NRA Journal - Spring 2007 - National Rifle Association

Association calls on all sports men and women tosupport this cause.Whatever one may think of the effectiveness of petitionsin general, we understand that the Government ispaying close attention to the progress of these petitionsand I urge all of you who have an interest in pistolshooting or, indeed, in personal freedom of choice, totake the time to visit the website and, if you can agreewith it, sign the SAGBNI petition.Our petition may be found by going to:http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/TargetPistolsPlease spread the word and get as many people aspossible to sign this petition too and let us make thebest possible use of what may be our last opportunityto persuade the Government of the justice of ourcause.The Olympic Charter issue could be a powerful factorin our campaign and could even be gratefully seizedupon by the Government as a mechanism to employ,without too much loss of face, to make the necessaryarrangements that would also be to its own advantageas 2012 approaches.LETTERS FROM SHANGHAI – 1864 TO 1872by Tim KidnerIn 1864 one of my distant relatives William Kidnerset up business in Shanghai as an architect; in 1866he was joined by one of his younger brothers James.During their time in Shanghai they both wrote lettershome, mainly to their sister Ann, some of which havesurvived; they contain a number of references to theVolunteer Force and target shooting in Shanghai, HongKong and also Wimbledon when William was homeon leave in 1872. The letters also cover the changeoverfrom Enfield muzzle loaders to Snider conversionsand then replacement by the Martini Henry rifle – inthe letters they are referred to as the Henri Martinirifles!The earliest letter is dated 13 February 1864; it waswritten by William on his way to Shanghai, and wasposted from Malta. In this letter he mentions hisstopover at Gibraltar:I was quite surprised to see on the neutral groundbetween Gibraltar and the Spanish ground a huntingparty in full chase. The horsemen dressed in scarletjust as you would see them in England. I supposethey were officers of the garrison.William wrote again on 25 February on his arrival atSuez on the Red Sea relating his progress across thedesert - the Suez Canal did not open until 1869 - andcommented:. . . the journey across the desert to Suez is asmiserable as you can imagine, one vast sandy plainin every direction only relieved every now and thenby an Arab encampment and string of camels.William set up business as an architect in Shanghai;in 1866 his brother James travelled out to join him,arriving in Shanghai on 26 June 1866. James wasimpressed by what he saw in Shanghai and wrotehome:Shanghai is a very nice place, very much nicer thanI expected to find it. It is very much like a Europeantown.James wrote of his progress in October 1866 andcommented:. . . the rifle shooting for prizes takes place on the11 th , 12 th and 13 th next. I hope to win something, Ifind I cannot shoot nearly so well as I could at home,the climate affects one so. The intense heat scathesone and shakes the nerves.In the same letter he requests:. . . 1000 rounds of bullets and wads for myself andWilliam for our smallbores.James wrote again in November confirming thatthe prize meeting had taken place, organised by theShanghai Volunteer Corps, at which William won twoprizes and James won a prize of £40 which he usedfor ordering a new breech-loading rifle from Harveyof Exeter. In this letter he also comments on theforthcoming change to Snider breech loading rifles:. . . our rifles are smooth bores or nearly so and thesun and the glaring light which we get here is veryunfavourable to good shooting. Sometimes at about400 or 500 yards the sun is so bad that you canscarcely see the target. We are now talking aboutgetting Snider breech loaders from England in placeof the gas pipes which we have at present.By the 1860s there were already French and Americanas well as British settlements in Shanghai and theattitude of the Europeans to the local population was‘Victorian’. In one of his early letters James commentsthat:. . . the Chinese settlement is very dirty but not asbad as I had imagined – the Chinese themselves area very barbarous looking set, especially the lowerclasses. The servants here seem to be the greatestnuisance, one of William’s has this morning boltedwith his cash box but I do not think he had much init. Two or three days ago he caught one of his cooliescarrying off 5 bottles of wine.35