they have been out East, much as the newcomers from England treat us.
The Dutchmen are far more strict, but still we like them; they are
not arrogant like so many of the British bosses, nearly all of whom
sooner or later get 'bitten by the Hong Kong bug'."
2.3
Incident 2: I was examining a schedule with a view to booking a
passage at the Hong Kong office of a well-known shipping Company, when
an elderly American-born Chinese lady entered. The manager of the
Passenger Department, an Englishman, happened to be the first person
she approached. "I should like to book a firstclass passage to X,"
she said. Without a word, the manager brusquely handed her a schedule.
"Please, can you tell me when the next steamer walls?" she enquired.
"Can't you see for yourself?" he barked. "Please, sir, I am an old
woman, and I do not understand these things very well." To my amaze-
ment, he shouted, "If you don't understand, why do you come to me?
For God's sake, go and ask someone else who does. You have come in
just a few minutes before lunch hour. Do you think I'm going to
remain here just for you?"
•
Whether the manager felt that, being a Chinese, she should
have approached one of his Asiatic subordinates I do not know, but I
an certain he would never have attempted treating in that ranner any
European in similar circumstances. The poor soul walked away, and I
followed. Tears of distress stood in her eyes as she said, "Why
should he got so angry? He treated me that way only because I'm a
poor, old Chinese woman, Please, I do not want to go there again.
"And nor do I, Krs. Lee," I replied. In a few minutes we were in the
office of a foreign steamship company where we secured bookings.
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