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- ARCHIVAL RECORDS OF THE CHINESE BELL IN VICTORIA
In 1903 a Chinese cast iron bell was presented to the City of Victoria by Lieutenant William B. Macdonald, R.N., of H.M.S. Pique, and was to be placed in Beacon Hill Park. Lieutenant Macdonald will be discussed a little later.
In announcing the gift to Victoria, the Daily Colonist, March 13,1903, explains that Victoria Mayor Hayward was inspired with the idea of obtaining the bell in 1902, though there is absolutely nothing to account for how he ever heard of it in the first place. The newspaper stated "... It (the bell) came over on one of the recent Oriental liners, and will soon be in position in the park, the council having agreed to set aside the sum of $100 to erect it in the fashion as shown in the sketch."
Apparently plans for the installation were delayed for some seventeen months as the Colonist, August 28,1904, noted "The great iron bell taken from a point in China during the Boxer troubles of five years ago, and presented to Beacon Hill Park by Lieutenant Macdonald, is being placed upon a pedestal in the park. It is a great curiosity and will prove quite an attraction to visitors." By October 24 of the same year the bell had been "mounted" at Beacon Hill Park at a point just south of the Burns Monument.
After a few decades of peacefully hanging in the park without public comment, there came a few newspaper reports in the early 1930's. An article entitled "Ancient Bell is Repainted" in the Times, April 6,1931, related "The famous Chinese bell which adorns Beacon Hill Park is receiving a coat of paint, the first administered in centuries, in the opinion of Parks Superin�tendent W. H. Warren. The bell was becoming badly weathered, as a result of exposure to the salt sea air, and after being thoroughly scraped to remove the rust has been given a preliminary coat of red lead. The final coat will be of a slate brown tint, which is expected to be almost identical with the natural colour of iron. Care has been taken to ensure that the lettering on the bell will not be obscured by the protective coating. Mr. Warren stated this morning that workmen scraping the heavily pitted exterior of the bell found, in crevices, vestiges of an Oriental gummy paint. He believed the material to be nut oil varnish, such as is used in many forms throughout China."
Controversy was stirred up in the Colonist, July 23,1932, when Mr. Savage, a visitor from South Carolina, wrote to the City Council suggesting the Chinese bell be returned to its former place in China.1 This prompted Captain (formerly Lieutenant) W. B. Macdonald, at the time living in England, to write the following letter to the editor in the Colonist, August 30, 1932: "Sir,�A copy of the Colonist, July 23, has been sent me, as it contains correspondence about the old Chinese bell I captured and sent to my native city. Mr. Savage's suggestion that the bell be returned from whence it came could not be put into execution even if the authorities at Victoria acquiesced. The bell was taken from a ruined temple in a Manchurian village about seven miles north of the Great Wall of China, where it joins the Yellow Sea at Shan-Hai-Kwan (Guan).2 Boxer and Russian troops had been fighting each other in and about this village, which, with its temple, was entirely destroyed. Had the latter not been destroyed I could, of course, not have removed the bell. So there is now no village to return it to, and China in its present chaotic state has no central Buddhist authority who can be approached as to the disposal of this bell. I feel sure it is more reverenced where it is than in any part of China. The other bell now hangs outside the Naval Commander-in-Chief's official residence at Plymouth." (It should be noted here that nowhere in Lt. Macdonald's memoirs is there mention of capturing "two" bells.)
The next event of significance regarding the bell in Victoria occurs when the bell myste�riously appears in the 1953 issue of the Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 3, and is illustrated along with some of the world's greatest bells.
For the next several years, the bell remained in the park with little fanfare, save the occasional comment by people who wished that the bell be returned from where it was taken.
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