snipers and desperadoes was to be expected) and an official announcement was issued from Government House declaring that the position was completely in hand. A proclamation by the Provost-Marshal declared a considerable part of the residential area to be safe for occupation and the majority of the women and children left the steamers in the harbour.
Such of the mutineers as still remained in the island were supposed to be in the western part of the island, and arrangements were made on the 19th for “driving” and “rounding-up.” The various parties that joined in the operation were however unable to find any signs of the mutineers who by this time had broken up into small scattered bands, which hid in the jungle by day, and came out in search of food by night. The Japanese cruiser Tsushima arrived during the day and landed 75 men.
On the 20th February, drives were made in various directions in the western part of the island. The British troops only saw one maimed mutineers, who made his escape, whilst one of the French columns came across nine mutineers. One was killed, but the other escaped, throwing away their arms which were captured. The s.s. Edavana arrived in the evening from Rangoon with six companies of the 4th Shropshire Light Infantry (Territorials).
The operations on the 21st and 22nd consisted of drives similar to those of the previous days, and failed to produce any result.
On the evening of the 22nd February, one week after the outbreak, 614 men of the Fifth Light Infantry had surrendered.
The first of the series of executions of mutineers found guilty by the Summary General Court Martial took place on the 23rd February.
The “safe area” for residence by women and children was further extended on the 24th February so as to cover practically the whole of the residential area. On the 25th February, the Russian party from the Orel came in touch with a body of mutineers, who withdrew. In the course of the firing, two Russians were wounded.
His Excellency the Governor inspected and thanked the French detachment on the 23rd February, prior to its re-embarkation an departure. He inspected and thanked the Japanese detachment on the 25th February, the Russian detachment on the 2nd March, the British Naval force and the Malay States Volunteer Rifles on the 12th March, and the local and Johore Forces on the 10th April.
There is no reason to believe that the German prisoners in the Prisoners of War Camp were parties to the mutiny. German money and German Agents doubtless supported the seditionist movement both before and during the war. If any German prisoner of war at Tangling could find any opportunity of talking to one of the sentries of the Fifth Light Infantry and if he could get over the difficulty of finding a common language (for few of the Fifth Light Infantry could speak Malay the ordinary language in Singapore of conversations with an Indian) he would doubtless have seized the opportunity of saying all that he could against the British and for the Germans. But opportunities must have been few. No money that could even be suspected of coming from alien sources was found on any one of the hundreds of men who surrendered. No letters were found amongst their effects, or in the post, that showed any enemy influence. It is established that the prisoners of war were terrified when the mutineers appeared at the Camp, and that none of them attempted to escape until some hours after the mutineers had left. An accident afterwards showed that the prisoners of war had for some time been constructing a tunnel which on the day of the mutiny was only a yard short of the line of the barbed wire entanglements, and would have reached the surface on the following day, affording thereby an easy means of escape under cover of night. It can hardly be believed that the prisoners who constructed and so nearly completed that tunnel, had any expectation of release as the result of a mutiny. Of the many extraordinary facts in connection with the mutiny none perhaps is more extraordinary than the fact that, with such an opportunity, it achieved so little. If the mutiny had been pre-concerted it is almost impossible to believe that in the whole of Singapore there could not have been one man to help it in some overt manner. But not a finger was stirred. When once the mad looting of the ammunition lorries had been made, the regiment as a whole, had no idea what to do next. Singapore was for some hours at its mercy; and yet beyond the attack upon the guard at Tanglin, and the street murders, but little was attempted and nothing was done. When once the first fatal step had been taken, the men were without a plan or a leader. The regiment, with the exception of the more daring or desperate men, seems to have stayed within barracks and, like children to have awaited the coming punishment. They were on the defensive on the day after the mutiny, and were fugitives thereafter.
It is no longer a military secret that the loyal section of the regiment which surrendered to the police, left Singapore some months later for the Cameroons, and that, after excellent work there, it is now on active service in another part of the Empire.
W. George Maxell
Acting Colonial Secretary, S. S.
24th April, 1916
1916 – no relevant entry
1917 – no relevant entry
1918 – no relevant entry
1919 – Address of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government Frederick Seton James, C.M.G., at a Meeting of the Legislative Council held on Monday, the 6th October, 1919
Public Works
“Provision is made in 1920 estimates for these new quarters as well as for a commencement of the construction of new General and Native Hospitals, new Lunatic Asylum and a Tuberculosis Hospital, also for an Elementary School, a Training School, a very necessary extension to the Government Officers and also an extension of the sea wall in front of the old Tanjong Katong Fort; it is hoped that these works will all be under way during the year.”
1920 – Memorandum of Information and Statistics to accompany His Excellency the Governor’s Address to the Legislative Council on the introduction of the budget for 1921
Public Works
“Extension of the Government Offices, the erection of a Laboratory at the Botanic Gardens, the building of six quarters for Hospital Assistants at the Tan Tock Seng’s Hospital, the erection of twenty-two Clerks’ quarters, the construction of a sea-wall off Fort Katong, the building of twelve quarters for Junior Officers at Katong and building quarters for Peons at Mackenzie Road.
Other works provided for are: - A New Police Station at Bukit Panjang, quarters for twenty-two Clerks, twenty quarters for Government Officers, New Quarters for the Chief Justice at Nassim Hill, demolishing the Old Fort at Katong and filling in the moat, a New Leper Asylum for Females, the erection of a drill-hall for the Eurasian Volunteer Company, the erection of a Hangar at the proposed Aerodrome, certain very necessary repairs to the Government House and to the Colonial Secretary’s Bungalow and the removal of the Public Works Department Store and Workshops from Kandang Kerbau to a new site on the Mount Zion Reclamation.”
1921 – Memorandum of Information and Statistics to accompany His Excellency the Governor’s Address to the Legislative Council on the introduction of the budget for 1922
Public Works
“The laboratory at the Botanical Gardens, Sub-post office at the Sepoy Lines and sea-wall at Tanjong Katong have also been finished.
“Further works now in hand include additions to Colonial Secretary’s bungalow, quarters for Lady Medical Officer, Kandang Kerbau, seven sets of second class quarters, Napier and Balmoral Roads, twelve quarters for Junior Officers, Tanjong Katong, six shops and ninety rooms at the Cross Street Tenements, quarters for forty coolies at the Opium Factory, Havelock Road and Mount Zion Reclamation, demolition of the Fort at Tanjong Katong and fencing camps at St. John’s Island.”
1922 – Address by His Excellency the Governor to Members for the Legislative Council at a Meeting held on the 23rd day of October, 1922
Public Works
“The work of demolishing the old Fort and filling the moat at Tanjong Katong is nearly completed as are the alterations to the Public Works Department workshop and store.”
1923 – no relevant entry
1924 – no relevant entry
1925 – no relevant entry
1926 – no relevant entry
1927 – no relevant entry
1928 – no relevant entry
1929 – no relevant entry
1930 – no relevant entry
1931 – no relevant entry
1932 – no relevant entry
1933 – Review of the Affairs of the Colony of the Straits Settlements prepared in the Colonial Secretary’s Office for the information of Members of the Legislative council at a Meeting held on the 2nd day of October, 1933.
Volunteer Force
“Arrangements have now been made for 3.7” Howitzer Battery to work as an Anti Aircraft Battery, this and every alternate year. Three 3in. 20cst. Guns loaned by Malaya Command are installed at Volunteer Headquarters.
Great keenness has been shown by the Battery in their new work and results are most promising.”
1934 – Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of the Straits Settlements, 1934
Public Works
“The Reclamation at Labrador, Pasir Panjang, was completed at the end of the year, 494,500 cubic yards having been excavated and superimposed on the swamp.”
Review of the Affairs of the Colony of the Straits Settlements prepared in the Colonial Secretary’s Office for the information of Members of the Legislative Council at a Meeting held on the 28th day of October, 1934.
Straits Settlements Volunteer Force
“The S.R.A. (v) will carry out training with both the 3.7” Howitzer and Anti-Aircraft Equipment. Four 3 in. 20 cwt. guns loaned by Malaya Command are installed at Volunteer Headquarters. Arrangements have been made for the Battery to carry out Anti Aircraft practice shoots in September in the Changi area.”
1935 – Review of the Affairs of the Colony of the Straits Settlements prepared in the Colonial Secretary’s Office for the information of Members of the Legislative Council at a Meeting held on the 28th day of October, 1935.
Straits Settlements Volunteer Force
“The S.R.A. (v) continue to train on the 3.7” Howitzer and Anti-Aircraft equipments, and arrangements have been made for the Battery to carry out Anti-Aircraft practice shoots in September and with the 3.7” Howitzer equipment in October.
Machine Gun units from Singapore are also to carry out in conjunction with the Singapore Volunteer Fortress Company night firing practice from Blakang Mati in September.”
1936 – Review of the Affairs of the Colony of the Straits Settlements prepared in the Colonial Secretary’s Office for the information of Members of the Legislative Council at a Meeting held on the 26th day of October, 1936.
General
“The S.R.A. (v) continues to train on the 3.7” Howitzer and Anti-Aircraft equipments. No 3.7” practice ammunition is available this year. A full chare Anti-Aircraft Shoot was carried out on Sunday, March 22nd at Beting Kusa, and full charge and half charge shoots are to be carried out in September.
All machine gun units in Singapore are to carry out Filed Firing practice by day and night during August and September at Blaking Mati.”
1937 – no relevant entry
1938 – no relevant entry
1939 - Address By His Excellency The Governor
“When I addressed you at the Budget Meeting of last year, I was able to give expression to the relief which we all felt at being spared the horrors of war and the hope that we might be blessed with real and enduring peace. That hope has not been fulfilled. Great Britain is once again at war, fighting for the freedom of the world from Nazi domination. In this, she has the full support of the British Empire which, as in 1914, has place its whole resources at the disposal of the Mother Country in her hour of need. We know that victory will be our, and we can only pray that the sacrifices that are being demanded of our people and of France, that great champion of liberty, will bring lasting happiness to the world.
Here in Malaya out duty is clear. Last year this country set an example to the Colonial Empire in its contributions to Imperial Defence. The Colony of the Straits Settlements alone made a free-will offering of one million pounds, and decided also to increase its annual contribution by $2 million for a period of five years. Most of the Malay States gave according to their means and I felt very proud that I should be the channel through which these voluntary tokens of loyalty were communicated to the Secretary of State. I have no doubt that in the coming months further examples of this spirit of generosity will be forthcoming; but I wish to remind you that war is a hard taskmaster and that victory cannot be won unless each individual person gives of his or her best. It is not only of the men in the fighting line that sacrifices will be demanded; it is from each one of you here in Malaya.”
1940 – Address By His Excellency the Officer Administering The Government
“At the last reading of these yearly accounts it was possible to survey the situation arising from the outbreak of war with comparative calm. Since then the enemy has occupied Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, has swiftly and easily defeated France and had even enabled Italy to pose as a conqueror. In the middle of June the Empire found itself facing all alone a Germany and Italy in triumphant domination either by occupation, bribery or fear, of the greater part of Europe. Never, it might seem, had the fortunes of the Empire been so depressed. And now, at this moment never has the Empire been so exalted. Where it is exposed to attack it people display the finest qualities of courage and endurance, total acceptance of discipline and ungrudging capacity for sacrifice. Elsewhere it is achieving the loyalty, discipline, sustained effort and readiness to forego profit and private ease which will intensify to the fullest capacity the supply of the requirements of an Empire desperately at war. And so, as the year draw to its close, we can forget the anxieties of summer in the change in our fortunes during the last few months brought about by the valour and skill of the fighting men and the enduring soul of the people and go forward in full confidence of victory.
The main contribution this Colony is asked to make to the prosecution of the war is, in the midst of preparations for its own defence, to supply raw materials essential to it and, incidentally but most importantly, the provision of foreign exchange. In the mechanised form which modern warfare has taken these are vital and although, lacking the banners and trumpets of actual fighting they may not seem enough to shallow minds the grim truth is that any failure of our efforts to satisfy those needs would have results no less disastrous than cowardice in battle.”
1941 – Paper to be laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government
Expenditure
“The increase under Special Expenditure is entirely due to war expenditure on Defence Measures, Military Expenditure and Contributions to the Imperial Government.”
Duan Wu Jie 端午节
| Start: | Jun 19, '07 |
Happy eating zongzi everyone!
Sunday, 10 June 2007
History Channel Debuts on Singapore Cable Vision
| Start: | Jun 15, '07 |
I hope subscription will not be exhorbitantly expensive.
CHF - Happy Moonday! 9th June 2007
Date : Gregorian Calendar 9th day of June, Year A.D. 2007
Time : 1345 hours
Place : Republic Food Court Suntec City Convention Centre Atrium, Marina Bay, Singapore, Republic of Singapore, Malay Peninsula, Southeast Asia, South China Sea continental Shelf, Planet Earth, Sol System, Spiral Arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Present Universe
If you can get past the bright glare of Jos' smile, starting from the left are Charlotte (hiding as usual), Jos (who canNOT notice her?), Moon (looking so calm and serene), baobei (body language very obvious), UrofPersia (.................)
Friday, 8 June 2007
Group Activity Game - Colour My Life
Here's a simple game I just thought up.
Think of 3 colours that you feel, best describes you. Try and put a reason to why you chose that colour to describe yourself. Personality, Outlook in life, Who you are... etc. etc. Don't tell us what they are. Keep them to yourself for now. You'll need to reveal them later when the game is over.
eg 1. My Name: Count Dracula
Red - because I love blood
White - because I love virgin blood
Black - because that's all I ever see... sunlight kills me.
eg 2. Your friend's Name: Chan Ah Beng
Red - Because he's so angry all the time
Yellow - Because he has such a sunny smile everytime I see him
Dark Lavender - I keep sensing this deep dark mystery about him.
See, simple? But remember, don't tell us yet.
You have your 3 colours? You have the 3 reasons why you've chosen these three colours? Ok good. Don't change your choices now. Lock them and keep them safe. For best results, you mustn't change your choices after the next step because we want you to make the choices without the influence of other people's opinions.
Ok, next step. Let's try and put 3 colours on each and everyone of your friends here.
Each of us has a multiply page. If you want to play this game, create a new blog with the title "Colour My Life".
Each of us will then go in and state the three colours that we think describes you best. Everyone please go and post your "coloured" opinion of the person. At the end of say... 1 week when we decide to close the game, we will tally all the colours eg. green - 4 votes, blue - votes, white - 1 vote etc. and pick the top 3. This top three represents the top three colours that all your friends see you as.
Final step. When the game is closed and everyone has been "rated" with 3 top colours by everyone else, post and reveal to us the three original colours that you had chosen for yourself and see if what you perceive yourself to be is the same as what others see you as...
Interested? Dare you play and find out just what people think of you?
Let's play.
This is my "Colour My Life" page. Go ahead and post your 3 colours that you think suits me best or describes me best.
Think of 3 colours that you feel, best describes you. Try and put a reason to why you chose that colour to describe yourself. Personality, Outlook in life, Who you are... etc. etc. Don't tell us what they are. Keep them to yourself for now. You'll need to reveal them later when the game is over.
eg 1. My Name: Count Dracula
Red - because I love blood
White - because I love virgin blood
Black - because that's all I ever see... sunlight kills me.
eg 2. Your friend's Name: Chan Ah Beng
Red - Because he's so angry all the time
Yellow - Because he has such a sunny smile everytime I see him
Dark Lavender - I keep sensing this deep dark mystery about him.
See, simple? But remember, don't tell us yet.
You have your 3 colours? You have the 3 reasons why you've chosen these three colours? Ok good. Don't change your choices now. Lock them and keep them safe. For best results, you mustn't change your choices after the next step because we want you to make the choices without the influence of other people's opinions.
Ok, next step. Let's try and put 3 colours on each and everyone of your friends here.
Each of us has a multiply page. If you want to play this game, create a new blog with the title "Colour My Life".
Each of us will then go in and state the three colours that we think describes you best. Everyone please go and post your "coloured" opinion of the person. At the end of say... 1 week when we decide to close the game, we will tally all the colours eg. green - 4 votes, blue - votes, white - 1 vote etc. and pick the top 3. This top three represents the top three colours that all your friends see you as.
Final step. When the game is closed and everyone has been "rated" with 3 top colours by everyone else, post and reveal to us the three original colours that you had chosen for yourself and see if what you perceive yourself to be is the same as what others see you as...
Interested? Dare you play and find out just what people think of you?
Let's play.
This is my "Colour My Life" page. Go ahead and post your 3 colours that you think suits me best or describes me best.
Wednesday, 6 June 2007
Live Wushu & Taiji Competition Performance
| Start: | Sep 15, '07 |
Evening
$8 & $10 tickets
Confirmed attendance?
Moon
UrofPersia
MKY of the warlike princess persuasion
bABy
bAOBEi
centaur?
Tuesday, 5 June 2007
Project Chinese Military History Papers (Recent Publications, an on-going list) (PRIVATE ALBUM)
STRICTLY NO REPOSTING
The aim, to collect and create as comprehensively as possible, a collection of academic papers on Chinese Military History. This is a collective effort so you are strongly urged to join in and help make it happen.
| 2007 |
Wallacker, Benjamin E., Studies in Medieval Chinese Siegecraft: The Siege of Chien-k'ang, A. D. 548-549.1971, Vol. 5:35-54
* * * * *
"War Without Question: Policy Debates in the Founding of the Song Dynasty"
Peter Lorge (Vanderbilt University, author of War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China 900-1795, New York: Routledge; 2005, and editor of Warfare in China to 1600, Ashgate, 2005)
Traditional Chinese historiography portrays China as naturally unified under a single regime, and the periods of multi-state rule over that same territory as anomalous, but always temporary, interregnums. As such, once it became clear that a particular regime was on its way to unifying, or reunifying, China, all of the rulers of lesser states would accept the inevitable and capitulate without fighting. Yet the Later Zhou and Song dynasties' conquest of the individual polities to its north, south and west in the late 10th and early 11th centuries was resisted at every step. Moreover, even within the Later Zhou and Song governments, high officials frequently argued against the wars of conquest that established the dynasty. These debates turned on many factors rather than an overall split between pacifistic civil officials and belligerent military officials. I will argue that the very diversity of objections demonstrates an underlying acceptance of war per se, as well as considerable confusion, or at least ambivalence, about the territorial and political scope of a Chinese empire.
* * * * *
"Legislating for Victory (or: Half of Everything is Showing Up): Military Law in Japan's Warring States Period"
Ronald Frank (Pace University)
The paper focuses on two types of documents issued by regional rulers in 16th century Japan, namely domain law codes and so called "house rules," and the emphasis placed therein on military discipline, subordination, and etiquette. Along with a steady stream of legislation restricting the privilege of self-redress, there appears to be a growing number of exhortations and admonitions regarding matters of rank, dress, upkeep of equipment, timeliness, and the like. These tendencies suggest a significant shift away from a model of close personal relationships between lord and vassal and towards a more bureaucratic system of subordination in organized military units. Although the paper examines exclusively evidence derived from normative sources, the emerging pattern supports the thesis that the exponential growth in the size of armies had a direct correlation with the process of state building on the local and regional level in 16th century Japan.
* * * * *
"Sages and Savages: War and Society in 17th Century Qufu"
Christopher Agnew (University of Dayton)
This paper discusses the ways in which the Kong family of Qufu, the recognized descendents of Confucius, experienced the challenges of social upheaval in the wars that marked the period of transition from Ming to Qing rule in north China in the seventeenth century. What began as an elite struggle for control over land and trade routes evolved into a genuine social upheaval that fundamentally challenged the pillars of Kong family control in the countryside of western Shandong province. As the Duke for Fulfilling the Sage faced the social ramifications of wars between Ming princes, bandit kings, and Manchu armies, he pursued a policy of entrenchment and strategic alliance that enabled him to weather political challenges from both within and without the Kong family. The paper shall engage the theme of "Experiencing War in East Asia" in two ways. First, by examining the ducal responses to the crises of the late Ming, the paper will discuss the impact of war on the strategies of social and political reproduction embraced by one of north China's most powerful families. Second, through a study of family genealogies and local histories, the paper will ask how the sociopolitical impacts of war necessitated the production of new historical narratives of the Kong family past.
* * * * *
"Victims and Victimizers: Warlord Soldiers and Mutinies in Republican China"
Edward A. McCord (The George Washington University, author of The Power of the Gun: The Emergence of Chinese Modern Warlordism, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993)
Mutinies by warlord armies were common occurrences in Republican China. Such mutinies, however, were rarely limited to a refusal to obey orders or a rejection of military authority. Usually mutinies were acted out through assaults against the homes, shops, and persons of the general population. Thus for the people of China, mutinies were one of the many tribulations they were forced to endure in an era of military ascendancy. In her study of warlord soldiers, Diana Lary reminds us that common soldiers in this era were very often both the perpetrators and the victims of violence, and that these two roles were strongly interconnected. This paper explores the ways in which soldiers could be both victims and victimizers through a case study of a mutiny that devastated Wuchang, the capital of Hubei province, in 1920-and which led to a massacre of over one-thousand mutinous troops by military authorities. The paper seeks to reveal the special role that mutinies, real or threatened, played in the complicated intra-military and military-civil politics of warlord China. Certainly there were real troop grievances (arrears in troop pay and the threat of disbandment) that provoked the mutiny at Wuchang. At the same time, the mutiny was also the direct result of a broader contest among Hubei's military governor, his officers, and the people of Hubei province for military, political and financial power. Thus, it will become clear that while seemingly the main actors in mutinies, mutinous soldiers were frequently also pawns in political struggles over which they had very little control.
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"From Heroes to Bureaucrats: Viewing the Chinese Nationalist Experience of War through Field Diary Writing, 1937-1945"
Aaron William Moore (Harvard University)
In Western and Chinese historiography, the Chinese Nationalist (GMD) military is often portrayed as simply incompetent or a force for brutal repression. Historians of modern China, however, should not rely exclusively on the writings of the Chinese Communist Party, leftist observers, or American servicemen stationed in China. Chinese Nationalist field diaries (zhenzhong riji) are available-primarily the Ministry of Defense Archives in Taiwan and the Second National Archives in Nanjing-and thus it is time to view Nationalist conduct in the war from their perspective. The story that emerges from these documents is one of disillusionment and transformation of leadership style within the GMD. This paper will show how GMD officers, through the self-disciplinary act of field diary writing, mobilized themselves for revolution and warfare, particularly after their victory over invading Japanese forces in Shanghai (1932). From 1937, when the GMD was being systematically eradicated from its bases of power, diaries that were previously replete with details of heroism became progressively dry and empty. Although historian Chang Jui-te has already detailed the deleterious effect of rapid advancement within the GMD during the war, this paper will use diaries to consider changes in their discourse and identity. GMD servicemen's writings concerning their defeat at the hands of the Japanese are crucial to understanding how this led to their inefficacy as a military force in later years. The paper will conclude with a brief comparison to Japanese and American servicemen's diaries during their own experiences of military defeat.
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"Experiencing War from Afar: the Battle of Siping as Viewed from Yan'an, Nanjing, and Washington, D.C."
Harold M. Tanner (University of North Texas, author of Strike Hard: Anti-Crime Campaigns and Chinese Criminal Justice, 1979-1985, Cornell East Asia Series, Cornell University East Asia Program, Ithaca N.Y., 1999)
From 6 April to 19 May 1946, Communist forces fought the Nationalists in an attempt to hold the strategic railway city of Siping. Historians consider this battle a key turning point in the civil war between Communist and Nationalist forces in the Northeast. The Communists, who had been steadily retreating before the superior Nationalist armies, decided to make a firm stand at Siping. The loss at Siping contributed to a re-thinking of Communist strategy. For the Nationalists, the victory seems to be a high point. Within a month a truce went into effect, negotiated under the auspices of American General George C. Marshall. Some argue that if not for the truce, General Du Yuming could have carried on to gain a final decisive victory over Communist forces. This paper will look at the battle of Siping as it was experienced by those who were looking from afar and making decisions before and in the aftermath of the fighting. How did the engagement look from Yan'an? From Jiang Jieshi's headquarters in Nanjing? How did General Marshall and his superiors in Washington, D.C. see it? Does the battle and its aftermath indeed represent a lost opportunity for Jiang Jieshi? Or were the Nationalists, in the summer of 1946, presented with an impossible task: consolidating control over a vast, tenuously-held territory without enough resources to get the job done?
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"Making the News: Guomindang Media Policy during the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945"
Edna Tow (University of California, Berkeley)
A striking but understudied feature of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945 is the role played by Chinese mass media organs in influencing popular perceptions of the conflict. In a time when the proliferation of print and broadcasting outlets enabled ordinary citizens to see and experience war with an immediacy that had never before been possible, such developments had profound implications for how state and society viewed and responded to Japan's invasion and subsequent occupation of China. My paper focuses attention on one critical aspect of this media dynamic: the efforts by state-sponsored information agencies and media organizations to shape public views on the war. While the Nationalist government has been much maligned for its use of strict censorship controls and press laws to curb dissent and opposition, less well-known is how Chiang Kai-shek and high-level members of his administration deployed a variety of media strategies and tactics as part of a calculated plan to create national unity and solidarity against Japanese aggression. In this regard, the wartime capital of Chongqing was a focal point for such initiatives, which ranged from formal press events to official photo-opportunities. By highlighting the communication networks and institutional arrangements that supported these activities, this study underscores how media constructions played an equally significant and no less critical role than the struggle on the frontlines in defining domestic and international opinion about the Sino-Japanese conflict.
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"War, Rebellion, and Hanjian in Qing China's Southwestern/Southern Borderlands during the Early Qianlong Period (1736-c.1750)"
Alexander Ong (Independent Historian, Republic of Singapore)
"Frontiers" or "borderlands" are dynamic places where individuals residing within meet and interact, be it in the form of trade or war. The frontiers of China are no exception. By the eighteenth century, there were substantial groups of Han people (Ch. Hanren) settling in Qing China's southwestern and southern borderlands. These individuals, apart from being beyond the reach of official jurisdiction, did not necessarily pledge their loyalties towards the Qing imperium. Consequently, there were often politically suspect in the eyes of the Qing. My paper examines and builds upon existing scholarship concerning these Han personalities who were officially branded as traitors by the Qing (the term often used is Hanjian or "Han traitor"), specifically within the context of frontier wars and disturbances in Qing China's southwestern/southern borderlands during the reign of the Qianlong emperor. These characters of obscure origins were generally perceived as potential collaborators in times of unrest occurring within Qing China's borderlands.
Three cases in point are used to analyze Qing attitudes towards these frontier settlers, namely the Miao-Yao uprising in Hunan and Guangxi (1740-1741), the first Jinchuan war (1747-1749) and finally, the Qing-Annam borderlands. The Miao-Yao rebellion, from the Qing perspective, was thought to have been incited by Hanjian. In the case of the first Jinchuan war, the Qianlong emperor's suspicion of treason and collaboration with the enemy (including frontier traitors) to undermine Qing military efforts in Jinchuan led to the execution of Zhang Guangsi, a high-ranking war veteran. As for the Qing-Annam frontier zone, the danger of Qing borderlands subjects collaborating with politico-military forces in Annam became an issue of great concern for the Qing authorities.
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"From Bac Lé to Haiphong: Sino-French Conflict in Vietnam and Chinese Military Modernization"
Peter Worthing (Texas Christian University, author of Occupation and Revolution: China and the Vietnamese August Revolution of 1945, Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 2001, and A Military History of Modern China: From the Manchu
Conquest to Tian'anmen Square, Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Security International, 2007)
This paper examines two clashes between Chinese and French military forces in northern Vietnam. Although separated by sixty-two years, these two clashes were remarkably similar in that both took place after the conclusion of a negotiated settlement at the governmental level. In 1884, Chinese and French forces fought near the village of Bac Lé, although the Chinese and French governments had over a month earlier agreed to terms that would have ended the Sino-French War. This "Bac Lé Incident" led to the continuation of the war until 1885. In 1946, Chinese occupation forces and French colonial forces returning to Vietnam after the Pacific War clashed at the port city of Haiphong. The "Haiphong Incident" took place despite the fact that Chinese and French negotiators in Chongqing had already reached an agreement that called for the peaceful return of French troops to northern Vietnam. This paper examines the causes and consequences of these two "incidents." It then analyzes them in the context of China's larger program of military modernization. While others have focused on technology, weaponry, and training to assess China's military development in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this paper considers issues of civil-military relations, command and control, and communications to reveal the limits of China's military modernization between 1884 and 1946.
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"Pan-Islam in the Far East: Chinese Muslims and the Japanese All-China Muslim League"
Victor Seow (The University of Pennsylvania)
On February 7, 1938, more than five hundred Chinese Muslims were reported to have attended the inauguration of the All China Muslim League in Japanese-occupied Beiping. Formed under Japanese auspices, the league was to facilitate Japanese activities among Chinese Muslims throughout China. Although it was ultimately only fully active in the north, the league, in its formation and activities, was nevertheless representative of an important aspect of Japanese wartime policy. With professed goals which included preserving Islam, opposing Communism, improving relations between China, Japan, and Manchukuo, extending Asian culture, and unifying all Muslims worldwide, the league and, by extension, the larger Japanese Islamic project in China concurrently appealed to and reflected a strong pan-Islamic impulse consistent with Japan's efforts to forge ties with the Near East and the rest of the Islamic world. In this paper, I am interested in looking at the All-China Muslim League and other related means by which the Japanese had tried to mobilize Chinese Muslim support at the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War. More specifically, I am keen on examining what the tone and tenor of these efforts and various Chinese responses to such might say about the relations between Chinese Muslims and their non-Muslim counterparts and about the place of Chinese Muslims in the wider Islamic world. In doing so, I wish to put together a compelling case study demonstrating the complex interplay between ethnic differences, religious sentiments, and national loyalties in Republican China.
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"Training for War and the Nation: Hu Zongnan, Military Training and Xunlian in the Wartime Northwest"
Alan Baumler (Indiana University of Pennsylvania, author of Worse Than Floods and Wild Beasts: The Chinese and Opium Under the Republic, SUNY Press, 2007)
This is a preliminary study of Hu Zongnan's training apparatus in Northwest China, a series of schools and training organizations centered on the Number Seven Military school in Shaanxi. The paper will examine the nature and effectiveness of this training apparatus from a number of angles. First is military effectiveness. To what extent did these institutions apparatus improve the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army in the Northwest? Related to this is the issue of what type of army this was supposed to be. Number Seven school in particular was aimed at producing a modernized, technological army. Second is the role of this training apparatus in the factional politics of the period and particularly in the regional ambitions of Hu Zongnan. Hu was a graduate of the Whampoa Military Academy, and both he and his mentor Chiang Kai-shek were aware of how military training could help to create factional bonds. Third is the relationship between the military training and the broader issue of xunlian, or the creation of better Chinese citizens. Formal military training was only the centerpiece of a training effort that also included mobile educational teams and anti-communist re-education camps.
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"An East Asian NATO: The Nationalists and Regional Military Cooperation"
Steven Phillips (Towson University, author of Between Assimilation and Independence: The Taiwanese Encounter Nationalist China, 1945-1950, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003)
It is not surprising that Jiang Jieshi's Nationalist Chinese government desperately sought support. In 1949, his regime collapsed on the mainland and retreated to Taiwan, which became the final redoubt for approximately two million soldiers, bureaucrats, businessmen, and their families. While military ties between the Republic of China and the United States naturally have attracted the most attention from scholars, newly available materials suggest that the Generalissimo's ambitions were greater than that. Jiang's agenda became clear during his 1949 visits to South Korea and the Philippines. He and his generals dreamed of creating a regional anti-communist alliance, an East Asian North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that would include the United States, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Taiwan. Besides Jiang and his son, Nationalist diplomats and generals presented a variety of proposals to build military ties and reports on progress toward their goals. Despite these efforts, only the alliance with the United States came to fruition in the mid-1950s. The Nationalists' failure to forge a multilateral anti-communist alliance does expose barriers to regional cooperation that continue to today. Over the past several years, the Academia Historica, Taiwan's national archives, has made available correspondence and reports from Jiang and his top civilian and military advisors. These materials also include reports from South Korea, the Philippines, and Japan detailing talks with the leaders of these countries. Last year, I was able to spend months researching these documents, which offer the best insight available to date on the Nationalists' hopes for regional military cooperation.
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"Japan's 'Defense' Policy in the Abe Era: Strengthening Conventional Offensive Capability"
Ke Wang (University of Pennsylvania)
Recently much attention has been focused on East Asia, where the security tension suddenly elevated due to North Korea's nuclear detonation test on October 9, 2006. Shortly after North Korea's nuclear test, Japan's newly appointed Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, called for a strengthened premier's office to quicken response time in the event of a crisis with North Korea, and he has also established a taskforce to build up his country's National Security Council. Subsequently, Japan's Defense Agency has been upgraded into a full ministry - Japan's Defense Ministry - on Jan. 9, 2007 and about 55 million Yen has been used to this transformation. As the second biggest economic power in the contemporary world and North Korea's nearest 'enemy,' Japan's relevant response has naturally drawn observers' attention to its defense policy. People wonder how Japan will adjust its defense policy and grand strategy in new fluid regional and international environment. Will Japan quickly pursue nuclear weapons technology and change its status to that of a nuclear superpower?
Briefly speaking, there are two main arguments about Japan's security policy. First, the constructivists argue that Japan's national security policy is influenced by the structure of Japanese state and the incentives it provides for policy, and the context of social and legal norms that define policy interests and standards of appropriateness for specific policy choices. Thus it is impossible for a strong military establishment to emerge in Japan under the constraints both from state structure and anti-militaristic social norms, which is reinforced by the provisions of Japan's Peace Constitution. Second, the realists argue that Japan has used and will continue using the "buck-passing strategy", which means Japan asks its ally, the U.S., to do the work for it. Although it is true that domestic structure and norms play a significant role in Japanese security policy-making, and it is also true that Japan has gained great benefits from its close relationship with the U.S., I would like to propose the third view of Japan's postwar military development based on my observation of Japan's postwar history. I argue that first there are always two driving-forces that push Japan's defense policy to break through the limitations of Peace Constitution and make a big shift. Second, based on the analyses of these driving-forces, I think Japan will further pursue a more independent and strong offensive military capability.
In this paper, I first explain how the historical events, especially the Gulf War and 9/11 attack, have successively spurred Japan not only to set up its Ground, Maritime-, and Air Self-Defense Force, but also developed these defense forces steadily. Japan's defense capability has had a both quantitative and qualitative development in the postwar era. Second, I point out that behind these historical events it was the American pressure based on the U.S.-Japan alliance that has kept urging Japan to change its defense policy. Third, I stress that similarly to former historical events working as a catalyst in Japanese defense policy transition, current threats from China and North Korea are pushing Japan to go further in the direction of military improvement. Meanwhile and more importantly, the Japanese nationalism has been gradually replacing American pressure to become the new behind-the-scenes driving-force for Japanese military development. Japanese state is increasing the military capability much more actively than before due to the swelling of Japanese nationalism. Finally, I predict the next goal of Japan's military development is to pursue a more independent and stronger conventional offensive capability. Japan will eventually have nuclear power, but it will not rush to nuclear power in current stage.
| 2006 |
"Learning from Defeat: Sui and Tang Intervention in the Korean Peninsula, 598-670"
David A. Graff (Kansas State University),
During the space of seventy years, two successive Chinese dynasties launched repeated invasions of the Korean peninsula, with major efforts in 598, 612, 613, 614, 645, 660, 661, and 667. Most of these offensives ended in failure, and even after unprecedented success in the 660s China's Tang dynasty found it expedient to withdraw its forces from Korea when serious threats appeared from other quarters (manely the Turks and Tibetans) in the late 670s. This paper examines the successive Chinese invasion plans with an eye to identifying what went wrong and showing how Sui and Tang military planners were able to learn from their mistakes and produce operational plans that reflected an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the special difficulties of waging war in Northeast Asia in the early medieval period. These included the great distance of the battlefronts from the settled areas of China proper, a relatively short campaigning season bracketed by a long winter and inconvenient rainy season, and the scorched-earth policies and many stoutly defended fortresses of the northern Korean kingdom of Koguryo. It was only after the Chinese shifted the focus of their attack to the weaker southwestern kingdom of Paekche and formed an offensive alliance with the third Korean kingdom of Silla that (temporary) success was finally achieved.
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"Overseeing the Japanese Presence in Choson Korea, 1392-1510"
Kenneth R. Robinson (International Christian University, Tokyo)
Seeking to halt the piracy that had been constant since the 1350s and to encourage trade, the Choson Korea government permitted Japanese to reside and to trade inside compounds constructed at three southeastern ports from the early fifteenth century. The resident populations at each compound steadily increased over the next several decades. So too did the frequency of Japanese trade, and thus the numbers of short-term guests. The Korean government set the compounds near navy bases, but later placed major defense installations near each port. The military shadow was an intentional feature of the geography of managing foreign presence, but has not been discussed in Korean- or Japanese-language scholarship.
Having set the broader contexts of Japanese piracy, Japanese trade, and the Korean military defense system in the background, I will outline the Korean government's appointment of county magistrates and examine the appointment of magistrates to the counties in which the compounds were located. County magistrates were typically drawn from among officials who had passed the highest civil service examination, but the government appointed relatively few civil bureaucracy officials to these three counties. Instead, officials who had entered government service through less prestigious avenues, the military service examination and the protective appointment available for sons of the highest-ranking government officials, served there more frequently through 1510. I will suggest that the central government considered these three appointments to be of lesser status because of the need to work closely with military officials and because overseeing the resident and visiting Japanese was an important task of the magistracies.
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"Blocking the Arteries: Pirate Mercenaries in Sixteenth-Century Japan"
Peter D. Shapinsky (University of Illinois, Springfield)
In strife-ridden fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Japan, maritime infrastructure was more developed and more convenient than that on land, but much of this maritime infrastructure also lay in the hands of seafarers who -- although labeled pirates (kaizoku) by land-based authorities -- appropriated land-based discourses of warrior lordship and self-identified as sea lords. As such, part of their legitimacy derived from performing martial services for warlord (daimyo) patrons. Possessing no navies and exercising little direct influence over the waves, warring land-based daimyo accepted and recognized the suzerainty of these sea lords and competed with each other to contract with them for a variety of services from commerce, to escorting shipping, to fighting sea battles. Sea lords thus can be usefully understood as mercenary purveyors of non-state violence (a concept drawn from Janice Thomson, Pirates, Mercenaries, and Sovereigns: State-Building and Extraterritorial Violence in Early Modern Europe, Princeton UP, 1994),
Sea lords dominated the sea-lanes through the fortification of maritime chokepoints where they operated toll barriers and extorted protection. As such, they often fought proxy battles for patrons against other sea-lord bands in these narrow channels. Focusing on a series of late sixteenth-century battles in choke-points in the Seto Inland Sea -- Japan's aortic sea route in the premodern period -- this paper will examine the distinctive ships, fortifications, and tactics devised and used by sea lords to seize control of, blockade, and hold shipping lanes. In doing so, I will demonstrate that the logic that drove nautical development in Japan's early-modern military revolution followed not the directives of land-based daimyo or some abstract technological teleology but was the product of the needs and ambitions of these maritime mercenaries.
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"All Along the Watch-towers: Plans for Bolstering Coastal Defenses in Late Sixteenth-century China"
Kenneth M. Swope (Ball State University)
In 1567, after more than a century of officially imposed isolation from maritime activities, the Ming state lifted the ban on overseas trade. While on one hand the Ming state was in fact only seeking to derive financial benefit from the vast new stores of wealth flowing into Asia from the Americas, the lifting of the ban on maritime trade can also be viewed as a proclamation by the Ming court that the so-called "Japanese pirate" (wokou) troubles of the preceding decades were over once and for all and that the imperial state was now both willing and able to defend its maritime frontiers and interests. This resolve would come to be seriously tested in the 1590s when Toyotomi Hideyoshi, unifier of Japan (and queller of piracy there), launched a massive invasion of Korea, with China as his primary objective. The assault on Korea touched off fears of Japanese invasion up and down the coast of China and central and local officials alike made elaborate plans for the bolstering of coastal defenses. This paper shall look at some of those plans and examine their social, economic and political ramifications within the larger socio-political context of late sixteenth-century East Asia. It will also consider these measures in light of the military revival then being experienced by the Ming state and tie them into the overall strategic goals of the Ming Emperor Wanli (r. 1573-1620), who sought to assert himself vis-a-vis his civil officials and re-establish the primacy of the Ming empire in East Asia against the upstart
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"China at War, 1937-1945: Remembering and Re-remembering China's War of Resistance"
Parks M. Coble (University of Nebraska, Lincoln)
Six decades have passed since the guns fell silent with Japan's defeat in World War II. In most of the combatant nations the public memory of the war is confined to ceremonies on special holidays when the few remaining veterans are honored. In China, however, the legacy of the war is a volatile, public issue. The irony is that as visible as the issue of the war legacy is today, for much of the history of the People's Republic of China -- the Maoist years -- the Anti-Japanese War of Resistance almost disappeared from public view. Only the resistance led by Chairman Mao was praised, other memories were "forgotten." When the war was mentioned at all during the Maoist years, the "China as victor" approach dominated. Little mention was made of Japanese atrocities even including the famous "Rape of Nanjing [Nanking]."
After the death of Chairman Mao and the rise to power of Deng Xiaoping as China's paramount leader, a new and very public interest in the war and its legacy appeared in China. The volume of publications increased dramatically while the subject matter which they covered began to change. From the 1980s until the present, the legacy of the war of resistance has thus re-surfaced from near total obscurity in China and the focus has shifted to China as the victim.
An enormous volume of publications has appeared particularly on such topics as the Rape of Nanjing. The "new remembering" of the war in China is a politically constructed memory designed to foster a sense of nationalism in today's China. As a consequence, despite the enormous volume of publications which have emerged on the Sino-Japanese War, understanding the experience of those who lived through the event is perhaps as difficult as ever. The goal of this paper is to first examine some of the main themes in the original "memory" of the war as it was created by journalists and war reporters during the war itself. Secondly, the paper will examine how these memories of the war have been recast in the "new remembering" to fit the needs of today's nationalism. Both through reprints of original materials in edited form and in memoir recollections, the memory of the war which is so public in today's China, has recast dramatically the ways in which people thought about the war at the time. The new remembering thus helps us understand the changing face of nationalism in today's China.
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"Roles and Missions of the U.S. Army in China: From Interwar to Cold War"
Gary Trogdon (U.S. Army Center of Military History)
Athough the U.S. Army has had a relationship with China that goes back more than one hundred years, little is written on the Army's roles and missions within the country during World War II -- and even less on the Army's Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) and its role. Even before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Army provided advice and support to China, but it wasn't until late in 1944 that the Army's spy catchers established detachments in non-Japanese occupied portions of China to assist the Chinese in fighting the Japanese. The CIC agents were tasked with providing negative intelligence for U.S. Army units in China (mainly Army Air Force units) and in advising the Nationalist Chinese forces on how to prevent the Japanese from gaining intelligence about military operations.
Selecting soldiers with fluency in the Chinese language and experience living in China, the Army sent in three detachments to assist in developing counterintelligence procedures, screening locals working for the U.S. Army on its bases, and in training Nationalist Chinese soldiers to be counterintelligence agents. The short period of time before the end of the war did not see a major change in China's approach to counterintelligence. A secret mission to place CIC and Office of Strategic Services (OSS) behind Japanese lines to prepare for an American invasion of the East China Coast was only in its planning stages when the war ended. The impact of CIC on China during and after the Second World War was minimal. Too few agents with too little time in country severely limited the actions of these 150 men. Although not an important part of the Army's history in China, they were part of it nonetheless.
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"Of Brush and Sword: Constructions and Deconstructions of Militarism in Tang Poetry"
Mark Francis (Drew University)
Traditional Chinese elite society is typically defined as a bureaucratic class founded on shared education and values, specifically the classic Confucian texts and their ideology. In both official and nonofficial circles this ruling class exercised cultivated literary skills, including the writing and appreciation of poetry, for various important social functions -- thus, their designation as "literati."
My paper examines how the Tang literati expressed and depicted military attitudes, figures and events in the universally prized medium of lyric poetry. It will consider how these expressions reflected, or clashed with, supposed Confucian values, and examine how lyric poetry promoted certain ideas about militarism and notions of military history among the traditional Chinese elite.
I will address these issues by focused attention on pertinent writing by Tang poets such as Du Fu, Li Bo, Gao Shi, and Cen Shen and on their circulation and critical reception. My essay will also seek a larger context by suggesting more general patterns of cultural construction of militarism within additional genres and periods throughout the imperial era.
The aim, to collect and create as comprehensively as possible, a collection of academic papers on Chinese Military History. This is a collective effort so you are strongly urged to join in and help make it happen.
| 2007 |
Wallacker, Benjamin E., Studies in Medieval Chinese Siegecraft: The Siege of Chien-k'ang, A. D. 548-549.1971, Vol. 5:35-54
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"War Without Question: Policy Debates in the Founding of the Song Dynasty"
Peter Lorge (Vanderbilt University, author of War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China 900-1795, New York: Routledge; 2005, and editor of Warfare in China to 1600, Ashgate, 2005)
Traditional Chinese historiography portrays China as naturally unified under a single regime, and the periods of multi-state rule over that same territory as anomalous, but always temporary, interregnums. As such, once it became clear that a particular regime was on its way to unifying, or reunifying, China, all of the rulers of lesser states would accept the inevitable and capitulate without fighting. Yet the Later Zhou and Song dynasties' conquest of the individual polities to its north, south and west in the late 10th and early 11th centuries was resisted at every step. Moreover, even within the Later Zhou and Song governments, high officials frequently argued against the wars of conquest that established the dynasty. These debates turned on many factors rather than an overall split between pacifistic civil officials and belligerent military officials. I will argue that the very diversity of objections demonstrates an underlying acceptance of war per se, as well as considerable confusion, or at least ambivalence, about the territorial and political scope of a Chinese empire.
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"Legislating for Victory (or: Half of Everything is Showing Up): Military Law in Japan's Warring States Period"
Ronald Frank (Pace University)
The paper focuses on two types of documents issued by regional rulers in 16th century Japan, namely domain law codes and so called "house rules," and the emphasis placed therein on military discipline, subordination, and etiquette. Along with a steady stream of legislation restricting the privilege of self-redress, there appears to be a growing number of exhortations and admonitions regarding matters of rank, dress, upkeep of equipment, timeliness, and the like. These tendencies suggest a significant shift away from a model of close personal relationships between lord and vassal and towards a more bureaucratic system of subordination in organized military units. Although the paper examines exclusively evidence derived from normative sources, the emerging pattern supports the thesis that the exponential growth in the size of armies had a direct correlation with the process of state building on the local and regional level in 16th century Japan.
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"Sages and Savages: War and Society in 17th Century Qufu"
Christopher Agnew (University of Dayton)
This paper discusses the ways in which the Kong family of Qufu, the recognized descendents of Confucius, experienced the challenges of social upheaval in the wars that marked the period of transition from Ming to Qing rule in north China in the seventeenth century. What began as an elite struggle for control over land and trade routes evolved into a genuine social upheaval that fundamentally challenged the pillars of Kong family control in the countryside of western Shandong province. As the Duke for Fulfilling the Sage faced the social ramifications of wars between Ming princes, bandit kings, and Manchu armies, he pursued a policy of entrenchment and strategic alliance that enabled him to weather political challenges from both within and without the Kong family. The paper shall engage the theme of "Experiencing War in East Asia" in two ways. First, by examining the ducal responses to the crises of the late Ming, the paper will discuss the impact of war on the strategies of social and political reproduction embraced by one of north China's most powerful families. Second, through a study of family genealogies and local histories, the paper will ask how the sociopolitical impacts of war necessitated the production of new historical narratives of the Kong family past.
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"Victims and Victimizers: Warlord Soldiers and Mutinies in Republican China"
Edward A. McCord (The George Washington University, author of The Power of the Gun: The Emergence of Chinese Modern Warlordism, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993)
Mutinies by warlord armies were common occurrences in Republican China. Such mutinies, however, were rarely limited to a refusal to obey orders or a rejection of military authority. Usually mutinies were acted out through assaults against the homes, shops, and persons of the general population. Thus for the people of China, mutinies were one of the many tribulations they were forced to endure in an era of military ascendancy. In her study of warlord soldiers, Diana Lary reminds us that common soldiers in this era were very often both the perpetrators and the victims of violence, and that these two roles were strongly interconnected. This paper explores the ways in which soldiers could be both victims and victimizers through a case study of a mutiny that devastated Wuchang, the capital of Hubei province, in 1920-and which led to a massacre of over one-thousand mutinous troops by military authorities. The paper seeks to reveal the special role that mutinies, real or threatened, played in the complicated intra-military and military-civil politics of warlord China. Certainly there were real troop grievances (arrears in troop pay and the threat of disbandment) that provoked the mutiny at Wuchang. At the same time, the mutiny was also the direct result of a broader contest among Hubei's military governor, his officers, and the people of Hubei province for military, political and financial power. Thus, it will become clear that while seemingly the main actors in mutinies, mutinous soldiers were frequently also pawns in political struggles over which they had very little control.
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"From Heroes to Bureaucrats: Viewing the Chinese Nationalist Experience of War through Field Diary Writing, 1937-1945"
Aaron William Moore (Harvard University)
In Western and Chinese historiography, the Chinese Nationalist (GMD) military is often portrayed as simply incompetent or a force for brutal repression. Historians of modern China, however, should not rely exclusively on the writings of the Chinese Communist Party, leftist observers, or American servicemen stationed in China. Chinese Nationalist field diaries (zhenzhong riji) are available-primarily the Ministry of Defense Archives in Taiwan and the Second National Archives in Nanjing-and thus it is time to view Nationalist conduct in the war from their perspective. The story that emerges from these documents is one of disillusionment and transformation of leadership style within the GMD. This paper will show how GMD officers, through the self-disciplinary act of field diary writing, mobilized themselves for revolution and warfare, particularly after their victory over invading Japanese forces in Shanghai (1932). From 1937, when the GMD was being systematically eradicated from its bases of power, diaries that were previously replete with details of heroism became progressively dry and empty. Although historian Chang Jui-te has already detailed the deleterious effect of rapid advancement within the GMD during the war, this paper will use diaries to consider changes in their discourse and identity. GMD servicemen's writings concerning their defeat at the hands of the Japanese are crucial to understanding how this led to their inefficacy as a military force in later years. The paper will conclude with a brief comparison to Japanese and American servicemen's diaries during their own experiences of military defeat.
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"Experiencing War from Afar: the Battle of Siping as Viewed from Yan'an, Nanjing, and Washington, D.C."
Harold M. Tanner (University of North Texas, author of Strike Hard: Anti-Crime Campaigns and Chinese Criminal Justice, 1979-1985, Cornell East Asia Series, Cornell University East Asia Program, Ithaca N.Y., 1999)
From 6 April to 19 May 1946, Communist forces fought the Nationalists in an attempt to hold the strategic railway city of Siping. Historians consider this battle a key turning point in the civil war between Communist and Nationalist forces in the Northeast. The Communists, who had been steadily retreating before the superior Nationalist armies, decided to make a firm stand at Siping. The loss at Siping contributed to a re-thinking of Communist strategy. For the Nationalists, the victory seems to be a high point. Within a month a truce went into effect, negotiated under the auspices of American General George C. Marshall. Some argue that if not for the truce, General Du Yuming could have carried on to gain a final decisive victory over Communist forces. This paper will look at the battle of Siping as it was experienced by those who were looking from afar and making decisions before and in the aftermath of the fighting. How did the engagement look from Yan'an? From Jiang Jieshi's headquarters in Nanjing? How did General Marshall and his superiors in Washington, D.C. see it? Does the battle and its aftermath indeed represent a lost opportunity for Jiang Jieshi? Or were the Nationalists, in the summer of 1946, presented with an impossible task: consolidating control over a vast, tenuously-held territory without enough resources to get the job done?
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"Making the News: Guomindang Media Policy during the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945"
Edna Tow (University of California, Berkeley)
A striking but understudied feature of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945 is the role played by Chinese mass media organs in influencing popular perceptions of the conflict. In a time when the proliferation of print and broadcasting outlets enabled ordinary citizens to see and experience war with an immediacy that had never before been possible, such developments had profound implications for how state and society viewed and responded to Japan's invasion and subsequent occupation of China. My paper focuses attention on one critical aspect of this media dynamic: the efforts by state-sponsored information agencies and media organizations to shape public views on the war. While the Nationalist government has been much maligned for its use of strict censorship controls and press laws to curb dissent and opposition, less well-known is how Chiang Kai-shek and high-level members of his administration deployed a variety of media strategies and tactics as part of a calculated plan to create national unity and solidarity against Japanese aggression. In this regard, the wartime capital of Chongqing was a focal point for such initiatives, which ranged from formal press events to official photo-opportunities. By highlighting the communication networks and institutional arrangements that supported these activities, this study underscores how media constructions played an equally significant and no less critical role than the struggle on the frontlines in defining domestic and international opinion about the Sino-Japanese conflict.
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"War, Rebellion, and Hanjian in Qing China's Southwestern/Southern Borderlands during the Early Qianlong Period (1736-c.1750)"
Alexander Ong (Independent Historian, Republic of Singapore)
"Frontiers" or "borderlands" are dynamic places where individuals residing within meet and interact, be it in the form of trade or war. The frontiers of China are no exception. By the eighteenth century, there were substantial groups of Han people (Ch. Hanren) settling in Qing China's southwestern and southern borderlands. These individuals, apart from being beyond the reach of official jurisdiction, did not necessarily pledge their loyalties towards the Qing imperium. Consequently, there were often politically suspect in the eyes of the Qing. My paper examines and builds upon existing scholarship concerning these Han personalities who were officially branded as traitors by the Qing (the term often used is Hanjian or "Han traitor"), specifically within the context of frontier wars and disturbances in Qing China's southwestern/southern borderlands during the reign of the Qianlong emperor. These characters of obscure origins were generally perceived as potential collaborators in times of unrest occurring within Qing China's borderlands.
Three cases in point are used to analyze Qing attitudes towards these frontier settlers, namely the Miao-Yao uprising in Hunan and Guangxi (1740-1741), the first Jinchuan war (1747-1749) and finally, the Qing-Annam borderlands. The Miao-Yao rebellion, from the Qing perspective, was thought to have been incited by Hanjian. In the case of the first Jinchuan war, the Qianlong emperor's suspicion of treason and collaboration with the enemy (including frontier traitors) to undermine Qing military efforts in Jinchuan led to the execution of Zhang Guangsi, a high-ranking war veteran. As for the Qing-Annam frontier zone, the danger of Qing borderlands subjects collaborating with politico-military forces in Annam became an issue of great concern for the Qing authorities.
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"From Bac Lé to Haiphong: Sino-French Conflict in Vietnam and Chinese Military Modernization"
Peter Worthing (Texas Christian University, author of Occupation and Revolution: China and the Vietnamese August Revolution of 1945, Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 2001, and A Military History of Modern China: From the Manchu
Conquest to Tian'anmen Square, Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Security International, 2007)
This paper examines two clashes between Chinese and French military forces in northern Vietnam. Although separated by sixty-two years, these two clashes were remarkably similar in that both took place after the conclusion of a negotiated settlement at the governmental level. In 1884, Chinese and French forces fought near the village of Bac Lé, although the Chinese and French governments had over a month earlier agreed to terms that would have ended the Sino-French War. This "Bac Lé Incident" led to the continuation of the war until 1885. In 1946, Chinese occupation forces and French colonial forces returning to Vietnam after the Pacific War clashed at the port city of Haiphong. The "Haiphong Incident" took place despite the fact that Chinese and French negotiators in Chongqing had already reached an agreement that called for the peaceful return of French troops to northern Vietnam. This paper examines the causes and consequences of these two "incidents." It then analyzes them in the context of China's larger program of military modernization. While others have focused on technology, weaponry, and training to assess China's military development in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this paper considers issues of civil-military relations, command and control, and communications to reveal the limits of China's military modernization between 1884 and 1946.
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"Pan-Islam in the Far East: Chinese Muslims and the Japanese All-China Muslim League"
Victor Seow (The University of Pennsylvania)
On February 7, 1938, more than five hundred Chinese Muslims were reported to have attended the inauguration of the All China Muslim League in Japanese-occupied Beiping. Formed under Japanese auspices, the league was to facilitate Japanese activities among Chinese Muslims throughout China. Although it was ultimately only fully active in the north, the league, in its formation and activities, was nevertheless representative of an important aspect of Japanese wartime policy. With professed goals which included preserving Islam, opposing Communism, improving relations between China, Japan, and Manchukuo, extending Asian culture, and unifying all Muslims worldwide, the league and, by extension, the larger Japanese Islamic project in China concurrently appealed to and reflected a strong pan-Islamic impulse consistent with Japan's efforts to forge ties with the Near East and the rest of the Islamic world. In this paper, I am interested in looking at the All-China Muslim League and other related means by which the Japanese had tried to mobilize Chinese Muslim support at the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War. More specifically, I am keen on examining what the tone and tenor of these efforts and various Chinese responses to such might say about the relations between Chinese Muslims and their non-Muslim counterparts and about the place of Chinese Muslims in the wider Islamic world. In doing so, I wish to put together a compelling case study demonstrating the complex interplay between ethnic differences, religious sentiments, and national loyalties in Republican China.
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"Training for War and the Nation: Hu Zongnan, Military Training and Xunlian in the Wartime Northwest"
Alan Baumler (Indiana University of Pennsylvania, author of Worse Than Floods and Wild Beasts: The Chinese and Opium Under the Republic, SUNY Press, 2007)
This is a preliminary study of Hu Zongnan's training apparatus in Northwest China, a series of schools and training organizations centered on the Number Seven Military school in Shaanxi. The paper will examine the nature and effectiveness of this training apparatus from a number of angles. First is military effectiveness. To what extent did these institutions apparatus improve the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army in the Northwest? Related to this is the issue of what type of army this was supposed to be. Number Seven school in particular was aimed at producing a modernized, technological army. Second is the role of this training apparatus in the factional politics of the period and particularly in the regional ambitions of Hu Zongnan. Hu was a graduate of the Whampoa Military Academy, and both he and his mentor Chiang Kai-shek were aware of how military training could help to create factional bonds. Third is the relationship between the military training and the broader issue of xunlian, or the creation of better Chinese citizens. Formal military training was only the centerpiece of a training effort that also included mobile educational teams and anti-communist re-education camps.
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"An East Asian NATO: The Nationalists and Regional Military Cooperation"
Steven Phillips (Towson University, author of Between Assimilation and Independence: The Taiwanese Encounter Nationalist China, 1945-1950, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003)
It is not surprising that Jiang Jieshi's Nationalist Chinese government desperately sought support. In 1949, his regime collapsed on the mainland and retreated to Taiwan, which became the final redoubt for approximately two million soldiers, bureaucrats, businessmen, and their families. While military ties between the Republic of China and the United States naturally have attracted the most attention from scholars, newly available materials suggest that the Generalissimo's ambitions were greater than that. Jiang's agenda became clear during his 1949 visits to South Korea and the Philippines. He and his generals dreamed of creating a regional anti-communist alliance, an East Asian North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that would include the United States, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Taiwan. Besides Jiang and his son, Nationalist diplomats and generals presented a variety of proposals to build military ties and reports on progress toward their goals. Despite these efforts, only the alliance with the United States came to fruition in the mid-1950s. The Nationalists' failure to forge a multilateral anti-communist alliance does expose barriers to regional cooperation that continue to today. Over the past several years, the Academia Historica, Taiwan's national archives, has made available correspondence and reports from Jiang and his top civilian and military advisors. These materials also include reports from South Korea, the Philippines, and Japan detailing talks with the leaders of these countries. Last year, I was able to spend months researching these documents, which offer the best insight available to date on the Nationalists' hopes for regional military cooperation.
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"Japan's 'Defense' Policy in the Abe Era: Strengthening Conventional Offensive Capability"
Ke Wang (University of Pennsylvania)
Recently much attention has been focused on East Asia, where the security tension suddenly elevated due to North Korea's nuclear detonation test on October 9, 2006. Shortly after North Korea's nuclear test, Japan's newly appointed Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, called for a strengthened premier's office to quicken response time in the event of a crisis with North Korea, and he has also established a taskforce to build up his country's National Security Council. Subsequently, Japan's Defense Agency has been upgraded into a full ministry - Japan's Defense Ministry - on Jan. 9, 2007 and about 55 million Yen has been used to this transformation. As the second biggest economic power in the contemporary world and North Korea's nearest 'enemy,' Japan's relevant response has naturally drawn observers' attention to its defense policy. People wonder how Japan will adjust its defense policy and grand strategy in new fluid regional and international environment. Will Japan quickly pursue nuclear weapons technology and change its status to that of a nuclear superpower?
Briefly speaking, there are two main arguments about Japan's security policy. First, the constructivists argue that Japan's national security policy is influenced by the structure of Japanese state and the incentives it provides for policy, and the context of social and legal norms that define policy interests and standards of appropriateness for specific policy choices. Thus it is impossible for a strong military establishment to emerge in Japan under the constraints both from state structure and anti-militaristic social norms, which is reinforced by the provisions of Japan's Peace Constitution. Second, the realists argue that Japan has used and will continue using the "buck-passing strategy", which means Japan asks its ally, the U.S., to do the work for it. Although it is true that domestic structure and norms play a significant role in Japanese security policy-making, and it is also true that Japan has gained great benefits from its close relationship with the U.S., I would like to propose the third view of Japan's postwar military development based on my observation of Japan's postwar history. I argue that first there are always two driving-forces that push Japan's defense policy to break through the limitations of Peace Constitution and make a big shift. Second, based on the analyses of these driving-forces, I think Japan will further pursue a more independent and strong offensive military capability.
In this paper, I first explain how the historical events, especially the Gulf War and 9/11 attack, have successively spurred Japan not only to set up its Ground, Maritime-, and Air Self-Defense Force, but also developed these defense forces steadily. Japan's defense capability has had a both quantitative and qualitative development in the postwar era. Second, I point out that behind these historical events it was the American pressure based on the U.S.-Japan alliance that has kept urging Japan to change its defense policy. Third, I stress that similarly to former historical events working as a catalyst in Japanese defense policy transition, current threats from China and North Korea are pushing Japan to go further in the direction of military improvement. Meanwhile and more importantly, the Japanese nationalism has been gradually replacing American pressure to become the new behind-the-scenes driving-force for Japanese military development. Japanese state is increasing the military capability much more actively than before due to the swelling of Japanese nationalism. Finally, I predict the next goal of Japan's military development is to pursue a more independent and stronger conventional offensive capability. Japan will eventually have nuclear power, but it will not rush to nuclear power in current stage.
| 2006 |
"Learning from Defeat: Sui and Tang Intervention in the Korean Peninsula, 598-670"
David A. Graff (Kansas State University),
During the space of seventy years, two successive Chinese dynasties launched repeated invasions of the Korean peninsula, with major efforts in 598, 612, 613, 614, 645, 660, 661, and 667. Most of these offensives ended in failure, and even after unprecedented success in the 660s China's Tang dynasty found it expedient to withdraw its forces from Korea when serious threats appeared from other quarters (manely the Turks and Tibetans) in the late 670s. This paper examines the successive Chinese invasion plans with an eye to identifying what went wrong and showing how Sui and Tang military planners were able to learn from their mistakes and produce operational plans that reflected an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the special difficulties of waging war in Northeast Asia in the early medieval period. These included the great distance of the battlefronts from the settled areas of China proper, a relatively short campaigning season bracketed by a long winter and inconvenient rainy season, and the scorched-earth policies and many stoutly defended fortresses of the northern Korean kingdom of Koguryo. It was only after the Chinese shifted the focus of their attack to the weaker southwestern kingdom of Paekche and formed an offensive alliance with the third Korean kingdom of Silla that (temporary) success was finally achieved.
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"Overseeing the Japanese Presence in Choson Korea, 1392-1510"
Kenneth R. Robinson (International Christian University, Tokyo)
Seeking to halt the piracy that had been constant since the 1350s and to encourage trade, the Choson Korea government permitted Japanese to reside and to trade inside compounds constructed at three southeastern ports from the early fifteenth century. The resident populations at each compound steadily increased over the next several decades. So too did the frequency of Japanese trade, and thus the numbers of short-term guests. The Korean government set the compounds near navy bases, but later placed major defense installations near each port. The military shadow was an intentional feature of the geography of managing foreign presence, but has not been discussed in Korean- or Japanese-language scholarship.
Having set the broader contexts of Japanese piracy, Japanese trade, and the Korean military defense system in the background, I will outline the Korean government's appointment of county magistrates and examine the appointment of magistrates to the counties in which the compounds were located. County magistrates were typically drawn from among officials who had passed the highest civil service examination, but the government appointed relatively few civil bureaucracy officials to these three counties. Instead, officials who had entered government service through less prestigious avenues, the military service examination and the protective appointment available for sons of the highest-ranking government officials, served there more frequently through 1510. I will suggest that the central government considered these three appointments to be of lesser status because of the need to work closely with military officials and because overseeing the resident and visiting Japanese was an important task of the magistracies.
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"Blocking the Arteries: Pirate Mercenaries in Sixteenth-Century Japan"
Peter D. Shapinsky (University of Illinois, Springfield)
In strife-ridden fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Japan, maritime infrastructure was more developed and more convenient than that on land, but much of this maritime infrastructure also lay in the hands of seafarers who -- although labeled pirates (kaizoku) by land-based authorities -- appropriated land-based discourses of warrior lordship and self-identified as sea lords. As such, part of their legitimacy derived from performing martial services for warlord (daimyo) patrons. Possessing no navies and exercising little direct influence over the waves, warring land-based daimyo accepted and recognized the suzerainty of these sea lords and competed with each other to contract with them for a variety of services from commerce, to escorting shipping, to fighting sea battles. Sea lords thus can be usefully understood as mercenary purveyors of non-state violence (a concept drawn from Janice Thomson, Pirates, Mercenaries, and Sovereigns: State-Building and Extraterritorial Violence in Early Modern Europe, Princeton UP, 1994),
Sea lords dominated the sea-lanes through the fortification of maritime chokepoints where they operated toll barriers and extorted protection. As such, they often fought proxy battles for patrons against other sea-lord bands in these narrow channels. Focusing on a series of late sixteenth-century battles in choke-points in the Seto Inland Sea -- Japan's aortic sea route in the premodern period -- this paper will examine the distinctive ships, fortifications, and tactics devised and used by sea lords to seize control of, blockade, and hold shipping lanes. In doing so, I will demonstrate that the logic that drove nautical development in Japan's early-modern military revolution followed not the directives of land-based daimyo or some abstract technological teleology but was the product of the needs and ambitions of these maritime mercenaries.
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"All Along the Watch-towers: Plans for Bolstering Coastal Defenses in Late Sixteenth-century China"
Kenneth M. Swope (Ball State University)
In 1567, after more than a century of officially imposed isolation from maritime activities, the Ming state lifted the ban on overseas trade. While on one hand the Ming state was in fact only seeking to derive financial benefit from the vast new stores of wealth flowing into Asia from the Americas, the lifting of the ban on maritime trade can also be viewed as a proclamation by the Ming court that the so-called "Japanese pirate" (wokou) troubles of the preceding decades were over once and for all and that the imperial state was now both willing and able to defend its maritime frontiers and interests. This resolve would come to be seriously tested in the 1590s when Toyotomi Hideyoshi, unifier of Japan (and queller of piracy there), launched a massive invasion of Korea, with China as his primary objective. The assault on Korea touched off fears of Japanese invasion up and down the coast of China and central and local officials alike made elaborate plans for the bolstering of coastal defenses. This paper shall look at some of those plans and examine their social, economic and political ramifications within the larger socio-political context of late sixteenth-century East Asia. It will also consider these measures in light of the military revival then being experienced by the Ming state and tie them into the overall strategic goals of the Ming Emperor Wanli (r. 1573-1620), who sought to assert himself vis-a-vis his civil officials and re-establish the primacy of the Ming empire in East Asia against the upstart
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"China at War, 1937-1945: Remembering and Re-remembering China's War of Resistance"
Parks M. Coble (University of Nebraska, Lincoln)
Six decades have passed since the guns fell silent with Japan's defeat in World War II. In most of the combatant nations the public memory of the war is confined to ceremonies on special holidays when the few remaining veterans are honored. In China, however, the legacy of the war is a volatile, public issue. The irony is that as visible as the issue of the war legacy is today, for much of the history of the People's Republic of China -- the Maoist years -- the Anti-Japanese War of Resistance almost disappeared from public view. Only the resistance led by Chairman Mao was praised, other memories were "forgotten." When the war was mentioned at all during the Maoist years, the "China as victor" approach dominated. Little mention was made of Japanese atrocities even including the famous "Rape of Nanjing [Nanking]."
After the death of Chairman Mao and the rise to power of Deng Xiaoping as China's paramount leader, a new and very public interest in the war and its legacy appeared in China. The volume of publications increased dramatically while the subject matter which they covered began to change. From the 1980s until the present, the legacy of the war of resistance has thus re-surfaced from near total obscurity in China and the focus has shifted to China as the victim.
An enormous volume of publications has appeared particularly on such topics as the Rape of Nanjing. The "new remembering" of the war in China is a politically constructed memory designed to foster a sense of nationalism in today's China. As a consequence, despite the enormous volume of publications which have emerged on the Sino-Japanese War, understanding the experience of those who lived through the event is perhaps as difficult as ever. The goal of this paper is to first examine some of the main themes in the original "memory" of the war as it was created by journalists and war reporters during the war itself. Secondly, the paper will examine how these memories of the war have been recast in the "new remembering" to fit the needs of today's nationalism. Both through reprints of original materials in edited form and in memoir recollections, the memory of the war which is so public in today's China, has recast dramatically the ways in which people thought about the war at the time. The new remembering thus helps us understand the changing face of nationalism in today's China.
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"Roles and Missions of the U.S. Army in China: From Interwar to Cold War"
Gary Trogdon (U.S. Army Center of Military History)
Athough the U.S. Army has had a relationship with China that goes back more than one hundred years, little is written on the Army's roles and missions within the country during World War II -- and even less on the Army's Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) and its role. Even before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Army provided advice and support to China, but it wasn't until late in 1944 that the Army's spy catchers established detachments in non-Japanese occupied portions of China to assist the Chinese in fighting the Japanese. The CIC agents were tasked with providing negative intelligence for U.S. Army units in China (mainly Army Air Force units) and in advising the Nationalist Chinese forces on how to prevent the Japanese from gaining intelligence about military operations.
Selecting soldiers with fluency in the Chinese language and experience living in China, the Army sent in three detachments to assist in developing counterintelligence procedures, screening locals working for the U.S. Army on its bases, and in training Nationalist Chinese soldiers to be counterintelligence agents. The short period of time before the end of the war did not see a major change in China's approach to counterintelligence. A secret mission to place CIC and Office of Strategic Services (OSS) behind Japanese lines to prepare for an American invasion of the East China Coast was only in its planning stages when the war ended. The impact of CIC on China during and after the Second World War was minimal. Too few agents with too little time in country severely limited the actions of these 150 men. Although not an important part of the Army's history in China, they were part of it nonetheless.
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"Of Brush and Sword: Constructions and Deconstructions of Militarism in Tang Poetry"
Mark Francis (Drew University)
Traditional Chinese elite society is typically defined as a bureaucratic class founded on shared education and values, specifically the classic Confucian texts and their ideology. In both official and nonofficial circles this ruling class exercised cultivated literary skills, including the writing and appreciation of poetry, for various important social functions -- thus, their designation as "literati."
My paper examines how the Tang literati expressed and depicted military attitudes, figures and events in the universally prized medium of lyric poetry. It will consider how these expressions reflected, or clashed with, supposed Confucian values, and examine how lyric poetry promoted certain ideas about militarism and notions of military history among the traditional Chinese elite.
I will address these issues by focused attention on pertinent writing by Tang poets such as Du Fu, Li Bo, Gao Shi, and Cen Shen and on their circulation and critical reception. My essay will also seek a larger context by suggesting more general patterns of cultural construction of militarism within additional genres and periods throughout the imperial era.
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