THE CHINA MAIL SATURDAY, JULI 2
Hongkong-it
THE question which, naturally enough, I have been asked most often during these last weeks since we arrived here has been, "What do you think of Hongkong?" In the Cathedral porch one isn't able to do much more than mumble à polite plati- tude. On paper perhaps one can attempt something rather more ambitious.
The answer I would.
spontaneously give to
First of course and most
that question is that for obvious is the striking con- trast everywhere between
me arriving here has great wealth and extreme been in many ways like poverty.
finding myself back sud-
This, especially as far as
denly in the eighteenth it shows itself primarily in housing conditions, reminds
century.
be
This is not intended to one at once of the early a brilliant or witty years of urbanisation in paradox, but a plain state. England at the beginning: ment of fact. It is true of of the industrial revolution, course that skyscrapers and say in 1800. Chevrolety. · cinemas and Comets and the whole ap- paratus of mechanised modern life are thoroughly
Wealth
great
Indeed there are other twentieth century. And it comparisons here with the is equally true that a great industrial revolution: the deal is being done alike by existence of home indus- Government, firms and tries alongside and as im private individuals to intro portant R the duce and improve in the factories which have now Colony the benefits of everywhere taken their modern western ideals as place in the west, and the well as modern western system we still have here techniques.
of a master working with apprentices who live under
Gains
Education, social
rance vices, employees insurance and benefits, factory inspec tion-these are just some of the things which Hong- kong has gained from the liberal western democratic
his roof and eat his food, both, these are typical of
reminds me o
of
the 18th Century
the early stages of the In.THE Very Reverend day long two months on dustrial revolution.
Cathedral, arrived in Hangkong two months ago. This article, taken from the July issue of the St John's Review and reproduced by permission in the China Mail, gives his first impressions of our Colony,
an
The Very Reverend Bárry
There have of courbe becs what is and what is not cor special reasons for this, and to ruption is not at all easy to make this observation about bur draw, constitutional set-up is not to condemn it, but simply to state a fact
There is nothing in the Bible or in Christian history to sug- gest that there is any one parti cular form of government which has the divines imprimatur, to Imagine that western liberal de mocracy is "God's own govern- ment" for all peoples at all times.
It is unfortunately true that in Hongkong both in goverˆ ment and in other departments of noble and commercial life, we have not escaped the den- gers and sims to which, history would suggest, we are particu larly llable, and to which Chinese tradition has not been. righequely opposed.
Before I left England I had
is politically and theologically been made well aware of this naive, and potentially dangerous situation by, for instance, ex- in the extreme: It may be that, national service, undergraduates given the right-conditions and
development, western-type dea newly uned from Hongkong. mocracy fulfils or makes it pos- Recently questions have been sible to fulfil, more of the Chris-isked about it in the House of ilan ideals for societies and in Commons. In coste like this it dividuals than other forms of is apportant not only that government, but the proviso is a something should be done, but Large one, and because of the that something should, be seen fact that we live in a fallen to be done by authorities world, democracy is as liable to?: faults and failures as are other constitutional systems.
The fact
?
Explode
Nothing is 1 more disastrous than a policy which looks at best Juce hushing up, and at worst like condoning, the scandal.:
It was therefore a great relief- The fact is then that our to find that, Government were system of government in Hong-willing, first to acknowledge the. kong, would seem to correspond possibility of the existence of most closely to that which corruption within the Admini exiled in Engin in the stration, and second to take eighteenth century and tip to steps to discover, the extent and Again England's wealth in
the time of the Reform Bill of examine the causes of the evil the eighteenth century, be-
1832, which was the beginning' of the move towards representa- fore the industrial revolu-
gotherument, universal tion was fully under way,
On May The Far Eastern England, with the famous South ve
Sea Bubble of 1721. Also such auftrage and the development ideals of the nineteenth and was founded on her position Economic Review published. twentieth centuries. But as a great mercantile and article which again had over things as the very high interest of the modem party political for all that the underlying trading power. Napoleon tones which were uncomfortably rates, which obtain in Hongkong; system.
structure of eighteenth, rather
The danger and besetting sin current of life here seems said England was a nation reminiscent of the eighteenth are reminiscent of the economic
than twentieth century England, of this type of govertiment, to me to flow more in of shopkeepers. The same century.
which is not conducted in the eighteenth than in twen- would still be true of the
Another field in which we have full floodlight of publicity to In it Mr S. C. Chen gave a tieth century channels. Colony,
warning of what could happen not kept abreast with develop which we are now accustomed Another obvious result of the in the event of a recession now ments in the west is that of con- in the west, is that of currup And this remark is not
wealth and that in the present boom a num-stitutional change. Hongkong tion. intended as praise or con- co-existence of
Is that servants are ber of gmail mushroom-growth has not moved towards represen- poverty demnation, but simply as
come by, and here banks, in order to gain trade, tative government as rapidly as. easy to observation.
again the European community have started, giving too-easy have other, and probably less politically mature parts of the in Hongkong lives. In a way credit facilities.
Irresponsible boom banking is British Commonwealth, such as some which has long since disappeared
a thing which is associated in Ghana and Nigeria. in England and America.
Let me examples.
give 1
Four D. Jánes BY MADDOCKS
FERDINAND
IF I PLAY
MY CARDS RIGHT,
A GIRL CAN DO
WELL IN THIS NEW WICKED WORLD
BRICK BRADFORD
A JETTISONED. SECTION OF SADIES MULTISTAGE SPACE: SHIP IS SPOTTED AND FRED UPON..
I TELL YOU
THIS FEMALE WOMAN
WILL PLAY YOU ALL
FOR SUCKERS
GOOD, WORK! THATS THE WAY
TO SMASH
THEM!
Warning
A WASTE OF TIME, SIR/THAT SPACESHIP WAS ABANDONED!)
WHAT KIND OF WAS THAT
JUST LOOK. AT HER. SHE'S SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING
By Mik
By Paul Norris
NOW, HEAR THIS!! WILL DESTROY ANYT THAT. BELONGS
SATURN
I
The setting up of a fact finding committee to explode the whole question was ammounced by the Attomey. Général. In a statement which appeared in the papers on May 17,
The statement made it clear that the committee were aware of, and taking strong steps to combat, the difficulty of obtian- ing evidence of cases or sources of corruptice because of the The history of eighteenth complexity of the situation and shows this the possibility of the intimida- century England quile clearly; on the other hand tion of witnesses MF Ridehalgh recent research has also show appealed to the pubite to give that the viding lice between every possible support to the
work of his committee,
Sheaffer's
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PEN
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DETAILING OF SELESALAND
You can be SURE
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I need hardly say that it is a Christian duty to respond to this appeal. Now that such a cour ageous lead has been given it is up to every individual to cα- operate with the authorities in their difficult task,
Probably the basis factor in the whole question is the climate: of opinion, public and private attitude of mind. If corruption is lightly regarded, alike by Europeans and Chinese, or thought of as a decessary evil, endemic in our situation, then nothing the police or Government | can do will-achieve any-lasting resuls. Here Christian opinion cair and should act as leaven.
It is true that it is often gitm enit to draw the line hofween- what is and whii li not a“... COF« rupt or questionable practice........
Ethics
But then questions of soclai ethics are never easy, as any Christian will know if he has seen that the inner meaning of the doctrine of origining - sinks. that the effects and ramifications: of sin are endless.
"All that "can" be said us t general principle is that it is bet- ter to err on the side of caution than to risk, or give any sugges tion of condoning, sinin flagitat Or again it may be a matter of taking the positive trouble, in a | busy Corruption, let along
to report any us picion of becoming involved in fit in order to take the easy or quick; way out of some minor administra tive tangle, App
the
Perbaris 1t is in a problemn like! this, where the climate of opinion is so vital, more than In any other, that one wee zure and importance of Our Lond's command, Watch, and pray, that we enter not into temptation
Të ka paigilance to recognise “thisch county as much"; as stre to resist this type of
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