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FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW
HANGKONG BOOK-SEE
(Note to sub-editor: If you cut one line of this item, I'll resign from this column). The Editor of this worthy publication, for some time now regarded as something of a gadfly by the Establish ment, is walking about wearing a rather pinkly embarrassed while these days as I can personally witness. The explana tion is simple: suddenly, out of the blue and for the first time ever, an invitation has arrived to the Queen's Birthday Garden Party.
I leave readers to judge whether he should feel pleased or threatened. The local establishment has silenced many a critic in the past simply by co-opting him (although the experiment of kicking Elsie upstairs to the Transport Advisory Com- mittee only succeeded in getting her to talk more sense on transport matters). Will an afternoon 'midst the morning coats/and the flower hats make a bour- geoj revisionist out of a dangerous revolutionary ? Watch this space-~-
I REFUSE to add to the perfectly justified chorus of derision for the visiting
APRIL 17, 1989
~hardly believe
when I saw a headline in one of our local
tabloids the other day reading: "FEI
MPs who proved so fast in shooting from Labour Department. the lip. Their arrogance in pontificating about an economy which could teach theirs a thing or two has been adequately dealt with in correspondence columns. But what did Mr Jones mean about our having to bear with Britain's penury be cause it had bankrupted itself defending half the world between 1939 and 19457
There was a certain amount of fighting in this region against the Japanese even before those dates. And neither West Germany nor Japan were very far off bankruptcy in 1945. Blame the Welfare State, the failure to export, the strain of maintaining a reserve currency, foreign expenditures, the trade unions, manage- ment, the unpopularity of a good day's work blame anything, but let's not have an attempt to strum sentimental heart-strings about Britain's World War II effort especially in a region from which British forces are beating the second hasty retreat in 30 years. Mr Jones put up a spirited defence for Lan- cashire's textile industry on last week's Radio Hongkong's discussion, but it was good to hear the cogent attack launched in the bluff North Country tones of Mr Dennis Lyth who made it clear just why Lancashire needs protection. Mr Jones' judgement was best demonstrated when he singled out local Education and Social Welfare for praise. Give him a couple of days and he'll be eulogising the
OFF TO TAIWAN". But it was not a major political defection; the Fei in question was a footballer,
* ANOTHER headline which caught my eye in our local "respectable" paper this time was on Tuesday of last week: "MCC tour of Africa may be called off”. The sub-editor had obviously not bothered to read the AFP copy: the story concern- ed the possible cancellation of South Africa's cricket tour of Britain next year.
SOMETIMES I get the feeling that our local newspapers are trying to pro- duce a new brand of pidgin. On April 9 the Ching Mail reported the death of a boy who set fire to a tin of petrol: "He found a tin and a box of match. Curigus, he lit a match to the tin and was immediately gulfed by the Alame jetting out from the tin". On Sunday, April 6, the Hongkong Standard ran a story about soccer shamateurism, which described Mr Wilson Wang as "honourable president" of the SCAA and quoted him as saying: "Since the 1969-70 league season is almost finish, we hope to make any effort to clean up the problem when our next league season start in September".
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