Continuation
ABERDEEN II
with its fishing industry probably the most extensive in our waters. The disappearance of the military post might be noted: few people, to-day, while recollecting that Stanley had troops stationed there in the fever-ridden days (see 20-12-33) know that Aberdeen also, for a brief period, boasted a small garrison.
As already mentioned in these columns (see 11-7-33) the name "Aberdeen" was adopted for Shekpywan in 1845, the same time that "Stanley" was adopted for the village of Chek-chu. These designations were in honour of two British statesmen of the time, the Earl of Aberdeen, who was Foreign Secretary, and Lord Stanley, then Secretary of State for the Colonies. Occasionally one still finds people new to the Colony enquiring how the name Aberdeen was obtained; apparently the idea lingers on that it had something to do with the well-known city so oft quoted in stock jokes about Scotia's "gude". But, as I have pointed out before, the association of Scotland's Aberdeen with a fishing industry and the similar association of Hongkong's south coast village with the like enterprise, is entirely accidental, and the name adopted by the Colony for Shekpywan is due merely to its being the name of the Foreign Secretary of the Forties: and that's that.