For the descendents of Richard Dearie and his son John Russell
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1903 The Straits Times. PRICE 15 CENTS. Page 10 THURSDAY, 2nd JULY.
It costs the Government something in the neighbourhood of $5,000 to send a Cadet to Canton for the purpose of his acquiring the Cantonese dialect on the spot, and thus qualifying himself for the Chinese Protectorate or any other department of the Straits Civil Service wherein a knowledge of some Chinese dialect is essential. The theory is that Chinese may not be acquired outside of China, and that a practically thorough knowledge of one dialect is necessary before the student should attempt to learn another. China, as everybody in the East well knows, is literarily speckled with dialects- all of them utterly different so far as the actual words whereof they consist are concerned, but all using the same written language. Therefore it comes about that whereas one man might use the word “which”, as a relative pronoun, and another man would pronounce the word “that”, the two men would use the same ideograph in writing it. When the Cadets is sent to Canton, he has a doleful time of it as a rule, and his practical expatriation for a term of years his early manhood occasionally renders him different to his confreres when he returns to his own sphere. But then it is necessary that somebody in Government service should be able to understand the language of the ubiquitous Chinaman, so learn it somebody must. In this town alone, we have some 20,000 piggishly ignorant Chinese coolies who are always getting themselves into trouble through their lack of knowledge. As Colonel Pennefather explained the other day, in his Report as Inspector General of Police, there is only one available official of Government who understands their dialect - the Hokien- and when one of them has to explain any trouble, he might as well be a clucking dorking hen for all that any European or Native official that he is ever likely to find, is able to understand anent his grievance. From this it may well be seen that it is absolutely necessarily that certain officials should know Chinese. At this point the question arises, why should the Cadet- a necessarily intelligent student, as the fact of his having passed into the service attests- why should he have to be ex patriated in order to pick up Cantonese? The answer to this has long been that he can learn the dialect in no more convenient locality. This is a statement that can now been refuted by facts. Some six weeks ago, Mr. J A Russell a son of Mr. John Russell, the well-known Director of the F MS Government Press at Kuala Lumpur- presented himself before Mr. Hare, the Secretary for Chinese Affairs for F.M.S. and the most eminent Sinologue in the country, to undergo the regular examination for qualifying Cadets in Cantonese. Mr. Russell, who is not a Cadet, and is not yet 21, succeeded in passing the written examination “with credit” and the oral examination “with great credit” - the examination having lasted a week. Now, Mr. Russell has never been East of the Peninsula, and is withal the youngest man- the first youth, one might say- who has passed the examination requisite to qualify Cadets in Chinese. It was unnecessary for him to do so, yet he did it “off his own bat”, so to speak, and is now commencing the study of the Hakka dialect, which is the language almost entirely in vogue among the coolies and others who work in the mines of the Native States. So far as we can gather, Mr. Russell acquired all of the Chinese he knows- written and conversational- in Kuala Lumpur. The knowledge that he there assimilated has more than satisfied the examiner. It would therefore seem plain to the most casual observer of what Mr. J A Russell (net. XX) has been able to accomplish on his own account, under now existing circumstances, and while earning his living at his profession during the day- might also be accomplished by a Cadet holding aspirations in that direction, especially if he had nothing else to do save study, and were to be assisted in his studies by a government whose object it is to produce Cadets with a knowledge of Cantonese, even at the cost of sending them to Canton to learn that dialect.
NEWS 1903
THE STRAITS TRADING CO., LIMITED
Kuala Lumpur, Serendah, Sungei Besi and Kajang
Manager W. W. Cook (actg.)
Assistant G. H. D. Bourne
Do. J. H. Pye
Do. W. F. Nutt
Do. G. D. N. MacCunn
Do. A. Jack
J. A. Russell
Chief Clerk H. A. LaBrooy
Clerk E. H. Smith
Weighman L. Kee Jin
Smelting Works at Pulo Brani, Singapore
Head Office—Singapore.
Branches
At Perak and Negri Sembilan
THE STRAITS TRADING CO., LIMITED
Kuala Lumpur, Serendah, Sungei Besi and Kajang
Manager W. W. Cook (actg.)
Assistant G. H. D. Bourne
Do. J. H. Pye
Do. W. F. Nutt
Do. G. D. N. MacCunn
Do. A. Jack
Do. J. J. Bradbery
Do. J. A. Russell
Chief Clerk H. A. LaBrooy
Clerk J. Newman
Weighman L. Kee Jin
Smelting Works at Pulo Brani, Singapore
Head Office—Singapore.
Branches
At Perak and Negri Sembilan
THE STRAITS TRADING CO., LIMITED
(Selangor Branch)
Kuala Lumpur, Serendah, Sungei Besi and Kajang
Manager W. W. Cook
Assistant G. H. D. Bourne
Do. J. H. Pye
Do. W. F. Nutt
Do. A. Jack
Do. J. J. Bradbery
Do. J. A. Russell
Chief Clerk H. A. LaBrooy
Clerk J. Newman
Weighman L. Kee Jin
Smelting Works at Pulo Brani, Singapore
Head Office—Singapore.
Branches
At Perak and Negri Sembilan