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Incident 3: A, who had been working amongst the Chinese for some
years, and I were both riding in rickshas to the Cheung-chau ferry.
About a hundred yards from the wharf a few coolies began following
our rickshas. (Those experienced, usually let the coolies know if
their services will not be required and then ignore them if they
persist in following in the hope of earning ten or twenty cents for
carrying baggage to the ferry.) Even before the ricksha had actually
stopped, an over-anxious coolie grabbed A's hand-trunk to take it off
to the ferry. But A was not going to have any of it. With one hand
he seized the bag and with the other he dealt the man a severe blow
on the back.
Halfway to Cheungchau a missionary, who witnessed the inci-
dent, went up to A and said, "You rather surprised me. You know as
well as I do that the coolie was only hoping to earn a few cents for
carrying your baggage and that he had no intention of stealing any-
thing. In your position, you can't do things like punching a coolie
on the back, simply because you feel like doing it and because you
see other British people do the same thing. What would your board
think if they came to know of it?"
Such an act was foreign to A's principles and his nature,
but in a moment of intense irritation (Chinese coolies can be and
often are extremely aggravating) he had acted involuntarily. The
point I wish to emphasize is that, in their attitude to the Chinese,
the influence of British people in Hong Kong on one another was
cumulative and partly accounts for incivility having been practised
on such a large scale.
m.