港史文本 - HK In Texts: Hong Kong 1952

THE CORONA LIBRARY V. 1 ]

HONG KONG

HAROLD INGRAMS

LONDON

HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE

1952

First published 1952 by Her Majesty's

Stationery Office. To be purchased from York

House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2 ; 423

Oxford Street, London , W.1 ; P.O. Box 569,

London , S.E.1 ;13a Castle Street, Edinburgh,

2 ; 39 King Street, Manchester, 2 ; 2 Edmund

Street, Birmingham, 3 ; 1 St. Andrew's Cres

cent, Cardiff ; Tower Lane, Bristol, 1 ; 80

Chichester Street, Belfast; or from any

bookseller. Crown copyright reserved .

Price 27s. 6d. net

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT THE CURWEN PRESS LTD ., LONDON, E.13

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THE CORONA LIBRARY

A series of illustrated volumes under the

sponsorship of the Colonial Office deal

ing with the United Kingdom's depen

dent territories, the way their peoples

live, and how they are governed . The

series has been designed to fill the place

between official Blue books on the one

hand and the writings of occasional

visitors on the other, to be authoritative

and readable, and to give a vivid yet

accurate picture. The books are being

written by established authors whose

qualifications include, where possible,

experience ofcolonial administration and

first-hand knowledge of the territory

concerned. Her Majesty's Government

in the United Kingdom does not neces

sarily associate itself with personal views

expressed by the authors. Each volume

will contain maps and be fully illustrated.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Acknowledgment is made to the following

for the use of photographs: Shell Photo

graphic Unit : Plates IV, VI, VIII, IX, XIV, XV,

xvi (a) , XVII, XVIII, xix (a) , xxl, xxv (a ),

xxvi( b ), XXVIII, XXIX, XXXII, XXXIII, XXXV,

XXXVIII (b ), xxxix (b ). Mr. D. G. Cairns :

Plate xxiv. Francis Wu, Photographer: Plate

XXVII. Yung Hwa Motion Pictures Company,

Kowloon : Plate xxxix (a ). The National

Geographic Magazine: Plate xl.

The photographs in Plates VII, xvi (b) ,

XIX ( b) , xx, xxv (b ), xxx and xxxvIII (a)

were taken by the author.

FOREWORD

BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

OLIVER LYTTELTON , M.P.

Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies

THIS IS THE FIRST of a new series of books about the British

Colonial territories. It is a new idea in Government publica

tions. We in the Colonial Office are proud of it and look for

ward keenly to carrying on the venture until we have covered

all the countries with whose affairs we are concerned .

Many books are written about many of the territories, and

we do not seek to discourage or to supplant private enterprise.

But there is a need for a comprehensive range which will deal

with all the territories according to a consistent plan, so that

the reader will have a picture of all aspects of the country

its geography, history, economic conditions, social and political

institutions, and the life of the people. Such a series is needed

too for many official purposes: for reference libraries, for the

instruction of young men and women training for the Colonial

Service, and so on. But we have seen no reason why a book

which includes the facts required for such purposes need be

dull or unattractive. It is much more likely to be useful (and

used ) if it is well written , if it carries the stamp of the author's

personality, and if it is well produced. We believe, too, that the

public at home and overseas will be glad to have a book which

is at once authoritative and picturesque.

In choosing Hong Kong as the subject of the first book we

have taken a Colony which is of particular public interest at

this time. A stirring story of achievement is unfolded . Anyone

who visits Hong Kong, as I did recently, is struck both by what

has been done there in a century of Colonial history and by

the vigour and imagination and faith with which the social and

political problems of today are being grasped and solved .

We have been fortunate, too, in our author. Mr. Ingrams,

with aa fresh and observant mind, has painted a picture of Hong

Kong in words so vivid that to read his book is the next best

vii

thing to visiting the Colony for ourselves. He has set a very

high standard for the rest of this series.

I cannot conclude without a word of appreciation of the

services of the editorial committee who have planned this

venture and now see the first-fruits of their efforts; of the work

and advice of Professor Debenham as general editor and of

Mr. W. Foges as honorary consultant; and of the helpful and

skilful co-operation of Her Majesty's Stationery Office and the

Central Office of Information, who have spared no pains to

make this a worthy production.

I hope that this book, and the series which it inaugurates,

will have a well-deserved success.

OLIVER LYTTELTON

September 1952 .

viii

CONTENTS

In Explanation

PART ONE : PICTURE OF HONG KONG

1 Echoes II

II First Footsteps 27

III The Heart of Hong Kong 37

IV On the Peak 42

V Around and About 49

VI On Hong Kong's Frontier

(*) Coming and Going 60

(ii) Doubt and Uncertainty 64

PART TWO : LIFE AND LIVELIHOOD

VII The Dwellers in Tenements 69

VIII Squatters 76

IX Life in the Cities 80

X Life in the Clouds II2

XI The Arts 117

XII Religion 123

XIII Chinese Food and Chinese Medicine 129

XIV Industry 139

XV Trade 146

XVI Country People and Their Landscape 152

XVII Wind and Water 157

XVIII The Land of the Jumping Dragon

(i) Yellow Dragon Spits Pearl 160

(ii) Worship Humility Church 162

(iii) In Jumping Dragon Land 165

XIX Farmers and Farming 171

XX The Boat People

(i) Sin Lo the Sailor 182

(ii) At Shau Ki Wan 188

PART THREE : WELFARE AND MANAGEMENT

XXI The Care of the People — the Young 201

XXII

The Care of the People — the Adult 213

XXIII Housing and Health 218

XXIV The Sick and the Destitute 222

XXV Christian Influences 227

XXVI Hong Kong's Government 230

XXVII Law and Order 235

PART FOUR : THOUGHT AND PURPOSE

XXVIII Hong Kong's Outlook 241

XXIX Citizens of Hong Kong 245

XXX Political Development in Hong Kong 254

XXXI The Impact of Western Thought 258

XXXII Young China in Hong Kong 265

XXXIII The Inevitability of Hong Kong 271

XXXIV The Purpose of Hong Kong 280

XXXV On the Frontier Again 287

BIBLIOGRAPHY 291

INDEX 297

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATES

I (coloured ) Macao in 1847 facing page 20

II ( coloured ) The Nemesis at Chuenpee, 1841 facing page 21

III ( coloured ) Victoria in 1843 facing page 36

IV ( coloured ) Street scene, Hong Kong facing page 37

V Relief map of the Colony facing page 60

VI (a) Funeral procession

(b) Funeral chair

VII (a) A paper house

(b) Temple in Kowloon between pages 60 and 61

VIII

Façade of St. Paul's Church, Macao facing page 61

IX (a) Cricket and the banks

(b) Junks facing page 92

X Hong Kong street

XI Mountains and islands between pages 92 and 93

XII The Peak tramway facing page 93

XIII Ploughing a ricefield facing page 116

XIV (a) New Territories monastery

(b) Dinner at the monastery

XV (a) The garden of Aw Boon Haw

(b) Eucliffe at Repulse Bay between pages 116 and 117

XVI (a) Frontier bridge

(b) Sha Tau Kok facing page 117

XVII Squatter settlements facing page 132

XVIII (a) Pig basket

(b) Sway-back pig

XIX (a) Burial urns

(b) Laying out ancestral bones between pages 132 and 133

XX Matshed theatre facing page 133

XXI Paul Tsui's home facing page 156

XXII

Land of the Jumping Dragon between pages 156 and 157

XXIV (a) Kam Tin

(b) Farm -house in Kut Hung facing page 157

XXV

(a) Church of Sung Him Tong

(b) The gates of Kam Tin facing page 180

XXVI (a) Cotton mill

(b) Rubber factory

XXVII Street library between pages 180 and 181

XXVIII Hakka children facing page 181

XXIX A bridal chair facing page 196

XXX (a) Lai's first wife

(b) Lai Sze

XXXI Aberdeen Harbour between pages 196 and 197

XXXII

(a) Lessons for shoe -shine boys

(b) Dinner for shoe -shine boys facing page 197

XXXIII( coloured) Hong Kong and the harbour facing page 228

XXXIV (coloured) Street acrobats facing page 229

XXXV ( coloured ) (a) Chinese actress

(b) Chinese actor facing page 244

XXXVI ( coloured ) School-girl's pictures facing page 245

XXXVII New blocks of flats facing page 268

XXXVIII (a) Tai Po market

(b) Newswoman

XXXIX (a) Scene from a film

(b) Sir Shouson Chow between pages 268 and 269

XL Fishing junks in Aberdeen Channel facing page 269

DRAWINGS

Congenial evening page 34

' If two thousand Chinese came to tea ! ' page 47

Monastery among pines page 59

The shrine of the Land God page 125

Junk city page 183

Maternity hospital page 202

MAPS

Hong Kong and the Canton Delta page 14

China : the Treaty Ports page 28

Round the New Territories pages 54 and 55

Relief map of the Colony facing page 84

Hong Kong in S.E. Asia page 148

Land of the Jumping Dragon between pages 156 and 157

Tsun Wan Development page 290

Victoria and Kowloon : a street map showing

density of population

Hong Kong and the New Territories in pocket inside back cover

xii

IN EXPLANATION

‘ PASSENGERS FOR THE BOAC flight to Rome, Cairo, Basra,

Karachi, Calcutta, Rangoon, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Tokyo,

please say good-bye to your friends and take your seats in the

coach . Could such an announcement ever sound ordinary ?

Much as I love the Arabian Nights, no magic carpet offered

such a prospect.

It was 3rd March 1950. My wife and I and twenty others

started off for Heath Row, a little band already apart from the

world ofLondon streets. My thoughts were on the job ahead, an

official mission of an unusual kind.

' I am directed by Mr. Secretary Creech Jones to invite you

to write a book of about 100,000 words dealing authoritatively

and comprehensively with the geography, history, economics,

politics, social conditions and administration of the colony of

Hong Kong. It is intended to be the first in a series dealing

similarly with other British colonial territories and designed

to provide books which, while in sufficient detail and with

sufficient authority to be of value to the specialist in

colonial affairs, will at the same time appeal to the general

educated public by reason of their attractiveness of style and

presentation .'

So began my official offer '. It is alarming to be asked to make

an appeal to the ' general educated public ' , and to deal

‘ authoritatively ' as well as comprehensively with such an

array ofsubjects as would require a team ofprofessors and much

more than ‘ about 100,000 words ’. Being neither a professor nor

a far -eastern expert, I have only tried to convey to ‘ ordinary

readers ' some of the excitement and interest Hong Kong gave

to me. I hope they will not feel affronted by this assumption of

a mutual sharing of lower standards.

My knowledge of the Chinese was slight. Years ago in the

Island of Pemba in the Zanzibar Sultanate I made friends with

three Chinese, who in a lonely little camp were collecting

bêche-de-mer or sea-slugs for export to China. A little English and

Swahili were our only means of intercourse, but they appre

ciated a friendly approach, and when I left presented mewith

a Chinese teapot and two handleless cups in a padded basket,

and a Chinese -English phrase-book.

IN EXPLANATION

There were about ten thousand Chinese in Mauritius when

I served there. Every village had its boutique chinoise where you

could buy anything en détail from a needle to a single sardine or

a tot of whisky. Port Louis had its Chinatown with Chinese

restaurants, temples and a theatre. On occasion every Chinese

shop or hut would fly a Nationalist flag, and one would notice

pigtailed women in black pyjamas in the streets, but unless one

made an effort the fact that they lived in a little world apart

was easily obscured . They made their money off the rest of us,

but they had their own shops, selling sea delicacies or preserved

eggs (alleged to be a hundred years old) , they forgathered in

their own temples and used their own medicine, their own

Chamber of Commerce, and the rest. Making some friends

among them I saw these things, and I think that if I had not

already been wedded to the Arabs I might have sought a life in

China. I met Chinese in Malaya and Java in 1939, but there

Arabs, Malays and Islam were still a major preoccupation.

Since 1944, however, when my Arabian career suffered inter

ruption , I have beguiled spare hours in the West African bush

and elsewhere with Chinese philosophy, art and poetry, not

seriously but with a consciousness of something beautiful and

distant like a glimpse of a country one may climb a hill to see

without having the time to descend and wander among its

fields and streams.

If one believes in the Moving Finger these leanings were

perhaps not without purpose, and when the chance of going to

Hong Kong came, I naturally leaped at it.

In 1950 one flew to Hong Kong in three days : we spent two

nights in the air and felt exhausted . We stopped at Rome in the

middle of the night after a dinner over stilly, snow-covered

Alpine peaks glowing in moonlight, and could have bought

souvenirs of Holy Year at fantastic prices, but the only alter

native was another meal. Morning brought us to Cairo and

breakfast, with memories of the wine darksea in the dawn and

the rise of a ruby sun. After nostalgic reminiscence of other

forms of desert crossing we landed at Basra for tea and at once

made friends by talking Arabic. Quite a number of people bade

us God-speed as we set off to Karachi, where we put in a couple

of hours and another meal in the middle of the night before

leaving for Calcutta. Dum Dum airport was alive with comings

IMPRESSIONS OF THE JOURNEY

and goings, and overheard conversations between Indian

passengers established the value of the Indian version ofEnglish

as one of the languages of India. For all the bustle, it was a

pleasant, friendly crowd which thronged about us.

At Rangoon we spent the night. We climbed barefooted the

hundreds of steps of the Golden Pagoda, where Rangoon was

at its best. Repose and contemplation, there so seemly, were

less appropriate in other surroundings in which the need for

action was so evident. An hour out of Bangkok next day an

engine broke down, so we returned for two days and recovered

from sleeplessness, the telescoping ofhours and too many meals.

Bangkok was a lively contrast to Rangoon, and a delightful

Siamese air hostess took us round its lovely temples and showed

us the life of the city by day and by night. This was the last stop

of a colourful journey and it was impressive to see that Britain

had so imposed her pre-war culture on the world that Rome,

Cairo, Karachi , Calcutta, Rangoon and Bangkok no sooner

saw an Englishman than they presented him with two eggs and

bacon at any hour.

The rapid unrolling of successive countries beneath us meant

that every few hours we dropped down to another culture. There

might have been less conflict of ideas in the world if air travel

had been discovered earlier, but it could hardly have been so

interesting. Our fellow travellers included a God -fearing, family

devoted couple who had never been out of Englandbefore. He was

a firm -jawed, seagreen -incorruptible builder who was going to

superintend the building of the Communist Government's new

seventeen-storey bank in Hong Kong. There could be no doubt

that the job would be well done. As we sat at tea at Basra his

wife looked with friendly interest at the brown Arab faces, re

garding them not as curiosities but as fellow human beings as

much concerned with housekeeping as she was, and said of this

new air travel ' How good it is that it means the meeting of the

peoples ! ' Later in Hong Kong we found that her husband, flum

moxed by his first acquaintance with chopsticks, had sent his boy

out to buy a pair and was eating his English dinnerwith them every

night so that on Chinese occasions he might not seem an awkward

bungler. Big Business might contemplate whether it is really

necessary to travel quite so fast, and whether business and the

world would not do better if journeys allowed more contacts.

IN EXPLANATION

I have described our journey for the sake of those who can

only accompany me in their armchairs, in the hope that their

approach to the Far East may thereby seem not much more

sudden than ours. We left Bangkok by a C.P.A. Skymaster at

4 a.m. on 8th March with an Australian pilot and several

quite captivating Chinese air hostesses in becoming Air Force

blue uniforms. We should have reached Hong Kong at eight,

but our pilot explained that it was fog -bound and we might

have to go to Hai Fong in Indo-China. Visibility was nil but

about ten o'clock my ears told me we were going down.

Down , down, down we went, like Alice tumbling down the

rabbit-hole, but with only fog around us. There was a tense air

in the cabin and it was not relieved when we suddenly saw

just beneath us neither Hai Fong nor Hong Kong, but only a

green and choppy sea and nothing else in any direction . I began

to wonder how long a Skymaster kept afloat in a choppy sea,

but then we whizzed over a small island with a lighthouse, and

a mountain loomed out of the mist, all too close to our port-side

wing. We turned a corner, had an impression of tall buildings

with mist drifting past them, shot over a great array of shipping

and then glided down on to the runway at Kai Tak. As we

touched down there was a spontaneous outburst of clapping for

our Australian pilot.

We were met by Mrs. Elaine Davis, the Assistant Informa

tion Officer, and through the crowded , colourful days of the

next two months she gave us constant assistance.

Our days were full, from 9 in the morning till 10, 11 , 12 or

later at night. All was grist that came to our mill and this was

a fairly typical day : We started off at nine with a talk with the

Director of Marine about the harbour and the varied ships

which throng it. We went on to the Gold and Silver Exchange

and watched the buying and selling of gold amid a din and

scrimmage which were worthy of a full -scale revolution . From

there to the Nam Pak Hong to see how Chinese merchants buy

and sell cargoes on just word of mouth and no intervention of

banks. Next followed a visit to a leather merchant. We had

already seen his tannery on one of Hong Kong's many islands

and here saw buyers fix the price of his goods at a species of

auction. Thence to the proprietor of a pawnshop, who also

A VERY FULL DAY

owns a luxury steamship and luxury restaurant. After that, in

contrast, we had lunch with the Anglican Bishop and discussed

social conditions.

The afternoon began with a visit to the Rediffusion Station,

watching a Chinese orchestra playing curious instruments

behind plate-glass windows. Then came one to a joss-stick

factory, where we made joss-sticks ourselves, and, laden with

packets of them, went back to see how the pawnshop worked.

After a tea-party to meet a famous Chinese calligraphist who

presented us with specimens of beautiful handwriting, we

crossed by the ferry to Kowloon to spend the evening with an

esoteric vegetarian sect of Buddhists. They gave us a first -class

meatless dinner after a séance of spirit-writing on sand at which

the founder of the institution, who died many, many years ago,

sent us messages.

Before we went out Mr. McDougall, formerly Chief Secre

tary Hong Kong, gave me much invaluable advice and letters

of introduction to some of the innumerable friends he has left

in all communities in Hong Kong. Government officials in the

Colony spent hours explaining things and providing us with

publications. When we left we had two large mail-bags full of

books and reports.

His Excellency the Governor, Sir Alexander Grantham ,

showed a continual kindly interest and encouragement over

the project, which in itself was largely due to his support. Two

others who must first be mentioned were Mr. Chung King Pui,

the busy Assistant to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, who

gave us much of his spare time, and the kindly, quiet and

helpful Mr. Chan Yik Hi, also of the Chinese Secretariat,

appointed by Government to act as our interpreter and assis

tant. Their names often appear in the following pages .

One excellent piece of advice Mr. Chung King Pui gaveme

on our first evening out was that I should say in my Preface

that I had ' attempted to give a good account of the Colony

without any thought of offending any section of the people ’ .

This I have very sincerely tried to do. I started like a scarcely

used sheet of blotting -paper and I absorbed impressions which

I hope I have faithfully and impartially recorded. Obviously I

shall have made mistakes, but to reduce the chance of giving

offence I have changed a number of names. I trust those who

IN EXPLANATION

recognize themselves in these disguises will not be offended by

this well-meant precaution.

Whether they are disguised or not it will be evident how

much I owe to their help. Our list of helpers includes 129 names

in Hong Kong alone, and I wish I could pay individual ack

nowledgment to them all. Those who are not specially mentioned

must accept this general but heartfelt acknowledgment of their

generous help. If I may single out a few who by force of circum

stances gave us more time and help than others, here they are

in the order ( roughly) in which we met them : Mrs. Allinson,

Lily Lam and Norah Kwok of the Labour Department, Mr.

Gordon Harmon, Mr. Cassidy (who kindly proposed me as a

member ofHong Kong's famous ‘ Tripehounds '), Mr. McDouall,

Miss Dorothy Lee of the Social Welfare Department, Dr. Shaw,

Dr. Graham Cumming, Dr. Newton, Miss Burne of the Infant

Welfare Clinics, Dr. S. N. Chau, Mr. U Tat Chee, Mr. Horace

Kadoorie, Mr. W. K. Wu (Wilkie Wu) of the Fisheries Depart

ment, Mr. Hart and Mr. Large of the Wholesale Vegetable

Market, Bishop Hall, Father Ryan, Father Morahan, Mr.

Landale (who generously lent me copies of some of Jardine's

old records), Messrs. Lee Shiu Ying and Wright of the Agricul

ture Department, Dr. Lo, the ' Chinese ' doctor, Mr. Rowell,

Dr. Irene Cheng of the Education Department, Messrs. Keen,

Teesdale and Paul Tsui of the District Administration, the late

Mr. Tang Pak Kau, Sir Shouson Chow, Mrs. Chow and Mrs.

Violet Chan of the ' old -fashioned ladies ' , Mr. T. O. Tso, Mr.

Abbas El Arculli, Mr. McIntosh, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Bin

stead of the Police, Mr. Pudney, Mr. Clarke, Mr. Shillingford,

Mr. J. Braga, and Mr. Lopes of Macao. And I should not like

to forget Tsing, our driver.

Many of these, and others also, extended hospitality to us as

well. We were wonderfully entertained in all sections of the

community. Naturally, as the population figures would indicate,

most of it was among the Chinese. We ate more Chinese meals

than European and became reasonably expert in the use of

chopsticks. Chinese food is the one subject on which I make no

pretence of being unbiased. If I were capable of writing lyrics

they would be on Chinese meals.

One of our happiest experiences was a week-end with Paul

Tsui's family at Humble Worship Village. This greatly helped

HELPERS

us to understand Chinese village life and Paul's subsequent

assistance has been most valuable.

It was hard to leave so many friends. On one of our last

evenings we came back to find Dorothy Lee and Wilkie Wu

doing our packing for us. They intended to see us off with a

bombardment of Chinese crackers, but mercifully these were

forgotten in the rush of getting away and saying good -byes to

all the kind people who came to see us off.

We left Hong Kong on 8th May, and began writing the

book on the voyage. It seems somehow inappropriate to

acknowledge the help of my wife on this task, for she has

been officially associated with me. Substantial parts have been

written by her, she has researched indefatigably, typed and

retyped. I am also deeply indebted to my editor Professor

Frank Debenham generally for unfailing support and helpful

ness, and particularly in regard to the maps. The relief map of

Hong Kong is from a model specially made by him. I have

equally to thank Mr. Evans and several others in the Colonial

Office, and Messrs. Binfield, Grant and Thornton of the C.O.I.

who have taken endless pains with their share of the work. The

illustrations come from a number of sources, acknowledged

elsewhere, but I should particularly like to express grateful

thanks to Shell, who have very generously specially taken and

presented many of them, including some of those in colour, and

to Mr. D. G. Cairns who was a fellow traveller on our journey

home and gave me a run ofhis negatives. My debt to Sir Charles

Jeffries, who if I am not disclosing top secret information is the

source of inspiration of this series, is personal as well as official,

and extends to his family who allowed themselves to be experi

mented on with bits of the book as it developed. Personal also

is my indebtedness to Mr. Kenneth Bradley, colleague of the

Gold Coast as well as the Colonial Office, the Editor of Corona,

who nobly read all the material written — about double the

actual book - and suggested cuts and improvements. Such an

astonishing number have had to do with this book that it is

really a composite effort for which I can take little credit.

All this brings me back to the realization that this is in

some ways an official book. It is officially sponsored and officially

produced. Yet, as I hope will be evident, it is very unlike any

official production. This is because I have been allowed a wide

IN EXPLANATION

and generous freedom of expression and opinion. Nobody

official shares any more responsibility than a firm of commer

cial publishers for the book's contents. There are many to thank

and only me to blame. This seems to me a good idea ’. My

underlying aims have been to tell the reader about things as I

saw them, whether good or bad, and to create a sense of friend

ship between British readers and those very delightful people in

Hong Kong who are so closely associated with us. My official

career has included work in many diverse countries in Africa,

Asia and Europe, and the more I see of them the more I feel

what aa lot many of us miss by not knowing their peoples more

intimately. Incidentally they themselves miss a lot by not knowing

each other (and us ! ) better.

I should emphasize that my picture is of Hong Kong in the

early months of 1950. Except for one or two footnotes nothing

refers to a later date. It is important to realize this, for change

is everywhere so rapid nowadays. If I draw attention to any

thing after that time I should like it to be to the Annual Report

on the Colony for 1950, which shows some more impressive

developments in social services and kindred subjects in Hong

Kong .

Though the Bibliography includes most of the books con

sulted , it has the wider purpose of offering a fairly comprehen

sive field of study, generally and specially, to those who want

to know more about aa remarkable colony. I am much indebted

to Mr. Mitchell and his colleagues in the Colonial Office

Library for their assistance in revising the Bibliography.

HAROLD INGRAMS

Uphousden,

Nr. Ash -next -Sandwich ,

Canterbury,

Kent.

PART ONE

PICTURE OF

HONG KONG

CHAPTER ONE

Echoes

FROM THE MOMENT of my arrival in Hong Kong the noise and

ceaseless activity of the great city, combined with the dramatic

natural beauty of its setting and the picturesque quality of its

long Chinese streets, induced in me that feeling of excitement

which seems to take possession of every visitor. The urgent life

of the present did not obscure but rather stimulated a historic

sense of the past : I seemed to be witnessing an age -old way of

life and a civilization long established in its setting. It was hard

to reconcile its insistence with the fact that the streets through

which I walked had been non-existent little more than a

century ago and the busy, peopled scene merely a desolate

rocky landscape.

Excitement was enhanced by the air of tenseness abroad in

the city. For all its material greatness and solidity Hong Kong

has often had periods of uncertainty, and there was now a

general sense ofimpermanence, due to the situation in the Far

East, which conflicted strangely with the so evident recent

expansion in building, and even more strangely with the

colonial atmosphere to which I was accustomed, in which men

discussed the progress of the territories in which they lived to

wards their goal of self- government. Here they discussed only

the chances of survival. Furthermore in recent weeks there had

been warlike incidents in the neighbourhood, with Nationalist

warships from Formosa attacking Communist China, or

Nationalist planes bombing the roads and railway leading from

the Colony to Canton, and indeed Canton itself.

Excitement in Hong Kong is normal. I fancy that at its

quietest time the atmosphere is at least that of the Stock

Exchange, for it depends entirely on trade and that is always at

the mercy of external factors over which it has no control. Of

all Hong Kong's exciting periods none is more fascinating than

the 1830's, the period of its conception in Canton, though to

understand its problems one must go back much earlier than

that. The countries of the Middle East and Europe built up

ECHOES

Western civilization together, but it was not until late in history

that the West began to have appreciable relations with China.

This meant that two sets of human beings sharing all the com

mon needs of humanity had each to solve its common problems

apart, from the most ordinary everyday things to the most

complicated, from material things to spiritual things.

' The Land of This ' , said a first-century writer, ‘ is not easy

of access ; few men came from there and seldom.' But he told us

that the inhabitants were ‘ by nature peaceable ', andpeaceable

the earliest visitors from the West, Ibn Batuta and Marco Polo,

found them. They were peaceable, too, when the first Portuguese

traders arrived in 1513, but five years later the greed of the

traders brought out some of the worst in man and from that

time on the people of the West were regarded as dangerous.

Yet China, subject to safeguards, was ready to be benevolent.

Believing that tea and silk and rhubarb were essential to the

barbarians, they allowed them to trade at Canton subject to

certain regulations designed to prevent their ever being

dangerous. The traders stayed in the factory area outside the

city during the winter, living in quarantine conditions. The

most profitable side oftheir business was opium smuggling, for

the import was prohibited by the Chinese Government. In the

factory area the merchant princes, or Taipans as they were

called, lived in splendour, albeit in a gilded captivity. William

Hunter, an American merchant, has described the splendidly

furnished dining -room of the East India Company's factory, the

sparkling silver and glass, the heavy glossy napery, and the rich

dishes and copious wines.

The sole intermediaries between foreigners and mandarins

were the members of the Co-Hong, selected Chinese merchants

who paid a heavy price for their monopoly. Relations between

the Co-Hong and the foreign merchants were intimate, but

with the mandarins they were difficult and strained . Hunter

stands up for the mandarins and admits the ' many provocations

inflicted by foreigners' on them. “ We treated their chops, their

prohibitions, warnings and threats, as a rule, very cavalierly .'

' We often spoke of their forbearance ', he goes on, ‘ and wondered

at the aid and protection they extended to us ; in fact, they con

sidered us more as unruly children , people who had never had

an opportunity of becoming acquainted with Taou - le or reason .'

IN MACAO

Hunter emphasizes that if a brawl occurred between the

Chinese and the foreigners, the mandarins were always against

their own people, beating them unceremoniously and shepherd

ing the foreigners to their factories with much solicitude.

Despite the restrictive nature of the regulations, the East

India Company, who had the monopoly of British trade in

the Far East, developed and greatly increased it. The Chinese

had judged rightly in foreseeing dangerous consequences to

their way of life from the impact of the West, but they had

seriously miscalculated in thinking they could be avoided by

permitting merchants to trade under restrictions, however

strictly enforced . As Sir Robert Chalmers said in his History

of Currency in the British Colonies: “ The ukases of government

are futile, when opposed to trade relations and the natural

trend of commerce. In the quaint words of Sir Thomas Violet

in 1643, " Time, the truest Schoolmaster, hath taught all ages

to know that little penalties could yet never interpose between

the merchant and his profit ” .'

Unfortunately it was not possible for us to visit Canton, but it

is neither there nor in Hong Kong, which have both changed so

greatly, that one can recapture something of the atmosphere of

the exciting scenes of those days. To do that we went to Macao,

whither in the summer the China merchants went to bask in

all the graciousness and festivity of a European colony in the

East .

The little Portuguese colony is today a place of quiet charm ,

contrasting greatly with the endless bustle of Hong Kong. It has

an air of the past, but it is no mouldering ruin . Modern Macao

with its delightful villas in pastel colours and its shady tree -lined

roads breathes an air of peaceful Mediterranean repose, in

keeping with the oldest European colony in the Far East. Even

the busy harbour is peaceful, and in the junk yards the ancient

craft, bristling with a forest of masts, take on from their environ

ment a look of being more than their age.

Much of old Macao, where in the seventeenth century the

Portuguese lived, is now occupied by the Chinese, though it

still has aa southern European look about it. It was early evening

when we passed through the quarter, and in the twilight one

fancied ghosts of a bygone age flitting through its silent streets.

A Virgin -surmounted church on topof a hill watches over the

ECHOES

scene. From this height you can see all over the tiny colony and

look beyond its barrier gate to China. Dominating old Macao

stood the seventeenth -century church of St. Paul which was

destroyed by fire in 1835. All that remains of it is the great

flight of steps surmounted by a noble façade with statues of

Ignatius and Francis Xavier. Cobbled, grass -grown streets

lead down to nearby scenes once familiar to those who lived in

the stormy times in which the colony of Hong Kong came to

birth. These scenes breathe indeed the atmosphere of an earlier

age, for here, as some still have it, the poet Camoens used to

wander. Next door to Camoens's grotto there stands in a formal

East River

CANTONS

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INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY SCH

MILES 10 20 30

HONG KONG AND THE CANTON DELTA

The scene of the events of the 1830's which led to the birth of the

Colony of Hong Kong

OLD MACAO

garden the old house of the East India Company just as it stood

more than a hundred years ago.

‘ This interesting cave (Camoens's grotto ) ', wrote Sir George

Staunton in 1797, ‘ is now in the middle of a garden belonging

to a house where the Ambassador (Lord Macartney) and two

of his suite resided at Macao, upon the invitation from one of

the gentlemen of the factory, who dwelt in it when not called

upon to be in Canton . This house and garden command a very

extensive prospect . '

In 1829 a young American girl, Harriet Low, was trans

planted from the dull and extremely provincial town of Salem ,

Mass., to live in China, under the auspices of the East India

Company, and in all the luxury and formality of the English

society of that time. It must have been a bewildering change

at first from the quiet and rather puritanical regime of home,

where Sunday was kept with the utmost strictness, and Satur

day night was almost as rigidly observed, to the ceaseless round

of dinners, balls, and Sunday visiting in Macao, from being

one ofthe many superfluous females of Massachusetts to occupy

ing the dazzling and somewhat hazardous position of the only

“ spinster” where men were so numerous and for much of the

time so unoccupied'. So writes the editor of Harriet's diary.

Harriet herself was captivated on arrival:

Macao from the sea looks beautiful, with some most romantic spots.

We arrived there about ten o'clock, took sedan chairs and went to our

house, which we liked the looks of very much. The streets of Macao are

narrow and irregular, but we have a garden in which I anticipate much

pleasure.

By Christmas she was beginning to feel somewhat sophisticated :

Dec. 25, 1829

This evening we are to dine with the Company at half-past six, where

we shall be as stiff as stakes and, I suppose, shall not enjoy ourselves at

all. These dinners are amazing stiff, but I shall rig myself in white satin

under -dress, with a wrought muslin petticoat, and a pink satin bodice to

set neatly to my neat little form , and made by my own neat little hands.

I shall then jump into my neat little chair, and proceed to the scene of

action. I shall say all the neat little things I can and discuss the merits of

the several dishes on my way.

But when she got there she found, as we often do at official

dinners, that it wasn't so bad after all :

ECHOES

Everything on the table was splendid-a whole service of massive

plate. There were about sixty at table. The dinner consisted of every

delicacy, served in the most elegant style, and with the greatest order.

Everyone brings their own servant to wait upon them at table. When

the first course is cleared away, these extra servants all fall back to the

wall, and the regular servants carry out the dishes, handed to them by

the butlers. . . . I ate a piece of plum -pudding that was very nice; but it

wanted something—I suppose the home relish. What tasted most like

home were the cucumbers, which really looked natural. It would be

impossible to describe the various dishes. Suffice it to say that everything

was as elegant as possible, and that there was everything that could

be obtained that was nice and delicate. The time passed very pleasantly,

and there was nothing stiff about it. Everybody appeared perfectly easy

and at home.

Again she wrote :

Saw one of the Company's ships with the sun shining on her well- filled

sails. How I wished for Mr. Chinnery's talent for painting that I might

sketch for you the beautiful scene before me, the large and handsome

Church, milk white, with a splendid flight of stone steps [St. Paul's no

doubt, though the façade is no longer milk white] . Just beyond, the port,

stretching into the bay. Beyond this again you can see the roads, and the

little boats skimming over the surface.

They were still skimming in the spring of 1950.

In 1830 Harriet was one of the party of women that went

from Macao to Canton, thereby breaking Number Two of the

Chinese Regulations which declared that ‘ Neither women,

guns, spears, nor arms of any kind can be brought to the

factories'. They were compelled to leave after only three days

in Canton under threats of a stoppage of all trade. However,

their brief excursion must have caused a pleasant stir in the

factories. Even ten years later the foreign fair sex was scarce

in Chinese outposts. The agent of a British firm at Shanghai,

describing, in a business letter to his principals, the first foreign

wedding, wrote : ‘ I, as best man, had the run of three fresh

English cheeks—a very pleasant contrast to the grazing to

which I am used. The price of silk is falling.'

But by 1857 the gaiety and life of Macao was already passing.

‘ Macao looks well from the sea', wrote George Wingrove

Cocke, The Times special correspondent, in that year. ‘A semi

circle of large white houses glitters in the sunshine. Right and

left two hills, crowned with forts and covered with foliage,

protect either horn of the crescent; while from the dense city

behind domes and cathedral-towers rise. But it is the appearance

IN A CHURCHYARD

of a past greatness. If we except the houses of the Praya, “ Fuit ”

is written upon every wall. . . . Some of the Cantonese mer

chants have established themselves here, and every one of our

commercial magnates of Hong Kong has a bungalow within

the protection of the Portuguese guard. '

Adjoining the East India Company's house is a quiet walled

grove, the English cemetery. Among its bamboo clumps

there stands a stone doorway bearing only the name “ George

Chinnery '. Behind it rest the remains of the painter of whom

that American girl wrote. Coming to China about the end of

the eighteenth century , Chinnery, an Irishman and a dis

tinguished artist, has kept alive for us many of the figures who

walk so urgently through the diaries and journals of the time.

It is in this corner of old Macao that the scenes of the 1830's

come back with little effort. Here with the sun filtering through

the leaves in this quiet cemetery the spirits of some of those

figures seem still to linger on. It was like a room in which puppet

figures had been laid away. The door might have opened, and

Chinnery, with his ugly whiskered little face, who had in life

watched them and recounted many a tale about them, stepped

forth to pull the strings and make them play again.

I wandered from grave to grave reading the inscriptions. In

1836 an American naval surgeon, William Ruschenberger,

wrote of this cemetery :

The British burial-ground is in the neighbourhood, and is kept in neat

order by the Superintendent's chaplain, who, regarding it much in the

light of a cabinet of curiosities, never willingly permits a specimen to be

deposited without being properly labelled , and marked by cubes of

Portland stone, or marble, for the amusement of those who delight to

wander among the tombs, not always with a view, however, to brig ten

their morals from the rottenness of the grave. We may gather some notion

how many worldly hopes and aspirations have been concluded here, from

the pompous show of grief for the departed , recorded, in marble, by the

living, because more tenacious than the natural memory ofordinary men.

I had cause to ponder on how far some hopes and aspirations

had been concluded here and to feel assured that in one case at

least they had been neither concluded nor worldly. This was a

tomb on which the inscription read :

Robert Morrison , D.D. The first Protestant missionary to China, where

after a service of 27 years cheerfully spent in extending the kingdom of

the blessed Redeemer, during which period he compiled and published

ECHOES

A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, founded the Anglo -Chinese College at

Malacca and for several years laboured alone on a Chinese version of the

holy scripture. He was born at Morpeth, Northumberland, 5th January

1782, was sent to China by the London Missionary Society in 1807, was

for 25 years Chinese translator in the employ of the East India Company

and died at Canton, August ist 1834.

There is much history between the lines of this tombstone

biography, but it is only with the passage of years that its signi

ficance has become apparent.

Morrison was an Evangelical, moulded by the same in

fluences as Wilberforce, his senior by 23 years. He had the

narrowness of outlook of the Evangelicals as well as their

humanitarianism . His opinion of the Chinese was low; “ignorant,

deluded, guilty men ' he called them . It is doubtful whether he

saw any insuperable incongruity between trading in opium and

preaching Christianity. He believed no doubt that a greater

good could come out of a smaller evil .

None the less the story on that tombstone is one of patient

perseverance maintained by a great faith . Morrison believed

that by giving the Bible to the Chinese and educating them to

read it and understand the way of life of Christian people, he

could put them in the only way of salvation. He went down into

his grave knowing, as he had doubtless known when he started,

that it would not be for him to see his Promised Land in China.

His was no worldly hope or aspiration, but he lit aa candle.

On 15th October, little more than two months after Morrison

had been laid to rest, a long cortège of British and Portuguese

notables followed another coffin to the little cemetery . Lord

Napier, the first British Chief Superintendent of Trade in

China, to whom Morrison had been secretary and official

translator, had died on 11th October a disappointed, dis

illusioned man who had tried to do things in a hurry and got

hurt in the process .

‘Napier', says Mr. Collis in his absorbing book on this period

in China ( Foreign Mud, p. 177) , ' was a man of many good

qualities, but was also a strait -laced Presbyterian at a time when

the Presbyterians were a narrow sect. In his heart he con

sidered the Chinese ignorant heathens and, when he discovered

that they saw him as an unlettered barbarian, was disconcerted

and thrown off his balance, having no saving grace of humour

WILLIAM JARDINE

or liking for paradox as had merchants like Hunter, who found

it all very funny.'

Besides the narrow outlook of religion which Napier shared

with Morrison , he had also a low opinion of the Chinese, but he

hoped that free and ordered trade with China would be estab

lished and followed ‘by the overthrow of idolatryand the complete

triumph of pure Christianity'. He, too, saw no great evil in

the sale of opium to China. There, however, the resemblance

between the two men ended. Although no one thought it at the

time, the work of Morrison was to be far more significant in the

history of China than was the presence of Lord Napier.

Amongst those who followed Napier's coffin on that October

morning in 1834, walking just behind Lady Napier and her

daughter and the assistant superintendents, was a man named

William Jardine, merchant prince of Canton, who had built up

a fortune from opium dealing. After him came the British and

Portuguese naval and military officers. Then came the main

body of British merchants headed by Jardine's partner, James

Matheson, and another great opium runner, James Innes.

During the short period of Napier's mission Jardine had rapidly

become his chief counsellor, following a policy of using the

clashes between Napier and the Chinese Viceroy as a means of

impressing on His Majesty's Government at home the need for

a firm stand and armed demonstration in advancing the cause

of unrestricted British trade in China.

Jardine's contribution to empire building was of an unusual

kind. Scots by race and a doctor by profession , he entered the

employ of the East India Company as a ship's surgeon, but

finding trade more profitable than medicine soon gave it up and,

joining the famous Parsee firm of Framjee Cowasjee, went to

Canton as their agent in 1822. Cowasjee's main business was in

opium and in Canton Jardine had also the agency for other

opium firms. So successful was he in opium smuggling that in

1824 he was taken into partnership by a naturalized British

subject of Huguenot origin called Hollingworth Magniac, who

was the head of the leading opium firm . Magniac, commending

Jardine, wrote of him : “ You will find Jardine a most conscien

tious, honourable and kind -hearted fellow , extremely liberal

and an excellent man of business in this market, where his

knowledge and experience in the opium trade and in most

ECHOES

articles of export is highly valuable. He requires to be known to

be properly appreciated . Soon after Jardine joined the firm

Magniac retired, and two years later Jardine was left in charge.

In 1828 he took Matheson, another Scot, into partnership.

While Jardine dealt with the smuggling of opium into Canton,

Matheson, in the trade in Canton since 1819, specialized in

smuggling along the Chinese coast, and the pair soon developed

a most efficient organization, concentrating on fast clippers

which far outstripped the old country craft.

In old records of ' The Princely House ', as their firm came

to be known, I read that ‘At first the chief article of import had

been cotton, but by the eighteen-twenties this gave place to

opium'. They had, however, an extensive trade in a wide range

of other commodities. ' Tin ', the records relate, ' is an article in

steady demand being much used to gild pieces of paper burnt

by the Chinese in religious ceremonies of constant recurrence. '

And ' of Birds' Nests there is a constant consumption increasing

with the increase of Luxury, what is called the first sort fine

white and not much broken will sell here at the commencement

of the season for $40 per Catty. Bêche-de-Mer is a precarious

article to deal in for one not acquainted with the quality of

which it requires considerable experience to be a good judge;

small black and heavy pieces are considered the best and will

sell at from 20 to 40 Taels a picul. Sandalwood is in extensive

use in offering incense to the gods. The Americans bring large

quantities from the Fiji and Sandwich Islands, but you may be

always sure of 9 or 10 dollars per picul in this market .

Jardine's silk room is one of the oldest offices in the organiza

tion. In 1836 Canton exported 21,000 bales of raw silk : the

price of the best sorts was about 550 dollars a picul. Elegant

crêpe shawls and scarves, gauzes and checked lustrines, satins

and lining silks, pongees, handkerchiefs, sarsnet, senshaws and

levantines, were among the manufactured goods which came

from Canton to delight feminine eyes in the West.

Tea was the most valuable export, and fast clippers were

essential to carry the cargo to Britain, Europe and America.

The ships raced home, each trying to be first in order to obtain

the best prices. When the East India Company's factory in

Canton closed down there were over four million dollars' worth

of imports and over seven million dollars' worth of export teas

PLATE I

West

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THE COAST TRADE

taken over by the old country traders and by a flock of new

firms which sprang up to meet the demand. So many new

traders came in that by 1837 the British community had grown

from 66 to 156.

In the capable hands of Jardine and Matheson the trade

prospered more and more. They created aa tradition in ships and

men which has lasted till today, long after the trade -on which

the firm's prosperity was founded had come to an end. The

coast trade, started as a side -line, grew to be more important

simply because by its nature it avoided contact with important

Chinese Government posts. That government had no centrally

directed revenue service, and even if officials had been honest,

the creeks of the Chinese coast rendered smuggling easy.

The fact that English ships could cock snooks at them simply

added to the Chinese fear of foreigners, and by now the English

had long overthrown Emperors and Princes in India. Through

their extensive trade Jardine and Matheson knew better than

others how weak China was, and it put them in the position not

only of leaders of British trade interests but gave them the

influence to bear on His Majesty's Government and to state

authoritatively how China could be brought down. As Justin

McCarthy has put it : ‘ To adopt the happy illustration of a

clever writer, England has dealt with China for the time as a

backwoodsman sometimes does with a tree in the American

forests— “ girdled ” it with the axe, so as to mark it for felling at a

more convenient opportunity. '

When the East India Company's monopoly ended in 1834 the

pressure of the Canton merchants on the home government

became direct, for Napier represented His Majesty's Govern

ment. The Chinese had always dealt with the merchants through

the Co -Hong and in this way international questions had never

arisen. In any case, believing that Peking was the navel of the

world and that all men beyond the borders of China were ' outer

barbarians ' whose only status could be that of tributaries, there

was no way in their logic for the ' barbarian eye ' of the foreign

merchants to be anything more than a headman. There were

no equals to the Son of Heaven to send envoys in our meaning.

Like the Chinese who saw China as the Middle Kingdom and

the Son of Heaven as Heaven's vice-regent, like the Popes who

saw themselves in the same capacity and divided the world

ECHOES

between Spain and Portugal, like the Muslims who saw Mecca

as the world's navel, the British saw London as the world's

capital. Omphaloscepsis has always been one of the world's

troubles. It had led to the loss of the American colonies, for it

took that to divert King, Westminster and Whitehall from the

centripetal view of Empire. It was the omphalosceptics of the

outposts who eventually converted us to the centrifugal idea of

commonwealth. The East India Company had found no diffi

culty in maintaining the centripetal view, for they conducted

their affairs, whether in India or in China, from London. They

were primarily concerned that their servants in the outposts

made profits for them, and satisfactory profits could be made at

Canton despite the restrictions imposed by the Chinese. The

Company was not seriously perturbed by any inconveniences

which those restrictions caused to their servants personally. Now

the position had changed.

Napier, egged on by Jardine and other merchants, refused to

obey the regulation that all communications addressed to the

Viceroy ofCanton must be headed Pin'a humble petition and

transmitted through the Hong. The Viceroy would have nothing

to do with Napier until he obeyed the laws of the heavenly

realm, and Napier paid no attention to the Viceroy's edicts and

threats. Finally Napier issued a proclamation in Chinese calling

the Viceroy ignorant and obstinate and accusing him of inter

fering with trade. The Viceroy countered with another calling

Napier a mad dog. He also stopped the trade, withdrew the

Chinese servants from the factories and put a guard on Napier's

quarters. Napier summoned two British warships and secured a

guard of marines. But it was the end . He left for Macao, where

he died only three months after his arrival on the scene in

Canton .

After his death the trade was immediately opened, but the

merchants, led by Jardine, addressed a petition to William IV

demanding a Plenipotentiary and a show of force. Nothing was

done then, but meanwhile Peking had become determined to

put down the opium trade, which flourished because, in view of

the high profits involved, the merchants found it easy to bribe

the Chinese officials. The merchants in Canton were ordered

by the Viceroy to deliver up all their opium within three days,

and were required to sign bonds undertaking under pain of

OPIUM

death never to import more. The Chinese servants were again

withdrawn, supplies cut off from the factories, and guards

mounted. Elliot, who had been appointed Superintendent of

Trade after Napier, delivered up 20,283 chests of opium but

refused the signing of the bonds. After the opium had been

surrendered he and 16 British merchants, including Matheson

(Jardine had by now left for home) , were allowed to leave for

Macao .

The London to which Jardine came back in 1839 was different

to the one he had left twenty years earlier. His ambitions no

doubt had been to make a fortune and join the gentry, one of

the ‘ nabobs, negro -drivers, generals, admirals, governors, com

missaries, contractors, pensioners, sinecurists, commissioners,

loan -jobbers, lottery-dealers, bankers, stock -jobbers' to whom

Cobbett was to refer. His philosophy was that of Adam Smith

and Bentham, the division of labour, free trade and laissez- faire.

And no interference by the State with the making of money and

the way people spent it and lived.

The currents which shape the course of human affairs had

begun to turn the minds of men to greater humanity at the

beginning of the nineteenth century, and they flowed more

strongly during Jardine's absence. Chief among many recent

humanitarian reforms was the abolition of slavery. " The hold

of Wilberforce and the anti -slavery movement ', says Trevelyan ,

‘ on the solid middle class in town and country was a thing

entirely beautiful - English of the best, and something new in

the world . '

True it had not affected the merchants of Canton : but it had

cost the country £20,000,000 and Jardine may have reflected

that if England were prepared to put her hand in her pocket to

gratify a decent impulse, she might be prepared to face the loss

the stopping of the opium trade would mean . England had

already decided that opium was bad for her subjects in India,

though as yet she considered it legitimate to grow it in India to

sell to the ‘ heathen Chinee ' to pay for India's education and

hospitals. It meant five and a half millions a year to Indian

revenues .

Not only had slavery been abolished . The Poor Law had been

improved and State education provided for. These were not

laissez -faire. The Evangelical religion had become stronger. On

ECHOES

the other hand, squires were still squires and enclosures were

being made all the time, to the profit of the rich and the im

provement of national production, but often to the removal of

the means of livelihood of the poor. And England still stood up

for trade. It would clearly be wise not to say too much about

opium. But after all, that very year, Aden had been captured

as a coaling point on the way to India. Palmerston had backed

Lord Auckland in India with his expedition to Afghanistan to

forestall a Russo - Persian protectorate there. Yes, Palmerston

was the man.

There was a feeling in Radical circles against colonial expan

sion, but no one attacked the East India Company where the

disciples of Bentham were all-powerful. James Mill, who had

recently died, had entered its service when Jardine went to

China, and his son John Stuart, who had still 20 years to go

before he proclaimed that man must exercise his natural capaci

ties and talents without being impeded by evil economic condi

tions, was still working with the Company.

Jardine, however, would not have worried if he had ever been

down a coal mine. Humanitarians of all sects could unite on

freeing slaves in the West Indies and Mauritius, but being, some

of them, hard-headed business men , they could not do so to free

the ‘ little factory slaves ' , or the boys and girls of seven and eight

who worked in coal mines for anything up to 16 hours a day,

and lived in narrow streets of houses built back to back and side

to side with indescribable sanitary conditions. All this was un

fortunate but unavoidable, for the Benthamite creed of en

lightened self-interest leading to the greatest happiness of the

greatest number ' meant that employer and employed must be

left free to make what bargains they chose, whatever suffering

or inhumanity might result.

But Jardine had not been down a coal mine and these condi

tions were still just vague knowledge in the background. There

were humanitarians, but provided not too much splash was

made about opium who was going to worry that Chinamen

were being demoralized ? Besides to a business man there was a

difference between slave -dealing and opium -dealing. Adam

Smith had pointed out that on many counts slave labour was

less economic than free and this point of view had weighed with

the abolitionists. Otherwise many more would have held it

A LETTER TO THE QUEEN

regrettable but inevitable. Indeed, one of Wilberforce's early

spiritual advisers was a clergyman who had been master of a

slave ship when ' conversion ' came upon him, and the change in

his outlook had brought with it no sense of its incompatibility

with his occupation. In fact opium and slaves were not on the

same footing. You could eat opium without many ill effects, you

could smoke good opium with but few , it had much medicinal

virtue. But these arguments did not dispose of the fact that the

enormous export of Indian opium to China had little but a

devastating effect on the Chinese, most of whom were poor and

smoked bad opium .

Viceroy Lin, far away in Canton, was puzzled by the iniquity

of these foreigners who brought this deadly poison. Surely their

Queen could know nothing about it. He wrote to her in this

very year :

We have reflected that this noxious article is the clandestine manu

facture of artful schemers under the dominion of your honourable nation.

Doubtless you, the honourable chieftainess, have not commanded the

growing and sale thereof. We have heard that in your honourable bar

barian country the people are not permitted to inhale the drug. If it is

admittedly so deleterious, how can to seek profit by exposing others to its

malific powers be reconciled with the decrees of Heaven ? You should im

mediately have the plant plucked up by the very root. Cause the land

there to be hoed up afresh , sow the five grains and if any man dare again

to plant a single poppy, visit his crime with condign punishment. Then

not only will the people of the Celestial Kingdom be delivered from an

intolerable evil, but your own barbarian subjects albeit forbidden to

indulge will be safeguarded against falling a prey to temptation. There

will result for each the enjoyment of felicity.

Queen Victoria probably never received this letter, but

Palmerston's mail-bag was heavy with petitions from British

merchants from Manchester, London, Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol

and Blackburn . Manchester firms had cotton goods to the value

of half a million sterling at Canton. Their agents had been de

prived of liberty and placed in peril. The firms had suffered

damage and apprehended ruin. All this was to give Jardine

solid backing .

Securing an interview with Palmerston , Jardine advised him

what steps to take. The outcome of it was that Palmerston

decided to make Viceroy Lin's treatment of the foreigners the

casus belli and Britain's first war with China , generally called

the Opium War, followed .

ECHOES

The fact was that the curious system ofFactories and Co-Hong

and official relations which the Chinese had set up to protect

themselves against too great foreign intrusion had failed. It had

failed largely because the British merchants insisted on smug

gling opium, but Britain did not fight the war to perpetuate the

opium trade. She fought it to give British merchants a way to

trade in their own methods. Nobody thought it immoral to

force the Chinese to open trade.

Furthermore it must be emphasized that not only had

Chinese officials at Canton showed themselves easily bribable

in permitting the smuggling of opium, but the whole system of

Government control had been extremely lax . The edicts of

Peking were in fact for long almost aa dead letter in Canton in

this respect, and the merchants had therefore grounds for

assuming that they were not to be taken seriously.

In June 1840 a large naval and military expeditionary force

began to assemble at Hong Kong. Perhaps the most dramatic

incident in the campaign was at Chuenpee in the Bocca Tigris

in the Canton River on 7th January of the following year.

One of the most formidable engines of destruction which any vessel,

particularly a steamer, can make use of is the Congreve rocket, a most

terrible weapon when judiciously applied, especially where there are

combustible materials to act upon. The very first rocket fired from the

Nemesis was seen to enter the large junk against which it was directed,

near that of the admiral, and almost instantly it blew up with a terrific

explosion, launching into eternity every soul on board, and pouring forth

its blaze like the mighty rush of fire from a volcano. The instantaneous

destruction of the huge body seemed appalling to both sides engaged. The

smoke, and flame, and thunder of the explosion, with the fragments falling

around, and even portions ofdissevered bodies scattering as they fell, were

enough to strike with awe, if not with fear, the stoutest heart that looked

upon it.

Hong Kong was occupied on the 26th January 1841 , but the

war did not end until the 29th August of the following year with

the signature of the Treaty of Nanking. The principal provisions

of the treaty were that Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo and

Shanghai should be opened for trade and the cession of Hong

Kong confirmed , that six million dollars indemnity, three

million debts due by Hong merchants and the costs of the war

and twelve million dollars should be paid, with interest at five

per cent, that prisoners of war should be released, Chinese who

THE TREATY OF NANKING

had served British amnestied , that there should be a fair and

regular tariff of duties and charges, and that fixed terms of

equality should be used in official correspondence. In other

words, no more Pin pricks. Opium was not mentioned.

When it was all over, Palmerston wrote to the mutual friend

who had introduced Jardine to him :

To the assistance and information which you, my dear Smith, and

Mr. Jardine so handsomely afforded us, it was mainly owing that we were

able to give to our affairs, naval, military and diplomatic, in China, those

detailed instructions which have led to these satisfactory results.

We may contrast this with the echo of Gladstone's words : ‘ I

am in dread of the judgment of God upon England for our

national iniquity towards China. ' History would show how far

Britain has justified herself in Hong Kong.

CHAPTER TWO

First Footsteps

On the return of the Commodore on the 24th we were directed to proceed

to Hong Kong and commence its survey. We landed on Monday the

26th January at fifteen minutes past eight, and being ' bona fide' first

possessors, Her Majesty's health was drunk with three cheers on Possession

Mount .

THE SPEAKER is Captain Belcher, commanding H.M. Survey

Ship Sulphur, the year 1841 , and the occasion the birth and

baptism of Her Majesty's new colony of Hong Kong.

Few thought much of the new acquisition. The English in

London were annoyed with friends who said ' Go to Hong Kong ' .

Even the Queen thought little enough of the new stone in her

diadem. ‘Albert is so much amused at my having got the island

of Hongkong, and we think Victoria ought to be called Princess

of Hongkong as well as Princess Royal.'

A fairly steady stream of ridicule was directed at it, some of it

quite amusing, from the Canton Press at Macao :

FIRST FOOTSTEPS

We are happy to announce to our readers that the new settlement pro

gresses' in a most surprising manner . The site of the principal town has

been selected with the judgment which is characteristic of the English

authoritiesin China: and we may mention in proofofthis that every street

will be perfectly sheltered from the south wind, which will be an immense

comfort during the approaching hot season . There are abundant supplies

of granite and cold water, and we need not point out the facility with

which provisions can be obtained from Canton and Macao. A street on a

gigantic scale is already far advanced , leading from an intended public

office to a contemplated public thoroughfare; and we now only require

houses, inhabitants, and commerce to make this settlement one of the most

valuable of our possessions.

And so it went on : it was very unhealthy ; it was a miserable

desert anyway .

CHAHAR MANCHURIA

JEHOL

NINGSTA SUTYUAN

EA LL

GR HE WA Peking

Tientsin

НОРЕН KOREA

CHINGHAI Cheloo 1

SHANST ,

KAN SU

SHANTUNG SO Tšingtao

GRAND

YELLOW

SHENSI HWANG HO CANAL

KUA Gn SEA

N- g

HONAN

ZE G EH Nanking Chinklang

N GT AN HU

SIKANG YA

SZECHUAN KI

Ichang Hankow ANHWEI

Soochow Woosung

Shanghai

Chungking Shasi

CHUSAN I

Hangchowe

Ningpo

CHEKLANGU

Changshas

KWEICHOW HUNAN KIANGST Wenchow

Kunming

FUKTEN Foochow

YUNNAN

KWANGST

KIA KWANGTUNG Amoy

NG FORMOSA

Canton

Swatow

Kowloon

Macao

JEHONG KONG

(Port.)

HAINAN MILES E250 500

3750

China, showing the Treaty Ports. ' The Treaty of Nanking provided

that Canton, Amoy, Foochow , Ningpo and Shanghai should be

opened for trade and the cession of Hong Kong confirmed ' ( p. 26 )

A COFFIN SHOP

True enough, disease, fire, typhoons and other disasters had

provided setback after setback to the pioneers who built Hong

Kong, but to me, walking along Queen's Road on an early

evening in May 1950, it hardly seemed possible that the site of

so great a city had been desert so short a time ago. It was my

second day in Hong Kong and I was fortunate that no less im

portant a person than Mr. Chung King Pui, the Assistant to the

Secretary for Chinese Affairs,, had undertaken my initiation into

the ways of life which lay behind the gay setting in which I

moved. I could have had no better guide. The experience and

knowledge which he had gained in a long period of service

seemed to add weight to his already impressive figure. His

lightest utterance was framed in well-chosen words which bore

evidence to the serious consideration he gave to all matters,

however insignificant they might seem. He led me along streets

above which, hanging like banners, were long and narrow signs

painted in gay colours and bearing the names of shops in Chinese

characters. They were works of art in themselves. These and the

coloured and decorated pillars of the arcades gave to the scene

a fanciful, musical comedy setting. I felt the curtain had gone

up and anything might happen .

The portentous solemnity of Mr. Chung increased in me the

feeling of expectancy. I adjusted myself respectfully to his de

meanour as he led me up the steep slope of Hollywood Road and

we mounted the hill with that impressive gait which befits older

men engaged in weighty matters. I had no idea where we were

going but perceived readily enough that the thoughts of my

erudite instructor were too sublimely engaged for me to inquire.

However, it soon became evident that thoughts of the future

played no small part in his immediate reflections. He shortly

turned into a dim shop lined with hollowed tree trunks. In the

background a little ruby light glowed in front of a shrine. From

these recesses the proprietor came forward to greet us with a

mournful look of inquiry from one to the other.

Mr. Chung introduced us and turning to me explained, “ This

is a coffin shop'.

If the proprietor felt any disappointment on discovering that

we were not prospective customers he concealed it with all the

courtesy of his race, and the look of anticipatory condolence he

had borne disappeared as he talked animatedly of the various

FIRST FOOTSTEPS

qualities of coffin wood. I learnt that while you could be encased

for as little as $20, you could also pay as much as $20,000, which

at is. 3d. to the dollar seemed to me a lot more than any body

was worth .

We then crossed the road to a ' paper ' shop where I dis

covered that, however much it might cost you to buy yourself a

coffin, once you were underground , your friends and relatives

could keep you supplied in the other world with all possible

luxuries for a very trifling outlay. They could buy you money

old-fashioned silver and gold or new - fashioned bank notes on

the ‘ Bank of Hell ' ( to be on the safe side)—motor-cars, yachts,

clothes, houses, what you will, all in paper, and send them

after you by the simple process of burning them.

Cheered by these thoughts, I was led further up the road and

through some iron gates, into a rather out- of-repair asphalted

compound, surrounded by closed and shabby booths. In the

centre was another block of booths.

‘ This' , said Mr. Chung, “ is the Chinese Recreation Ground. '

It had started to drizzle, but making due allowance for that

and the twilight, anything less promising from the point of view

of recreation and entertainment I should have found it hard to

imagine, but as we made several damp circumambulations ofthe

central kaaba, I learnt that it had had its better days, and that

now it was in the custody of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs,

who let off the booths and applied the proceeds to good works.

While he told me this my wandering eye had glimpsed through

several half-opened doors picturesque figures in something

which, if not so gaily coloured, seemed rather like the garb of

old China. They were clad in long blue gowns with caps sur

mounted by buttons, and had those long and wispy beards so

familiar to us in pictures. I asked who they were.

‘ Fortune-tellers’ , said Mr. Chung. ‘ You should be aware that

no Chinese undertakes any matter of personal importance with

out consulting a fortune-teller or astrologer. Now I come to

think of it I am acquainted - er - slightly, very slightly, with one

of them .'

After another perambulation of the kaaba, peering at the

names , Mr. Chung stopped at a door: 'Ah ! Here we are, Mr. Li . '

He pushed open the door and there were at once eager pro

testations of delight from Mr. Li, who came forward to greet us,

A FORTUNE - TELLER

while his wife and children smiled at us from the background.

Mr. Li was a youngish, jovial character whose figure and

countenance suggested that fortune-telling was a much more

prosperous (and more light-hearted) affair to him than it was to

some of his neighbours, who had seenied thinner, more sad

dened, even if they looked more in the part . Possibly his condi

tion and circumstances betokened a reputation for accuracy in

his predictions, but more probably a greater acquaintance with

human frailties.

Mr. Chung suggested I should have my fortune told and Mr.

Li expressed his pleasure in suitable terms, though he explained

that as it was evening he could not tell my horoscope, but must

content himself with my palm. Taking it in his, while his wife

put a cup of tea within easy reach of my other hand, he gazed at

it earnestly for some minutes, and then, Mr. Chung interpre

ting, portrayed for me a life of pleasant prospect with no more

than a modicum of reasonably to be expected mishaps. I gath

ered I should not be requiring a coffin for some considerable

time.

' For myself, concluded Mr. Li, ' I feel happy in seeing a

countenance such as yours. If you were Chinese and we were

living in the Ching Manchu dynasty, you ought to have been

one of the ministers. But I can tell you that General Hui Sun

Tshi's palm is similar to yours, though yours is even better than

his. No doubt about it, you'll find your success this year-next

year.'

Mr. Chung overwhelmed me with congratulations on the

happy prospects before me and then remarked , rather as an

afterthought, ‘ I recall that there is a race meeting tomorrow;

while we are here we might ask our friend what he thinks of

the prospects ' .

There followed an earnest consultation of some length during

which Mr. Chung's countenance, soberly serene, became posi

tively radiant, and when we left our cheerful host, who had

refused all offers of remuneration, he was confident that the

following afternoon would prove pleasantly lucrative. It was too

bad that when I met him at a party a few days later he con

fessed ruefully, but in a proper spirit of resignation, that he had

been $40 down . I wondered whether my own future would be

quite as rosy as Mr. Li had prophesied.

FIRST FOOTSTEPS

But at the moment we faced the evening's entertainment in

lighter mood and came out of the recreation ground to find that

the rain had stopped. Little did I think then that my circumam

bulations there had indeed been on a place of pilgrimage, and

that what was now the abode of fortune -tellers was once a green

hill, Possession Mount, where the British flag was first hoisted

on Hong Kong.

Mr. Chung's obsession with the future had obscured any

recollection he might have had with that story of the past, and

we were soon swept into the lively atmosphere of a present in

which men appeared to care no more for the past than they did

for the future.

With the coming of night the streets had taken on even more

of a gala appearance. The banners had disappeared in the

velvet depths of the darkness above, but in their place neon

signs blazed out Chinese characters in a profusion and variety

of colour which left Piccadilly Circus unplaced. The Chinese

characters robbed all this advertising of much of its vulgarity

and instead transformed the scene into a fairyland where jewels

hung and shone and dazzled. Most of these signs were in

Chinese, but some were in English as well. From up on high one

was exhorted to drink beer in violet and green, but Coca-Cola

always in the lucky vermilion of China. So prevalent was this 1

latter invitation that one began to believe that Coca-Cola had

become the staple food of China.

Indeed, one of my first impressions was that there was an

American air about parts of Hong Kong. Further east up

Queen's Road ' Battleground Annie ' shrieked all too loudly for

attention, and other cinemas at that end of the town seemed

overpoweringly American . The films had endowed many a

citizen of Hong Kong who had never been out of China with a

strong American accent, and large, glossy and opulent American

cars added a good deal to traffic problems.

However, here near West Point, China, or the British colony's

version of it, had the best of it. The brilliantly lit shops offered

every conceivable need and luxury from gold, jewellery, clothes,

ivory, jade and fancy ware to strange desiccated sea creatures in

the shops of marine delicacies, and dried snakes and seahorses

in those of Chinese druggists. Shops and stalls overflowed with

oranges and apples from California and mangoes from Manila .

WEST POINT

Any variety of English and American cigarettes was available

every few yards. The prices of everything were extremely high

and I wondered how many could buy oranges and apples at

7 d. each, or mangoes at is. 3d. Yet one saw workmen buying

them, and Lucky Strikes and Camels too. There were any

number of restaurants, large, medium and small, most looking

extremely inviting and all doing a roaring trade. Canned music

came from every shop and restaurant, and a large Chinese tea

shop produced such a volume ofsound with its band and singers

that its contribution to the general inferno was separately dis

tinguishable. And Mr. Chung and I were ourselves bound for a

restaurant, the famous Golden Dragon at West Point, where I

was to have my first big Chinese dinner.

West Point is a curious neighbourhood, for while it has no

good shops or residences and looks, to say the least, grubby, it

is the traditional quarter in which the rich man spends his

evenings and seeks his entertainment in ways peculiar to China.

Here are two of the great restaurants of Hong Kong, and here in

these dismal tenements are the exclusive private clubs with their

sing-song girls who help the rich to entertain, and here are some

of Hong Kong's best cabarets.

We were to dine with the directors of theTung Wah hospitals ,

a group of hospitals formerly entirely run in Chinese methods,

but now almost entirely European in their method ofmanage

ment. The directors are all men of substance, and besides

spending time and money on these philanthropic duties, they

lighten their task with congenial evenings in each other's society,

inviting guests, European or Chinese, to their entertainments.

We were wafted by an express lift to the upper regions of this

brilliantly illuminated and much-neon-sign-bedecked building,

and found ourselves among a thronging mob of well-dressed

Chinese, with a deafening clatter of mahjong tiles on blackwood

tables arising from every side. A damsel with well-tinted cheeks

and lips, in one of those neat little gowns which display the con

tours of the Chinese female to such advantage, handed me a

well-wrung-out hot towel, and following Mr. Chung's lead I

wiped my hands and face with it. It is a very pleasant habit

which leaves one feeling fresh and clean and yet dry at once.

Handing back the towel to the attentive creature at my side, I

next had a pen thrust into my hand and was asked to sign my

FIRST FOOTSTEPS

name on a large piece of red silk. The other guests had painted

their names vertically in Chinese characters : fortunately my

barbarian ignorance was excused and I was shown a place

where I could write it in English horizontally.

Then I shook hands with the Chairman, who introduced me

all round, and before many seconds had passed I had dozens of

Chinese visiting-cards, giving on one side the names, business

addresses, telephone numbers and biographical details of their

owners, and on the other the same, I suppose, in Chinese. I

could not help wishing that Hong Kong would adopt a custom

which I have met in Egypt, that of having your portrait on your

card. I knew well that there was no hope of my ever being able

to fit one of these cards to a face again.

I was furnished also with a collection of glasses of several

varieties of China tea and Scotch whisky and sat down to make

friends.

All of them, save Mr. Chung, were fresh acquaintances that

evening but they treated me as a long-lost friend, and though I

was handling chopsticks for about the first time in my life I had

John

‘ Lighten their task with congenial evenings ' (p. 33)

A CHINESE DINNER

little sense of strangeness. The Chinese, like many people of the

nearer East, are perfect hosts.

I sat in the place of honour, on the left of the Chairman, for,

as I was constantly to hear, things are always done the other way

round in China. On his right was a most delightful doctor with

a dimpled smile and a very naughty twinkle in his eye. With his

eyeglass and in his pin-stripe suit he was the embodiment of

Harley Street, but so assiduous were he, the president, and the

demure little waitress in green standing behind me, in filling my

glass with whisky or brandy-almost indifferently, whenever

I was not looking—that considerable watchfulness on my part

was necessary to avoid confusion between tumblers of tea and

almost neat spirits. That I drank as much as I did was due to

the constant calls of ' Yam sing ', the first Chinese expre I

learnt and which my mentor and guide on my left interpreted,

all too painstakingly, ‘ Bottoms up. You have to empty your

glass and show it is empty' .

I did not meet Chinese wines that night : indeed, although the

Chinese have in my opinion rightly come to the conclusion that

no other system of cooking surpasses their own, they seem to be

equally certain that Scotch whisky and French brandy are the

best drinks .

You know where you are at an Arab dinner when everything

is put on the floor at once and you help yourself at your own

indiscretion, but when after two substantial courses my friend

had said, as the shark's fin soup appeared, “ Now the dinner

proper begins ', I thought it wise to take a guest's privilege and

ask for a menu. These are not usually provided, but several

courses later a menu in Chinese, some two feet in length and one

foot wide, appeared followed by a small one in English. This read :

1. Two Entrees : (a) Stewed pigeon eggs and vegetable

(b) Fried quails with bamboo shoots

2. Shark's fin soup (best quality)

3. Stewed awabi with oyster sauce

4. Double boiled mushroom soup

5. Steamed garoupa

6. Roast chicken

7. Roast prawns (with shell)

8. Noodles

9. Pudding

Tea and fruit

FIRST FOOTSTEPS

A few footnotes may be helpful to those who do not know

Chinese cooking. Shark's fins are in themselves absolutely taste

less. Their merit lies somewhere concealed in their glutinous

quality. They are therefore always presented with a base of

something else— best quality ' meant chicken.

Awabi is a species of shellfish . It has some of the consistency

of leather and looks rather like the tongue of a shoe. Many

Europeans think it tastes like it too, but I found it good, though

its extremely slippery nature makes it an awkward customer for

an amateur to tackle with chopsticks. Garoupa is a first- class fish .

The only really trying part of the menu was the ' with shell '

after roast prawns. The correct method of dealing with these

animals is apparently to put the whole creature in your mouth,

crunch it up, and remove the bits of shell with the chopsticks.

The same complication arises with chicken, pork, etc., for they

are chopped up into small pieces across the bones and one fishes

about with chopsticks for obstinate splinters.

The din all round was absolutely terrific. The accompani

ment of mahjong from neighbouring parties rose continuously

and so did the roar of traffic thundering and echoing up from

the street. Everybody shouted their conversation, mostly in

Chinese, as they had otherwise no hopes of being heard. Fumes

of good food and spirits and tobacco dimmed the atmosphere

and one's mind. All one was conscious of in the confusion was

that it was a good party .

Suddenly there was a deafening explosion.

‘ Come and see ! ' The indefatigable Mr. Chung seized my

arm and rushed me to a window . Seven storeys below in the

street a rising cloud of dense smoke was stabbed by bright flashes

and there was a crackle of explosions like rapid rifle fire. Soon

the smoke enveloped us and eddied thickly into the room .

People dashed to close windows.

' It's a wedding', shouted my friend . ‘At least a thousand

dollars' worth of crackers there."

A wedding ! ' yelled I. I thought it was the Nationalists

bombing the city .'

We returned to the table to find ourselves involved in a series

of Yam Sing visits to other tables, a sort of Chinese version of

visiting rounds in the ‘ Lancers '. The dinner ended with the

passing round of hot steamed towels, piled high on a salver and

PLATE III

,1843.

VICTORIA

VIEW

.N.E.

Prendergast

Aquatint Collection

Chater

6 thought

much

new Few

acquisition

the

)2'(p.of

* Painted signs and decorated pillars gave to the scene a musical

comedy setting ' ( p . 29)

PLATE IV

A VARIED EVENING

handed to each guest with tongs. Much refreshed after this, I

was now ready to go home. After shaking hands with all our hosts,

Mr. Chung and I were seen to the lift by the chairman and the

charming wicked doctor. There were more handshakes and the

door closed .

The lift, however, shot upwards. We were decanted on an

upper floor, where, much to my surprise, I was greeted afresh by

the hosts from whom I had so recently parted, and led into a

cabaret where extremely lively dance music was being played .

We all sat round a long table with empty chairs at each side of us.

In no more time than it takes to tell these were filled with charm

ing dancing partners and I found my green waitress seated on one

side of me and a taxi girl from Shanghai on the other. Only tea

may be served in cabarets, and so on tea we danced till closing

time, and then the lift really did take us to street level.

It had, on the whole, been quite a varied evening.

CHAPTER THREE

The Heart of Hong Kong

LOOKING DOWN from the balcony of our hotel room high over

Pedder Street, one of Hong Kong's busiest streets, we found the

traffic a never- ending source of astonishment. Through all the

hours of daylight cars passed up and down, nose to tail. If any

one arrived at the hotel with luggage to discharge it meant a

traffic jam extending out of sight.

We could just see the corner at which Des Voeux Road

crossed Pedder Street. Along it big green double -decker trams

clanged and rumbled their noisy way in almost perpetual pro

cession, through the streams of large cars, red buses, taxis,

lorries and rickshaws. The pavements were thick with jostling

humanity. Whenever the traffic lights permitted it dense

streams spilled out across the roadways. It was useless to

attempt a passage through the traffic except at pedestrian

crossings, and then only when the lights or the smart Chinese

policeman on point duty permitted. But the crossings were well

organized and clearly marked by signs with a trunkless pair of

THE HEART OF HONG KONG

rather American-looking legs tripping from the pavement, in so

lighthearted a fashion that they both reassured and refreshed

the weary pedestrian to a fresh spurt. And a spurt was necessary

to get across before the lights changed.

I never saw such traffic . There is aa small square in that central

area of Hong Kong about a hundred yards square. In one day

between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. the police counted 47,000 cars going

round it. There are over 20,000 civilian vehicles registered in

Hong Kong and the motorist has long given up the hope of

finding parking space. For that matter the pedestrian no longer

expects room to walk on the pavements.

He does not seem to have much better chances of getting on

buses and trams at some hours of the day either. One generally

saw ‘ Bus full' notices and passengers were packed on both decks

of the trams. The Hong Kong trams in 1949 carried 100 million

passengers. They run the length of the city of Hong Kong from

Shau Ki Wan in the east to Kennedy Town in the west, over

19 miles of track. The island buses, serving the main roads on

Hong Kong island's 32 square miles, travelled 41 million miles

in the same year and carried 36 million passengers. Those on the

mainland, which serve Kowloon and the New Territories, a

matter of 273 square miles, went 111 million miles and carried

over go million passengers .

Crowded, too, are the excellent ferry services which ply

between Hong Kong and Kowloon. Stand at the Star Ferry pier

on Connaught Road between 9 and 10 in the morning and the

sight very much resembles that at a London terminus about the

same time. There is the same look of being hunted by the clock,

under almost every arm there is a newspaper - here mostly in

Chinese—and there is the same assortment of brief-bags.

Perhaps there are fewer hats, not one on a Chinese female head,

certainly fewer raincoats and umbrellas, but otherwise it is

much the same and one forgets that most of these faces are

Chinese in registering the impression that they have the same

look as those in London .

This Star Ferry made 120,000 crossings (a crossing takes

seven minutes) in 1949 and carried 35 million passengers. In

the same year the Yaumati Ferry carried 461 million passengers

and 750,000 motor vehicles !

And the noise ! With the narrow streets and high buildings

THE WATERFRONT

acting like a megaphone, the roar of the traffic, the clamour of

voices, endless hammering, the throbbing of machinery, make

London seem like a quiet country town.

Relatively the harbour was as full of life, traffic and noise as

the streets. This great harbour is the heart of Hong Kong,

pumping in the trade which is Hong Kong's life-blood from the

outside world and pumping it out again into arteries which lead

all over the world. On its 17 square miles of untroubled water

are to be seen at almost any time representatives of the sea trade

of every nation, arriving, anchored, or departing, and amongst

them pass numberless little craft, ferries, tugs with lighters, and

launches. Hooting, the blowing of sirens from great ships, the

steam whistles of smaller fry call attention to these noisy mani

festations of the age of steam, but amongst them unperturbed

by all the bustle glide the graceful forms of craft familiar in

these waters for a millennium or more before steam vessels

appeared. With their brown sails, ribbed like bats' wings, the

junks and sampans soon attract the eye of every visitor and make

the fingers of every would-be artist itch. It is easy to see that this

junk traffic is by no means the least important part of Hong

Kong's arterial system.

All along the waterfront the constant connection between the

sea and land is kept up by thousands of busy cheerful Cantonese.

Side by side the junks lie closely packed with their sterns against

the quay. In the middle of the road wait the lorries that bring or

carry away goods. Between junk, connected with the shore by a

single plank, and lorry busy coolies carry bales and many un

familiar objects.

There are 17,000 junks and such craft registered in Hong

Kong. About 1,200 of these are ocean-going craft making

voyages of usually up to 500 miles, but most are engaged in the

fishing trade. You have only to watch the cargo junks on the

waterfront for a few minutes to realize that junks are not just

ships but homes. The people who live on them have no shore

homes and here you see a baby, surely not more than two years

old, toddling along the plank on a visit of exploration to the

shore. There is his mother, quite unconcerned, dealing with her

domestic affairs up forward. She sits there polishing her pots and

pans and keeps a spotless home. The family washing blows gaily

from the rigging.

THE HEART OF HONG KONG

Many and varied are the cargoes carried by the junks. Much

of the unfamiliar looking products of China are brought into

the Colony by them, to be bulked and exported in prosaic pack

ings to the Western world. And in Hong Kong, imports from the

world at large are repacked and distributed in small quantities

by junks to many places in China. Many are engaged in local

traffic . The vegetables of the New Territories are brought to the

island in junks, and that most unsavoury of cargoes, nightsoil, is

shipped by junk to the New Territories to be used in the growing

of vegetables.

Right on the waterfront and controlling the endless activities

of this great harbour stands the office of the Director of Marine,

Mr. Jolly. I asked him for any striking or picturesque facts about

the port. “ There's nothing picturesque about it, he exclaimed.

' It's nothing but a headache ! I was in Lagos before I came

here,' he went on, but that's nothing. I was hit in the eyes

when I first came here, with the size of the port and the crowd

ing. When I got back to Liverpool on leave it seemed as if

nothing was moving. The whole day long here, ships and junks

are moving.'

In 1947 46,547 vessels entered and cleared the port, in 1948

55,344, and in 1949 no fewer than 66,815 of 23,040,126 tons !

Over two million passengers came and left by them . More than

23,000 of the vessels entered and cleared in 1949 were junksand

steam vessels under 60 net registered tons.

“ That's one of the unique features of Hong Kong—there's

no coasting. Once you leave the harbour you're in foreign

waters. That and its being perched on the Asiatic mainland,

being so cosmopolitan , and the huge number of native craft.

And not one of the junks is owned by a man with a British pass

port. They are all Chinese aliens. '

The telephone interrupted the flow of staccato sentences.

Someone wanting help. “Just come along’, said Jolly. “ You get

everything here. Just show you know how to start and stop the

ship and you'll be a full-blown navigator.' He put the receiver

down. ‘ Every damn thing you do in London can be done here.

The department's all British -staffed. We run examinations for

masters. Health, lighthouses, entering and clearing of ships,

manifests, etc. , it's all done in this one building .'

He took us in to see the Marine Court. It had a dignified,

THE BUSINESS CENTRE

old -fashioned, Victorian air about it with its solid chimney-piece,

bench and tables. There was not a sign of anything Chinese

about it. We saw crews being signed on down below .

There are 65 ship, boat-building and repair yards in the

Colony, of which all but nine deal with smaller craft and junks.

Repairs alone represent a major industry and ships ofall nations

use the facilities, which are the finest in the Far East.

The principal commercial wharves, piers, and warehouses or

godowns are on the mainland . So great were the difficulties of

moving goods to the mainland owing to the disturbances in

China that at the end of 1949 Hong Kong's godowns were

chock - a -block with goods — mainly paper, raw cotton, sul

phate of ammonia and wool-tops. ' Hong Kong's true role, of

course,' said the annual report of the Chamber of Commerce,

‘ is that of China's entrepôt ... she is being forced to play ...

the uncongenial one of China's warehouse .

With China's international trade largely at a standstill, Hong

Kong increasingly monopolized it. The port developed a great

reputation for quick dispatch of vessels. Regular communica

tions by sea were available to almost anywhere in the world.

Twenty -one companies had services to North America and

18 to Japan. There were five working to the United Kingdom ,

but apart from India and Far Eastern services there were also

regular services to South America, Australia, various countries

in Europe, North and South Africa, and the Persian Gulf.

If its harbour is Hong Kong's heart, the business centre

alongside it is no less easily recognizable as its brains, and you

have not to be long in Hong Kong to feel how it symbolizes the

spirit of the place. Its still prevailing Victorian solidity expresses

perfectly the turn of the century and beyond the thought of that

time Hong Kong has barely emerged. Here is one of the biggest

surviving shrines of private enterprise and on these buildings

will be found the names of great firms long established in the

East, notably banks, shipping firms and insurance companies,

with names known all over the world. And of course amongst

the great trading houses there stands out that of Jardine

Matheson and Company, still supreme as the type and ideal of

the old China House.

There is a flavour of the City of London in this area , but

there is no Whitehall. Commerce dominates everything and

THE HEART OF HONG KONG

Government offices are for the most part tucked away in com

mercial buildings. Such few buildings as are dedicated entirely

to Government activities seem very much the poor relations of

those of the business firms.

Gradually the Victorian blocks are being replaced by new

and prosperous structures. Dominating all the business centre

is the creation of Jardine's and the other great houses—the huge

monolithic pile of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking

Corporation. This in Hong Kong is The Bank and is scarcely

otherwise referred to. In its up-to-date modernity it symbolizes

the belief that even if the thought which rules Hong Kong is

not that which is current in England today, there is nothing the

matter with the money it makes.

This mighty building also conceals important Government

offices in its air -conditioned interior, and even its site can be

construed as a parable, for it is the site of the old City Hall and

Hong Kong has no longer a civic centre. Nor has it concert hall,

picture gallery, museum or other centre of culture. It is of course

accidental that the Bank thus symbolizes the subordination of

civic splendour and culture to commerce, for the old City Hall

was found to be unsafe, and it is of course accidental that by its

side is rising the tall spire of the Bank of China, now a Chinese

Communist Government undertaking, destined to be 17 storeys

high and to overtop The Bank by several storeys. Let us hope

there will be no parable in that.

CHAPTER FOUR

On he Peak

I NEVER CEASED to wonder at the impressiveness of Hong Kong

and I felt it strange that I had not appreciated its stature and

importance before seeing it. I said something to this effect one

morning as I was walking along crowded Connaught Road with

one of Hong Kong's Taipans. He smiled and told me that a

short time ago, when he was in London, he went into Charing

Cross Post Office to post rather a fat letter to Hong Kong. Not

SOME BASIC FACTS

knowing how many stamps to put on it, he asked the girl behind

the counter. Feeling sure from her answer that she thought

Hong Kong was a foreign destination , he ventured to question

the amount she quoted by remarking that Hong Kong was

British .

‘ Oh no,' she said ; ‘ Hong Kong is in China. '

My friend insisted that it was a British colony and assured her

that if she would be so kind as to look it up she would find he

was right. Not at all convinced, she rather crossly got out the

tome to which Post Office officials refer for this sort of informa

tion and discovered that Hong Kong was indeed included

among British colonies .

'Well,' she admitted grudgingly, ' I see it is, but it must be

very recent.'

This story can arouse a wide variety of reflections, ranging

from the possibly comparative unimportance of Hong Kong to

the inadequacy of British education, but I take it as justifying

the necessity of recording some of the basic facts about Hong

Kong which I myself had to look up before going there. The

facts are sufficiently confusing to make the young lady's igno

rance at least understandable, and I discovered for myself that

they are by no means clearly stated in books of reference. The

colony of Hong Kong got put together in a very untidy way.

First of all there is the Island of Hong Kong with an area of

32 square miles. In 1860 the Convention of Peking increased the

area of the colony by adding the tip of the Kowloon Peninsula

( 31 square miles) and a small island off it known as Stonecutter's

Island (4 square mile) . Thus far the Colony consisted of territory

ceded outright, 354 square miles of land legally as British as the

islands in which we live.

In 1898 the rest of the peninsula of Kowloon together with

75 islands and a considerable amount of sea were leased from

China for a period of 99 years. An official publication gives the

area of the mainland thus leased as 270 square miles and of the

islands as go, but nowadays the total land area leased is stated

to be 355 square miles. This makes the total area of the Colony

3904 square miles, generally stated as 391. It is just within the

tropics, but a favourite catch for the new traveller is based on

the fact that you do not have to cross the Equator to get there by

sea, via Suez.

ON THE PEAK

Disliking handbook information of this kind, I was fortunate

in finding that Hong Kong is one of those places with a vantage

point from which one can easily take in basic geographical facts.

Eighteen hundred feet is, to be sure, not a very impressive height

in itself, but, with its steep northern slope so close to the great

city, the Peak towers impressively, indeed strikingly and majes

tically, over it. You can climb the Peak by car, but, thanks to a

certain Mr. Findlay Smith who conceived the idea of aa funi

cular railway, it is much more interesting to do so by the Peak

Tram, which was opened in 1888. I had looked on the ride as

a thing that must be ‘ done ' , but had been inclined to underrate

it as one of those too -much -advertised attractions for tourists.

The Peak tramway, however, is a real experience and Hong

Kong is rightly proud of it.

We had a holiday feeling as soon as we entered the charming

little station up Garden Road, 100 feet above the sea. It is like

a well-kept country station with an air of flowers and leisure

about it, a sweet-stall , postcards, even a dress shop and aa weigh

ing machine. Yet the station is busy enough. Ordinarily the

tram carries 4,000 passengers a day (in 1949 the total was over

a million) and this year at the Cheung Yeung festival, when

people go up to the highest place to commemorate the dream

of a woman, the tram ran 109 cars and carried 10,565 people in

the day. It seems that everybody had laughed at the lady when

she said she had dreamed the village was going to be destroyed ,

so she went off to the top of a hill alone and when she got back

the village had been destroyed by floods.

Reasonably, quietly, the tram starts on its ten-minute run

up the mountain. On each side houses cling perilously to the

steep slopes, and gardens display a glory of blooms and palms,

of hibiscus and hydrangeas. In a very short time, by some

strange illusion, the houses one passes appear to lean right away

from the hillside and to be tumbling over. After the first three

stations one is in the midst of a primeval jungle and the slow

moving open car seems unsafe, for one almost expects jungle

animals to appear. This jungle is so impenetrable that it is

ridiculous to think that a great city is only a few minutes away.

Too few minutes bring you to Peak Station at 1,305 feet and

you step out into a fresher world, anything up to ten degrees

cooler than the city below. Five hundred feet above, with quite

VIEW FROM THE PEAK

an easy paved way to its summit, stands Victoria Peak, and from

it one can appreciate Hong Kong's geography. Here one is on

the highest point of a range of conical hills running from east to

west. At first, however, geography is far from one's thoughts,

for the scenery is quite breathtaking in its beauty.

On the side on which we have come up, the dense growth of

forest creased with deep gullies gradually fades out and the

streets and houses of the city are spread out in relief. Even the

great Bank looks smaller than a rubble pile from here and no

more important. Sharp cut along the waterfront is a sheet of

smooth and deep blue glass on which ships look like tiny toys.

Beyond the harbour, about a mile from the shore, parallel to

and equal in height to the range on which we are, stand the

nine peaks of Kowloon, from which the peninsula takes its

name — Nine Dragons. In the far distance are the blue and grey

mountains of China. In between are the mountains of the New

Territories. Seven miles to the north-west, a wisp of cloud cling

ing to the highest shows you are looking at Tai Mo Shan, Big

Hat Mountain, 3,140 feet, the highest mountain in the Colony.

The white hat of mist it generally wears about its crown gives it

its name .

Down on the other, southern, side of the island beneath us is

a very different scene. There are steep green gullies leading to

the deeply-indented coastline where white foam laps at the

beaches of rocky coves. They look like embroidery edging to the

glossy sheet of blue, island-studded sea. In all the scene almost

the only movement is the silent fluttering of those white foam

crests far below. There is little sign of human life, the most

conspicuous being the threads of winding roads laid over the

green hillsides. As far as the eye can see there are islands which

seem to float motionless on the sea. There is an ethereal quality

in the scene .

You can see many of Hong Kong's 75 islands from this

vantage point and one of them, Lantao, away to the west, is

larger than Hong Kong Island. Roughly it has much the same

shape and you can gain a very good idea of what Hong Kong

was like in 1840 from looking at Lantao.

This thought brings home a startling appreciation of the

crowding of Hong Kong. The Colony's area is, as we have

seen, 391 square miles. The actual estimate of the population

ON THE PEAK

in May 1950 was 2,360,000. That makes about 6,000 to the

square mile. Compare this with New Zealand, which has

1,800,000 people with 104,000 square miles for them to move

about in. Tiny Gibraltar has 15,000 people to each of its two

square miles, far and away the densest population of any

country ' which Whitaker gives. But there are few areas other

than Hong Kong which approach such figures. Yet here on the

Peak one can see how much of this small island is without ex

tensive signs of habitation and one could find many places in the

New Territories with even fewer . The breakdown guesses at

Hong Kong's population are never up to date, but let us take

the latest recorded ones at the end of 1948 when the population

was estimated at 1,800,000. The city of Victoria — the capital

and the Peak had about 887,400, and the villages of Hong Kong

Island 70,100; Kowloon had a population of 699,500, and the

New Territories 200,000. Included in these figures is the

literally - floating population estimated at 114,400. From this

it will be seen that the vast majority of the people are crowded

into Hong Kong and Kowloon cities—no more than ten square

miles. There are areas in those cities with over 2,000 to the acre !

My own house and garden at home cover one acre and I try to

imagine what it would look like if 2,000 Chinese came to tea !

It is easy to see from the Peak that you could not walk ten miles

in any direction on the island without coming to the sea. It is

said to be eleven miles long at its greatest length and five miles

wide at its greatest width, but everywhere except on its northern

coast it is deeply indented and there are therefore a number of

splendid natural harbours such as Aberdeen. That fascinating

fishing port is only indirectly connected with Aberdeen in

Scotland. It was not some homesick Scot who so christened it :

it was named after Lord Aberdeen who was Foreign Secretary

from 1841 to 1850. In the same way Stanley, the first British

settlement on the island and perhaps now more famous as the

site of the prison and internment camp where so many Britons

suffered during the Japanese occupation, was called after his

colleague Lord Stanley (afterwards Earl of Derby) , Secretary

of State for the Colonies .

It was the fashion of the time to call the towns of new colonies

after the statesmen of the day and the Empire is sprinkled with

many names which would otherwise be forgotten . Governors

ABERDEEN

and other local worthies had generally to be content with

streets. Encircling the Peak runs a beautiful road, Lugard Road,

named after perhaps the most enlightened of all colonial

governors. Lugard's name is so bound up with Africa, and

especially with Nigeria and with Indirect Rule, that one is apt

to forget he was once Governor of this Colony. Hong Kong

commemorates officially many other names connected with its

past. In some colonies these names stick, often with curious pro

nunciations, and there are many instances of this in Hong Kong.

On the whole, however, the Chinese go their own way, using

their own names, and Aberdeen is, for instance, known to them

as Hong Kong Tsai or Little Hong Kong.

Aberdeen is, indeed, the site of the original Hong Kong. The

first British sailors who used it as a watering place called it

Waterfall Bay, a name now given to another place. About a

mile from where the rocky stream discharges into Aberdeen

harbour was the village ofHeung Kong Wai, which being inter

preted means ' the Walled Village of the Fragrant Lagoon' . It

is easy to see how it happened. The sailors learnt this name,

' If two thousand Chinese came to tea ! ' ( p. 46)

ON THE PEAK

pronounced it Hong Kong and applied it to the whole island.

When the present capital was built it was named Victoria and

officially still is Victoria, but the city being in effect Hong Kong

the Colony, almost everyone, British and Chinese, calls it Hong

Kong. Its present bounds extend far beyond the official bounds

of Victoria. Indeed the whole length of the island seafront from

Shau Ki Wan in the east to Kennedy Town and beyond in the

west is, since the war, almost a continuous built-up area. Thus

the name Hong Kong serves, as in the case of Zanzibar, for city,

island and the whole territory, and it is only by the context one

learns which is referred to.

With all these reveries up in the heights, evening is coming

on and one feels a chill. It is time to descend again to the heat of

the city. The difference between the Peak and the city is as that

between ice-cream and pea-soup.

As a matter of fact it never got unbearably hot during March,

April and early May when we were in Hong Kong. Thanks to

the monsoons Hong Kong has a sub-tropical climate. With the

north -east monsoon it has a cool winter, but when the south-west

monsoon blows, from May to August, it brings warm, damp

winds from the Equator. June to October is the season of

typhoons, which can be very violent and have done enormous

damage.

Temperatures range from 40°F. to 95°F. and humidity in

spring and summer exceeds 95 per cent. People who live on the

Peak have to have drying -cupboards, for they live in the clouds

at this time. The summer is also the rainy season and three

quarters of Hong Kong's rain (mean annual rainfall 84.26

inches) falls between May and September.

Tonight, however, it is clear and fine, and on going down we

are struck by the loveliness of the jewelled lights set here and

there on the dark mountain side. Below, Hong Kong is as lit up

as a fairground, but the variety ofcoloured lights in the city and

in Kowloon beyond make me think not only of jewels but of

fireworks, and it would hardly be possible to make more of a

show for a coronation or a peace celebration. The harbour too

is sprinkled with lights stationary and lights moving.

Looking back to the dim form of the Peak from the city, the

lights of Lugard Road look like a crown about its brow .

CHAPTER FIVE

Around and About

UNTIL SHORTLY before the time of our visit to Hong Kong it was

true to say that, after Heath Row, Hong Kong's airport at Kai

Tak was the busiest in the world . Now with the traffic to China

at a standstill only about a quarter of the number of passengers

are handled. But ' I'm an optimistic sort of bird ,'said Mr. Moss,

the Director of Civil Aviation ; ' I believe it will all be back in a

few months'to a year's time. Hong Kong will be the air Clapham

Junction of the Far East .

' It's one of the world's worst aerodromes ', he went on. ‘ Bad

approaches and no room for multiple runways—in fact runways

can really only be used in one direction . So all operations are

confined to daylight except in emergency. But H.M.G. are

giving us a loan of over 3 million pounds to get on with a new

airfield in the New Territories. We want Comet jet airliners to

be able to land here, bringing London within 24 hours of Hong

Kong.'

We pondered over this craze for speed. It's the world demand

for speed and more speed that makes these things necessary . The

business man wants speed and gets it, so we all have to put up

with it. Fifteen to eighteen years ago life here went on at a

pleasant tempo, now everyone is busy making money and you get

caught up in the rush .'

With the growth of air travel many more people see Hong

Kong for brief periods, and, as there is no available guide-book,

an account of some of its sights may be useful to them, besides

adding colour and detail to the picture presented to the reader

at a distance.

I myself found the Chinese shops an endless source of interest,

and the farther away they were from the central districts the

more intriguing they were. Lascar Row, on the island, and its

neighbourhood is a fascinating area of junk shops. Here are to

be found genuine antiques of great beauty and curiosity as well

as endless fakes. It is best not to spend a large sum of money

on such things without expert advice. The curio dealers formed

an association in 1946 and have a club-room where selected

AROUND AND ABOUT

antiques are housed and used to school apprentices in the

different periods. The association does its best to keep up a

responsible standard.

The visitor with a sense of adventure who wants to get in and

out of his own difficulties has certainly got a hard task in nt

ofhim ifhe wishes to find any particular street. Curiously enough

there are no useful street plans. The difficulty arises over the

street names . Not a tenth of the population knows the English

names . The situation is well explained in this extract from Hong

Kong Around and About, an excellent little book which is un

fortunately quite unobtainable :

A few of the English street names are easily given a Chinese phonetic

equivalent, for instance Pedder Street becomes Ped A Kai, and Hollywood

Road, Ho Lei Woo To, but generally it is not so simple. Very few Chinese

would recognize Queen's Road by this name, or even by its proper

Chinese equivalent Wong Hau Tai To, but ifone mentions Tai To Chung ,

Tung, or Sai, Big Road Central, East, or West, they will all understand.

Des Voeux Road is sometimes called Tak Fu To, the nearest phonetic

approximation, but everybody knows it as Tin Che Lo, Electric Tram

Road. Wyndham Street is sometimes spoken of as Wai Nam Kai, but the

most popular name for it is Mai Fa Kai, Buy and Sell Flowers Street. ...

Who not having some knowledge of Chinese could know that Suet Chong

Kai was Icehouse Street, and that Mosque Street was called Mo Lo Miu

Kai, Indian Temple Street? ... Again if a man asks for Park Road in

Chinese, Yau To, he is probably told ‘ No savvy '. The index gives it as

Pak To. Getting a little confused he may then try to be directed to the

Praya (the sea -front) and ask for Pray Ah. After he has worked himself

into a fever trying to explain, someone may inform him that the Praya is

known as Hoi Pong. If a European were asked by a Chinese the way to

Moh Sing Ling To, the Hill from which we can touch the Stars, he would

be completely nonplussed unless he had studied the street index and so

knew that what was wanted was Mount Davis Road. Sometimes a man is

right in asking for a place by its literal Chinese translation, as in the case

of Yat, Yut, or Sing Kai, Sun, Moon, or Star Street, but quite often he is

not. . . . There are countless examples of this confusion but these few will

suffice to show the absurdity of the present system ofstreet names from the

point of view of both Chinese and foreign inhabitants.

The sightseeing visitor generally expects to see ancient

historic buildings or ruins, and here of course Hong Kong,

particularly Hong Kong Island, cannot oblige, for it contains

nothing man-made more than a hundred years old. Neverthe

less the hundred-year-old Cathedral Church of St. John and the

Roman Catholic Cathedral, built between 1875 and 1894, as

A DELIGHTFUL DRIVER

well as a number of other churches of various denominations,

are interesting. There is a First Church of Christ Scientist, an

Orthodox Church, a Rhenish Mission Church, a Seventh Day

Adventist Memorial Church, and many others. Most of them

have Chinese priests and pastors. Some churches are archi

tecturally interesting for their compromise between traditional

church architecture and Chinese architecture .

The University, dating from 1911 , is worth a visit, although

the great dome still remains unroofed after war damage. The

two most interesting clubs are perhaps the famous and exclusive

Hong Kong Club, with imposing premises overlooking the

waterfront, and the Club Lusitano, the centre of the Portu

guese community. Both have the dignified atmosphere of nine

teenth -century London clubs, and a very historic air about them.

When driving round try hard to get a driver with a reason

able amount of English. Tsing, our delightful little driver, had

little English but wonderful manners. It was very rare for him

to be late for an appointment, but if he were traffic had to wait

while he made the most charming and formal apology (begin

ning always ‘ Dear Sir ' ) and gave a full explanation. He had no

use for bad road manners. One day we had to travel for miles

behind an army lorry which would not pull to one side. ' He

cowboy,' said Tsing severely, ‘ no gentleman.' He learnt his

English from The Count of Monte Cristo. It came out and was

feverishly thumbed over whenever a word eluded us. One day

I pointed to a white pagoda upon the hillside in Happy Valley

and asked what it was.

‘ That Lady Law's place', I understood Tsing to say. Never

having heard of the lady I pursued the matter. Out came Monte

Cristo and he found the expression ‘ in Edmund's place' . ' That

man in place Law', said Tsing. I was still nonplussed.

' Law ? Who's he ? '

‘ Lord, gentleman, wife lady' , explained Tsing patiently. ' He

in place lord. '

What he really meant was that the owner was so rich that he

was like a lord !

Thus we came to one of Hong Kong's most curious sights, the

garden of Aw Boon Haw, the Tiger Balm king, which he

generously lets the public wander over at will. At Castle Peak

on the mainland a well-known Hong Kong family, the

AROUND AND ABOUT

Kadoories, have aa delightful garden in which there is a curious

Chinese grotto with an enormous dragon wandering over it. It

is, I believe, one of the finest of these expressions of Chinese

landscape -gardening in South China. Horace Kadoorie told

me that it had been designed for the family by an opium smoker

who sat in his pipe dreams in the garden and materialized in

concrete the tortuous thoughts that came to him. On seeing

Mr. Aw's garden I felt he must have employed a whole battalion

of opium smokers. Tiger Balm, as every visitor to the Far East

probably knows, is aa cure for every known complaint, which has

brought its inventor a vast fortune, much of which is spent in

philanthropic works. Concrete tigers, au naturel, or in fancy

waistcoats, are one of the main themes of the garden, but the

hillside is covered with representations of all sorts of scenes,

natural, historical and mythical, in which animals, monsters,

humans and fairies, all in brightly painted concrete, abound.

The white pagoda, which drew us here, stands out above these

scenes, but if you should climb its 148 steps the view from the top

is rather disappointing as hills block the distant views. The two

brothers who conceived the idea of this garden, Aw Boon Haw

and Aw Boon Par (who is dead) , have each a temple dedicated

to him, and the latter is also commemorated by a statue in

sombre black with this inscription :

Dedicated to the Memory of Aw Boon Par who dreamt of the Future,

lived in the Present, and learnt eternal truths from the Past, and to the

continuance of those sparkling gems of charity and goodwill of Aw Boon

Haw.

There are other extravaganzas in Hong Kong but they are

not so easily accessible and are in use as private dwelling-places.

Two of the most famous are Euston and Eucliffe. Anyone pass

ing the former will be surprised to find in Hong Kong such an

imposing exterior of the kind now passed away in England, and

apparently named after a railway station. In fact it was built by

a Chinese millionaire who had never been in England but had

the greatest possible admiration for things English and Euro

pean . His name was Mr. Eu and the houses he built were Eu

rope in a big way. Eucliffe is built on the cliffside at Repulse

Bay, one of Hong Kong's most popular bathing beaches, with

a luxury hotel close by. Except for its state of preservation

Eucliffe is a medieval castle complete with armour and all the

KOWLOON CITY

expensive European things of an ornate nature which can be

imagined. In the upstairs regions the walls are hung with an

incredibly extensive collection of nudes in oils. Anything

Chinese in the house takes its place as something as exotic as it

would be in an English home.

When the New Territories were leased in 1898 an area of

about 700 feet by 400 feet preserved Chinese jurisdiction, in so

far as might be consistent with military requirements for Hong

Kong's defence. This area was known as old Kowloon City.

Relations between the people in Kowloon City and their neigh

bours in the ceded area of British Kowloon seem to have been

friendly enough before the lease took place. At any rate the

latter apparently went to the old city to indulge in gambling,

forbidden by the British, for in 1890 a regulation prescribed dis

missal for civil servants who did so. The Chinese also had the

neighbourly practice of beheading criminals in whose disposal

the British were interested. There is extant in several books a

rather gruesome photograph of the decapitation of the Namoa

pirates in 1891 , and in 1896 they beheaded a man who had killed

a constable in Hong Kong.

This Chinese island did not long survive the conclusion of the

lease, for owing to disturbances which took place while the New

Territories were being occupied the British cancelled the

arrangement. The Chinese have, however, never waived their

claim to jurisdiction and ' homesick ’ Chinese sometimes go and

muse over it as Chinese territory. Nowadays there is nothing

whatever to see there—the last of the walls were destroyed by

the Japanese, and there is little more than the rather insanitary

squatters' huts to be found in many parts of Kowloon and Hong

Kong. They have largely replaced the older huts which were

destroyed in a recent disastrous fire.

Apart from Kowloon City sole jurisdiction in the New Terri

tories was ceded to Britain for 99 years, and for that period those

Chinese whose homes were there and who might be born there

became British subjects. The convention provided that there

should be no expropriation or expulsion of the inhabitants and

that land required for public purposes should be bought at a

fair price.

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AROUND AND ABOUT

leaving Kowloon you may be stopped by a road-block and a

number of police. They are on the look -out for things like arms,

gold or opium. Off the main road there is a road leading to the

Jubilee Reservoir, an impressive engineering work in the lovely

scenery of the Shing Mun valley. Here is some of the quietest,

most undisturbed country in the New Territories and it may be

turned into a nature reserve. The reservoir holds 3,000 million

gallons and is one of the highest in the Empire. Water is one of

Hong Kong's biggest problems and perhaps the greatest im

portance of the New Territories to the Colony in recent years

had been that its mountains provide, from a number of dams

and catchments, so much of the water which the cities need

during the four dry months of the year.

Tsun Wan is a place of considerable interest, for until recently

it was a quiet rural village with paddy-fields all round. It has

been chosen for planned urban development and already it has

the busy, crowded air of a pioneer town, with some buildings

half constructed, others completed, and a good deal of tem

porariness about the rest. There are several new factories,

textile, silk, enamelware, and others, now in its vicinity. Near

Tsun Wan there is one of Hong Kong's few historic sites. It has

been variously described as the Grave of the Emperor's Aunt or

the grave of Tang Hok, of the celebrated Tang clan of the New

Territories, and his mother. It is on a stretch of hillside sloping

to the sea and is marked by two granite pillars. The title of

Emperor's Aunt was given to the princess Sung Tsung Kei, who,

as we shall see, married a Tang in very romantic circumstances.

She, however, was certainly buried elsewhere and the tradition

that it is Tang Hok and his mother who lie at Tsun Wan is

therefore more probable. A Taoist priest of the Sung dynasty

thus describes the site :

Long extends its left limbs touching the heavenly bodies in the firmaments :

And grasps the green coat (Tsing I island) and dips it in the blue waters.

As you drive on to Yuen Long and look across Castle Peak

Bay you can just make out the monastery of Tsing Shan clinging

to the steep slopes of the mountain . It lies amid eucalyptus and

fir trees, and if you like the scroll paintings of China you will

find no more lovely prototype of them than the vision of mist

drifting past the pine trees and monastery. It was built in 1910

but there has been a Buddhist centre there, so it is said, since

THE NEW TERRITORIES

A.D. 500. There is a sacred grotto built by an official of the

Tang dynasty to shelter the remains of a dragon which had

come up from the sea and died. The relic looked to me like the

vertebra of a whale.

Yuen Long has the air of a gold -rush town-never quite

finished and growing very haphazardly. It boasts a cinema and

several restaurants but the streets are ill kept and dirty. There

is a groundnut-oil factory owned by Mr. Tang Pak Kau, whom

we shall meet again, which is a curious survival of primitive

machinery. The presses are hollowed-out tree trunks with aa hole

through the centre. The cakes ofground and cooked peanuts are

bound round with strips of bamboo, then packed closely into

the hollowed trunk and wedged with heavy pointed wooden

wedges driven into place by enormous hand-wielded mallets.

More and more wedges are gradually added and the oil which

is exuded pours through the hole in the bottom. It is said that

90 per cent of the oil can be extracted by this means.

Driving round the New Territories in this way you see many

signs of the British troops : tents, lined-up lorries, and any

number of military road signs. It brings home how little evident

is the large garrison in the city. You will notice also on many a

hillside large earthenware jars and may wonder what they

contain and why they are there. It may surprise you to dis

cover that each one contains human bones and that they are

placed on the hills in these jars in the hope that some day the

relatives can find the appropriate site for a permanent resting

place. This is indeed not only a grave matter but a complicated

one, as we shall see later.

Near to Fan Ling there is the curiously suburban looking

village of On Lok Chun which consists of modern two-storey

villas. They were built in 1935 by Chinese from America who

were afraid to go to their homes in China because of the dis

turbances. From Fan Ling a road leads off to Sheung Shui

district and Shek Wa Hui, which is the oldest market town in the

New Territories. It is a very thriving market as it lies close to the

frontier and is a smuggler's paradise.

Fan Ling is divided into three parts, an old quarter where the

farmers live, a newer quarter where more prosperous and re

tired people live, and an entirely new market town called Luen

Wa Hui. This was built as a rival to Shek Wa Hui, but when I

AROUND AND ABOUT

saw it, although there were shops open , there appeared to be

practically no inhabitants. Indeed, it is all market but no

town .

One of my lasting memories of Fan Ling is quite trivial, but I

mention it as emphasizing the importance of getting out of the

car if only for aa brief moment and savouring personal contact

with the Chinese earth and countryside. On our first visit to the

New Territories after a number of crowded days in the city,

which for all its great attraction is, undiluted, a weariness to the

flesh, we stopped the car along a little branch road behind Fan

Ling station and climbed up the hill behind to eat a picnic

lunch . I had all the feelings of a dog released for a day in the

country from a life in a London flat, though to be sure I did not

go tearing and barking around but flung myself down on the

turfin the spring sunshine. I lay there in the familiar atmosphere

of a Chinese nature painting somehow become real and I felt a

part of nature, as I am sure I was meant to do. Around me were

little Christmas-tree pines all decorated with upright flower

stems like candles ; there was a sprig of bamboo growing from a

crack on a rock face, there were arrow -shaped ferns and the

bright green sword-blades of some bulb . The ground was

sprinkled with tiny five-pointed stars in blue and there were

cherry blossom coloured clusters of stars on a shrub. Around

me floated a butterfly, new to me, chiselled in dragon forms, a

large black and green swallowtail drifted past me and another

was a passing impression in grey and blue. All quite trivial, but

far too important to be missed . ...

There is an infinite charm about the landscape of the New

Territories. The hills which rise up swelling and looping from

the startlingly beautiful fresh green of the paddy -fields take the

forms of living dragons to the eyes of the peasants who dwell

amongst them . Each row of houses, each temple with its curly

dragon-crested roof in the soft grey brick villages is sited on the

flanks of these hills in a way conformable and comfortable to

the dragon. The life of the dragons, the life of the peasants, the

cycle of the rice crops, all nature moves in one harmonious

whole. Men and women in wide-brimmed hats follow the

patient snorting buffaloes through the mud, or move steadily

across the shining surface of the water-logged fields skilfully

planting out the green tufts of paddy like bunches of tiny rapier

SHA TIN MONASTERY

blades. Man, beast, plant and landscape are bound together as

it were in an immemorial partnership .

From Tai Po, which has an attractive market, the road winds

down to the lovely Sha Tin valley where there is another famous

monastery to which is attached a home for elderly women. By

putting down a lump sum ( according to their means) they are

fed and housed for the remainder of their lives. It is rather like

buying an annuity. They are completely free but they must be

vegetarian. Sha Tin is popular for religious retreats and there

are 16 religious centres in the hills round the valley. The Abbot

of the monastery says it is the peace and security offered by the

Colony that has attracted so many institutions of this kind.

Right at the top of aa hill is Tao Fong Shan, the Scandinavian

Mission to Buddhists, where Buddhists anxious to know some

thing about Christianity may stay and study. It has an interest

ing octagonal chapel designed like a Buddhist temple with a

carved and lacquered altar, with scrolls hanging on the walls,

but in place of a statue of Buddha there is a crucifix. Under

neath is a crypt for the meditation of pilgrims.

站。

Monastery amid pine trees on a mountain side ( p. 56)

AROUND AND ABOUT

As you drive back on the last lap to Kowloon you can see

away to your left a rock on a small hill which resembles a

woman with a baby on her back. This is commonly known to

the English as the Amah's Rock, but to the Chinese it is Mong

Fu Kwai (Hoping Husband Returns). Legend has it that in the

thirteenth century a lady came to Sha Tin with her husband.

He belonged to the Emperor's bodyguard and was ordered away

to Canton. Presently she received news that the force to which

he belonged had been defeated but that happily he was alive

and well. She had meanwhile borne him a son and to keep her

child, herself and her mother- in -law she gathered firewood on

the hillsides for sale. As she roamed the hills she would sing :

I went up the mountains, and my mind was sad,

My plait of hair was beautiful, and

I looked on the men that passed.

My heart is as firm as a rock by the river;

But the heart of my husband

It is gone abroad upon the waters.

She would climb the hill and from its summit scan the horizon

for her husband. One day she knew that he had come, but as he

rushed up the hill to greet her she fainted, and when he had

borne her home, she died. But at once the stone near which she

had stood watching for her husband took on her form and there

she stands to this day, faithfully watching and waiting.

CHAPTER SIX

On Hong Kong's Frontier

(i) Coming and Going

ONE OF THE MOST important things to be appreciated about the

vast population of Hong Kong is that a very large proportion of

it is not static. Some sense of the mass movement, the never

ending coming and going of the four million and more who

enter and leave annually, can be obtained at the railway station

next to the landing -stage of the Star Ferry at Kowloon, or at

the quay at Hong Kong where the junk passengers and the

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THE FRONTIER STATION

Many trains a day come into the station from the frontier

stop of Lo Wu. Behind the platform gates stand crowds

anxiously peering through to see some expected or half-hoped

for refugee friend or relative arrive. In comes the crowded train ;

the passengers clinging to bundles and bags are off it in a

twinkling and there are many reunions. One feels sorry for

those who leave the iron railings disappointed; they will come

again and again till perhaps one day they are rewarded.

In length the British section ofthe Kowloon - Canton Railway

is one of the shortest colonial railways, only 224 miles long.

Since the incursion ofthe Communists, through trains no longer

run to Canton (there was a time when you could go by rail

from Canton to London-Hong Kong is the only British colony

linked by rail with London — and even now there are two

coaches of the Golden Arrow service to Paris, which for some

reason got brought to Hong Kong, left in this section of the rail

way) , but in January 1950, 437,987 passengers travelled from

Kowloon to Lo Wu, a number greater than on any other

colonial railway except the Nigerian ( with 1,903 miles) . In the

year ending April 1950, no fewer than 4,435,359 passengers

travelled up and down between Lo Wu and Kowloon. There is

no official communication between Canton and Hong Kong

but apparently the railway administrations get on very well in

off -record meetings. I saw one of the many Chinese generals

who have had to find new jobs. He had come down to Hong

Kong to fix time-tables. When a train from Canton arrives at

Lo Wu, another also arrives from Kowloon.

I never saw a more astonishing sight at a railway station than

that at Lo Wu, and it is here that the mass movement of Hong

Kong's population is most spectacular. It was raining when we

arrived and a train was just about to start back to Kowloon . It

was jam-packed with humanity and two trucks were piled high

with pigs, each pig in a bamboo basket. Only live pigs are

allowed to be brought over the frontier, yet I am told only

70 per cent of those put on the train on our side reach Kowloon

alive. The rest are suffocated , and as a great many must be

suffocated on the journey down country on the Chinese side,

the mortality is plainly very high. A huge mountain of pigs was

left by the rail-side as the train pulled out. I was told there were

about 400, but I should have thought there were more.

ON HONG KONG'S FRONTIER

The train had no sooner gone out than another pulled in .

Before it had come to a halt, men, women , children and luggage

were hurtling from every window and exit, streaming as fast as

they could for the suspension bridge over the Shum Chun River

which marks the boundary between British and Chinese terri

tory . Traffic to the left was the rule and it was directed for the

most part by one burly and jovial British Inspector. How he

kept his patience is aa secret possessed only by British policemen.

We moved at his invitation across the sleepers of the bridge,

through which we could see the brown swirling waters of the

flooded river. The British of course had fixed the further bank

as the boundary, and if you look at a map of the Colony you

will see we treated ourselves in a similarly generous way in all

our water boundaries, with one curious exception. We stood,

therefore, just short of the further bank and watched Chinese

officials in uniform directing traffic from their train across to

our side. One of these officials was a competent-looking Mon

golian girl whose physiognomy reminded me very closely of the

Russian soldiers guarding the road through the Russian Zone

of Germany from Helmstedt to Berlin and making one think

that Genghis Khan had come again.

We stood perched on these sleepers between the two opposing

and quite irresistible streams. There are hundreds of Chinese

who cross the frontier back and forth every day, smuggling

something out of China or something back into it, and in the

aggregate these activities swell Hong Kong's trade figures con

siderably. But most are refugees. Dripping couples of coolies

carried at a trot on bamboo poles more and more pigs, which

sat on their sterns in their cages rather like obscene caricatures

of bloated black marketeers in sedan chairs. The Inspector said

the average number of pigs arriving from Canton and Hunan

Province was about 800 a day. The Hong Kong town slaughter

house alone deals with 1,500 to 2,000 pigs a day, but must be

able to handle 3,000, which is the number slaughtered on a

festival day. Dr. Fehily, Chairman of the Urban Council, told

me he had asked from home and other countries for plans for a

slaughter-house capable of dealing with 90,000 pigs a year. No

slaughter -house in the world deals with this quantity and the

home authorities did not believe the figures and sent plans for

an abattoir capable of handling 9,000 ! Agricultural Department

HONG KONG - THE HAVEN

figures show that the pigs slaughtered in Hong Kong Island

and Kowloon amounted to no less than 505,246 for the year

ended March 1950, and that cannot be the whole tale, for a

good many in the New Territories are slaughtered in villages

and private houses. Cattle consumed for the same period were

46,876, and sheep and goats 5,803. When you think of all the

fish , vegetables and fruit consumed in Hong Kong you will

imagine that most of the people at least must be pretty well fed .

In pork alone it works out at about a pig to every four or five

of the population in 1949-50 .

As we watched those hundreds of passengers from Canton

struggling and fighting in the rain to buy a ticket from the

solitary window at the station , we could not help reflecting that

to many of them this arrival in British territory represented not

only the making of money and a better chance of mere survival,

but also peace and security and freedom from oppression .

Familiar as one was with the stories of European D.P.s, having

seen them moving helplessly in Germany at the end of the war,

China had seemed too far away for its fleeing millions to be more

than a vague conception. But one week-end we had aa German

with us who had fled from Poles and Russians, losing her home

in Prussia and landing at last in a solitary room at Munich, and

a Chinese guest who told us how she had been brought up in a

large manse - her grandfather was in the Methodist Church

and had had to fly from Nationalists, Japanese and Communists

till at last she and her family — 14 in all - arrived in the shelter

of aa small flat in Hong Kong. Many Germans are far too sorry

for themselves, and when our Chinese friend had gone to bed

the German remarked how good it had been for her to hear a

story so similar to her own. All over Europe and all over China

millions of homeless fellow creatures have been fleeing of recent

years, and it is as good to think that many find a refuge in Hong

Kong as it is that others do in the United Kingdom.

But the problem of handling them is no easy one. They go on

pouring in from all sides. Hong Kong's services can handle

about a million . When we left Hong Kong in May 1950 the

population was the largest it had ever been , and had expanded

at a terrifying rate from 600,000 when the Japanese occupation

ended in 1945 to not far short of 2,500,000. Hong Kong has

always believed in the open door, but at last it had to close it, at

ON HONG KONG'S FRONTIER

least partially — for no closure can be effective in a colony with

such frontiers. Since then, for one reason and another, the

balance of departures has exceeded arrivals by 10,000 to 20,000

a week. Like a sponge Hong Kong draws in population and

squeezes it out, and the hand that does the squeezing is China's.

If conditions are good in China, people stay there, if they are

uncomfortable they rush to Hong Kong.

(ii) Doubt and Uncertainty

At intervals down the centre of the main street of the village of

Sha Tau Kok are set concrete pillars a couple of feet high which

make the passage of wheeled traffic impossible. If a car could

drive down it, its wheels on one side would be in British and on

the other in Chinese territory. The Bamboo Curtain, invisible,

but very much there, runs down the middle of the road.

While our companions watched anxiously for Communist

policemen we shopped in China. It was the only chance we had

of setting foot in Chinese territory, but the things we bought

could equally well have been bought on the other side of the

street; they were mostly either made in the villages of the New

Territories or in the factories of Hong Kong: anything that was

made on Chinese soil was equally obtainable on British . We

might have been arrested. A few weeks earlier the same jovial

police inspector whom we met at Lo Wu had been patrolling at

Sha Tau Kok with some Chinese constables of the Hong Kong

Police and, missing the boundary, had been arrested by Com

munist police. His own men succeeded in distracting their

attention and he had skipped back to the shelter of the invisible

line .

The British side of Sha Tau Kok is a place which a European

can only visit with a permit. The Chinese, British subjects or

not, are free to come and go and cross the frontier as they please.

To one who has strong feelings on the subject of racial dis

crimination the other way, it was amusing to find that the

business is not always one-sided. I also discovered that a Euro

pean could not go into a shop and buy Chinese wines.

We walked to the end of the street and beyond came to a

wooden bridge across a narrow stream. On the other side

AT SHA TAU KOK

patrolled an authentic Communist soldier or policeman. We

persuaded the village head who was with us to ask him if we

could take his photograph. Stepping across into China, he came

back with the answer that we could photograph the bridge but

not him. The soldier thereupon posed himself in the middle of

the Chinese entrance to the bridge and we photographed the

latter ! Near by was a large enamel Union Jack. Down the centre

of St. George's cross was painted in white Chinese characters

(which of course are written vertically so they looked almost

part of the flag ), ‘ Down with the Imperialists'.

We walked back to the other end of the street and sat down

in aa café on the British side, which having electricity, absent on

the Chinese side, could also offer iced drinks. Feeling particu

larly British , I chose orange squash rather than Coca-Cola. Just

across the street, so I was told, one could have played fan -tan .

Here it was illegal. Actually, just the other side of the boundary

stone near the café, a Chinese pedlar squatted droning a con

tinuous sing-song patter about his wares. We went to watch him.

He had a stereoscope and a number of photographs. You could

see the lot for a few cents. Some of them represented the Chinese

Communist troops in their recent victorious sweep of Nation

alist China, and there was one of the great blaze in old

Kowloon City.

The burthen of the song was, so I gathered, ' See how the

victorious troops of the People's Army have liberated China,

and see how the wicked Imperialists burn cities ! '

I wonder how many thought of how the merchant imperialists

had provided the British side with cheap electricity and how they

provided grants to the local village school which on the British

side gaily flaunted a Communist flag. Still less, no doubt, were

there thoughts of how the British had reduced infantile mortality

from 617 a thousand in 1935 to 91.1 a thousand in 1948. Or of

the care being given to the victims of the Kowloon fire and,

despite almost superhuman difficulties, to the health and welfare

of the millions who prefer Hong Kong to China. There might

easily have been a loudspeaker saying some of these things on

the British side of the boundary posts, but there wasn't. It was

not altogether surprising to be told that the feeling on the British

side of Sha Tau Kok acquiesced more in the Communist view

point than in the British. I have not much doubt that they liked

ON HONG KONG'S FRONTIER

what they could get on the British side better than what they got

on the other, but they were very literally sitting on the fence.

They were Chinese by race and sentiment and had to have a

careful eye to eventualities.

Sitting on the fence is not confined to Sha Tau Kok, how

ever; it is one of the principal characteristics of most of the

Chinese in Hong Kong. Even those born in the Colony who are

British subjects by birth are also by Chinese law Chinese

citizens, and one of Hong Kong's greatest peculiarities is that,

save for a small minority, chiefly Portuguese and Eurasians,

hardly any say of it: ' This is my own, my native land' . If they

do, they do not mean that Hong Kong is British and so are they.

In the light of the manifest tremendous capital development

which had taken place since the war, and which was still being

planned , it seemed strange that one of the first questions people

asked a newcomer was, would the British remain ? The answer

seemed obvious and was reinforced by the very evident presence

of large numbers of British troops in the New Territories.

In spite ofall this the immense activity ofworking and money

making, playing mahjong and eating large meals, by no means

limited to three courses and five shillings, induced a feeling that

the philosophy ofHong Kong at the moment was : Let us eat and

drink and make money for we don't know what's going to

happen tomorrow.

PART TWO

LIFE AND

LIVELIHOOD

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Dwellers in Tenements

LIVERPOOL with 860,000 inhabitants or Glasgow with 1,124,000

are great cities covering large areas, yet the cities of Hong Kong

and Kowloon with populations of comparable size are in area

quite small. One soon has no doubt that the vast majority of the

people must live in appalling conditions, but nothing except

actual visits can give an adequate idea of the realities of the

situation .

Most of the Chinese population live in four -storeyed tene

ments. Many of them were built in the early days of the Colony

when town planning was little practised even in Europe, and

Hong Kong has no legislation to require the compulsory

demolition of such premises. Those built later have scavenging

lanes rendering the provision of proper bathrooms and latrines

possible, but the older ones have no lanes and are built back -to

back.

In some ways conditions in this modern and wealthy tropical

city ofHong Kong are worse than they were in England in 1840.

The report of the Health of Towns Committee in that year spoke

of single-storeyed small houses put up by speculative builders in

Manchester. ' They are built back to back ; without ventilation

or drainage : and like a honeycomb every particle of space is

occupied. Double rows of these houses form courts, with perhaps

a pump at one end and a privy at the other, common to the

occupants of about twenty homes .'

In Hong Kong these tenements are four storeys high, so that

conditions are worse. It becomes understandable how human

beings are packed at 2,000 and more to the acre. If there is one

thing that saves disaster in Hong Kong, it is the labours of the

Sanitary Department, but it is wrong that it should have to con

tend with such conditions.

The upper storeys of practically all the tenements are reached

by narrow , dark stairs between two blank walls. They are

always steep, the treads narrow, and the hand -rail often broken .

They are also generally unswept and untidy. When you find the

THE DWELLERS IN TENEMENTS

actual flat, cubicle or bedspace in which a family lives clean

and well kept, you wonder at first why passages and stairs are

so dirty, and when you have found the reason you have part of

the answer to Chinese character. The Chinese is an indivi

dualist. A favourite proverb is ‘ Sweep the snow from your own

doorstep but don't bother about the ice on your neighbour's

roof'. To a Chinese tenement dweller the stairs and the passages

are no more than the street outside.

Led by Dr. Shaw, the deputy Director of Health Services, we

went first to such a tenement in Lockhart Road in Wanchai.

The first floor had been intended for a one - family flat, and as

such, with two to three rooms and aa wide verandah, would have

been comfortable. There were present eight women , one old

man, a youth and two babies, and they admitted to 16 living

there. The rooms were all divided into cubicles and part of the

verandah had, illegally, been boarded in . On the whole it was

pretty well kept but one could see that some cubicle -owners were

more particular than others. Its occupants were of the white

collar class and considering the overcrowding it was remarkably

clean. It was untidy rather than dirty.

In the communal kitchen a woman was cooking an appetiz

ing-looking lunch for five on an earthen stove. There was a flush

toilet in good order. Houses with water-borne sanitation have

to have their own well. A visit to the sanitary lane behind this

block showed that the overworked sewer was blocked and the

lane flooded. Sanitary men were sent for and later we saw them

removing obstructions in conditions which had better be left

undescribed .

Dr. Shaw then took us through a road so cluttered with

pedlars and stalls that it would have been impossible to drive a

car through it. Rubbish and muck were accumulating under the

stalls and he kept ordering people to sweep up. Suddenly he

halted. ‘ Look at that ! ' ' That ' was a woman selling meat on a

small table of packing -cases, a most heinous offence. Grasping

her by the ear, he let loose a torrent of Chinese and had no

sooner loosed her than she vanished in the crowd. There were

a number of cooked - food stalls and all the way the doctor in

spected licences and washing-up arrangements. Once he ordered

a whole row of obstructions offthe pavement. Halfan hour later,

when we repassed, they were back again .

TENEMENT CONDITIONS

This time Dr. Shaw chose an ancient wooden tenement for us

to visit. The older type of building is always narrow because its

width was regulated by the average length ofthe fir trees used as

rafters. Each floor is long because of the Chinese preference for

a shop with back shop on the ground floor. The ground floor

was occupied by a young contractor who had turned the back

shop into a godown for his gear and 30 coal coolies. It was dirty

and very dark, for the only light and air came at second -hand

through the front shop or from a grating high up in the back wall.

Against one wall were piled the baskets and gear used for coaling

ships, and on the other were fixed three tiers of six bunks each .

Here 25 of the coolies sleep while the other five are housed in

the cockloft over the shop. They get £ 7_nos. a month , from

which they pay for their food, but their ' quarters ' are free. Some

of them were sleeping on the bunks wrapped in blankets and

sacks. In the small kitchen at the far end a man was cooking his

dinner. These men were all from China and had no families

with them.

Whenever I see a steamer hand-coaled again I shall think of

those pallid, exhausted faces which seemed to have T.B. written

on them, lying in that dark cellar-like godown.

Steep and rickety stairs led to the first floor, where 28 were

living in a flat that could have held about six reasonably. There

were five or six cubicles along one side and double-tiered bunks

on the other. Each cubicle or bunk represents ' home ' to one or

more people. At the back was a small dark communal kitchen

with a tap and bucket for washing, and a covered wooden

bucket for latrine for all these people. (There are good public

latrines and baths near by.) Another steep flight took us to the

top floor, where the arrangements were the same and where 32

people lived . Most of them were of course out.

Under the one window in the front a boy of about 15 sat on

a stool. Before him , laid out on a packing-case top on another

stool, were exercise books and a book on mathematics. He went

to a night school, the only school he could get into, did odd jobs

to earn money and was going to be an engineer. The boy's

mother joined us, a sad -looking, careworn, middle-aged woman.

The father was a mason earning 35. gd. a day. Five women, two

carrying babies, and three young children crowded round us as

we sat down to talk, and the boy freed the two stools and betook

THE DWELLERS IN TENEMENTS

himself and his books to a bedspace or bunk to continue his

work. I felt pretty confident he would be an engineer. His and

his parents' home was one wooden bunk, covered with a clean

coloured Chinese straw mat and the wall behind it neatly

papered with cheerful wallpaper. On the wall was a little red

papered shrine to the God of the Land. On that bunk, say six

feet by four, father, mother and son slept. This was not the

most that can get on to a bunk. I heard of one with a husband,

wife, concubine, and three children .

Outside the window on treble - banked bamboo poles was the

washing of all the inmates. In the kitchen at the back a woman

was preparing fish on one of the chatties — the clay stoves used

for cooking all over the East — and the red shrine of the Kitchen

God brightened its gloom. It was surprising that there was no

unpleasant smell in these quarters.

Never in my life, in Africa, in Europe, in Arabia, had I seen

slums worse than this, but never had I met slum-dwellers who

looked so clean and tidy, so cheerful and welcoming, in such

conditions. The Chinese seem able to rise above the drabbest

surroundings .

Some time later Mr. U Tat Chee, the famous ‘ Ginger King '

of Hong Kong, a man of great kindness and humanity much

interested in social work, took us with two of the women workers

from his ginger factory to see their homes in Kowloon. Ah Kan

lived in Shantung Street. She was not married but, in partner

ship with a woman friend, was first tenant of a flat. The two

shared aa double bed on the verandah, letting off the rest of the

flat to six families totalling 28 people. The rent was controlled

and they got £ 1 175. a month for each cubicle and £ 1 for a

bedspace. One of these was home for a couple, their three

children and grandmother; another was home for aa widow and

her small daughter, her two brothers and her mother. All the

tenants were extremely cheerful and entertained us with cups

of China tea, making jokes about the ' luxury ' in which they

lived . Many were busy working as they talked. One sat cross

legged on her bunk unpicking rags for cotton waste for which

she was paid 7d. a pound. She said it took her four or five days

of spare time unravelling to do a pound.

Most of the husbands and some of the women were factory

workers or street hawkers, and we were told there is great

HOW FACTORY WORKERS LIVE

competition for the small communal kitchen when they return

from work. Firewood is kept in the bedspaces as it is an expensive

commodity. The kitchen is also the bathroom and latrine—a

lidded bucket behind the door.

The other factory worker, Ah Lan, took us to Canton Street,

where she and her husband share a shelf for fi is, a month.

She was well dressed in pale blue cotton pyjamas and her

face literally lit up when she smiled, for she had a mouthful

of flashing gold teeth. Quite a lot of money is banked in mouths

in Hong Kong, and indeed most people put their money into

gold and ornaments rather than into banks. Hong Kong must

be one of the very few colonies where there is not a Government

Post Office savings bank.

I noticed that our hostess had aa little oil lamp above the bed

space although there was electric light in the flat. She explained

it was an economy as the oil cost less than globes. There was a

great litter of clothes, papers, powder, and the miscellaneous

personal things we all have round us. Outside the window the

washing as usual hung on bamboo poles, and one of the other

tenants was combing out her long black hair which she had just

washed in a bucket. When you live in conditions like this you

treat those operations naturally and I saw more long tresses

being washed in Hong Kong than I had ever seen before.

The passage-way was cluttered with children and others were

asleep on shelves, flopped down in all sorts of attitudes. There

were no children going to school in this tenement but both our

guides went to a night school run by Mr. U for his adult factory

workers. I had thought there were only women and children in

the flat at that hour, but passing a cubicle on the way to the

kitchen I saw a street hawker lying in a sleep of utter exhaustion

across his bunk. Near by he had put down his tray of apples and

oranges with their price neatly labelled in red in English and

Chinese.

The flat might have held three families comfortably but it

had nine. No one had thought of counting how many persons

this represented and a guess at 26 was made. I heard later of

such a tenement floor with no fewer than 23 families in it. These

conditions, it must be remembered, are those in which most of

the working -class people of the Colony live. Some surveys have

been made: one, covering 1,000 families, showed 687 of them

THE DWELLERS IN TENEMENTS

living in one room and 120 on a bedspace. Seventy- four had a

whole flat, 30 a hut and 8 a house. The remainder were 8

squatters, 13 on sampans and junks, 23 verandahs, 23 cocklofts,

and one on a roof.

Since such surveys deal only with families they obscure the

number of individuals involved. They consist of children of all

ages up to about 18 : the elder ones largely work in factories,

the lucky ones among the younger go to school. The mothers,

for the most part, stay at home with the babies and prepare

meals. We shall meet these folk , parents and young people,

again, in the factories, at schools and in clubs, but what we have

seen is enough to tell us why it is that trams, buses and ferries

carry so many millions aa year. Many feed well. Clustered round 7

these tenements are endless restaurants , cooked - food stalls and

teashops. Some are better kept than others but on the whole the

standard is pretty good and the food is generally appetizing.

And good and appetizing food is cooked even in those frightful

tenement kitchens. Chinese spend much of their income on food

and will only eat freshly -killed meat or freshly -pulled vegetables.

They always market twice a day, buying the food for their mid

day meal in the morning and for their evening meal in the

afternoon . You never see wilted vegetables, tired -looking meat

or fish in Hong Kong markets.

Men and women of the working classes are adequately but

not extravagantly dressed . In general the men wear cotton coats

with high collars and loose trousers, the women cotton high

necked pyjamas with loose trousers and sleeves. Blue is the most

popular colour, though aa kind of shiny black is often worn by

those who come from Canton. For festive occasions the girls

take to high -necked dresses with slit sides and the men go into

a Western type suit or into a Chinese long gown. Women never

wear hats, except the straw hats common among coolies,

peasants and boatwomen. Men wear these too, but they also

sport caps and homburgs made of waterproof material in rainy

weather. Practically all the young women have ‘ permed ' heads,

except among the very poor and the boatwomen. Factory girls

said it cost them $ 7 for a ' perm '—the more expensive kind

is $ 20.

As will be seen later, much is being done in trying to improve

the lot of these tenement dwellers, and I was interested in some

SOME TYPICAL CASES

notes made by student almoners who were house -visiting,

because they give the reactions of other Chinese to such

conditions:

' In one flat the mother was at work; her young son was all

alone, and he had to prepare the meals for his mother and

sister. The latter, a girl of 15, could do no work as she was

mentally defective. The boy's elder brother had recently arrived

from China and had through some personal favour got the boy

into a school in the New Territories. Now he was home for the

winter vacation, but he was doubtful if he could go back the

following term as the particular friend would no longer be

there. “ There ends', reported the visitor, ' the boy's hope of

further education .'

There was the mother who shared a cockloft ‘ as big as an

ordinary camp bed with her unemployed husband and two

children . Her son who had been attending school had to leave

in order to earn two meals by working in his uncle's shop.

The Ho family live in Kowloon City. They pay $ 10 a month

for a corner in the kitchen -bathroom of a flat. They have

practically no furniture except a bed. “ The relationship ’, goes

on the report, “between the father and the mother is very good.

The father, 30 years old, is a coolie helping with building. His

income is 2s. 6d. a day, but when it rains there is no work and

he is unable to earn anything. He loves his wife and baby very

much. The mother, 28 years old, is an honest and healthy

woman. She keeps her baby quite clean.'

And finally an inquiry into a T.B. case of aa child then in a

sanatorium . The parents occupy one of three bunks under a

stairway. ' It seems too narrow a space for two people ; I wonder

where the child is going to sleep when he is discharged. There

are four cubicles besides. Apparently seven families live here

with another family out on the verandah. It is positively over

crowded. The interior is dim and stuffy. Most conducive to

breeding T.B. The inmates appeared unconcerned. This pas

siveness is something inevitable, I think. One is happy so long as

one has a roof over one's head nowadays.'

CHAPTER EIGHT

Squatters

ON ALMOST any hillside behind the cities of Hong Kong and

Kowloon where the gradient is sufficiently short of the per

pendicular to enable a hut to perch, on bombed sites, or on any

site momentarily not in use, are to be found squatter settle

ments. They are in every sense, except the legal, villages and

small towns. Legally they just do not exist, but it is competently

estimated that at least one-tenth of the urban population are

living as squatters. This means 200,000 people ! And there is

very little to be done about it except tacitly recognize their

existence and do what is possible to control them in the interests

of health and order. People must have shelter and must be able

to find a living, and such is the character of the Chinese that if

those conditions are fulfilled they are little trouble.

Squatter colonies broke out in Hong Kong after the war and

spread like a rash. People found rents so high and accommoda

tion so difficult to obtain that they bought or collected a suffi

ciency of waste timber and old tins and built themselves huts..

Every available open space and back lane was used, and when

those were exhausted whole villages appeared on the roofs of

tenements, but roof squatters have probably now for the most

part been eliminated.

They are not just collections of hovels occupied by destitute

refugees. There are quite wealthy squatters with large houses

(but no regular sanitation) . There are squatter factories, large

and small, squatter cinema studios, squatter restaurants,

squatter shops, even squatter opium dens, gambling dens and

brothels. In one village there is even a squatter fire brigade and

a squatter police force . You have to hand it to these people !

We paid our first visit to a squatter village on the hill behind.

Causeway Bay with the tempestuous Dr. Shaw, to whom

squatter piggeries are as a rag to a good-tempered bull. Dr.

Shaw roared at squatters all the way of aa hot and tiring climb

up the hillside. One saw agitated faces on all sides. Each had a

look of guilt. Whether it was because they had uneasy con

sciences, or because they expected they had done something

THE OPIUM DEN

wrong but weren't sure what it was, or just because they were

illegal as squatters anyhow , I don't know , but they did not take

his good -tempered roaring amiss , in fact they seemed to enjoy

it, and I guessed from the way the children crowded round him

that he was a pretty popular caller even if he did cause some

uneasy moments .

As we went up Shaw searched out piggeries. In the course of

it we found other things of interest. The huts were, generally

speaking, all of one-inch rough sawn boards, some of them no

more than a few feet square, others large and divided into

cubicles . I came to the conclusion I would far rather live in a

squatter's hut in the fresh air than in a stuffy, fetid, dark tene

ment cubicle, though, I am told , it is terrible in the rain, with

the leaking and the torrents tumbling down the mountain side.

There was a great concrete nullah or storm-drain down the

valley. Shaw said it had been blocked with every sort of

nuisance from nightsoil to garbage and had needed aa hundred

coolies to clean it. The squatters had their own council of

village representatives ', or Kai Fong, but they did not keep the

place clean themselves. This no community seems to do. Huts

were set up anyhow with no sort of planning, some of them on

stilts with wooden bridges, but the interiors all seemed nice

and clean, and even homelike with their simple furniture,

curtains and photographs.

In two rooms of one wooden hut we found an electric torch

factory in full swing. The back room had a furnace roaring

away. Not being insanitary it didn't worry the doctor, but I

expect it would have given a fire brigade fits. Shaw had dis

appeared over a bridge and up a side alley on a pig hunt, and I

was watching a woman washing her hair in a huge tub in a

laundry when the usual roar followed by an excited stampede

of running feet made me think he had found his quarry in a big

way. I went off in the direction of all the rumpus and found him

calling to us to come and see an opium den. There were 14 wide

divans in the place, each of plain wood covered with Chinese

mats. On them were Chinese porcelain pillows and a little lamp

with flame steadily burning under a wide glass chimney. The

opium was in tiny pillboxes, a black paste. Only one opium pipe

had been forgotten in the wild rush through the windows . It

seemed very still inside with the lamps burning so steadily and a

SQUATTERS

queer thick smell in the air. When we came out everybody was

minding his own business very assiduously. I noticed some

amused smiles, but opium den ! Oh no. No one had dreamed

there was such a thing there.

At last, higher up the mountain, Shaw ran a piggery to

earth, tracing it by big wooden tubs of swill. I must say I

thought the whole place and the pigs looked very clean and

healthy. The torrent of Chinese which fell from his lips meant,

I was told, that if they didn't remove them at once the

Governor, the Commissioner of Police, the Admiral, the General

and the R.A.F. would be up that afternoon to clear them all out !

Led back down the hill by the triumphant doctor, we were

joined by dozens of cheering children who gave us a good send

off as we drove away in his car .

On another afternoon we went with Dr. Graham Cumming,

formerly a missionary doctor, with a long family tradition of

mission work in China and now Senior Health Officer, to see

more squatters on the Kowloon side. Looking down from the

Tai Po road, we saw below us a vast area covered with some

5,000 huts sheltering perhaps five times as many people. Quite

a decent-sized town in fact, equal to the whole civilian popula

tion of Gibraltar- or to the city of Canterbury.

We dropped in on a young woman feeding her baby with a

spoon and a cup of water in a nice new hut about 9 ft. by 8 ft.

She invited us to sit with her on the double-plank bed which

took up most of the right side of the hut. It had a mosquito-net

and there was a good leather suitcase and clothes neatly stacked

on a couple of shelves. Facing the door was a desk and alongside

that wall aa small and narrow bench. Her young husband came

in to join us. His neck was curiously circled by vertical red

streaks about half an inch apart — blood blisters plucked to

cause relief from headache. He brought his father from across

the road to tell the family story.

Yee Shing Lam was a man of forty -six, just as friendly as his

son Yee Ah Wan and his daughter-in -law Chan Ah Tai.

Chinese seem to me easy to talk to on short acquaintance. If we

had asked Arabs or Africans as much as we asked them we would

have had evasive answers and been strongly suspected of having

designs for taxing them , annexing their property , and so on.

Yee Shing Lam said he had been in Hong Kong for three

SQUATTER SHOPS

years and had come from Hai Fong, which he left because of a

bad harvest. Having done fairly well first in a job and then with

his own retail grocer's shop, he sent for the rest of his family and

Ah Wan now helps him in the shop. They make about £5 a

month and the father has also aa share in the communal paddy

fields at their home village in Hai Fong which brings him in four

piculs ofricea year. “Wejustmanage to balance our budget ', said

Ah Wan, “ and we have no intention of going back to China .'

Although Chan Ah Tai said she was illiterate and only knew

domestic work and how to look after her baby daughter, she

was running a barber's shop in the next -door and larger com

partment of the hut. They had raised £63 to build the hut with

a casual labour contractor. We went to have a look at it. It is

curious how the conventional red, white and blue sign of a

barber has spread here. Outside the expensive barbers' shops

there is always an electrically revolved pole: here the door frame

was painted in transverse bands. It cost from £6 to £ 12 to fit up

the shop with barbers' chairs, shelves, mirrors, combs, scissors,

curling-irons, etc., and Ah Tai's employee takes 15 per cent of

the earnings. You can have a haircut and a shave for gd. If you

want to go the whole hog and have a shampoo and hair-curling as

well it will only cost you about 4d. more. Quite aa lot of young

Chinese males like having their hair waved ! This sort of haircut

and shave at gd. may sound expensive, but the high-class barber

shops charge anything from 3s.2d. to 75. 6d. for ahaircut alone !

We crossed the road to look at Shing Lam's squatter shop. He

had no licence for it (he did not believe in contacts with Govern

ment departments, police, and so on) and sold many essential

things, needles, brown country sugar, beans, dried fish, cakes,

matches, soap, oil, and — inevitably — bottled orange squash

and Coca-Cola.

This tale of squatter Shing Lam and his family is entirely

typical. If it is not failure of crops which causes them to leave

China, it is conscription or the failure of village economy. If an

emigrant finds he can get on, he brings his family. The family

gets on and their neighbours hear about it and then they come.

It happens that thus whole villages transplant themselves piece

meal to Hong Kong !

Screening of squatter colonies has revealed that the vast

majority of squatters are not natives of Hong Kong. Very few

SQUATTERS

of the men are unemployed. Surveys in two colonies revealed

only 2 per cent, but less than 20 per cent - licensed hawkers,

monthly -paid workers or Government servants — were in regular

employment. Sixty -nine per cent of the women had only

domestic duties and only 2 per cent were licensed hawkers or

in regular employment. Less than a tenth of the children went

to school but only 2 per cent worked as casual labourers or

unlicensed hawkers.

On the whole, children, whether in tenements or squatter

colonies, appear to be well fed and lively. An examination of

1,252 families showed that the general well-being of 2 per cent

of the infants was very satisfactory, 14 per cent satisfactory,

38 per cent very fair, 28 per cent fair, and only 14 per cent and

4 per cent poor and very poor. These percentages of course re

flect not only the Chinese attention to good food but to their

marked care for their children. It is only when conditions are

desperate that Chinese sell or part with their children and this is

not a peculiarity of the race . I remember how starving Arabs

abandoned their children in famine times and I am told it is a

regular feature of famines.

CHAPTER NINE

Life in the Cities

AFTER WHAT we have seen of the manner of living of the tene

ment dwellers and squatters it will be appreciated that not many

of the Chinese in Hong Kong have a home life in the way in

which we understand it. With us home is an instinct ; whether

the things which really make a home, love, tranquillity of mind ,

domestic happiness, reasonable comfort, security for family, and

the rest, are there or not, we call the place we live in home. A

home is what we expect, and whatever its shortcomings a home

we usually manage to have. We are idealists. If a Chinese has

all those things which mean home in our sense, and if indeed

they are what he wants, I have no doubt he is as capable of

appreciating them as you or I. I know some happy Chinese

homes and you can find them in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth

THE HOUSING PROBLEM

and other stories. There is a delightful picture of one in Norah

Waln's House ofExile. But I do not think the Chinese necessarily

looks for these things or expects them. He takes things as they are,

wanting only what is within his reach, and therefore more often

than not, and especially in the cities, has no home. He is a realist.

There are many in Hong Kong who have not even a tenement

or a squatter hut in which to live. Thousands sleep where they

work and any little shack or lean -to shelter will be found to be

the only home ofsome family. Anything that provides cover will

be pressed into service in this way. In tropical countries there is

generally no particular hardship in having to sleep outside and

a very simple construction can house a family quite well. If they

have a little bit of ground much of the problem of living is

solved : vegetables grow easily and a few chickens can grub

about for a living without costing anything for their upkeep. As

a Sikh policeman born in Hong Kong and now in Penang said

to me : ‘ Malaya is a good country for the poor man . He can live

in a hut, he can grow his food, it is warm and he has not to

bother much about clothes. Hong Kong is a good country for

the rich man. A poor man has to spend too much on clothes and

food and rent . '

Shelter and warm clothing are necessary in Hong Kong's

climate, but none the less in many a street sleepers are to be found

in large numbers any night. They lie on the pavements wrapped

in straw mats and sacks, and sometimes they die there. Their

bodies are removed by the sanitary men on their morning rounds .

Such is the nature of the housing problem for the bulk of

Hong Kong's population, but there can be no more than a com

paratively few thousands who can be regarded as being free of

housing problems. The white-collar classes up to quite a high

level of income are often seriously overcrowded and living in

flats of sub-standard character in considerable discomfort. Pre

war flats are rent-controlled but they change hands only with

the payment of large sums as key money. Modern flats have

very high rentals and thekeymoneyisalso high. Key money for ]

a flat or office ranges from between £625 and £2,500.

I was often told by Chinese friends that it is not the custom of

the ordinary city-dweller to entertain his friends at home. It is

rare for anyone save close relations or great intimates to be

invited to the place in which his friend lives with his wife and

LIFE IN THE CITIES

family. The Chinese does his general entertaining at the

numerous restaurants or at clubs : of the latter the West Point

clubs are a most distinctively traditional Chinese institution.

Business men's clubs abound in Central Hong Kong. They are

Chinese, but they are also Western . Their necessity arises from

the Chinese habit of doing most of their important business out

of their offices. They serve the purpose which the city coffee

house such as Lloyd's served in Queen Anne's days and later.

Trevelyan quotes the ‘ Wealthy Shopkeeper's ' day as follows:

rise at 5 ; counting-house till 8; then breakfast on toast and

Cheshire cheese; in his shop for two hours, then a neighbouring

coffee -house for news ; shop again, till dinner at home (over the

shop) at 12 on a ' thundering joint ’ ; 1 o'clock on 'change;

3 Lloyd's coffee -house for business ; shop again for an hour; then

another coffee-house (not Lloyd's) for recreation, followed by

' sack shop ' to drink with acquaintances, till home for a ' light

supper ' and so to bed, ' before Bow Bell rings nine ’ .

The difference between that and a Chinese business man's

day in Hong Kong is that the ' wealthy shopkeeper ' was living

over his shop with his family and that the wealthy business man

in Hong Kong does not do so. This difference largely accounts

for the sing-song girl to be found in the West Point club. These

clubs would be disappearing faster than they are if the Chinese

set less importance on face and more of them could have com

fortable homes. Tradition and overcrowding slow up the

change-over. The clue, I think, lies in the way in which different

cultures have adjusted the relations between the sexes. It was

not until I found myself separated entirely from my family and

the normal social relations of the Western culture for months at

a time in the interior of Arabia that this dawned upon me.

There I lived in a world which was for me entirely masculine.

Femininity of one's own social level walked the streets muffled

and shrouded in shapeless clothes of black and blue, trailing in

the dust. In the houses in which I lived so long they were never

seen, much less spoken to. After lunch the men retired to their

harems till tea-time and after dinner between 9 and 10 the day

ended with aа similar withdrawal. Without noticing it, we in the

West depend a great deal on the mixed society we enjoy apart

from our families. The Arab, secluding the sexes, depends on

polygamy. It was common for a man with only one wife to

WEST POINT CLUBS

marry another simply to be able to talk to her. The classic and

tragic case is that of Jaafar the Barmecide whom Harun al

Rashid married to his sister for no other reason than that he,

Harun , could then talk to them together.

In China, though the cleavage between the sexes is less

severe, there was till recently little social mixing. At a dinner

party the men sat in one room and the women in another. We

were often at parties where the women sat at other tables, or, if

there was only one table, the sexes would be divided . The

Chinese answer was not only the concubine - she was a wife,

and a wife had not the function of entertaining her husband's

guests. Appreciating the male need for female society at the end

of a day's work, they invented the sing-song girl whose duty is to

entertain .

With only two visits with different hosts to West Point clubs

I can pretend to no exhaustive acquaintance with them. Emily

Hahn has talked about them in Miss Jill, a book which I found

extremely interesting but which both Europeans and Chinese in

Hong Kong thought over -painted. There are eight ofthese clubs

surviving, each having not more than a dozen members who

share the monthly expenses of the club amongst them . There is

thus no club fund, no subscriptions, no payments for meals or

drinks, and the usual cost to each member is about £ 12 . Any

special entertainment such as a dinner party given by one of the

members he generally pays for himself. The club's premises are

usually on one floor, really one long room with a kitchen and

lavatory at the back. The street has the appearance of an

ordinary shop-residential quarter and there are shops on the

ground floor, with dark and narrow stairs leading to the upper

storeys. A knock at the front door of the club results in the open

ing of a peephole, followed by the opening of the door by one

of the club amahs, for the servants in these clubs are generally

females. The long, narrow club -room is comfortably furnished,

though not luxuriously, and includes card-tables.

The members of such a club have as a rule aa community of

interests and most of them are business men. They probably

know more about each other than they do about people who do

not belong to their little circle. Five nights a week, including

perhaps two specified nights when it is a point of honour to turn

up, unless something quite unavoidable prevents it, they are

LIFE IN THE CITIES

together in conditions of greater intimacy than they are any

where else except among their own families. Amongst us mem

bers of a mess are in much the same position, but it is less

accentuated because the Chinese are normally reserved and

ceremonious, even to those they know well. Members of these

clubs use nicknames and really ' let their hair down '. To these

clubs they invite close friends and probably more business is

done in them than in the offices. I think there is a greater feeling

of trust in such surroundings.

I went one night as a guest of aa friend who spoke English as

well as I did and who had travelled extensively. There were a

number of other members and guests present whom I had met

in more ceremonious surroundings and I was much struck by

the atmosphere of intimacy. A Chinese never loses his good

manners, and at the same time he gives a great degree of

friendliness even on fairly formal occasions, which quickly makes

you feel at home. Now, however, I felt as though they had said

' We take you on trust, take us as we are : there are no barriers

between us ', and by the time the evening was out I felt I had

known these chaps for years.

My friend explained the sing-song girl and her job. She is

primarily a paid entertainer. It is her job to provide that light

feminine touch which is, as I say, needed by most masculine

humanity. A man who invites his friends to dinner at the club

may engage one or more sing- song girls to entertain them. They

talk amusingly and after dinner they may play the Chinese

piano and sing. Often, but by no means invariably, they are

prostitutes, but this is, so to speak, a separate function. Clever

sing-song girls are very likely not to be prostitutes.

Before the war a girl was paid a dollar for aa ' call ’ . She might

have a number of calls in an evening: when she had booked

them she would go round and spend anything from ten minutes

to half an hour with each ‘ caller ' . A certain amount of talk and

a song comprised the dollar's worth . In the course of these calls

she might be engaged to come back again later. There were

many more of these clubs then, and many more sing-song girls.

I was told that there are only about twenty genuine sing-song

girls surviving and they seem to have a hard life. My friend said

that ' Lady Somebody or other, I can't remember her name'

had come to Hong Kong and expressed her horror and surprise

THE SING - SONG GIRL

at hearing about the sing-song girls, and had made such aa to -do

that the tolerance extended to them was withdrawn. They had

therefore become the subject of persecution and had to earn at

least £25 a month in order to pay the excessive ‘ squeeze ', perhaps

£15, demanded of them . Most of the ' squeeze ' would go to a

Triad Society which would protect the girl against ill treatment

by any of her clients, for she could have no other remedy if, for

instance, they made demands on her which she was not pre

pared to meet, or failed to pay her dues. She might have to pay

‘squeeze' to some policeman if she were a prostitute. Her rent

would probably cost her £ 10 and a servant was necessary as a

measure of respectability, to answer the telephone and so on,

and she would cost £3. Apart from this, she had to be well

dressed , and clothes and cosmetics cost a lot. So a ‘ call' now

costs 12s. 6d.

There was some discussion amongst three of those present as

to which sing-song girl they should summon. One, I remember,

objected to the ‘ sour face ' of a girl whose name was suggested .

In due course the matter was settled and the club servant went

off to make the call. We had almost finished dinner when the

chosen one appeared , a slim , pretty child in a pale blue flowered

silk dress, neatly coiffed hair and delicately rouged cheeks. She

sat demurely on the sofa while we finished the meal, responding

pleasantly to the remarks made to her from the table. After

dinner as she talked , without giggles or levity, to some of the

men I watched her, and my friend asked me how old I thought

she was. It is never easy to judge the age of Chinese and as I

usually under -estimate I guessed 26.

'Lord, no,' he said, she's about 18. Shestarted on this two years

ago .I think she was bought by someone and brought up to

thejob .'

Asked to play, she picked up the ' piano ', a semicircular

frame with wires stretched on it, arranged it on a small table,

and began lightly to tap the strings with two padded hammers.

I moved over to watch her as the light melody developed. Her

name, I learnt, was Mai Yun - Beautiful Glamour. Now I could

see how youthful she was. She carried her small head well on

her slender neck, her face, usually almost expressionless, lit up

with a fleeting smile when she was spoken to. She was perfectly

self-possessed . She sang. Not at all well, as I suspect she knew ,

but it was unaffected and natural and it was herbest.

LIFE IN THE CITIES

As I watched Mai Yun, I thought of the struggle she must

have to keep herself going, but I wondered if she would have

understood if one had pitied her. She did not seem to me the

shameless creature which ‘ Lady So-and-so ' apparently thought

her kind to be. She was honest and hard-working according to

her lights and the way in which she had been brought up. She

met a need and had her place in a social system. What more

could anyone do ? Besides, if this had not happened to her, she

might have been much worse off, even if she were alive at all.

Millions in China live in extremes of poverty or die of starva

tion and it will be long before every child even in Hong Kong

gets a fair chance of aa decent life. I wished I could have talked

to her. When she finished her song, she said good-night and

slipped away to her next call. She left with me a remembrance

of a distinct little personality and I respected her personality.

Visitors now came into the club from neighbouring clubs,

some of them bringing sing -song girls with them . Amongst the

newcomers was a general to whom Chiang Kai-shek had once

been chief of staff. He had two sing-song girls with him and

introduced a note of boisterous hilarity into the proceedings.

By this time most of the party had settled down to cards, but I

still sat talking of endless things to two friends. The general was

restless and leaped about between his two girls on the sofa and

the card players, giving the former slaps and tickles and the

latter a great deal of noisy advice.

My host suggested we pay a call on a mutual friend in

another club which I had visited before . But the mutual friend

was not visible. After finishing our drinks we withdrew . Very

Chinese ', said my Chinese host. ' He knows quite well you are

here and he knows that you know he is here. But you have only

met him on formal occasions as one of the big men of the Colony

and face won't let him openly acknowledge to a foreigner in

your position that he comes to a West Point club. He's hiding

in the lavatory or the pantry .'

My host and another friend walked along to the cabaret at

the Kam Lung Restaurant, where I had had that hilarious

evening with the Tung Wah directors. Equipped with a couple

of cabaret girls we danced and drank tea. These girls had come

from Shanghai, from where dozens had migrated to Hong Kong

since the arrival of the Communists, who announced their

CLUBS OF ALL KINDS

intention of turning nuns, cabaret girls and so on to “ productive

work ' .

We ended our evening at the Ritz, Hong Kong's most expen

sive night club, six miles away from West Point at North Point,

and we took one of our dancing partners with us. It was all soft

lights and draperies, with a Filipino dance band dressed in dove

coloured suits and co - respondent shoes, with sleek heads and

side-whiskers. Tropic nights and coloured lights and fountains

and all the rest made it all very RO-mantic. There seemed to be

few Europeans there. It is far too expensive : but I should find

crooning and swing expensive whatever you paid for them.

' Club' is a word which covers all sorts of associations and the

great variety of clubs there are in Hong Kong illustrates the fact

and reflects the wide diversity of social life and interests. There

are no less than 106 clubs, societies and associations listed in

Hong Kong's Directory, and there are a great many more, such

as the business men's clubs, night clubs and West Point clubs,

which are not listed. Those in the Directory vary from such solid

and secure social clubs of assured standing as the Hong Kong

Club, the Club Lusitano and the Chinese Club, to sports clubs

of various kinds, from the celebrated Jockey Club to clubs

devoted to chess, cricket, bowls, golf, tennis, yachting, shooting

and fishing. There are Service clubs and police clubs, and there

are a great many clubs and associations of a religious character.

There are increasingly clubs for women , British, Chinese,

British and Chinese, or International. There are a number of

national clubs—particularly those for Americans, Portuguese,

Filipinos and Indians. St. Andrew , St. George, St. Patrick and

St. David all have their societies. One would say that the list

reflected national consciousness to a considerable degree. All

hobbies, philately, horticulture, kennels, music, singing, photo

graphy, amateur dramatics and so on are catered for. There is

even the ' Hong Kong Sunbathing Association (H.K. Nudist

S-TY) ' which has as its objects the practice and populariza

tion of mixed Sun, Air, and Water Bathing entirely in the Nude,

in suitable surroundings, and of the Life in the Nude in the

Home' .

Social problems abound in Hong Kong. The suppression of

gambling, of brothels and of opium -smoking has occupied much

LIFE IN THE CITIES

of the attention of the police since the liberation . All these dis

orders were rife after the war and expanded with the expanding

population , but the police have done much to keep them within

reasonable bounds. Government has been aware that in the

case of prostitution its positive work of prevention and re

habilitation has not been adequate and the Social Welfare

Department has given much thought to the problem .

It is considered that the two chief reasons for prostitution are

economic and personal. In the first case a woman or a girl is

either sold or sells herself because of poverty. She cannot get

back her freedom , even if she is lucky enough to have other

employment in view, without paying a heavy ransom . In the

second case a woman or girl is attracted by a life of prostitution

or is mentally deficient.

Much controversy has raged in the past over the question of

licensed houses. On the whole Chinese opinion appears to

favour them — in many cases strongly. Government, however,

has adopted the British view and set its face against resorting to

the practice.

A number of Chinese friends told me that if I were investigat

ing all sides of Chinese life I should be aware of the extent to

which prostitution was practised and its methods. One day a

friend of the most irreproachable character, a staunch pillar of

the Church and a family man ofgreat respectability, with whom

I should have felt extreme diffidence in discussing the question ,

expressed this view to me with his invariable wide smile, and

proposed that we should spend an evening observing the habits

ofprostitutes. Suppressing an urge to laugh, I treated the matter

with the solemnity with which it was broached, though I had the

odd mixed feelings of being invited to bird-watch and to spend

a naughty evening with an archbishop.

My friend proposed to pick me up on the chosen evening at

9.30 in his car, and when he arrived I found we were to be well

chaperoned as he had with him a wealthy merchant of old

fashioned habits, with whom I was slightly acquainted, clad in

a long blue gown and blue cap. The merchant, a most serious

minded andcharming old gentleman of over 70, did not speak

English, but had brought with him an English -speaking nephew

of more modern habits who was on his best behaviour in uncle's

presence.

PROSTITUTION

We drove in earnest silence westwards and finally drew up in

a street running down to the waterfront. There was no other

motor traffic in the street, but pavements and roadway were

full of young women strolling up and down, usually in pairs,

and young men either singly or in pairs. Everywhere there were

groups in conversation. I noticed an old woman hovering round

our car. ‘ She is one of the old women who make the introduc

tions ', explained my instructor. After some moments the creature

apparently accepted the fact that we were not potential

customers and moved away. My companions said that this was

one ofseveral streets in Hong Kong where this business went on.

The prices here ranged from 12s. 6d. to 25., the young women

in pyjamas being about the former price and those more ex

pensively dressed in slit-up-the-side dresses costing more. My

instruction was carried out in the usual manner by object

lessons. A young man and his friend would go up to one of the

old women (or she would approach them) and they would

explain to her the size and type they sought. She would then go

and look for a young woman of the kind required, bring her

back and introduce her, and receive aa dollar or two dollars fee.

The girl then took the man off to a boarding -house in the

neighbourhood where they would occupy a room for a few

hours. Such rooms, I was told, have several tenants in a night

and the hire of the room falls on the woman. My companions

explained that her expenses were considerable: besides her keep

and rent she had, like the sing-song girl, to be well dressed and

made-up, and paid ‘ squeeze ' to be allowed to carry on un

molested. The male customers, who, as far as I could see, were

all Chinese, were said to be, for the most part, seamen or

strangers of one sort or another. There are other areas such as

Wanchai more frequented by Europeans and Americans.

After about half an hour's watching of this coming and going

the hospitable old gentleman took us to his club in West Point,

where we had a ' light' supper, having already dined . It was a

very quiet evening and we were the only people in the club.

A little shopping, a look at the crowded millions in tenements

and squatter colonies, these are enough to bring home the ex

pensiveness of everything, the number of poor, and the amount

of money which is made in Hong Kong, and to make one

wonder what the share -out is. Nowhere are classes more evident ;

LIFE IN THE CITIES

they seem to be more marked, to shade off with each other less,

than in England, where there is less difference between a bus

conductor out of uniform and aa city merchant than there is

between a coolie and a clerk in Hong Kong. And the difference

between a tram conductor and a Taipan is almost as great as

that between a candle and the sun. Yet it is not easy to limit the

number of classes when it comes to discussing their incomes.

Labourers can be divided into unskilled, semi- skilled and

skilled, and the middle classes into artisans, clerks, shopkeepers,

Government officials, professionals and small business men. On

the whole, however, we can get along fairly well with four - the

coolies (all Chinese) , the Chinese middle class, the European

middle class, and the Taipans, the wealthy, both European and

Chinese.

In 1939, when a dollar was still, comparatively speaking, a

dollar and a day meant nine hours' work, a coolie got from gd.

to 10 d . a day. Since the war his wages have risen from 500 per

cent to 700 per cent for those in regular jobs, though the casual

labourer still gets the merest pittance. I sometimes think, when

I read a news item about the world rice situation , how difficult

it must be to the ordinary dweller in this country to appreciate

quite what it means that rice is short and its price high to Ali in

the Middle East, to Ram Das in India, or to Wong in China .

There are Mrs. Ali , Mrs. Ram Das and Mrs. Wong wondering

what to put into the clay pot over the thorn or dung fire, and all

the little Alis, Ram Dases and Wongs feeling very hungry. Rice

is the all-important body fuel to every class except the European

in Hong Kong, but to Wong the coolie a catty ofrice — i} lb.-a

day is an essential if he is to earn enough to keep Mrs. Wong and

the little Wongs, and of course what he earns must be enough to

buy their rice too. On top of it, it is reasonable that they should

also have a little ' sung ' . This is the necessary relish without

which rice is found dull in all rice-eating countries. If you eat

curry in England the rice is almost a side-line-a vegetable. With

those who depend on it, it is the substance. The sung can be some

vegetable, or a piece of egg (the Wong family are hardly likely to

have a whole egg each ), a little bit of meat or fish . The word

is used metaphorically in several Eastern languages when

asking for a tip. It is just that little bit extra to give savour to

life .

RICE AND WAGES

In 1841 a catty of good rice cost from 21 to 3} cents, in 1939

from 7 to 10 cents. In 1944 a catty of fairly indifferent rationed

rice cost 44 cents and one of the cheapest quality on the free

market anything from 95 cents to $ 1.35, or in terms of today's

values is. 2d. to is. 8d. Three- fifths of the population can draw

ration rice, but they never find the ration enough and most of

the coolies have to buy in the free market or eat something else.

Think of this when you wash away the grains of rice still clinging

to your curry plate. You remember it when you watch endless

workers shovelling rice into their mouths, never dropping a grain

and picking up the last grain at the bottom of the bowl. They

like at least two of these little bowls at a meal, though I doubt

if they often have them. Gone are the days when a man could

say he was a three- or four- bowl man, though we did have

supper with a manufacturer of shark fins who claimed to be a

six-bowl man.

Peace in the world largely depends on rice; humanity depends

on it much more than on oil. Yet we — ordinary people --are

much more apt to take rice for granted than fuel for the internal

combustion engine .

One of the reasons why, say, a dockyard coolie does not have

the same output of work as his opposite number in Europe is

that he is paid less. The same consideration applies to the

lower paid ranges of white-collar workers. The junior low-paid

Chinese clerk has less output than one in the West. Before the

war he got about £63 a year. This was about double the pay

of the manual worker. But the non -European middle class

covers a wide range of incomes and occupations. Many one

man business shopkeepers have a very small income. Their

motto is ‘ Small profits, quick returns ', and it is said not to have

been unusual for a dealer in drugs or groceries to have been

content to sell his goods at cost price, relying on the sale of the

packing-case in which they came for his profit.

Nowadays a family in this class - clerk or skilled artisan

might have an income of from £ 10 to £ 18 a month. There may

be a father and mother and one child. They spend rather more

than £6 on food, £ 1 or so in rent — they won't get more than a

bedspace for this, 6s. or so on clothes and shoes, about 125. 6d .

on fuel and light, and upwards of 3s. gd . on cleaning materials

such as washing and toilet soap, toothbrushes and toothpastes,

LIFE IN THE CITIES

and razor blades. These you will never find absent in a Chinese

home, however humble. In many a workshop, where the hands

sleep on thejob, you see these articles conspicuous on some shelf

or in some corner in which the owner can stow them in the

morning when the dormitory has become again a carpenter's

or a blacksmith's shop.

Nearly 30 per cent of the money spent on food goes on rice,

and of that only a quarter is rationed rice. The sung may be

fresh or salted fish , pork or beef, rarely chicken or duck, or eggs

and vegetables. Then there is peanut oil to cook in, such things

as fruit, soya -bean sauce, and tea. Perhaps as much as 12s. 6d.

may be spent on meals at food -stalls and so on. The rest of the

family budget goes on such things as education (which no

Chinese in Hong Kong will miss for his children if he can get it

at all — and for one child it may be anything from 1os. to 12s. 6d.

a month) , tobacco and cigarettes (in this item the clerk is more

likely to economize than the artisan — you can get Pirates at

4}d. for ten or Gold Flake at 6_d.) , doctors and medicines,

tram , bus and ferry fares, hairdressing, newspapers, and an

occasional cinema. It is a pretty tight fit.

The example we have taken is at the bottom end of the

middle -class group. A couple of young journalists told us things

which made us appreciate that middle -class problems are of no

mean order, and in fact have a close resemblance to some of

those of England. For a man with a family to live reasonably

and by no means extravagantly he should earn, they said, £ 100

a month. Good flats, built since the war, cost £25 to £35 a

month and you can only get them by paying enormous key

money. To raise such sums there are Loan Associations. Most

Chinese do not use banks—in any case they would have no

securities for overdrafts — so they form these associations be

tween friends.

As these two young men pointed out, they have to dress

decently and a good suit costs £20. All necessities are expensive

and the price of food is high. Even lunches in snack restaurants

are several times English prices. One of these young men said

that pre-war his wife, like go per cent of the Chinese women of

that class, had left all housework to amahs and spent her time

pleasantly in gossip with friends and mahjong parties. The war

changed all that and she had to start a shop. Today she manages

Cricket and The Bank symbolize the strength behind Hong Kong.

The skeleton in the foreground is the new Bank of China

‘ Side by side the junks lie closely packed all along the waterfront,

with their sterns against the quay' ( p. 39)

PLATE IX

PLATE X

Hong

one

above

banners

ang

hcolours

,gay

ainted

signs

pand

narrow

Long

tenements

crowded

between

streets

side

steep

Kong's

reservoirs

PLATE XI

smaller

Kong's

Hong

one

foreground

the

.In

islands

and

Mountains

Reasonably, quietly, the tram starts on its ten -minute run up the

mountain : soon one is in the midst of a primeval jungle' (p. 44)

PLATE XII

THE COST OF LIVING

a shop in Shau Ki Wan and aa soda fountain in Kowloon. They

have three children and he pays £ 1 ios. a month for each child

to go as a day pupil to a Chinese private school. It has to be

remembered that school years are long for a Chinese—15 years

or more. For the first 10 years a child learns Chinese and then,

at about 15, goes to a middle school for English and works up

to matriculation . He also pays £3 155. a month to a woman

teacher to coach his children four evenings a week and thinks

it very cheap to get one at that price.

An income of £ 100 a month is of course not inconsiderable in

Hong Kong and there are many Europeans who have not so

much. With them the pattern of the monthly expenditure is

different. Most of them will not have to pay so much rent, for

most Government servants and employees of big firms have

assistance in quarters, or free quarters. This, however, does not

mean that they are all adequately housed. I met one quite senior

Government officer who was sharing a hotel bedroom with a

colleague and those who have single rooms in hotels are com

paratively numerous. On the other hand, those who are housed

according to Government's intentions are very well housed. The

flats they have would have aa rental of £500 a year or more in

London—they are London ' type ' flats. If they were on the free

market in Hong Kong they would probably cost more than that

and the key money would be astronomical. Other differences

arise from the methods of dealing with family obligations,

entertainment and so on. Food is probably as expensive for both

the Chinese and Europeans with £ 100 a month. The Euro

pean's expenditure is probably rather less : he does not eat quite

so expensively or extensively, and, strange as it may seem, im

ported food costs less than local produce. Cold storage Dover

sole, pleasantly known as ‘ Dragons' Tongues ', costs less than an

equivalent amount of Hong Kong garoupa. Just over a pound of

fillet in the market costs 1os., Australian fillet of beef, according

to the price list of a big firm , costs 38. a pound, Australian eggs

cost 4s. 5d. a dozen , local Leghorn 8s. 2d. a dozen. Local pork

is about 5s. a pound. European type foods are all expensive.

Butter, for instance, costs 3s. 7d. a pound, coffee 7s. 3d. a pound,

good quality jam 2s. 6d. a pound jar.

Pre-war an expatriate European received about double the

salary which he would have received for work of equivalent

LIFE IN THE CITIES

character in his country of origin. The difference now is prob

ably less, but many married men still perhaps maintain two

homes while their children are being educated abroad. On the

other hand, many now have their children with them and send

them to King George V School. They probably still keep more

servants than Chinese do and their servants are more expensive.

They certainly maintain more than they would do at home, but

considerably fewer than they did pre-war in Hong Kong. Enter

taining among middle -class Europeans is no longer on an

extravagant scale and wives often not only do some housework

and marketing, but have to take employment themselves. In

these respects the changes wrought by the enormously increased

cost ofliving are for the good. They have done much to make the

European part ofthe community less isolated, and economically

at any rate to fuse the population more, though social differences

have not been so much affected .

Senior men in business firms are much better off than most

Government officials, though life is terribly expensive for all of

them. One business family, consisting of husband and wife and

two children , paid £63 a month for food alone. Their drinks

cost them only £3 , for they could get them at lower rates from

their firm . Meat, milk and bread from the dairy farm took £ 19,

the compradore (or grocer) £ 16, and the market bill was £22 .

The cook cost £ 10 a month, the coolie £6, and the wash-amah

£6. Before the war they were £ 1 12s. , £ 1 5s. and £ 1 2s. 6d. (a

boy) respectively. Many families have taken to replacing boys

by amahs as they are cheaper. These increases in wages of

course affect the Government servants too. The children go to

King George VV School , where the fees are not very expensive,

but, excluding clothes, they estimate that the children cost

them £350 a year. Electricity is very expensive on the Peak on

account of fires, baths, and the necessity of having a drying

room. It costs this family £ 15 a month . On these items alone,

therefore, they are spending over £ 1,500 a year, a sum which is

out of reach of many Government officials .

One pernicious pre-war habit seems to be dying out—the

chit system. You signed chits for anything from an ice-cream to

an evening dress, and then on what was called All Shroffs' Day,

the roth of the month, the bill collectors came round. People

are finding it much more economical to pay as they buy.

COLONY OF CONTRASTS

It will probably have been realized that these middle-class

cases cover a very wide range of income, reaching considerably

high figures at the top of the scale. They include all Government

officials from clerks upwards. But the incomes of the upper class

are far higher. In this group are included the big business men

or Taipans, who are largely European, and a number of very

wealthy Chinese. Both these categories have always existed in

Hong Kong and vast fortunes have been made (and some of

them lost) during the Colony's history.

But to rich and poor of the Chinese in Hong Kong the quality

of food is all-important. It is said that in the good old days a

single meal sometimes took three months to prepare and lasted

three days. High as the visual arts rank in China, the supreme

appeal is to the sense oftaste. The culinary art is certainly above

all others in Hong Kong.

Life in the cities is infinite in its variety ; it is kaleidoscopic in

its varied colours, always changing. It presents a complete

contrast with the life of the peasants and the boat people, which

has, as we shall see, a constant pattern, restful with its quiet

tones and essential sanity. It is not difficult to record the

latter, but the ever-shifting mosaic of city life is less easy to

capture .

Sometimes, dining in some home in Hong Kong, I would

catch myself contrasting my immediate surroundings with

those in which I had eaten my dinner the previous day. The

pattern of warm hospitality was the same in Hong Kong

whether one's hosts were rich or poor, but I often wondered if

anybody else flitted daily between such contrasts as we did .

Thoughts of this nature made yesterday seem aeons away ; a

dinner in spacious surroundings, with glittering glass and shin

ing silver on white linen, moving with well-ordered precision

and silent service through its predestined courses towards its

inevitable climax to the accompaniment of well-ordered talk,

became like a memory of the distant past, and some flat in the

city or cottage home in the New Territories with a cheerful

crowded company of all ages helping themselves and each other

with chopsticks would be transplanted to the other end of the

world . More than that, the world itself which one knew seemed

very distant. One read about it with one's breakfast coffee in the

South China Morning Post, and if it had some vague bearing on

LIFE IN THE CITIES

that sensitive organism which is Hong Kong it would be given

headlines, but that was all.

We were entertained by people of all sorts and conditions in

restaurants, houses, flats, huts, tenements, clubs of all kinds,

until at the end we began to feel some sense of the pattern of

the life, however varied it was. The kaleidoscope became a

tapestry of many scenes which could be studied in detail but

which were linked up into a balanced whole. Some threads

worked their way through different scenes, others never left the

one. Here and there in these pages we shall meet some of the

people whose lives in different coloured strands of silk wove in

and out of the fascinating embroidery which is Hong Kong.

But as one looks at individuals among the crowds which throng

the pavements, one wonders what happens behind the door at

which they finally stop.

London, it is often said, is a place in which it is very easy to

be lonely, and I imagine that is true of any big city. But if you

want to be friendly I should think it is easier to make friends in

Hong Kong than in most big cities, because the people are

always ready to make friends with you. Soon the feeling of

strangeness wears off. The picturesque and colourful still delight

the eye; unusual food excites the palate no less ; I daresay some

grow accustomed to the noise, but that funny little man in a blue

cloth gown whom you have seen several mornings scurrying

across the road when the lights flicked green, that cheerful

bespectacled business man whom you pass in the arcade, that

important-looking old man with a beard like the Emperor of

China who owns the large car which parks in Statue Square, and

of course that fascinating little creature with the dimpled smile

whose fallen handkerchiefyou restored in the China Emporium,

are no longer something strange, Oriental and mysterious seen

through a plate-glass window when you meet them, but People

with very lovable and easily understandable characteristics.

So may their counterparts be anywhere, but there is something

so civilized about the Chinese and above all there is that capa

city for giving friendship quickly. Quite why this is I do not know:

they do not seem to have the same reserve as others. Even a

Chinese who likes solitary peace and quiet will be very friendly.

One evening as we drove with the excellent Mr. Chung to

dine with a couple whom we had met no more than once, as

A CHINESE FRIENDSHIP

fellow -guests at a luncheon party, I asked why it was that people

were so kind and hospitable to strangers.

' The Chinese ', he said, ' love making friends. You love a

house and you extend your love to the birds living in the corner

of the house .'

Friendship with this couple developed. We dined several

times with them and with intimate friends of theirs who had a

nephew of 18 waiting to come to England to study the textile

industry. When at last he got his permit and arrived in England

he came to stay with us for a week-end. It would be reasonable

to suppose that Chinese visitors on their first visit to Europe

might not necessarily ‘ know all the answers ', and they might

not therefore be as comfortable as one could wish in post-war

England . But I have never found easier visitors to entertain

than Chinese. They are the most delightful people to have in

the house and leave you on the Monday morning with the feel

ing that you would like to see them again on the following Fri

day. I remember in particular Florence and Lee, a young

couple whom we met for the first time in London on a Tuesday,

who came down on the Friday and by Monday morning had

left a gap which despite subsequent meetings has never been

quite filled . Florence, before one was really aware of it, was

washing-up as if she had been at the sink all her life: Lee was

annexed by our small daughter and spent a good deal of his

week - end making her a rabbit-hutch. We dined with them in

their London flat the night before they went back to Hong

Kong, and as we were leaving we discovered that they were

going off to do the washing -up for aa former landlady who was ill

and who had 14 English boarders in her house.

Theirs had been aa London romance. They had happened to

fly to England in the same aeroplane, fallen in love, and got

married with reluctant and telegraphic parental consent. Our

first lunch with Florence's father in Hong Kong was mainly

remarkable for his anxiety to know all we could tell him about a

son-in-law on whom he had never set eyes and whose parents in

Shanghai he did not know . He said he had wired Florence

many times that she could not marry Lee until he had seen him.

However, as an English friend in London, the Hong Kong Gov

ernment's representative, Grimwood, had pleaded by telegram

for her, he gave his consent. (Strange job for a Government

LIFE IN THE CITIES

representative !) We spoke well of Lee and said what a nice

couple they made. He said how much he loved Florence as she

was his first-born and had a character like his. ' In that case, ' I

said, she will have chosen a man you will also like .' He was

very pleased with that. It seemed to clinch the matter and he

rose suddenly and shook hands warmly on it !

' I hope' , he said, ' that she is a little on top. Chinese custom is

not very good : it is better for the wife to be a little on top. If he

is a bit henpecked the home will be happy. There will be no

concubine and all will be well. ' I felt he need have no mis

givings on that score. Florence certainly had Lee very well in

hand.

Such is young romance in modern Hong Kong. It was very

different to that of old times. Marriage was a matter of arrange

ment between parents with a middleman as go-between .

Rarely did the young people know each other or even see each

other until the wedding day. The middleman would go to the

parents of the prospective bridegroom bearing a paper, of the

lucky red colour of course, with particulars about the girl, who

was then looked over by the mother and other female relatives

of the young man. If approved the man's parents sent a similar

paper to the bride's, and ifsatisfaction was general a date would

be chosen for the sending of the first present by the bridegroom.

This would be jewellery, some cakes and money, and if accepted

by the parents of the bride it showed the girl's acceptance of

her marriage. The dollars were a relic of bride purchase money

and when that custom died out the money was often returned ,

showing that the parents were willing to give their daughter and

not sell her. Further presents were sent and letters exchanged

which were considered written evidence of the marriage. On the

day of the marriage itself, usually about a month after the last

present had been sent, the middleman was dispatched by the

bridegroom's parents with the bride's chair draped with red

silk . In this she was carried to her future home and accompanied

into the house by her bridegroom. She then had to kneel and

bow to heaven and earth and the ancestral tablets and to her

husband, who returned the compliment. The observance of

ancestor -worship was an important feature of the marriage

ceremony. Whatever degree of festivity or whatever varia

tions there were, the three essentials, parents' consent, the

MARRIAGE BY REGISTRAR

middleman , and the ancestor-worship, were always strictly

observed.

Today the Registrar of Marriages in Hong Kong deals with

both ancient and modern customs, and his task is more compli

cated than that of his opposite number in this country. This is

partly because he can register Chinese customary marriages.

This makes them monogamous, and as these days Chinese

women are showing that, like their sisters in the West, they prefer

a man all to themselves, the practice of registering them is

growing. Couples arrive in the most colourful garb to get

married . Brides often have all the traditional, highly em

broidered finery of old China, and their grooms are in long

gowns with a black waistcoat on top. On the other hand, the

modern-minded miss wears white satin and a veil , with her

bridegroom in a smart tussore suit. Witnesses are often women

with babies strapped on their backs.

Addresses cause the Registrar trouble— Unnumbered hut in

such and such Squatter settlement ' , or ‘Junk Number so -and

so' . In the case of a Chinese marriage the certificate presented

for registration reads :

' It is a fine day for the wedding of Mr. — and Miss

while the may flower is in blossom and I hope that both of the

parties will be quite satisfied with each other.

' I further anticipate that there will be a happy house for

them and for their descendants.

' I hereby certify that the said Mr. and Miss have

signed this, the marriage certificate .'

It is part of the Registrar's duty to do all that he can to ensure

that no one who is already engaged in a valid marriage contracts

another. It is not at all easy to do this when marriages con

tracted in China or in other parts of the world are concerned,

but a great deal of trouble is taken over it. There is an increas

ing number of mixed marriages, and in some cases Service

personnel are not as wise as they might be over their choices .

It is not the Registrar's business to see if Glamorous Blossom is

all her intended thinks she is, but in such cases the Secretary for

Chinese Affairs does his best to act in loco parentis. He is indeed the

parental authority par excellence as far as Chinese are concerned,

and outside his office door is a continual queue of domestic

cases waiting for a wise word to prevent a family break -up.

LIFE IN THE CITIES

In old days young wives had a hard time with their mothers

in - law and seem to have spent quite a time on their knees,

kowtowing to them . In fact a certain amount of kowtowing still

survives and I have been told by men of 50 or so, completely

westernized , that when they go and see their ' old men ' they

have to kowtow . Some of them go only rarely on that very

account! It is not an uncommon practice on Chinese New Year

and on the birthdays of the old people.

We met one delightful old lady, Luk Po Wan , who having

now no means was spending the evening of her days in the

North Point relief camp. She was a relic of the bound -feet age.

She showed her feet to us — they were no larger than those of

a five -year-old child and were frightfully deformed .

She told us of the agony she had suffered and showed us how ,

for five years, she used to crawl about or be carried by servants.

' My father was an army officer ,' she said, “ and the higher the

position the smaller the feet. Unless your feet were bound you

had no chance of a proper marriage, you would only be a

concubine.'

She had lived in Hong Kong and had been married to a

Government servant. During the late war a shell hit her home

and she lost everything. She has one son, now married, but he

can do nothing for her as he earns only £7 a month and has

many children . I asked her if she could walk properly now.>

' No,' she said ; ‘ if the wind is strong it blows me down.'

' Did you think that it was a good thing to have your feet

bound ? '

' If you have a nice pair of feet, why deform them ? ' she

asked. ‘ And the pain was so awful that I used to lie on my bed

with my feet in the air to let the blood run down . When the

revolution came I took off my bandages and slept the whole

night through for the first time.'

One could almost feel the pain as she described it. It struck

me as strange that a woman living in Hong Kong had to wait

until the revolution in China to take off her bandages. In order

to encourage contraction of the feet, she said, some medicine

was poured inside the bandages. It served the purpose but also

caused sores. A child's bandages were sewn on so that she could

not take them off. No children thought of using scissors: they

were too frightened of their parents..

100

BAD OLD CUSTOMS

' Did everyone agree when it was decreed that the binding of

feet should end ? " I asked .

' When Sun Yat-Sen said it was a good thing to abolish it,

everyone agreed to the change.'

She said that her husband, Chan, who had been an Urban

Council employee, was also glad of the change. They had been

married without ever seeing each other. In her day it was often

the custom for a girl of 16 to be married but not to live with her

husband for six years or more. She herself was married at 16,

and when she went to visit her in -laws and had to stay the night,

she slept with her mother-in - law . She went to her husband

when she was 22 .

She did not think much of her mother - in - law . ' I had to wait

on her all the time. I had to obey her always. I couldn't sit

down when she was standing. I had to bring her tea before she

went to bed and wait on her at meal-times, so that I scarcely

ever had a proper sit - down meal myself. I was on my knees kow

towing so much, and they got so sore I had to wear three skirts

and wore them through .'

' No ,' she said, ' I was never angry or rebellious about it,

because it was the custom. If I rebelled against my mother-in

law, perhaps my mother might have been treated badly by her

daughter-in -law . Today, if someone yells at me I still get

frightened .' >

' I haven't had much happiness,' she went on, 'I've always

been kowtowing. A woman has a hard life — first she must obey

her father, then her husband, then her son. And my mother-in

law died only recently, during the Japanese occupation .'

She thought things were much better now. ‘A girl can pick

and choose her own husband. Young misses don't tolerate non

sense from in-laws or from their parents. '

' Does your daughter-in -law kowtow to you ? ' I asked.

' Kowtow', she laughed. ‘ Not much ! Daughters-in-law don't

kowtow nowadays. You're lucky if they don't call you an old

hen ! '

I asked her if her son and daughter-in-law often came to see

her.

‘ Oh o ', she said. ' He rarely comes and I haven't seen her

for two years. No one bothers about me now. When you have

money relatives come and see you. When you have nothing, they

IOI

LIFE IN THE CITIES

leave you alone. I've only my son left. When my home was

bombed I lost my grandchild, two amahs and others in the

house, and I was wrapped in a blanket and let down from a

fourth - floor window. '

It seemed a desperately sad story to me. She would have been

such a nice old mother-in-law and here she was in a poor-law

camp on a bed with fifty others in the room . Yet she was so gay

and happy. I asked her why.

“ Yes, I'm happy now ',> shesaid. “ I became a Catholic twoyears

ago and now I have peace. I'm just looking forward to dying.'

I couldn't understand why that son never went and visited

his old mother. Chinese have such respect for their parents.

Chinese friends explained that it was a matter of ' face '. He had

no money to help her, therefore he stayed away.

The worthy Mr. Chung explained to me that he was by

Chinese custom my grandfather, for he bestowed upon me my

Chinese name. I was proud to have so noteworthy an ancestor

and to discover that Mr. Chung's grandchildren included many

illustrious names. I gathered it was one of his duties to present

British officials with new names and wondered whether this had

not grown up as a desirable precaution after Lord Napier, no

doubt called something like Na Poo, had been given two

characters meaning Laboriously Vile. Mr. Chung, of course,

gives everybody very distinguished characters, but I have no

doubt it would be equally easy to find them less flattering ones.

It is quite an art : Admiral Harcourt, for example, he had

endowed with the name Ha Kok. Ha, meaning summer, is a

Chinese surname. Kok, meaning honest, sincere or guileless,

was the name of Chung Kok, marquis of To Yeung, who in

A.D. 446 as commander-in -chief conquered a kingdom in what

is now Indo-China from which bandits had continually dis

turbed Chinese territory. It is a rarely -used character, and, as

Grandfather Chung said, it at once reminds any educated Chinese

of the answer the young marquis made to his uncle when he was

asked what his ambition in life was. ' I hope' , he said, “that one

day I'll take advantage of a settled and favourable wind to ride

through thousands of miles of the ocean's waves. ' What better

name for a British Admiral ?

My own was sheer flattery: Ng Ka Lam. Ng, meaning five, is

a Cantonese surname. In North China it becomes Wu (slightly

102

A HAPPY FAMILY

sinister, thanks to Matheson Lang) . Ka means to praise and

benefit, Lam means a forest or a great number of men. Joined

together, Ka Lam means ' benefactor of the literary world ' !

Mr. Chung's family has been in Hong Kong for 80 years,

coming from Macao, where four generations ago they became

Catholics. They were not a well-to-do family and Mr. Chung,

being a devoted and honest Government servant, is not rich

either. He was not able to have an expensive education and

has acquired a very considerable erudition by self -education

and sheer hard work.

It was pleasant to watch the grandfatherly Mr. Chung, no

less important, but more serene and benign, at home in the role

of paterfamilias. We had a happy evening there with him and

his family. Mrs. Chung, charming, modern and slim, has much

too young an air to be the mother offive sons and two daughters,

four of whom are grown up and two engaged. In all circles in

Hong Kong, except the very poorest, you find amahs, and

although the mistress of the house might be able to cook, she

rarely did so, and the twice-daily marketing was done by an

amah . Mrs. Chung as a devout Catholic went to early mass

every morning, returning to see three of her sons off to school

and to breakfast with Mr. Chung before he went to the office.

As there was an amah to do the shopping and most of the house

work, Mrs. Chung said she spent much of her day sewing or

visiting and receiving friends. Of course there is more to be done

when all the family — including the fiancés — are there for an

evening meal, as on this occasion, and Mrs. Chung herself had

made a special dish, oysters and seaweed. She and her daughters

and an amah prepared the table while the sons sat reading news

papers or listening not over-enthusiastically to their father ex

pounding to us on funeral customs. There was a distant sound

of a gramophone, or perhaps wireless, from the flat below, and

the noise of trams and cars in Hennessy Road could be heard

through the open windows. It might have been any flat in any

town and there was no more feeling of strangeness than there

would be in aa first visit to the home of an office friend.

We had no closer associate in Hong Kong than Mr. Chan,

whom Government had appointed to assist me in my re

searches. He had something of the seriousness of Mr. Chung and

yet there was always a lurking look of amusement behind his

103

LIFE IN THE CITIES

large horn -rimmed spectacles. His constant endeavour was to

find something strange and new for us to see. He frequently

gave up his evenings, and Saturday or Sunday afternoons, to

take us round, but one thing he could never do was to forgo

his attendance at the Rhenish Mission Church on Sunday

mornings. His whole family belonged to this church, which,

with its activities such as bazaars and social gatherings, played

a very important part in their lives.

I have said already that it is not a custom for Chinese to

entertain in their own homes. One felt, therefore, very moved by

the generosity of a family which invited strangers into their

homes, often on the report ofthe one member of the family who

knew them . In many of these homes, usually in flats, accom

modation is limited and one room does, as indeed it often does

in a small London flat, for dining- and sitting -room . So it was

with gratitude for the opening ofanother front door that we went

with Mr. Chan to his parents' home in Kowloon. This con

sisted of a large living-room with a verandah, two bedrooms,

and a servants' bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom without

modern sanitation .

Mr. Chan's father was a doctor. He and his wife came to

Hong Kong two years ago. It appears to be usual in Chinese

families for the sons to bear the same first name and daughters

to share a common one also. In this family all the sons are Yik,

which means Wing and symbolizes protection by God, like

chickens under a wing, and the daughters are all Shuk, which

means Gentleness. The eldest of the family is Chan Yik Ping

( Protected Calm) , who, like his father, is a doctor, but he is also

a much travelled person and something of a polyglot, for he has

a Spanish diploma, knows French well, is fluent in English, and

has some knowledge of German. No. 2 is our Mr. Chan or

Chan Yik Hi ( Protected Hope) . Married, with three small

daughters, he is very interested in farming and was in fact pro

posing to go in for it seriously in his retirement and already owns

land in the New Territories.

No. 3 , Chan Yik King (ProtectedRighteousness) , has been 15

years in Penang as an Inspector of Schools and there we met

him on our way home. It was interesting to see his objectivity

as an expatriate Government servant. It brought home to me

that it is not the exclusive prerogative of one's fellow British

104

THE CHAN FAMILY

officials in the Colonial Service. Chan Yik King discussed Euro

peans, Chinese, Indians and Malays and their outlooks with equal

impartiality and good sense. A Chinese in Singapore had said to

me ‘ We Chinese who live here maybeexpected to become citizens

of Malaya, but we shall still be Chinese not only in race but in sen

timent. Mr. Chan on the other hand was sure that many Chinese

had become good citizens of Malaya to the exclusion of China.

The fourth son had died young. Then came No. 5, the eldest

daughter, Chan Shuk Yi (Gentle Virtue), who is married to a

pharmacist in Canton . Chan Yik Kin ( Protected Perseverance)

is the sixth child and he is a clergyman in Kowloon . No. 7 is

another daughter, Chan Shuk Man (Gentle Alertness ), who is

married to a school teacher in Hainan . No. 8 is the youngest

son , Chan Yik On ( Protected Peace) , who is also a doctor. He

was then in London, having also been for some time in Vienna

and in Switzerland . Quiet and unobtrusive like many of the

family, he too came down to stay with us when we returned

home. One felt he had had rather a dull week -end, though he

was perfectly happy exploring Dover and other Kentish coast

towns. He wrote a charming letter in which he said the week

end had made him very homesick as it was his first taste ofhome

life since leaving Hong Kong.

The last three members of the family are Chan Shuk Shan

(Gentle Carefulness), who is clerk to a clergyman, Chan Shuk

Chi (Gentle Wisdom) , who lives at home, and Chan Shuk Tsz

(Gentle Mercy) , who is a doctor and whose husband, Dr.

Hwang, teaches bacteriology in the University.

Although by no means all the members of the family were

there that night, the room seemed full of Chans, old, middle

aged, young, and children , and when the table was laid we all

sat round while Mr. Chan senior bowed his head and said a

long grace in Chinese. It was to be a family dinner but the food

seemed elaborate enough for a party. The shark's fins were

cooked in an unusual way , there were oysters in batter, fried

fish with egg sauce, white boiled rice and fried rice, pork and

vegetables. Mrs. Chan senior sat silently smiling, for she knew no

English, but she kept an observant eye on the young amah who

brought in the food . Altogether it was a very homely evening,

memorable for the sense ofkindly friendship offered to strangers

by this Christian family.

105

LIFE IN THE CITIES

Among the rush-hour crowds in Hong Kong you cannot fail

to be struck by the number of ' business girls ' . Girls, every one

with short, black, permed hair, and most of them with long slit

up-the-sides Chinese dresses, hurrying along to office or shop.

Recent as the business girl is in England, she is not so new as in

China, for in the former there are many mothers, and grand

mothers, who were business girls, but in Hong Kong, although

there are many modern mothers, there are still a great number

who by their dress and appearance show that they belong to

another system of life. It is impossible to see these well-dressed,

assured and composed young women without speculating about

their background .

Rosa Hui , an office worker, was one of them. She loved her

job and she loved dancing, the cinema and mahjong. Rosa,

indeed, was a happy pagan, gay and kindly and bright, and

very devoted to her widowed mother with whom she lived.

They have aa small flat to which they cling because it has a pre

war rental, although it's very small and not in a good neigh

bourhood ' , said Rosa, so she invited us one night to dinner in her

family shop. Chinese are much ruled by ‘ face ’: they would lose

face if they asked you to dinner in crowded and uncomfortable

surroundings and if they did not give you at least a rather better

meal than they would ordinarily have. Rosa, and I am glad to

say most of our friends, treated us really as friends or as “ one of

the family' and often gave us just what they would have them

selves, or at any rate explained what was a special dish. But this

was not added for ' face ' reasons but just to make it a bit more

of a party all round . Rosa's father had kept an electrical and

radio shop and now that he is dead two of her brothers run it,

while a third brother is, like herself, in Government service as a

revenue inspector. Rosa gets about £22 a month and she and

her mother live on that and what they get from the earnings of

the shop. They could get considerable key money for the flat,

but then they would have nowhere to go. Rosa and her mother

have a maid , which is almost essential, as Rosa goes to work.

Mother is of the old -fashioned kind, simple in her habits and

serene in her outlook, but like most Chinese mothers of today

she manages not to be too perturbed at a young daughter with

modern ideas and independent outlook. I was really surprised

at the number of Mammas I met who have managed apparently

106

DINNER IN A SHOP

to accommodate themselves to the ways of the young. I

suspect that they did not always approve, but at least , with

out changing their own ways, they resigned themselves and

were there to help if the young needed them.

When we arrived among all the electric irons, globes, lamp

shades and radios in the little shop in a busy side-street, Rosa

was already at it and most of the dinner already cooked . ' I

shouldn't come to the kitchen, ' she called out, ‘ you'll find it

pretty grubby. ' But there was nothing much the matter with it,

though it was simple and all she had was a stove of the kind you

find all over Africa and the East, earthen partitions in which

you use wood or charcoal. There was a tap, but no sink, and

the floor was cement, and there was one table to work on or put

the dishes on. But it was quite enough for the back kitchen of

a shop that was not constantly in use. Rosa was frying onions .

‘ You must do each ingredient separately if you want the whole

dish to taste nice. ' After the onions, in went the beans, then the

eggs .

While Rosa finished off her cooking I sat on a sofa with Mrs.

Allinson, who works in the Labour Office, one of the finest and

most likeable characters in Hong Kong, talking to her and

Rosa's brothers and drinking gin and orange. It was raining

slightly outside and it was fun watching the passers-by up and

down the street and what was going on in a trunk shop oppo

site. Another guest was Mr. Lee, an Australian Chinese in

the theatrical business. We learnt much of great interest from

him that night on matters theatrical , for he knew the business

not only from a Chinese but from a European and an American

angle .

Presently the brothers Hui put up the shutters and — hey

presto !—the shop was a brilliantly lit dining-room with the

ceiling fan whirling merrily over our heads and keeping us

really cool on a hot, stuffy night. And what a dinner Rosa had

prepared ! She was an excellent and lively hostess ; Mr. Lee

reminisced in lively fashion and aa strong Australian accent, and

Mamma, though she did not talk, obviously enjoyed the party.

On the whole, middle-class family dinners of this kind re

vealed much the same sort of characters in a family. The older

mothers were generally smiling, happy and kind. Usually they

spoke little or no English and probably for this reason were

107

LIFE IN THE CITIES

largely silent. They had no fripperies: their straight hair was

drawn back from the face and confined in a neat bun . They

wore the usual pyjamas, generally a blue coat and black silk

trousers or a plain black dress. The more modern mothers of

boys and girls rising 20 had their perms and wore dresses like

their daughters. Often they spoke a utilizable amount of

English .

Another girl of this class but of quite a different temperament

was one of Rosa's colleagues, Nancy Chen. Nancy was born in

Hong Kong and her father was a private auditor. She was

educated at a London Missionary Society school for 12 years,

five years in Chinese with aa little English, and for the rest of the

time in English with a little Chinese. She matriculated and

when war broke out she was already working, but when the

Japanese occupied Hong Kong she got away to Free China,

where for a time she earned her living by teaching. But not

caring much for the work she wrote to the British Embassy in

Chungking and applied for work there. She found employment

with them until the end of the war, and with their help she got

her parents out of Hong Kong. ' It was there in Chungking

also' , she said, ' that I saw the Truth and became a Seventh

Day Adventist. ' She is the only Christian in the family. Like

her sisters, who are now indifferent to religion , she said, she

grew up learning to ' mutter prayers for riches, health, pros

perity, and so on at the household shrines'. Her mother, now

aged 55, prays to‘any god who will help her ’, but prays only at

home and never in the temples. Her father, aged 80, has burnt

all his gods because he felt none of the family would worship

them after he had gone'.

Now Nancy goes to Happy Valley Seventh Day Church,

keeping the Sabbath from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, and

working at the office on Sundays. She does not eat pork — which

must be difficult in a Chinese household - or shellfish, nor go

to cinemas, nor does she play mahjong, but after her day's work

she goes home to knit, or sew, or read the Bible. Her pay is the

same as Rosa's and she gives £6 to her mother for her keep and

£3 towards the wages of the two amahs—a cook and a wash

amah—so there is not much left for clothes, fares, medical fees

and so on, and it is not surprising that she said she could save

very little .

108

WORKING GIRLS

These unmarried working girls in Hong Kong appeared

content and happy to live at home with the family, contributing

to the expenses from their salaries. The question of accommoda

tion for those girls whose families did not live in Hong Kong

was another matter and many such found aa home in Y.W.C.A.

hostels and the like. Midday meals were another problem , for

in Hong Kong young women do not go into every type of public

restaurant without an escort. Some solved it by going home or

bringing food with them , others by forming a pool and ordering

it from nearby cafés or by lunching in one or other of the

women's clubs, and some by going to those cafés which were

considered ' all right . Many shop employees, both girls and

men, get their meals provided by the employers, though this is

not the case in European firms, but then their salaries are

higher.

Some days after that dinner with Rosa in the shop , she rang

up to say that she understood from Mr. Lee that one or other of

us had said we wanted to meet some old - fashioned Chinese

ladies' and would we get in touch with his sister, Mrs. Chow,

at the Hong Kong Chinese Women's Club ? Neither of us had

any recollection of saying anything of the sort, but we made a

date with Mrs. Chow by telephone and then went to see her. I

presumed that old -fashioned Chinese ladies might not like any

thing male in their club, so I stayed outside. I was of course

fetched in and I certainly need not have worried.

Sitting round a heavily laden tea-table I was introduced by

Mrs. Chow to Mrs. Yee, Mrs. Li and Mrs. Chan. There seemed

to be nothing at all old -fashioned about these ladies. All spoke

fluent English and all wore the latest fashion in dress, hair-do's

and nail varnish. Their conversation proved no more old

fashioned than their appearance, and nothing could have

amused them more than being told what we had been expecting.

The club had been founded eleven years ago, beginning as a

relief organization for refugees from China. It is linked with the

Y.W.C.A. (which has for long played an important part in

Hong Kong community life), and Mrs. Li, who is one of the

club's permanent directors, was in 1950 also Chairman of the

Hong Kong Council of Women, affiliated to the U.K. National

Council of Women . The Council has sub-committees studying

legislature, public health, social welfare, education, housing and

109

LIFE IN THE CITIES

so on, and they make reports and proposals to Government. It

takes particular interest in the law as it affects women ; for

instance, there was a different scale of maintenance for legiti

mate and illegitimate children and the Council voiced its pro

test to the Attorney-General. ‘At once' , said Mrs. Chan, who is

also very keen on the work of the Council, ' we had a reply say

ing the matter would be looked into, and a few weeks later we

were told “ it is going to be altered ” .'

Mrs. Chan has been doing her best to have the law altered

also in respect of concubines, so that Hong Kong law should

correspond to the law in China which was changed in 1925. At

present Hong Kong law in this respect is still based on the old

Chinese law whereby a man leaves his estate to sons only,

whether from the wife or concubine, and daughters of the wife

get no more than a dowry. The campaign for the rights of

women induced Government to set up an investigating com

mittee. At a meeting of the Council of Women held in 1948

Mrs. Chan had moved this resolution :

That the Government revise the Ordinances pertaining to the laws of

marriage, divorce and inheritance according to Chinese custom , and

bring these into line with the laws of China as laid down in the Code of

1925, and further to appoint a woman to sit in consultative capacity on

any Committee should such be formed to consider the revision of these

Ordinances .

Mrs. Chan protested that although China had changed the

old laws of the Tsing dynasty, Hong Kong had not followed

suit. Under the Civil Code of the Republic of China, 1925, concu

bines are neither permitted nor recognized. Hong Kong pro

vides for divorces for those married in registry or church but not

for those married according to Chinese laws . The Civil Code of

China distributes inheritance between male and female, but

Hong Kong, as already said, maintains the old law whereby

estate goes to the sons only.

The campaign did not go unnoticed by the Press and the

China Mail bore a headline ‘ Don't get us wrong about concu

bines ', explaining underneath that this had been asid by a

member of the Hong Kong Chinese Women's Club ( Mrs.

Chan) when she was explaining that the points proposed were

no more than points of reference. A wrong impression ' , went on

the China Mail, ‘ had been created among the public that Hong

ΙΙΟ

THE ' OLD - FASHIONED ' LADIES

Kong Chinese women had laid down specified rules under

which their husbands might take in concubines.'

As this story developed I was soon helpless with laughter,

induced at the outset by the old - fashioned nature of the con

versation. Mrs. Chan, generally known, as I learnt, as Auntie

Vi, was enchanted when I dubbed her the ‘ Mrs. Pankhurst of

Hong Kong’ . Mrs. Chow, whom I discovered was the daughter

in-law of Sir Shouson Chow, one of Hong Kong's famous grand

old men, gave me a list of the committee pointing out who they

all were. She was to be known as Rose. Grey-haired Mrs. Yee

was a grandmother—but I never met a more lively one-and

Mrs. Ellen Li was the wife of Dr. Li Shu Pui ( M.B. , B.S. , F.R.C.S.

Edin., director of the Hong Kong Sanatorium hospital and all

the rest) . They none of them spared my blushes.

Mrs. Li brought fuel to the flames of the women's rights

campaign. ' It's all nonsense, this talk of men having to take

concubines because their wives are infertile', she said. “ I was

reading my husband's B.M.J. the other day and there was an

article showing that in the majority of cases it is the men who

are infertile. Most surprisingly it was written by a man .'

I'll bet he never thought you would read it' , said Auntie Vi .

' I'm surprised your husband didn't hide it . It's the men who

say the women ought to go and be examined .'

' It's the men who ought to be examined' , said Mrs. Li.

' Men ! ' said Mrs. Yee. ' Can't you see them doing it ! '

Roars of laughter at the very idea. I felt very defenceless as

the solitary male at such a party. They were extraordinarily

kind and it was sad that as our stay was nearing its end we could

not learn more about the old - fashioned ladies of Hong Kong by

accepting the invitations they showered on us. But we did

manage to get to tea with Mrs. Chan in her lovely house suffi

ciently far up the Peak to be out of the din but not too far to be

out of the world .

She keeps open house and is interested in fostering young

artists, and it was there that we met Mrs. Averil Tong, a well

known amateur actress. The stage is still in China considered

the life of the rogue and vagabond, so Mrs. Tong's public per

formances are something of a novelty. It was delightful to watch

her give two beautifully expressive mimes and dances in Mrs.

Chan's drawing -room , accompanied by Mr. Tsu, who is a

III

LIFE IN THE CITIES

magnificent soloist on the two -stringed A.Wu, a primitive

looking instrument which is held between the knees and played

with a bow. He also produced soft melodies from a pipe, but

best of all was his rendering of a traditional melody, the Down

fall of General Tsu, on the Pi Pa, a four -stringed instrument for

which he keeps the nails of his right hand very long in order to

pluck the strings more deftly.

I never enjoyed the results of a ‘ leg -pull’more than I did those

of Mr. Lee.

CHAPTER TEN

Life in the Clouds

AMONGST THE MORE fascinating forms ofliterature for unplanned

wet Sunday afternoons are the illustrated books of the era just

before or just at the beginning of our own personal appearance

on this planet. Hong Kong is well provided for in this category,

for an enormous compendium called Twentieth Century Impressions

of Hong Kong, Shanghai and other Treaty Ports of China, published

in 1908, contains a wealth of portraiture of the moustachioed

faces of the types of men who consolidated our position over

seas, and the solid edifices they constructed. The book is rich in

what is now reminiscent of a past age and much is of course out

of date, but there are still passagesin the article on Social Life

which could be written today. It appears, however, that at that

date the Chinese did not socially exist. They therefore had no

Social Life, for beyond the expression 'Apart from the

Chinese ... ' they are not once referred to. The article starts

by dissipating an idea said to be prevalent in England that

social distinctions are non -existent in the Colonies, and that in

the presence of the stern realities of life all sorts and conditions

of men are united in a common brotherhood, and stating that

in a little community of 10 or 12 thousand

are produced all the characteristics of suburban life in England, intensi

fied by peculiar local circumstances. As is, perhaps, only natural, each of

the principal nationalities represented — British, German , Portuguese,

Indian, and Japanese - resolved itself into a separate and distinct unit,

I I2

SOCIAL LIFE

while Eurasians here, as elsewhere, hold a precarious position somewhere

between the foreign and the native elements. The British community is

divided into two main classes - official and mercantile — but these are

capable of infinitemultiplication. After all the more familiar methods of

social distinction have been exhausted, and officers of the Army and

Navy, civil servants, professional men, merchants, and large retailers,

have grouped themselves into separate constellations, other and more

ingenious devices are introduced to satisfy the desire for exclusiveness.

Thus a man's exact position in the social scale is not infrequently deter

mined by the altitude of his house. Generally speaking, it may be said

that the higher he climbs up the side of the Peak the rarer becomes the

social atmosphere which he breathes, and, as a consequence , between

those who reside at the summit and those who live in the peninsula of

Kowloon there is as wide a gulf as that which divided Dives and Lazarus.

A club which welcomes with open arms a mercantile clerk - or rather

' assistant', as he becomes upon landing in Hong Kong - closes its doors

resolutely against the head of a departmental store, and hence the exis

tence of the Peak , Hong Kong, and St. George's Clubs.

For all this, the article goes on, ' life may be passed very

pleasantly in Hong Kong ', and it gives a long list of the various

diversions of Social Life, both for ' those who move in " the

upper circles ” and by those whose souls are untroubled by

social aspirations'. (The Chinese, of course, do not come into

either of these categories.)

For the rest, people are thrown upon their own resources. The pre

vailing character of the European residences is such as to allow of no

excuse for inhospitality. The houses are commodious, and, although

perched on the hillside, are almost invariably surrounded by gardens.

Many of them also possess tennis courts. The difficulty of getting from one

place to another, however, tends to restrict social intercourse. The gra

dients make carriages impossible - even the Governor is carried about in

a chair by eight scarlet-clad coolies — and in these circumstances a call

often partakes of the nature of an expedition .

Since those days the motor- car has done much to widen the

possibilities of social intercourse, but the Period of the Peak has

not yet entirely passed .

We often laugh at people who live ' in the clouds ' or Cloud

Cuckoo-Land. On the other hand , Olympus was also cloud

bound. Perhaps thoughts of both categories of cloud dwellers

may be legitimate in the case of some of those who inhabit the

cloud-bound upper regions of the Peak at Hong Kong. The war

has changed much of the snobbery of altitude and geographical

location, and people of all sorts and conditions now think

113

LIFE IN THE CLOUDS

themselves extremely lucky to get a house or a flat to themselves

anywhere. Also, as one of the Older Brigade put it, ‘ Chinese are

now actually allowed to live on the Peak’, though few have taken

advantage of this privilege '.

You may still be in the upper levels of Taipanery or even

Government if you live on the Peak, and unless you are ex

tremely energetic in your ascents and descents it must be very

easy to lose touch with the rest of humanity from that height,

but those who do live there seem to count the world well lost

for a temperature at least four degrees cooler than down below,

and cheerfully pay large electricity and fuel bills to keep their

clothes and shoes from growing whiskers and themselves warm ,

all of which they could achieve for nothing lower down. Still

there is undoubtedly a noticeable and invigorating freshness up

in the clouds when down below there is only wilting heat.

It is a very different world up there. Here are no crowded

streets, but mountain roads on a damp green hillside which you

think may be uninhabited till a drifting bank of mist passes by

and reveals very European-looking houses perched on pinnacles.

The Peak is often liable to be more or less cloud-bound for eight

months of the year and you can crawl your way to a friend's

house in impenetrable fog to find when you leave it the most

glorious views over bays and island -studded seas.

In some ways post-war conditions have brought the Euro

pean community closer together, but in other respects Hong

Kong is still very much a place of racial divisions and social

cliques. That the Services in Hong Kong tend to be self

sufficient is perhaps not surprising, but even so it was rather

revealing to have a letter from a Senior Naval Officer after a

dinner party of ' mixed circles ' in which he wrote, ' It is very

refreshing to move into a different world and hear of things

which, even close at hand, we have known nothing of'.

It is probably largely for economic reasons that there is in

complete contact between those who are employed in the big

firms and Government officials, though one senior Government

official remarked to me that while in a West African capital one

might ask in aa club who the owner of a strange face was and be

told ‘Oh, he's in a Bank or something ', in Hong Kong the

answer would be more likely to be ' Oh, he's something in

Government, I believe' . There is, he said, an aristocracy of

114

AT GOVERNMENT HOUSE

business men rather than the more familiar one of the

bureaucrats .

In Government circles, at any rate, there is considerably

more reliance on a domestic existence than in many colonies,

and an occasional visit to such an atmosphere was a welcome

refreshment to aa visitor. But there was always a feeling of being

out of the world . Sometimes, sitting round a fire talking of old

times with old friends, while children in dressing-gowns did

their “ prep ’, it was merely a feeling of being in England, and it

seemed strange that it only required half an hour's journey

down the mountainside, with the lights of the city opening up

like fairyland, to get back to Hong Kong. At other times, as one

talked of Hong Kong's problems on a sunny day with the mist

swirling round the Peak, one had a sensation of having mounted

Olympus to discuss the problems of the troubled earth with the

gods.

Jove himself, the ruler of Hong Kong, lived at a lower level

in the sunshine just above the great city and at no distance from

it. Government House had been rebuilt by the Japanese and

they seemed to have done it well enough except for aa meaning

less ugly tower. Sir Alexander Grantham was a charming, easy

host with a pleasant natural manner which made one feel

quickly at home with him . The house had a greater air of

magnificence than many a Government House, but it was there

alone in Hong Kong that one had any real sense of being in a

colony. The pattern of Government House dinners is the same

all over the world . The Governor was, however, blessed with a

most efficient A.D.C. , who after dinner appeared to walk up

and down the hall with a stop -watch. At precisely five-minute

intervals there was a general post. It mattered not at what point

in a sentence of a conversation, one was reft away. I had a sensa

tion of having been torn from Lady Grantham just as she was

going to disclose what European garden flowers do best in

Hong Kong and was immediately substituted for a man who

was listening to another lady. In fact she still had her mouth

framed into an ' O ' when she saw her partner had changed. It

was too much for both of us and we were convulsed with

laughter. We discussed the possibility of a new round game like

consequences. She would go on talking about the races and I

would discuss gardening. She was a delightful Dutch woman ,

115

LIFE IN THE CLOUDS

whom I had found at dinner most amusing on the ways of

British officialdom . My other neighbour was the wife of the

Colonel of the K.S.L.I. and he was my vis - à-vis, so Shropshire

took up a lot of our conversation . Hong Kong and its other

kinds of homes seemed particularly far away that evening.

Economic reasons also cause a gulf between the quite senior

business world and the world of the Taipan. The Taipans are

for the most part No. I's in business firms. It is a name not

lightly to be conjured with , and I have heard the wife of a

senior member of a firm say scathingly ' He is not a Taipan ’

when aa friend used the name in referring to another member of

the firm . There is, too, something of the grandeur, the aristo

cratic manner, and benevolent entertaining of the lord of the

manor expected of them, and again I have heard one who did

not come up to standard described as ' a Taipan by name but

not by nature'.

However unfortunate they are, cliques are common in many

colonies and, human nature being what it is, they can probably

never be entirely ironed out. If we allow that, we can under

stand the more easily the far more important lack of contact

between the races. There are obviously more contacts of this

kind in Hong Kong than there are in many other colonies,

because facility of contact depends first of all on comparability

of civilization ' and the Chinese are the most civilized ( from a

European standard) of any race inhabiting colonial territories.

Another thing that makes for ease of contact is the number of

Chinese who are westernized .

Of the factors which work against increasing contact, diffi

culty of language is perhaps the greatest. There is, of course,

prejudice. There always is in a mixed racial community, but it

has also to be remembered that the Chinese standard of enter

tainment, due partly to the unfortunate importance of ' face ',

and perhaps even more to the fact that every Chinese is an in

nate gourmet and spends most of his money on expensive food,

is very high. Many Europeans are entertained by wealthy

Chinese but tend to avoid much of this because they cannot

compete with it. As the wealthy Chinese are generally those who

can most assimilate themselves to Western ways, intercourse

with them is easier to the ordinary type of insular Englishman

who takes no particular pleasure in things that are different.

116

PLATE XIII

-b

wide

women

and

mud en

through

buffaloes

patient

the

‘Mrrimmed

,ohats

shining

across

move

the

- ogged

water

'(p.surface

5l)fields

上早垂接引图樂若彼宜求

元陰古亂如斯随費忙

Abbot with monks and nuns at a New Territories monastery.

Dinner at the monastery. Meals are all vegetarian

PLATE XIV

444999

i The garden of Aw Boon Haw , the Tiger Balm king, where concrete

‘ animals, monsters, and fairies abound' ( p. 52 )

Eucliffe at Repulse Bay, ‘ one of the most famous extravaganzas in

Hong Kong - medieval castle complete with armour' (p. 52)

PLATE XV

张

At Man Kam To ' a bridge painted in the lucky vermilion joined

British Territory to Chinese Territory' ( p.287)

東興壇承批功德

Main Street, Sha Tau Kok. The Bamboo Curtain , invisible, but

very much there, runs down the middle of the road ' ( p. 64)

PLATE XVI

LACK OF CONTACT

At the levels at which intercourse would be economically

more possible and reciprocal, there are other difficulties on

both sides which have to be overcome. Firstly, most middle

class Chinese are overcrowded. They have, as we have seen,

large families in small flats and they are conscious that their

home surroundings are less comfortable than those of Euro

peans of similar means. Being afflicted by ' face 'they are shy of

inviting strangers to their homes. On the other hand they are,

although the father of the family may speak perfect English and

be entirely ' western ' in his office, probably very Chinese at

home, and here the insularity of the English family holds them

back.

It is, I think, at this level that one would like to see difficulties

overcome, for both sides are missing such a lot. Contacts like

this bring something very rich in intimacy and friendship with

them. Though we were only two months in Hong Kong, there

are people there whom I should be desperately sorry not to

meet again.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The Arts

THE GREAT DIFFERENCE between the Chinese theatre and the

Western theatre seems to me to spring from the Chinese sense

of realism. Life as it is lived must be treated in an absolutely

realistic way. The Chinese requires diversion from it, just as the

Westerner does, but his diversion must be utterly unrealistic . A

play with us, even a play which is a fairy -tale, is presented as

actual happening. With the Chinese play everything possible is

done to ensure that you do not forget for aa moment that you are

watching something fantastic. “ The Chinese must see something

unreal and traditional' , Mr. Chan impressed upon us.

Although most of the audience are in their seats before the

curtain goes up, they are there not from any sense of necessity

for seeing the play all the way through, but as part of the way of

spending an evening in diversion. There is aa lot of coming and

going throughout the performance, the price of seats is reduced

117

THE ARTS

at half-time, and children come in free. You bring food , or you

buy it (very good) from continually circulating attendants, you

chew melon seeds and scatter the refuse cheerfully, you talk in

loud tones, you take as much or as little notice as you like of

what is going on on the stage. The children stand about in the

aisles or sit on laps impassively gazing at the stage as though

mesmerized by the colour, light and noise.

Indeed, it is easy to become mesmerized by the noise of the

clashing cymbals and gongs. They punctuate every entrance

and exit and almost every utterance of the actors. Strangest of

all to Western eyes is the sight of the shirt-sleeved, perspiring

orchestra sitting to one side of the stage, smoking and talking

among themselves. And the stage hands, too, who wander in

singlets and trousers on and off the stage during the scenes,

bringing on a ' prop ' , or carefully arranging the heroine's dress

when she sits down, or quietly placing a cushion on the stage

just where, a moment or two later, she must fall on her

knees .

The actors and actresses wear the gorgeous robes of ancient

China, and the modernly dressed orchestra and the stage hands

increase the air of unreality. The audience are never led to

believe that the actor is not acting, nor do they lose themselves

in the story : their interest is maintained by the skill of the actor

in acting, and they like their well-known actors to conform to

conventional rules of acting. Amongst the actors and actresses

we met was the celebrated Mr. Ma Si-Tsang, one of the most

famous stars of the Cantonese school. He had introduced aa kind

of tremolo into his voice at certain passages, but as this was not

traditional there was considerable criticism of it.

The costumes have to be conventional also, and you know

whether a man is a soldier or scholar, rich or poor, by the type

of costume he is wearing. Rich young women , good or bad ,

dress in gloriously sequined jackets and long skirts, the hand

maid wears silk and sequined pyjamas, and the poor woman a

plain blue blouse and black trousers .

Behind the scenes there are no dressing -rooms. The space

back-stage is curtained off so that the leading actors and ac

tresses may have separate cubicles, while the supers and small

parts make up in very cramped and crowded conditions. The

wonderful clothes and headdresses are hung on wires that run

118

THE CHINESE THEATRE

from one end of the dressing space to the other. The stars have

their own dressers and they provide their own costumes. Small

part players may be lent their clothes, or they can be hired for

£25 a night. One ofthe signs ofincreasing stardom is the number

of costumes an actor or actress possesses, and leading stars may

own a theatrical wardrobe worth thousands of dollars.

Miss Hung Sin Nui, one of Hong Kong's leading actresses,

had aa wonderful array of dresses. She began her stage career at

the age of 15, starting as a super, and learning by imitation, for

there are no dramatic schools . Sometimes, of course , there is a

family tradition of acting, and the father of Miss Pak Shit Sin,

another leading lady, was a well-known actor. Miss Pak, who is

19, was having her hair dressed when we went behind the

scenes. It is a most intricate and lengthy proceeding, and

throughout the play, no matter what the scene may be, the

elaborate coiffure of the actresses remains the same. In one

scene Miss Pak had to undress and get into bed, but her hair

remained perfectly dressed for a ball.

We also met Miss Yam Kim Fai, an attractive young woman

who always plays the part of a young man. This is strange con

sidering that until very recently girls' parts were taken by boys.

Miss Yam's dresser was helping her to wind a long white stock

round and round her neck , part of the conventional costume

for a man. The Chinese make-up looks peculiar to Western eyes.

Over a pale ochre foundation, white is painted all over the fore

head and down the centre of the nose. Red is used on either side

of the nose, all round the eyes, worked in down to just below the

cheekbones and up to the hair on each side of the forehead . Eyes

are extended and a slant upwards well pronounced by drawing

a thick black line. Lips are reddened . There are conventions in

make-up also. A villain must have a red mark on his forehead,

or a straight red line drawn down between the eyes shows the

wearer is sick. Miss Hung nearly missed her cue when talking

to us. The call-boy came round calling out the Chinese equiva

lent of ' Overture and Beginners, please ', and Miss Hung left to

make her entrance, but she had to dash back, for she had for

gotten to draw the red line between her eyes. Meanwhile the

orchestra continued clashing cymbals to herald her entrance

until she at last appeared, unruffled, perfectly poised, and with a

chiffon handkerchief delicately held in her left hand.

119

THE ARTS

A Chinese theatrical company usually numbers about a

hundred, which includes orchestra and stage hands. The

manager selects the actors and actresses. There are no agents,

but there are associations to which a manager can apply. The

cost of maintaining such a company is about £500 a night. The

leading actor gets £90 or even £ 125. The orchestra gets £6 to

£9 a night. Generally the actors and actresses play the same

type of part and in a company there may be 20 playing young

women, 10 old men, five comedians, and so on. Supers, minor

actors and stage hands may be paid daily, weekly or monthly,

while the ' stars ' have shares in the profits. Thirty per cent of the

takings go to the manager of the theatre, and 70 per cent to the

company.

The stories of the plays are often historical and based on

classics, but sometimes there are modern plays dressed in the

costumes of the past. One such we saw was by Lei Ng O who

lives in Hong Kong. The setting of the play was in Hong Kong

and opened in a rice merchant's godown to which a Govern

ment official had come to inspect whether he was hoarding. The

hero, played by Miss Yam Kim Fai, was a young man who had

wasted a fortune. ' He ' wore a simple black gown with a patch

of blue and another of white pinned to the front to indicate that

he was in rags. The merchant, his beautiful daughter, and the

official wore brilliant and gorgeous robes. The boy and girl fell

in love and had a number ofadventures, but finally the merchant

decided to marry his daughter to a rich neighbour's son. There

was a great clashing ofcymbals and striking of gongs and raised

voices when all got together to argue out the matter, but the

unwilling bride stood aloof, supported by her amah. For the

moment she was taking no part, so in the usual Chinese way of

acting she appeared to take no interest in what was going on

around her, but turning her head to one side spat on the boards.

While the attendant amah carefully trod the spit into the floor

so that no one should slip up, the heroine, hearing her cue,

burst into life and joined the general hullaballoo. The curtain

fell, and the first part of the play was over after four hours. It

was to be continued the following week.

A Chinese film also usually takes one into the world of fantasy.

At a Wanchai cinema we spent two hours fascinated by a film

that had begun some time before we arrived. The story was

120

THE CINEMA INDUSTRY

confusing with an irate king, his two wives, and an unwanted

baby. There were numerous fights, stabbings and stranglings.

At one moment a fairy appeared to help the distressed heroine,

at another the gods intervened during one of the fiercest battles.

The climax came when after a terrific chase over boulder

strewn hills the hero with the unwanted baby in his arms fell

over a precipice. At this point Chinese characters appeared on

the screen, the lights went on, and everyone began to leave.

You would have to come again next week to see the end of the

story .

The cinema was packed with an enthusiastic audience who

cheered every success of the hero and jeered the villains. The

excitement was reminiscent of the response given to the old type

of Wild West film.

Hong Kong has its own film studios. The Cantonese Film

Company was first in the field and set up a studio some 20 years

ago. There are now three film-producing companies and we

visited the Yung Hwa or Perennially Brilliant Studio. This has

been equipped from America and one of the senior members of

the staff had been in Hollywood studying with 20th Century

Fox .

Most of the ' stars ' come from Peking or Shanghai , as they

must speak Mandarin because the films produced in this studio

are in that dialect. ' Modern films', said the manager, ' are gain

ing in popularity and audiences like plenty of action. The

Cantonese school of acting is old -fashioned compared with

Shanghai, which has developed a technique more akin to the

West . '

Hong Kong's cinema industry works under considerable

difficulties today owing to the variations in ideological climate.

It can hardly produce out-and - out Communist films in Hong

Kong, and historical films are being banned in some places in

China if the history does not conform with present-day ideas.

Another difficulty is that censorship varies in its outlook from

town to town. Films which will be acceptable in Hong Kong

may have a very limited market in China today, but aa company

cannot live on the Hong Kong market.

Hong Kong likes Chinese and American films best. The

cinemas showing Chinese films are always crowded and

American films of the more extravagant kind are very popular.

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THE ARTS

There is something flamboyant in the outlook of the Wes

ternized money -making Chinese to which the American way of

life makes a strong appeal. British films are not popular, being

considered generally far too slow , but Hamlet was an exception

which went down well.

The Yung Hwa was making a great effort to produce purely

Chinese plays which could yet have an appeal in the West, and

we were shown two reels of Sorrows of the Forbidden City which I

thought really beautiful and moving. It was a tale of the

Empress Dowager and they had gone to a lot of trouble with

their historical research to get it right. Films like this I felt might

do a lot to bring a better understanding of China to the West.

It was quick in action and the singing was not of the traditional

Chinese kind, which to untrained Western ears is sure to sound

like caterwauling with its high-pitched nasal sounds. Instead

' Golden Throat ', the leading lady, had a lovely voice to which

it was a pleasure to listen. It did not seem to matter that the

talking and singing were all in Chinese. This film , we were told,

is shortly to be exhibited in Europe, starting in France.

A very successful production in 1949 was Dawn Must Come,

made by the South China Film Corporation, the principal

scenes being taken in a studio in Kowloon and much of the loca

tion work filmed in the New Territories. The film showed the

poverty in which numbers of people in China live and the way

each has to help himself. Technically it was a great advance on

former Cantonese productions.

An unusual diversion in Hong Kong, which can be likened in

a slight way to a musically-supplied tea-room in the West, is

the teashop with sing-song girls. You buy a ticket which pro

vides you with a Chinese cup of tea, constantly refilled by a

waiter with a kettle of boiling water, and a programme of the

songs the girls will sing that afternoon . For the most part these

places are patronized by men , who come in after their day's

work. There is a male orchestra, but the main attractions are

the slim young creatures, much made-up, who stand in turn

before a microphone with one hand behind the back and the

other holding the words of the song. With completely expres

sionless faces they sing for at least a quarter of an hour, and then

retire to the end of the room while the next girl comes up to the

platform . For a foreigner who knows no Chinese it is impossible

I 22

TEASHOP ENTERTAINMENTS

to judge if the song is gay or sad. They all sound miserable.

Once when a girl began to sing in a more than usually squeaky

voice, my companion exclaimed 'Ah ! a female voice'. I asked

what then had been the two who preceded her. “ They were

impersonating male voices', he replied .

Many of the clients bring their pet birds with them, for the

Chinese take out their birds for an airing, and there are wires

strung across these tea-rooms for the purpose of allowing clients

to hang up their cages. The programmes print the complete

text of the songs and the teashop patrons follow this assiduously.

You see all the heads lift as the singer reaches the foot of a

column and starts the next - for of course Chinese is written in

vertical lines.

The deplorable fact that a city of the size and wealth of Hong

Kong has no concert-hall shows the lack of interest taken in

Western cultural activities. Nevertheless there are the Stage

Club, the Hong Kong Chamber Music Club, the Hong Kong

Singers, the oldest musical society, and the Sino -British

orchestra , and various other dramatic and musical societies, to

all of which Hong Kong owes a great deal, for they endeavour to

foster music and the drama in spite of difficulties such as finding

places in which to practise and perform . Indeed the community

is not yet sufficiently alive to the importance of supporting them.

It is hardly conceivable that a colony of any Power except

Britain could show such indifference to culture.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Religion

TO ONE who is used to the more or less tidy compartments of

religion in the West, and on that analogy has little difficulty in

finding his way about Islam, or even Hinduism, the question of

what a man's religion is in China is at first rather confusing.

One is generally told that there are three religions in China:

Taoism ,Confucianism , and Buddhism, but one soon finds that

moreoften than not a man cannot be labelled as belonging to

123

RELIGION

one or the other, but may very well have in his make-up beliefs

attributable to all three.

Treatises on Taoism, Confucianism or Buddhism are easily

enough available, but anyone with an inquiring turn of mind

will feel as frustrated as I did by the difficulty of discovering

how the many things of a plainly religious character fit in.

One of the first things I noticed was a little shrine at the

threshold of almost every shop. There you will see either a

wooden tablet painted with aa few characters in gold, or perhaps

just a piece of paper with the characters printed on it. Before it

is some small vessel with joss-sticks. Joss-sticks are always burnt

in threes, and candles, so much used in temples, in pairs.

This is the shrine of the Land God . To Tei, one of the most

popular gods. He sits at the door of your house to protect it. In

the New Territories a larger edition of him is always to be found

at the entrance to a village, and generally he is represented by

a smooth stone, though sometimes in idol form . Every death of

an adult in the village has to be promptly reported to him and

he is often asked to protect children . Their names are written

on a piece of red paper which is placed in his shrine with food ,

wine and incense.

To Tei is generally said to be Taoist, and as Taoism is a

philosophy of nature in which man takes his place as part of the

landscape with the rocks, the trees, the animals and birds and

butterflies, the conception of To Tei fits into the picture well

enough. I felt, however, that To Tei, like so many other features

of Chinese religion, was something older than any philosopher's

creed and belonged in fact to the religion of man's infancy, the

almost instinctive beliefs with which primitive man is endowed.

Another god who is common to almost every Chinese home is

Tso Kwan, the Kitchen God. His shrine is usually in a niche near

the stove, represented by golden characters on a red tablet. He

is considered to be fat and jovial as a result of good living, but

is of great importance because once a year he visits the other

gods to report on the behaviour of all the members of the

household . Before he sets out on New Year's Eve the family

regale him with aa feast when large quantities of honey are given

to him. This is to try and seal his lips or at least to make him

utter only honeyed words. Crackers are fired to drive away

demons, and on his return four days later he is welcomed with

124

A VARIETY OF GODS

an abundance of good things. His tablet or picture is reinstated

with bowings and the burning of incense.

Getting faded, worn and tattered as the year goes by, but

renewed when the New Year comes along, there are to be

found on many of Hong Kong's double doors the pictures of

Ngai Ching and Wat Yun, the Door Gods. The former was a

military man, the latter a civilian, and according to legend the

Emperor Tai Tsung on being taken ill declared he was afraid

to remain alone at night because of the demons, so these two

offered to be his guardians. To commemorate this the Emperor

had their portraits elaborately coloured and pasted on to the

palace doors to ward off evil spirits.

Another very popular god is Kwan Tai, the God of War. He

is particularly popular because he does not want to wage war

but to prevent it. In A.D. 170, during his life on earth, Kwan

Tai and three others took an oath to live or die together fighting

the Yellow Turban rebels who brought about the overthrow of

the Han dynasty. During the Tai Ping rebellion a vision of

The shrine of the Land God at the entrance to the village

125

RELIGION

Kwan Tai, wearing a glittering helmet and with a fierce aspect,

led armed hosts to the support of a city threatened by the rebels,

who were so terrified that they fled . Kwan Tai was awarded the

title of Kwan—the Sage—by the Manchus as a token of grati

tude. Kwan Tai also symbolizes loyalty. He is therefore found

as the patronof thieves and smugglers (to prevent their betray

ing one another) , and because he wards off war, carpenters keep

him in their shops lest any of them use the tools as weapons.

These are the gods most commonly to be found in shops and

homes, but there are many others. We were told there is a god

of almost anything—of the kitchen, of the land, of the water, of

lavatories, and of keeping babies from falling off chamber- pots ’!

Many Europeans buy figures as ornaments not knowing them

to be gods, and about the most familiar of them are Lao Sze

Shin, the god of longevity, with an amusingly elongated skull

and usually represented holding an almond, symbol of long life,

and the god of literature, Yuen Chong. He stands with one foot

on the head of a monster (ignorance) and holds a pen in his

outstretched hand. Others of this category are Chu Pat Kwai,

the pig -faced god, who symbolizes man's struggle with his con

science. Chu was banished to earth for drinking to excess and

by mistake entered the body of a sow. He went with a Buddhist

saint to India to fetch the sacred books of Buddhism and was

rewarded by admission to paradise. Shun Hang Che, the

monkey god, remarkable for his ingenuity, also went to India

for the sacred books and was similarly allowed into paradise on

his return . Sha Chang, the black -faced one, acted as baggage

carrier on the journey to India for the Buddhist books. He is

regarded as symbolizing the weakness of human character.

Few who buy these and other figures will fail to succumb to

the charming goddess of compassion, Kwan Yin or Koon Yam.

Originally a male Buddhist deity, she was adopted in the

gentler guise by China. The symbol of all that is good and pure

and holy, she is also the model of womanly beauty. She was the

daughter of a king, and wearying of court life wished to enter a

nunnery . But her father wanted her to marry and when she

fled to the nuns he ordered that her life should be made as hard

as possible. The Superior gave her the most menial tasks to

perform but the gods pitied her and helped her in her work.

Her father, in punishment for his wickedness, was afflicted with

126

NEGLECTED TEMPLES

a skin disease which ate away his flesh . Kwan Yin cut parts

from her own body and sent them to him to cure his illness, and

for this she was canonized and called ' The very merciful' and

‘ Saviour of the afflicted '.

Pak Tai, god of the sea, is much reverenced by the fisher

folk, but in particular they honour Tien How, the Queen of

Heaven, who has much in common with Kwan Yin. Both save

from peril, especially at sea, both are protectors of mothers and

children, and both are beneficent and merciful. Tien How,

however, is above all a sea goddess and her shrines are to be

found in every fishing village.

A great many of the temples of Hong Kong are in a sadly

uncared -for condition. To some extent this is accountable for

by the growing neglect of the old gods, but the mercenary

manner of their administration has to take a large share of the

blame. The keepers bid for their jobs from the Secretariat for

Chinese Affairs and the highest bidder gets the job. The pro

ceeds go to good works. This is all right as far as it goes and

few Chinese complain. The keeper, however, is there to make

money out of his contract and does it by selling papers, candles,

' fortunes ', and so on. He is more often than not a man com

pletely ignorant and rarely knows even the names of the gods

in the temple, let alone anything about them. In many temples

dust lies thick, but others, like the fishermen's temples, though

they may be shabby, are very much ‘ alive ' .

I watched one day a mother with her child at a temple. She

was a young woman , poor, but neatly dressed with her hair

plaited round her head, and she led her small sick son, whose

recovery she sought, into the temple by his hand. She knelt in

front of the shrine and carefully sorted out the papers she had

bought. Holding them in her hands, pressed together as in

prayer, she shook them up and down and made the boy do the

same. Then she took up the two pieces of rounded wood with

which one finds the gods' answer to questions. Her lips moved in

earnest prayer for several moments and then she dropped the

wood to discover the outcome of her petition. The child stood

quietly by, silent and apathetic.

Then taking each paper offering in turn, she passed them

over his head several times, wrapped them together, lit them at

an oil lamp, raised and lowered the burning papers several times

127

RELIGION

before the gods, and then put them into a brazier. Finally she

helped the child to raise his hands in prayer once more and led

him away .

It was a moving scene, with such evident faith . Tsing, the driver,

was watching with us. “ My mother make me pray when like child,'

he said, “ now no believe. ' Tsing, like so many, had no beliefs.

We saw none of the big Chinese festivals while we were in

Hong Kong except the Ching Ming, the festival of the tombs,

which was the only one to take place during our visit. The

digging up of bones and the placing of them in the earthen

ware jars which are such a common sight on the hillsides in the

New Territories take place at this festival, and it was an astonish

ing sight. The families concerned brought the bones of their

departed in baskets to a cement-surfaced yard. Here they were

all tenderly washed, counted, and laid out in the order in which

they appear on a skeleton, with the skull at the top and the

bones of the toes at the bottom. When all is correct, they are

placed in the jars, feet first and skull on top, and — if no perma

nent grave can yet be built - left on the hillsides.

My main impression of Ching Ming was that it was a family

reunion. There seemed somehow an unwillingness to accept

death and separation. People came to the graves with crackers

and paper offerings and food , in some cases they carried whole

roasted pigs. All this was offered to the dead and the family

then sat and ate the food as it were in communion with the

departed. It was not at all a sad festival. There seemed a lot of

quiet happiness. Ching Ming is considered the Chinese equiva

lent of Easter, the vernal equinox.

In the matter of ancestor-worship there was much to remind

me of Africa. Up in the Northern Gold Coast it is the basic

religion . Near each family compound is built a little hut, with

door and all, in which the family spirits dwell and the living

still have intercourse with them. If the Chinese do not do pre

cisely the same, it is worth recounting that on our way out to

Hong Kong we saw at Bangkok decorative little houses on

posts, like nesting boxes for birds, in many gardens . You could

buy them at any of the many potters, and the Siamese lady who

was accompanying us told us they were houses for the family

spirits. The Chinese are really doing much the same— in a more

advanced way — with their ancestral temples, where the ancestors

128

NATURE WORSHIP

are represented by tablets in green and gold or red and gold,

and family altars are generally to be found in aa Chinese home. A

Chinese friend thought that one of the reasons why Christianity

made such a strong appeal to Chinese was its emphasis on the

Fatherhood of God and on Jesus Christ as the Elder Brother.

This, he said, made an immediate appeal to the family instinct.

Nature worship, the spirits to be found at rocks and pools and

in trees, must also in China long antedate the philosophers.

Fung Shui ( Wind Water) , which so closely affects the lives and

graves of all, as we shall see, is surely closely connected with

nature worship, and the Fung Shui groves of China have their

counterpart in the fetish groves of West Africa. In China as in

West Africa special attention is paid to the friendly trees near

houses which give shade. The wild trees of the forest and wood

land are more dubious characters. There is fear in the forest.

One general similarity between the animists of China and

those of Africa is the tolerance of both to other faiths. It amounts,

indeed,to something more than tolerance, for it is an acceptance

of the fact that they may be as good or possibly even better.

Chinese fathers do not seem to insist on their children following

in their footsteps, and I know several families in which different

faiths are practised between members of the same or different

generations.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Chinese Food and Chinese Medicine

YEARS AGO in Mukalla on the South Arabian coast I sometimes

walked into the Customs godown in which dried fish was kept

pending export. There were always quantities of large filleted

fish of various varieties lying as dry and hard as planks of wood,

though never quite so odourless. Amongst them was a great deal

of dried shark and in a corner there would be a large pile of

discarded triangular fins. I inquired what was done with them.

“ They are sent to China, your honour. I ask pardon of God

and your honour for mentioning it, but it is said the Chinese

eat many abominable things which are not lawful to be eaten. '

129

CHINESE FOOD AND MEDICINE

I thought back to those few exiled Chinese in Pemba who used

to collect sea -slugs, and the Mauritian boutique chinoise with its

so-called hundred -year-old eggs, and there came to me again

an old vision of epicurean mandarins in gorgeous robes em

broidered with peacock feathers, hats with buttons, elegant fans,

and yard-long drooping moustachios, daintily lifting morsels

of birds' nests, sharks' fins, sea-slugs and other delicacies to their

aristocratic lips with ivory chopsticks.

Now , in Hong Kong, as I walked with the estimable Mr.

Chan along the arcaded pavements of Queen's Road West, I

saw in the food shops those familiar triangular fins. There they

were, large and small, just as they had been in Mukalla, and I

felt sure that at least some of them must have come from that

very godown.

Mr. Chan, ever anxious to eradicate false impressions, told

me that one did not buy one of these triangles to make shark's

fin soup, but a neat packet of stuff which looked like gelatinous

macaroni, wrapped in cellulose, and with a colourful label

describing the contents as best shark's fin manufactured in

Hong Kong. And so he took us to a friend, the owner ofa sharks'

fin factory and also of a restaurant well known to the con

noisseur of sea delicacies. Yin Yeng Ki, with his closely cropped

head, benevolent round face, and well- filled pyjamas, was a

good advertisement for the nutritive value of the fins.

His factory was in the dim upper regions of a back alley. The

atmosphere was a combination of old -fashioned washhouse and

boiling glue. It was hot and humid, and we paddled about in

puddles of hot water. The fins are soaked overnight and then

placed in boiling water for 20 minutes, after which the skin is

scraped off them. This looked a rather messy process. A man

with a very sharp knife sliced off the layers of meat from both

sides of the fanlike bones : the work needs skill, because there is

not much meat and the bigger the slice the better the quality.

The bones are afterwards sold as fertilizers. The slices of meat

are then pulled or cut into thin strips, boiled for a few minutes

and dried with a hand-operated press. The damp strips are

packed tightly into a square frame, and the frames laid on mat

trays and placed on bamboo shelves under which sulphur is

burnt to bleach them white. After this they are dried on the roof

and are ready for packing.

130

SHARKS ' FINS

It was a strange world, on the roof-tops where they dried the

fins. There was something familiar about it, for it recalled drying

grounds one sees all over the tropics, here for cloves or copra,

there tobacco, or coffee, or cocoa . Just as if it had been on the

ground, dogs wandered about and there was dry ordure, human

and canine, as there would have been anywhere else. It is just as

well all these things we eat from the tropics go through a lot

more stages before we consume them ! None of the space was

wasted . A neighbouring roof had strips of pigskin hanging from

lines. It is put into oil afterwards to soften it and is said to make

excellent food .

There are about thirty of these sharks' fin factories in Hong

Kong. In Yin's factory the employees were mostly apprentices

earning £5 a month plus food and lodging. They slept where

they worked, and each boy had his towel hanging on a hook on

the wall, with a tube of toothpaste and soap-box perched on

top. The boys had a very steamed and bleached appearance.

Many countries provide fins for the famous soup : Ceylon,

Burma, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Korea, Norway,

Cuba, Indonesia, South America, East Africa, West Africa,

North Borneo, French Indo-China, Macao, Iran. When you

come to think of it shark's fin soup and other shark products take

quite a toll of these unpleasant beasts.

At Yin's restaurant we sat in his private balcony room over

looking the café. This arrangement is common in Hong Kong

shops and enables the proprietor to be simultaneously in the

middle of his family and at his business. The cook was intro

duced and we were given a recipe for the soup. Put a packet of

fins in boiling water and soak until soft, then drain. Put five

ounces of lard into a frying - pan and when melted add two ounces

of crushed ginger, i } ounces of sliced onion, and the fins, then fry

for about 10 minutes. Add sufficient cold water to cover (a

Chinese frying - pan is deeper than ours) and boil for 10 to 15

minutes. Take out and drain . Serve with chicken or meat broth .

This last is very important because sharks' fins are quite taste

less by themselves and must be served in a good broth .

No Chinese dinner-party is complete without this soup, for

with it the dinner proper begins ; the courses before the soup are

merely appetizers. Inthe arrangement of menus, as in so many

other things, the Chinese go the opposite way to us, for after the

131

CHINESE FOOD AND MEDICINE

preliminary courses, which may include sea foods or salads, and

the shark's fin soup , you have meat or poultry, or both, then

fish , then another soup, and sometimes end up with a sweet

dish. There are very definite preferences in the choice of meat

and poultry. Pork is No. I choice, then beef, with mutton (at

any rate among the Cantonese) as a bad last. The smell of

mutton is so disliked by some Chinese that they just cannot eat

it. Our local butcher at home got so used to our ringing up to

ask for beef at the week-end when expecting Chinese friends,

that he used to ring first to inquire ‘ Have you any Chinese

visitors ? ' before sending the ration. As for poultry, the Chinese

consider chicken the best, then wild duck, duck, goose , and

turkey a bad last.

There is a wide variety of restaurants to choose from , small,

not so small, and luxury, and the prices naturally vary. At

lunch time they are always crowded, mainly with men. For this

meal the snack is as popular in Hong Kong as it is in England,

and the cafeteria system is reversed. Instead of the customer

moving along with a tray choosing dishes, a number of waiters

and waitresses move continually between the tables bearing

trays with an assortment of delicious-looking hot or cold snacks.

The choice is so varied, and the dishes so tasty, that you can

quickly eat your fill and find yourself with a very expensive bill

at the end of the meal .

The prospect of chopsticks is not nearly so formidable as some

people believe. With a little perseverance quite enough food can

be conveyed to the mouth, and the charming, attentive little

waitress will be delighted to instruct you in their use. She will

even , if you cannot, or pretend you cannot, manage them , feed

you herself. All you will have to do is sit like a nestling thrush

with your maw well open while she pops in each nicely seasoned

mouthful in the most maternal way. My observation is that this

method does not appeal nearly so much to the female nestling

as it does to the male, and , curiously, it also does not appeal to

her to see her male belongings so nurtured. In these cases, if the

self-help approach is by shyness or for other reason ruled out, it

is quite possible to ask for a knife and fork .

In private homes we sampled dinner-party food and family

meals . Both were equally well cooked and served but there were

fewer dishes at the latter. The Chinese custom , like the Arab,

132

ELECTRIC LAUNDRY CO

博工司公表活力香迷看

現景

代

量

' Wherever the gradient is sufficiently short of the perpendicular to

enable a hut to perch are squatter settlements ' ( p . 76)

PLATE XVII

Above: Coolies carry pigs in baskets on bamboo poles. Below :

Sway-back pigs are being straightened up by crossing with Berk

shires . “ More comfortable for the pigs but not so good to eat ' (p. 176 )

PLATE XVIII

Above: “ You will notice on many a hillside large earthenware jars.

Each one contains human bones' (p.57) . Below: ‘At the Ching

Ming Festival bones are tenderly washed and counted ' (p. 128)

PLATE XIX

我日

款

子 ,都

避震器都会

This matshed theatre was erected in Kowloon for the Birthday

Festival of Kwan Yin

PLATE XX

A FULL MENU

seems to be to talk a long time before dinner and then to dine

and go home. One Chinese friend told me that Europeans could

be very tiresome by turning up late, and then keeping every

body out ofbed for an unconscionable time after dinner. Another

Chinese custom requires that the dining-table shall be round

because of its greater intimacy. Now a large round table takes

up too much room in a small dining- or sitting-room, so the

difficulty is overcome by having a small square table with a large

folding round top. The local carpenters have not been long in

devising ways of making furniture suitable to overcrowded

conditions. Besides the separate table-tops, we saw meat safes

that were also tables.

At one small dinner-party in a flat, dinner began with hors

d'oeuvre of cold meats, cold fish, prawns and vegetables. After

the shark's fin soup came roast chicken, meat pasties, fried fish ,

an indeterminate dish which that painstaking educator Mr.

Chung, who was one of the guests, described simply as ' entrails ' ,

chicken again, roast duck, boiled fish , and a sweet soup of lotus

seeds eaten with dumplings stuffed with beans and peas. The

Chinese seem to share the Arab idea that bits and pieces like

this do not constitute a meal, for having thought it must be over

with the sweet things, we were confronted with rice and a hot

pot of all sorts of good but unexplained things. After this, as the

diary says, “ It was pleasant to relax in an armchair'.

Each one of these items constitutes a separate course, and one

of the main differences between a party like this and a family

meal is that at the latter all the food is put on the table at once .

Also the base of a family meal is always either rice or noodles ,

with several dishes of either meat or fish or vegetables to go

with it.

The number of people engaged in producing, preparing or

distributing food is quite extraordinary : the fisher- folk and the

farmers, the proprietors of restaurants , food shops, market

stalls and cooked -food stalls, and the hawkers of food to be met

everywhere. Markets are crowded with housewives who are

usually very careful to spend their money wisely, and when they

want chicken, for example, they do not have to buy a whole

bird but can take just a wing or a leg. So many of Hong Kong's

millions have to be very careful over their family budgets, but

however poor they never seem so under -nourished as, for

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CHINESE FOOD AND MEDICINE

instance, desert Arabs. The Chinese achieve a more balanced

diet and they appreciate fresh, green vegetables and good cook

ing. In markets where the poorest people do their shopping you

will find cuttle- fish from Korea, popular because they swell a

lot in cooking and need much chewing, bean sprouts of surpris

ing length, grown in tanks and weighing very light so that you

get plenty for your money, and very tiny salted fish , which also

weigh light, and all these are cheap and nourishing foods.

But it is in the actual cooking of food that the Chinese excel.

Everything must be absolutely fresh and vegetables never over

cooked so that they lose their crispness. Frying each ingredient

separately before cooking the whole dish is another essential,

and so is the use of tasty seasonings such as soya-bean sauce,

peanut oil, ginger, bean curd, rice wine, and many others.

Something should be said of the more peculiar dishes of

Chinese cuisine. Lest I may be accused of extravagance in my

statements by Western readers, I should say that I took every

possible care to confirm what was told me. The Chinese cook

certainly has the widest variety of material. “ I think we eat

almost everything except earthworms ' , said one of my in

formants. “ We do eat rice -worms, small worms found in the wet

rice - fields at harvest time. Beetles ? Yes, certainly. Some beetles

dried and salted are very good and crisp. '

The aged eggs of Western jokes are there, but they are not

all that old and they are extremely good . They are fresh eggs

salted or coated with ashes and salt for 20 days, or coated with

lime and clay. Rats, cats , dogs, and so on, all add to the reper

toire. ' Chow ' is pidgin for food and the dogs we know as chows

are so called because they are good to eat. We saw a lot of

them in Hong Kong, but selling dog-meat for food is not

allowed. Snakes were out of season when we were there : they

are a winter dish and good for sufferers from rheumatism. One

snake dish is known as the ‘ meeting of the three ' ; it consists of a

cobra, a krait, and another species with which I was not familiar.

You see them alive on sale in cages and the three cost 75. 6d . , but

this does not include the gall-bladders, which are highly prized

in medicine and sold separately.

Two dishes I could certainly never have faced : in Kwangtung

monkey's brain is considered a special dish with valuable pro

perties. The top of the skull of the live monkey is sliced off and

134

TWO SYSTEMS OF LIVING

the brains picked out with chopsticks. And elsewhere people eat

alive newly born field -mice served in soy sauce. I should not

record these dishes were it not that Chinese friends have vouched

for them.

In Hong Kong there are two advanced systems of living side

by side, and although with the passage of years the one has

borrowed much from the other, they are still poles apart. To the

visitor this was evident in the contrast of Chinese-type restau

rants and European-type, of Chinese-type shops and European,

and in many other ways. One of the contrasts that struck me

most was that between Chinese-type druggists and Western

chemists .

There was about the former an air of eighteenth-century

English pharmacies, an air which survives in the jars of coloured

water, decorative jars, and solid dark cabinets still to be found

in some chemists' shops. But here in Hong Kong, as in England,

the age of the patent medicine has done much to alter things,

and there were plenty of shops with European and American

patent medicines on one side and Chinese medicines on the

other. At first I suspected these to be survivals of herbalists'

shops, but closer acquaintance showed they contained much

more like the stock-in-trade of the African medicine-man. The

difference lies principally in the wrapping. The Chinese

druggist uses tissue-paper and good-looking containers, the

African medicine-man uses leaves or some old matting bag.

Until recently Chinese medicine had almost an official exis

tence in Hong Kong, parallel to European, just like the restau

rants. The Tung Wah group of hospitals recognized and used

the system to the full. But that citadel has been assailed . Such

Chinese medicine as is practised in the hospitals is now on a very

minor scale and no sort of recognition is allowed to the Chinese

druggist. In China his qualifications have for some time been

protected by law and, I am told, there are few ' quacks ’. In

Hong Kong the quack in Chinese medicine flourishes. None the

less, Western medicine is also very greatly resorted to, but

Chinese tolerance likes to have the two — just in case. I was

interested to meet Chinese medical practitioners with Western

qualifications who held that in some respects the Chinese

system was superior, and I found Europeans who resorted to

Chinese medicine for some complaints . On the whole, what

135

CHINESE FOOD AND MEDICINE

seems to have happened is that Chinese medicine has remained

static. So old is it that at one time it was much in advance of

Western medicine, but there is no need for a layman to do more

than compare a Chinese anatomical chart with a Western one

in order to realize that in medicine Chinese science has stood

still .

But obviously there is something in it .

We were invited one day to the consulting-room of one of the

best-known practitioners in Chinese medicine in Hong Kong,

Dr. C. F. Lo. From the noise and bustle of Queen's Road we

climbed up a narrow flight of stairs to his waiting -room , fur

nished with a counter and benches. A vase of gladioli stood on a

table and the room had an air of Victorian middle-class respect

ability. I was told that a fashionable Chinese doctor gets $3

for a visit and that he probably sees about 50 patients a day. It

seemed quite likely, for a considerable number collected while

we were with Dr. Lo. Partitioned off from the waiting-room was

a small office, and behind it the consulting -room with a sofa,

chairs and tables. It was here Dr. Lo received us and gave us

cups of tea. He wore a grey robe and had a long, full face with

roguish eyes which seemed to be saying “ What a jokelife is ! ' He

looked older than the 43 years he admitted. Extremely amiable

and a good conversationalist, he would have been more con

vincing if it had not been for those amused eyes.

' The Chinese', he said , by way of introduction , ‘ have a belief

in Chinese medicine, which is like a belief in religion.'

Dr. Lo had matriculated at Queen's College, whence the

foundation of the good English he spoke, and had then studied

medicine with his father, a well-known herbalist, for four years.

He had been made to read a great deal, including the Book of

the Internal, written 3,000 years ago. He had lectures from his

father and watched him with his patients , then for three years

he practised with him , learning to diagnose and prescribe. After

that he worked with another doctor and finally took an ex

amination, received a diploma, and became a professor at the

Canton Academy of Medicine which was founded 20 years ago.

Until the Tung Wah Hospital had had to give up Chinese

medicine, Dr. Lo had been an adviser there.

There are two kinds of Chinese doctors, explained Lo,

‘ internal and external', roughly corresponding to the medical

136

CHINESE DIAGNOSIS

and surgical divisions. 'Chinese books on medicine are legion

and anyone can learn to be a doctor.' Few instruments are used ,

but there must be a pestle and mortar for grinding ingredients,

a chopper for the herbs, and needles of various sizes. With these

needles most ills can be diagnosed and cured. For instance, if

the nose is bleeding, a needle prick near the thumb-nail stops it

because the vein there is connected to the lung and the lung to

the nose .

‘ European doctors ' , went on Lo, ‘ only use the pulse to see

whether the patient is in good or bad health. The Chinese have

24 different diagnoses from the pulse.' He showed us the

History of Chinese Medicine, which described the various pulse

beats, and among them was ' scattered, large, irregular, like

willow flowers scattering with the wind' .

On seeing a patient, therefore, Dr. Lo first feels the pulse.

Then he looks in the eye. If the pupil is not the right colour

something is wrong with the kidneys. Ifthe iris, then the liver is

out of order. The white indicates the lungs, and the red rim the

heart, while the eyelid shows the state of the spleen.

Then he studies the patient's face. The left cheek indicates

the state of the liver; the right cheek and the nose, the lungs ; the

upper lip and the ears, the kidneys ; the forehead, the heart, and

all round the mouth, the spleen and kidneys. “ The kidneys' , Lo

explained , ‘ are tied up with the nerves and the brain through

the spinal cord. ' He notices the colour of the skin also, and the

look in the patient's eye. ‘A hot temper shows something

wrong with the liver, so we give a soothing medicine for the liver,

which also means soothing the nerves .'

There are certain complaints—such as injuries, diphtheria,

typhoid and typhus—with which Dr. Lo does not deal, but

sends his patients to Western doctors. ' I can cure them,' he

assured us, ' but I understand the danger of infection and that

the patients must be quarantined. ' But he can cure appendicitis.

A Frenchman living in Hong Kong was told by a European

doctor that he must be operated on at once for appendicitis .

The Frenchman insisted he could not go into hospital for a month

as he had to sign an important business agreement. So he called

in Dr. Lo, who prescribed for him and he was speedily cured.

' For long’ , said Dr. Lo, ‘ I have pondered as to why an oint

ment rubbed on the surface of the skin can effect an internal

137

CHINESE FOOD AND MEDICINE

cure. I have reasoned that it should be possible to produce oil

vapours with electricity. I will have an enclosed room . The

patient will enter nude and stand for the prescribed time while

oil vapours are concentrated on the body. He will then come

out cured . My Magic Box,' he went on, ' through which I shall

become famous .'

Breaking off to see his patients, Dr. Lo took us later to have

a close inspection of a Chinese druggist. Many patients came

and went as we stood behind the counter. They brought their

prescriptions, and the dispensers opened drawers in the tall

cabinets and took out the various ingredients. Each was

carefully weighed, then wrapped up separately and Chinese

characters swiftly painted on the paper covering to explain the

dose and method of using it. There were dried jasmine flowers

to soothe a baby, bone from a monkey or deer to be boiled in

water and drunk as a tonic, yellow sulphur to eat as a stimulant,

rhinoceros skin for purifying the blood. There was the gallstone

of an ox for curing phlegm, which could also be cured by dried

monkey glands, but they were expensive and cost 255. to 355.

apiece.

Rhinoceros horn brings down a temperature, for a rhinoceros

likes water and therefore has a cooling effect. A piece of dried

snake, also expensive for it costs is. gd . for little more than an

ounce, will cure rheumatism, for the snake moves quickly and

will help you to do so also. The bile of a cobra or banded krait

mixed with orange-peel is particularly efficacious for curing

dizziness or faintness, and the horn of an antelope will soothe

the nerves .

For the rich man there are all sorts of highly priced remedies.

The bones of a tiger, for rheumatism , cost 15s. for 11 ounces, a

fungus that grows up where the milk from a tigress drops on

the ground is a tonic for T.B. and costs £ 1 for it ounces. Sea

horses for glands are also expensive, and so are powdered pearls

used to beautify the face and soothe the nerves. Then there is

the fungus that grows on the inner wood of a coffin, opposite

the nose and mouth of the corpse. This makes a curative soup.

And the tail of a deer, which costs £6 to £ 15 for 1 } ounces, is

used for the kidneys. ‘A nobleman's medicine,' said Dr. Lo, ' but

I can prescribe beef or some other cheaper ingredient for a poor

man which will be almost as efficacious.'

138

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Industry

INDUSTRY in the broad sense is one of the first words one

associates with Hong Kong. The Cantonese are constantly,

cheerfully and noisily busy day and night, hammering cigarette

tins into kitchen utensils at street corners, loading and off

loading junks and lorries on the waterfront, carving mahjong

sets or painting spots on them late at night, or treadling sewing

machines as fast as they can go. One gets a feeling that if there

had not been industries ( in the particular sense) they would

have had to be invented for Hong Kong alone.

In 1947 a well-informed article in an American journal said :

‘ Hong Kong means trade. Apart from the British -American

Tobacco Company, a few small textile, joss-stick and rubber

shoe factories, and the like, there are no manufacturing com

panies of more than local importance. ' Trade still comes first in

Hong Kong's economy, but industry in 1950 was running it a

close second . The development of the industries in the last two

or three years has been dramatic.

One of the oldest factories is the last surviving water-mill just

outside Kowloon. The two wheels have been revolving for a

hundred years. They give the power to a great wooden pestle

which pounds up the herbs and sandalwood used for making

joss-sticks. Some at least of the joss-stick factories must be as old

as this water-mill . We visited one at Shau Ki Wan which was

just a room opening on to the street. A curious, rather sickly

smell filled the air, and the four or five lads working there were

covered with fine yellow dust. Manufacture is a simple process.

A bunch of sticks is dipped in water and then rolled in the

powder, which is spread out thickly on a shelf. When the sticks

are dry the process is repeated until there is a sufficiently thick

coat of powder on each stick. They are then placed in a barrel

and shaken from side to side to smooth out the incense evenly,

and the last stage is to dip the handles of the sticks into the

lucky red paint.

The oldest industry to export its wares to Europe is un

doubtedly the preserved ginger industry, which has a really

139

INDUSTRY

romantic story behind it, linking England and Hong Kong in

pleasant fashion.

Long ago, probably at the beginning of the nineteenth cen

tury, there lived in the city of Canton a poor hawker of food

stuffs named Li Chy. There were many such in Canton, for

then, as now, many ofthepoorer people bought their cooked food

from hawkers. But Li Chy had imagination. He noticed that

whereas his compatriots did not like sweet things, every one of

the strange foreign devils who lived outside the city had a very

sweet tooth. So he started making sweetmeats and selling them

at a corner near the foreign factories. He soon had quite a

number of customers and exercised his ingenuity in making

fresh varieties. One day he tried boiling ginger in syrup.

Kwangtung province grows a lot of ginger and supplies were

easy.

One of his English customers bought some. He liked it so

much that when faced with the usual problem of what to take

home as presents he decided on preserved ginger, and ordered

a large quantity from Li Chy. The presents were a great success.

Everybody wanted more and lots more orders were given to

Li Chy, who had to start a factory to cope with them .

Chy had to enlarge his business and asked two of his friends,

Sung and Ip, to become partners. In 1821 they built a factory

which was called Chy Loong, Loong meaning Prosperous. And

prosperous the factory was. In 1846 it moved to Hong Kong,

where there were more of the sweet-toothed devils than there

were in Canton. Then, so the story goes, someone gave some

to Queen Victoria and she liked it so much that she gave

orders that preserved ginger was to appear as dessert at every

banquet !

Queen Victoria's enthusiasm for preserved ginger was un

abated . She suggested the ' Cock ’ brand as Chy Loong's trade

mark. It was registered in London in 1851. Foreign courts fell

victims to the habit and soon it was the fashion in all the capitals

of Europe to serve Chy Loong ginger at any party which was a

party. The industry grew and grew till it reached a turnover of

six million dollars a year. Other factories started up, but they

never caught up with the lead of Chy Loong. By 1938 there

were eleven firms in the preserved -ginger business, with dates

of establishment varying from 1840 to 1915. In that year

140

HONG KONG'S DOCKYARDS

Mr. U Tat Chee, the ‘Ginger King ',formed a syndicate to bring

them together, regulate exports, improve quality and stan

dardize prices. In 1949 Hong Kong exported 5,260 tons of

ginger, of which 4,340 tons went to the United Kingdom.

Queen Victoria, said Mr. U, was not the first British monarch

to be interested in ginger. It was introduced into England in the

fifteenth century and used in the manufacture of gingerbreads in

fancy shapes and letters of the alphabet. It was also valued for

its medicinal qualities, and Henry VIII is said to have included

it in a recipe he sent to the Lord Mayor of London as a remedy

against the plague. The Chinese have long valued it in medicine

to cure ‘ indigestion, coughs, giddiness, weakness, headaches,

diarrhæa, vomiting, flatulence, and other ailments due to

advanced age '!

Ginger, like many of Hong Kong's industries, owes its

foundation and prosperity to Chinese enterprise, and in the

field of light industries it is Chinese enterprise rather than

British that has been supreme. With heavy industry the initia

tive has come from the British side and a good example is that

of the dockyards. This industry also had its origins at Canton

before the colony was founded , and the oldest dockyard still

preserves the fact in its name — the Hong Kong and Whampoa

Dock Company Limited. During the First World War it began

to build big vessels, turning out tankers and passenger vessels

up to more than 5,000 tons. The great typhoon of 2nd September

1937 brought much salvage work and 44,215 tons of shipping

were salved and repaired, including one vessel of 18,765 tons.

The Second World War saw the company engaged on an

extensive programme of ‘ Empire' class standard cargo vessels

(of which three were delivered complete with machinery ),

minesweepers, tugs, and other Admiralty craft, but this was

brought to an end by the fall of Hong Kong. During the

Japanese occupation allied bombers made 140 hits on this

dockyard .

The scars of war were still evident in April 1950, but even

more striking was the tremendous amount that had been done

in rehabilitation . The most conspicuous object was the great

100-ton crane which had stood on the Humber until 1930. This,

remarkably, was little damaged during the war, though some

one wrote to a Hull newspaper that he had seen the crane

141

INDUSTRY

shelled and toppling into the harbour! Conspicuous also was an

unfinished ship which was being built for the Admiralty when

the blow fell. Bombed, broken and rusty, it can now only be

broken up . Near by it were two vehicular ferries nearing com

pletion. There was also a rusty red Soviet ship undergoing

repairs. The captain carried his Hong Kong dollars about with

him and paid for everything in cash !

By the end of the first decade of the presentcentury quite a

few important heavy and light industries had been established,

called into being largely as ancillaries to Hong Kong's trade.

Far distant from all the industrial centres of the world , a

modern port had to have dockyards to repair the ships which

used it. It was a natural development to build ships and

naturally the capacity increased. The first ship built in 1843

was 80 tons. In 1940 ships of up to 10,000 tons could be built.

There is the same pattern of development from local require

ments to export in the development of the rope industry. The

Hong Kong Rope Manufacturing Company started operations

in 1884 with a modest capital of $ 150,000, which by 1924

became $2,000,000. Using Manila hemp or ‘ abaca ’, it exports

the finished rope largely to Singapore, but the stimulus to the

establishment of the industry was local—the servicing of ships.

Even the early sugar refineries were a ‘ refinement of the

entrepôt trade. One of them was the largest under one roof in

the world. A place developing as fast as Hong Kong needed

great quantities of cement . Much must have been imported

before the Green Island Cement Company moved from Macao

to Hong Kong in 1899. Since then millions of tons of local

cement have probably gone into Hong Kong's docks, fortifica

tions, bridges and buildings. The industry suffered severe

damage during the war, but by 1949 was producing 50,000 tons,

all used by the local building industry.

There were a number of other important industries already

going in the beginning of this century : Jardine Matheson had

a cotton-spinning factory with 55,000 spindles. There was a

large ice factory and extensive flour -mills. There were also many

saw-mills, there were soap -boiling, dyeing, tanning, vermilion

making and tin -smelting works. Other local industries included

paper-making, match-making, feather cleaning and packing,

cigar-making, glass-blowing, brewing, dairy -farming and

142

LIGHT INDUSTRIES

soda-water manufacturing. Most of these still exist and have de

veloped, but the once flourishing sugar refineries and flour -mills

have disappeared, though there are a few small concerns left.

The Dairy Farm, now one of Hong Kong's more flourishing

concerns, was founded by Sir Patrick Manson, the father of

tropical medicine, in 1886, with the aim of protecting the milk

supply.

‘ Ordinary water', says a pamphlet produced by a factory

dealing with beverages, ‘ has never satisfied man. Certainly

to judge by the quantities of Coca-Cola and orange squash

drunk in Hong Kong it does not satisfy the Chinese. The bever

age industry dates from the early days of the Colony, and the old

Chinese term for the product ‘ Ho Laan Shui ' ( Holland water)

indicates that the Dutch were first in the field . Today there are

12 factories and among them are several really large concerns,

which include a brewery and three wine industries. The re

mainder produce soft drinks.

By the time of the war there was no cotton-spinning in Hong

Kong. Climatic conditions had not been considered suitable.

Jardine’s factory had closed and the industry had established

itself in Shanghai. Most of the manufacturers there had placed

orders for new plant in Britain, America and Japan, and by the

time this was ready for delivery conditions in Shanghai had

deteriorated , so the orders were delivered to Hong Kong. Now

there are 200,000 spindles in operation in the Colony. This of

course is a small number compared, say, with Manchester's

four -and - a -half million, but the automatic looms of Hong Kong

are as well advanced as anywhere in the world, and definitely

more advanced than in the United Kingdom .

In 1936 there were only about 450 registered factories. In

1946 there were 978, and in 1949, 1,284, employing 39,563

males and 25,708 females. The reader, wondering what over

two million people do in Hong Kong, will probably think that

65,000 odd in industry accounts for very few of them, so that it

may be well to pursue this point further.

Actually only factories employing 20 or more hands are

registered, and there are an enormous number of under-20

factories in squatter huts, tenements, and anywhere where they

can be tucked away under some sort of shelter. And of course,

apart from those engaged in fishing, agriculture, and domestic

143

INDUSTRY

service, there are large numbers of casual workers such as coal

coolies, stevedores, earth carriers, and street hawkers, and the

innumerable assistants in every shop. Then again, as many

workshops are simply family concerns with no outside labour,

and there are small illegal concerns which may exist for some

time without being discovered, the figures given are a long way

from being complete .

The range of articles manufactured is extraordinarily varied.

Rubber shoes, torches, needles, lamps, nails, locks, pots and

pans, cotton and art. silk, clothing, umbrellas, leather goods,

rattan furniture, camphor wood chests, matches, buttons,

plastic goods, toys, rope, paints, canned goods, vacuum flasks,

electrical accessories, and fire crackers. On the market stalls in

Africa and elsewhere you find such articles as these and they are

almost always imported . In Hong Kong you find the same kind

of stalls, but time after time we examined them without finding

anything of significance which was not made in Hong Kong.

Yet Hong Kong Around and About, published in 1931 , could say

that “ the stalls in the little market towns are heaped with

foreign clothes, hats, towels, cigarettes, kerosene, gay tin and

enamel wares from Birmingham , and cottons from Manchester'.

Hong Kong exports three million pairs of gumboots and

rubber shoes a year. In 1948, but for Hong Kong, British

children would have gone with wet feet, for United Kingdom

manufacturers had to export all their rubber goods, and gum

boots were imported from Hong Kong. Metalware factories, of

which there are 117, give many thousands employment, often

in very overcrowded conditions in tenements, and 39 million

torch cases were exported in 1949.

A completely new development is a very modern factory

turning out plastic goods, and now the shops and booths are

stocked with plastic combs, chopsticks, toothbrushes, toys, etc.

About 20 factories make hats, converting ladies' old felt hats

imported from America or elsewhere into boys' caps. From

another factory 50,000 dozen babies' nappies were exported

over a three-month period , enough to supply every baby of

nappy age in Britain with ten .

The reaction of British manufacturers to all this , so I was

told by the Department of Commerce and Industry, is not

favourable, and that of course is to be expected. But it is quite

144

THE CHEAP SHIRT SCARE

untrue to say that Hong Kong is marking goods made in

Japan as ' made in Hong Kong ', or that the labour is slave

labour.

Just before we left for Hong Kong there was a scare about

cheap shirts exported from Hong Kong to the United Kingdom.

I went to the factory from which they came. There are 200

knitting factories in Hong Kong employing 6,277 workers, but

most of them are in tenements and only about a dozen in

factory -type buildings. This was one of the largest. It was up to

date, though perhaps a bit crowded. It turns out locknit under

clothes, jerseys and shirts — 600 dozen of the latter a day. All of

its output goes to the United Kingdom and we saw shirts being

labelled for aa firm in Bond Street. The manager told me that the

factory could not compete with sleeveless, collarless singlets

made in England , but could in garments which required collars

to be sewn on. In fact no knitted shirts from Japan have come

into Hong Kong since trade with that country has been in

operation after the war. All Japanese imports are controlled .

In 1948 the Chinese Manufacturers Union of Hong Kong

sponsored a great exhibition of Hong Kong products. Opening

it, the Governor, Sir Alexander Grantham, said : 'As we all

know, Hong Kong lives by its entrepôt trade. It is therefore

primarily commercial, but its manufactures are becoming of

increasing importance. For instance, at this exhibition there

are displayed two of the latest Colony ventures plastics and

cotton yarn. I trust that these and the other products which

have previously been exhibited have come to stay. ... Hong

Kong products can only hold their own if they compare favour

ably in price with products of other countries: therefore it

behoves the various industries to make themselves as efficient as

possible. The inefficient will go to the wall .

' One hears from time to time talk of a protective tariff round

Hong Kong, or even a quota system. This, of course, would be

in conflict with Hong Kong's role as an entrepôt, and would not

be in the interest of the Colony as a whole. But even were

Government to agree to such a course, which is extremely un

likely, I do not think it would be the answer. The Hong Kong

market itself is too small a market. Our industries must export,

and protection in the home market is not likely to lower their

prices in the export market.'

145

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Trade

HONG KONG is a city in which most of the streets are streets of

shops. The bulk of the trade and commerce on which Hong

Kong lives is not seen in the shops, but as the needs of two

million people are quite considerable, a large number of shops

are necessary. Jostle your way down Des Voeux Road or

Queen's Road and your first thought is that you have never

seen shops so thickly stocked with goods. It is said that you can

buy everything you need in Hong Kong and you can certainly

buy a great deal you don't. There are a number of big depart

ment stores, some Chinese in pattern, some European . Shopping

in them soon teaches you how much more expensive things are

than in England, though Chinese friends scoffed at us for not

bargaining at all except the English - run department stores.

Even up the steep side-streets, the stalls are thick on the

ground and piled high with goods. If there is a space on a wall

a woman may have a frame hung there from which she sells

rings and other ornaments, or a man displays the torn -off,

vividly-coloured covers of paper-backed shockers in his street

library. Many small shops are divided and you may find shoes

being sold on one side and Chinese medicine on the other. And

there are hawkers everywhere.

In the streets near the waterfront are the shops of whole

salers and exporters, which have a more leisured, important air

than those of the retailers. The activity there is of a different

kind with the goods coming in or going out in bales and packing

cases.A great deal of Hong Kong's enormous trade consists of

collecting and bulking goods brought in in small quantities

from China and exporting them, and, conversely, of receiving

the world's goods, breaking the bulk in Hong Kong and distri

buting them. On one day our daily paper showed that ships in

the harbour were loading for 68 different destinations, from

Adelaide to Baltimore, from Liverpool to Honolulu . There are

over 600 general importers and exporters, many of whom are

Chinese. The Chinese Hongs or business houses have been

prominent in the history of Canton , Macao and Hong Kong.

146

THE SOUTH NORTH COMPANY

In 1868 some of the Chinese merchants formed themselves

into an Association called the Nam Pak Hong, or South North

Company. Their object was to trade on a basis of mutual con

fidence; they do business through agents they never meet and

they do not use banks as intermediaries. ' It is all on confidence

and trust', said Mr. Tong Ping Tak, the chairman, whose firm

has been established in Hong Kong for go years. “ The Ancients

(the founders of the Association) were always uprighteous and

abode by the ethics of Commerce, not only to honour all under

takings, but also to despise riches. Their purpose was to root up

abuses and to give rise to benefits. We met some of the members

in their board-room in an atmosphere of blackwood tables and

chairs, dominated by a huge portrait of Sun Yat-Sen. The

Association calls itself South North because its members trade

almost entirely with Southern Asia and North China. Rice is

their principal commodity, but, besides many other more

ordinary necessities, they handle such nice things as dried

apricots, red and black dates, melon seeds, walnuts, mushrooms,

bamboo shoots, and red tea . They also deal in strange things:

Chinese medicines, clams, hawthorn seeds, black moss, dried

cuttle - fish , fungus, dried shrimps, edible seaweed, bêche-de-mer,

edible bark, awabi, wood fish, dried lily flower, gall nuts, and

all the ' tinimies ’ lumped together in the omnibus heading of

‘ sea products ' . ' Since liberation, this business was becoming

very dull ', concluded Mr. Tong Ping Tak. ‘ Dull’seems the last

word to apply to the picturesque trade of the Nam Pak Hong

merchants .

A visit to the Gold and Silver Exchange was an experience

I shall never forget. Their hall is not very large and it has a

gallery round it from which we watched the riot below. It is air

conditioned and has 12 large fans, but it was one of the hottest

places in which I have been. Down below us was a milling

mass of humanity waving bits of paper and yelling themselves

hoarse. They were stripped of everything but trousers and

singlets and perspiration streamed down them . Round the

room there were 400 telephones treble-banked , and they all

seemed to be ringing. When I began to take the scene in , I saw

that the throng was made up of pushing groups each scrumming

round a central figure, the buyer. There are 300 firms who are

members of this society and each has three or four clerks here

147

MANCHURIA

Peking

Tientsin

Yokohama

CHINESE REPUBLIC

( 1580

MILES

Shanghai

D IA

855

NILES

oochow

Swatow Amoy

Cantong FORMOSA (TAIWAN)

BURMA MACAO (PORT. S HONG KONG

111'

634

MILES (1590

HAINAN MILES

THAILAND

Manila

CAMBODIA

INDO PHILIPPINE

SCHINA ISLANDS

YAP IS.

MAL

(1445

MILES

AYA

BRUNEL

K O BORNEO

AWA (2330

SAR MILES

DUTCH NEW

Singapore GUINEA

BORNEO

CELEBES

D. O N E S

JA V

TIMOR

Darwin germa53n

AUSTRALIA

MILES 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500

Capital of an Empire of Trade. Hong Kong's prosperity was founded

on trade with China. In recent years the merchant has built up

business with Malaya, Indonesia , Thailand, Korea and Japan. Goods

come from the United States, Canada and Australia as well as Britain .

Trade with Africa, the West Indies and the Middle East has increased .

148

THE TRADE BOOM

each day buying and selling gold. Gold is sold in bars of five taels,

a tael being 1.33 oz . avoirdupois, and the unit for buying and

selling is 10 taels. The closing price on the day previous to our

visit in May 1950 was £ 15 18s. gd. a tael. The goldsmiths buy

their gold here, but much of the business is done by speculators

who do not take delivery but try to sell again. They may make

several transactions in a day but must settle at 4.30 p.m. when

the Exchange closes.

Hong Kong's pre-war prosperity had traditionally rested on

its being the clearing -house for goods going to and coming from

South China. The war in Europe, and, in 1941 , the deviation to

Hong Kong of some of the business previously done through

other ports on the China coast, brought a great increase in

trade. Just before the Japanese struck, Government revenue

reached a record level of two million dollars in one week. On

Christmas Day 1941 the climax was reached. Hong Kong's

great commercial machine came to a stop.

When the Colony was liberated a Department of Supplies,

Trade and Industries was set up, and was soon the principal

trading organization. It sent missions to all nearby countries

to get supplies. Recovery was rapid. During the following year

there was a boom in all commodities . The demand was not con

fined to consumer goods. All commodities, including luxuries,

flowed into Hong Kong in an ever-increasing stream : the

demand was insatiable. The boom was due to the speedy

establishment of law and order, to the fact that the port facili

ties had not been seriously impaired, and also to the fact that

Hong Kong's traditional status as a free port with a minimum

of restrictions attracted trade and merchants to the Colony.

There always had been close commercial relations between

China and the United States, and as the latter country was one

of the few in the world which in 1946 had an exportable surplus,

it became Hong Kong's biggest customer for her exports, and

supplied a larger amount of her imports than any other

country .

Owing to the disturbed political conditions in China and all

over the Far East, the external pattern of Hong Kong's trade

went through considerable modifications. The most disturbing

feature was the halving of the trade with China, for on it Hong

Kong's real prosperity has always depended. Nevertheless, at

149

TRADE

the end of 1949 the trade boom was still continuing, the figures

each year far surpassing those of the previous one. Profits, how

ever, became less spectacular.

With the falling off in trade with China the Hong Kong

merchant had with his usual enterprise and versatility looked else

where. He built up more business with Malaya, Indonesia and

Thailand, and a lively trade started with Korea. Trade with

Japan advanced, and manufactured goods were in demand

from the United States, Canada and Australia . With the free

movement in the sterling area, trade with Africa, the West

Indies and the Middle East also increased .

This is the way the merchant saw the position in March 1950.

Mr. P. S. Cassidy, Chairman of the General Chamber of

Commerce, said at the annual meeting:

During the four years since trade was resumed after the reoccupation

the economy of Hong Kong has been re-established on what I believe is

a firm foundation .

The initiative and efforts not only ofour own members but of numerous

others outside our organization have yielded handsome returns, much of

which has been ploughed back into business. Law and order and a stable

currency are the main contributories to our good fortune. ..

Externally our trade has been subjected to abnormal conditions which

have required a good deal of ingenuity to overcome. But the history of the

trade of Hong Kong clearly shows that the abnormal is the normal, for

the periods when merchandise flowed unimpeded backwards and for

wards between this port and the hinterland have been few and far

between. The vast potentialities of the China market have been for two

hundred years or more the lure of Western traders, aa lure which seems to

be as remote today as it was when the factories of Canton were set up. I

think that most ofus here realize that there is little to be gained by taking

the long view where trade with China is concerned and that the best

course is to seize opportunities as they present themselves. That course has

led to the substantial development of our trade with various parts of South

East Asia as well as with Japan, Formosa and Korea, so that we are no

longer dependent upon the China market for the greater part of our

entrepôt trade. And although entrepôt business must always be our main

function it is highly desirable to encourage the development of our local

industries, for they are likely to play an increasingly important part in our

economy.

Hong Kong can never be quite sure of itself. It is at the mercy

of forces over which it has no control. The multitude of in

dependent nations in the Far East and western Pacific can take

all sorts of action with their overseas trade, which would be

150

TRADE WINDS

bound to affect Hong Kong, but there is nothing Hong Kong

could do to put it right. Hong Kong cannot force trade to come

to it. It can only attract. Hence it loathes restrictions of any

kind . If they want to make money—and what trader does not ?

-merchants in Hong Kong must be free traders.

It is an atmosphere which encourages speculation and any

rumour may affect the market. While I was in Hong Kong an

American aircraft was shot down in the Baltic. Gold and dollars

jumped owing to a rumour that the United States was severing

diplomatic relations with Russia. A few days later the owner

of a big godown business told me that he had no more room

because his godowns had been stuffed with paper. Someone else

said fantastic prices were being paid for places to store paper. I

asked a Chinese merchant why. ' It looks as if there might be

war', he said. ' Paper is very cheap now, but if there is a war

prices will soar.' The real truth was probably that you can never

keep anything quiet in Hong Kong. If one firm buys in a com

modity to store against rising prices, others quickly do the same.

For over a year stockists of paper had no chance of selling it.

Someone in desperation began to off -load his paper at a low

price. Others followed and those with a little spare cash were

buying it up in case prices should rise.

' It is never safe to prophesy,' II was told, ' but ups and downs

are a feature of Hong Kong. We blow with every wind . The

new China and its effect on trade may be something different

to previous ups and downs. If China accepts Russian doctrine,

then we're going to feel the draught.' In fact there are plenty of

Communist buying -agents in Hong Kong.

Meantime Hong Kong makes money while it can . Sir

Alexander Grantham in a speech to the Legislative Council

explained the attitude of Hong Kong in short and succinct

sentences :

On the political side we watch with sympathy what is going on in

China. We should like to help that great country in her undoubted diffi

culties, which, I am sure, she will overcome in time, but meanwhile we

cannot permit Hong Kong to be the battleground for contending political

parties or ideologies. We are just simple traders who want to get on with

our daily round and common task. This may not be very noble, but at any

rate it does not disturb others. We do not feel that we have a mandate to

reform the rest of the world .

151

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Country People and Their Landscape

THE STORY of the cities of Hong Kong is, as we have seen, a

recent one. It is written clearly, but, like a palimpsest, on some

thing far older. Of the old story one is far more conscious in the

New Territories than on the Island, but the writing is very

faded and, it is clear, was never extensive. It is as though the

document which the British took up to write their history in

this part of the world were a parchment unregarded, imperfect

for some reason or another, on which the scribe had done no

more than scribble a remark now and then.

Hong Kong itself finds no mention in Chinese histories nor

has any ancient monument been found on it. The mainland

territories have little more attention in Annals. Although not

very far from Canton, the capital of Kwangtung Province of

which they immemorially formed part, these areas were very

much on the outskirts; they were what we should call ' bush ',

‘jungle ' or ' bedu ', in other countries, troublesome places where

the inhabitants were bandits or pirates. In those days, govern

ments, whether in Europe or China, found it unprofitable and

usually unnecessary to poke their noses into such places.

The part of the South China massifon which the Colony stands

so solidly seems to be ofa respectable antiquity, considering that

it belongs to the Jurassic system , laid down in the Mesozoic age

about 150 million years ago. Geologists, however, consider this

as anything between youth and middle-age. Ages like this make

even Chinese history merely momentary, but the mainland of

Hong Kong does in some manner express well an impression of

the combination of geological and historical ages. Though they

are so old, its hills and valleys have no sense of senility. Firm and

rugged though they be, they have yet the air of quite frisky

dragons, and while the villages bespeak a civilization so much

older than our own it is as gracious and living as that of the

Cotswolds.

Somewhere about the time that Edward I was sitting on the

throne of England, Kublai Khan and his Mongols were invad

ing China. It was the period of the Sung dynasty, which, if you

152

THE END OF A DYNASTY

are even mildly fond of things Chinese, you associate with bowls

and vases dipped a thick cream, blue as a hedge-sparrow's egg,

which has dripped to the base of the vessel and hangs there in a

thick rim , looking still wet and recalling in its consistency pre

war cream . It was indeed a polished age in which art and litera

ture flourished. Printing had just been invented when the first

Sung Emperor ascended the throne in 950 and books multiplied .

But the scholarly Sungs were unwarlike and in 1279 the dynasty

came to an end in the waters around what is now Hong Kong.

The Emperor, no more than a young child, was in flight, driven

into these wild lands by the Mongol general. At last he was com

pelled to take to ship and passed through the narrow Lyemon

Pass which separates the Island of Hong Kong from the main

land, and for aa short while he stayed on the Kowloon peninsula.

Until the Japanese destroyed it during the recent war there was

a conspicuous granite boulder on a hill near old Kowloon City

incised with the Chinese characters Sung Wong Toi, Platform

of the Sung Emperor. Here the imperial court rested during

their flight, waiting for news and hoping in vain for help from

Canton. When help failed them they took to sampans, but the

Mongols hemmed them in and , so it is said, the prime minister,

seeing that all was lost, took the boy Emperor on his back and,

leaping into the sea, perished with him.

At the time of the tragic end of the Sung dynasty, Kowloon

City did not exist and it is said that the area was not much

populated until the peaceful time of the Ming dynasty ( 1368–

1628) , when many Puntis (Cantonese) settled and founded

villages and hamlets. The Tang family, however, were certainly

well established in Sung times and so no doubt were other Punti

clans. The Tangs in the New Territories are more numerous

than the Joneses in Wales and as confusing as those of the latter

tribe in the telephone directory. In fact if you had a list of the

Tangs they would look rather like names in a directory, for the

Chinese always put the surname first.

Behind the walled village of Kam Tin is the family home of

the elder, Tang Pak Kau, one of the two J.P.s of the New Terri

tories. * He is a kindly, hospitable man in his sixties with short

cropped white hair and a white moustache. To the charming

smiles of all his race he adds the graces of those of old lineage in

* Tang Pak Kau died on 16th July 1950.

153

COUNTRY PEOPLE

any land. The house was built only 60 years ago by his father

but it carries the atmosphere of an old -world country house,

cool and patioed , with fresh -coloured frescoes and good black

wood furniture. Fifty years ago, he told us, it was common to

employ artists from Canton to paint frescoes such as there were

here, lively representations of birds amidst trees and country

scenes. The house is only one storey high because the villagers

would not let his father build higher as they claimed it would

spoil the Fung Shui, on which, as we shall see, Chinese plan

ning so much depends.

Amongst Tang Pak Kau's heirlooms, which also included a

painting by King Fai Chun of the Sung dynasty, were a collec

tion of ten paintings, drawings of butterflies, birds, a grass

hopper, and flowers. The artist had caught all the spirit of a

butterfly poised above a flower, or lightly perched on it. These

pictures were 800 years old and the colours were as fresh as

those of the butterflies we had seen floating on the hillsides near

by. They breathed a charm not only of their own but also of the

girl who had painted them so long ago.

Fu Cheng was ‘ a quiet and virtuous girl and had the ability

of painting good pictures and writing good compositions' . She

was a daughter of Fu Pong, a secretary to the Minister of Sung

Ko Chung, the king. She found favour in the king's eyes and he

selected her as his second concubine . Of this union was born a

daughter on the 12th day of the 12th moon, who was named

Tsung Kei. When the child was 10 years old there was an

invasion of the kingdom, and she had to flee with the chief

concubine and other attendants of the palace to Kom Chau in

Kiang Si Province. On the way the young princess was lost.

At that time Tang Yuen Leung of Kam Tin was commander

of Kom Chau and leading his soldiers to the rescue of the king.

The princess, seeing the Sung flag over his encampment, came

to him for protection, but her identity was not disclosed . Having

nowhere else to go the princess followed Tang Yuen Leung back

to Kam Tin. There she found happiness and security and was

like a daughter to him . He, finding that she was a quiet and

virtuous girl , married her to his eldest son Tang Tze Ming and

they had four sons .

When after some years peace reigned again, the princess, then

a widow, sent her eldest son to her nephew, who was now the

154

THE EMPEROR'S AUNT

king. The king was deeply moved and sent attendants to bring

her to the palace and ordered that she be known as Wong Kwu,

the Emperor's Aunt. He presented her with the 10 pictures

painted by her mother, and all her sons were given high posts

in the Government, while she was granted tracts of land and

fields for her maintenance .

The Emperor's Aunt was famous for her humility. When she

was growing old her grave was chosen for her by a Fung Shui

expert. He selected a lion-shaped hill and asked whether she

would prefer to be buried on the lion's head , which would mean

that her descendants would be great men, or on its tail , which

would mean they would be more humble people. “ I do not want

my descendants to become great ’ , said the princess. “ They could

never be as high as an Emperor's daughter and yet even I was

in danger of my life. I wish them to enjoy the red rice and the

shiny-scale fish (unhusked rice and herrings - farmers' food ).

If they have that they should be content. ' She died at the age of

87 and was buried on the tail of the lion near Shek Lung. Her

four sons received the title of Kwok She, and even today the

people of Kam Tin call their fathers ' She ' instead of ‘Ah Dai ' ,

the equivalent of ‘ Daddy ' .

More than eight hundred summers have passed since the

gentle Fu Cheng captured the spirit of those birds and butterflies

and preserved them on her painting paper. Now my fingers

handled them. Eight hundred years is little enough in the history

of China, but in the history of my own people the Norman kings

were ruling and it falls to none of us to hold pictures of that date

in our hands, let alone to feel so close in contact with the artist.

These pictures were painted by a princess about the same time

that another princess was embroidering the Bayeux tapestry .

The founders of branches of a clan may all be called ' First

Ancestor ' , which tends to be confusing, and the Tangs venerate

several First Ancestors, among them Tang Yue born in A.D. 2 ,

their earliest known ancestor, and Tang Hong Fat whom some

say was the first Tang to settle in Kam Tin. Tang Pak Kau told

us that he can trace his family back for 26 generations from

Yuen Leung who befriended the princess. He was one of the

' Five Yuens ', five Tang ancestors each with the name of Yuen .

The other four left Kam Tin and founded branches of the family

elsewhere.

155

COUNTRY PEOPLE

The people ofKam Tin are all Puntis, or original inhabitants,

with one exception, and the Hakkas have not penetrated as they

have in other places. The exception is a band of people from

two or three villages who had to be moved when the Jubilee

Reservoir was built. They were settled at Kam Tin but, we were

told, they have never prospered. Indeed, whenever it is now

suggested that a village might have to move, as for instance

where the new airport is being built, the people of such a village

point to the misfortune of the Kam Tin settlers as an example of

what happens if people are moved from their homes, for it

upsets the Fung Shui.

Kam Tin has also gained notoriety in modern times. When

British troops occupied the New Territories in 1899 the vil

lagers, who, it is said, knew nothing about the leasing, were

alarmed and shut themselves behind their walls, barring the

iron gates. When they refused to open them, the troops attacked

and broke into the village and removed the gates, which were

given to the Governor, Sir Henry Blake. On his retirement he

took them to his home in Ireland and set them up there.

Twenty -five years later Tang Pak Kau, on behalf of the village,

petitioned Government for their restoration. The Governor, Sir

Reginald Stubbs, had some difficulty in tracing them but they

were eventually run to earth and brought back from Ireland .

On the 26th of May 1925 a ceremony was held at Kam Tin

when the gates were returned to their original home.

These iron gates lead into a portico where there is aa shrine to

the Land God and two red scrolls commemorating the restora

tion . A lane leads straight from the gateway to the temple at

the other end of the village, with rows of houses leading off to

right and left. When I saw it the temple had an uncared -for

look and a sow was staling in front of the altar. It was sunset

and the farmers with their families and animals were returning

from the fields, women bearing baskets of greens slung on

bamboo poles, girls with pails of water from the well outside the

walls, and young children leading great ungainly buffaloes.

Outside the gate, on the bridge of earth which now lies across

the ancient moat, an ice-cream man was doing a roaring trade

with the children .

Some time after the Puntis had occupied the best portion of

the peninsula, settlers from the north-east, speaking a different

156

Paul Tsui's home among the leaping dragon hills ’, taken from the

grave on the dragon's head ( p. 167)

PLATE XXI

The Land of

the Jumping

Dragon :

Yellow Dragon

Spits Pearl

(Ch. 18)

17 :

172

I LO WAI 10 SUN URK TSUEN

2 LO TSUEN II SIU HANG

3 ANCESTRAL TEMPLE 12 SUNG HIM TONG

4 TUNG KOK WAL 13 TSUP'S HOUSE

5 MA WAT WAI 14 THE PEARL

6 MA WAT TSUEN 15 THE GRAVE (REPRESENTING THE

7 WING NING WAI MOUTH OF THE YELLOW DRAGON )

8. TAITENG 16-161 & 162 LUNG SHAN ( DRAGON HILL)

9 KUN LUNG WAI 17-171 & 172 THE PHOENIX

1162)

PLATES XXII, XXIII

Kam Tin, the Village of Ornamental Fields and home of the Tang

family (p . 153)

' In the village of Kut Hung . . . is an old- fashioned farm -house

shaded by great mango trees ' ( p. 177)

PLATE XXIV

PUNTIS , HAKKAS , AND HOKLOS

dialect, started to infiltrate into the Punti settlements. These

were Hakkas, strangers, originally natives of Shantung who

during the Tsin dynasty, 255–202 B.C. , were persecuted and

began their wanderings in search of a permanent home. Later

on there came another infiltration of men who were originally

seafarers, the Hoklos. They were a daring, ferocious people

much addicted to smuggling and piracy, and many of them are

still boat people. They are a minority in the New Territories,

where the pattern of life is largely based on the rivalry of Punti

and Hakka. The way it works out provides many an interesting

story.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Wind and Water

LONG, LONG AGO and ever so long ago , before London and Hong

Kong had Sir Patrick Abercrombie or the Ministry of Town and

Country Planning to tell them how to arrange themselves, the

Chinese arranged the siting of their homes, their temples and

their graves in accordance with the principles of Wind and

Water, or Fung Shui. Sir Patrick in his report on town planning

in Hong Kong refers to ‘ Chinese village life in the New Terri

tories with its exquisite examples of humanly developed land

scape regulated by the principles of Fung Shui'.

The Book of Burial says the immaterial or spiritual counter

part of the body (if I have got the idea right) when carried by

wind will disperse, when bounded by water will stop. The

Chinese idea was apparently to prevent this dispersal and the

system of achieving this was therefore known as Wind and

Water. It seems that, since this is the first mention of Fung

Shui, the original system was confined to the siting of graves,

but as none of the principal requirements of life can be pro

duced without favourable weather conditions it came to be

applied to the siting of temples and houses as well. It is, how

ever, still very important in the case of graves. In Hong Kong

Around and About, the authors S. H. Peplow and M. Barker say :

157

WIND AND WATER

In making a grave there is one essential to keep in mind. The spirit

must be comfortable. The more beautiful the surroundings and outlook,

the better the Fung Shui, and therefore the happier the spirit. The dead,

like the living, appreciate warm winds in the winter and cool winds in the

summer and so the best site for a grave is facing due south, and if possible

near either the sea or other body of water. The grave is made for choice

in a small hollow between two hills ; the hill on the left as one looks out

from the grave, is called the Green Dragon, and that on the right, the

White Tiger. The influence from the sun, or Yeung, enters the Green

Dragon, passes through the grave to the White Tiger and returns to Yam,

the moon influence. As ... nothing can exist without Yeung and Yam, so

the spirit of the departed must be supplied with their influences for its

comfort.

Fung Shui is another case in which the West and China

reached different conclusions. Just as we developed geomancy

so the Chinese developed Fung Shui, and one cannot help

hoping that they will always stick to it, for it results in country

planning of a far more delightful nature than our own modern

system. None the less I like to believe that some Fung Shui

instinct has also been at work with us in our pleasure in finding

a house with a good view and our dislike of being overlooked,

and so on . It is plainly good Fung Shui to site a house facing

south so that it is warm in winter and has cooling breezes in

summer, and to build on high ground out of the reach of floods

and damp. We too see natural features as animals and so on,

but unfortunately not nearly so much as the Chinese whose

keen imaginations make poetry of any country landscape.

In China a range of hills may take many a shape—a lion, a

tiger, a bird , a fish , a snake or a tortoise, but above all a dragon.

We all love dragons but I suppose none of us has really and

truly seen one. But we would agree with my too matter - of -fact

friend Paul Tsui (whom we shall meet later on) that ‘ it is

always taken for granted that the dragon looks something like

a snake, but not quite a snake, as it has four legs ; nor is it quite

like an animal as it is believed to have scales on its snake-like

body ' .

All the physical features of the countryside are interpreted in

terms of the ‘ Expression of its Dragon ’. Never mind if it looks

like a tiger, an old man, or a tortoise, it is all referred to as ' Its

Dragon expression ’.

The general principle accepted in Fung Shui is that every

formation has its starting- point, its body, and its end, each of

158

FUNG SHUI

which forms an entity in itself. Such entities may overlap one

another; or one entity may form a part of another greater entity,

which has nothing to do with it. For instance, a mountain when

looked at from a distance may resemble a huge dragon ; on

approaching nearer one may spot a peak which, if looked at

from a certain angle, is like a standing lion ; or a small hillock

at one corner of the massive mountain may, to certain in

dividuals, look like a tiger or a tortoise. In selecting your Fung

Shui site you can isolate your own lion or tiger or tortoise with

out taking into consideration the huge dragon which embodies

your lion or tiger.

If your need is the tiger, you may ignore the lions or the

dragon or the turtle so long as the latter are not in your way.

If, for instance, you sit in front of your site which you have

decided is a deer, and looking forward from it you observe a hill

in the distance that appears to you like a tiger sitting there

ready to jump at you, it would be fatal to your fortune to make

use of the site you have chosen. A tiger is vulnerable to the

attack of a lion, a lion vulnerable to a mouse, a mouse to a cat,

a cat to a dog, a dog to a tiger . .

in various cycles of vul

nerability. There is no absolute guarantee of perpetual in

vulnerability and hence, no matter what Fung Shui you have

chosen, it does not insure your descendants against harmful

influences for ever.

Site selection depends also on many factors. In the case of a

dragon, the best site is usually at its head or lips, for thereby you

take advantage of the immense majesty of its head. You must

not build your grave or house on its eyes, for then you will blind

the dragon and it cannot help you . If it is a tiger site, you

usually build on one side but at a place slightly behind it, so

that you will be in a position to command and control the tiger

in your service, as you would do when you hold the leash of

your dog. If you build your house immediately in front and

beneath a tiger, you will soon become his victim (when he gets

hungry ). If the site is the site of an old man, you should seek to

build your house inside his arms so that you will enjoy not only

his protection but also his love, just as if your grandfather might

hold you in his arms.

There are other points too, which depend on the time of day

you were born. In old Chinese culture a day is divided into

159

WIND AND WATER

12 periods instead of 24 hours. Each period has its animal. If you

belong to the rat group your house or grave should not be built

on a site which is fatal to a rat, for example, a cat or a snake : it

would be favourable to build on a lion or elephant site.

The selection of aa site is in fact a question of an individual's

taste or need, but the snags have always been, in China as with

us, that what is good for you is death to someone else. You may

choose a lion site but it may happen that your lion is looked

upon by your neighbours as being the backbone of their dragon .

If you build on your lion you may be breaking their dragon's

back, hence a dispute or even a fight. Settlement of such a

dispute often depends on the ingenious interpretation of aa Fung

Shui expert called in at the last minute. He may be able to

devise a poetic name appropriate to the formation and call it

‘A fairy riding the heavenly dragon ' as in a certain classical

legend. Ifsuch a new interpretation is accepted the dispute may

be settled by appeasement; otherwise it could easily lead to

bloodshed .

Fung Shui experts command large fees — they may charge

anything from 30 to 1,000 dollars, according to the wealth of

their clients. And , of course, there are a large number of charla

tans among them . But taking it all in all, Fung Shui has done

much to preserve the balance of man and the rest of nature in

China and to make aa Chinese landscape the joy it is.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The Land of the Jumping Dragon

( i) Yellow Dragon Spits Pearl

NOT FAR from Fan Ling is a fairy -tale country which used to

be called the Land of the Dragon's Bones when the Wongs lived

there. In the long ago of the Sung dynasty people of the Tang

clan came. They were cousins of the Kam Tin Tangs, and in

course of time they spread over the eastern half of the New

Territories as far as Sha Tau Kok and Tai Po. The Tangs did

160

THE RECOGNITION OF DRAGONS

not like their dragons dead so they changed the name of the

country to the Land of the Jumping Dragon. How the Wongs

ever thought the dragon dead one cannot tell, for there the

yellow-scaly creature is, its humps all a-quiver and in front of

its gaping mouth lies aa pearl it has spat forth . If you look at it

prosaically enough you can recognize a formation of humpy

little hills with a small round hillock in front - Wong Long To

Chu the people call them, Yellow Dragon Spits Pearl. Once you

practise believing in these dragons it is quite easy to see them .

Half an hour a day is more than is necessary.

Amongst the leaping dragon hills aa little river twists and turns.

They called it the Phoenix, for the phoenix is the dragon's

mate. This fairy -tale country you will hardly expect to find on

the 1/80 :000 map. The War Office does not believe in fairies

any longer, though north - east of Fan Ling one village of the

dragon's playground, Sun Wai, has slipped in disguised as a

camp. In the map it lies in the fork of the river Indus, which

the strange English have brought all the way to China with the

Ganges to keep it company. Here, oddly enough, the Indus

flows between the Cheviots and the Cotswolds and the Ganges

between the former and the Mendips. In between is Laffan's

Plain, and south of Fan Ling are the South Downs with Snow

don raising its lofty head to 329 metres. Perhaps it is really

because homesick soldiers like their own fairy tales. North-west

of the river's fork, fairyland is guarded on the map by part of

the Cotswolds, Lung Shan or Dragon Hill.

The Tangs built themselves a village, and as they were

strangers and only a small number, they built a wall round it.

A village with a wall is called Wai and today that first village

is known as Lo Wai or Old Walled Village. The village pros

pered, and as the grandchildren and great-grandchildren multi

plied and married and had more grandchildren, there came a

time when there was not any more room to build in Lo Wai. So

they built another village for the overflow and called it Tung

Kok Wai or Walled Village at the Eastern Corner, but as it is

built on a point at the end of the slope of a hill people got in

the habit of calling it Shan Kok Wai, or Walled Village on the

Point of the Hill. All these different names are very confusing

until you realize that they are not so much names as descrip

tions of situations.

161

YELLOW DRAGON SPITS PEARL

Shan Kok Wai was built towards the end of the Sung dynasty ,

when the princess married Tang Tze Ming. The marriage shed

lustre and brought fortune to the whole clan, so they built an

ancestral temple near Lo Wai, which is perhaps the largest

ancestral temple still existing in the New Territories, and it

serves all the eastern Tangs.

Meantime the community continued to increase and three new

villages had to be founded . One of these, Kun Lung Wai, is

believed to have been built at a much later stage, when the Tang

clan was so prosperous that the Emperor himself, the Incarnate

Dragon, paid it a visit. To see the Dragon means to have an

audience with the Emperor, and Kun Lung Wai means the

Walled Village worthy of seeing the Dragon. As that is a very

distinguished name it generally manages to get called by it

rather than by a description, though it is sometimes known as

Sun Wai New Walled Village.

By the time these three new villages had been built Lo Wai

had again become too small and another village was built just

beyond the ancestral temple. We may suppose that by this time

the country was peaceful, or at any rate that the Tangs no

longer needed walls to protect them, for it was called Ancestral

Temple Unwalled Village, Tzi Tong Tsuen . By this time, too,

the first overflow villages of Lo Wai had themselves overflowed

into several more villages, except for Shan Kok Wai. No one

seems quite to know why, but although it had at first been

prosperous its fortunes declined and declined. Most people

shake their heads over it and expect it was bad Fung Shui' .

(ii) Worship Humility Church

In the 24th year of the reign of the Emperor Kwong Shu, which

was 1897, there came to the Land of the Jumping Dragon a

Hakka by the name of Kong Tai Kuen. Up to that time none

but Tangs had lived there. Kong rented a house and became a

tenant-farmer. He recommended two of his relations to come

along also, but they stayed only three years and then returned

to the Kong ancestral village at Li Long north of the Shum

Chun river, while Kong Tai Kuen gave up farming in the

Jumping Dragon Land and moved to Fan Ling. This is very

162

PINE TREES TERRACE POND

much the pattern of Hakka infiltration into Punti lands. One

comes and calls another : if they manage to survive in the face

of local prejudice, well and good. If they do not they move and

try somewhere else.

Kong had also recommended another Hakka, the Reverend

Chan Lok Chun of the Basel Evangelical Missionary Society, to

come along. The Basel Mission had come to Hong Kong in the

middle of the nineteenth century and started work in the

Swatow district, an attempt which soon failed . Then they tried

again at Po Kut north of the Shum Chun river. Anti -foreign

sentiment pursued them and they therefore moved to Li Long,

where they established a Bible College to train native mis

sionaries. Here they were successful and the mission then

opened a new station at Ng Wah up the East River. When these

and other stations had been founded a system of parishes was

established and in each the mission set up a primary school,

founding also a middle school from which candidates as

missionaries and teachers could graduate to the Bible College at

Li Long.

The Reverend Chan brought his family with him when he

came to Jumping Dragon Land in 1897 , and, intending to

ettle down as a farmer, he rented a house in Ancestral Temple

Unwalled Village. But in 1898 he decided that his Punti farm

hands were too much for him and his neighbours too difficult,

so having lost in one year most of his money, he made up his

mind to return to mission work and rented his land to kinsmen ,

Chan Kiu and his father.

In 1900 Chan Kiu moved to a hut which he had built in

front of the Pearl-spitting Yellow Dragon . But the Chans were

Christians and they did not recognize the dragon Fung Shui,

so they called the place Tsung Hom Tong, Pine Trees Terrace

Pond. A pond is still there but there do not seem ever to have

been any pine trees. Perhaps it was just a recollection of the old

family home.

Meanwhile other Christian Hakkas, of the family of Lin, had

come to the Land of the Jumping Dragon to farm , and among

them was Lin Bun Chung and the Reverend Lin Sin Yuen .

These two built a row of eight houses for themselves and the

Chans, forming the nucleus of a Hakka village. But it did not all

go smoothly. The Tangs never did like the intruding Hakkas,

163

WORSHIP HUMILITY CHURCH

and one of them said that the houses would interfere with the

Fung Shui of the urns in which he kept the bones of his ances

tors. The Reverend Lin thereupon petitioned the District

Officer ( who was later to become well known as Sir Cecil

Clementi, a distinguished governor both of Hong Kong and

Malaya ), and he settled the matter by ordaining that burial

sites for the dead could not be allowed to interfere with the

building of houses for the living. The Reverend Lin had to pay

$20 for a dragon dance to be performed, but after that every

body appeared to be happy and the Chans and Lins moved in.

Thus the village was founded in 1902 .

Two of the houses were afterwards sold to the Basel Mission

and were used as a chapel for more than 20 years. Perhaps it

was at this time that the village got its name of Sung Him Tong,

Worship Humble Church or the Village of the Church which

Worships Humility. It was not until 1927, by which time the

village had grown larger and larger, that a church was built.

Yes, the village grew larger and larger, just as the Tang

villages had grown and as all villages do with peace and pros

perity. I find it a fascinating story, this tale of how the Chans

and the Lins grew up and how other Hakka families came in

and more houses were built. There are about 20 houses or

terraces in the village now. Many of the newcomers were

missionaries who came as pastors and settled on retirement. One

of the first was the Reverend Pang Lok Sam. In 1901 he had

been sent to the parish of Tai Po and for the next three years he

used to come to Humility Worshipping Village once a fortnight

to preach. In 1904 a new parish was started there and Pang

became its first pastor, holding the office for seven years, after

which he retired and built himself a house in the village. He had

married the daughter of a Basel Mission convert called Tsui

and it was through him that his brother -in -law , Peter Tsui,

came. Peter Tsui Yan Sau had been born in the East River

district and educated at St. Joseph's College in Hong Kong. He

became a Catholic and returned later as a master to his old school,

but decided to start a school on his own and founded the Wah

Yan College, which he afterwards sold to the Jesuit Fathers.

Today the village of Worship Humility Church consists of a

collection of multiple families. There are Tsuis and Lins and

Pangs and Chans and Cheungs ( Cheung Wo Bun came as a

164

THE CHRISTIAN VILLAGE

missionary in 1913) and Tsangs (Tsang Ting Fai came in 1927)

-about ten different families not related by blood but with

Christianity as the common bond . Herein lies the difference

between them and the Punti Tangs, none of whom are

Christians.

Not all of the villagers are in the Church or on the land,

though there is scarce a family not represented in one or the

other. But they could not all live on so restricted an area and

many of them have therefore travelled far afield and some have

gained distinction. The younger brother of Chan Kiu went off

to British Guiana, a son of the Reverend Cheung went to North

Borneo and another to Sarawak. The Reverend Lin Sin Yuen

had four sons, all distinguished . The eldest, Dr. D. Y. Lin, has

been famous all over China and is well known in America.

The second, a Yale graduate, is a professor of English ; the third

is also an American graduate, and the fourth is an agriculturist.

(iii) In Jumping Dragon Land

The first time we came to the village was with Dr. D. Y. Lin

himself. He had been born in it and had gone to school there.

He then went, with missionary assistance, to St. John's

University, Shanghai, and thence with a Boxer indemnity

scholarship to Columbia University where he had got a doctor's

degree of science. As he told us, his was a poor family but he had

travelled widely and made the most of his opportunities. After

10 years lecturing at Peking and Nanking Universities, Dr. Lin

became Chief Forestry Officer for all China, and in 1936 was

appointed Director of Agriculture and Forestry of the Kwang

tung Province. During the war he was technical adviser for the

development of the Great North West, and afterwards became

head of the China National Relief Rehabilitation Administra

tion for South China, or more briefly C.N.R.R.A. , the Chinese

equivalent of UNRRA. He was then invited to serve as a tech

nical adviser at UNO and , retiring in 1949, had come home to the

village.

He had asked us to lunch in the modern villa in which he was

living on the outskirts of Fan Ling, and there we met his wiſe

and children . Very American with his accent, spectacles and

165

IN JUMPING DRAGON LAND

homburg, Dr. Lin talked well and interestingly as we sat in his

living -room and nibbled peanuts coated with sugar, cashew

nuts and puffed rice. He told us with pride that he was a Hakka

and that in their battles with the Cantonese the Hakkas proved

the better men. There is still animosity between them. The

Cantonese despise the Hakkas as the latter are poorer. They

are so poor that in fact they never went in for foot- binding, but

they are very hard -working and unless they took to a city life

they have never been opium smokers. Another of their attri

butes which Dr. Lin and other Hakkas emphasized is that they

take a bath every day. ' If I came home ', said Dr. Lin, ' and

told my mother I was too tired to bath she was horrified .'

After lunch we went to the village. Walking down a narrow

path we came at length to a bridge: a bridge over the narrow

deep bed of the Phoenix river which leads from the noisy whirl

of today to the quiet of the village. The bridge is narrow, too

narrow for any vehicle but a wheelbarrow or a bicycle, and

there is an inscription on a boulder on the further side giving

the names of those who subscribed to build it. Down at the

bottom of the bed the stream runs sluggishly among all the old

pots and pans which villagers in too many places throw into

their streams. The narrowness of the bridge had saved the

village from the Japanese, and it has saved it too from intimate

contact with motor -cars, lorries, and the like.

Dr. Lin was working on a sociological survey of the village

and said there were 28 families or 236 souls, 57 men, 83 women

and 96 children, owning about 50 acres between them. There is

a school with 220 children, most of whom come from other

villages near by. There is neither doctor nor nurse in the

village, nor indeed in Fan Ling, and the sick must go to Tai Po.

Old Mrs. Lin, his mother, now 86, still lives in the village

and, I rather gathered, more or less rules it. He did not take us

to see her as she rests in the afternoon, but we went to the happy,

humble little church from where we could hear the familiar

sounds of Easter hymns. A choir of boys and girls were practis

ing and they sang a hymn for us. Though the tune was one we

knew, the words were in Chinese.

Not far from the church was a nice-looking large country

house and I asked Dr. Lin to whom it belonged. He said that it

was not very old and had been built by a rich man. ' I suppose

166

THE ' SQUIRE'S HOUSE '

you would call him the squire of the village ? ' I asked, and he

agreed . We little knew then we should be staying in that house,

but a few weeks later Paul Tsui, the District Officer of the

Southern District of the New Territories and son of Peter Tsui,

asked us to spend a week-end there with him .

So we did not feel strange when we came again, this time

with Paul, to the little bridge and walked between the paddy

fields and the farm -houses, passing again by the church, and

came to the ‘ squire's house ' . There we were greeted by Paul's

mother, his sisters Agnes, a teacher at Wah Yan College, and

Louisa, and three brothers, Joseph, Matthew and Stephen.

Louisa and Matthew are undergraduates at the University

the one reading Chinese literature and the other economics

Stephen is on the staff ofJohn D. Hutchison, and Joseph, the

youngest brother, who passed out of the Northcote Training

College in 1949, is a P.T. instructor. Another brother, Mark,

who is in business as an importer of motor-car parts, we had

already met. In the background were numerous nephews and

nieces.

Although the house is not much more than 20 years old, it

had got that pleasant feeling of a well-worn and lived-in country

home. The terraced lawns and flower-beds had the homely look

of having been left a few weeks too long without the mower and

the hoe. On one side there was a fish -pond. Paul explained as

we walked out after tea that his house had good Fung Shui for

it faced three plateaux or altars, and is backed by three more ;

furthermore it faced up -river. If you build a house near a river

you must face the water flowing towards you and not look into

it downstream or all your prosperity will flow away.

The Fung Shui experts had had plenty to exercise them in

this village. The hill immediately behind was in fact the Jumping

Dragon's head, and it had a number of graves which had long

served the villagers as a subject of argument. You must get good

Fung Shui for your ancestors' graves in order to ensure success

for the family. Presumably the family who had made the first

grave had not had too much success, and this would be attri

buted to bad siting. The next had tried a different angle, but

they cannot have done too well either, and so you see on the

hillside the efforts at getting just the right angle. Finally in

desperation someone had built a quite enormous tomb in order

167

IN JUMPING DRAGON LAND

to make as sure as possible of including in it the place with just

the right Fung Shui. So it should have, for it is built right on the

dragon's lips. No doubt in the villagers' estimation the fact that

Paul had got on so well, and his family prospered, is due to the

good Fung Shui his father got for their home.

As Paul led the way along a path over a hill, he talked in his

usual rapid fashion on the history and folk -lore of the country

side in which he had been brought up. Scrambling after him we

came to the ancient walls of Lo Wai, the earliest of all the Tang

villages in the Jumping Dragon's Playground. The gate was

narrow and within the walls the houses had an ancient look,

though in tropical climates houses and ruins have not got to be

very old before weather and the green shifts in which Nature so

quickly clothes them give them that ancient look. In one house

Paul pointed out the household gods with the symbols of Sau

longevity, Luk-prosperity, and Fuk - family harmony. Outside

another was a small walled garden. ' Probably the home of a

scholar ', said Paul. ' They liked to have a garden to look upon.'

We sat with the oldest inhabitant, Tang Fung Ting, in a

slightly more spacious house which had a sort of conservatory

with plants in glazed pots and a vine growing over the roof.

There were Nationalist posters on the wall, and scrolls, and

coloured photographs of Mr. Tang and his son in Western

clothes. The table was covered with a miscellaneous collection :

paper flowers in bright china vases, newspapers and books, two

silver ornamental cups in glass cases, and a Laughing Buddha.

Our host confirmed some of the Tang history we had already

heard and claimed that his ancestor was the eldest son of the

princess . The house must have seen a good deal of history for it

was 200 years old. From listening to his talk we had gained the

impression that he had never left Lo Wai, but he had gone to

Holland in 1925 and remained there for eight years as clerk to a

Seamen's Institute in Rotterdam .

Outside a food hawker was peddling chilli and soy sauce,

sweets and biscuits . These villages have no market, but a

butcher calls each day, blowing his trumpet to announce his

arrival ; a fishmonger also comes, as well as other hawkers.

The large ancestral temple built near Lo Wai is today used

also as a school. There are three chapels, each filled with tablets.

The central chapel contains tablets of the important ancestors,

168

THE TSUI FAMILY

with on one side the chapel with tablets of those who had sub

scribed, and on the other those who had earned decorations or

titles. Subscribers need not be dead to have their tablets placed

there, but instead ofsaying something like 'Rest in peace ' they

say ‘ Long live So-and-so' .

' In these old villages', said Paul, ' the Tang clan is dying out

and houses are gradually being sold to Hakkas. Land changes

hands many times' , he went on . ' It is said that there are 800

owners of the same piece of land in a thousand years.'

It was supper-time when we returned and most of the family

had already eaten, but Matthew kept the three of us company,

and afterwards we were joined by Louisa and Stephen. Louisa

has not had the same chance of learning English as her brothers

because most of her schooling had to be done in China, to which

her family fled during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.

But she is doing her best to catch up as she is anxious to learn,

but finds the set books like Pride and Prejudice rather dull. Paul's

father was ‘ very strict on religion ' and he had seen to it that his

children were well educated. “ The status of the family has thus

been raised ',> said Paul, although he still has relatives who are

simple farmers. When the Wah Yan College was sold to the

Jesuits they agreed that the Tsui boys should get a free educa

tion there, and at Wah Yan Paul's catholicism was strengthened .

Only his mother of all the family remains faithful to the Basel

Mission .

On Sunday morning we visited the original farm -huts built

by the Lins. We began at No. I and were at once struck by the

absence of shrines and the fact that the back part had a door

directly opposite the front entrance. This is rare in non

Christian homes where precautions are taken to ward off evil

spirits. Fortunately they can only travel straight, so you can

thwart them by placing something in their path. The front door

faces aa wall, and the door to the back part of the house is placed

to one side.

Chan Kiu, now 81 and one of thefirst inhabitants, welcomed

us in. His face was brown and lined and he sat telling us more

history with his legs tucked up underneath him. He had come

at the age of about 30 from Li Long at the time of the Boxer

rising in order to work on the Reverend Chan's land, and he had

built his present house himself. As we talked the church bell

169

IN JUMPING DRAGON LAND

began its summons to Sunday morning worshippers. We looked

at the wall clock, which was an hour slow. “ We don't worry

about summer time,' said Chan, ' we work according to the

sun. ' His daughter came in with her child to prepare for church

and began washing the little boy's face. We rose to go and

called next at the house which had once been the chapel. It

was now the home of the pastor, the Reverend Man Fook San,

who had been 46 years with the Basel Mission. He is 71 and his

wife, smiling and talkative, had been his faithful companion

wherever he had gone; they have moved house continuously.

‘A missionary must be prepared to go anywhere', she said.

A few doors along we called in for a moment on Mrs. Cheung,

widow of the former pastor. She was ready for church in her

dark blue Hakka clothing and a large prayer-book was on the

table beside her. Finally we went into the largest of the houses

where Mrs. Lin lives. But it is also the home of Mr. Pang, son

of the Reverend Pang, and it was his family we met. The Rev.

Pang, who was a recognized leading elder and had received the

Coronation medal , died only three years ago. His widow lives

with her son in this house. We could hear the choir singing in

the church, and fearing to delay those who were preparing to

attend the service, we left.

They were still singing in Worship Humble Church, and

there was not a soul about outside, when we left the village

shortly afterwards. There was so much in that village to recall

other villages one had lived in or known in other countries.

Somehow it was a wrench to pass out again over the little bridge

into the outer world. May that little bridge and the dragon and

the phoenix still contrive to guard the village, and when I go

back may they still be singing in Worship Humble Church.

170

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Farmers and Farming

THE ANNUAL REPORT of the Agricultural Department for the

year 1946–7 is signed ‘ Thomas R. Ryan, Acting Super

intendent of Agriculture ', a piece of information that does not

in itself look particularly exciting. But the document has his

toric interest because it is the first report of its kind ever

published in Hong Kong. How the Colony managed to ' get

away ' with having no Agricultural Department until after the

war I do not know, as it has at least 80 square miles of agricul

tural land farmed by some of the hardest-working farmers in the

world. But the greatest interest in that document is that of the

signature. It is unlikely that any other colony can claim that it

owes its early management, and indeed a share of the inception,

of its Agricultural Department to a Jesuit priest, and yet it was

to Dr. C. A. G. Herklots and to Father Ryan that the founda

tion of the Department is really due.

Father Ryan, a remarkable man to whom Hong Kong owes

much more than administrative agricultural pioneering, heads

a remarkable team of men whose contribution to the Colony's

well-being is most noteworthy. Any colony where agriculturists,

chemists, co-operative experts, economists, dramatists, educa

tionists, etc. , are in short supply would be well advised to

indent for a team of Jesuit priests, specifying only that they

should be as well equipped as those in Hong Kong.

The urgency of rehabilitating the farming population after

the war made the establishment of an agricultural department a

pressing need. It started with its acting Superintendent and four

Chinese. The needs of the time forced certain enterprises into

existence such as the Wholesale Vegetable Market, now joined

to a department dealing with co-operative societies, and the

pig-breeding station. In addition there were—and still are—the

problems of the distribution of fertilizers, animal foods and seeds,

and the maturation and distribution of nightsoil . This last and

unsavoury product of the cities is a most valuable fertilizer but

there are inherent dangers in its use. The possibility of lessening

or neutralizing these is being investigated by Father McCarthy,

171

FARMERS AND FARMING

another Jesuit priest, who is a chemist. Father McCarthy has a

number of unusual achievements to his credit. During the war

he was in Macao and managed to keep the electricity plant

working on anything but the normal fuels. He also produced

ladies' finger -nail varnish, which seemed to me a surprising

enterprise for a priest !

The main objects in introducing the wholesale marketing of

vegetables were to ensure that any profits went to the producer

rather than to the middlemen , and that eventually it would lead

to co -operative marketing by the farmers themselves. The

organization started in September 1946 and met with strong

opposition not only from the middlemen, which was to be

expected, but also from the farmers, who did not at first appre

ciate the benefits it could bring them. Now, however, the major

ity of the farmers have come to realize the advantages of the

scheme. There are two markets, a very large one in Kowloon

and a smaller one in Hong Kong, and there are five collecting

depots in the New Territories from whence the vegetables are

taken to the market by Government transport.

Robert Hart, now in charge of the scheme, showed us round

the Kowloon market. I could not help thinking what aa satisfac

tion it must have been to the enthusiasts, Dr. Herklots and

others, who in the long months of their internment in Stanley

had thought over the problem of the farmer and planned this

enterprise for the days to come. Their faith had been justified,

and they and Father Ryan are owed much by the farmer even

if it is not yet fully appreciated. Though a Government enter

prise there was a refreshing absence of that atmosphere which

one is too apt to consider inseparable from Government under

takings. It was lively and bright and business-like, and the

incredible din which is the inevitable accompaniment of any

activity in Hong Kong did nothing to disguise the enthusiasm of

those who had to do with it. Hart himself, with American

training and business experience in North China behind him,

was responsible for a great deal of the liveliness and the adver

tising ideas, amenities, and so on . He had as his assistant a

young man, Clifton Large, as British as might be, but born and

brought up and educated in Hong Kong so that he was bi

lingual in English and Cantonese. And the vision of Father

Ryan is still there to help Hart and Large to develop the scheme,

172

KOWLOON MARKET

aided by the expert knowledge of another of that band of

devoted and highly qualified Jesuits, Father O'Dwyer. I asked

him what his position in the organization was—he is there every

day—and he told me“ unofficial adviser on co -operatives ’. Just

to make sure that he is qualified he has been, at Vatican expense,

round many other countries of the world to study co-operative

methods. Fortunate Hong Kong !

Hart and he yelled information at us.

When we arrived preparations were in hand for the second

daily auction. The first is at 6 a.m. and the second at 11 a.m.

The Hong Kong housewife likes her vegetables fresh and, as I

have said before, markets twice a day. What is sold in the

wholesale market at six is in the retail markets in time to be

bought for the midday meal, and the 11 a.m. auction supplies

the afternoon shoppers.

There are about 7,000 sales daily and a large chart on the

wall graphically showed how sales had increased. Much of the

early success in increasing production, Hart said, was due to

propaganda. One method was to post bills on lorries and at

depots with ‘ Grow more vegetables ’ : pencils were distributed

with the same slogan on them ; match -box labels bore the same

message, and the idea, coupled perhaps with increasing demand,

took on remarkably quickly.

Visitors, buyers and sellers, and transport drivers are ex

tremely well provided for. The canteen, with its cheap meals, is

clean and well run . There is a well-patronized cinema. Above

all the echoing din of shouting coolies, farmers and clerks, loud

speakers play popular music and at intervals announcements in

Cantonese and Hakka give information - even the hours at

which buses are leaving. There are adult classes, a class for

boys, who have been earning a precarious living as ' shoe-shine '

boys, to mend and make vegetable baskets, and, when we

visited the market, Hart had just opened what he proudly

called aa crèche. Here, in the corner of a godown, mothers could

leave their babies in charge of an amah, and each baby had a

‘ cot ' ingeniously made by stretching a piece of canvas across a

basket .

For all this the Government takes 10 per cent from the farmers'

sales . The whole concept seemed to me a fine enterprise in civic

education . It is true, however, that the farmer out in the fields

173

FARMERS AND FARMING

does not get quite so much out of it as the man who goes to

market. But I expect Mr. Hart will devise something for him

as well .

Strangeways, the Director of Agriculture, who came to

Hong Kong from the Gold Coast, asked Lee Shiu Ying, one of

his Assistant Agricultural Officers, to show us something of

what the department was doing. Precisely spoken, neatly turned

out, Lee looked 28 but was in fact 38. He was born and edu

cated in Hong Kong. “ I always liked human things, ' he told us,

‘ small things, and things to plant. That's why I studied agri

culture.' He worked first on a farm with his father, then for a

while he farmed in Indo-China, and later became one of the

original members of the Agricultural Department.Asked what

was his present position on the staff, he replied with a smile

'Oh, a small potato !'

Small, perhaps, in physique, Lee had the enthusiast's large

vision , and was convinced that by demonstration it would be

possible to modify the farmers' traditional methods in such a

way as to produce better crops. At the Agricultural Station at

Sheung Shui, for instance, the Department is trying out the

production of three crops of paddy a year instead of two ; the

aim is to get a variety which will take only ninety days to ripen .

Everybody was busy in the paddy - fields ploughing and harrow

ing with buffaloes or transplanting the young crop from the

seed nurseries. In dry areas the time of the work depends on the

arrival of the rains. The seedlings are taken up with a long

spade, carried in baskets by shoulder-pole and planted with the

soil attached , thus taking their fertilizer with them. Three

women can plant about a fifth of an acre a day, and Lee said

they were better at the job than men, and that they are also

better at trampling down the weeds.

Rice is still the most popular crop with the Chinese farmer, for

at least you have your own food. Vegetables are profitable but

they need a lot more work than paddy and they are liable to

price fluctuations. A great many European vegetables have

been introduced , but the Chinese still prefer their own kinds and

the Department is carrying out experiments with them. It was

interesting to see lotus, otherwise water-lilies, being cultivated

at Sheung Shui as vegetables. There were six varieties, two red,

two white, a pink and a double. In some cases it is the tuber

174

A REMARKABLE HATCHERY

which is edible, but the seeds of all varieties are eaten. The

flowers are also popular: indeed , the growing of flowers in the

New Territories for market was sufficiently widespread to be

much more marked than the usual growing of flowers in

tropical colonies. The aesthetic tastes of the Chinese are far more

highly developed than those of the Africans, and in Africa the

plainly utilitarian side of gardening is more in evidence.

Among new enterprises started on the appointment of an

Animal Husbandry Officer was a poultry farm where various

experiments are being tried out. It is most important to ensure

tender flesh, and the New Hampshire colour is preferred to

Rhode Island red because it is a redder red , and that is the

Chinese lucky colour. Black or white hens are not as a rule so

popular. Then there are Australorps - Australian Orpingtons

--- which are good layers, second only to Leghorns for produc

tion. A most curious variety we saw were Japanese Silkies.

They are white and very fluffy with blue flesh and black bones.

The Chinese like them as they consider they have a tonic

value .

Mr. Wright, the Animal Husbandry Officer, showed us a

most remarkable hatchery at Yuen Long, similar to one we had

already accidentally discovered at the back of a shop in Kow

loon. The extraordinary thing about this method of hatching

eggs is that no artificial heat is applied . The people who go in

for it all come from the same district and it is a hereditary

occupation requiring much skill. The first step is to put the eggs

out into the sun to warm up, the necessary time of exposure

being judged by touching the cheek or eyelid with the eggs .

When they are sufficiently warm they are put into containers

which hold about 750 eggs and which are prepared in this way :

unhusked rice is warmed up over a stove and about 3 lb. of

heated rice is placed in a gauze cloth and go to 100 eggs in

another cloth . Two layers of rice and one of eggs are then

placed alternately into cylindrical bamboo baskets lined with

Chinese absorbent paper to ensure insulation .

For the first four days the eggs and the rice have to be taken

out twice a day, the former to be turned and the latter to be

reheated. On the fifth day the eggs are tested for fertility and the

bad ones discarded ; when they are replaced in the basket only

one layer of paddy is now sandwiched between each layer of

175

FARMERS AND FARMING

eggs. From the fifth to the fourteenth day the paddy is heated

and the eggs turned twice a day, but from the fifteenth day,

although the eggs still have to be turned, the paddy no longer

has to be heated . On the sixteenth day the eggs are transferred

from the basket to padded wooden shelves and covered with

three or four blankets, the number required being judged by

the temperature of the room. Here again it is the experience of

the operator and not a thermometer which decides whether the

temperature is adequate.

On the nineteenth or twentieth day, depending on the

temperature, some or all of the blankets are taken off and thin

netting is put over the eggs. About this time the birds begin to

appear and you see them half in, half out, wet, bedraggled, and

exhausted with their struggle. When they are fully hatched they

are put into baskets and left to dry off. Now the hatchery is full

of a cheeping chorus of chicks or ducklings and the children of

the family are kept busy feeding them .

A hatchery can hold about 10,000 eggs and anything from

60 per cent to 80 per cent hatching of fertile fowl eggs and up

to go per cent of duck eggs can be expected, though the pro

prietor in Kowloon said that if the mother duck has been

eating small sea-shells all her offspring die within aa few days of

hatching out. It was obviously a most economical method of

incubating eggs in large quantities — but - one could only feel

that anybody who had not been almost incubated in the same

way themselves would hardly be likely to succeed .

Wright gave a most encouraging account of how the Chinese

take to new methods. It seemed much easier to get things across

here than it did in Africa. Nearly all the poultry farmers and

pig breeders take to inoculation, and the Department has

peripatetic inoculators constantly on the go. Most native

Chinese pigs look as if they have broken backs as they have a

tremendous sag in the middle which leaves their bellies dragging

on the ground . Wright is eliminating this by crossing them with

Berkshires, and one could see from the increasing numbers of

pigs without sway -back, as this peculiar condition is called , that

before long all the little piggies of the New Territories will have

nice straight backs . This will no doubt be very much more

comfortable for the pigs, but a Chinese housewife told me that

the new kind were not nearly so good to eat !

176

FISH - PONDS

Another unusual feature of Chinese farming is the fish

ponds. The fry are bred in ponds in China and brought to

Hong Kong in buckets, except for Wu Tan, a variety which is

so common that the Chinese say ‘ Wherever there is water Wu

Tan grows'. It is a grey mullet and starts life as a salt-water

fish . In one year the owner of one of these ponds, who also

owned a soya-bean factory, the residue from which helped to

feed his fish, imported as fry 15,000 carp, 8,000 grass carp,

2,000 mud carp, 2,000 black carp, 30,000 grey mullet, 5,000

silver carp, 8,000 big head and 1,000 bream. We asked how the

fry are counted. If there are under 10,000 they are counted

separately : if more than that a bowlful is counted out and the

bowl then used as a measure. The fish are for the most part fed

on peanut or bean cake and rice bran, but the diet varies with

the variety of fish . The grey mullet, for instance, likes chicken

food as it has a crop like a hen. About ten labourers have to be

employed on one of these fish -ponds and it is necessary also to

have watchers to prevent poaching, but it was said that the

owners made about a 50 per cent profit.

When we had seen something of the work of the Agricultural

Department, Lee took us to meet some farmers. Hong Kong is, I

think, remarkable for the number of enthusiasts, like Lee, who

work in its departments. Lee is also something of aa philosopher.

As we drove along with him he told us of his love of nature,

music and literature. He prefers a country to a town life as it is

more real. ' Early to bed, early to rise, is the best way of living ',

he said. “ I am not interested in politics. I love humanity and I

love my homeland. There is something in the very smell of it

which rouses my sentiment for it. I love my job, but it is no good

just taking it as a job ; I take it as a means of helping people.

Unless you do that you won't get anywhere .'

In the village of Kut Hung, just behind the walls of Kam Tin,

there is an old -fashioned farm-house shaded by great mango

trees. It is the home of Tang Chong Chee, who is, like all the

folk hereabout, a member of the Tang clan . Mr. Tang was away

when we called. He often has to go into Yuen Long, the nearby

market town , on business, but Mrs. Tang was there to welcome

us and also his gentle old mother, who , grown simple in he old

age, smiled sweetly and moved from one to another of us,

patting our hands or drawing our attention to this and that.

177

FARMERS AND FARMING

Like all old - fashioned Chinese farm -houses this one was dark

and dirty. Mrs. Tang finds it hard to manage with seven young

children, of whom only the eldest is at school, climbing all over

the place, and with Mr. Tang bringing in the baskets of green

tomatoes and pig food which surrounded us. The house was full

of furniture, including two large double beds with extremely

dirty mosquito nets, and baskets of paddy seed, farm equip

ment and the like lurked in every corner, while utensils with

food left in them were higgledy -piggledy all over the place.

The only tidy and well-kept part of the house was the kitchen

with its neat piles of brushwood and straw used for fuel. Eleven

people were living in the house, while next door slept the four

farm labourers for whom Mrs. Tang has to provide food .

She is the first to get up in the morning. Six o'clock finds

her lighting the fire and then she prepares food and washes and

dresses the children . By this time Mr. Tang and his labourers

are out in the fields, and about nine o'clock she sends them

their morning bowl of rice. There will be another meal in the

afternoon and a third after work is finished in the evening.

Mr. Tang is aa mixed farmer and paddy is his principal crop,

but the main part the rice plays in the economy of this family

is to feed them and the labourers . From the other produce of

the farm Tang provides for his family's needs and for the money

he may put by. The house was lit by electricity (the China

Light and Power Company on the whole serves the New

Territories very well ) and it costs the family about 10 dollars

a month. Apart from groceries ( the inevitable tea but no sugar)

and meat, the farm provides them with all their food , but there

is clothing and schooling to be thought of as well as luxuries,

though the family has little time for such things as the cinema in

Yuen Long. After the paddy crop is finished Tang grows

tomatoes, and they are bought mainly by exporters at the

wholesale vegetable market in Kowloon and shipped to Malaya.

He likes the marketing scheme, Mrs. Tang told us, as it has

eliminated the middlemen and he gets more money, but he

does not like accompanying his produce to market because he

feels sick in a lorry !

Tang also grows sweet potatoes, mainly as food for their four

pigs. One had just had aa litter, but we could not see it as Mrs.

Tang explained apologetically that foreign eyes were bad for

178

THE PIG OFFERING

baby pigs. Then there are five draught buffaloes all bred on the

farm . Their stable is next to the house and another job for Mrs.

Tang is to cook their congee or rice porridge. The Tangs and

their labourers all have a hard day's work and , as Mrs. Tang

said, it is not always that they can go to bed early. At the moment

it was all right because there was plenty of water, but in a dry

season the men have to stay up late to see that the paddy - fields

are properly irrigated. At night they lock up everything but there

are also village guards to protect them against marauders, human

and animal : last year there were foxes and wild dogs after the pigs .

As we talked a neighbour came in and handed to Mrs. Tang

a piece of pork on a string.

" The butcher ? ' I asked.

' No,' she replied ; ‘ it's Mr. Tang's share of the ancestral

offering .'

There is a common fund for ancestor worship, which comes

from a communal piece of land that is never divided for inheri

tance. The sale of the rice from this land buys the pig offering,

amongst other things, for the visits to the ancestral graves . After

the offering the pig is divided and each male member of the

clan gets a share. Each year the clan chooses a member to

administer the fund .

As we left the house the four labourers came in for their after

noon meal and were each given a bowl of rice with some sort

of sauce on it. Old granny took my hand . She wanted a little

present and got it. The sun shone down among the mango

trees, making shade patterns on the hard ground.

The gentle afternoon light. Tired men with a hard day be

hind them but the finest night's sleep ahead . Was it all very

different after all ? I think not. It seemed to me very much like

a Shropshire farm hidden in a quiet valley in the Welsh border

country. One night as I was crossing on the Kowloon ferry, my

companion, a nice-looking, dimple -cheeked young man who is

the foreign editor of Hong Kong's Communist newspaper and

knows England, asked me if I were a northerner or a southerner

( Chinese are either northerners or southerners) .

' Neither,' I said ; ' I was born and brought up in the Midlands

in a county called Shropshire. Have you been there ? '

‘ No, ' he said, “ but I know of it. So you are a Shropshire Lad .

I took A. E. Housman for my thesis at the University . We

179

FARMERS AND FARMING

quoted The Shropshire Lad at each other as we crossed Hong

Kong's harbour in the moonlight.

' You know, he was very Chinese in his thought, A. E.

Housman', he said .

Or are the Chinese very Salopian ? There were plenty of

Shropshire Lads near Kam Tin that afternoon, for the K.S.L.I.

camp was quite close at hand . But I expect they felt a long way

from Ludlow and Clee .

' Leave your home behind you,

Your friends by field and town ;

Oh, town and field will mind you

Till Ludlow Tower is down. '

Not far from Ping Shan police station a narrow, winding

track leads to some scattered modern farmers' houses. Here you

will find Kam Lung farm , or the Farm of the Golden Dragon ,

and the home of the Chan family. Father Chan is a one-eyed,

round - faced, middle-aged little man, and he was wearing a

grey-blue blouse and trousers . He greeted us with aa kind, smiling

face. Mother Chan, with a serene, lined face and a gentle smile,

busily carried pails of food to the chickens. The family stood

around at varying distances, dependent on their ages and sense

of shyness, while Father Chan introduced them .

First came Chan Kam Ho, Beautiful Peach, his firstborn,

now a girl of 22 with the healthy colour and strong limbs which

are a mark of the outdoor farmer's daughter all over the world.

Next was Chan Kwa Low, the Stream of the Country, a boy of 20

with the long, narrow face of his mother. He was home for the

week-end, being a boarder at a school in Kowloon. Then came

Chan Kwa Kwan , Equality of the Country, a replica of Father

Chan and a nice sturdy child of 12 or 13. Chan Lai Yung,

Beautiful Face, the middle daughter, resembled her older sister.

She wore a Chinese dress and had bare brown legs. Chan Lai

Ming, Beautiful Brightness, the third girl, was rather shy and

stood away off near the doorway, her short hair tousled and

uncombed. Last was Chan Kwa Ping, Prosperity ofthe Country,

so called because he was born the year the Japanese were

defeated . He still clung to his mother's skirt . All the younger

ones go to the Government School on the other side of the

main road .

180

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PLATE XXV

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A cotton mill . “ The automatic looms of Hong Kong are as well

advanced as anywhere in the world' (p. 143)

A Kowloon rubber factory. ' In 1948, but for Hong Kong, British

children would have gone with wet feet ' (p. 144)

PLATE XXVI

* If there is a space on a wall a man displays the covers of shockers

in his street library ' (p. 146)

PLATE XXVII

Hakka children from Tung Chung village. The Hakkas came

originally from Shantung

PLATE XXVIII

FATHER CHAN'S CHICKEN FARM

Nearly twenty years ago Father Chan had come with his wife

and Kam Ho and Kwa Low from the San Wai district of

Kwangtung. He had a capital of £ 44 and he built himself a

matshed hut. He was very proud ofthat matshed beginning and

treasures a photograph of the hut. He was fond of chickens and

someone advised him to try White Leghorns. He wrote to an

address in Oregon and from there had bought his first few

pedigree birds. He showed me the pedigrees and the bills. To me,

used to African and Arabian farmers , this careful preservation

ofrecords was new , and indeed the whole thorough, painstaking

approach to farming contended greatly with the happy - go -lucky

ways of farmers in other tropical colonies.

Little by little Father Chan's stock had grown . He reinforced

them with further pedigree White Leghorns from California.

He got to know them and their ways and gradually he was able

to build up his farm and his stock. Bit by bit he had bought land

from his neighbours. He launched out into vegetable growing

and his produce is sold at the Government wholesale market.

All this he told us in the high-ceilinged central room of the

modern house he had built eighteen months before. In the next

room he had incubators of his own design, six of them each

taking 400 eggs. The war, of course, had set him back a lot. At

the end of it he had only four hens as there was no food for

them. Today he sells about a thousand birds a month , getting

55. for a young chicken and is. 5d. for an egg for hatching.

People come from all around to buy his birds and he said that

90 per cent of the farms with White Leghorns had originally

bought their stock from him . He imports his chicken food,

which includes oyster shells and dried fish , from China.

As we left the Chan home, passing between the pens in

which chickens were pecking busily, I said to Father Chan how

impressed I had been by his story. I was wishing I could see

farms like this all over Africa and I asked him how he accounted

for his success .

' You see,' he said with a smile, ' I know them and how they

feel and what they want. They know that I know. I am a friend

of chickens.

181

CHAPTER TWENTY

The Boat People—(i) Sin Lo the Sailor

AMONGST THE boat people one is seeing the story of a people

which has grown old on the waters. As long as the Chinese have

dwelt in Southern China, or at any rate as long as they have put

to sea in ships, there has been a community of water- dwellers.

It was much smaller than it is at present, for water-dwellers no

less than land -dwellers need peace and security to expand. But

cities afloat leave no ancient monuments, nor do their citizens

leave footprints, tracks and roads for us to find traces of their

bygone stories. As the surface of the waters is today, so it was

in the beginning.

Though their lives are instinct with history and tradition, the

boat people are modern -minded and of all the dwellers in

Hong Kong they must surely be the happiest. They have no

housing problems, they have all the fresh air they want, it is

easy for them to be clean, and no one gets fresher fish cheaper

than they do. The land-dweller may not envy them typhoons

and other perils of the deep, but these they take as the ordinary

hazards of their calling.

It is officially estimated that there are 114,400 people living

afloat on the craft licensed at Hong Kong, though the popular

guess is round about 200,000. Forests of masts, thicker than

chimneys in the Black Country, mark such junk cities as

Aberdeen, Stanley, Cheung Chau Island, Tai Po, Sai Kung or

Tsun Wan. Tai O on Lan Tau Island, where the Chinese

frontier curiously comes to the water's edge, is like some far

eastern Venice. Here many of the families of boat people live in

shacks on wooden piles, and ferry -boats take you down the long

canals which are its streets .

Coming down the hill into Aberdeen it is easy to appreciate

why it has sheltered sea-going craft from ancient days, for it is

well protected by this hill from easterly gales, an essential

consideration in Hong Kong, and for that matter it is well pro

tected on all sides. The numerous gullies running down to the

sea promised a fresh water supply, and on the hillsides the

vegetables which the sea -folk need no less than the rest of us can

182

FERRY-WOMEN

be cultivated. Nature has well provided the sea -going people of

Hong Kong with harbours of this kind, and settlements have

grown up at the water's edge to supply them and to subsist on

services to them.

Dozens of young women in blue pyjama coats and black

trousers grab you as you approach the waterfront. The only

thing to do is to advance firmly to the nearest sampan and tread

determinedly on it, hoping that it belongs to the prettiest of

your abductors. Our captors, who were cousins, proved to be

not so young and rather plain. But their sampan was painted

as gay a blue as the others and they had comfortable wicker

settees for us to sit on. All these sampans are worked by women,

who are themselves of the boat people, and who often belong to

a junk family. They sleep in their ferry -boat sampans or in a

‘ house sampan ’ which is home as well as being a fishing boat .

Our ferry -women with serious faces and quiet voices pushed out

on to the calm waters of the harbour making for the Yue Lee

Tai ( Peaceful Fish Profit) floating restaurant.

' Forests of masts mark the junk cities '

183

THE BOAT PEOPLE

There are about six of these floating restaurants . They have

three decks : down below are the family cabins, then a main

covered-in deck, and on top, covered with gay awnings, a

restaurant floor. They are especially picturesque at night, lit

with strip lighting. Unfortunately in these regulation -bound

days the Health Authorities look rather sideways at their fresh

water supply, and the fire brigade regard their kitchens with

some misgivings. I cannot help hoping they will be able to

weather these difficulties: it is worth taking some risks to pre

serve their attraction .

Mounting to the upper deck we were greeted by the owner ,

seated at one of the round tables, and given tea. Sin Lo, I

thought, was an impressive man, confident and sure in his

movements with an air of a competent seaman with whom you

would willingly go to sea. His alert eyes looked at you from a

brown and sunburnt face. But I doubt if he was an easy man.

I expect his ' brass ' weighed heavily with him in more senses

than one. He was short and stocky , probably about 52.

Sin Lo really was a sailor, much more so than our more

familiar friend Sinbad, who, after all, was merely a merchant

trying his luck and lot on his many voyages. As we sat drinking

glass after glass of sugarless, milkless China tea, Sin Lo told us

his life story. He talked to the point and used his hands freely

to emphasize his words, but he was not garrulous.

Four generations of his forebears he knows were fishermen,

and probably the Sin family has always lived on the water. His

grandfather owned one junk, his father had two. He and his

six brothers now own five fresh - fish trawlers, two large and

three small, a motorized salt- and fresh - fish carrier, the marine

restaurant on which we were sitting, and a fish buying and

selling shop. This last was an enterprising move, for fish buying

and selling was traditionally a shore business, and until recently

the la'ans or combines of fish dealers had a stranglehold on the

fishermen . They bought their catches, advanced them money,

and sold the fish in the markets. Sin Lo was trying to break

away from this.

Of all his ventures, the shore trading in fish is the most profit

able, but the fish catching, transporting, salting, buying and

selling, and the restaurant, are all closely tied up together. Sin

Lo has shown vision and enterprise in getting all the strings into

184

A FISHERMAN'S LIFE

his own hands, and it works because he and his brothers co

operate and each looks after one or other part of the business, of

which Sin Lo is no doubt the brains. He is now a capitalist and

lends money to the fisher-folk.

His two small sons were about us as we talked, likely-looking

boys. I asked Sin Lo if he was going to make them work their

way up as he had done. He smiled at this. ' They are going to

school on shore and when they grow up they will be fish

merchants and junk owners. '

I should imagine that it is much the same with the sea -folk as

with the landsmen. There is a cycle of prosperity which is not

a peculiarity of Chinese, as we have it ourselves, and I have seen

it in a marked degree among Arabs, but it is aa great feature of

China. Time and again you meet with a story of a peasant who

has worked hard and been thrifty. He has bought more land and

with the aid of his sons has worked it successfully. The sons

brought up in that tradition have also worked hard and added

to the family fortunes, but the family, now being well-to-do, have

let the children grow up in play rather than work, and the

fortunes of the third and fourth generations ( if the fortunes last

so long) are more often than not dissipated.

Sin Lo said that most of the boat people come from Pun Yue

or Nan Hoi districts and all of these are Cantonese. Some of the

fisher -folk are Hoklo, but though there are few of them they sail

and row the fastest boats. They are generally found in the

eastern New Territories. Hakka boats are largely used for ferry

work in the eastern waters. The Cantonese fisher - folk , called

Tanka, form the great majority of the boat people. ‘ But' , added

Sin Lo, they have no country. Their boats are their homes and

their native lands.'

The junks are all built in Hong Kong and go per cent of the

owners borrow money from fish merchants to buy them . They

do not pay interest but sell their catches to the merchant at a

low price. This is in the pattern of money-lending all over the

Eastand the actual rates of usury are enormous. Fisher people

are rarely out of debt .

There are a lot of employed men as well as families on the

junks, paid and engaged in diverse ways . Those who bait hooks

get 125. 6d. plus food and a commission on the sale. Commission

is 80 cents on $ 100 for those who pull in the fish (the hardest

185

THE BOAT PEOPLE

job) , 50 cents for lowering and 40 cents for baiting. A man is

engaged or dismissed on the 24th day of the last month of the

year. If an owner wishes to engage a particular man, he must

advance him £ 18 to £30 on his commission. The engagement is

for a year, but a man so engaged can leave the job on the 5th

day of the 5th moon, i.e. after about four months, but if he does

so he must refund the unearned balance of his advance. It is

very rare for a man having had an advance to abscond.

Thejunk owner has his whole family living aboard, and when

the families of his employees also work for him, they too may

live aboard. Their children take their first uncertain steps

among the ropes and tackle, they grow up helping to do this or

that small job, and they handle the ship almost by instinct as

soon as they are tall and strong enough. They are married at

sea and the marriage feast always takes place on a special

wedding junk, one of which is to be found in every junk

harbour.

The fish -carrying junks which ply between the fishing junks

and the shore take out goods and even medicines to the fishing

grounds. The large junks stay at sea for a long time and these

fish carriers, generally now motorized, bring their catches ashore

daily. ‘ Fishermen', said Sin Lo, ‘ are becoming wiser and wiser.

Today there are only two junks here fitted with engines. To

morrow there will be hundreds of them. You see, they make

more money . The turnover for a motor-going junk is £30,000 a

year. A sailing junk only gets £6,000. '

It was already dark when Sin Lo had finished explaining the

methods of fishing to us, and we set off in our sampan to visit

some of his fleet with him. We first boarded one of his small

fishing junks. I was surprised at its cleanliness. Dhows I had

known well and travelled in for many years in East African and

Arabian waters; they are not remarkable for their cleanliness,

but this, and other junks I saw, I found spotless. Even the decks

of the living quarters were beautifully polished, but cabin space

seemed even more limited than the cubicles and bedspaces of

the tenement dwellers. Between the crew's cabin, amidships, and

the galley aft, which with the hatch open allowed the cook to

stand upright, was the master's cabin. On one side was a com

partment not more than 4 to 4} feet high and some 6 feet square

in which he and his family slept on mats ; on the other a space

186

ON A FISHING JUNK

of about the same size with two rows of shelves where clothes

were stored .

The master was a good-looking young man of about 30 with

a gentle, patient-faced wife of about the same age, and they had

six children . As we talked she caressed her baby daughter Chin

Kiu, her long, narrow face lighting up with a kindly smile. The

mother herself had been born and lived her life on a boat. She

looked after the wants of the men aboard, cooking, washing and

mending for them.

They had brought in two to three piculs of fish and some

lobsters that day and were getting ready to sail again. “ There's

wind outside,' said the master, looking seaward; ' we're in for

a rough night. There's no sleep for us when the wind is

strong .'

I had a puff at his pipe, a thick length of bamboo about

21 feet long with water at one end. There is a small tube about

half-way up in which you put a pinch of tobacco, lighting it

with a joss-stick. One good suck causes the tobacco to shoot

back and you are left with a chestful of smoke. If you want

another puff the performance has to be repeated.

Every junk carries a small sampan and has a wind-sock

blowing from the after-mast. Sin Lo's junk had no flag, though

he said he flies some sort of flag on feast days. Owing to the

ever-present threat of piracy, junks are allowed to carry arms

according to their size, and this one was allowed two rifles, one

a Lee - Enfield and the other a Mauser.

' We have only used them in practice so far', said the master.

Sin Lo told us this junk had cost £ 1,250 to build and another

£300 to equip.

Embarking once again in our sampan, we were poled to Sin

Lo's Diesel-engined fish carrier. In this he carries ice and salt. It

puts out to sea daily to fetch the fish from the deep sea-going

junks, bringing it to his store-junks and godowns. The fish are

then taken by lorry to market and housewives buy them next

morning. As we talked a woolly chow puppy, called Wu Li or

Black Tongue, charged about between our legs. Every junk has

its dog and also a cat for rat-catching.

Our last call was to the office junk and store junk, both

moored to the wharf and with a narrow plank connecting them .

A clerk sat in the office - cabin on one junk, and on the other the

187

THE BOAT PEOPLE

hatches were filled with fish in salt and fresh fish in ice. All the

fish must be sold through the Government marketing scheme

except ‘ fish with no blood', which may be sold on the free

market. This includes lobsters, prawns, cuttle - fish and shellfish

generally. Water was laid on to these two junks and they had

electric light. This led to the story of how they got it. It was all

due to Sin Kei, the third of the Sin brothers.

On the 7th day of the 7th moon (August) in 1941 he was

ashore, for there was a typhoon. At that time the harbour was

mined and in the storm a mine broke loose and drifted close to

the pier. Sin Kei saw it and, in spite of the wind and rough sea,

he threw off his clothes, leaped into the water and pushed the

mine clear of the shore. Onlookers had meanwhile called for

help and the Navy sent men who dismantled the mine. Sin Kei

was given a medal and £3 3s. for his bravery, but more than

that, the Navy asked the electricity company to supply the

brothers' vessels with light as a special privilege.

(ii) At Shau Ki Wan

Chinese hands are never idle. The thought came to me again as

we looked down from the jetty steps at Shau Ki Wan on the girls

in the ferry sampans, each embroidering with coloured silks or

doing other needlework. But the girls have a sixth sense for a

passenger in the offing and we were quickly annexed by a blue

coated damsel with a long, neatly-plaited pigtail : this indicated

she was not yet married.

Although it is now in so many ways urbanized, Shau Ki Wan

still keeps much of the air of aa small fishing village. It gives me

the feeling of arriving at a pleasant out -of-the -world place, a

little fishing port nestling, like so many in other countries, at

the foot of sheltering hills. Fisher -folk and sailors are generally

God -fearing people and it is not they who make seaports the

places of iniquity they often are. In the little fishing ports

religion seems to flourish . I liked the atmosphere of the old

temple to Tien How at Shau Ki Wan. There the goddess sits

enshrined with Kwan Yin ( Koon Yam) on her right hand, and

Kwan Tai on her left. Two guards stand on either side of the

aisle. They are barefooted because they have to walk in the

188

THE FAMILY OF LAI KWONG CHAN

water to protect the sea goddess. There was goodness about this

temple and in the spirit of those who crept humbly into it.

In the streets and shops of Shau Ki Wan all that a sailor

needs can be bought. Lines and hooks are much in evidence and

there was a man hammering hooks by the roadside. Another

was making a basket trap and women were making fishing

lines. It has its own shipyards where I saw a junk and a sampan

being built of timber from the Pearl River.

We were skilfully poled to the large motor-junk of Lai Kwong

Chan. Here again I was vastly attracted by the cleanliness and

good order, and would have given a good deal to have been

able to accept the invitation to go on a cruise, but I could not

spare a week for this. Behind a curtain in the main cabin was a

wireless set, and the galley with its bright brass pots was as

spotless as the cabins.

The junk cost £2,500 to £3,000 to build eight years ago and

Lai Kwong Chan borrowed money to get the engine. The

engineer sleeps beside his engines below deck, and on the other

side of the engine-room was the ' chapel ', a cupboard with a

door enclosing a beautifully-kept altar and shrine. In front of

a number of variously shaped and sized images in bright colours

were two rows of five red cups and five white cups for their tea

offerings. An offering of fruit lay on a dish. Paper dresses and a

small flag brought from a temple hung on the walls.

There were 19 people living on Lai's junk and at first the

smaller members of his family kept out of our way, but after

we settled down to talk on the gunwale the family gathered

round us, and two or three little boys edged near, only to run

away with giggles and shrieks when I tried to catch them . The

women were all neatly dressed, but the neatest of all was Lai's

first wife. His concubine or second wife was younger. Lai has

five sons in the Middle School at Wanchai who live with rela

tives. The youngest, Lai Tong, with his hair falling over his eyes,

was playing round us. His daughter, Lai Man Chan, a girl of

15 with her hair in a long thick plait, sat on a wicker chair eating

melon seeds, a habit which all classes of Chinese share with the

inhabitants of Arab harems. She was playing with the grandson,

Lai Hung Kwai, an imp whose roving habits were checked by

a harness and a rope which anchored him to her chair. The

child's mother, a pretty girl, sat listening to us.

189

THE BOAT PEOPLE

The two wives, the daughter, and the daughter-in-law do all

the domestic chores and also help to make fishing- lines. Some

times they assist with the fishing, but keeping the ship clean

takes a lot of time. Soon the children will join the rest of the

family at school, and even now there were plans for consulting

the fortune- teller as to aa favourable time for them to begin .

As we talked men were cutting and pounding up a curious red

and yellow root vegetable, which looked rather like a swede but

was almost as tough as wood. This is boiled and used for tanning

nets, which has to be done every six months. The nets are also

treated with whites ofeggs to keep them strong. That is why you

find in every fishing village salted yolks of eggs drying or on sale

in markets. When I first saw them I thought they were crystal

lized apricots, but though they taste very differently they are

not at all bad.

Conversation was interrupted by a burst of crackers and the

sound of music. There was a fisherman's wedding in progress

on a nearby junk, and a decorated junk crowded with men and

women in bright blue clothes passed by. It bore presents to

the bride. This led to a conversation on how marriages were

arranged among the fisher people, and Lai's daughter -in -law

sat close by suppressing giggles quietly as he told of how he had

arranged her marriage. A friend who knew he was looking for a

wife for his son had suggested this girl, and Lai had made

inquiries as to whether she was of respectable family, if she her

self had a good character and if she worked hard. These things

he learned from friends and relatives. As it all sounded satis

factory he went to have a look at the girl, and his wife did the

same. They thought she was worthy to come into the family,

and, as her parents were willing, they consulted a fortune-teller

to find an auspicious day to introduce her to their son.

A bride is brought to her new home by boat and wears red

clothes with a red veil over her face. First she must worship at the

altar and then at the ancestral tablets. After that she must

salute her new parents and offer them tea, which is carried

behind her. She brings with her only her own jewellery (and

the women of her new family check that up very closely ), her

clothing and blankets.

Lai told us that a wedding at sea costs from £62 to £ 620, and

his son's had cost £ 125 to £ 185, which was the usual amount.

190

SAILORS ' SUPERSTITIONS

When it comes to taking a second wife, Lai said, a man

chooses his own, though sometimes if they are alive his parents

forbid it. The first wife is not always told in case it means an

upset, but ofcourse ifthey have got to live together she has got to

know. Trouble, Lai admitted, sometimes took place, particu

larly over the children. But his two seemed amiable enough to

each other. You can keep them reasonably happy if you treat

them both alike. His two wives had an equal display of gold

ornaments and even gold buttons, and both wore jade bangles.

Jade is lucky and, like sailors of all nations, Chinese sailors are

very superstitious. We asked Lai about superstitions and these

are the ones he remembered :

Fishing may not be good if a child is born on board, so boat

women almost always go ashore to have their babies, either at

the house of aa friend or, nowadays, at a maternity home.

If anything is broken at the time a junk is about to sail it is

better to delay departure for a day or two. If there is an acci

dent after Chinese New Year, such as a collision between junks

when putting out to sea, or, he said, a search by the police, that

will bring bad luck for the whole year. On the other hand, if

the first voyage after the New Year goes well, that is a good

omen for the rest of the year.

He also told us that if chopsticks are dropped someone must

quickly say a lucky word, but that is a land superstition also.

We talked about pirates. Lai was allowed three rifles for pro

tection against them. He chose the better part of valour when

he saw them : 'If they chase me, I try to avoid them' . They are

often to be met with near the China coast and at present he

gives China ports a wide berth . The bad spots are Kwong Hoi,

Yeung Kong, and Ling Ting Island.

Two or three years ago pirates overtook him and tried to

come alongside. They usually fire first to draw return fire and

find out the strength of their quarry . If they think themselves

stronger they will try to board. Lai said that today they were

well equipped and even had tommy- guns. Many had arms

captured from the Japanese or sold by deserters. The Chinese

Customs try to fight them, but the pirates are often better

armed. Only about 20 per cent of the fishermen live in Chinese

ports, the rest in Hong Kong.

I asked him why, and got the answer I wanted :

191

THE BOAT PEOPLE

' Because there is peace and no pirates.'

‘ Do you think of yourself as a native of Hong Kong? ' I asked

him. ' Do you feel you are a British subject with a share in Hong

Kong?

‘ No,' said Lai, ' I don't. For one thing, my ancestors' tombs

are in Macao and my father was born there, though I was born

in Hong Kong. Besides, what difference would it make if I were

British ? Although I am Chinese I am well protected and I make

my living here. I am a business man and only interested in my

business . I do my best to catch fish and I bring it to Hong Kong

to feed the people.'

“ That's all very well', I argued. “ You admit all the benefits

you receive from living in Hong Kong, but don't you feel at all

that you should help to protect Hong Kong and preserve the

benefits which all enjoy ? Shouldn't you feel that as a citizen of

Hong Kong you should at least do something for the common

good? In our country the people who are interested in business

also work for the common good .'

“ The people who in Hong Kong also work for the good of the

people are well educated', said Lai. ‘ Even if we wanted to do

something we are not educated. If you want to develop public

spirit among fishermen you must give them more schools and

teach them the idea of public spirit .'

I was struck that Lai had thought that the lack of public

spirit in Hong Kong (indeed it is a marked characteristic of

Chinese) could be remedied by giving education in it.

Lai had none of the forcefulness of character of Sin Lo at

Aberdeen, but he was essentially a ' decent chap '. He had an

open face and was modest and unassuming in his manner. At

first he owned one boat only. Then he bought a boat for his

brothers, and now, he said, he must buy one for his sons. He

said that if he were in funds he lent money to others or invested

in shops belonging to friends. Before we left I asked him what

were his ambitions in life.

' I want to get more money,' he replied , and then hand over

my business to my sons. I shall be happy if my sons and

daughters can each have a boat. Then I would like to retire and

live on land .'

Life on the purse-seining sampans is an even more constricted

affair than life on a junk. Purse-seining needs two sampans,

192

PURSE - SEINERS

each costing £ 435, and the people obviously have less money

than junk owners. It is like the difference between the farmer

with many acres and the cottager with a small-holding. These

sampans are 24 feet in length and io in breadth , with a rounded

and fairly broad hull. There are hundreds of them in the

scattered bays of Hong Kong.

Lai Ng belonged to the same clan as Lai Kwong Chan, but

although it was less easy for him to make dollars he was in no

way an inferior kind of man. Middle -sized , middle -aged , with

a firm weathered face, a square jaw and clear eyes, he had quite

a position in Shau Ki Wan harbour, for he was a member of the

committee of the Shau Ki Wan Dragon Boat Club, which runs

a dragon boat in the famous race on the 5th day of the 5th

moon .

His two boats were tied up alongside each other, one run by

Lai Ng and the other by his four sons. We climbed on to the

former and were seated cross-legged on a mat amidships facing a

very old, old man. With his immobile face and his white beard

and enormous belly he looked like one of the pottery figures the

Chinese make so well.

This was Lai Yee Sze, father of Lai Ng, and 84 years of age .

Poor old man, his eyes were bleared and watery, and his feet

swollen and painful, and he spent his days sitting on a mat

cross-legged under the hooped shelter, and slept stretched out on

the same small place each night. But he was the father and

honoured by his sons, his sons' sons and their children, and

waited on by the women. There were 20 family members on the

two sampans. Around us peering from the tiny shelter behind us

were Ng's wife, two sons, two daughters-in-law and two grand

children. The women wore silver ornaments, for purse -seiners

are not so well off. No less than four generations in one little

boat, putting to sea each night, sailing only two hours' distance

out to their fishing grounds, and returning each morning to

spend much of the day in sleep.

They use bright kerosene lamps to attract the fish . As the fish

approach , the two boats with the seine net between them begin

encircling the lighted area. At the same time the fishermen

thrash the water with long-handled beaters to frighten the fish

into the net. When the circle is completed the net is drawn up

and the catch placed in the hold. How many who eat the silly

193

THE BOAT PEOPLE

fish next day reflect on the moral of the attraction of bright

lights ?

It is a hard life. Ng's ambition is to buy another pair of boats,

' but most of my savings go in buying gear and at present I am

in debt to money -lenders'.

I talked to the old man about the past. He had been born in

Hong Kong while the Colony was yet young, and so had his

father - here at Shau Ki Wan - before the British occupation .

The father was no doubt a pirate, for Hong Kong is said to have

been only a pirates' lair before we came. ‘A gentleman's trade

in those days ’ , said that grand old man of Hong Kong, Sir

Shouson Chow, with his rich chuckle, as he walked me around

the beautiful garden, so much of which he has planted with his

own hands. He is go and there was something of a facial re- .

semblance between the two old men. Perhaps it was because

they wore the same kind of beard . ' I think my ancestors were

pirates ' , Sir Shouson had said. His home had been at Stanley,

another pirates' lair, and he still keeps a villa there. “ They

robbed the rich and helped the poor. They rarely killed and

they never took everything off you .'

Though one is rich and one is poor, Sir Shouson and Yee Sze

would have got on well together, for Sir Shouson has never lost

the common touch and is much beloved by all who know him .

I asked Yee Sze what changes he thought were greatest since

he was a boy.

‘ Why,' he said, ' Causeway Bay and all that part was just a

hill when I was young . '

‘And which is better, Hong Kong now or then ?'

“Then , of course', said Yee. ' In those days the English treated

the fishing people very well. Now it's money, then it was

friendship .' Questions elicited that he meant that the increased

controls of today led to increased ‘squeeze'.

I tried to get him to admit that there might be some advan

tage today, but he wouldn't have it. You were much freer in

the old days . Now there are many, many more people. There

were pirates, of course, but then they only took money and

didn't kill or hurt anybody. Now they use firearms and shoot to

kill . People were more honest in those days' , he added . “ They

weren't so cunning as they are today. And there used to be more

religion. Now some of the fishing people have become Christians

194

WELFARE WORKER

(about 20 per cent, I was told) . Their minds are not in God,'

he finished up, and the moderns do not respect the gods as we

did. They don't care for anything.'

And on the little boat, in a recess under the floor of the shelter

behind us, was a neat, clean, well -cared -for shrine full of brightly

painted idols with their offerings before them. Prominent among

them was the Queen of Heaven , who still cares for sailors.

Small, and with rather large spectacles, looking as if he

needed taking care of, Wilkie Wu, Inspector of Fisheries, is, on

the contrary, a very competent person and an enthusiast at his

job. There is nothing of the individualist about him and in that

respect he is a very unChinese Chinese, but he is completely

Chinese in his kindness and courtesy. He, and others — quite a

few of them - demonstrated that the Chinese can have that

interest in their neighbours' welfare which was never needed in

the world more than today. Although fisheries absorbed his

working hours, his spare time was given to welfare work. His

mother, with whom he lives ( for he is not married ), says to him

“ Now , Wai Kay (which is his real name) , why can't you stay at

home in the evenings? Why do you always have to be minding

other people's business ? Oh, my dear son, you should stay at

home after long hours of work ! '

' I'm your son,' says Wilkie in reply, “ but I'm also a son of

the world. I owe it duties, too.'

He told us of some of his adventures during the occupation.

He had been helping an elderly missionary couple, Mr. and

Mrs. Wells. On the fateful Christmas Day of the surrender he

set off for their house, calling first at his office to collect all his

money, which he had left there. He was going up a narrow road

to the Wells's house when he was stopped and searched by

Japanese soldiers, who took all his money away. ' I stood for

half an hour', he said, “ against the wall—too dazed and upset

to move.' On reaching the house Mr. Wells opened the door and

his first words were ‘ Did you get here safely ? I was set on by

four Chinese coolies and robbed of everything'. Wilkie had not

the heart to tell his story but almost in tears said ‘ I'm all right'.

When the order went round that all Europeans were to be

interned Wilkie gave his iron camp-bed to Mrs. Wells, but it

needed a screwdriver and pincers to put it up, so he tried to

smuggle these to them wearing a long-sleeved Chinese robe.

195

THE BOAT PEOPLE

However, he was searched and the things taken away, and he of

course was in some danger as anyone helping Europeans was

under suspicion. “ But if you're trying to do good ' , said Wilkie,

'God will help you.'

Wilkie supervises the ten fishery syndicates in the Colony,

all of them dependent upon the Government Fish Wholesale

Marketing organization with its central markets at Kennedy

Town on Hong Kong Island and Tai Po in the New Territories.

The fishermen bring their catches to one of the syndicates and

then they are transported free to market by the organization .

Wilkie took us to see the Shau Ki Wan syndicate and when we

arrived a special bonus of rice was being issued. The syndicates

not only sell a fisherman's catch for him but perform other

essential services. They run schools for his children, make

loans and advances to him, and sell him tung oil, fish -hooks and

other primary needs. They also have canteens and discussion

groups at which subjects connected with fishing are debated.

For all their services the syndicates take 6 per cent of the money

which the fish fetch at auction .

Fishermen and indeed many Chinese do not like banks. If a

fisherman receives large sums in cash he will, like the farmer,

bank it in gold ornaments or in gold bars. Wilkie told us of a

boat which was robbed and of the owner reporting the loss

and it was a dead loss of 37 taels of gold at £ 18 155. a tael.

Nor do they ever insure. ' In fact,' said Wilkie, ' Chinese don't

like insuring. I've never insured my flat or my furniture .' When

one considers how quickly the Chinese take to anything modern

of which the advantage is obvious, this aversion to banks and

insurance is strange .

Upstairs, above the syndicate's office, a competent young

woman was conducting the school, two classes with ages from

7 to 14 in which boys outnumbered girls by three to one. Their

education is liable to interruption because, unless the parents

can find someone ashore to look after them, they may have to

take them away from school when they go to sea.

Although more and more vessels are being motorized, the

sentimental may take comfort from the fact that only one in a

thousand of Hong Kong's junks are so far motorized , and that

the graceful junk, no more than the dhow, is hardly likely to

disappear from Eastern seas for many long years.

196

she

PLATE XXIX

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'At the club for shoe- shine boys run by the Jesuit Fathers of Wah

Yan College, the boys get some schooling ' ( p. 211 )

Dinner time at the shoe -shine boys' club . “ These small urchins are

a feature of Hong Kong's crowded streets' (p. 211 )

PLATE XXXII

SHIPYARD

Everybody who has visited a shipyard comes away with a

sense of romance. It may come from the thought of the tiny

men hanging and clanging high up on the steel sides of some

great giant destined to face fair weather and foul on the world's

oceans. Maybe there is even more romance and colour about

Eastern shipyards: dhows being built on the hard at Maala in

Aden, or junks on the beach at Tai Kok Tsui on the Kowloon

side at Hong Kong. Here there are no architects ' blue -prints,

simply craftsmen reproducing beautiful lines of ancient types of

ships, partly perhaps by some sort of hereditary instinct, but

mostly no doubt in the hard way they have learnt from their

fathers.

Tai Kok Tsui is a very poor quarter, with wooden and tin

shanties all higgledy-piggledy, and sampans and junks being

built in sheds, at the back of which the craftsmen's families live.

Here vessels of all sorts are being built. There are long liner

sailingjunks called Tin Teng, with sharp bows, broad stern and

rounded hull; Hong Kong sailing trading junks, Pak Hoi, about

45 feet long and 15 feet broad, flat- bottomed vessels with

pointed bow and almost pointed stern ; brightly painted Chin

Chau and east coast trading junks, banana-shaped vessels with

a rough but sturdy finish, as well as smaller craft such as shrimp

boats, Ha Teng, and small fishing boats, Ma Lan Teng, which

are almost the babies of Hong Kong craft, being only 18 feet

long. They are very wide, however, flat-bottomed, and operated

purely as family concerns by three or four people in shallow

water.

We watched a sampan being built by one man. It was carvel

built of cheap pine from the East River. The builder told us

that single-handed he would take 12 or 13 days, though when he

had a mate he could finish one in seven days. His conversation

was punctuated by sure , swift blows on great nails which had

been manufactured in the factory near by. His family sat round

a table on stools at the back of the sampan, and the wall of the

shed was covered with red paper charms. The god of the earth

was in his place under another table, and there were vases with

paper flowers, a bowl with joss-sticks, a pack of cards, and

enamel rice bowls neatly stacked on the table.

It was a busy neighbourhood and as noisy as all Hong Kong.

Next door three men sat hammering at shallow iron frying -pans.

197

THE BOAT PEOPLE

Down the narrow , muddy lane there were numbers of women

on low stools sorting out coal from piles of stone and shells

dredged from the harbour. This deep-sea mining is quite an

industry in this area and they had salved a considerable quantity

of saleable pieces .

The pleasant, pungent odour in the next shed we visited told

us that part at least of the vessel being built there was made of

camphor wood, which apparently is as little liked by sea -borers

as it is by land insects. The master builder of this large junk said

it would cost £ 1,750 and take 10 men six weeks to complete.

Then there would be a launching ceremony. Beautifully carved

on its stern in large characters was its name, The Moon shines on

the Golden Boat. Realists though the Chinese are, they are also

poets.

It was difficult to reconcile the appearance of poverty with

all this prosperous-looking industry, but perhaps the margins of

profit are small. Again I wondered whether material comfort

means a lot to Chinese. The smallest cubby-hole was used not

only to sleep and eat in but to turn out something saleable.

Cooking for the most part was done on chatties outside the

miserable hovels, and there were many living on sampans that

were just afloat in the dirty, stinking water. These sampans

looked beyond any possible service except that of affording a

poor shelter. Even cigarette ends were being collected by chil

dren in order to sell the tobacco.

Yet poor though these people might be, one felt that these

craftsmen were putting more than hereditary skill and well

chosen timber into their work for the money they earned.

Consciously or unconsciously, they were building not only stout

ships to sail beyond the waters of Hong Kong harbour, but

factories to produce food for thousands, and homes in which

men and women were to live, and in which children would be

born and brought up to sail in other ships. The Junk and the

Dhow may look to the uninitiated like anyhow ', but they are

not. And as far as I could see, the essential difference between

the building of the two lay in the speed with which junks are

completed. I never saw Arab boat-builders work at such a speed .

198

PART THREE

WELFARE AND

MANAGEMENT

CHAPTER TWENTY -ONE

The Care of the People — the Young

I HAVE NEVER been so conscious of the struggle for existence as

I was in Hong Kong. The sight of the close-packed millions

moving in a restricted area brings home how great is the task

for each of them to find sufficient of the wherewithal to pay for

food and bodily necessities. The mere business of keeping alive

is a continuous problem for the majority of them.

The care of a vast organism such as Hong Kong, obviously so

vulnerable to shortages of food and water and to disease and

disorder, is plainly a task fraught with great and insistent

anxieties to its Government, which few of the population can

appreciate.

Government's care of the people starts at the beginning. A

visit to the maternity wards of the Kwong Wah hospital was a

strange and stirring experience. As SisterAgnes, the charming

Chinese matron who has been decorated for war services,

opened the great swing-doors a sound like the wind -borne mew

ing of seagulls floated forth . Before me stretched a long vista of

white beds and cots, with neat, trim , white-clad, white -masked

Chinese nurses flitting between them. There was an impression

of visiting the corner of Heaven in which are to be found all the

babies waiting to be born. In fact, of course, it was a stage or

two later in the proceedings, but the babies were yet on the

threshold of that world of struggle which is Hong Kong.

The mewing arose from dozens of new-born citizens of the

most numerous race on earth, with all their troubles before

them , bemoaning their advent into this difficult world. It was a

large ward with the beds close together . Each bed contained a

mother, some contained two. At the foot of each bed was a net

covered cot, or where appropriate two, and in each cot I saw a

tiny puckered face. Apart from the wards, there were mothers

in beds and babies in cots in the passages, in the store-rooms,

even in the kitchens. Everywhere was spotlessly clean.

It was mass production with a vengeance. Turning to Matron

I remarked that it was the busiest factory I had seen in Hong

201

THE CARE OF THE YOUNG

Kong. She smiled . ‘A short time ago we had our record figure

of 40 babies in 24 hours.'

What the annual turn - out of babies coming off the assembly

line in this hospital is I do not know, but it must be considerable,

for normal cases — the vast majority — stay in only four to five

days. Hong Kong produced 47,475 babies in 1948, which was its

highest figure ever. The number rose steadily from 20,886 in

1934 to 45,000 in 1941. Then the war upset things and produc

tion did not get under way again till 1946, when the number

was 31,098. It rose to 42,473 in 1947.

Numbers like these must have overtaxed the medical re

sources ofthe Colony, but Hong Kong appears to be able to take

it. In 1948 no fewer than 46,384 of these babies were ushered

into the world by doctors and midwives, and 36,264 of them

were born in hospitals and maternity homes — the total number

of maternity beds is 324, so they must have been in continuous

occupation . The figures denote a tremendous achievement,

probably unequalled by any other colony, but they at once

stimulate the question how many of these babies survived in the

'A vista of white beds and cots ' (p. 201 )

202

MORE AND MORE BABIES

appallingly overcrowded conditions. The answer is no less

startling. In 1935 the mortality of infants under one year was

617 a thousand. In 1940, the year before the war, it was 327

a thousand. In 1948, with Hong Kong more crowded than ever

before and its services not fully restored, infantile mortality

had been reduced to 91.1 a thousand .

Some idea of how such a result has been achieved can be had

by a visit to the Harcourt Health Centre. Here one morning

we watched a Chinese nurse with a borrowed baby demon

strating to a class of intent young mothers, with babies swathed

in red quilted bags on their backs, how to bath a month-old

infant. The behaviour of the model was perfect. Layer after

layer of clothes was peeled off, and it was washed, towelled and

powdered with hardly an expostulatory sound. We were told

by Miss Burne, who is in charge of Infant Welfare Clinics, that

Chinese mothers and babies are remarkably clean -- only one

case of nits had ever been seen in the Centre. But it is difficult

to persuade mammas that layers of quilted clothing are not

necessary in the tropics.

In another room another Chinese nurse was demonstrating

how an almost weaned child should be fed . She had a card

board clock on the table, and a piece of green hessian hung over

a blackboard . The clock hands were put to the times of meals

and coloured cut- outs of the foods suitable to be given were

stuck on the hessian. There were, for instance, appetizing

looking pictures of tomatoes and tomato juice, oranges and

orange juice, foods for a midday meal such as fish , various

vegetables, and so on . The nurse repeated her demonstration

until each mother could tell her what food to put on the hessian

when the clock pointed to twelve, or what time the clock should

show when tomatoes appeared on the hessian. There was no

milk, for it is too scarce.

Of course nothing like all the young mothers who pass

through the overworked maternity beds have the benefit of

these classes at health centres. There are three Government

Infant Welfare Centres and in 1949 they had nearly 100,000

attendances. At the time of our visit there were approximately

16,000 infants under two years of age in regular attendance.

As Miss Burne said, the service is as yet ' only scratching on

the surface '. There is a crying need for expansion, but without

203

THE CARE OF THE YOUNG

further facilities and staff the demand cannot be met. Never

theless, infant welfare teaching sections now function in dis

pensary buildings of the outer districts, and a great deal is also

done by the Society for the Protection of Children. This Society

started as a branch of the S.P.C.C., but the name was changed,

for the Chinese said there was no cruelty to children . It runs a

baby clinic where infants are bathed and given free powdered

milk, and the mothers advised on their care.

These services cover children from birth to two years of age.

It has not yet been possible to start toddler clinics, and less is

therefore done for children between two and school age.

Schoolchildren

Any weekday morning, between 8 and 9, along many ofHong

Kong's less populated streets, the clatter of young feet and the

chatter of young voices are common sounds as thousands of

children hurry along to school. Out of tenements or luxury

flats, off ferries, trams and buses, pour thousands of boys and

girls from every type of home. There is no ' creeping like snail ' ,

for the children of Hong Kong are always eager to get into their

classrooms. The predominant impression is bright blue, for

most school uniforms are either blue jeans over white blouses,

or blue pyjamas, or blue tunics . Each boy and each girl carries

a Hong Kong basket, though the more fortunate ones have

amahs to carry them .

Assuming that about аa tenth of the population are of school

age, one can take it that there are about 225,000 in that cate

gory , and in 1950 there were 147,000 children of all ages in

school. Hong Kong's primary schools, however, do not yet cope

with children beyond the age of 12 or 13, and out of 200,000

who are between 55 and 12-13 , there are 120,000 in school. * The

attendance of Chinese children is 97 per cent : the lowest

attendance is that of Indians with gi per cent. A place in a

school is something highly prized and greatly sought after. It is

interesting to read in a school magazine what the boys of a

* At the end of 1950 Government was maintaining or subsidizing 340 schools,

20 grant-aided schools run mainly by missionary bodies, and 29 directly under

the charge of the Education Department. At that time there were 162,000 in

primary and secondary schools and it was thought possible that the total number

of children not in school was about 50,000.

204

VARIETY OF SCHOOLS

class which could not attend assembly in the hall, as it was not

large enough to hold everyone, had to say : 'We do not envy

the upper classes (who attended Assembly) because this

arrangement gives us 20 minutes more of valuable instructions

from our class-masters, who keep us company .' And another

class bemoaned that classrooms are locked during recess be

cause ‘ it does seem rather senseless to stand about the play

ground wasting precious time'.

Schools in Hong Kong are classified as Government schools,

Grant schools, Subsidized schools, Military schools and others

exempted from the provisions of the Education Ordinance, and

Private schools. All schools, unless specially exempted, must

regulations made under the Education Ordinance of 1913.

There is a Board of Education with seven official and eleven

unofficial members. *

The classification of the schools, however, gives no idea of the

variety to be found among them. There are one-roomed schools:

there are schools in tenements : there are schools which are as

good and in some cases better equipped than anything to be

found in this country. All schools are full: many are crowded .

And into whatever schools one goes, one has the same impres

sion of countless little heads busily bowed over desks, in an

industrious way quite unusual in the West.

Many things are similar to those found in Western schools,

but there are differences, some of them peculiar to Hong Kong.

Ordinarily when a visitor enters a classroom the children rise.

I was startled on visiting a school in West Africa when the

little naked children immediately got up, crouched behind their

desks and clapped softly. In Hong Kong the children rose, put

their hands together and bowed in a traditional Chinese

fashion. Then there was the method of writing. It was fascinat

ing to watch small hands delicately holding a Chinese brush

upright between their fingers and drawing characters in their

copy -books. Or to see a class skilfully clicking the beads of an

abacus, working out the sums set out for them on a giant abacus

used by the teacher to demonstrate the system. Not every school

teaches the use of the abacus, but many use it as well as the

* In 1951 the Board consisted entirely of unofficial members with the

Director of Education as chairman .

205

THE CARE OF THE YOUNG

Western system of arithmetic, for the abacus is in common use

all over Hong Kong in Government offices and in shops.

There are few schools which have kindergartens because

there are few parents who can afford to send their children to

them . But one of the most attractive we saw was at the Ying

Wah girls' school run by the London Missionary Society, the

Society to which Morrison belonged . The school was founded

in 1900. There were two young Chinese teachers playing sing

ing -games with entrancing four- and five-year-olds, prettily and

well dressed, whose parents belonged to the better-off 'white

collar' classes. In the higher forms the girls came from very

mixed homes and some of the parents had to sacrifice a good

deal to send them to school. No father wants his daughter to do

manual work once she has been to school, so those who do not

matriculate usually become shop girls or junior clerks.

There is also a Church Missionary Society school with a

Chinese headmistress, and a great number of convent schools.

One of these which we saw was the Precious Blood School,

which under the calm and gentle Sister Lui breathes an atmo

sphere of unhurried orderliness. All the nuns are Chinese, but

only a small percentage of the girls are Christians. Then there

is the Maryknoll convent school run by American Foreign

Mission Sisters of St. Dominic. This school can only be de

scribed as de luxe. It is beautifully housed and equipped, and the

691 girls, of whom again only about aa third are Christians, work

in an atmosphere of peace, culture, and simple but good living.

Another of the ' best ' schools for girls is the True Light

Middle School. Here no perms are allowed (most Chinese girls

have permed heads) , and queues of amahs sit knitting and sew

ing while waiting for their charges to be released. Each week

emphasis is laid on a particular virtue- cleanliness, frugality,

friendship, and so on. In the school yard a young and pretty

P.T. instructress was taking a class which had barely enough

room to do the exercises. Playgrounds and playing-fields are

one of the big needs and almost everywhere the head masters

and mistresses bemoaned the lack of them .

In contrast to these well- equipped schools, there was the one

room Confucian school run by Fung Ki Cheuk, a grey -gowned,

straggly-bearded Chinese of the old school. He and a woman

teacher instruct some 44 boys and girls in the three religions '

206

VARIETY OF SCHOOLS

and as the fees are very low the school is attended by poor

children . One child lived on a broken - down sampan ashore ;

another, who said his father sold pigs' entrails, shared two bunks

with his parents, a baby sister, and grannie.

In Hennessy Road, another poor and very crowded district,

there is an excellent Government primary school, which had

taken only 13 weeks to build. Like so many Hong Kong schools,

it runs two sessions, and also adult evening classes. Fees are low

and pupils must be children of industrial workers or coolies.

Most of them come from bedspace homes and many work

during out- of-school hours.

The Gold and Silver Exchange Association, whose activities

we watched in an earlier chapter, run a school for poor children.

It was only opened in 1949 and is very modern and on a grand

scale. A school like this is of course in great contrast to the tene

ment type, but among the latter there were many which were

very alive, and one of them, the Tuen Ching at Wanchai, in

terested me because here for the first time I found an attempt to

encourage Chinese art. In most of the schools drawing had

become westernized, but in the Tuen Ching there were two art

masters, Chinese and foreign '. The former had studied under

Ko Kei Fung, a famous Canton artist, and the latter had been

to the Canton provincial art college. It was interesting to com

pare the results of their different methods of teaching. I felt that

much more was achieved when the children and their teachers

were expressing themselves in their own tradition than when

the children were using an alien one, perhaps imperfectly com

prehended by their teachers.

The oldest boys' college in Hong Kong is Queen's College,

founded as the Government Central School in 1862. ' He comes

from Queen's College ' was as good as saying ' He's an Etonian ',

and the College has sent out boys all over China. The original

buildings were destroyed during the Japanese occupation, but

it was hoped to complete the new Queen's College by September

1950. Then there is La Salle boys' college run by Christian

Brothers. They too have lost their building, requisitioned as a

military hospital, and the goo boys were housed in wooden huts

when we went round. Brother Patrick, the head master, showed

us the well- equipped library, laboratories, geography room and

classrooms, but he had no great opinion of his pupils. He would

207

THE CARE OF THE YOUNG

fling open the door of a classroom and say in a loud, cheerful

tone 'A heavy lot, these ', or ‘A dumb lot ', or perhaps ‘ One or

two bright ones here '. The boys took it all smilingly.

A noteworthy school with a distinct atmosphere of its own is

St. Stephen's College at Stanley. It is unique in being the last

school of its kind to remain outside the Government Grant- in

aid scheme and is also regarded as an ' Eton ’ . The Chinese

gentlemen who founded it in 1903, such men as Sir Kai Ho Kai,

a distinguished surgeon , who also presented the Alice Memorial

Hospital to the Colony in memory of his English wife, and

Dr. S. W. Tso, both of them also among the founders of the

University, sought the help of the Church Missionary Society

in their venture, and its education is on a Christian basis. Both

these men had been educated at English schools and they

wanted to found a school in Hong Kong with the same sort of

outlook. In keeping up this tradition the staff, some of whom are

English University men, and the college council, a number of

them Old Boys, have been very successful, and the boys, 240 of

them in the college and 160 in the preparatory school, are very

like English schoolboys in their outlook and ways. The school

includes a number of distinguished local Chinese amongst its

Old Boys, as well as such men as Dr. Foo Ping Sheung, for five

years Chinese Ambassador to Moscow , and Dr. “ Jimmy' Yen,

the great pioneer in mass education. Indeed, so distinguished are

its former alumni that a parent is said to have asked if Con

fucius were not an Old Boy ! It is also sometimes believed that

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen was, but in fact he was at Queen's College.

The only strange differences between this school and its English

counterparts of which I heard were that the boys sometimes

complained of too few hours ofwork and too much sung ( food to

go with rice) at meals !

King George V is a Government school intended originally

for British children, but since the war it has not been confined

to them though there is a stiff entrance examination in English.

It is now very international with Chinese, Portuguese, British,

American , Russian, Dutch, French , German, Norwegian , Swiss,

Belgian, Czechoslovakian and Persian pupils. The Chinese,

however, appear to walk away with most of the prizes. ' I

wondered when I should see an English face ', said the lady who

had been giving away prizes on one occasion .

208

CHILDREN'S CLUBS

The children living in the New Territories are not neglected,

although in general the schools are not so well housed and

equipped as in the cities. Near Yuen Long, however, there are

two new and well-built schools, one being due to the enterprise

of the local elders who collected $ 100,000 towards it. There are

about 200 schools in the rural areas, 194 of them being sub

sidized, and most of them consisting of one room.

A great deal of the success of all these schools is due to the

Northcote Training College and the Rural Training College.

The former caters largely for city schools and has many appli

cants . The latter is in the New Territories and is responding to

the urgent need for teachers in rural schools. Mr. Wong, the

principal, is a very delightful and human person who loves

farming and reading Horace. He has discovered how well they

go together.

There are of course thousands of children in Hong Kong who

are not fortunate enough to find a place in a school. The drab

ness of their lives in Hong Kong's dismal tenements needs no

emphasis. Some of these children are lucky enough to be able to

attend the Children's Clubs, and it is a moving experience to be

present at the Yaumati Welfare Centre, used as a club in the

evenings, when the children come for their classes. They arrive

in their rags and tatters with happy faces of anticipation. They

shed their clothes, have a wash, and put on the clean khaki suits

or dresses provided for them. They come bustling back to the

classrooms and eagerly sit down at the desks in good order.

There is no wasting of time. Small baskets or parcels are opened

and they bring out their bowls and chopsticks, and perhaps

artificial flowers, which some of them make in their spare time

at home to augment the family budget. The leaders take their

places behind three great cauldrons of hot steaming food, and

the other children queue up for their helpings. From No. I

cauldron comes rice, No. 2 produces cooked tomatoes in a sauce,

and No. 3 dried fish heads. Each child's bowl is piled high .

Despite their hunger the children are beautifully mannered and

tidy eaters. They wait while one of them comes to the front,

bows three times to the club leader, a woman teacher, turns

and bows to her clubmates, and says a long grace. Then they

get down to business. Every grain is carefully cleaned up and

the empty bowls are little trouble to wash. There follows class

209

THE CARE OF THE YOUNG

work , lessons in the three R's, and instruction is absorbed as

eagerly as food .

The Social Welfare Department does much to encourage

these clubs, but much is also done by philanthropic volunteers,

such as Mr. U Tat Chee. He and others each guarantee £6 a

month. The real work of these clubs of course depends entirely

on the young men and women who give up their evenings and

often their week-ends to club work. A visit to a centre like

Yaumati quickly convinces aa visitor that work of this kind is so

very much worth while in the tremendous dividends of human

happiness which it gives for small outlay. One is left in no doubt

that these children look forward to this brief evening interlude

as the one great time in their day, and work of this nature

undoubtedly saves many children from becoming juvenile

delinquents.

One had the same sort of worth -while feeling at a Salvation

Army club in Wanchai. This was intended for teen-age boys and

girls, and was opened for an hour or so in the late evening in a

room that belonged to a school. The boys were playing bad

minton, the girls ping-pong, but there was also a mixed team

playing Chinese shuttlecock, a game of skill which makes for

agile feet. Some of these young people go to the Salvation Army

school, some are unlicensed hawkers. I was greatly struck with

their leader, a young married man of about 30. He had a good

square jaw and gave an impression of quiet and confident

power. At first as we looked round he paid little attention to us

and seemed rather the inscrutable Chinese. When, however, I

told him how impressed I was with the club and said what a

great deal of good I thought such work did, his face lit up as he

expanded enthusiastically on what had to be done to brighten

the lives of youth in Hong Kong. I found him a very impressive

young man. He belonged to the same class as the boys and girls

of the club, but his qualities of leadership were obvious.

There are many such clubs in Hong Kong, but there are not

nearly enough of them. The Boys' Club at Stanley is aa resident

club started in 1945 as a holiday camp for affiliated Boys' Clubs.

Here again there is an excellent spirit among the 134 boys and

their leaders. As well as receiving schooling, the lads are ap

prenticed to various trades, and no boy leaves the club until a

job is found for him .

210

JUVENILE WELFARE

Excellent work is being done at the Reformatory attached to

Stanley Prison . Much credit is due to the Commissioner of

Prisons and his staff for the success of this school. Distressed at

the number of juvenile offenders being committed to prison,

and having nowhere else to keep them except the prison , the

Commissioner took over some unoccupied warehouses near by

and turned them into a reformatory, thus presenting Govern

ment with a fait accompli. Government could have wished for

nothing better. The place was speedily legalized and a first

class warder, with a real mission for work amongst such boys,

put in charge. He has inculcated a spirit of responsibility into

these boys and few indeed show signs of recidivist tendencies.

For the most part they seem to have all the instincts of decent

schoolboys, and here again there is positive evidence of what

can be done to save youth for happy, useful lives in over

crowded , overstrained Hong Kong.

Another club is run for Hong Kong's shoe-shine boys, who

are a feature of the crowded streets. You see these small

urchins, dressed in a variety of uniforms, blacking shoes in a

very professional manner. They are allowed to start this work

at 12 and have to leave off when they reach 16, so there is not

much future in it. They get 20 cents a shine and on a good day

will earn several dollars. At their club, run by the Jesuit Fathers

of Wah Yan College, they get some schooling and the Fathers

help to find them other employment.

All this work is good - first class. The only criticism to be

made is that there is not nearly enough of it.

The blind and the deaf and the abandoned are not forgotten .

There are two homes for the blind and one for the deaf. Aban

doned babies find a happy home in an orphanage at Fan Ling.

It is not by any means the only orphanage in Hong Kong, but

a visit to it is a delight because its atmosphere shows that it is

run in a truly Christian spirit. The home was started in a flat in

Kowloon in 1936 under the auspices of the Hong Kong Evan

gelical Fraternity, but moved to Fan Ling in 1940. It is not

housed very commodiously and the 131 children are somewhat

cramped, but the toddlers come forward so trustingly, taking

you firmly by the fingers to lead you round, that you sense at

once the affection that is undoubtedly given to them by the

Europeans who run the home, and by the Chinese nurses who

211

THE CARE OF THE YOUNG

have the care of the babies. Practically all the babies there were

found abandoned, and, but for about half a dozen, all are

girls.

The Tai Po orphanage, also in the New Territories, was

founded by the Church Missionary Society. It has an interesting

aim, for it trains its orphans ofboth sexes in farming in order that

they may help in the rural reconstruction of China. The first

group of boys and girls left Tai Po for a village near Canton in

1948 and quickly adapted themselves to their new environment.

They had to clear their own land and build a house, and by

1949 they had five acres under cultivation.

Perhaps one of the best known institutions in Hong Kong is

the Po Leung Kuk, the Society for the Preservation of Virtue,

founded in 1876 to prevent the kidnapping of women and

children. Today this voluntary society runs a large home for

problem girls, and young children of both sexes who may be

simply in need of care and protection, or delinquents. It is easy

to see that a great deal of money has been given and spent on

the building. There is a magnificent hall in which visitors may

be entertained, or affairs of the Society discussed . Marble

tablets bear the names of benefactors, some of whom have their

portraits hanging on the walls. It all has an air of solid Sino

Victorian respectability and charity. The rest of the building

the living and working quarters of the inmates — is clean and

bare, with an Institutional smell which brought to mind that

attractive book Daddy Long Legs. The Matron, bright-eyed and

tight-lipped, with a bunch of keys dangling at her waist,

opened the door of the nursery. A circle of toddlers stood gaping

patiently. Each one held a woolly toy, so awkwardly that it

seemed as if they were little used to cuddling anything. There

assrooms, and dormitories with iron gates locked at

night, ‘ for we are afraid girls run away ', said the Matron. “ We

must lock every door - many, many keys ', and she jangled the

bunch cheerfully. In an upstairs room older girls sat at looms

weaving towels. They had a sullen , unresponsive air and the

Matron explained that some were prostitutes, others destitutes,

or cases of Mui Tsai. * ' Little girls and boys good,' she said, ' but

big girls very bad, very lazy.' If they are really very bad she has

two punishment cells in which they get solitary confinement.

* Old Chinese system of child-sale and domestic slavery.

212

A LOVELESS HOME

Most of these girls are not committed for ever to the care of

the Po Leung Kuk. Some are sent by an order of the Court for

a certain term ; others await repatriation to lost families, and

quite a number are found husbands. Mr. Fraser, the assistant

welfare officer in charge of women and girls, has attended 75

weddings from this institution . The idea of the home, and the

very genuine desire to assist young women and children shown

by the committee and members of the Society, are indeed more

than commendable, but the affection and love that were so

apparent in, for instance, the Fan Ling Babies Home is sadly

lacking.

In order to prevent Mui Tsai, the legal guardianship of all

adopted daughters is automatically vested in the Secretary for

Chinese Affairs, and failure to report the possession of an

adopted daughter is aa criminal offence. Social workers visit the

homes of these wards to see that the children are properly cared

for and are not made into domestic slaves .

CHAPTER TWENTY - TWO

The Care of the People — the Adult

LIKE SO MANY British institutions, Hong Kong's University

appears to have just growed ' without any particular missionary

aim. Sir James Cantlie started the Hong Kong College of

Medicine for Chinese in 1887. Later it dropped the ' for

Chinese ' to allow the entry of Portuguese and other non

Chinese. It turned out the junior surgeon type who had, for

the most part, local practices . In 1910 the idea of a University

was mooted and in due course the College of Medicine became

a Faculty of the University. Today this Faculty is still the

biggest. The University has had its ups and downs, including

financial crises, and indeed it was having one of the latter when

I visited it. Its whole history has been one of struggle with in

sufficient staff and funds. Though it is a separate body, it relies

on the Hong Kong Government for its support. Its annual

213

THE CARE OF ADULTS

Government grant is 1 } million dollars and the rest of its

24 million odd income is made up ofrather more than a quarter

of a million dollars interest on investments and fees. Since the

war the University has had to build up from the bottom.

Laboratories, classrooms and living hostels have all had to be

rebuilt, and the scars of war were still evident in the ruins of

the Great Hall and Students' Union . The University has done

a tremendous job in reconstruction , but comparing those ruins

with all that has been rebuilt in other spheres suggested again

that cash counts for more than culture in the mind ofHong Kong.

In 1950 there were 629 students, of whom a third were

women. There were proportionately many more from China

than there were pre-war because of the political situation . They

are accepted on individual merit but must have had aa minimum

of one successful year in a Chinese University. It is clearly

good that many should come from China, and that the University

should thus have an opportunity of disseminating more liberal

thought into China. Another useful result of post-war diffi

culties is that although Chinese naturally overwhelmingly pre

dominate, there is now a sprinkling of many other nationalities.

There are English, Canadians, Eurasians, Portuguese, French,

Germans, Italians, Pakistanis, Sinhalese, Austrians, Norwe

gians, and White Russians (which expression reminds me to

record that Communist intellectuals in Hong Kong are now

referring to Shanghai refugees as White Chinese !)

The present situation in China presents the University with

a challenge of no mean order. Many of the Chinese universities

are continuing under the Communists. The teaching of English

has been drastically cut down and Russian is starting up. The

older members of the staffs are largely leaving and the Com

munists are concerned with the indoctrination of the younger

members.

But although students leave the Hong Kong University with

liberal ideas, very few go back to China. They make contacts

in Hong Kong during their six years of study and it is only the

missionary type who would be prepared to pack up and go into

China. It has also to be remembered that there is still a big open

ing for doctors in Hong Kong, and if the population keeps at its

present level the Colony is not likely to besaturated with doctors

for a generation or two . It takes time to turn out doctors,

214

FACTORY CONDITIONS

economists, and teachers of English , and this emphasizes the

need for meeting the University's wants quickly. There should

be men of these qualifications ready to step into China when

the need and want for them occur.

There is only one Government Technical College, although

the Aberdeen Industrial School, run by Salesian Brothers, turns

out excellent craftsmen . The Technical College trains boys for

many trades and turns out civil engineers, mechanical and elec

trical engineers, wireless operators, carpenters, draughtsmen ,

clerks of works, and so on.

For the most part the craftsman, the artisan and the factory

worker learn their trades as apprentices. Sometimes they are

apprenticed to the firm or the ‘ boss ', sometimes they are taken

on by skilled workers who undertake, for a consideration, to

teach them the trade.. As factories of all kinds grew and spread

throughout Hong Kong it became necessary for Government

to provide by legislation for the protection of employees. All

factories or workshops employing more than 20 persons or using

power-driven machinery must be registered. Children under 14

may not be employed, and women or young persons under 16

may not be set to work in any trade styled as dangerous. Hours

of employment of young persons and women are regulated, and

the usual precautions against accidents are enforced . A staff of

men and women labour inspectors is constantly visiting factories

of all types, some of which are modern and up to date, where the

employers are only too willing to look after the welfare of their

employees, but others are housed in overcrowded, ill-lighted , ill

ventilated quarters with little consideration for the workers.

In the modern factories, both European- and Chinese-owned ,

the employers are prepared to recognize the 48-hour week,

which was the standard set by Government in 1948 for all its

manual workers, but a great many factory workers sit at their

benches or stand at their machines for at least nine hours a

day for a seven-day week, and in many cases 12 hours a day.

Long hours are of course particularly prevalent where employ

ment is at piece rates.

Going round some of the factories inquiring into the home

background of employees soon shows that the hours of tedious

work are for the most part cheerfully undertaken simply to get

enough to eat. The idea of earning in order to have pleasurable

215

THE CARE OF ADULTS

leisure hours as well as the necessities of life is scarcely thought

of. That long hours are fairly common is shown in a survey of

garment-making factories; nine ofthese worked an 11 -hour day ;

one a 13-hour day for women and 14 for men, two a 102-hour

day, one a 10-hour, three 9 ), three 9 hours, and only in two

was there an 8 -hour day. Most factories have a seven -day week

and no holidays with pay except for those on a monthly wage,

usually a minority of the workers. Labour Officers have found

that in general there is a feeling of resentment among the

workers if any attempt is made to get the management to

shorten the hours. For one thing so many of them are on piece

work, and for another, it is said that Chinese workers prefer

long hours at a slower tempo to shorter, more concentrated

hours. Nevertheless, a continued and steady attempt is made by

the Labour Officers and Factory Inspectors to see that the

strain is not too great on the workers, and that the regulations

concerning the hours of work for young persons and women are

obeyed .

Ventilation, lighting, and seating arrangements are other

things that have always to be watched, especially in the tene

ment- type factory. Walking round with Mrs. Allinson (who was

one of the guests at Rosa Hui's party ), you will see her stop and

ask a girl if she is comfortably seated at her machine, whether

she needs a foot-rest, and so on. Often pregnant women are

working and inquiries are made about the care that will be

taken of them ; generally the employers grant maternity leave

without pay. Quite a number of mothers have their babies

brought to the factory by grandmamma or a friend for their

feeding times, and the management usually is willing for the

mother to leave her bench to see to her baby.

Another regulation that is not infrequently forgotten by the

poorer type of factory owner is the fencing of machinery, and

this again has to be carefully watched by a Labour Inspector.

Prosecutions for this and other offences are only proceeded with

after warnings and advice have been ignored several times.

Mrs. Allinson made a survey among a number of women em

ployed in different factories to find out something of their home

background. Among 68 working in weaving-mills, 32 were

single, 25 married and 11 widows. The single women either

lived with and helped to support their parents, or were sharing

216

WOMEN WORKERS

cubicles with friends, often sending money to relatives in the

country. Most of the married women were working from

economic necessity, and in some cases they were working in

order to pay their children's school fees. Though this is a very

small selection, it is fairly typical. It is rare to find that any of

the young girls have been to school, and few seemed to have

any ideas about how to spend their leisure time except in doing

housework . They would only giggle when asked if they went to

the cinema or had boy friends, but every one of them spent

some of her precious earnings on having a “ perm '.

It was a sight to be on factory premises when the midday bell

rang. With one accord every operator downed tools and made a

dash for the exits. The men, unless they were being fed on the

premises, quickly congregated round cooked -food stalls or

hawkers in the neighbourhood, but practically all the women

poured into the street, clattering in their wooden shoes along

the pavement, speeding home to have as much time for their

dinner as possible. One of a number of improvements Mrs.

Allinson would like to see brought in is canteens for the women.

Another is the extension ofschools and day nurseries in working

class districts. But one of her dreams was nearing fulfilment

when I was in Hong Kong: this was a youth centre for the

young persons of the factories, where they could find something

profitable and amusing to do during their leisure hours.

Unions, guilds, and societies of various kinds have long

existed among the workers of Hong Kong. Just prior to the war

many of these unions were growing in strength and showing a

capacity for reasonable negotiation , but the organizations col

lapsed during the occupation and in the post-war period they

came under political influences. Some were controlled by the

Kuomintang, others by the Communists, and they became more

of a political weapon than unions for the benefit of employers

and employees. In 1947 a Labour Officer came out to advise

and assist in building up sound trade unions and the Trade

Union Ordinance was published in 1948. In 1949 there were

259 unions registered with a total membership of 146,761 . They

are always increasing and it is particularly noticeable that more

and more women are joining them.

There is also a Labour Advisory Board which was recently

reconstituted to have equal numbers of employers' and workers'

217

THE CARE OF ADULTS

representatives. But the very Left-wing unions are not co

operative and are much under the influence of Communist

propaganda. Government, however, continued its endeavours

to encourage the less political and sounder trade unionists, and

has been successful, in one important instance at least, in con

vincing workers that arbitration is better than striking.

CHAPTER TWENTY - THREE

Housing and Health

AFTER THE LIBERATION the problem of housing became difficult

at once, but as the Colony recovered and its population in

creased the shortage became more and more evident. The

subject was much debated in the Legislative Council and there

was a good deal of criticism of Government for not doing more

to encourage private enterprise. In July 1946 old ordinances

which had had the effect of prohibiting Chinese from living on

the Peak and the heights of Cheung Chau Island were repealed :

one of the reasons given for this was that it would increase the

housing available. Whether it had any real effect in this direc

tion is doubtful, but the act was certainly, as was also stated, in

accordance with the spirit ofthe times.

Far-reaching proposals for improving Hong Kong, Kowloon

and the New Territories were made in the Preliminary Planning

Report of Sir Patrick Abercrombie in 1948. ' The housing condi

tions of Hong Kong', he said, ' present the most serious prob

lem in the Colony.' His plan for future housing is calculated on

500 rather than 2,000 to the acre, and in some cases the figure is

lower. Rebuilding old and obsolete types of tenements, trans

ferring overcrowded population to other areas, and the re

moval from the centre ofthe city ofHong Kong ofthe naval and

military quarters are among his proposals.

In the meantime the part Government plays in the housing

of the people is largely limited to control designed to prevent

disease and fire. The squatters have presented an exceptional

218

DISLIKE OF CONTROL

problem . Some large areas on the outskirts of the cities were set

aside for them. Water was laid on, drains built, and on these

sites huts had to be built to a specified pattern. Government

then cleared the worst and most dangerous squatter colonies

and advised those whose huts were demolished that they might

rebuild on these approved sites. Most, however, simply moved to

fresh sites on the hillsides. One of the reasons given for their lack

of enthusiasm for the approved sites was that the standard hut

was too expensive to build. But it is curious that there is this lack

of enthusiasm, for if you build on one of the approved areas you

can do so with some feeling of security. If you build on what is

known as a “ tolerated ' site you have no certainty when Govern

ment will cease to be tolerant and order you off. At King's Park

in Kowloon there are some model huts, built on an approved

pattern and on an approved site. They are well aligned and

quite pleasant, but few of the thousands of squatters appear to

be interested in building there, and there are only 47 huts, a

number of which are occupied by members of the police force.

There is undoubtedly an atmosphere of dull orderliness about

the place and the approved-type huts are rather expensive to

build. But it was not this, I was told, which kept people away,

but their dislike of Government control .

Public-spirited members of the Kowloon Kai Fong Welfare

Association, among them Mr. U Tat Chee, have raised money

to build a standard type of home primarily for victims of the

Kowloon City fire, and these houses, although built on a

tolerated site in the Homantin valley, have all been taken up by

prospective occupiers. Government encourages these Kai Fongs

and other organizations, and at Healthy Village at North

Point, one of the approved squatter colonies, there is a com

mittee of 17 which looks after the general affairs of the village.

But here again there is a certain amount of apathy, for of 97 huts

occupied only 50 occupiers paid the voluntary contribution of

2s. 6d . a month towards the village funds. It seems that control

of any sort, Government or private, is not popular. The chair

man of the Healthy Village committee, formerly a minister in

Nationalist China, said of his fellow villagers: ‘ They only like

to look after their own property and live in safety and peace' .

On the other hand , little has as yet been done officially to guide

and encourage squatters to manage their affairs. There seems

219

HOUSING AND HEALTH

to have been a feeling that this would amount to giving them a

sense of too great security in settlements which must essentially

be regarded as temporary .

Government exercises control over domestic buildings

through the Buildings Ordinance, 1935, which provided for

improved lighting, ventilation and sanitation. Consequently

tenements built since 1935 are a vast improvement on the earlier

type. As overcrowding is unavoidable so long as there is more or

less unrestricted immigration, Government directs its efforts to

keeping the tenements clean and reducing the risk of epidemics.

It is a terrific undertaking. There is the impossibility of eliminat

ing T.B. and the dangers from rats and flies. Every so many

yards along the main streets there are tin boxes into which the

residents drop their dead rats, and some 13,000 a month are

collected from them. Every three or four months each row of

tenements is washed down from top to bottom by the Health

Department. It is a most astonishing sight to see. Those who

live on the ground floors bring all their furniture and belongings

out into the street. Those living on upper storeys pile their goods

into the centre of the floor. When the hosepipes, scrubbing

brushes and pails have departed, the floors, staircases, verandahs,

and street outside seem as though visited by a cloudburst,

and a pleasant, healthy smell of disinfectant greets the house

holder as he gradually carries back his belongings. Owing

to these and other health efforts there has been no cholera

in the Colony since 1947, and plague, which is endemic in the

north, has been to all intents and purposes banished from

Hong Kong.

But the problem of tuberculosis remains. It accounts for

14.6 per cent of deaths and in 1949 the cases of T.B. meningitis

were three times more than in 1947, an increase which, as the

Director of Medical Services said, was due to the overcrowded

tenements which provide the most perfect breeding ground for

tuberculosis where the risk of infection for small children is

tremendous'. Government had one T.B. clinic in 1949 and

another was about to be built, but there are also a few branch

clinics, mainly of a propaganda value. There were some 480

beds for T.B. in hospitals. Then there is a scheme for a mass

X-ray service, health visitors have been trained for the tuber

culosis service, and every T.B. sufferer reporting for treatment

220

VACCINATION SQUADS

has his contacts recorded and every one of them searched out

and given advice or treatment. Propaganda against spitting

and to encourage other health measures in a campaign against

T.B. has been spread by films and posters.

In much of the work done to prevent sickness, Government

has found great assistance from the very active St. John

Ambulance Brigade. One of its principal activities is running

Penetration Squads to carry out vaccinations. These squads,

which consist of eight nurses and a doctor, visit islands and out

posts in the New Territories and usually vaccinate about 200

people each week. There is a night and day ambulance service.

There are 800 members on the ambulance side, some 300 on

the nursing, and 40 doctors; 95 per cent of the members are

Chinese and they come from all classes. Some are factory girls

who come over to Headquarters for training after their work .

Though they are given a uniform they are not even paid their

ferry fares, but Mr. Arculli, the Commissioner, said he found no

lack of public-spirited people willing to give voluntary service.

The Urban Council exhorts the public by poster to‘keep

your city clean '. It has to keep an ever-watchful eye on the

cleanliness of markets, cafés, cooked - food stalls, public bath

houses and latrines. The latter are free, but with a true money

making instinct it was not long before a way was found to profit

by them. Some of the frequenters just sat on the seats and re

fused to move until desperation compelled those in need to pay

them to get off ! The collection of nightsoil is another tremen

dous undertaking and women are largely employed because it

is easier for them to have access to private homes. Government

did not like the idea of using women on this work and engaged

men instead, but hordes of angry women stormed the Urban

Council building and they had to be given back their jobs.

221

CHAPTER TWENTY - FOUR

The Sick and the Destitute

A VISIT to the out-patients department at the Kowloon Hospital

is not only another unforgettable experience, but a demonstra

tion of Chinese need for medical help. A mass of humanity sat,

stood, or milled around the large hall . Babies yelled and women

raucously shouted at each other in a babel which made normal

speech inaudible. In effect, however, order prevailed. People

used to queue all night and others would pay able-bodied men

25. 6d. to stand for them. But this had to be stopped when it

was found that girls came along to entertain them. About 1,500

a day were being seen when we visited it.

There are three out-patient clinics and seven dispensaries,

dealing with some 32,000 cases a month, in urban areas, and

eight outside the cities and in the New Territories, where

approximately 11,000 patients are treated each month. Al

together 1,186,885 patients attended the out-patient clinics of

all kinds in 1949 .

In the Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong has one of the

best-equipped hospitals in the colonies with a standard equal

to that of a large provincial hospital in the United Kingdom .

The building surpasses those of some London hospitals. When

it was built there were complaints that it was far too big and

would prove to be a white elephant. In a very short time it was

overfull and had a long waiting-list. It is a teaching hospital

and there are about 580 beds. There is a Mass Mini X-Ray

used for screening all candidates for Government employment

to see if they have T.B. , and there is also a blood bank, but

generally speaking people are afraid to give their blood as they

think that once it has gone it cannot be replaced. There is a

very pleasant Nurses' Home and the course for student nurses

is the same as in England. There were 80 nurses in training in

March 1950, the most that can be accommodated .

Government also runs the Kowloon Hospital with 182 beds,

a mental hospital (recognized as being out of date and much

below standard) , and a few other small hospitals, but it also

gives grants to five hospitals, three ofwhich are the Chinese- run

222

TUNG WAH HOSPITALS

hospitals of the Tung Wah Group — the Tung Wah, the Kwong

Wah, and the Tung Wah Eastern . The others assisted by

Government are the Nethersole and the Ruttonjee Sanatorium .

The Tung Wah is near the centre of Hong Kong city. It has

459 beds but a great many more patients than beds. It also runs

a nurses' training school. There are still a few outward signs of

the days when it was a stronghold of Chinese medicine. In the

main hall is a large picture of Shun Nung, the first of the

herbalists and the god ofmedicine. At one time it was customary

for the doctors to kowtow before his picture, but those days have

gone.

The maternity ward seemed strangely quiet after the Kwong

Wah, although each bed had a mother. ' How many do you

produce a day? ' I asked the doctor, to which he rather surpris

ingly replied, ' It depends according to the season . Near the end

of the year there are most .

In the huge kitchen soya -beans and cabbage were being

ladled into enamel dishes of different colours - blue for the T.B.

patients—and the Matron told me it cost 3s. a day for three

meals for one patient. At the same time this hospital was cook

ing and distributing 3,000 catties of rice for the Nationalist

soldiers, of whom more later.

At the Kwong Wah in Kowloon, Chinese surgical methods

may still be used if the patients prefer them to Western methods.

It has 375 beds, and the third of the Tung Wah group, the Tung

Wah Eastern in Causeway Bay, has 230 beds, all of them always

full.

There are no hospitals in the New Territories but the St.

John Ambulance Brigade runs a maternity home at Sha Tin,

and Government has a hospital on Cheung Chau Island, which

was also originally run by the St. John Ambulance Brigade.

Government maintains a Schools Health Service with three

clinics where only schoolchildren are treated. The Service

carries out an inspection of all schools, but only 17,000 of the

schoolchildren are seen by doctors and nurses. They are in

Government and Government-assisted schools.

Leprosy has become rather a problem. Up till recently lepers

were maintained by the Hong Kong Government in a lepro

sarium near Canton , but that arrangement has come to an end.

There is legislation allowing for the expulsion from the Colony

223

THE SICK AND THE DESTITUTE

of lepers who cannot claim Hong Kong birth , or at any rate

long residence there, but while tentative proposals are afoot for

setting up a leprosarium in the Colony, the Tung Wah Hospital

has in the meantime erected temporary matsheds to give shelter

to the lepers.

Care of the destitute is an important part of the work of the

Social Welfare Office. Its Relief Section provides free meals to

some 1,700 down-and-out people every day at six welfare

centres, emergency relief in the way of food , clothing and tem

porary shelter, as, for instance, after the Kowloon City fire when

thousands were left homeless, free repatriation to South China,

family case work, home visiting and admittance to relief camps.

The relief camp at North Point, which had over 300 people

in it in March 1950, is quite international. The inmates are

refugees who have been rendered homeless by the war, and

there is a most capable, energetic American Negro in charge,

Mrs. Thompson, who was born and brought up in Hong Kong.

You find as you walk through the wooden hut- dormitories men,

women and children of all races. Among them there were a

number of Mexican - Chinese who would like to get back to

Mexico, a strapping young Malay girl, waiting to get back to

Malaya, and meanwhile enjoying football and boxing with the

boys in the camp, and an Englishman who had been born in

Riga and had served with the Shanghai police.

The camp provides food and lodging, a school, and a

a hut for

orphan and destitute boys. This camp had a number of inmates

from fairly well-to-do homes and it was very apparent that they

were used to order and neatness, for each bed was spick and

span, and all their personal belongings were tidily arranged on

shelves. The camp pays a lot of attention to the occupations of

the inmates and a co-operative spirit is encouraged. There was

an air of brightness and hope about it.

The Morrison Hill camp has fewer inmates, about 218 in

March 1950, but it is situated in a more restricted area and

therefore seems more crowded. Also the people living there come

from the lowest income group and they were less orderly in the

arrangement of their few possessions. In this camp they live

rent free but provide their own food , and in the large kitchen a

cooking -place is reserved to every three families. It was crowded

with men and women, and even children , cooking the evening

224

HELP FOR THE NEEDY

meal. The inmates had more of the air of being down-and-out

than had those in the North Point camp.

A Street Sleepers Shelter Society was founded in 1933 with

the aim of providing shelter during the winter months for those

who were too poor to pay for accommodation . The main

shelter is the one in St. Peter's Church at West Point, which we

visited one night, and which is described later, but the Salvation

Army also have a shelter for women at Wanchai, and there were

30 asleep on the bunks when we looked in there one evening.

The care of the destitute aged is largely in the hands of

private charity. So, for that matter, are many social services in

Hong Kong. A little booklet setting out the various Government

and private welfare organizations, co - ordinated as far as pos

sible through the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, shows

that a great deal is done for the welfare of the needy by volun

tary societies, many of them with a religious background.

There is a home for aged women run by the Chinese Chris

tian Church Union, another for men and women managed by

the Little Sisters of the Poor, and a third, at Sha Tin, which is a

Buddhist Home and run by Chinese philanthropists. Here we

saw some of the old women sitting by their beds quietly telling

their beads. They looked serene and at peace.

For giving general assistance to those in need the Chung Sing

Benevolent Society, founded in 1916, has done much good

work, especially in helping victims of disasters, destitutes, and

those in need of advances to build approved huts on approved

sites. Then there is the Lok Sin Tong or ' Pleasure to do Good

Deeds ', a society set up 75 years ago in Kowloon for the welfare

of the community. It helps to provide treatment for the sick,

runs a free school, and organizes relief in cases of emergency.

The Family Welfare Society investigates cases on the spot or by

home visits, helping with loans, school fees, or in other appro

priate ways. This Society also runs a free school and helps to

maintain children in orphanages.

In March 1950 there was an unusual relief organization at

work, that dealing with refugee Nationalist soldiers. Many of

them were disabled and they had come in hundreds with their

families to seek shelter at the Tung Wah Hospital. The Tung

Wah Group is well known not only for its medical work but for

its charities and organization of large-scale relief measures.

225

THE SICK AND THE DESTITUTE

More and more of these soldiers poured into Hong Kong and

set up makeshift homes of tins and mats on the pavements

around the Tung Wah Hospital in the centre of Hong Kong. By

March there were close on 2,000 of them and you could scarcely

make your way to the gate of the hospital through the close

packed shanties. The situation became impossible, and by the

end of March Government had moved them all to buildings on

Mount Davis Road, some way out of the city. The Tung Wah

Hospital continued to feed them, with Government providing

the lorries to deliver the cooked meals. Numbers continued to

rise and in April, when we visited the soldiers, there were about

4,000 of them . The ruined buildings were bursting with them,

and every path was lined with mat shelters for those who had

not been able to get under a roof. You even found shops, for

nothing seems to stand in the way of the Chinese setting up

petty trading. Many of the wounded had been in Nationalist

homes for disabled soldiers. When asked what they wanted to

do, the reply was invariably, ' Get to Taiwan and join the

Nationalist Army. The Communists have occupied our homes

and if we go back we will starve'. The Tung Wah Hospital was

endeavouring to get permits from Formosa for the entry of

batches of 500 at a time.

From birth to death, it will be seen , Government has a care

for the people, and even in death help is given when necessary.

Care islimited by circumstances and is of necessity greatest in

the case of the young and the aged and destitute. The matter

of- fact account I have given scarcely brings out either the extent

of want and misery there is amongst the latter, or the great

spirit of charity amongst those who work for them. Nor perhaps

does the account indicate how much more is needed. But even

if what is done is not adequate, the Hong Kong Government

hides its light too much under aa bushel in regard to its achieve

ments. These deeds are not exploitation nor imperialism and

the thoughtless who listen to our detractors should be made to

realize it .

226

CHAPTER TWENTY - FIVE

Christian Influences

AS THE PICTURE of Hong Kong has taken shape we have become

aware, however inadequately, of the development of some of

the Christian churches and of their influence. As has been seen

in the case of some ofthese churches, their work is now largely in

Chinese hands, and what has been said will suffice to show how

firmly the early missionaries founded their work and how well

native hands keep the torch alight. Considerations of space

forbid aa full account of the history and activities of missionary

endeavour in Hong Kong during the last hundred years, but it

would not be possible to assess the weight of Western influence

in Hong Kong without at least some underlining of the contri

bution which Western missionaries are at present making.

Hong Kong is the see of two Bishops, Anglican and Roman

Catholic, and of these the former was first established. It cele

brated the centenary of the consecration of its first bishop in

1949. It was of course the first British settlers who brought the

Anglican faith to Hong Kong, and a Colonial Chaplain was

appointed to the Colony's official establishment in 1843. When

the diocese of Victoria was set up, manned by the Church

Missionary Society, it included the whole of China andJapan.

North China was separated in 1872 and has since divided into

a number of dioceses. In 1883 Japan was separated from Hong

Kong and in the course ofyears a further three separate dioceses

have been erected in South China. The Diocese of Victoria now

includes the Colony, the province of Kwangtung and southern

Kwangsi. The present bishop, Dr. R. O. Hall, is the seventh

Bishop of Victoria.

The Roman Catholic faith came to Hong Kong in much the

same way as the Anglican, namely with the first Portuguese

settlers. A separate Prefecture for Hong Kong was carved off

Macao in 1841 and in 1874 it was constituted a Vicariate

apostolic with a bishop. It had been put under the care of the

Foreign Missionary Institute of Milan in 1867. In 1946 the

status was raised to that of a diocese, which, like the Anglican

diocese, extends into China and includes about four million

227

CHRISTIAN INFLUENCES

people. In Hong Kong the church has about 40,000 adherents.

Its bishops have of course been Italian and the present incum

bent is Bishop H. P. Valtorta. *

The contribution which the missionaries in Hong Kong make

through their schools, their hospitals and their pastoral work is

indeed remarkable. Evidence of it in references to the work of

Christian Chinese has been seen in this book, but if I were to

single out two men as having special influence in Hong Kong as

it is today they would be Bishop Hall and Father Ryan, the

Superior of the Jesuits. Indeed, I do not think that any attempt

to picture or assess the important influences at work in Hong

Kong could be complete without reference to them .

In many ways markedly different characters, with a great

confidence in each other and generally to be found in consulta

tion on matters of social welfare, these two men exemplify in

their work the practice and application of Christian charity to

the problems of Hong Kong. Warm -hearted , impulsive, an

ex - Tyneside vicar with a burning sense ofthe needs of the under

privileged, Bishop Hall has been in Hong Kong since 1932. Dur

ing that time he has become recognized by the workers as their

stoutest champion, and while he has also the reputation ofbeing a

stormy petrel, he has gained the widest respect for his sincerity and

humanity. Not everybody agrees with all he does, but no one

doubts that the causes he supports need attention and reform .

Father Ryan has been in Hong Kong about the same length

of time as Bishop Hall and there are few aspects of Hong Kong

life of which he is not an acknowledged expert. A man of wide

educational attainments (he is by profession a schoolmaster) and

culture, he has also a great humanity, and though he can no

doubt suffer fools gladly he is an uncompromising critic of the

second-rate, whether in music or art or drama or in Govern

ment administration. Everywhere sought as a counsellor,

Father Ryan is widely known in all circles, and reaches a great

many hearts and minds through his thoughtful, sane and witty

broadcasts on a number of subjects. If one may say so without

any disrespect, I think that the respective characters of Bishop

Hall and Father Ryan can be briefly made clear by saying

that they would be well named if their Christian names were

Peter and Paul respectively.

* Bishop Valtorta died on 3rd September 1951 .

228

PLATE XXXIII

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The Dragon receives alms for the acrobats

PLATE XXXIV

UNOFFICIAL D.C.

The remarkable team of priests which Father Ryan heads

has already been mentioned and reference made to some of the

individuals who belong to it. These men are experts on widely

different subjects as well as being priests, and in the belief that

practical charity can best be demonstrated by their using all

their talents for the good of Hong Kong, Father Ryan gives

them their head in the fields in which they can make the

greatest contribution . It is for this reason that one sees the

unusual sight of Jesuit priests working in the wholesale vegetable

market and in the agricultural department. One other particu

lar case ought also to be mentioned as well exemplifying Father

Ryan's policy and its beneficial effects. At Aberdeen he has ‘ let

loose ' Father Morahan to exercise his particular genius of

getting people to work together, and in this way Hong Kong

has been presented with what I can best describe as one of the

finest unofficial D.C.s in any colony. There is an Italian parish

priest at Aberdeen, but Father Morahan's field of action is not

parochial. He is indeed a ' free lance ' D.C. One was often meet

ing him out fighting some battle for the fisher -folk ofAberdeen .

On one occasion he was in the city collecting the permits neces

sary for a dramatic performance to raise funds for the school.

' Did you ever see the like of it ! ' he exclaimed in his rich Irish

brogue. ‘ To get a permit for an open-air show for a thousand

people and a stage, I have got to (consulting a list in his hand) go to

the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, the Commissioner of Police, the

Fire Brigade, the Urban Council, the Building Authority, back

to the Fire Brigade, the Accountant General, and then back to

the Police again. Can ye see Chinese fishermen doing that ? '

On another occasion he was fighting the battle for their

cemetery. Government had ideas of removing the cemetery to

the New Territories owing to the shortage of land. It was not an

idea which was likely to appeal to the Chinese, whose family

ancestors must be near them . It was an uphill struggle but

Father Morahan finally arranged for the Chairman of the

Urban Council to come and see the matter on the ground. ' I

did not want the issue fogged ,' he said, “ so I rang up the village

and told them to shift all the unlicensed hawkers out of sight

before he came ! ' He won his case.

An official D.C. might have had difficulties in doing some of

the things that Father Morahan with a cheerful Irish contempt

229

CHRISTIAN INFLUENCES

for Government red -tape could do without a qualm — and much

to the advantage of people and Government.

Of many interesting dinners in Hong Kong two especially

stand out in my memory , one with the Jesuit Fathers at Ricci

Hall and one with Father Morahan and his village council on

Aplichau Island. The latter was held in a fishermen's restau

rant, which was not exactly red plush and soft lights, but pro

duced most marvellous fish dishes. Neither was there soft music,

but against all the background of loudspeakers, blaring canned

Chinese music at its loudest, we shouted happily at each other

for three hours, and by the end of that time I had again a good

deal of evidence in favour of the view that with the right

guidance and leadership Chinese individualists are in no way

incapable of combining in counsel and work for the good of a

community.

Father Morahan and the villagers were mad keen about the

school for which the village was trying to raise funds. One young

member of the council, named Chan (we called on his mother,

who had had 22 children) , exclaimed, “ You get nothing from

Government here, no schools, no water, no hospital .

' Would you get them more easily in China? ' I asked.

He grinned and admitted, ' Here Government sometimes

pays, in China never '.

' We'll get the school , said Father Morahan. ‘ St. Theresa

and a sixpenny-bit can do anything. A sixpence without the

grace of God can do nothing.'

CHAPTER TWENTY - SIX

Hong Kong's Government

THE GOVERNMENT of Hong Kong derives its constitutional

authority from Letters Patent and Royal Instructions issued

from time to time under the Royal Sign Manual . The former

sets up the office of Governor and establishes Executive and

Legislative Councils. The latter are general instructions to the

Governor.

230

THE COUNCILS

In a colony the Governor is the Queen's representative and

exercises the Royal Prerogative. Since the Queen is a constitu

tional monarch she acts on the advice of Ministers who are

responsible to Parliament. In colonial matters the Secretary of

State for the Colonies is the responsible Minister, and the

Governor is therefore directed in the Royal Instructions to

follow such directions as the Secretary of State may give him.

The Governor, in local matters, is advised by his Executive

and Legislative Councils. The former is consulted by the

Governor on all important matters and consists of both official

and unofficial members. It is in the place of a cabinet, but it is

not like the cabinet in English practice, for it is responsible to

the Governor and not the local Parliament or Legislative

Council. The latter does correspond to the House of Commons

in that its procedure is based on that of its prototype; all laws

are passed by and with its advice and consent, and it has to

approve all expenditure from public funds. There, however,

direct comparison ends. The members of the local legislature

are not elected , but appointed. Nor are all the members of the

Executive Council necessarily members of the legislature.

At the end of 1949 the Executive Council had five members by

virtue of their office — the senior military officer, the colonial

secretary, the attorney general, the secretary for Chinese affairs,

and the financial secretary . The Letters Patent provide for such

other members, official and unofficial, as may be appointed.

There were actually six official members (the five ex officio

members referred to and Mr. Hawkins, Commissioner of

Labour and an expert in Chinese affairs) and six unofficial

members. The latter were Sir Arthur Morse, the chief manager

of the Bank, Mr. Landale, the head of Jardine's, Sir Man Kam

Lo, a solicitor, two brothers, T. N. Chau, a barrister, and

Dr. S. N. Chau, a physician, and a Portuguese barrister, Mr.

Leo d'Almada.

The constitution of the Legislative Council provides for not

more than nine official members, including the five ex officio

members of the Executive Council, and not more than eight un

official members. At the end of 1949 there were eight officials

and seven unofficials. The other three officials were the Direc

tor of Medical Services, the Chairman of the Urban Council,

and the Director of Public Works.

231

HONG KONG'S GOVERNMENT

Of the unofficial members six are nominated by the Crown

on the Governor's recommendation. Of these, three must be

Chinese. One is nominated by the Justices of the Peace and one

by the Chamber of Commerce. At the end of 1949 they in

cluded all the unofficial members of the Executive Council

except Sir Arthur Morse. The others were Mr. Watson , a

solicitor, and Mr. Cassidy, the head of John D. Hutchison, who

was also chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and its

representative.

The purpose of Executive and Legislative Councils is to

advise and assist the Governor. Furthermore, since the germ of

the Legislative Council lies in the House of Commons, its pur

pose is also to represent the people of the Colony. This, one

would say, is its main function . As representatives of the people

the members advise the Governor what laws should be passed

and how public funds should be raised and spent.

It is clear from this account of these councils that the

Governor has at his side not only those officials who are re

sponsible between them for most activities of Government, but

unofficials to represent the population and their interests. The

former represent the general administration of the Colony, its

financial affairs, the law, and Chinese affairs in general. Special

emphasis is laid on health and sanitation, and public works.

Education , * agriculture and its allied subjects, fisheries and

forestry, are not specially represented .

On the unofficial side one may notice that racial groups are

considered from the fact that there are three Chinese members

and a Portuguese. The preponderance of unofficial British ex

patriates clearly shows that they are not primarily intended to

represent the British community, which compared with the

Chinese is infinitesimal. Unofficial members are chosen for

their wide knowledge of a colony to represent its interests as a

whole : it is obvious from the information so far given that the

main interest represented is the main interest of Hong Kong

Trade. Indirectly at any rate law is also prima facie surprisingly

strongly represented . There are no less than four unofficial

members who are lawyers.

To see how far these councils represent the Colony fairly it is

* Since this was written the Director of Education has been appointed a

member of the Legislative Council.

232

THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

necessary to consider the make -up of the population. Making

due allowance for the enormous temporary element in the

population , it is evident that the Chinese are many more times

the number of other communities. Of the small communities

the true citizens of Hong Kong rightly have representation: the

Indians have not .

In considering the representation ofinterests there is unfortu

nately insufficient data to show either how many are employed

in different occupations or what the capital value of each

activity is. We have seen how difficult it is to say how many

people are employed in industry: it would be equally difficult

to say how much is invested in it.

There are plainly a number of interests which are not repre

sented at all. There are at least 200,000 people whose livelihood

depends on agriculture and another similar number depending

on the fisheries. Neither is represented officially or unofficially.

The many thousands of workers in industries, in public utilities

and so on have no unofficial representation. It is apparent that

big business and finance is represented, but what of small ?

An examination of the activities of the unofficial members of

these Councils is a useful guide. They are to be found in Hong

Kong's Who's Who — a section of the ‘ Dollar ' Directory which

now costs ten dollars.

Taking each activity after a member's name as one repre

sentation , the following analysis, which is not fully exhaustive,

results :

Trade and Industry. Bank, 2 ; Jardine's and Jardine activities

and major interests, 14; Shipping other than Jardine's, 3 ;

Insurance other than Jardine's, 2 ; General business other than

Jardine's, 6; Hotels, 1 ; Docks, 1 ; Lighterage, 1 ; Finance and

Land other than Jardine's, 2. There is also some other repre

sentation of business, aviation and motor industry.

Public Utilities. Electricity, ferry, telephones, rediffusion, and

tramways, 9.

Social Services. Hospitals, 2 ; Welfare organizations, 6.

Recreation. Football, 2 ; Jockey Club, 4 ; Automobile Associa

tion, 1 .

As regards public activities, 7 members are Justices of the

Peace, 2 are on the Committee of the War Memorial Fund, and

i is a member of the Port Executive Committee, the Licensing

233

HONG KONG'S GOVERNMENT

Board and the Price Control Advisory Board . As for educa

tion, Sir Arthur Morse is Treasurer of the University, and Mr.

Cassidy on the managing committee of the Church of England

Diocesan Boys School.

It should be noted that the direct representation of industry,

other than utilities, is very slight, and curiously enough it also

appears that commercial undertakings of a predominantly

Chinese interest are very slightly represented . The Chinese

members are to a large extent on the boards of undertakings

which are predominantly British . The Portuguese representa

tive is perhaps the only one whose main representation appears

to be that ofhis community. He is also aa member of theKowloon

Residents Association and may therefore be considered a mem

ber for Kowloon .

The principal conclusion to be drawn from this examination

is that the interests of business, and mainly big British business,

are the most extensively represented interests among those who

are the Governor's unofficial advisers and the legislators of the

Colony. It should also be noted that all public utilities except

water supply and broadcasting (as opposed to rediffusion) are

in the hands of private enterprise. They cover electricity, gas,

tramways, bus services, ferries, and rediffusion . The telephones

are also a private undertaking.

Finally it will be noted how well the historic pattern of Hong

Kong is reflected in this analysis. Jardine's, the pioneers, are

still prominent. The Bank, the principal feature of Hong Kong,

is represented by its Chairman and Deputy Chairman. A glance

at the records of the other directors of the Bank shows that they

represent primarily Mackinnon Mackenzie & Co., David

Sassoon & Co., Hong Kong Realty and Trust, I.C.I., the

Union Insurance Society of Canton, and Butterfield & Swire.

Secondarily they represent many other famous interests and also

help, like the councillors, to control most of Hong Kong's

utilities. In addition they have many charitable and welfare

interests, and, interestingly, many of them are connected with

such societies as those of St. George and St. Andrew .

In fact a list of less than twenty names would suffice to in

clude all those who have most influence in Government, finance

and big business in Hong Kong. They have very much the

appearance of a Board of Directors. This emphasizes that Hong

234

WELL - RUN DEPARTMENT STORE

Kong is still to be regarded not as a true colony but as a trading

port. How many of those who use any big department store

think much about its management? I doubt very much whether

the percentage of those who live in Hong Kong who care about

its management would be very much higher. Hong Kong is run

as a business concern and it is a very well-run department

store - with welfare services and all .

Hong Kong's Urban Council is no more truly a manifesta

tion of Local Government than its Legislative Council is an

embryo Parliament. The title might lead one to suppose that

city fathers administered it in much the same way as a Mayor

and Corporation administer an English city, and indeed many

a colonial city or town. Such, however, is far from being the

case. The office of Chairman is held by the head of the Sanitary

Department, and the Vice-Chairman is the Deputy Director of

Health Services. It has three other official members, the

Secretary for Chinese Affairs, the Director of Public Works and

the Commissioner of Police, and six nominated unofficial

members. The Council is treated as a Government department

with its expenditure provided as a head in the Colony's esti

mates. It has no revenue of its own and any rates or taxes it

collects go into the Colony's chest. As a municipal body it is a

farce: as an instrument of Government it is vital to the Colony

and highly efficient. It is the guardian of public health and no

health department anywhere has a more exacting task .

CHAPTER TWENTY- SEVEN

Law and Order

THE KEY TO the success of Hong Kong has always lain in the rule

of law, and to the man in the street law is at once typified in

Hong Kong by the Police and the Courts.

Nothing in Hong Kong is more evident than the police.

Everywhere are to be seen in the cool season the familiar, tradi

tional blue uniforms and peaked caps of British Police, with

235

LAW AND ORDER

their buttons, badges and numbers in silver, with their good

conduct badges ofstriped blue and white, and their black leather

equipment. Perhaps the only less usual sight is the revolver

holster. But under almost every peaked cap is a Chinese face.

Sometimes, however, you see a bearded face and a blue turban

belonging to one of the few surviving Sikh members of the

force. Quite frequently you see an English face — with the silver

rank badges of an officer on the shoulder-straps of the tunic.

The strength of the force is over 3,000, and English, Sikhs and

Chinese are not the only racial elements. Including Sikhs, there

are over 300 Indians of various denominations — about a

hundred are Punjabi Mussulmans. There are also Russians and

Portuguese. But the great bulk are Chinese, some 300 from the

North and well over 1,500 Cantonese, many not Hong Kong

born .

Plainly a force like this cannot be easy to administer; plainly,

too, there cannot be that loyalty to country which one finds not

only in a police force at home, but in other colonial territories.

Obviously, too, there must be ' incidents ' and ' practices' which

should not occur in British police forces, though no force can be

entirely free from troubles of this kind. The remarkable thing

is how little there is of these things and how little complaint

there is of the police. It is probably true to say that people

expect the police to indulge in ‘ squeeze ', and that in fact there is

very much less ' squeeze ' than is expected. As for loyalty, there

is a great deal of esprit de corps and a considerable degree of

loyalty to the force. There is no doubt that Hong Kong's police

force is a very big achievement. Probably no colonial police

force is better equipped with the modern police aids of radio,

police vans, police launches and so on, and the assistance these

have been in the suppression of crime is dramatic.

The two main problems of the police, both in large degree

insoluble, are the humdrum ones of traffic and hawkers. The

former is the one which first impresses itself on any visitor. The

really tough side of this is in Hong Kong City and is due mainly

to the comparative narrowness of Queen's Road and the bottle

neck caused by the Dockyard. Besides the 20,000 civilian

vehicles there are several thousand service vehicles. There are

well over 30,000 drivers. On the reoccupation in 1945 there

were 150 cars!

236

HAWKERS

Hawkers are a tremendous problem . In any country beset

with a refugee problem the only obvious way to make aa living,

if you have not been fortunate enough to drop into a job, or

have not enough capital to set up a shack and become a shop

keeper, is to buy something cheaply and sell it more expen

sively. Hong Kong has 9,300 licensed hawkers and some 35,000

unlicensed. Probably most of these have dependants and, multi

plying by four, you can take it that some 170,000 people are

dependent on hawking. There are several factors which make it

difficult to cope with the problem satisfactorily. Firstly, people

must live, and if they are not allowed to do it honestly they are

bound to be dishonest; secondly , it brings the public into con

stant conflict with the police. Police cannot operate if they are

regarded as public enemies. The strength of a police force

depends on its being looked on as the impartial friend of the

law-abiding public, and laws themselves depend on their being

practicable to enforce and acceptable to the great mass of the

public. The police have constantly to be careful how they

exercise control, for control breeds disregard of the police,

fights, and corruption in the police force itself.

We went one day to listen to a case in the Supreme Court.

The case itself was of no outstanding interest, but I have rarely

had a deeper feeling of the dignity and impressiveness of the

method of the administration of British law. Part of this was due

to accidental circumstances. I had come into the court from

some particularly picturesque Chinese encounter which seemed

as far and as foreign from aa British law court as it could possibly

be. I happened to know personally some of the parties and wit

nesses engaged in the case, which was particularly Chinese in its

details, and it was a very hot, tropical, steamy day.

The court was air- conditioned . One stepped for a start from

a tropical climate into a temperate one. It was a large and

dignified panelled chamber and above the bench in all the glory

of bright new paint were the Royal Arms and the motto Dieu et

mon droit. The bewigged Chief Justice, the bewigged and

gowned counsel, the steady, unhurried , and—to be sure

tedious unfolding of a case about the tenancy of some buildings

used as a school, gave all the air of something quite apart from

and above the noise and clamour of the market-place. It per

sonified to me, as I felt it must have done to all the Chinese

237

LAW AND ORDER

schoolmistresses in their slit dresses who were present, the

impartiality and the independence of British justice.

No less impressive was a peep into another court where the

enthroned judge was faced only by a row of bewigged counsel.

There was not a soul to listen to their learned arguments, and

the scene suggested some esoteric religious rite, in which the

priests of the Goddess of Justice necessarily robed themselves in

their sacerdotal vestments to celebrate her rites in valid fashion .

Justice was no less emphatically, but much less ornately,

administered in the Magistrates' Court, conveniently situated

next door to the Central police station. There was a very busy

crowded scene in all the courts and we watched in one court a

British, and in another a Chinese, magistrate dealing with case

after case in the most matter- of-fact sort of way. One young man

was fined £3 for selling obscene photographs, a prison warder

had attempted to steal a watch belonging to a prisoner, a man

had set up a private postal service and was fined £6 or four

weeks, a couple were each fined £3 ios. for cutting firewood

from aa prohibited area, and lastly a man who had obtained six

rice bowls, valued at 3s. gd ., under false pretences had to pay

£6 or go to prison for four weeks. A varied and not very exciting

list of offences, but all of them lessons for those concerned that

law and order must be respected.

238

PART FOUR

THOUGHT AND

PURPOSE

CHAPTER TWENTY - EIGHT

Hong Kong's Outlook

HOW PLENTIFUL, opulently thick and reminiscent of the past

Hong Kong's newspapers seemed after those at home ! And it

recalled a bygone era to see the newsboys, generally women ,

carrying printed posters. One morning, soon after my arrival,

I was confronted by one reading ‘ Labour Government may fall

tonight '. One was left in no doubt that such an event was felt

generally to be a consummation devoutly to be wished . The

authentic Hong Kong recoils from anything Left as the Devil

from holy water.

The Press of Hong Kong is important, extensive, influential,

and has a long history behind it. It is true that some of the

Chinese papers have changed their complexion with the

Government of China. In particular the Ta Kung Pao, which had

an independent Nationalist outlook, is now frankly Communist

and makes a considerable appeal to the young intellectuals, but

the Wah Kiu Yat Po, which is commercial rather than political,

is very much of a Hong Kong colonial paper with an excellent

local reputation amongst the true Chinese of Hong Kong. The

British point of view remains unchallenged in the two leading

English papers.

In keeping with their size, the outlook of these papers reflects

a time which we in England will never see again. The China

Mail was established in 1845 and is the oldest paper in the Far

East. It is a favourite 'family' paper of the old kind . The South

China Morning Post first appeared in 1903 and is a responsible

journal of wide repute which criticizes Government with vision

and fairness. Its editor, Mr. H. Ching, an Australian Chinese,

started, he said, as a Socialist, has been through all the cycles,

and with age has mellowed into a ' good old Conservative '.

When the leading units disembarked from the relieving fleet on

the liberation of Hong Kong they were surprised to find a

British newspaper already being distributed. It was a single

sheet extra of the South China Morning Post, announcing the

arrival of the Forces.

241

HONG KONG'S OUTLOOK

It is not only in the material things of life — the many surviv

ing large rooms, the fat newspaper with porridge, two eggs and

bacon and tery fragrant coffee for breakfast — and all the rest

that Hong Kong offers, to those who can afford it, an escape to

times past, but in much of its atmosphere. Hong Kong in its

spirit still breathes Kipling. It was this spirit which led ex

internees of Stanley to get Government going when the Japanese

surrendered, and, reinforced by military government, to clean

up the Augean stable which the Japanese had left.

On Christmas Day 1941 the lights of Hong Kong had gone

out. The eclipse was total and lasted for three years and eight

months. All fighting men became prisoners of war in a camp at

Sham Shui Po, and all non - Asian civilians were interned at

Stanley. All, that is, save for a very few left at large because the

Japanese had need of their services. Among them were Dr.

Selwyn Clarke, the Director of Medical Services, and Sir

Vandeleur Grayburn of The Bank. For nearly two years Dr.

Selwyn Clarke battled to keep some sort of health services going.

At the same time he helped those who were interned. Finally

the Japanese arrested and tortured him and sentenced him to

four years' imprisonment. Sir Vandeleur, who was arrested

earlier, died in prison, and during what are known as the

'bloody trials of 1943 ' about 40 Hong Kong residents lost their

lives. Among those who were tortured were two leading mem

bers of the Indian community, Mr. Ruttonjee and his son. The

Japanese had tried to get the former to become president of an

Indian Independence League, but he refused steadfastly to

collaborate .

The Chinese population was ruthlessly reduced. It was esti

mated that some 10,000 were executed, and great numbers left

the Colony. But the loyalty to the Allied cause of those who re

mained in Hong Kong was never in doubt. There were Chinese

guerillas in the New Territories all through the war, and any

one trying to escape from the Japanese was sure of help from the

peasants in the New Territories. The British Allied Aid Group,

organized by Colonel Ryde, now Vice-Chancellor of the

University, consisted of Chinese, Eurasians, Portuguese and

British, many of whom had escaped from Hong Kong. This

organization helped others to get out, set up hospitals and relief

feeding centres, and was responsible for intelligence.

242

AFTER THE OCCUPATION

When at last, on the 30th August 1945, the British Pacific

Fleet sailed into the harbour, 80 per cent of the population were

described as showing signs of malnutrition . The Japanese had

withdrawn their guards from prison camps some days before,

and former members of the Government who had been interned ,

headed by Mr. (now Sir) Franklin Gimson, the Colonial

Secretary, had restarted the rusty machinery of British admini

stration , which on ist September was succeeded by military

administration under Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt.

The situation which confronted the administration was chal

lenging. Hong Kong's economic life was dead . The population

had melted away, public utilities were scarcely working: food,

shipping, industry and trade were non-existent. There was ruin

everywhere: wharves and docks were extensively damaged and

20,000 homes had been destroyed . The place swarmed with

rats, malaria was rife, for the Colony's anti-malarial work had

been cynically neglected, and lawlessness was widespread.

While the British so often neglect the role of Mary, they are

the Marthas of the world, and they set about things with mops

and buckets in no uncertain way. They destroyed the plagues of

rats and cockroaches, cleared up the rubble, and repaired and

rebuilt. They tidied up the harbour, they provided food and

kept it at reasonable prices, they honoured the Bank's notes

issued under duress, and they blew up the gigantic war memo

rial the Japanese had built. 'At no time', it was reported, ' did

the public mind waver from its initial confidence in a golden

future for the Colony and its people.'

The Kipling spirit had not suffered an eclipse. It was the same

spirit which led the ex-internees to do their best to make their

side of Hong Kong seem as if nothing had happened. Not only

have most visible signs ofJapanese occupation gone, but golf,

race meetings, bathing picnics and the like were quickly got

going again, as far as possible in the old British way. There was

quite a feeling about bathing-places on the Castle Peak Road

becoming free for all. The cricket ground, about the only open

space in central Hong Kong, was kept British and an attempt

to give it to the Defence Force, in which all communities are

represented, successfully resisted—thanks largely to the Navy,

who held the well-understood view that Hong Kong was a

British colony and cricket was a British game. C'est magnifique

243

HONG KONG's OUTLOOK

but if there were any risk that the cricket ground should be

built on, they did well.

It should be said that race meetings, bathing picnics and the

like have appealed in a big way to the Chinese. The Chinese

membership of the Jockey Club is enormous and there is one

Chinese steward. But there are still far too many British apt to

consider Chinese as likeable Orientals who cannot run things

and are often corrupt.

The picture painted is, admittedly, pre-eminently that atmo

sphere in which much of the foreign element thinks and lives,

but it is also one in which the Chinese have acquiesced and

indeed largely found suitable to their own aspirations. Hong

Kong's old specific, law and order, brushed up with an almost

completely new police force, has paid handsome dividends since

the war. People, money, goods have poured in. Much of

Shanghai has transferred itself bodily there — a very untradi

tional thing to happen. The city has undergone considerable

extension and considerable modernization in a very brief space

of time. There is no shortage of anything, not even American

dollars. The good management of the Administration, with

its aims of avoiding any embroilment in the affairs of China and

of striving to adjust whatever policy comes out of Whitehall to

its own business needs, has quite accidentally suited Chinese

realism and individualism down to the ground. The Chinese in

Hong Kong have certainly been in a position to reach the con

clusion that good management without politics in Hong Kong

is more profitable than politics and confusion in China, and to

see that honest management with impartial law brings bigger

returns than corruption, venality and nepotism. Some certainly

have reasoned this way, but for my part I doubt if there are

many. Most have taken it all for granted .

The enormous migrant population has no interest in Hong

Kong's ultimate welfare at all. These people come and go as it

pays them. Even the migrant, however, dislikes regimentation,

and the more regimentation there is in China the more the

Chinese in Hong Kong appreciates his surroundings, and, with

the small exception of political fanatics, Hong Kong's two

million inhabitants proceed brisk and busy on their affairs in

freedom and confidence. No one who has spent a short time

there can have any doubt that the vast majority of the Chinese

244

PLATE XXXV

6 make

looks

-u' hinese

and

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peculiar

Western

elaborate

the

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actresses

needs

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and

length

prepar te

1)p.'( 19 ation

一

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一九五忠年

春

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特

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F11

會

Two pictures in the traditional style by Wong May, a thirteen -year-old girl in the

Ko Nin school

PLATE XXXVI

STATUS QUO PREFERRED

in Hong Kong instinctively prefer it as it is. To put it at its

lowest—they would not come there if they did not.

Law and order, the stability of the currency, and the en

forcement of contracts are benefits not to be had everywhere in

the Far East these days, and the Chinese values them, even if

he does so subconsciously, to enable him to work and enjoy the

fruits of his labour, knowing that he will encounter as little

interference as possible. Those who have grown up there have

no interest in politics. The thinkers have in recent years watched

the war lords at their antics : they have seen the civil war and

they have seen Chinese currency melt away. They have watched

with disgust the corruption of the Kuomintang. They have seen

that the disappearance of merchant controlin Shanghai has led

to a stagnation of trade, and they have seen the near -ruin of

Canton. On the other hand , racial ties are strong. The Chinese

of Hong Kong have relations, and many still have homes, in

China. They know that to prosper in Hong Kong there must be

trade with China. More than this, the Chinese are a proud

people. In Hong Kong or out of it they are conscious both of

their age-old culture and of their days ofweakness, and it would

need an unusual degree of moral courage to stand up openly for

the status quo in Hong Kong when the alternative presents all

the marks of the fulfilment of national aspirations.

CHAPTER TWENTY - NINE

Citizens of Hong Kong

ONE SOON PERCEIVES that few Chinese regard Hong Kong as

their home or native land. There are certainly some who regard

themselves as citizens of Hong Kong and British subjects, but

I doubt if I met any of whom I could say with perfect confi

dence that they did so to the exclusion of any connection, other

than race, with China. Furthermore, although the Hong

Kong born Chinese are by British law British subjects, they are

also by Chinese law Chinese citizens. They appreciate Britain

245

CITIZENS OF HONG KONG

with their intellects, but love China with their hearts, and

regard Hong Kong as part of China. It is doubtful if there

are more than 5,000 who would claim British nationality un

equivocally. I

Flags in Hong Kong plainly mean different things to different

people and cannot be interpreted uniformly . The Union Jack

on Government House was of course as British as that on

Government House, Jamaica, or as any flying in London. Just

as British were those which flew on the houses of the Taipans on

Sundays: this is, so I was told, an old Hong Kong custom. On

the other hand , those flying over police stations seemed to me

rather less British than those on a West African police station,

simply because most Chinese policemen were merely the paid

servants of the British Crown. Then again the enamelled Union

Jacks on the frontier, though they gave me all the reactions I

should expect, meant no more to the Chinese than a sign on a

private estate.

It has been usual to display both the Union Jack and the

Chinese Nationalist flag at gatherings of a mixed nature. When

the Nationalists disappeared so did their flag, and there was a

good deal of doubt as to what to do with a flag which was

frankly Communist. In at least one case the problem was solved

by sending all the flags to the cleaners. Yet the Communist flags

which I saw being so busily sewn in shops were not necessarily

ordered by Communist sympathizers. In many cases people

wanted to display them to be on the safe side, and in others

they were flown as the national flag of China.

The outlook of Hong Kong's inhabitants to the question of

their citizenship is also shown, partly at least, in the composi

tion of the Hong Kong Defence Force. Volunteering in Hong

Kong is no new thing : the first record of it is in 1854 when the

inhabitants were invited to form a ' corps of volunteers for the

defence of the lives and properties of themselves and their

families'. In the officers' mess we met an old and enthusiastic

volunteer, Major Evan Stewart, who showed us photographs of

volunteers in 1860 and in 1930. In 1860 they were known as the

‘ Devil's Own ' . A tradition has grown up and the volunteers

have a proud record of service both during the hostilities of the

recent war and the Japanese occupation.

We watched a squad being ' put through the hoop ' in no

246

DEFENCE FORCE

uncertain fashion by a Royal Marine Commando N.C.O. ‘ You

are allowed to open your eyes ', he barked at one aspirant for

the bull's-eye, a remark I remember so well being hurled at me

at least 35 years ago . A huddle of women drivers were poring

over the mysteries of a log-book on the grass. One of them was

Chinese. In aa classroom on the parade ground a short, stocky

figure in battledress, much decorated with ribbons, was giving

an excellent lecture on defensive positions — Sergeant Quah, a

Chinese ex- Commando Sergeant and in ordinary life one of

Hong Kong's schoolmasters. In the sergeants' mess we had a

drink with a Cockney who had been 27 years in the Sanitary

Department, but still hoped one day to get back to London

streets .

In September 1949 the racial make-up of the Force was :

British , including 43 Chinese British subjects 570

Chinese 42

Danish . 4

Portuguese 28

Russian 4

Stateless 14

Miscellaneous (including Irish , German , Dutch

and Filipino) 22

Total 684

In February 1950 the total strength was 822, including about

30 women .

It will be seen that there is a large preponderance of British ,

but the present constitution provides for complete equality of

treatment of all members and the complete mixing up of all

racial elements. There is now a feeling that the Force is really

getting somewhere.

At the end of 1949 the number of non-Chinese in Hong Kong,

excluding members of the armed forces and their families, had

increased to about 14,600, which figure includes some 9,500

British subjects and Commonwealth citizens, and about 3,000

British subjects of Portuguese race. There were also about

2,500 Indians whose original homes are now in either India or

Pakistan. How many of them consider themselves as belong

ing to the Republic of India or the Dominion of Pakistan I do

247

CITIZENS OF HONG KONG

not know, but some belong to families long settled in Hong

Kong and they have told me they regard themselves as

‘ Colonials '. They are very loyal British subjects, though their

real loyalties, I fancy, may be more strongly to the abstract

Britain rather than to Hong Kong. They cling to the idea of

the imperial British raj with its lofty concept of impartial

justice and the provision of opportunity for those who could

take advantage of it, with its spirit of free enterprise and great

charity, in the shelter of whose rule men with the ability to rise

could rise and become rich and powerful. They scarcely realize

that times have changed.

The Parsees with their trading interests were about the first

Indians to settle in Hong Kong, and though they have not

expanded much as a community they have for long been im

portant. Today there are only about 80 or go Parsees, but there

are some 3,000 Muslims, most of whom are Indian.

Round about the mosque in Sherry Street a community of

Indians has grown up. Sitting in the compound in the shade

of the mosque one Sunday morning, I felt that companionship

which so quickly springs up amongst Muslims and those who

share a sympathy and the classic language of Islam with them.

Fortified with the strong sweet tea with milk which is so popular

with Indian Muslims, eight of us—Indian, Chinese and English

-talked in three dialects of Chinese, Urdu, Arabic and English.

The strange thing was that for all the difficulty of conversation

it went well simply because of the community of sympathy and

interest. The bond of interest in Islam can be a very strong one,

but we might have been anywhere in the world. There was no

feeling that our mutual sympathy was in any way engaged by

Hong Kong. The natural sympathy of Muslims for each other

does not often in Hong Kong bind Indians and Chinese to

gether, though naturally there was sympathy for the Muslims

in Canton who, so one of the party said, had been ordered to

stop teaching religion, to pay taxes on their mosque and waqf, 1

and had machine-guns mounted on the minaret. Also there was

sympathy for another of the party, a Muslim Chinese general

who had had to fly from the Communists.

Probably with few exceptions the Indian Muslims would wish

the Colony to be British rather than Chinese, while the Chinese

Muslims have certainly a greater appreciation of Britain's

248

WHO ARE THE TRUE CITIZENS ?

attitude to religion than they have of that of the Chinese

Communists.

We cannot, however, look in these communities for 100 per

cent citizens of Hong Kong, nor shall we find them among the

British expatriates. There are some British families long settled

in Hong Kong, but Britain is still home to them . As oneof them

said to me, ‘ We should certainly fight to keep Hong Kong

because we feel it belongs to us. It is a British possession'. But

they do not feel that they belong to it. Clear and sure from the

Portuguese and from the Eurasians comes the claim, “ We are

the true citizens of Hong Kong'.

A leading member of the Portuguese community said to me,

' Our love of things British is only exceeded by our veneration

for things Portuguese' . It is not so much the Portugal of today

which draws their affection as the historic Portugal in which

their own roots are embedded . ‘ Portugal is like a pleasant dream

ofan age that's past ', my friend went on. ' Our only link with it

is Macao ,

So far we have seen Macao as the little Portuguese settlement

in which British merchants of the eighteenth and nineteenth

centuries were permitted to live and to be buried , but to find the

roots of the Portuguese of Hong Kong we may often have to go

back a century or two to Portugal's own heroic age, a period of

which Camoens could write, ‘ If there had been more of the

world they would have reached it . Of the toughness of those

who sailed under Vasco da Gama and his successors there is no

need to dilate ; those are the people who settled and held Macao

on tenuous terms .

In 1823 the Portuguese frigate Salamander arrived at Macao

and on board was Dom Joaquim d'Eca Telles d’Almada e

Castro, a Lieutenant in the Batalhao Principe Regente. He

served 20 years in Macao and died at Malacca on his way back

to Portugal on his retirement. He had two sons, Leonardo and

José Maria, who went to Hong Kong when the staff of the

Superintendent ofTrade was transferred from Macao to the new

Colony in 1842. Leonardo became clerk of the Executive and

Legislative Councils and some years later the Secretary of State

directed the Governor to appoint him Colonial Secretary. The

appointment was apparently not carried out on the grounds

that he was not a British subject, but plainly he was considered

249

CITIZENS OF HONG KONG

suitable for the post of head of the civil service in the Colony.

He died in 1875. His brother, José Maria, became private

secretary to Sir John Pope Hennessy, and was chief clerk in

the Secretariat and clerk of council when he died in 1881. His

eldest son entered Government service; the second became

chief clerk in the Hong Kong office of the International Bank

ing Corporation, and two other sons, Francisco Xavier and

Leonardo, became successful solicitors. The daughters married

and their children include aa solicitor, Government officials and

merchants. The law has in fact claimed most of the family. One

son of Leonardo the solicitor is Mr. Leo d'Almada e Castro,

K.C., a member of the Executive Council since 1949 and of the

Legislative Council since 1937. The other is Mr. C. P. d’Almada

e Castro, who became Assistant Crown Solicitor in 1941 and is

now Registrar of the Supreme Court. Several members of the

family took a leading part during the British Military Admini

stration after the reoccupation.

This record of one Portuguese family is by no means unique,

and many Portuguese are to be found in responsible positions

in Hong Kong, as doctors, lawyers, merchants, clerks, and so

on . With the first coming of the Portuguese to the Colony there

came, of course, Roman Catholicism , and the history of the

growth of Catholicism in Hong Kong is bound up largely in

the history of the Portuguese community. As the community

grew the need for aa social centre was felt and the Club Lusitano

had its first premises in 1865. There is an air of Victorian grace,

culture and prosperity about the coloured pictures ofthe theatre

and ballroom ofthe old club in Sherry Street which hang in the

new building in Icehouse Street. The Club has 450 members

and during the Japanese occupation it was a haven of refuge

for the community generally, and no fewer than 383 persons

sheltered in it at one time. For its services the Government of

Portugal conferred on it the Military Order of Christ. Its

President, Dom Basto, was decapitated by the Japanese as an

alleged leader of a spy ring. During the war the Portuguese

were to be found in large numbers in the Volunteers, the Police

Reserve, A.R.P., A.N.S., and other organizations, and a number

of them gave their lives in the defence of the Colony. The

community numbers in all about 3,000, of whom 80 per cent

are British subjects. It is important that we should not be

250

PORTUGUESE AND EURASIANS

unaware of or neglectful of a community to which the Empire

owes so much. Yet by the very fact of their loyalty and the

identification of their interests with ours, they are easily over

looked in the problem of the Chinese millions.

It is less easy to describe the Eurasians as a community.

They are people of two worlds living to some extent in both. I

learnt their outlook and appreciated their worth by knowing

them as friends, and of those I met few equalled Cecilia Woo.

No one could fail to have been impressed with her competence,

the deep earnestness of her interest in her job, and the tremen

dous sympathy she had for humanity in general and its less

fortunate victims in particular. Sturdier than a Chinese girl, but

less hearty and artificial than many an English girl of her type,

she seemed to have inherited much of the best of both worlds.

Her life has been a mixture of customs, her education both

Chinese and English . She knows the two worlds intimately and

values both. Hong Kong, she said, is home to her and to all like her.

As a schoolgirl she read Dickens. ' It was because of thatand

other books' , she told me, ' I had a great desire to visit the

London slums, hoping that some day I could do social work in

Hong Kong. One night when Cecilia took us on a tour of

street sleepers' shelters, she brought us to the abandoned church

of St. Peter in West Point. It was about 11 o'clock, peaceful,

silent and cold, and a solitary light lost itself before it reached

the dark recesses of the roof. We tiptoed round, for all over the

floor and on bunks, men, women and children lay in the deep

sleep of exhaustion. There were 105 in that night. One woman

lay pallid and fast asleep all unconscious of her child still

suckling. Another lay with two small infants curled beside her.

One alone seemed to be wide awake, a smiling old woman,

busily, deftly, knitting a fishing net.

' This is where I used to come years ago ,' whispered Cecilia,

cleaning their sores.'

Eurasians were not interned by the Japanese when Hong

Kong fell. Cecilia felt she must help and offered her services

to a gallant doctor. Besides helping him in the French hospital

she used to carry messages for him to the families of internees

and prisoners of war. She knew that the Japanese were watch

ing him and felt quite fatalistically thatshe herself was likely

to get caught at some time.

251

CITIZENS OF HONG KONG

On 11th February 1943 she was killing time after lunch in

Queen's Road before delivering one of the doctor's messages.

She heard someone shout ‘ There she is ! ' but took little notice

until a man grabbed her and took her to the Central police

station . Almost at once she was seen by Corporal Yishi, well

known for his brutality. His object was to find evidence against

the doctor, and when Cecilia failed to reply to his rough

questioning he hit her across the face. Then he told her to take

off her dress, her arms were tied behind her, and she was pulled

off the floor by a rope hung from the ceiling. Taking a truncheon

( “ They used whatever was handy ', she said) , he alternately beat

her and questioned her for two hours.

At five o'clock he let her sit down for a while and then began

again. He beat her all over until the sweat poured off him.

Later an officer came in and tried more gentle questioning, and

finally, about 10 o'clock, she was taken to aa cell. For a fortnight

she was in solitary confinement and never got a wash or a

change of clothes, though her family had sent things in for her.

Her food consisted of about eight ounces of rice a day thrown

into her cell in a newspaper. After a fortnight she was allowed

to exercise, and in this way a month passed. Then one day the

cell door was opened , a basket of clothes pushed in, and she was

ordered to get ready to leave. It took her an hour to comb out

her hair.

With a spirit tempered by the fire of suffering there could

hardly have been a question of what Cecilia was going to do

after the war. September 1945 presented Government with a

situation in which, owing to the re-establishment of the Hong

Kong dollar and the consequent worthlessness of the yen , 90 per

cent of the population had no money and little immediate

prospect of getting any. Thirty thousand people had to be pro

vided with food each day. Clothes and money relief had to be

distributed. There were 9,000 homeless children to be cared for.

Such state of affairs was at once a challenge to Cecilia and a

clear call to a job.

I asked her what her ambition in life was . “ To work for the

better understanding of races ', she replied. She is proud of

inheriting two great civilizations, and feels that Eurasians ought

to be well qualified to act as links between the two. She told us

some of the difficulties of Eurasians, and of where racial

252

CECILIA WOO

discrimination still exists. She has a friend who on ajourney back

from England made friends with a young Englishman coming

out to join a firm . He was full of enthusiasm for the country he

was coming to and determined to know the Chinese. She under

took to help him and they arranged to meet when they reached

Hong Kong. A week after their arrival the girl had a letter from

him saying that he had been ordered not to continue their

acquaintance because it was against the policy of the firm that

its employees should have local friends.

Cecilia had no bitterness about these things, and was there

fore extremely convincing when she spoke of them . She talked

of the difficulties Eurasians had in getting senior posts, of dif

ferences in salaries, housing, and so on. After two years in

England she feels people there do not feel enough about the

importance of race relations.

We went one night to dine with her family. They have

English breakfast and English tea, Chinese lunch and Chinese

dinner. Cecilia's father, tall, going bald, a retired business

man, was, he said, “ an incurable optimist and a firm believer in

the permanency of Hong Kong as a British colony' . To him no

other prospect would be tolerable, but the question of Hong

Kong's future is much debated in Eurasian homes, for it is vital

to them .

When I think of the Eurasians in Hong Kong, I think also of

Mark Wong and his wife Helena. Their story and those of others

could fill a book, but it would need a skilled novelist to tell the

stories for they would hardly be credible as fact. Born in Hong

Kong in 1910 and educated in St. Joseph's College, Mark went

into business and during the war he became involved, almost

accidentally, in the passing of letters from internees at Stanley

to Macao. This gradually developed into full- time intelligence

work. Given away by a colleague under torture, he himself was

arrested in the middle of the night and taken to police head

quarters. He was given no food; he was interrogated at nine the

next morning and then was tortured. He had water poured into

him, he was hung up by his thumbs, he was burnt with cigar

ettes . They tied him to a chair, put a silk handkerchief over his

face and dropped water into his nose. They flogged him. He

never gave anyone away and only escaped with his life because

of a Japanese interpreter who had known him and vouched for

253

CITIZENS OF HONG KONG

him . He then got to Macao and so into Free China, where he

joined the British Army and became a captain .

Mark is a delightful companion, but I did not feel he was

altogether happy or ' adjusted '. There is something highly

strung or emotionally unstable about some Eurasians that is

probably inevitable with dual characteristics, and the fact of

their being between two worlds. Perhaps it was telling me his

story and getting back to the time when he was doing more than

a man's job which made him lean across the table and say:

‘ Don't forget us when you write about Hong Kong. I mean us

Eurasians. Hong Kong is our home, it is our only country for

we are not accepted anywhere else. We belong to it. We don't

belong wholly either to China or to Europe. There is such a lot

of uncertainty about the future that we feel no security. We can

fight for it, but what can we do, we are so few . We feel afraid

that if it becomes too difficult to hold Hong Kong, we may be

deserted.'

We must indeed remember our Portuguese and Eurasian

fellow subjects, and the Chinese and Indians who have stood on

our side. We and these people belong together. To the Chinese

anyone who is not entirely Chinese is a foreigner. No one should

have to live in their own homeland as foreigners.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Political Development in Hong Kong

EVER SINCE Lord Durham recommended responsible self

government for Canada in 1839 British colonial policy has been

based on the fundamental aim of teaching the colonial peoples

to govern themselves. In 1948 the goal was restated as ‘re

sponsible self-government within the Commonwealth in condi

tions that ensure to the peoples concerned both aa fair standard

of living and freedom from oppression from any quarter'.

Many people believe that Hong Kong could not survive if it

attempted to follow this path towards self-government. It is

254

COLONIAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

not very easy to prove conclusively that to develop internal

democratic government as a substitute for capitalist good

management would result in the ruin of Hong Kong, but the

fact remains that out of a population of over 2,000,000 the vast

majority of the people are neither devoted citizens of Hong

Kong nor greatly attached to the Commonwealth . The highest

figure I have seen given of the maximum number of people who

might be genuine citizens is 200,000, but I believe that that may

be much more than double the true number. It does indeed

seem difficult for the inhabitants of a country to achieve re

sponsible self -government if most of them have no sense of

belonging to it, nor a sense of loyalty to it as their homeland.

Nevertheless, Britain's promise to guide the peoples of the

colonies to self-government applies to Hong Kong just as much

as to the Gold Coast and Jamaica, the two colonies which flank

it in the alphabet of the Empire. It applies to Gibraltar, to the

Falklands, to St. Helena, to the Gambia, just as much as it

applies to Nigeria or to Malaya. This recital must emphasize

the point that not all these territories can become self-govern

ing members of the Commonwealth like Ceylon. The term

‘ self-government within the Commonwealth ' must therefore

embrace all solutions which can give to the inhabitants of all

dependent territories as much say in determining their own

affairs as have the inhabitants of these islands. The extent of

the say is always determined by circumstances which are not

necessarily constant.

The case of the colonies and self -government is the case of

the horse and the water, but if the inhabitants of Hong Kong

did want self-government what could be their goal ? It has a

population greater than New Zealand and its trade figures are

enormous, but it has few natural resources and its area is less

than 400 square miles. There is no member of the Common

wealth or other independent country as small as this and so

lacking in developable resources. Could it be a Malta, self

governing in internal affairs but with its foreign affairs and

defence in the hands of Britain ? Size, population and resources

might not preclude this, but it is the feeling of the people which

is really the deciding factor. The Maltese are strongly national

ist, devoted to Malta and greatly attached to Great Britain .

The case of Shanghai suggests that loyalty to country may not

255

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

be a necessary constituent of a form of municipal government.

It is true that the Chinese were not included in the franchise of

the International Settlement, but the city was administered by

its foreign residents with a municipal constitution far more

democratic than the bureaucracy of Hong Kong.

It is tempting to inquire whether Hong Kong could not be

made into a sort of Chinese Hamburg. Superficially it has

several points of resemblance, but although the free city of

Hamburg was governed by a considerable degree of democracy

based on trade, its people were all Germans, and the people

around it were all Germans. In Hong Kong it would still be

necessary to have the British outlook and connection in the free

city, and this might not be easy to maintain with some quite

different ideological outlook in China.

After the war His Majesty's Government announced its in

tention of giving the inhabitants a fuller share in the manage

ment of their own affairs, and the Governor was deputed to

make recommendations. After consulting representatives of all

sections of the community he recommended the setting up of

a Municipality and certain modifications in the Legislative

Council which would give a more representative character to

the unofficial element. In submitting these recommendations

the Governor commented on the indifference shown by the

public to the proposals. Such interest as there was directed itself

to a moderate broadening of the basis of popular representation

in the Legislative Council.

When it comes to the practicability of theColony developing

into, e.g., a self-governing city state, the difficulties certainly

seem at present formidable. Unlike most colonies, Hong Kong

has not so far made any very positive steps to discover whether 1

its inhabitants can be taught to work democracy, but it certainly .

has to be proved, first, that you have not necessarily to feel an

exclusive citizen of Hong Kong to be a good citizen of it ;

secondly, that you are prepared to stand up for democracy

against some other system which your brother across the border

may feel obliged to support; and thirdly, that Chinese ways of

thought and life can surrender such of their characteristics as

may conflict with the successful practice ofthe Western way of life.

Political thought in Hong Kong has scarcely progressed

beyond the turn of the century and one is forced reluctantly to

256 1

NO ZEAL FOR REFORM

the conclusion that at present it could not, safely, do more con

stitutionally than emulate the political system of England in the

nineteenth century, but people must be educated to a sense of

personal responsibility for their own affairs. There is much

which could be done in developing some form of local govern

ment in the villages and in the quarters ofthe city. The world is

only safe for democracy when the common man appreciates

his responsiblity for the common welfare.

The proposals for constitutional reform are still ‘ alive ', but

during my stay in Hong Kong I could not discern any enthu

siasm for them . The situation was very different in the case of

coming constitutional changes in the Gold Coast, Nigeria, and

tiny Gibraltar.

Curiously, and in strong contrast to trends in other colonies,

the blame for so little progress having been made with them has

been laid at the door of the Colonial Office by Mr. Landale of

Jardine's. In a speech in the Legislative Council in 1949 he said

he had been aa member of a caretaker council waiting for a new

constitution to be set up. He continued:

May I, for a brief moment, soliloquize over those last three years and

take as a simile the Mad Tea Party out of Alice in Wonderland. I will not

be so bold as to cast all the characters in this amusing sketch of Lewis

Carroll's, but the Dormouse seems to depict admirably the Colonial Office.

The Dormouse , as most of us know, slept all through the Tea Party

and was only woken up on rare occasions by the Hatter pouring tea on its

nose, and it was during one of these uneasy moments of wakefulness that

it told the story of Elsie, Lacey and Tilly who lived in a well. These three

can take the part in my soliloquy of the people of Hong Kong. The

Dormouse never finished its story, it just went to sleep again, leaving

Elsie, Lacey and Tilly in the well. That, Sir, is rather how we are today,

patiently waiting for some more tea to be poured on the Dormouse's nose

so that we can find out what is to happen to us.

The delay is not because the Dormouse is asleep, but because

Elsie, Lacey and Tilly are taking no interest in the proceedings.

257

CHAPTER THIRTY -ONE

The Impact of Western Thought

THE DIFFICULTY which the bulk of Hong Kong's population so

plainly feels in declaring itself unreservedly out to defend a

colony which it equally plainly greatly appreciates, is rightly 0

attributed to Chinese realism, to racism and other easily under

standable causes. Nevertheless, it is less immediately apparent

why these indigenous characteristics should not have under

gone more modification as a result of British contact. After all,

men of many other races and cults have fought to support and

preserve what it has brought to them .

It is surely education in the broad sense which has led them 1

to appreciate its benefits, and this makes it worth while to

inquire why the bringing of British ideas of education to Hong

Kong has not had the same results there.

Education was one of those problems which mankind in

China and mankind in the West had to discover and solve in

isolation from each other. China discovered it and thought she

had solved it long before the West. The Emperor Wu Ti of the

Han dynasty ( 140-87 B.c.) organized the system of public civil

service examinations, though its elements existed from an

earlier date. The system lasted till 1905 and the idea of educa

tion which grew up as a consequence of it survived until 1895.

Any system which lasts two millenniums must have merits, but

by the time it has lasted that long it has become at least an in

grained habit of thought, and the impact upon it of Western

ideas must have important results.

One night in a West Point club (which we have already

noticed as part of China's solution in isolation of another prob

lem) a man with a lean, cultured face and a humorous smile

sat down at the table opposite me. I do not remember how it

was that the conversation turned to education, but it was

natural that it should for my vis - à -vis was a former Inspector of

Schools, Y. P. Law. He told me about his own education and I

was soon so engrossed in the story that I barely noticed when

the little singer, to whom we had been listening, stopped strum

ming after her song and slipped away.

258

AN INSPECTOR'S EDUCATION

Law had started with the old - time education and no thought

of any other coming his way. “ We had to go to school almost as

soon as we got out of bed at dawn, and spent the whole day in

school until almost bedtime, even taking our meals with the

teacher. The only holidays we had were the Chinese New Year

two to three weeks — plus two days for the two most important

festivals of the year, the Dragon Boat festival and the mid

Autumn festival. It was a godsend if the teacher or oneself fell

sick — a chance for an extra holiday. We learnt everything by

rote, and were expected to be able to recite, as well as to write

out correctly, the whole of the “ Four Books ”. This was im

portant because in the public examinations, if a mistake were

made in writing out anything from the Four Books, one was

failed at once.'

" By the time I was ten,' he went on, ' I had learnt ten books by

heart. It never occurred to me to question the propriety of

doing so and it never would have done.'

At the age of 10 a child such as Law had every character of

those Books, and every phrase, engraved on his memory. The

inevitable result was that the power of independent thought was

fettered : it was confined within a walled garden, in which the

contents of those works were cultivated. Subsequent education

consisted in comment on them , the composition of essays on

their texts, and the writing of verse illuminated only by Con

fucian thought. There was, there could be, nothing new.

Law, however, had an unusual father who saw that to com

pete with the powerful West, so radically affecting an agelong

civilization, it was necessary to have Western learning also. On

Chinese analogy he no doubt thought that it would be a matter

of absorbing a number of Western classics and writing essays

and verses in another garden. This would be easy to a boy with

a Chinese-trained memory . This was also Y.P.'s way of looking

at it. After 10 years of the Chinese education , Law was sent to

Hong Kong in 1903, crammed in English and in due course

sent off to Cambridge. There, he told me, he suddenly realized

that he was being taught to think for himself.

When someone who has been brought up in the what-to

think school discovers he is in the how - to -think one, all sorts of

things may happen. Law's story brought home to me how great

the shock of the awakening must be. There are dangers and

259

THE IMPACT OF THE WEST

difficulties ahead which the how- to- think educators have to

provide for if their methods are to succeed. What had happened

to Law was an epitome of what happened to a whole nation.

It is interesting to note how far back the all-in, what-to -think

school of Wu Ti in China antedates modern inventors of what

to - think systems. There must have been a good deal in the

Chinese system which was admirable when compared with

Western what-to -think systems, whether of the Right or the

Left. Confucius was a better man than Hitler or Marx, and his

teachings were reasonably accepted as the final canon of life for

a right-minded man .

There were really only two possible careers open to an edu

cated youth in China, the Civil Service or commerce. It is

curious that neither of these are to be found in our own cherry

stone game‘ Tinker, Tailor ...' or itsmore sophisticated alter

native, ‘Army, Navy, Divinity, Law, Physics’. None of these

would have been found in the ordinary Chinese child's choice.

The thing was the CivilService . It was open to all, even the

humblest, save the descendants of prostitutes, actors, execu

tioners and jailers. These young men, all thinking alike, com

peted in the State examinations, and those who showed that

their memories were the best-trained, and that their thought

was strictly Confucian, were placed in authority all over the

Empire.

Another friend , Chan Yik King, already referred to as an

Inspector of Schools in Penang and as brother of our own Mr.

Chan, believed the educational system was intentionally de

signed to secure uniformity of administration. The Empire was

so vast that it was necessary that those who administered the

decrees of the Son of Heaven should all be cast in the same

mould. It was rather remarkable that there was a Board of

Censors to scrutinize the Imperial Acts. On the whole, said

Chan, the administration was pretty poor. It was only, he

thought, at a period in the Tang dynasty that it was really good .

| This absolute rule lasted so long because of the essential em

phasis of Confucius on the responsibility of every individual for

his own behaviour, and his insistence on non -interference with

the affairs of others .

The picturesque Mr. Ma Man Fai in his royal blue silk gown,

and with his ' classical' Chinese wispy beard , came in to see me

260

THE CHINESE OUTLOOK

one day. Lest that should conjure up the picture of an aged

philosopher, I should say that he gave rather the impression of

some mischievous Ariel as he floated into the room with a dis

arming but naughty smile on his face. He was certainly not aged

though there was something ageless about him. No Chinese

under 80 seems to have a lined face : Mr. Ma Man Fai, con

sidered materialistically, might have been anything from 30 to

40. He lives, not upon nectar as one might suppose, but

something almost as heaven -provided - private means left by

his father — and he flits from circle to circle casting doubts on

everything in a very plausible way. The silken robe seems to

slip through your fingers if you try to catch him as he flits from

flower to flower. He thoroughly enjoys his life and one imagines

he is not much troubled by scruples. Nevertheless, one enjoys

contacts with him. His own enjoyment is so obvious.

He stressed the realism of the Chinese. They were concerned

with life as it is. ‘And there is an essential difference between

the Chinese and the Christian approaches', he said . " We say

“ do not do to others what you would not have them do to you ”.

The Christian says “ do as you would be done by " . Super

ficially one is the corollary of the other, but essentially one is

negative and non-aggressive, the other is positive and aggres

sive. I wouldn't say the Chinese approach was worse than the

Western .'

Harold Lee, a barrister and a product of Pembroke, Oxford,

a young man of great charm who seemed to have completely

absorbed the Westwithout rejecting the East, said that the key

notes oftheChinese way oflife were that a Chinese was human,

humane and natural.“ We have always been ready to kill a man

for all sorts of damned silly things, we could kill a man for a

couple of cash, but I don't think we have ever killed a man for

believing something else. This is because we have believed in

living and letting live.'.

Confucius, who died in 479 B.C., seems, roughly speaking and

thanks to the system of Chinese bureaucracy, to have lasted the

Chinese unchallenged until Sun Yat-Sen ( 1866-1925) .

Why was Sun Yat-Sen so different ? He himself in 1923 attri

buted it to Hong Kong. Speaking to Hong Kong University

students, he said : ' Where and how did I get my revolutionary

and modern ideas ? I got my ideas in this very place; in the

261

THE IMPACT OF THE WEST

colony of Hong Kong. More than 30 years ago I was studying

in Hong Kong and spent a great deal of spare time in walking

the streets of the Colony. Hong Kong impressed me a good deal

because there was orderly calm and because there was artistic

work being done without interruption. I compared Heung Shan

with Hong Kong, and, although they are only fifty miles apart,

the difference of the governments impressed me very much.

Afterwards I saw the outside world and I began to wonder how

it was that foreigners, that Englishmen could do such things as

they had done, for example, with the barren rock of Hong

Kong, within 70 or 80 years, while China, in 4,000 years,, had

no place like Hong Kong. ... My fellow students, you and I

have studied in this English colony and in an English Uni

versity, and we must learn by English examples. We must carry

the English example of good government to every part of

China . '

Shortly before his death, and only a year after he had spoken

those so encouraging words, Sun Yat-Sen, whose revolutionary

oath, framed in 1905, contained the words the spirit and the

binding principle of our various aims are Liberty, Equality and

Universal Love', was urging that ' there is one thing of the

greatest importance in a political party, that is, all members

of the party must possess spiritual unity. In order that all

members may be united spiritually, the first thing is to sacrifice

freedom , the second is to offer his abilities. If the individual can

sacrifice his freedom , then the whole party will have freedom .

If the individual can offer his abilities, then the whole party will

possess ability '.

Obviously he had not learned that in Hong Kong. In fact

many influences affected the thought of this great Chinese:

Confucianism , Protestant Christianity, Western democracy

with its strength and its weakness, with its concern for the

individual and at times and in places apparent unconcern for

the masses, and Communism. It is said that when he died almost

his last words were, ' I am a Christian '. How far this was a realiza

tion of ultimate truth may not be sure, but it is relevant to

inquire the extent to which Christianity has taken firm root in

China. It was essentially Christianity and the impact of the

West which caused China to leap from Confucius to Sun Yat

Sen ; but it seems as though the candle which Robert Morrison

262

MORRISON'S ACHIEVEMENT

lit in the Canton days had not only not been put out, but had

caused a widespread conflagration by 1911. Something else had

caught fire.

The Anglo -Chinese school which Morrison , as recorded on

that tombstone in Macao, had founded in Malacca on the

11th November 1818, just a century before the Armistice Day of

the First World War, was founded ' forthe purpose of blending

the culture of Chinese and European literature and rendering

this subservient to the advancement of the cause of Christian

China '. It was the first school in which a Chinese could receive

a Western education and it was built at Malacca because the

Chinese would not permit it on Chinese soil. An early observer

said, “ The son of a Malacca peasant derives an enlightened

education denied to the son of the Emperor of China '.

This was the crowning achievement of Morrison's life - by

his translation of the Bible and by his dictionary he had made it

possible for the Chinese to know the sources of Western civiliza

tion, and made intercourse between East and West easier. By

his college he assured that Chinese would grow up who could

think and reason in these terms. The nature of the Christianity

which was being offered was the authentic Protestant version ,

in the tradition of Cromwell, with the Bible as a way of life and

man himself to judge what was right and what was wrong.

In 1834, as the second act of the drama of The Wealth of

Nations, or the Rape of China, was being played to its finish at

Canton, the Prologue to another play was all unsuspected

almost written. To the friends and contemporaries who watched

Robert Morrison's remains lowered into the grave, the life that

was ended represented a useful, admirable achievement, but it

cannot have been regarded as a great success story '. In all his

time in China he had baptized but 10 converts. Respectable,

yes; impressive, no ; portentous—they would not have con

sidered such a possibility .

Before Morrison died other Protestant missionaries, American

as well as British, had arrived . By 1840 there were about 25 , but

none had got farther than Canton and Macao. Their converts

numbered less than a hundred, but it is not by numbers of

converts alone that one must measure the effect of the work

started by Morrison. After his death a boarding-school was

founded in his memory at Macao which in due course moved to

263

THE IMPACT OF THE WEST

Hong Kong. A product of this school returned to China from

Yale in 1854, the first Chinese to graduate at a Western uni

versity. He set to work to persuade the Government to send

youths to study in the United States. A school for official inter

preters opened in Peking in 1862 and similar schools were

opened in Shanghai, Canton, Tientsin and Wuchang. Tech

nical schools, a telegraph school, the Imperial Naval College at

Nanking, mining and engineering colleges, the Army Medical

College at Tientsin followed . The first university was St. John's

at Shanghai in 1879. Others followed and middle and higher

primary schools were ordained throughout the country. In

1906 the Ministry of Education was established . In 1907 the

first primary schools for girls were opened—by the end of the

year there were 391 with 12,000 pupils. By 1937 there were

259,000 elementary schools with over 11 million pupils. At the

same time there were 3,264 secondary schools with 627,246

students, 42 universities, 34 university colleges and 32 technical

schools with 41,922 students. During the war many were closed

down, but post-war found China with 53 universities, 62 uni

versity colleges and 67 technical schools having between them

80,646 students.

No pedigree is more authentic than that which traces these

results back to Morrison, the pioneer of individual thinking

evangelical protestant education in China. In its earlier stages

the growth of this culture can almost be said to have been

laboratory controlled. Of course in the latter stages many other

Western influences have entered.

Sun Yat-Sen and what has followed since has been the pro

duct of this fermentation .

264

CHAPTER THIRTY - TWO

Young China in Hong Kong

THE WORK of Morrison and the Protestant missionaries plainly

had results very different from those intended . The introduc

tion of how -to - think methods of education certainly broke up

the what- to -think tradition , but those in China who use the

Bible as a guide to their way of life are an infinitesimal pro

portion of those who have some Western education .

The first object of the Chinese in going to Western schools

was to acquire the means of the evident material success of the

West. When Chinese thought aroused itself to the idea that

China could only recover her independence through the adop

tion of Western methods, it saw only the need of technical skill

and science to combat Western ascendancy. It was not at once

appreciated that Chinese culture could be affected . The

Western culture was still regarded as barbarous. Chinese ex

perience of the West had seemed thoroughly to support that

conclusion, and the secular side of Western education always

received the emphasis of events . The Tai Ping movement had

Christian religious fervour behind it and it sprang directly from

Morrison's translation of the Gospel. With Christian aid it

might have flowered, but its cynical suppression by the Western

powers (it is curious that it fell to Christian Gordon to perform

the task) in favour of the profit accruing from support of the

decadent Manchus, bound by many a treaty to the West and its

interests, was certainly a win for materialism .

As a result of the spread of secular education the Chinese

lost a great deal that was gracious in the old ways. We went one

day to San Tin, a village of 2,000 inhabitants near the Chinese

frontier, which is the home of the Man clan from Kiang Si. Its

history dates back 500 years. Just outside a modern young

woman was holding an open-air class on the short clipped turf,

and we were led by the elders to a well-laden table set before the

altar in the large ancestral temple : from the side aisles arose the

voices of the boys and girls of the Government school estab

lished in the temple .

265

YOUNG CHINA IN HONG KONG

I looked at the ancestral tablets. The two central ones were

those of General Man Tin Chau and his wife. The general was

imprisoned by the Mongols. They wanted him to be their prime

minister, but he steadfastly refused to serve them and they

killed him . He used to be revered for his loyalty, but the tablets

were covered thick with cobwebs and dust and the altar was all

uncared for. Outside the temple was a new school garden. At

the gateway were two old and damaged pillars. They bore the

names oftwo scholars from the village successful in the Imperial

civil service examinations in the Tsing dynasty. These seemed

to be regarded as amusing relics of aa better- forgotten age.

We went over the deserted home of a bygone notable of the

old school. It had once been the biggest and best house of the

village, but now it was neglected. Its beautiful carved woodwork,

its coloured frescoes, and the old pottery frames of its windows

were broken and faded , but it had a haunted air. I looked

through the circular doorway of the library almost expecting to

find the owner there asleep. In front had been a large flower

garden : at the back an enclosed orchard of fruit trees. ' The old

man sat here with his friends among the lichis ', I was told. ' He

had an educated son. He used to like seeing his son and daughter

in-law walking arm -in - arm in the orchard, but he wouldn't let

them do it in the front. Funny old -fashioned chap, he was.'

The old had very much given way to the new in San Tin .

They took us to see shops and talked of money -making. Two of

them run a restaurant in London .

Very different, as we have seen, was the atmosphere of

Worship Humble Village which produced Paul Tsui, who is

about as fine an example of what Hong Kong can produce as

can be found, though I doubt if he is typical. Though the

village was Protestant, Paul's father had become a Catholic and

Paul was baptized in that faith .

In the matter of secular education the Catholics had fol

lowed a policy fundamentally different from that of the

Protestants. Their approach was primarily to train the

children of Catholic families in the habit of intelligent worship

and, as a means to achieving it, to train catechists and priests.

It was not until the beginning of the century that Catholic mis

sionaries turned their thoughts to the secular side of education,

and even then most of them stuck to the old position that the

266

PAUL TSUI

role of the Church was to produce second and third generation

Catholics. The Protestants seem to have caused the greater up

heaval in Chinese thought, but while the Catholics implanted

a deeper religious sense in a larger number of converts — they

had 2,000,000 in 1922 when the Protestants had 400,000

baptized — they failed to attract those who were not ready to

break away from old spiritual associations.

When Hong Kong fell, on Christmas Day 1941 , Paul was just

25 and a student in the Arts faculty of the University. His home

background was not that of the traditional Chinese. His people

were immigrants and Protestants of several generations. Yet

village life in the New Territories all around him was of a truly

indigenous Chinese character. He understood it well and felt

a kinship with it. He had both these influences as well as his

father's Catholicism in his background.

Paul started his education in his home village and then went

on to the school, Wah Yan College, which his father had

founded . This was followed by a short period as a teacher in a

Catholic missionary school in New Guinea, after which he went

to Canton University and thence to Hong Kong University,

where he gained a war -time degree in 1942. During his career

at school and university he developed powers of leadership. At

Hong Kong University he laboured successfully to awake the

somewhat torpid interest of the Chinese students in their own

language and culture.

' I was 100 per cent Chinese in outlook when the war came',

said Paul. ' I wanted to work for China and since I was quite

small I had wanted to be President of China. In fact I had

made up my mind I was going to be.'

The Japanese left him unmolested and in March 1942 he

went off into Free China to seek a way to serve her. Failing to

find a job with the Chinese, he went to the British and became

secretary, adviser and interpreter at the advanced head

quarters of the British and Allied Aid Group. It was work to

which he could give an undivided loyalty — the aims of Chinese

and British were the same and could only be made effective by

the fullest co-operation, which Paul set out to promote. With

an exceptionally honest mind Paul could never undertake a job

in which he could not believe, and once in such a job must in

evitably apply himself to it with all the qualities he possesses.

267

YOUNG CHINA IN HONG KONG

Circumstances not only developed Paul's good qualities in a

way which made him an excellent colleague, but brought him

in close touch with the British at a time when British character

shows best. After the fall of Hong Kong British prestige was at

a low ebb. Yet he gave them his loyalty and showed considerable

physical and moral courage in doing so. It is hardly surprising

that at the fall of Japan Paul was quickly given employment as

an Assistant District Officer in the New Territories. Recom

mended for permanent employment in the Colonial Adminis

trative Service, he became in October 1946 the first Chinese

Cadet Officer in Hong Kong's Civil Service.

After a two -year course at London University, which he

greatly enjoyed and which gave him a wider horizon, he went

back to Hong Kong and was posted as Assistant Director of the

Commerce and Industry Department. Here he made a reputa

tion for unflinching honesty which was widely recognized and

admired in Hong Kong. I was told that many Chinese scratched

their heads in surprise. They thought he was a fool. Talking one

day to Paul about the corruption in China, he confirmed that

people thought you were foolish if you did not make what you

could . On the other hand, he said, you are honoured if you are

incorruptible. “ They say in Chinese', he said, ' a man lives either

for money or for name. '

His job in China had brought him romance, for there he met

his wife Rosie, the daughter of a Chinese general. Rosie and her

sister Agnes, married to Paul's brother Mark, are delightfully

pretty girls, charming and intelligent. They all live together in a

flat in Kowloon, and it is rather a squash because Paul and Rosie

have now four children and Mark and Agnes two.

It was a delight to sit there talking to Paul and Rosie. Care

less of minor refinements, flicking his cigarette ash on the floor,

Paul concentrated on things of the mind. Rosie, shy but taking

it all in, said little when Paul was in the centre of the stage, but

she had plenty to contribute when on her own . Paul in all his

moods talks always interestingly but explosively, for he is a quick

thinker and words tumble out in an excited cascade. Slight of

build, he has fine expressive fingers, small wrists and a supple,

tireless body. His eyes twinkle but are almost lost at times

in a wrinkled, laughing face. Completely frank, he is ready to

argue, sometimes almost to boast, to be modest, to bring out

268

PLATE XXXVII

Government

for

flats

New

built

servants

Department

Works

Public

the

Tai Po market in the New Territories , where country people and

fisher-folk congregate

TORNING POST

SHOOTIN

CENTR

G IN

DISTR AL

ICT

' It recalled a bygone era to see the newsboys, generally women,

carrying printed posters' (p. 241 )

PLATE XXXVIII

A scene from the film Sorrows of the Forbidden City. “ Golden Throat,

the leading lady, had a lovely voice ' (p . 122 )

' Sir Shouson Chow in the beautiful garden, so much of which he

has planted with his own hands ' ( p. 194)

PLATE XXXIX

PLATE XL

Fishing

heading

their

brown

sails junks

out

through

sea

WChannel

ith

r.‘Aberdeen

twbats

,'likeibbed

ings

hey

make

fingers

every

bwould

artist

itch the

).3'(p-of

THE CHINESE AND THE MONARCHY

sound ideas, to be naïve and youthful, cynical or contra

dictory.

We went with him one day to Ma Wan Island, which lives on

making shrimp paste, and there we visited the council chamber.

At the end of the room there were two pictures, Chiang Kai

shek and Sun Yat-Sen, with their flags beside them . I asked

Paul if pictures of the King and the Union Jack were never dis

played in such places.

‘ You can't get across the conception of the King to the

Chinese,' he said ; ‘ your conception is quite different to that of

the Chinese in Hong Kong. To them the King is an overlord

and implies Imperialism .'

‘ But surely', I said, ' Chiang Kai-shek and Sun Yat-Sen are

there as rulers of China ? My point is that this is not Chinese

territory and one would expect to see the King's portrait .'

'Whatever else Chiang Kai-shek is, or Mao Tse -tung (and

we shall see his portrait in other places which are more up to

date) , neither of them are kings and Sun Yat-Sen is different.

He is revered as a philosopher rather than a ruler. His portrait

has the same sort of significance as a picture of Confucius .'

In 1927 , Sun Yat-Sen's Three Principles of Democracy was

turned into a religious text-book in Chinese schools. Every

Monday morning in all schools and Government offices a

religious service was held at which all present made three bows

to his portrait, commemorated him in three minutes' silence in

which they made their vows ofservice and recited his last appeal

to his people.

I talked about the King with a Chinese friend later, arguing

that he stood not as a symbol of overlordship and oppression,

but as the head and guarantor of freedom and aa free society of

peoples. He invited me to ask another Chinese friend of Britain

near by what he thought. ' He is a foreigner ', he said at once.

'Ifwerespect him too much, others say “ You are a foreigner ”.'

‘ The conception of a king does not exist in Hong Kong

among the Chinese ', repeated my friend .

Whose fault is that ? ' I asked .

' It's multiple. In schools we learn of the overthrow of the

Manchus by Sun Yat-Sen and kings thus become synonymous

with bad things. The Chinese are proud. We know we are intel

lectually superior even if physically inferior. An overlord must

269

YOUNG CHINA IN HONG KONG

serve them ; for instance they throw out gods who do not give

them what they ask. But now', he went on, ‘more and more

people want to become British citizens in Hong Kong. Now is

the time to inject new ideas .'

This discussion helps to explain the difficulties confronting

the Chinese in Hong Kong. Paul Tsui tried to bring it home

to me by referring to his own tussle between dual environments.

I asked him one day what had become of his ambition to be

President of China. He grinned. 'Maybe I'll have to be con

tent with being the first Chinese governor of Hong Kong.'

' Why not have a shot at being both ? ' I asked.

| “ They throw out gods who do not give them what they ask.'

It is important to remember this. In Chinese thought gods and

ideological systems are there to serve mankind, not to be

served. When the old gods are seen to serve no longer they are

burnt or cast aside and others tried . The Chinese have, one

surmises, during the ferment of the last 50 years regarded not

only the old gods but Christianity and Sun Yat-Sen in this way,

and found them largely lacking. In Hong Kong, it is evident,

Adam Smith has scored a success with Chinese realism. How

far is it our fault that no wider success can be claimed with

Christianity and the Western way of life ? The Chinese are now

testing Communism with the same old realistic outlook. If they

find it wanting, shall we be ready to show that what appears to

them as unserviceability in the things which we know are best

is due to human failings — ours and theirs ? It is only by faithful

service on the human side, not by expectation to be served, that

grace and salvation come. ‘ Now is the time to inject new ideas.'

One of the assistant social welfare officers, C. N. Li, another

young Catholic, though not a practising one, whose grand

father was the first Chinese minister in Brussels, talked of the

Endeavourers. This was a group of about 50 Chinese em

ployees of Government, founded after the liberation , whose

members dedicated themselves to public service. Their time

was given without stint and, although all but five of them were

on a low scale of pay, they ran their own welfare fund, from

which, in addition to a monthly expenditure of over £30 on help

to the needy, they built up a reserve of over £ 300. They were,

said Military Government, ' a shining example'. Li held that

270

' A SHINING EXAMPLE '

there is now ' a spiritual and mental vacuum'amongst Chinese.

They are discarding old forms of worship and have nothing

with which to replace them . He thought it changes people's life

spiritually to alter their material conditions. If their economic

condition is secured and they are given a mental stimulus the

way is open to improve their spiritual outlook.

1 Typical or not, the important thing is that there are young

people thinking of the need for aa fresh start.

CHAPTER THIRTY - THREE

The Inevitability of Hong Kong

IT IS A CURIOUS story, this tale of Hong Kong with all its con

flicts, with all its concentration on material things. What it is,

is so much a consequence of how it happened and how it grew

that it is difficult to escape from the discreditable or at least

dubiously moral facts of its history. Yet it is undeniable that

Hong Kong has been productive of good things.

The good has not been an accidental by-product of British

establishment of law and order. Britain does not believe in

justice and fair- play simply because they are good for business.

There are far too many British individuals with that annoying

consciousness of superiority which exasperates other peoples,

but the desire to give others the benefits and freedoms which

the British race has so long enjoyed is a deep-seated national

characteristic. It has to be borne in mind that all that is implied

in ' freedom ' today had not been discovered in the nineteenth

century, or even a decade ago , but the conflict in the world

today increasingly emphasizes the value and the validity of the

essential concept of freedom for the individual as it has been

developed in this land. There is no question that this concept

is not being developed in Hong Kong, though I would say, and

many I think would agree with me, too slowly. I am not for

getting the difficulties. The evils, except the results of selfish

ness, belong mainly to the past; opium no one would defend

271

HONG KONG'S INEVITABILITY

nowadays, and few would dispute that our original seizure of

Hong Kong could not be justified in the terms oftoday'sthought.

It is natural enough that China should feel that Hong Kong

was taken from her by an unjust use of force, and it is no answer

to this to say that, however bad the reasons and methods of our

taking Hong Kong, we have made a barren island into what it

is. The fact is that it has paid us very well and is still paying big

dividends. It is true that the Chinese could not have built

anything like Hong Kong without British initiative, but it is

also true that we could not have achieved it alone. Chinese

co -operation, industriousness, and instinct for trade have been

indispensable.

What is, however, perfectly true is that although we did wrest

a barren rock from China, the society in Hong Kong now is a

spontaneous growth of European and Chinese immigrants. No

indigenous people beyond a few pirates have had their interests

interfered with. No Red Indians or native tribes have been

sacrificed or subjugated . No slaves or indentured labourers

were brought there. All that has happened has been that we

took a barren island, established law and order, and said that

it was open to all to come and settle and trade.Hong Kong, as

we have seen so clearly, has never pretended to be anything

more than a trading port offering entrepôt services on a com

mercial basis. It has never interfered with Chinese politics and

it has always been ready to give assistance on business terms

when required. Its honesty in this respect has given it a standing

with China. It was well understood in a country where trade is

second nature.

The facts are, then, that the China of today suffers nothing,

except the remembrance of an old wrong, from the present

status of Hong Kong. On the contrary, countless Chinese and

China herself have found it extremely useful. Far more wrong

would be done by any attempt to put the clock back .

But whatever the balance of good and evil, one can hardly

escape the conclusion that Hong Kong was at least inevitable.

I quoted earlier the words of Thomas Violet. Ruschenberger

the American naval surgeon said much the same thing. So

important was their trade to the foreigners that the Chinese were

' always more successful in their contests by an appeal to the

pocket than to arms, thus proving the assertion of a great

272

NORTHERNERS AND SOUTHERNERS

English writer that “ Nothing dejects a trader like the interruption

of his profits" . A commercial people, however magnanimous,

shrinks at the thought of declining trade, and an unfavourable

balance'. If it is so difficult to 'interpose between the merchant

and his profit ', it cannot be disputed that Hong Kong had to

happen.

It was inevitable because of the riches of China and the

character of the British and the Chinese. A combination of any

other Western race and the Chinese would not have produced

the same result. The American answer, for example, was quite

different. Much was due to the character of the Chinese, and in

this respect it is important to contrast the Chinese of the north

and south. Lin Yu Tang speaks of the cultural unity, common

historical tradition and written language which bind the

Chinese people together, but none the less there is a variety of

races, different in stature, temperament and mental make-up.

' On the one hand we have the northern Chinese, acclimatized

to simple thinking and hard living, tall and stalwart, hale,

hearty and humorous, onion-eating and fun - loving, children of

nature, who are in every way more Mongolic and more con

servative than the conglomeration of peoples near Shanghai and

who suggest nothing of their loss of racial vigour. They are the

Honan Boxers, the Shantung bandits and the imperial brigands

who have furnished China with all the native imperial dynas

ties, the raw material from which the characters of Chinese

novels of war and adventure are drawn.

‘ South in Kwangtung, one meets again a different people,

where racial vigour is again in evidence, where people eat like

men, and work like men, enterprising, carefree, spendthrift,

pugnacious, adventurous, progressive and quick -tempered,

where beneath the Chinese culture a snake -eating aborigines

tradition persists, revealing a strong admixture of the blood of

the ancient Yueh inhabitants of southern China.'

It was northerners who were ruling Kwangtung. They

belonged to and took their orders from an alien dynasty in

Peking. The Chinese system of government, highly centralized

and absolute, evolved over centuries, was able to endure for so

ng because on the one hand Confucianism glorified not only

filial obedience but the principle of minding your own business,

and on the other because the system of education taught all the

273

HONG KONG'S INEVITABILITY

servants of the State to think alike. Peking had the wisdom to

see that there was danger to Chinese civilization in too much of

the aggressive impact of the West and that opium was a bad

thing for the Chinese. Canton was not unreceptive to the first

proposition, but found the latter incompatible with their

principles of making money. Furthermore they discovered in

due course that the foreign devils, of whom they had greater

experience than Peking, had their merits. They grew to dislike

them less as foreigners because they liked them more as men.

One speaks of the English pioneer setting forth with the Bible

in one hand and a sword in the other. To this armament one

should add the ledger. Some used one weapon, some the other,

some had an eye to all three. Probably if the Ten Command

ments had contained the specific prohibitions Thou shalt not

own slaves and Thou shalt not sell opium , Englishmen , at least

after Puritan times, would have done neither. As it was, in their

attitude to profit motives there was little to choose between the

English (or Scots) and the Cantonese merchants. The difference

was that while the latter were passive in their reaction to

authority, the whole philosophy of the former was active and

aggressive. Within limits they could submit to‘squeeze ' ; under

other names the institution was known in the West. But the

hampering restrictions on trade were not to be tolerated. If too

much impediment was placed in the British trader's way the

sword must be called upon to support the ledger.

But ledgers do not fill themselves up comfortably if the sword

is too much in action . The atmosphere of the counting-house

must be quiet and under its master's control. Canton offered no

prospect of this. Macao was someone else's house. The mer

chants, smarting with the loss of 20,000 chests of opium, said

‘ Let Hong Kong be ' and there was Hong Kong. Matheson

wrote to Jardine and described its advantages and said he was

pleased and confident ofthe future. No other result was possible.

That it should flourish was, again taking into account British

and Chinese susceptibility to trade, also inevitable. In Hong

Kong the principle offree trade was given the widest expression.

It was a place where a man could build godowns and store his

goods under his own control. There could be no more bother

about opium there. But even so trade sometimes suffered in

conveniences from scruples. “ The Gazelle', wrote Matheson,

274

TRADE IS PARAMOUNT

'was unnecessarily detained at Hong Kong in consequence of

Captain Crocker's repugnance to receiving opium on the

Sabbath.. We have every respect for persons entertaining strict

religious principles, but we fear that very godly people are not

suited for the drug trade. Perhaps it would be better that the

Captain should resign .'

Efforts to restrict smuggling continued to be regarded as an

unjustifiable interference with trade. Quite a storm blew up

when the Chinese Government's Imperial Maritime Customs

Service was set up and went into active operation. ' The British

merchants of Hong Kong were angry ', says Sayer, and in 1861

set up the Chamber of Commerce to watch their interests. From

that day to this the Chamber has fought the battle offree trade,

free enterprise, free movement, and as far as possible freedom

from taxation .

The idea was always that in Hong Kong you should buy and

sell with whom you liked , where you liked, when you liked and

what you liked. Nature had helped by endowing it with a

natural harbour which was the only deep-sea harbour between

Singapore and Shanghai. It was the entrance to China for trade

from Europe, the Middle East, India and Malaysia. As the

world has developed so has the position of Hong Kong im

proved . It holds not only a strategic position on the steamship

routes of the world but now on the main air routes as well.

The handmaidens of trade, banking, insurance, storage and

transhipment facilities, are all pampered and efficient servants .

Hong Kong is the largest banking centre of the Far East, is

probably unrivalled in the western Pacific for its insurance

facilities, its harbour is one of the cheapest in the world , and its

storage facilities and handling charges are better and cheaper

than any in Asia. Nowhere in China are ships unloaded and

turned round in so short a time.

The entrepôt function of Hong Kong has remained para

mount throughout its history, and, as the Director of Com

merce and Industry has lately written : 'It is very obvious that if

it is to be fulfilled with any efficiency it must follow that restric

tions on the movement of goods in and out of the Colony must

be kept down to the absolute minimum . Hence the tradition of

free trade in Hong Kong. Even at the present day there is no

general tariff, duties for revenue purposes being levied only on

275

HONG KONG'S INEVITABILITY

alcoholic liquors, aerated waters, tobacco, hydrocarbon oils,

and toilet preparations and proprietary medicines.'

Hong Kong by its very nature finds charges on trade or

restrictions of any kind as irritating as a hair shirt. ' It is un

fortunate,' continues the Director mildly, ‘from Hong Kong's

point of view , that with the outbreak of war it became necessary

to impose a number of restrictions on the free movement of

goods in and out of the Colony, but such restrictions always

have been kept to the minimum consistent with the Colony's

obligations as a member of the sterling area, a member of the

International Monetary Fund, and in accordance with inter

national commodity controls. Despite such restrictions, the

original purpose of the Colony has always been kept in view , and

its function in trading is still primarily and fundamentally that

of an entrepôt.'

On liberation one of the first things Military Government

did was to repatriate internees. The slogan was GO, Get Fit

and Come Back ! This, however, did not take account of Hong

Kong's traditional spirit. The Chamber of Commerce did not

agree with this ‘ academic policy of the military administra

tion '. ' The impact of actualities ', says the Chamber's report,

‘ was brought home to the Authorities at home before very long,

thanks to strenuous representations by the China Association

and other bodies .'

‘ Many of us',said Mr. Cassidy, Chairman ofthe Chamber, in

March 1950, ‘ have found price control aa thorn in the flesh and

we should like to see the last of it.'

This is the authentic voice of Hong Kong, laissez -faire. To it

came the humanitarian answer . ' I think I can truthfully retort',

said the Financial Secretary in the Legislative Council, ' that

the suffering public find the prices charged by the merchants a

pain in the neck, or rather in the pocket, and that they would

like to see more price control. The Price Controller has accord

ingly been instructed to make fuller use of his powers with a

view to stopping this tendency to exploit the consumer .'

Chinese members quote Adam Smith in the Legislative

Council. In 1946 there was much talk of income tax, and,

opposing it the following year, Dr. S. N. Chau said : ‘Adam

Smith, the great economist, said that the ideal tax should be

collectable at a convenient time without extravagant expense,

276

THE OLD ADAM

armies of collectors, or sheaves of tax banks, which should keep

the citizens distracted from their pursuits of earning a living.

The tax should be levied with a minimum of interference with

free enterprise and the normal ebb and flow of economic tides .'

The spectre of income tax receded, exorcized by the invoca

tion ofthe patron saint, with the coming ofthe boom. Disguised

as salaries tax , corporation tax, and business profits tax, it has,

however, managed to insinuate aa cautious foot.

Similarly Hong Kong has always reacted unfavourably to

proposals to restrict immigration . The coming and going is

good for trade, however crowded the tenements and squatter

colonies may be, and free enterprise means that it is not a pro

fitable undertaking to pull down these wretched slums and re

build decent workmen's dwellings on any large scale. Some of

the owners consider that they are doing a charitable deed in

maintaining them , for the rents are restricted and rent restric

tions do not apply to new building. So we have in the cities of

Hong Kong and Kowloon street after street of these old tene

ments, letting in little light and air and containing anything

from five to ten times as many people as they should, and whole

towns made of packing -case wood. On the other hand there are

these sumptuous new blocks of offices with marble walls and

express lifts, blocks of luxury flats, many new cinemas, shops,

restaurants, amusement parks, cabarets, and so on.

Here indeed is the ‘ enlightened self -interest ' of Bentham

Hong Kong's edition of the ' dark satanic mills ' of England in

the 1830's. Odd it is that the reaction from those mills in

England a hundred years ago had led to Hong Kong's modern

factories being up to date, while so many of the workmen's

houses, and indeed the smaller factories, are so terrible. It is

‘ unfortunate but unavoidable ', says Hong Kong, for it would

not pay to build decent buildings. And admittedly they would be

no less crowded without restriction of population. To this same

attitude is due the fact that there is no city hall, no public

library, no concert hall, in fact no provision for culture, for

these things do not pay dividends like tramways, ferries and

buses .

It is commonly said in Hong Kong that the overcrowded

conditions of the poor are the fault of the Chinese, for nobody

tells them to come. But the authentic voice of Hong Kong has

277

HONG KONG'S INEVITABILITY

been ‘ Let them come, it's good for trade'. Not only does Hong

Kong not like the closing of the door to immigration and emi

gration, for its mind works like the management of a depart

ment store, but also it is inclined to believe that as long as there

are goods to be bought and sold the door must be kept open,

that Hong Kong could not exist without it. Recent efforts at

control have been forced on Government but are not popular in

any quarter. * In these circumstances the consequences of ‘ en

lightened self-interest ' can only be deplorable.

Early in 1950 I was told that a large proportion of the

working classes had insufficient means. Really this means that

they could make just sufficient to live. The moment comes when

the cost of living in Hong Kong becomes so great that even the

conditions outside are preferable. For this to happen conditions

must be very bad indeed, for final economic pressure only exerts

itself at a point when the standard of living is much worse than

humanitarian conditions demand. The Chinese, it is true, are

industrious by nature and the conditions of China have given

them little chance for leisure in the struggle for survival, but

there can be little doubt that they have to be too industrious.

When education cannot provide for all the children of Hong

Kong, it is perhaps unreasonable to complain of the industry

of children sitting in streets making match -boxes or artificial

flowers, or of women picking cotton-waste in any odd moment

that can be filched from domestic duties. But these activities

are not signs of a healthy community, which demands that

children should be occupied with education rather than with

manual toil. In fact, all the way through Hong Kong's economy

the principle of enlightened self-interest demands that factory

owners, property owners, and business men should without

interference be allowed to carry on their business as it seems

best to them, and that numberless Chinese should be allowed

to come in and make what bargains they can in their own

interests and the general interests of the trading store.

We have seen the reasons for which the poor Chinese come

in, and of course the disturbance caused by the Communist

defeat of the Kuomintang brought many more, rich as well as

* It is interesting to note that freedom of entry has been regarded by China

as an intrinsic right and the very moderate measure, control of immigration,

referred to was greeted with outcries from both Peking and Formosa.

278

ARGUMENTS AGAINST WELFARE

poor, but it needs to be emphasized that there are no grounds

for accepting the plea that they are attracted to Hong Kong by

good living conditions. Conditions in China, it is true, have been

far worse than they are in Hong Kong, but both are bad. The

Chinese do not like the conditions under which they live in

Hong Kong, but they would rather put up with them than stay

out, as long as those conditions offer even a marginally better

chance of mere survival.

It is sometimes argued that Hong Kong must limit the stan

dard of its social services, first because it cannot pay for them,

and secondly because, if they were too good, more population

would be attracted from China. Some people reinforce this

argument by saying that China would object if Hong Kong's

services were too markedly in advance of those available in

China. The first of these arguments is valid enough if it is true,

but those who argue thus go on to say that Hong Kong cannot

[ tax itself more heavily as this would hit at trade. As regards the

second, it is true enough that if the possibility of survival is

greater in Hong Kong than in South China it attracts more

people, though it is very questionable how far the indirect

benefits of good social services attract Chinese. It is rather the

cash advantages which attract them.

There seems to me an element of immorality in these argu

ments. Other people have to be satisfied with less profits and a

greater burden of taxation in favour of the under-privileged .

Hong Kong has surely an obligation to provide social services

on a scale necessary to cope with as many people as it admits.

It cannot fairly decline responsibility for those it lets in on the

ground that they are foreigners. Though their welfare is expen

sive, the Colony cannot properly divest itself of full responsibility

for them, for its deliberate policy has drawn them there, and its

liability does not end in providing a minimum. It must provide

what it can really afford. If it can afford to build luxury offices

and flats it can afford to house the poor better.

It is of course not by any means to be assumed that Govern

ment is indifferent to this. The type of government in Hong

Kong is benevolent paternalism, and it draws its benevolence

not only from its expatriate officials but from the charitable

feelings of its merchants. William Jardine early established a

tradition of generosity in his firm , and others have shared in

279

HONG KONG'S INEVITABILITY

building up this tradition . One has only, for instance, to look

at the personal records of unofficial members of the Legislature

to see that, apart from their great business interests, they almost

all devote time to voluntary public service. They press for im

proved services in the Legislative Council. Furthermore, a

colonial government of this pattern is subject always to pressure

in a humanitarian direction by Parliament and the Colonial

Office. There is no doubt that the resources of the Government

of Hong Kong could make the Colony a very comfortable place

for about a million people. What they were succeeding in doing

for two and a half times that number in May 1950 was indeed

remarkable, and bears favourable comparison with the achieve

ments of governments which have policies more in accordance

with the thought of today but less than Hong Kong's material

resources . Government realizes the great dangers to public order

and health which are inherent in the situation and which could

give rise to serious political ills. It is spurred not only by that but

by a great humanitarian impulse on the part of a staff of en

thusiasts and a number of voluntary workers whose efforts are

all too little publicized.

CHAPTER THIRTY - FOUR

The Purpose of Hong Kong

COLONIES — if by that term one means, as one should these days,

countries not yet evolved to full nationhood and still requiring

guidance, development and protection under the care ofnations

equipped for the task with the necessary spiritual and material

resources can be of two kinds. They can either be ' empty '

countries settled by immigrants who intend to make their homes

there and live primarily on the natural resources of their new

homeland, or they can be countries inhabited by indigenous

peoples who have not yet acquired the knowledge and skill

necessary to develop themselves and the natural resources of

their lands. We are used to regarding a colony as a community

280

IN SEARCH OF A SOUL

with a developing personality and a sense of stability and

cohesion however plural its society may be. We speak ofthe soul

of a nation and we know what it means without its being

defined . Though I do not think I have heard the expression

used , I think I could maintain that the colonies I have known

have souls. Not all of them have been colonies of indigenous

people : Mauritius and Gibraltar are as ' artificial' as Hong

Kong, but I would say that both of them very definitely have

souls. The fact is, I suppose, that every human society which

has a community feeling has a soul : its members may spon

taneously develop the community feeling or they may be led or

helped to do so, and this guidance is particularly necessary in

societies which are made up of individuals with different back

grounds.

When we talk of colonies becoming self-governing I rather

think we take it for granted that they are communities with

souls of their own. I doubt if a colony is a colony if it has not

this character.

I doubt if it can be one without an ' intention ' . It has been

said that if any group of people in the world decide to be a

nation, nothing can prevent them. It is no doubt also true that

if a group have not that intention nothing can make them into a

nation, or a colony.

Hong Kong seems to have forsworn at its birth any intention

of being a colony. It was not Britain's intention to form one and

the earliest Colonial Office dispatch, dated 3rd June 1843, said

that the new colony was not a colony. ' It is occupied not with

a view to colonization but for diplomatic, commercial and

military purposes', and it is clear that neither the British mer

chants whose presence led to its capture, nor the Chinese who

found it profitable to do business or work there, ever intended

to become colonists of a new country. Hong Kong Island could

in theory at any rate have been a colony of the first category

“ empty ' : the New Territories could have been one of the second

if it had been ceded, not leased .

Hong Kong, indeed, seems to have started off without any

intention of being permanent at all, though in the course of

time a few of its citizens have, as we have seen, become genuine

colonists. At its birth there was an idea that it might only

endure as long as circumstances made it necessary . Time has

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THE PURPOSE OF HONG KONG

at any rate shown how necessary it is, not least to China

herself.

* That Hong Kong's primary role is that of a great trading

port we need not, indeed, be in any doubt. It has the atmo

sphere of a gigantic edition of Selfridges and Harrods and all

the other great department stores of London rolled into one

and combined with that of Victoria Station, and it is always the

week before Christmas in the store and always rush hour in the

station. There is coming and going and buying and selling all

the time. Hong Kong performs the urgent task of being Britain's

shop window in the Far East. And, since it is the traditional role

of the Navy in peace -time to protect the trade of Britain, Hong

Kong isa fortress too. Since navies need secure bases, Hong

Kong has its garrison of soldiers and airmen. As long as its

trading role endures Hong Kong will have that garrison, but it

is easy to perceive that if it failed in its primary role there would

be little object in its fortress role. I know well a ruined and

abandoned fortress city on the southern shores of Arabia which

had many of the characteristics of Gibraltar and Hong Kong

and indeed Aden, from which it is only about 150 miles distant.

Built on and around aa rock standing out on a promontory, with

no water sources but tanks to catch the rain, with well-built

forts to reinforce its natural strength, it was called Canneh or

Cana and was the great incense port to which the precious cargo

was brought to be carried overland to the Mediterranean and

the Western world. The prophet Ezekiel, apostrophizing Tyre

and Sidon, says of it (and of Aden) :

These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue cloths and

broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and

made of cedar, among thy merchandise.

It was indeed aa veritable Hong Kong.

When the Roman navigator Hippalus discovered the changes

of the monsoon about A.D. 45 , and the incense trade went by

sea, Cana was doomed. Now it is called Husn Ghorab, the

Castle of the Raven. It has no other inhabitant.

It was of course inevitable, but it is to me a sad story. An

administrator must always have nearest his heart and his mind

the interests of those among whom and for whom he works, the

people of whatever island, promontory or country in which his

job lies. The tragedy of Gibraltar or Aden or Hong Kong passing

282

THE STRENGTHENED GARRISON

to alien rule because their strategic importance had passed

would lie in seeing the worlds of fellow British subjects crumble

before their eyes. There are no more loyal British subjects than

the Gibraltarians — all of them — despite their differences of

language and culture. There are no people who have more

appreciated Britain than some of the Arabs of Aden. There are

no people who are more ready to fight with us than the small

Portuguese and Eurasian communities of Hong Kong./And

there are no people who love their homelands under British

rule more than these people love the rocks on which they dwell/

But Britain has made it quite clear that she has no intention of

giving up Hong Kong. She has given it the largest garrison it

has ever had in its history: a garrison large enough to deter any

aggressor from the idea of an easy attack. The British Govern

ment have categorically declared their intention of maintaining

their position in Hong Kong. “ We feel in this troubled situation

the value and the importance of Hong Kong as a centre of

stability will be greater than ever', said Mr. Mayhew in the

House of Commons.

After the reoccupation and up to mid- 1949 Hong Kong had

a garrison of about 6,000 men. Then the Communist sweep over

China looked as if it might be a threat to the Colony and be

tween June and September the garrison was increased to about

30,000 men of allservices. Early in 1950, owing to the stubborn

ness of the Malayan problem, some troops were withdrawn.

Later others went to Korea .

The advent of these large reinforcements meant a consider

able increase in public morale. The Chinese Press in Hong Kong

has, with the exception of the very Left organs, reflected the

great friendliness of the people to its garrison. It always shows a

great interest in the forces and their activities, and the demand

for news items about them expresses the general interest. Much

has been done by the Colony for the entertainment of the troops,

who find it difficult to afford the high prices of everything in

Hong Kong. The Colony contributed a quarter of a million

dollars to welfare, has provided clubs, and organized picnics and

Chinese dinners for them. This is appreciated by the troops and

is Hong Kong's way of showing that their presence is appre

ciated . On the other side the troops arrange massed band per

formances for the populace, a gesture which is also appreciated.

283

THE PURPOSE OF HONG KONG

Our troops in Hong Kong have been told that there are two

main reasons for their coming /to defend Hong Kong in the

present disturbed times. The first is that we have obligations

which cannot honourably be overlooked or renounced ', obliga

tions to those born there and who know no other home, obliga

tions to traders and to refugees. The second is because it is very

much to our economic interest' to defend it. ' Full employment

and the maintenance of the present standard of living at home

depend ultimately on one thing only — our power to export

Trade is still, as it has always been, our main reason for being

in Hong Kong. The expansion of British trade has had much to

do with the expansion of Empire, and we have seen how Hong

Kong has been an epitome of this story since those days of

Canton when the British merchants, led by Jardine, provided

the stimulus on which it was founded . The story of Jardine's,

indeed, runs as a theme through the story of Hong Kong. A

manuscript history of the early years of the firm , which I had

the opportunity of seeing in Hong Kong, ends with the words:

‘ Five clippers brought them drug (opium) from India and six

running vessels maintained communication up the coast. They

were the biggest and most powerful British firm in the Far East,

as they still are today. They were then and they are now a

Scotch house which keeps the Sabbath and everything else on

which it can lay its hands.'

There might well have been no British colony of Hong Kong

if it had not been for William Jardine, and to the firm he

founded many of Hong Kong's greatest enterprises are due.

Most of the Hong Kong firms which had their origins in the

Canton days have now disappeared, but Jardine’s has gone on

from strength to strength. The opium trade, on which its early

prosperity had been largely founded , gradually, of course ,

declined, but the firm was always in the forefront of new

developments whether in trade or allied interests, or in the

public affairs of the Colony. The story , too, of Hong Kong's

development as the capital of the British system of trade in the

Far East is to a large extent the story of Jardine's. Soon after

the firm's first substantial house in Hong Kong was built and

made the head office, it opened up in Shanghai, Foochow and

Tientsin , and later had branches in many other places in China

and in other countries of the Far East.

284

CHRISTIANITY AND COMMERCE

The other great motive force in empire-building — that of

spreading the Gospel — was not so evident at Hong Kong's birth.

Here in China the two streams of trade and humanitarianism ,

the one represented by Jardine and the spirit of Adam Smith ,

the other by Morrison and that of Wilberforce, drifted apart.

Humanitarianism has, as we have seen, not been lacking and of

late years has been much more evident in the Colony's policies,

but there has not been any positive alliance between Chris

tianity and commerce — the emphasis has been almost entirely

on the latter element. Professor Hancock has recently written :

We can symbolize British colonial policy in this period ( the nineteenth

century ) as an alliance between Wilberforce and Adam Smith. These two

men, in their separate ways, affirmed both the value of the individual and

the unity of humanity. Wilberforce, the religious preacher, derived these

principles from the universal fatherhood of God : Smith, the philosopher

and economist of natural law, derived them from the natural propensity

of mankind '. One man took it for granted that any individual of any race

would find aa fuller life within the expanding Christian Church; the other

took it for granted that he would live more abundantly withinthe expand

ing economy of Europe. Both men discovered in society, not in the State,

the principle of healthy growth. Christianity and commerce were the true

creators of liberty and welfare: the State was, at best, the hinderer of

hindrances. In the administration of dependencies its function was to

maintain a respectable code of conduct to which individuals of all races

must conform : in particular, it must defend indigenous people against the

aggressions of ruthless Europeans.

Commerce led to the British embarking on an adventure in

China which has had far -reaching results. Jardine and the

British merchants saw nothing wrong in inducing Britain to

force China to trade in Britain's way, but when the British

undertook the job they acted as the British do and made a

compromise. They took a bit of China — the empty , barren

island of Hong Kong rearing its rocky peak just off the China

coast and sheltering only a few pirates-in which they carried

on trade in the British way, and they also made the Chinese

open five ports to Western trade. In the rest of China they left

the Chinese to run things in their own way.

That was the simple intention, but as we see things in years

later it has not worked out quite so simply. We should not for

get that the payment of 21 million dollars in damages and

indemnities at a fixed interest rate of 5 per cent had economic

consequences which were certainly not intended. To pay them,

285

THE PURPOSE OF HONG KONG

a Customs service under foreign control was set up and an

import duty of 5 per cent on foreign goods levied . The result

was that the Chinese embarking on development on Western

lines were impeded by the low duty from assisting the growth

of local industries by protective duties. Furthermore the pay

ment of indemnities and interest from this Customs duty meant

that it was hard for the Chinese to finance national develop

ment, and forced them to levy heavy taxes and take foreign

loans. All this contributed to increase xenophobia.

Above all, however, nothing has been more far-reaching than

the consequences of Morrison's work. While the creation of

Hong Kong in a century is surprising as a material pheno

menon, it pales almost to insignificance when compared with

the change that has come over China in far less than that

period — in fact, well within the lifetime of many of us. The

contrast between the China which ceded Hong Kong and the

China of today is bewildering in its intensity. But something has

been left out.

We have within ourselves a deep conviction that we have a

way of life worth preserving, worth fighting for, and, because of

its value, worth giving to others. Whatever our faults of omis

sion or commission in the past, or in the present, however much

we may yet lack the wisdom to order our affairs aright, we

know that Western civilization, with all that implies, contains

essentially the means to a good life. Indeed, we see it being

eagerly sought after by others.

If, however, the Western way of life is to endure we shall

have to decide what we mean by it. Do we mean the capitalist

way best typified by the still existing system in America, or do

we mean the Welfare State system best typified by present

conditions in our own country ? Because Hong Kong is at

present frankly an anomaly in the British scheme of things.

In a Far East overshadowed by the curtain between two ways

of thought and life, Hong Kong is the only British outpost : it

is the only place in the Far East in which the great freedoms can

still be understood and practised, the only bridgehead over

which they could be carried into China. Within it Hong Kong

University is the only crucible into which an admixture of

British thought can be poured to be fused with what is best in

Chinese thought. It may be only through Hong Kong and such

286

MAN KAM TO

other British communities as may survive in the Far East that

the British way of life, and the Christian concepts of the impor

tance of individual personality and of duty towards our neigh

bours on which it is based, can be presented.

CHAPTER THIRTY -FIVE

On the Frontier Again

ACROSS THE Shum Chun river at Man Kam To two posts of

armed Chinese police in khaki uniforms faced each other. On

each side there were barbed -wire road -blocks. Over the muddied

swirling waters a bridge painted in the lucky vermilion of

Confucian China — or was it the symbolic red of the Com

munist world ?—joined British Territory, or B.T. as it is called,

to Chinese Territory, or c.t. A notice-board on the Chinese

side read ' Chinese Maritime Customs '.

It was pouring with rain and I leant on the bridge to watch

the dismal scene. The paint came off on the sleeve of my

mackintosh . It had no ideological significance. It was just

ordinary British red-lead undercoating from a Colonial Public

Works department store.

A thin stream of pedestrians padded through the blocks going

to c.t., and others came from c.t. to B.T. Some coolies carried

across to China huge grindstones marked ' Made in U.K. ' .

Some rather miserable- looking creatures came to B.T. It seemed

a very ordinary proceeding. They took no notice of the police

and the police took no notice of them. The corporal was oiling

and cleaning his revolver in the little shelter on the British side.

A rather diffident man shuffled across to B.t. The corporal

summoned him and asked him a question to which he replied.

The corporal said something to him and went on polishing his

revolver. With no further word the man turned round and

shuffled back over the bridge to c.t. If I could have spoken

Chinese I might have told him that if he walked a mile or two

upstream he could easily step across the stream. I had done it

287

ON THE FRONTIER AGAIN

myself in the course of the morning. No doubt he knew it better

than I did, but why had he given himself the trouble ? I asked

the corporal if he ever had any talk with the Chinese post.

“ No ,' he said, ' we are changed every week, but we know

some of them who have been in the Hong Kong Police.'

' Do you turn many people back ? ' I asked .

' Some, if they haven't got definite business here, or haven't

got an identity card, or aren't justlocal people going to market.

We always let the old and destitutes through as they can live

better in B.T.; but we don't stop any going to c.t. '

What the corporal thought about it all, I don't know, and as

he kept a completely expressionless countenance I could not

guess. It is not a policeman's job to think about the things I

wanted to know, so I didn't ask him. All the same, if they

thought anything at all beyond the fact that they were being

paid for doing their job, I should like to know what those two

posts of Chinese police, the one the servants offree -for-all Hong

Kong and the other those of Communist China who seem to

change from one to the other quite easily, thought about it. I

thought quite a lot myself and not least that overcrowded Hong

Kong still let in the destitute to give him aa chance of survival. I

wondered if there was a bridge joining the banks of the Shum

Chun at Man Kam To a hundred years ago , but even a red

P.W.D. Bailey bridge does not necessarily link two opposite

ways of thought.

All this started back in Canton ; I wonder what Jardine and

Morrison would have thought of it?

288

STREET

SHI WO STREET

6HUN

MARKET STREET

MARKET

TSUN WAN : A NOTE ON DEVELOPMENT

'Tsun Wan ... until recently was a quiet rural village with paddy -fields all

round . It has been chosen for planned urban development and already it

has the busy, crowded air of a pioneer town. There are several new factories

now in its vicinity ' (p. 56) .

The above plans show the same area of

Tsun Wan before and after development.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Official publications with personal authors are listed under the

authors' names and a further selection of general reports is in

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Apart from these there are other Government publications which

appear periodically. These include the Government Gazette, Hong

Kong Hansards, Sessional papers, Estimates of Revenue and Expen

diture, Trade Returns, Departmental Reports and Meteorological

Reports. (Special reports and papers exist on various subjects

including meteorology.) Attention may also be drawn to the

Census Reports and the Historical and Statistical Abstracts of

the Colony which are published at intervals.

Her Majesty's Stationery Office publishes an illustrated Annual

Report on Hong Kong, and amongst important non - official

periodic publications should be mentioned the Annual Report

of the Chamber of Commerce and the reports of the Hong Kong

and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

I take this opportunity also of drawing attention to a forthcoming

publication by Chatham House, Public Administration in Hong Kong,

and expressing my grateful thanks to its author, Sir Charles Collins,

for kindly making part of his manuscript available to me.

W.H.I.

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ANGIER , A. G. The Far East revisited . London, 1908.

ARNOLD, J. Commercial handbook of China. Washington,

1919 .

BALFOUR , S. F. Hong Kong before the British. Shanghai, 1941.

BENTHAM , G. B. Flora Hongkongensis. London, 1861.

BERESFORD , The break up of China. London, 1899.

LORD CHARLES

BERNARD R. D. , The nemesis in China. London, 1846 .

& HALL, W. H.

BLAKE, SIR H. A. China . London , 1909 .

The BLOCKADE of the port and harbour of Hong Kong by the Hoppo

of Canton . London, 1875 .

BOWEN , SIR G. F. Hong Kong. ( In ‘ Thirty years of colonial govern

ment', Vol. 2, Part VI.) London, 1889.

BOXER, C. R. Fidalgos in the Far East, 1550-1770. The

Hague, 1948.

BOYCE, SIR L. Report of the United Kingdom trade mission

to China, 1946. London , 1948.

291

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BRAGA , J. M. The western pioneers and their discovery of

Macao . Macao, 1949.

BREEN , M. J. Hong Kong Trade Commission inquiry.

Hong Kong, 1935. (Sessional paper No. 3.)

BRITISH dependencies in the Far East, 1945-1949. London, 1949.

( Cmd. 7709.)

BRUCE, M. Hong Kong illustrated in a series of views.

London, 1849.

BUNBURY , G. A. Notes on wild life in Hong Kong and South

China. Hong Kong, 1909.

BUTTERS, H. R. Report on labour and labour conditions in

Hong Kong. Hong Kong, 1939. (Sessional

paper No. 3.)

CANTLIE , N. , Sir James Cantlie. London, 1939.

& SEAVER , G.

CARRINGTON , C. E. The British overseas. Cambridge, 1950.

CLAVERY , E. Hong Kong: le passé et le present. Paris, 1905 .

CLEMENTI, SIR C. The future of Hong Kong. (In ' United

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COCKE , G. W. China . London , 1858.

COLLIS, M. Foreign mud . London, 1946.

COMMERCIAL guide to Hong Kong. 2nd ed. Hong Kong, 1951.

COSTIN , W. C. Great Britain and China, 1833–1860. London ,

1937 .

DAVIS, J. F. The Chinese. 2v. London, 1836.

V DAVIS , S. G. Hong Kong in its geographical setting.

London , 1949.

DE ALMADA E. Some notes on the Portuguese in Hong Kong.

CASTRO , L. 1949 .

DES VOEUX , SIR G. W. Report on the condition and prospects of

Hong Kong. Hong Kong, 1889.

My colonial service. London, 1903.

DILKE , SIR C. Greater Britain , with additional chapters on

Hong Kong. London, 1885.

DUNCAN , J. Report on the commercial development of

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The port of Hong Kong and its commercial

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292

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DUNN, S. T. , Flora ofKwangtung and Hong Kong. London,

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ENDACOTT , G. B. , The diocese of Hong Kong. Hong Kong, 1949 .

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FORSTER , L. Echoes of Hong Kong and beyond. Hong

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FOX, G. British admirals and Chinese pirates, 1832

1869. London , 1940.

GIBBS, L. Common Hong Kong ferns. Hong Kong, 1927.

GIVEN , D. H. C. Malaria in Hong Kong and the summer

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GULL, E. M. British economic interests in the Far East.

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GUTZLAFF , C. Journal of three voyages along the coast of

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Flowering shrubs and trees, second 20. Hong

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Orchids, first 20. Hong Kong, 1938.

Vegetable cultivation in Hong Kong. 2nd ed.

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The birds of Hong Kong : field identification .

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HERKLOTS, G. A. C. , Common marine food fishes of Hong Kong.

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HINTON, W. J. Hong Kong's place in the British Empire.

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HONG KONG GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS- SELECTION

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293

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HONG KONG GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS - SELECTION (contd .)

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Economic resources committee . Factory ,

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report. 1920 .

HONG KONG dollar directory. Hong Kong. Annual.

HUGHES, E. R. The invasion of China by the Western world.

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HURLEY, R. C. Tourists guide to Hong Kong. Hong Kong, 1897.

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INTRODUCING the Eastern dependencies. London, 1949.

JARDINES and the Ewo interests. Jardine, Matheson and Co. Ltd.

U.S.A., 1947

KEETON , G. W. China, the Far East and the future. London,

1949 .

KERSHAW, J. C. Butterflies of Hong Kong and South-East

China. Hong Kong, 1905.

KUO, P. C. A critical study of the first Anglo - Chinese

war. Shanghai, 1935 .

LATOURETTE, K. S. The Chinese; their history and culture. New

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MARTIN , R. M. China: political, commercial and social.

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MAYERS, W. F. , The treaty ports of China and Japan . London ,

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MEATH , EARL, Hong Kong and Wei-hai-wei . ( In Our

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NORTON-KYSHE, J. W. The history of the laws and courts of Hong

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NUNN, J. H. Analysis of Hong Kong trade 1924 and 1930.

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ORANGE , J. The Chater collection, pictures relating to

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ORDINANCES and regulations of Hong Kong , edited by J. A. Fraser .

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of Hong Kong. Hong Kong, 1941. (Sessional

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PARTINGTON , T. B. British trade possibilities in Hong Kong and

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PEPLOW, S. H. , Hong Kong, around and about. Hong Kong,

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REPORT by the Governor of Hong Kong on the Mui Tsai question .

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REPORT on the new territory at Hong Kong. London, 1900. (Cmd.

403.)

RIDGEWAY , A. R. Letters from Hong Kong and Macao . London,

1843

RUSHCHENBERGER , A voyage round the world, 1835, 1836 and

W. S. W. 1837. Philadelphia, 1838.

SAYER, G. R. Hong Kong: birth, adolescence and coming

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SCHOFIELD , W. Hong Kong's new territory. (In ‘ Asiatic

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SELWYN -CLARKE , P. S. Hong Kong faces the future. ( In Health

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SKETCHLY, S. B. L. Our island. Hong Kong, 1896.

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SMITH , G. A narrative of the exploratory visit to each

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296

INDEX

Abacus, 205, 206 Bamboo Curtain , 64

Abercrombie, Sir Patrick, 157, 218 Bangkok, 1 , 3, 4, 128

Aberdeen , fishing port (Hong Kong Bank of China, 42

Tsai), 46, 47, 182, 192, 229 Barker, M., and S. H. Peplow,

Aberdeen , Lord , 46 authors of Hong Kong Around and

Aberdeen Industrial School, 215 About, 144, 157

Aden, 24, 197, 282, 283 Basel Evangelical Missionary

Africa and Africans, 41 , 47, 72, 78, Society, 163, 164, 169, 170

107, 114, 128, 131 , 135, 144, 150, Basra , 1 , 2, 3

175, 176, 181 , 205 Bean curd , 134

Agnes, Sister, matron of Kwong Belcher, Captain , 27

Wah hospital, 201 Bentham , Jeremy, political econo

Agriculture, 143, 174-5 ; Depart- mist, 23, 24, 277

ment of, 63, 171 , 177 ; Director of, Berlin, 62

174; Wholesale Vegetable Mar- Binfield , R. D. , 7

ket, 171 , 173-4 Binstead , G. D. , 6

Ah Kan , factory worker, 72 Blake, Sir Henry, 156

Ah Lan, factory worker, 73 British Overseas Airways Corpora

Allinson, Mrs., 6, 107, 216, 217 tion , I

Almada, C. P. d', 250 Boat People, 182–198

Almada, Francisco Xavier d', 250 Bocca Tigris, 26

Almada, José Maria d', 249, 250 Bradley, Kenneth, 7

Almada, Leo d', 231 , 250

> Braga, J. , 6>

Almada, Leonardo d', the elder, 249 British and Allied Aid Group , 242 ,

Almada, Leonardo d', the younger, 267

250 British -American Tobacco Com

Almada e Castro, Dom Joaquim pany, 139

d'Eca Telles d', 249 British Guiana , 165

Amah's Rock ( Mong Fu Kwai), 60 Buck, Pearl, author of The Good

Amahs, 92, 94, 102, 103, 105, 108 Earth, 80

America and Americans, 32, 122, Buddhists and Buddhism , 5, 56, 59,

165 , 208 123, 124, 126, 225

Amoy, 26 Building Authority, 229

Ancestor -worship , 98-99. 128, 179 Buildings Ordinance , 220

Animal husbandry, 175-6 Burne, Miss, in charge of Infant

Animists , 129 Welfare Clinics, 6, 203

Aplichau Island , 230 Buses, 38

Arabia and Arabs, 72, 78, 80, 82, Business girls, 106-9

129, 132 , 133 , 134, 185 Butterfield & Swire, 234

Arculli, Abbas El, 6, 221

Artisans, 91 Cairns, D. G., 7

Attorney -General, 110, 231 Cairo, 1 , 2, 3

Auckland , Lord , 24 Calcutta , 1 , 2, 3

Australia , 41 , 131 , 150 Camoens, 14, 15, 249

Aw Boon Haw , garden of, 51-2 Canterbury, 78

Aw Boon Par, 52 Cantlie , Sir James, 213

297

INDEX

Canton , Academy of Medicine in, Chan Yik King, brother of Chan

136; Artists in, 154, 207 ; Chinese Yik Hi, 104-5, 260

merchants in , 12–13, 274; Chinese Chan Yik On, brother of Chan Yik

officials in , 26; First factory of Hi, 105

preserved ginger in, 140 ; Lepro- Chan Yik Ping, brother of Chan

sarium near, 223 ; Missionaries in, Yik Hi, 104

263 ; Railway traffic between Chau , Dr. S. N., 6, 231 , 276

Kowloon and, 61 ; Settlement of Chau , T. N., 231

orphans from Tai Po near, 212 ; Central Police Station , 238, 252

Settlers in Kowloon area from , Chen , Nancy, business girl, 108

153 ; Trading factories in , 11-13, Cheng, Dr. Irene, 6

19-20, 22, 23 ; Viceroy of, 22, 25 Cheung Chau Island, 182, 218, 223

Canton Press, 27 Cheung Wo Bun, missionary, 164,

Canton River , 26 165 , 170

Canton Street, 73 Cheung Yeung festival, 44

Cantonese Film Company, 121 Cheviots, 161

Cassidy, P. S., 6, 150, 232, 234, 276 Chiang Kai-shek, 86, 269

Castle Peak, 51 Chief Justice, 237

Castle Peak Bay, 56 China, Attitude of Hong Kong

Castle Peak Road, 243 Chinese towards, 245-6 ; Cargoes

Causeway Bay, 76, 194, 223 from , 40 , 146; Emigration from ,

Central Office of Information , 7 79, 278-9, 287-8; Films in , 121 ;

Ceylon , 131 , 255 Frontier with , 64-6; Students

Chalmers, Sir Robert, 13 from , 214; Trade with, 41 , 149-51

Chamber of Commerce, 150,232,276 China Light and Power Company,

Chan, poultry farmer, and his family, 178

180-1 China Mail, newspaper, 110, 241

Chan, Mrs. Violet, 6, 109, 110, III Chinese Christian Church Union,

Chan Ah Tai, squatter, 78, 79 225

Chan Kiu, Hakka in Land of the Chinese Manufacturers Union, 145

Jumping Dragon, 163, 165, 169, Chinese Recreation Ground (Pos

170 session Mount) , 30, 32

Chan Lok Chun, Reverend, 163, Ching, H., editor of South China

169 Morning Post, 241

Chan Shuk Chi, sister of Chan Yik Ching Ming festival, 128

Hi, 105 Chinnery, George, artist, 16, 17

Chan Shuk Man, sister of Chan Yik Chopsticks, 3, 6, 34, 36, 95, 132, 135,

Hi , 105 144

Chan Shuk Shan , sister of Chan Yik Chow, Mrs., 6, 109

Hi , 105 Chow, Sir Shouson, 6 , 111 , 194

Chan Shuk Tsz, sister of Chan Yik Christianityand Christian influences,

Hi, 105

> 162-5, 227-30, 285

Chan Shuk Yi, sister of Chan Yik Chuenpee, 26

Hi , 105 Chungking , 108

Chan Yik Hi, Government official, Chung King Pui, Assistant to Secre

5, 103-5 , 117, 130 tary for Chinese Affairs, 5, 29-37,

Chan Yik Kin, brother of Chan Yik 96-97, 102, 103, 133 ; Mrs. Chung,

Hi, 105 103

298

INDEX

Chung Sing Benevolent Society, 225 Curio shops, 49-50

Church Missionary Society, 206, 208, Cuttle- fish , 134, 147: 188

212 , 227

Churches, 50-1 Dairy Farm , The, 143

Chy Loong preserved ginger factory, Davis, Mrs. Elaine, 4

140 Debenham , Professor Frank, 7

City Hall , 42 Des Voeux Road, 37, 50, 146

Clarke , A. G. , 6 Dhows, 186, 197, 198

Clarke, Dr. (now Sir) Selwyn , 242 Diocesan Boys School, 234

Clementi , Sir Cecil , 164 Dockyard, Naval, 236

Climate , 48 Doctors, Chinese, 136-8

Club Lusitano, 51 , 87, 250 Dover, 105

Clubs, 87 ; Business Men's , 82, 87 ; Dragons, 58, 158, 160, 161 , 163, 164.

Children's, 209-11 ; Stanley Boys', 168 ; Land ofthe JumpingDragon,

210 ; West Point, 82, 83, 86, 87, 160-70

258 ; Women's, 109 Druggists , 135, 138

Cobbett, William, politician, 23 Durham, Lord , 254

Coca -Cola , 32, 65, 143

Cocke, George Wingrove , The Times East India Company, 12, 13, 15, 16,

special correspondent, 1857, 16 17, 19, 20, 21 , 22 , 24

Cocklofts, 71 , 74, 75 East River, 163, 164, 197

Coffin -shop, 29-30 Education , 92 , 93 , 94, 204-9,

Collins, Sir Charles, 291 258–60; Board of, 205 ; Depart

Collis, Maurice, author of Foreign ment of, 204n ., Director of, 205,

Mud, 18 232n.

Colonial Office , 7 Edward I, 152

Colonial Secretary , 231, 243, 249 Eggs, aged , 134

Colonies, Secretary of State for the, Elliot, Captain Charles, Superin

231 tendent of Trade, 23

Columbia University , 165 Endeavourers, The, 270

Co-Hong, Chinese merchants, 12, England, 69, 90, 92, 97, 106, 112,

21 , 26 115, 135, 140, 141 , 146, 179, 253

Commerce and Industry, Depart Eu, original owner of Eucliffe and

ment of, 144 Euston , 52

Communists , 63 , 64, 65 , 86, 214, Eucliffe, 52-3

217, 218, 226, 246 Eurasians, 66, 113 , 242 , 249 , 251-4

Confucius and Confucianism , 123, Europe, 41 , 69, 72, 97 , 122, 139, 140,

124, 260, 261 152

Connaught Road , 38, 42 Europeans, At Chinese dinner

Constitutional reform , 256-7 parties, 133 ; Cost ofliving among,

Cost of living , 90-4 93-4 ; Living on the Peak, 113-14;

Cotton -spinning, 142 , 143 Social intercourse with Chinese,

Cotswolds, 152, 161 116-17 ; Use of Chinese medicine

Courts , Supreme, 237-8, 250 ; among, 135, 137

Magistrates’, 238 Euston , 52

Creech Jones, Right Hon. A., 1 Evans, Harold, 7

Cricket ground , 243-4 Executive Council, 231 , 232, 249,

Cumming, Dr. Graham, 6, 78 250

299

INDEX

Factories, 57, 143, 144 , 145, 215-18 ; Gods, Door, 125 ; Kitchen, 72, 124;

Factory Inspectors, 216 Land, 72, 124; Literature, 126;

Falkland Islands, 255 Longevity, 126 ; Medicine, 223 ;

Family Welfare Society, 225 Monkey, 126; Pig -faced, 126;

Fan Ling, 57, 58, 160, 161 , 162, 165, Sea, 127 ; War, 125, 126, 188

166 Gold and Silver Exchange, 4, 147-9 ;

Fan Ling Orphanage, 211-12, 213 School, 207

Feet, bound, 100-1 Gold Coast, 128, 174, 255, 257

Fehily, Dr., Chairman of the Urban Golden Throat, film actress, 122

Council, 62 Government House, 115

Ferries, 38, 179, 233 Governor, The, 230, 231 , 232

Filipinos, 87, 247 Government servants, 93, 94, 95,

Films, Chinese, 120–2 100, 103 , 104 , 114

Financial Secretary , 231 Government technical college, 215

Fisheries and fishermen, 143, 182–98 ; Grant, D. F., 7

Fishery syndicates, 196 ; Whole- Grantham , Sir Alexander and Lady,

sale fish marketing , 196 5 , 115, 145, 151

Fishponds, 177 Grayburn, Sir Vandeleur, 242

Foo Ping Sheung, Dr. , 208 Grimwood, E. G. A. , 97

Foochow , 26 Green Island Cement Company , 142

Food , Chinese, 6, 35, 36, 74, 90, 92, Groundnut-oil factory , 57

93 , 129-35

Foreign Missionary Institute of Hahn, Emily, author of Miss Jill, 83

Milan , 227 Hai Fong, 4, 79

Fraser, H. W., Welfare Officer, 213 Hainan, 105

French Indo -China, 131 , 174 Hakkas , 156, 157, 162, 163, 164, 166

Fu Cheng , artist of the Sung Hall, Dr. R. O., Anglican Bishop , 5,

dynasty, 154, 155 6, 227, 228

Fu Pong, father of Fu Cheng, 154 Hamburg , 256

Fung Ki Cheuk, head of a Con- Han dynasty, 125, 258

fucian school, 206 Happy Valley, 51 , 108

Fung Shui ( Wind Water) , 129, 154, Harbour, 39-40

155, 156, 157, 162, 163, 164, 167, Harcourt, Admiral Sir Cecil, 102,

168 ; Explanation of, 157-60 243

Harcourt Health Centre , 203

Gama, Vasco da, 249 Harmon, Gordon, 6

Gambia , 255 Hart, Robert, 6, 172, 173, 174

Ganges, 161 Hatcheries, 175-6

Garden Road , 44 Hawkers, 237

Garrison , 282-4 Hawkins, B. C. K., Commissioner of

Germany and Germans , 62, 63, 112, Labour, 231

208 , 247 Health Department, 220

Gibraltar, 46, 78, 255, 257, 281 , 282, Healthy Village, 219

283 Heath Row, 1 , 49

Gimson, Sir Franklin, 243 Hennessy, Sir John Pope, 250

Ginger, 134, 139-41 Hennessy Road, 103, 207

Gladstone, William Ewart, 27 Henry VIII, 141

Glasgow, 69 Herbalists, 135, 136

300

INDEX

Herklots, Dr. C. A. G., 171 , 172 Hui, Rosa , 106-8, 109 , 216

Hoklos, 157, 185 Humble Worship Village, or Humi

Hollywood, 121 lity Worshipping Village, 6, 164

Hollywood Road , 29, 50 Hunan Province, 62

Homantin , 219 Hung Sin Nui, actress, 119

Hong Kong, Air traffic, 49; Area of, Hunter, William , 12, 13

42-3; As colony and trading port, Hutchison, John D., 167, 232

281-4 ; Business centre, 41-2; Hwang, Dr., 105

Churches in , 50-1 ; Climate of, 48 ;

Description from the Peak, 43-8 ; Ibn Batuta , 12

First impressions, 11 ; Flying to, Icehouse Street, 50, 250

1-4 ; Foundation, 27-9 ; Geology I.C.I., 234

of, 152 ; Government of, 230-5 ; India, 24, 41 , 126

Harbour, 39-40 ; Historical back- Indians, 87, 112, 233, 236, 247, 248,

ground, 11-27 ; Housing, 218–20 ; 254

Immigration,, 63-4; Inevitability Indonesia, 131 , 150

of, 272-4 ; Its entrepôt function, Indus, 161

275; Japanese occupation of Industry, 139-45

242–3; Origin of name, 47–8; Innes, James, 19

Outlook of Chinese, 261-4 ; Poli

tical development, 254-7 ; Popula- Jamaica, 246, 255

tion of, 45-6 ; Post-occupation Japan , 41, 143, 145, 150, 227

period, 243-4 , 252 ; Railway, Japanese, 63, 101 , 108, 112, 115,

61–2 ; Road traffic in, 37-8 ; Street 141 , 149, 153, 166, 180, 191 , 195,

names, 50 ; Water supply, 56 207, 242, 243; Occupation ofHong

Hong Kong Chamber Music Club, Kong, 242–3, 246, 250, 251-2

123 Jardine, William , 19, 20, 21 , 22, 23,

Hong Kong Chinese Women's Club, 24, 25, 27, 274, 279, 284, 285, 288

109, 110 Jardine, Matheson & Co., 41 , 42,

Hong Kong Club, 51 , 87 142, 143, 231 , 233, 234, 257, 284

Hong Kong College of Medicine, Java , 2

213 Jeffries, Sir Charles, 7

Hong Kong Council of Women, 109 Jesuit Fathers, 164, 169, 171 , 172,

Hong Kong Council of Social Service, 173, 211 , 228, 229, 230

225 Jockey Club , 87, 233, 244

Hong Kong Defence Force, 246-7 Jolly, J., Director of Marine, 4, 40

Hong Kong Island, 45, 46, 50, 63, Joss -sticks, 5, 124, 139

152, 153 , 196, 281 Jubilee reservoir, 56, 156

Hong Kong Realty and Trust, 234 Junks, 39-40, 99, 139, 185, 186, 187,

Hong Kong Rope Manufacturing 188, 189 , 196, 197 , 198

Company, 142

Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Kadoorie, Horace, 6, 52

Corporation , 42, 45, 234 Kai Fong , 77, 219

Hong Kong Singers, 123 Kai Ho Kai, Sir, 208

Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Kai Tak airport, 4, 49

Company, 141 Kam Lung farm , 180-1

Hongs, Chinese business houses, 146 Kam Lung (Golden Dragon) Res

Housman , A. E., 179, 180 taurant, 33, 86

301

INDEX

Kam Tin, village, 153, 154, 155, 156, Lam , Lily, 6

160, 177, 180 Landale, D., 6, 231 , 257

Karachi, 1 , 2, 3 Lantao Island (also Lan Tau) , 45,

Keen , K. , 6 182

Kennedy Town, 38, 48, 196 Large, Clifton , 6, 172

Kiang Si Province, 154, 265 La Salle College, 207-8

King George V school, 94, 208 Lascar Row , 49

King's Park, 219 Law , Y. P., 258

King's Shropshire Light Infantry, Lee, Australian Chinese, 107, 109 ,

116, 180 II2

Ko Kei Fung, Canton artist, 207 Lee, and Florence Lee, 97, 98

Kong Tai Kuen, first Hakka in Land Lee, Dorothy, 6, 7

of the Jumping Dragon, 162, 163 Lee, Harold , 261

Korea , 131 , 134, 150 Lee Shiu Ying, 6, 174, 177

Kowloon, 5, 38, 48, 56, 60, 63, 65, Legislative Council, 151, 218, 230-2,

69, 72, 76, 78, 93 , 104, 105, 113, 235, 249, 250, 256, 276

122, 139, 172, 176, 178, 180, 197, Lei Ng O, playwright, 120

211 , 223, 224, 225, 234, 268, 277 ; Leprosy, 223-4

Ceding of, 43 ; Housing in, 218-19 ; Li, fortune- teller, 30-1

Old Kowloon City, 53 ; Origin of Li, C. N., 270- I

name, 45 ; Population of, 46; Sung Li Chy, maker of preserved ginger,

Emperor in, 153 140

Kowloon - Canton railway, 61-2 Li, Mrs. Ellen , 109 , III

Kowloon hospital , 222 Li Long, 162, 163, 169

Kowloon Kai Fong Welfare Associa- Li Shu Pui, Dr. , III

tion , 219 Lin Bun Chung, Christian Hakka in

Kowtow, 100, 101 , 223 Land of the Jumping Dragon , 163

Kublai Khan , 152 Lin , Dr. D. Y. , 165, 166–7 ; His

Kun Lung Wai, village, 162 mother , 166, 170

Kuomintang, 217, 245 , 278 Lin Sin Yuen , Reverend, 163, 164,

Kut Hung, village, 177 165

Kwan Yin (Koon Yam) , goddess of Lin Yu Tang , author, 273

compassion , 126, 127, 188 Little Sisters of the Poor, 225

Kwangsi, 227 Liverpool, 40, 69, 146

Kwangtung, 134 , 140, 152, 165, 181 , Lloyd's coffee -house , 82

227, 273 Lo, Dr. C. F., 6, 136-8

Kwok, Norah, 6 Lo Wai, village, 161 , 162, 168

Kwong Wah hospital, 201-2, 223 Lo Wu, frontier station , 61 , 64

Loan Associations, 92

Labour Advisory Board, 217 Lockhart Road , 70

Labour Office and Officers, 107, Lok Sin Tong, ‘ Pleasure to do

216-17 Good Deeds ’, 225

Laffan's Plain, 161 London , 39, 42, 49, 61 , 93, 96, 97,

Lai Kwong Chan, junk owner, and 104, 105, 140, 157 , 246, 247

family, 189-92 London Missionary Society, 108,

Lai Ng, sampan owner, and family, 206

193-5 Lopes, Senhor, official at Macao, 6

Laissez -faire, 23, 276 Lotus, cultivation of, 174-5

302

INDEX

Low , Harriet, 15 Mayhew , Christopher, Under-Secre

Ludlow , 180 tary ofStatefor Foreign Affairs, 283

Luen Wa Hui, new market town, Medical services, 220–3 ; Director of,

57 220, 231

Lugard, Lord , 47 Medicine, Chinese, 135-8, 223

Lugard Road, 47, 48 Mendips, 161

Lui, Sister, head of Precious Blood Middle East, Trade with, 150

school, 206 Mill , James, 24

Luk Po Wan, old lady in relief Mill, John Stuart, 24

camp, 100-2 Ming dynasty, 153

Lung Shan, dragon's hill , 161 Missionaries, 227-30, 263-4

Lyemon Pass, 153 Mitchell, A. B. , 8

Monasteries, 56-7 , 59

Ma Man Fai, 260, 261 Morahan, Rev. Father, 6, 229-30

Macao, 6, 13, 22 , 23 , 27, 28, 103 , Morrison, Robert, 17, 18, 19, 206,

131 , 142 , 146, 172 , 192 , 227, 249, 262-4, 265, 285, 286, 288

253, 254, 263, 274; Description of, Morrison Hill camp, 224-5

13-17 Morse, Sir Arthur, 231 , 232, 234

McCarthy, Rev. Father, 171 , 172 Mosque , 248

McCarthy, Justin, 21 Mosque Street, 50

Macartney , Lord,15 Moss, A. J. M., Director of Civil

McDouall , J. C. , 6 Aviation , 49

McDougall, D., 5 Mount Davis Road, 50, 226

MacIntosh , D. W. , 6 Mui Tsai, 212, 213

Mackinnon Mackenzie & Co. , 234 Mukalla, 129, 130

Magniac, Hollingworth , 19 Muslims, 248-9

Mahjong, 36, 66, 92, 106

Mai Yun, sing -song girl, 85, 86 Nam Pak Hong , 4, 147

Malacca, 249, 263 Nanking, Treaty of, 26

Malaya, 2, 81 , 105, 150, 164, 178, Nanking University, 165

224, 255 Napier, Lord, 18, 19, 22, 23, 102 ;

Malta , 255 Lady, 19

Manchester, 69, 143, 144 Nationalist soldiers, 63 , 65, 246

Manchus, 126, 269 Nationalists, 63 , 65, 246

Man Fook San, Reverend, 170 Nemesis, The, 26

Man Kam Lo, Sir, 231 Nethersole Hospital, 223

Man Kam To, frontier post, 287, New Territories, 38, 45, 56, 57, 63,

288 64, 75, 95, 104, 122, 160, 162, 167,

Manson, Sir Patrick, 143 175, 185, 196, 212, 218, 229, 267,

Mao Tse-tung, 269 268, 281 ; Airfield in, 49 ; British

Marco Polo, 12 troops in, 66; Chinese guerillas

Marriage customs, 97-102 , 190-1 in, 242 ; Education in, 209 ; Elec

Maryknoll convent school, 206 tricity in , 178 ; Gods in, 124;

Ma Si- Tsang, actor, 118 Historical background, 53 , 152–7 ;

Maternity and child welfare, 201-4 Jars of bones in, 128 ; Medical

Matheson , James, 19, 20, 21 , 23, 274 facilities in, 221 , 223 ; Pigs in, 176 ;

Mauritius, 2 , 24, 281 Population of, 46; Tour rou ound,

Ma Wan Island , 269 53-60; Vegetables from , 40, 172

303

INDEX

New Year, Chinese, 100 , 125, 191 Possession Mount, 27, 30, 32

New Zealand , 46, 131 , 255 Poultry farming, 175-6 , 180 - I

Newton, Dr., 6 Praya , The, 50

Nigeria, 47, 61 , 255, 257 Precious Blood school, 206

Ningpo, 26 Press, The, 241 , 283

North Borneo , 131 , 165 Prostitution , 88-9

Northcote Training College, 167,209 Public Works, Director of, 231 , 235

North Point, 87, 100, 219, 224, 225 Pudney, E. W., 6

Puntis ( Cantonese ), 153, 156, 157,

O’Dwyer, Rev. Father, 173 163

On Lok Chun, village, 57

Opium , 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 52, Quah , Sergeant in Defence Force

87, 271 , 274 and schoolmaster, 247

Opium den, 77-8 Queen's College, 136, 207, 208

Opium War, 25-7 Queen Mary Hospital, 222

Queen's Road, 29, 32, 50, 130, 136,

Pak Shit Sin, actress , 119 146, 236, 252

Palmerston, Lord, 24, 25, 27

Pang Lok Sam, Reverend, 164, 170 Rangoon , 1 , 3

Park Road , 50 Rediffusion, 5, 233

Parsecs, 248 Reformatory, 211

Patrick, Rev. Brother, head of La Relief camps, 100 , 224-5

Salle College, 207-8 Religion, 123-9

Peak , The, 44-8, 94, 111 , 113 , 114, Repulse Bay, 52

115 , 218 Restaurants, floating, 183-4

Peak Station , 44 Rhenish Mission Church , 51 , 104

Pearl River , 189 Ricci Hall , 230

Pedder Street, 37, 50 Rice, 90-1, 147, 174

Peking, 21 , 22, 26, 121 , 165, 264 ; Rice wine, 134

Convention of, 43 Ritz, night club, 87

Pemba , 1 , 130 Rome, 1 , 2, 3

Penang , 81 , 104, 260 Rotterdam , 168

Peplow, S. H. , and M. Barker, Rowell, T. R., 6

authors of Hong Kong Around and Rural Training College, 209

About, 144, 157 Ruschenberger, William , 17, 272

Phoenix river, 161 , 166 Russia , 151

Pigs, 61-3, 176 Russians, 214, 236, 247

Ping Shan, village, 180 Ruttonjee, J. H., 242

Pirates, 187, 191 , 192 , 194 Ruttonjee Sanatorium , 223

Po Leung Kuk, Society for the Ryan, Rev. Father Thos. F., 6, 171 ,

Preservation of Virtue , 212-13 172, 228, 229

Police, 235–7, 288; Commissioner Ryde, Colonel, 242

of, 229, 235

Port Louis, 2 Sai Kung, village, 182

Portugal, 249, 250 St. Helena, 255

Portuguese, 13 , 51 , 66, 87, 112, 208, St. John Ambulance Brigade, 221 ,

213, 227, 232, 234, 236, 242, 247, 223

249-51, 254 St. John's University, 165, 264

304

INDEX

St. Joseph's College, 164, 253 Smith, Adam , economist, 23, 24,

St. Peter's Church , 225, 251 270, 276, 285

St. Stephen's College, 208 Smith , Findlay, 44

Salamander, frigate, 249 Snakes , 134, 138

Salesian Brothers, 215 Snowdon, 161

Salvation Army, 210, 225 Social classes, 89-90

Sampans, 183, 187, 188, 192-5, 197, Social problems, 87–8

198 , 207 Social services, 233, 279-80

Sanitary Department, 69, 235, 247 Social Welfare Department, 88 , 210 ,

San Tin, village, 265-6 224

Sassoon & Co., David , 234 Society for the Preservation of

Schools Health Service , 223 Virtue, 212-13

Secretary for Chinese Affairs, 99, Society for the Protection of Chil

127, 213, 229, 231 , 235 dren , 204

Secretary of State for the Colonies, South China Film Corporation,

231 I 22

Seventh Day Adventists, 51 , 108 South China Morning Post, newspaper,

Sham Shui Po, 242 95, 241

Shanghai, 26, 37, 86, 97, 121 , 143, South Downs, 161

165, 224, 244, 245, 255, 264, 273, Soy sauce , 135

284 Soya beans, 134

Shan Kok Wai , village , 161 , 162 Squatters, 76-80, 99, 218-19

Shantung, 157 Stage Club, 123

Shantung Street, 72 Stanley, 46, 182, 194, 208, 242, 253 ;

Sha Tau Kok, 64, 65, 66, 160 Prison , 211

Sha Tin, 59, 60, 223, 225 ; Monas- Stanley , Lord, 46

teries, 59 Star ferry, 38, 60

Sharks' fins, 35-6 , 105 , 129-32 Statue Square , 96

Shau Ki Wan, 38, 48, 93, 139, 188, Staunton, Sir George, 15

189, 193 , 194, 196 Stewart, Major Evan, 246

Shaw, Dr. , 6, 70, 71 , 76, 77, 78 Stonecutter's Island , 43

Shek Wa Hui, market town , 57 Strangeways, T. G., Director of

Sherry Street, 248, 250 Agriculture, 174

Sheung Shui, district, 57, 174 Street sleepers, 81 , 225, 251

Shillingford, W., Commissioner of Stubbs, Sir Reginald, 156

Prisons, 6, 211 Sun Wai, village, 161 , 162

Shing Mun valley, 56 Sun Yat- Sen , 101 , 147, 208,> 261 ,

Shoeshine boys' club, 211 262, 264, 269, 270

Shropshire , 116 Sung dynasty, 152, 153, 154, 160 ,

Shropshire Lad, The, 180 162

Shum Chun river, 62, 162 , 163, 287, Superstitions, 191

288 Supplies, Tradeand Industries, De

Sikhs, 236 partment of, 149

Singapore, 142

Sin Kei, brother of Sin Lo, 188 Ta Kung Pao, newspaper , 241

Sin Lo the sailor, 184-8 , 192 Tai Kok Tsui, 197

Sino- British orchestra , 123 Tai Mo Shan , 45

Sing-song girls, 82 , 84, 85, 122 Tai O, village, 182

305

INDEX

Tai Po, market town, 59, 160, 164, True Light Middle School, 206

166 , 182, 196, 212; Orphanage, Tsin dynasty, 157

212 Tsing, driver, 6, 51 , 128

Tai Po road, 78 Tsing dynasty, 110, 266

Tai Ping rebellion , 125, 265 Tsing Shan monastery, 56-7

Taipans, 12, 42, 90, 95, 114, 116, 9 Tso, Dr. S. W., 208

246 Tso , T. O. , 6

Taiwan, 226 Tsu, musician , 111

Tang clan, 56, 153 , 155 , 160, 161 , Tsui, Agnes, 167, 268

162, 163, 169 Tsui, Joseph , 167

Tang Chong Chee, and Mrs. Tang, Tsui, Louisa , 167, 169

farmer , 177-9 Tsui, Mark, 167, 268

Tang Fung Ting, oldest inhabitant Tsui, Matthew, 167, 169

of Lo Wai, 168 Tsui, Paul, 6, 7, 158, 167–79, 266-70

Tang Hok, a Tang ancestor, 56 Tsui, Peter, 164, 167

Tang Hong Fat, a Tang ancestor, Tsui, Rosie, 268

155 Tsui, Stephen, 167, 169

Tang Pak Kau , 6, 57, 153, 154, 155, Tsun Wan , town, 56, 182

156 Tsung Hom Tong, Pine Trees

Tang Tze Ming, son of Tang Yuen Terrace Pond, village, 163

Leung, 154-5 , 162 Tsung Kei, princess, also called

Tang Yuen Leung, father -in -law of Wong Kwu, the Emperor's Aunt,

princess Tsung Kei, 154 56, 154-5 , 162

Tanka, Cantonese fisher-folk , 185 Tuberculosis, 75, 220-1 , 222, 223

Tao Fong Shan, mission to Budd- Tuen Ching school, 207

hists, 59 Tung Kok Wai, village, 161

Taoism , 123, 124 Tung Wah hospitals, 33, 86, 135,

Teashops, 122-3 136, 223, 224, 225, 226

Technical colleges, 215 Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong

Teesdale, E. B. , 6 Kong, Shanghai and other Treaty

Tenements , 69-75, 96, 143, 144 , Ports of China, 112

209, 220, 277 Tzi Tong Tsuen, village, 162

Thailand, trade with , 150

Theatre, Chinese, 117-20 Union Insurance Society , 234

Thompson, Mrs., in charge North Union Jack, The, 246

Point relief camp , 224 United Kingdom , 41 , 143, 144 , 145

Thornton, W. H.J., 7 United States, 149, 150, 151

Tien How, Queen of Heaven, 127, University, 51 , 105, 213-15, 234,

188 , 195 242 , 267 , 286-7

Tiger Balm, 51-2 Urban Council, 62 , 101 , 221 , 229,

Tokyo, 1 235

Tong, Mrs. Averil, uni U Tat Chee, 6, 72 , 73 , 141 , 210, 219

Trade, 145, 146-51

Trade Unions, 217-18 Valtorta, Bishop, 228

Traffic , air, 49 road, 37-8 Vatican , 173

Trams, 38, 233 Venice, 182

Trevelyan , G. M., historian , 23, 82 Victoria , city of, 46, 48 , 227

Triad Society , 85 Victoria, Queen , 25, 140-1

306

INDEX

Victoria Peak , 45 Wong clan, 160 , 161

Village life, 165-70 Wong, Mark and Helena , 253-4

Violet, Sir Thomas, 13, 272 Woo , Cecilia, 251-3

Worship Humble Church , 164, 170

Wah Kiu Yat Po, newspaper, 241 Wright, N. F., Animal Husbandry

Wah Yan College, 164, 167, 169, Officer, 6, 175, 176

211 , 267 Wu, W. K. , 6, 7, 195-6

Waln, Norah, author of House of Wyndham Street, 50

Exile, 81

Wanchai, 70, 89, 120, 180, 207, 210, Yam Kim Fai, actress , 119, 120

225 Yaumati ferry , 38

Waterfall Bay , 47 Yaumati welfare centre , 209, 210

Water -mill, 139 Yee, Mrs., 109, III

Watson , M. M., 232 Yee Ah Wan, squatter, 78, 79

West Africa, 2, 129, 131 Yee Shing Lam , squatter, 78, 79

West Indies, 24, 150 Yen, Dr. “ Jimmy ', 208

West Point, 32 , 33, 87, 225, 251 Yin Yeng Ki, owner of shark -fin

Whitehall, 41 , 244 factory , 130, 131

Wholesale vegetable market, 171 , Ying Wah girls' school, 206

173-4 Yishi, Corporal, 252

Wilberforce, William , 18, 23, 25, Y.W.C.A. , 109

285 Yuen Long, town, 56, 57, 175, 177,

William IV, 22 178, 209

Wilson, Geoffrey , 6 Yung Hwa film studio, 121 , 122

Wong, principal of Rural Training

College, 209 Zanzibar, 1 , 48

307

THE CORONA LIBRARY

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

Sir Charles Jeffries, K.C.M.G., O.B.E., Deputy

Permanent Under -Secretary ( Chairman ), W. Foges,

(Honorary Consultant), W.Cox , 0.B.E., Assistant

Controller, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, E. C. R.

Hadfield, Overseas Controller, Central Office of

Information, C. Y. Carstairs, C.M.G., Director of

Information Services, Colonial Office, A. B. Mitchell,

Librarian, Colonial Office, and S. H. Evans, O.B.E.,

Colonial Office (Secretary)

GENERAL EDITOR : PROFESSOR FRANK

DEBENHAM , 0.B.E.

Wt. P2273 K32 + 8 S.O. Code No. 88-336

Hong Kong 1952 | HAROLD INGRAMS