THE AGEANT OF THE WORLD'S
HISTORY.
WHAA FINE FILM GIBBON'S “DECLINE: AND
FALL" WOULD MAKE!
M. B. G. BIRCH ON PROGRESS, ERSONALITIES AND THE PAST.
H. G. Wells,
HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1931.
FATAL BID FOR
LIBERTY.
CHINESE CONVICT's PLUNGE TO DEATH.
VICTORIA GAOL SENSATION.
gudi encupe, as sensational as
CANTON'S DISABLED HONG KONG STOCK|
SOLDIERS INSTITUTE:
TO TURN EX-SOLDIERS INTO PRODUCERS.
MARKET.
CROUCHER & CO.'S DAILY REPORT.
The shares of our Public Utili ties came in for more attention. 8934 was offered for Star Furries after sales at 893.
[TROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT]
CANTON, April 17. The Institute for the Naimed | it was during, ended in the death rod Diabled, Soldiers of the 8th
Hong Kong Electrics were nino of a Olinese convict at Victoria Military Route, which had been
Aollere. Gaol on Thursday night. The mandor construction for the past wanted at 370 with no was a long term prisoner who had year or more, was formally opened China Lights opened with buyers been seven years in prison before yesterday afternoon in the midst offering 8287 but at the close of he made the attempt. Had hoof an impressive ceremony. the day shares changed handa as succeeded" ho would have cheated The Institute, which is located in | high sa 828. cash and 826). It in the law of thirteen more years of the north-eastern barb of Can-rumoured that a fresh issue of penal, servitude. As it was, he risk.ton, near Yellow Flower Hill, is shares will bo Taade in the ner od his life in an effort to regain a huge two-storied steel-concrete future on very favourable trans. his liberty, and lost.
Biruoturo equipped with all the
Trams were booked at $17.00 and 818.00. In was in 1993 that Cho Wai, modern conveniences. afies Pang, Ching, then 29 years of ago, was sentenced to twenty years hard labour 'by. Mr. Justice Gompertz, being convicted on charges of intimidation and of endurse of his speech he said that the need for such an institution Hoing threatening letters. For the
has long been felt. It is essential- former offence he was sentenced to
ly a home for maimed and disabled | three years' hard labour and for
Hotels & Cements after touching soldiers. Here these unfortunate the latter to twenty, the sentences
Gnes are permanently cared for, 814.76 ex, div. and 818.00 respoc- to run concurrently......
|und, to lighten the burden of the tively were easier on prost taking Government, they aro taught a ❘ thú last business we heard of wAS
$14.30 and 818.20.
Ay interesting and amusing i lectur on Histories and His.... Of HG Wells the spooker anid: toria" was given yesterday even Some few years ago, then, Mr. ing ufore the University Arts Wel's looked at history, hind be. Aiation by Mr. 4. G. Birch.hold, it was hot good. Ile doter - the course of his address. Mr. 1 mined to write his own history. Ash said of Edward Gibbon:- So he sat down, and after two The immortal historian of the years of toil produced his "Outlinö binan Empire. Cibbon was born of ́History"--n_romarkable feat of ato a Protestant and Anglican Inbour and conrage, and also, said family and brought up in that re
his euomios, of presumption. For ligion. At Oxford he made se Wells know and proter ded to quaintance with Roman Catholi- knew nothing of history beyond simi and beonine converted to that i whan the average man knows. religion, His father, seriously depended for his information alarmed for his son's spiritual wol- upon expert advisera. He mado no fare, sent him to Switzerland, "the claim to be an export himself. But stronghold of Protestantisan in as an ordinary person he had Europe, and put him to board informed the opinion that history, the home of a Protestant minister as commonly taught, was ots of of religion in Lausanne. The care i proportion, and he set out to put worked, and Gibbon Evenime re- this right. One of his main grie converted back to Protestantism.vances was that undue importance But these changes, and perhaps had been given to Rome and Re- also, we may suspect, the patient's natural revulsion against a medi- cine too strongly administered, in duced in him from that time forth an indifference in matters of remedy this, by writing his own his ligion that at times verged on hos.
tility. Now Gibbon is not only the first and greatest of English his torians he approaches also as noarly as possible to the perfect historian. He was, of calm and dispassionate disposition, in, easy circumstances, free from political ar religious attachraenta, & sorptic in religion and a cosmopolitan in politics. He had no particular axe of his own to grind or pet theory to advance,
man civilization, and not enough to the central Asian plateaus and other somewhat vaguely defined localities. So he attempted to re-
tory of the world, primarily with the purpose of supplying an im proved text-book for the use of schools and universities. The re mult was curious. For the schools and universities, true to conserva. tiva tradition, refused to look at anything that flow in the face of neopted tradition, whereas the general public, both in England and in America, fell eagerly upon the book and bought it by the thous and. Thus Wells, who had fancial he was composing a rovised history primer, found that he had instead produced a best-seller,
Of the theory of porgress the spooker said:
Carefully-laid Plan.
The opening ceremony was por formed by Mr. Su Man Sang, Pro- sident of the Institute. In the
The plan to escape, which for the trade of some sort. It is the hops convict ended so itisastrously, was of the promoters to turn eventual- vory carefully and patiently prey all the disabled and maimed ones pared. Whether Cho Wai had aay associates in the plan which was to in the Institute into self-support. bring him his liberty is, at the ing citizens through the production moment, not clearly established. of useful articles. From time to time prisoners in the
At present the Institute has four } geol are inued with pieces of cotton cloth to clean up their utensils and departments, the Training Depart of these cotton cloths Cho Wai
mont, the Medical Department, the collected a large number. these small bits of cloth, each apartment of Handicrafts, and little over a foot in length Cho the Department of General Affairs Wai managed to make a rope of It is through the Departament of almost thirty feet in length.
Handicrafts that the Institute is to turn the maimed and disabled into Troducers.
With
in making a hole roughly fifteen | irave, the Institute after he has be inches by eight, his preparations come proficient in some line of were complete. He chose Thurk day night, just after 0 p.m. for his handicraft to start a business of attempt. In order that his enenpe his own elsewhere. might not be detected on the out- side by any warder who might happen to look into the cell that night. Cho Wii caused his mat and blanket to be so rolled up ne to represent a man lying recumbent
The Institute has
at present
Wharves are scarce and shares could be placed at 8108 onah and $180 June.
There are buyers of Lands at 855, Humphreys at 810 and Wat aons at 812.-10.
Banka, were taken at 82018 and 82050 and Unions at 2635.
Underwriters continue in quest and large quantities were 85.00.
taken off the market at $4.00 and
Cottons are neglected and Ewos are offering at Tis 14.70 with buyers at about Tla 14 for the settlement,
DEATH OF OLD RESIDENT.
RETIRED 20 YEARS AGO.
will be sorry to learn of the death, His many friends in the Colony
al Home, of Mr. William Robert-
Simultaneously with the making of the rope, Te Wai who occupied a well on the top four of "E" Hal in the Gaul, a block of buildings near the junction of Chancery Lane In this last department thesen, who was formerly in the Hong son left the Colony on retirement and Arbuthnot Road, made prepara-maimed and the disabled men are Kong Police. The late Mr Robert- tions for escaping from the cell
twenty-seven years' service itself. By means of auch patient taught the art of boring, stock-after work, he managed to bore a haleng and cox weaving, cotton dye here, during which time he made through the roof in one corner of ing, towel making, printing, book was very popular. He was a very a host of friends amongst whom he his cell. To get to the roof, the prisoner had to climb up to the Linding, and shoe making. Over keen supporter of the Police R
now taking lessons, creation Club, lawn bowls and tug. ventilators of his cell over the door. 500 men are
of-war being his favourite games. Squeezed Through a Hole..
in this department of handicrafts. The difference between Gibbon's
Born in February, 1800, t If he chooses, an ox-soldier my. Dundee, the late Mr. Robertson was When the prisoner had succeeded "Declino and Fall of the Roman
frst appointed to the local Polico Empire" and Macaulay's "History
Force in August, 1884, as a con- of England" is the difference be
stable and, by degrees, hu rosu ta the rank of Inspector in 1887. H tween two temperamenta: the one cool, phlegmatin detached, ironic.
I am inclined to think that the
was for many years officer in charge of the Shaukiwan Police Station al; the other eager, determined, over emphasis of the idea of pro-
but at the time of his retirement foresly partisan. Macaulay makes groas has vitiated much modern
early 1,000 disabled or maimed on June 10, 1911, he was stationed an honest attempt at impartiality, thinking about history. To see all
soldiers. The opening ceremony at West Point. yesterday was looked upon as a The late Mr. Robertson will be and at doing equal justico to past history in terras of a progress
in the cell. This done, he climbed commendable step forward towards charge of a contingent of lukongs remembered for having been given Whig and Tory. But he does not towards the better present is to sog succeed. He is himself such a con-
it falsely. The civilized Crelan or up to the ventilators and squeezed providing something really worth and Indian policemen of the Local himself out of the cell through the while and permanent for the dis- Force, who were sent to London hole in this roof. He was a fairly vinced and out-and-out Whig that Egyptian or Homan did not pat
on the occasion of the Diamond himself on the back and say to well built person, being about 140 bled soldiers. Among those pre-Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897. his laboured attempts to draw a fair picture of Onvalier or. Tory himself: I am doing well; I have pounds in weight and the task of sent at the opening meeting was getting out of the seall hole must General Cheu Tsai Tong, who also enormously beyond fall flat. Ho wrote one of the progressed
have been exceedingly difficult, best historics ever written, but it those savage aboriginals from whom Having got on to the roof, the delivered a speech,
man made a brief survey of the in history aoan from one angle; it wo apring, and am halfway or so
situation from that angle. During is the English Revolution of 1888 towards the splendid civilized man
his seven years in prison he must aen thro the eyes of a passionate of 20th century Europe. Not at have often studied his chances from below. Wint he decided upon will champion, or the triumph of Pro- all. He saw was himself, not as a
never be known, but from the evi- testantism and the Whig party as stop in evolution, but as the finien-dence given at the inquest held be- fore Mr. Williams at the Magis- bon by an ardent protestant and ed product. And it, is quite pos Whig.
sible that he was right. We to-day tracy yesterday, it seems that Cho concentrated his efforts on getting are accustomod, largely on the
on to the hopper head of a drain strength of our purely fortuitous pipe which was only a few feet naientific discoveries, to imagine away from the roof. One end of his improvised rope was tied on to a ventilation louvre on the roof!
Gibbon's Decline and Fall..
Took him 20 years to write and
KWANGSI PEACE MOVEMENT,
OPPOSITION TO NANKING
STILL STUBBORN.
(YROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]
CANTON, April 17.
It is learned from independent
which was about fifteen feet from but reliable sources that Chang Fat the edge and after gradually spend Fui, Pei Chung Hsi and other ing out the rope, Cho swung him
self over the edge on to the final leaders of the Kwangsi-"Tronside", of his escape. Had he coalition are still as firm and atub singe he would have succeeded in climb
LAUNDRYMAN-OFFICE BOY.
ANOTHER "SQUEEZE "
STORY.
WILD
As office boy employed in the Attorney General's offee brought before Mr. Williams at the Central Police Court yesterday charged with misappropriation of 72 cents.
The defendant ut first. denied the charge but later changed his plea to one of "guilty.".
-
Mr. Somerset Fitzroy, who ap peared as complainant, told of having the boy in his employment for about four years. It was the practice of the office for the towels which were used in the cloak roomy to be sent out to be laundered, and upon their return the stonographer" gave the office boy the money with which to pay the laundry-mun.
is bortainly one of the greatest that our oivilization is an advance achievements of single human brain. To read it is like watching on all the others. But it is not same colossal pageant, where one necessarily so, and we know too gorgeous scene succeeds another, little about former civilizations to And I am astonished that no en has yet (so far as I know) made tion by ita art, or by its architec-neceeded in reaching the drainpipe torn as ever in their opposition to terprising American film producer Prove it. If we judgo a civiliza BO of that rich mine of material. ture, or by ita literature, we shall
ing on to the temporary root of a Nanking, in spite of the strong and Probably the producers of films have never heard of it. When they have to say that the Cretans, or workshed below, from which point well-meant efforts of General Wong
he would have, in all probability. lo, I may yet, walking some fine the Egyptians, or the Greeks, wore
succeeded in scaling, a twenty feet Shao Hung and otheis at restoring day down Queen's Rd, be arrested not our inferiors. The vast re- by some flaming announcement out-mains of the buried eitina of Cog-wall and thus reaching Chancery peace to war-shattered Kwangsi.
General Li Chung Jen is on the fence, with an inclination towards tion. We are too apt to assume Unfortunately, it was not design- (under the bias of the idea of ed that Cho Wai should ever he the side of Pei Chang Hai and evolution) that because a certain a free man in this world. Just as, Chang Fat Fui. raos lived a long time ago it was he was about to get on to the These big leadors are again show- The defendant stated that he had necessarily cruder or sarager than drain-pipe he was noticed by aning signs of military activity, for washed some of the towels himself ourselves.
Indian warder and through thei command came: Remain where they cannot maintain a position of and considered that he was entitled you are." The Indian warder who watchfulness permanently.
Thoy to some of the money,
His Worship said that the de-
side the King's or Queon's theatres, such as:
LOOK OUT FOR NEXT WEEK'S MILLION DOLLAR SUPERFILM,
THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
BY ED GIBBON AND SİLAS
K. WARNER.
:
MONSTER PRODUCTION.
and other wild beasts,
Laughter and tears in imperiul Rome.
The superfilm of flaming loves and falling empirer
qn, such as Anuradhapura, do not indicato, a low degree of civiliza-
Lane.
Folled!
On Thursday the bill amounted to $1.90 and as usual the money was given to the defendant who only gave the wesherman 48 conta, keep. | ing the other 72 cents. As far as rould be gathered this practice has been going on for years.
This bias is especially noticeable in the already mentioned work of Mr. II. G. Wells As the most un had seen the attempt drew his re-jare removing their military head. resting of scientific reformera, velver, but before he had occasion Wells is consumed with this idea to fire, inte intervened. One of the quarters to Lungchow, near the he was entitled to the money but
| fondant might have' considered that
ANOTHER RECORD FOR THE EMPRESS OF JAPAN.
of progress. For him, the whole knots of the improvised rope southern border of Kwangai. Hers is he had kept this money without long pagast of past history gavet that very moment and- but a todious and rather stupid Cho came hurtling down from the they are erecting strong defence the knowledge of any one of the misappropriation of the money and One thousand stars, ten thousand prologue to the scientific civilisa-roof of his prison on to the tem- works and are establishing & mili-fact, it was clearly a matter of netore, Alty thousand elephants tion of the 20th century, which it porary roof which he had rinked etary training school on a big scale, he fined the defendant 840 or one
sell is but the commencement of much to reach. From there he was Thus far they have shown no signs month's hard labour. unimaginable future developments, shot on to a point in the yard some
The fault of Mr. Wells and others ten feet below the roof. He broke of yielding to Nanking, notwith. is that they see things out of pro- his left collar bone in the fall and standing frequent reports to the portion. They are so dominated his skull was slightly fractured. contrary.
It appears that General Wong by the idea of pmgress, and especi-Medical evidence, however, showed Juliva Caonar.ally scientific progress, that they that the man's heart had been in Shao Hung is becoming dishearten- Jack Buchnan featuring.
forget how very new and short a bad condition and that he wased with the peace movement for
The R. M. & Empress of Japan ar- Mark Antony. thing modern European industrial not one fit for violent exercise. The Kwangel which he initiated, realir. John Boles featuring Nero. and Boicntifio civilization is, in drop, the violent unpact and the ing the futility of prazasion:rived in Vancouver on April 14 The Douglas Fairbanks featuring comparison with the long past. The shack of it all proved fatal to Che That he is still atnying in Hong voyage from Yokohama to Victoria, Kong, unable to proceed to his R.C. took 7 days, 20 hours 10 Pompey the Great, changes wrought by science are so Wal's heart.
After hearing the facts, the jury native province to take up the rains minutes. The average speed being Greta Garbo featuring Cleopatra. dazzling that we forget that na Laura La Plants featuring Zenobia, tions may be long and highly civi-returned a verdict of "Death as of government, has been pointed 22.27 knots per hour. This is a re A Paramount production. ized without any knowledge of result of trying to escape from out as ample proof that such is the cord, the Pacific not having been
situation. Don't miss it. Book now. sciencờ whatever.
prisone
Maurice Chevalier featuring
crossed before m under eight days:-
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