During the Tiandihui initiation ceremony, the flag of the Commander-in-Chief was placed in the centre of the peck on the altar. Representing the charter of Ghee Hin, the first secret society in Singapore’, the words ‘sanjun shiming’, written on the flag, translate as ‘warrant of the three armies’. The rectangular flag was part of the secret society paraphernalia found in the William Stirling Collection. William George Stirling was the Assistant Protector of Chinese in Singapore from 1921 to 1931.
