THE--CHINA ·MAIL,
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1958.
Here's what Hongkong journalism was like a hundred years ago
Rules-To Be Broken?
IN setting the Colony's house in order, Sir Hercules Robinson set going some rules that exist right up to today. These regulations, while permitting Civil Servants to submit to the newspapers articles of gonoral interest, forbade them to write for publication on such matters which could properly be called political.
By JOHN LUFF
The editor of the China Mail took on a Journalist, Mr Arthur Quinton, and secured for him.a. job. as turnkey in the Victoria gaci.
No one know of this, at least, none 'in ometal elrelca. J. Arthur Quinton saw everything, and then threw up his job and wrote a series of arileles for, the China Mall.
Mr Bell, the editor of the changes in England;. where Dally Press welcomed this letter power and policy, were rapidly
Sir John was furious, but because of the -of-thro which dealt mainly upon the passing into the hands selection of HIT Majesty's prople
ovidence, obtained by the China Mall, things judges. So it was funt. Mr Bru He ow himself as the popular had to be idled up to the extent of making the editor, qnd Mr Welsh, the Governor, the idealist, the the punishment. nt the crine, Indifferent' kayrban," - were" side' reformer, but as expérience ́has This did not help J. Arthur Quinton, how- The wisdom of this is evident, but not so by slide the dock.
proved over and over again, ever, and the Governor. made him very hard Mr Bell apologised profusely, there is only one thing worse to catch. So the astute Journalist went to evident to our generation which has arrived too and the judge her one or two thin harsh legislation, and that Yokohamna where he died in 1907. But he had late to witness the mud-slinging which went on remarks which cut Mr. Bell to is reformation betere a prople is served both the community and the China Mali between the various departments in the early days quid, allowed him to go. ready to take over. its own well.
The fulge then addressed him of the Colony. The Colony, now somewhat self to the reluctant jury- subdued, went its even way, no longer torn by Her Majesty's Hotel, internal strife, and comparatively dull after the furious days.
In April, 1867, China Punch was produced by the China Mail. This journal, as its name suggests, was a copy of its more famous namesake in England.
-
moo, and invited him to be a one gul on Victoria hill. Mr Hongkong's delighinal chemism
Welsh spent fourteen days there. It was at this stage that the finest journalist Hongkong has ever known toolt over the editorship of the China Maj).
affairs.
2.
None who arrives in Asia from Europe or Amerien, but, is sickened by the plight of the
During Sir John Popo Hennessy's regne, such we have substantial proof Mr Robert Frazer-Smith, is reminiscent of the submerged section of the people, the Hongkong Telegraph was born. The editor, in Hongkong that this sympathy late Mr Tarrant, and within a year, Mr Frazer- takes on a vigorous nate in Smith was in gool. It happened this way. addressing itself to Official end Charitable institutions to bring uns out insinuations about all and sundry, and Mr Frazer-Smith had a lively racy pen Ho some measure of relief to-the
the only difference between his remarks and suffering.
But your gilb and vote the former editor of the Friend of 'China was, The composition of the
catching clat-traps rarely get Frazer-Smith had a sense of humour. A Mr Middleton was 'the it taught everyone that libel was modern newspaper does.; not down to the fundamental" which Now, if there is one thing more than another editor, and he appears to have an expensive Indulgence.
produce this kind of journalists so easily expressed, but defesa Civil Servant lacks, it is a sense of humour. been one of those men who had The editor of the Daily Press
now Gorgo Murray Bain
any attempt to remedy Asia's That propensity for imagining that the destiny joined the China Mail in 1804 as Herculean labour. It is simply the Colony resta upon the fall of his rubber years, but tn 1972, he is
back sub-editor and 'reporter; -- tcole in court.
outstripped the bounty of nature, himself, an important man, an Atlas bearing
the Colony's burdens. This was a funny affair. Mover the editorship later find this. This fertility of man has stamp, is inclined to make him feel to nong but
In 1872 became the proprietor of Welsh was a merchant in Hong the journal. kong, nid ho was called for Jury service, arid as a mass good paid true, was asked to find a just verdict.
what we call the personal touch, I was stamped on the pages of China Punch, and when Mr
the Colony in Middleton left November 1878, China Punch Just folded up.
Ja China Punch, local toples were dealt with in a humorous marmor, Aerce cartoons parodied kal min much to the amuse- ment of the boy's of yesterday.
I have been unable to lay my hands on a single copy of this journal, but probably a few are stored in some old cupboards somewhere. On Novembeż "1, 1869, an advertising sheet called the Daily Advertiser appepred. Alter three years it developed into a newspaper. but did not last long.
dodged trouble for another two
But Mr Welsh was bored. The sins of his fellow townsmen helther shock, por interested Mr Welsh, even though Hongkong place.
07
exceedingly naughty
at
paper en
He conducted the host conservative lines, avoid- ing sensation on one hand, but fearlessly attacking the abuse of a citizen's privileges on the other.
He was a man with a sense of vocation, and his more than any
cumalist before or since, or tributed to the Colony's welfare on "ethical grounds. Yet Murray Bain was no dreamer;_he-was ci ell things, a man of his nge. He boost fo as he found it, and if So when the judge dealt some. length upon the wicked- he did not like it, he introduced ness and tally of the people who
no Utopian dream,to his page, but rather a strong daly paraded before him,
practical based criticism, cut the constructive tie heart and be upon his knowledge of things as serlovaly a Mr they were rather than as they In some airy-fairy But Mr Welsh yawned might be
future.
It was followed by the Hong Welsh yawned. This kang Times. This soon folded judge to up and loft no mark
on the looked very Colony, so we arrive in the Welah. seventies
the evening again.. with
Chinx Mail and, the morning
Pruss
WES
Mr
to
Daily Press holding the news- Upton which the judge gazed paper field between them.
long and seriously, but the bored Mr Welsh yawned yet again.
The Daily
This groused the
the beak
Welsh next newspaper 10
into adger, so he invite *Mr run trouble. It went for Mr C. C. into the body of ae court; and Smith, the: Registrar-General, lectured him long and severely and accused him of ill-advisedly upon the sins of society in and Mr Welsh's in- interfering in the affairs of the general, police.
difference in particular. The Daily Press was invited.
This public
showing Up unguarded angered Mr Welsh considerably, to court for this aldtement, and there(was invited" and he made some show of to the interesting himself in the case, to make a contribution Colony's exctrequer of $250. but once free, devoted some tinic That was big-money then, and to the composition of a letter.
MARTELL
CORDON BLEN
**
And such being, the Governor, Mr (later Sir John Pope- Hennessy
found himself the object of severe cridelan in the pages of the China MNII.
Here it is necessary to digress a little In order that 3 illustrate, the nature of Sir John Pope Hennessy's administration which caused him to cross words "with the editor of the China Mall."
Sir John was a man who dreamed dreams Zand) Isiw viskas. As such we admire him, but a dream is an insubstantial thing. Sir John was evidently much influericed by the rapid
Very Fine Cognac
Earlier this year, an American lady, much moved by the sight of wonen labouring on a budding came straight over to the cffices of the China Mail, and lectured the editor for a solid hour Within twenty-four hour she had selved all problems, and sho wanted her remedy front-paged Simmediately.
la vain the editor pointed out the huge influx of refugees. He *FAVO figures and facts, and into the concrete evidence of Hongkong's charity. universal problem, borse by the Hongkong taxpayer...
to "a
Sir Jólin Pope-Hennessy was like that. And one of the things He wanted to alter was the panner... in which... Hongkon dealt with its original clement. He imposed his will, and Geoge Murray Bain tool him up on it.
One further point with which I shall later deal: at length in series. Hongkong's com→ puratively lighter criminal code encouraged a largo exfiminal glement to the island; and when Sir John's reformations, took place, to quote"...no one's life was worth" penny."
thi
No one could take a walk in the suture without certain risk of, being attacked a robbed. crimmal clement The
en couraged by mild legislation grew holder. The Europeans who suffered the consequences of this mild 'policy,
grouped, together and addressed. Her Majesty's Government. But what was, nected was concreto proof that a gaol sentence was more or less, a visit to a co- valescent here. George Murray 'bin provided the evidence.
So when Frazer-Smith started to prick a fow bubbles, there were many who wished they could blunt his stinging peri, and, at last they got him. Strangely enough, it was not a Civil Servant who brought him low, but a German Tragedian, Daniel Edward Bandmann whom Frazer-Smith libelled.
In 1882 Frazer-Smith went to gaol for two months, but his servitude as a first class mis- demeanant earned him fair treatment.
Upon his release from gool, the citizens of this by no means mean Colony met him at the
guol.
A representative spokesman read an address of welcome and what was more to the point, landed over to the Hongkong Telegraph's editor $1,000, an enormous sum In 1882,
This entouraged, Mr Frazer-Smith resumed the editorial chair and again made bis vitriolic personality felt.. None could escape him, and his articles at once Irritated and amused the Hongkong publle.
t
However, running out of Civil Servants, Frazer Smith turned on the China Mall. This was an awful thing to do for dog does not eat dog, or. If you like, "if you don't hang together, you awing together." Mr Buigin was the editor of the China Mail at the time, so Mr Bulgin
t. him at the Supreme Court, made an appointment for Mr Frazer-Smith to meet h
4
Mr Bulgin suggested to the judge that $1,000 - bo the sum to heal the smart caused by Frazer- Smith's wounding pen, but the judge knocked it down to $100 and costs.
This indefatigable Frazer-Smith returned to his desk, and for the third time in 1883 managed to get served with writ issued in the interests of Mr J. M. Price, the Surveyor-General.
Frazer-Smith won the case, but Hongkong was getting tired, as it does today, of someone who tries to be clover all the thing.
There were ninety and nine who signed a Jetter offering to pay Mr Price's costs of the proceedings in court Price was' pleased, but But courteously declined their kind offer. Frazer-Smith was not interested in the ninety and nine who safely lay outside the court's
MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN
"THE TRUCK DRIVER
WILL HAVE A JOB, DRIVING A BREAT
BRICK BRADFORD
FOUL WEATHER CLOSING
IN, THE BATTURES IN
THE NOSE.CONT ARS DEAD,
WE CAN NO LONGER
CONTACT BRICKĮ
"THE WIFE, A KNITTÉR, WILL SUPERVISE A VAST FABRIC- MAKING MACHINE=""
WE CAN ONLY
HOPE THAT HE
ENLL ALIVE!.
'IT WAS INEVITABLE/
WE CAN'T GET --TO HIM!.
The China Mail The picture above shows Hongkong's
oldest newspaper's editorial offices, situated in those days. at Queen's Road. Its old printing offices (bottom) were in Wyndham Street.
proceedings, and in a stinging article accused. Mr Price of robbery and corruption.
Frazer-Smith had by now eqmpletely lost his head Ho sited Minhinnett for a thousand delines for needless, arrest, and lost the case. In June 1801, the
The next years sow, rapid development in the Colony, and the China Mall, the Daily Presa were taken' up with this rapid expansion.
Anyone who can obtain a ille copy will rendJockey Club held a meeting and with interest of the for eighted plans taking shape, and the really good Journalism of a responsible nature which criticised, suggested, and voiced the public opinion in. Letters to the Editor."'
But the Hongkong.Telegraph was not later- ested in such dull matters as building and re- clamation, except to interest Itself In Publie Works Department,
Mr Frazer-Smith, rather tired of prosale journalism, ventured onto thin ice, and unable to obtain evidence of corruption, turned from this Department to one of its personalities.
Thus it was that Frazer-Smith and a porter called Ward were arranged in court for criminally conspiring to bring a' charge of rape against J. Minhinnett, a foreman of the PWD.
Before the case was heard, Frazer-Smith decided it was a good time to take a trip to Australia, but he was arrested on the vessel 4 on a writ issued by Minhinnett.
Frazer-Smith and Ward were given six months each and the plaintiff was awarded $3,000 damages.
"THEY'LL BE GIVEN A HUSE COUNTRY ESTATE FOR THER WEEK ENDS--ALL THEIRS --
5-8
WHERE THERES
LIFE. THERES HOPE;
AND I REFUSE
TO GIVE UP
HOPE
By Leo Falk and Phil Davis
YOU SEE, OUR GREAT PLANET, IS EMPTY--WITH BILLIONS OF EMPTY HOMES--
By.. Paul Norris
...AND SO, FAR BELOWY..ITS BATTERIES GRACI THE NOSE CONE OF THE X-B-5-16. PRIFTE
into even desper WATER...
stick Frazer-Smith from the list of members,
L
A pubila'meeting was; called by the opposition' party at the meeting Cricket Ground. The passed, a vote of confidence in the editor. This must have alr veðuraged. Frazer; Senith, further In his tasto for risky writiniz, and in 1892, Mr John MitcREIT Mesars Buttended and; Swire took $250 off the mustle editor as damages in a libel esse, How- hid three evor, Frazer-Smith years left to him, and lie.con Unued in conflict with various citizena.
He was placed to rest, pre- sumably, in the appropriately named Happy Valley, but his uneasy goul does not lie at pence. His ghost haunta than, oor- China riders of the South Morning Post Building, tempting anwary editors to overstep the mark, and liven up their writ-
log.
SHEAFFER
NEW BALLPOINT
WITH EXCLUS
STERLING SILVER TIP
XTALL
GOOD STONES
AUSTIN
HOME LEAVE
MARTELL
CORDON BLE U alio THREE STAR VSOP and EXTRA
FERDINAND
Obtainable Everywhero
Solo Agents:-- DODWELL & CO., LTD.
BONG
By MIL
METRO CARS (H.K.) LTD/
air
SWISSAIR