TNAG-1812-FCO40-2573-Preservation-of-Ohel-Leah-Synagogue-in-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 13

The Kadoorie Conundrum

TARGET JULY 6, 1988.

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A MATTER OF OBJECTIVITY:

DID GUS UTTER FALSEHOODS,

OR HAS HE GOT A JUMBLED-UP MIND?

Aside from sex, death and taxes, the one thing in this world which is guaranteed to continue is man's propensity to utter falsehoods.

Mr A. K. Chui, Justice of the Peace and Secretary for Municipal Services (this is a branch of the Secretariat), is no exception to the rule and, if he intends to continue to climb up the ladder of Government hierarchy, he will have to learn to be a better utterer of falsehoods than has

been apparent in the past.

There is, of course, a basic and fundamental consid-

eration here, and that is that the Government rewards its

mermithidae when they perpetrate ‘good' falsehoods.

Gus, as he used to be known a few years ago when he was the head of the Wanchai City District Office, has dropped a clanger in the matter of the Jews' home away from home, the Robinson Road Synagogue.

Gus got himself involved in the Jewish problem when The Lord Kadoorie and he sat down in May 1987 in order to discuss matters relating to the Synagogue and. whether or not it should be torn down and a replica put up in its place -- at least, sort of in its place.

Now The Lord Kadoorie is ranked one of the 10 rich-

est men in the world and so the consideration, as far as he

was (is) concerned, must have been other-worldly, since for sure there was not a penny in profit which would be forthcoming from the Synagogue's destruction and re- building at least, not as far as The Noble Lord is con-

cerned.

--

As for Gus, he gets paid by Mr Taxpayer so he doesn't care about a 'church' for a couple of hundred families of what Muslims would describe as infidels.

But the devout in the Jewish community of Hongkong

J

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numbering about 30 Jews in all were kicking up a fuss, and poor Gus was in the thick of it.

The Lord Kadoorie must have seemed to be Gus's 'saviour' since all errors and omissions could be placed on The Lord Kadoorie's plate, if things went wrong.

The result of Gus's first meeting with The Lord Ka- doorie back in May 1987 was that they both agreed that (a) the Synagogue would be torn down, (b) there would be a replacement synagogue erected near to the original site of the 1902 building which had been the Friday night place of worship for tens of thousands of Jews in the last 80-plus years, and (c) the Swire Group of Companies would finance the project.

On June 19, 1987, Gus sent this memo to one. of his

minions:

I was advised by Mr Jason Yuen, Chairman of the AAB (Antiquities Advisory Board) that the

deadline for the demolition notice on the Jewish Synagogue is 21 June, 1987, so that I need to declare to stop this action forthwith. My under- standing from you and Kingston (Assistant Sec- retary, Culture) was the deadline had been ex- tended to 60 days. Please check.

The declaration should announce that the Syna- gogue cannot be demolished until plans for its replacement have been approved by the Trus- tees and to the satisfaction of the Antiquities Ad- visory Board.

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