be a deity.
The Lord Kadoorie is not likely to go down in history as a great thinker, at least not to the extent of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Akharnarton, or even Moishe Mende- vitz, one of the great horse-racing thinkers of modern Iraq.
The Generous Fellow
When you deal in billions of dollars, you don't nor- mally care for the odd few millions of dollars.
This is just like that man with $100 in his pocket who would not think about picking up that dirty 5 cents in the gutter.
Generosity is a wonderful attribute, but it is confined, where money is concerned, to those who can best afford
it.
The Lord Kadoorie is one of the richest men in the world, everybody and his cat knows that this is true.
And the Lord Kadoorie, probably because of his immense wealth and known generosity, moves in mysteri-
ous ways.
The Robinson Road Synagogue and Jewish Recreation Club site measures about 5,500 square metres (about 59,202 square feet).
According to independent valuers, the site in its pres- cnt condition, assuming a willing buyer and seller, is worth about $HK1,100 a square foot, placing the total value of the property at not less than $HK650 million (TARGET is told that this is a very conservative esti- mate).
The Jewish community, in consideration of giving the site to Swire Properties Ltd, is getting back facilities worth about $HK250 million.
These facilities comprise:
1) A replica of the existing Synagogue;
2) New club facilities;
3) New Jewish school facilities;
4) New residential quarters for the Rabbi;
5) Between 30 flats and 40 flats which may be held for
sale or rent; and,
6) Some carpark spaces.
All of the above is said to be worth, at today's prices, about $HK250 million.
So it is clear that somebody has been more than generous to Swire Properties Ltd because if something is
MAKE IT FRESH!
KEEP IT CLEAN!
P.H.L. IS THE NAME
THAT MEANS!
THL 3-886010
PHL PO HONG TELEPHONE CLEANING LTD.
worth $HK650 million, a minimum figure, why sell it for less?
Having come a-cropper once before when The Hongkong Land Company Ltd reneged on what was thought to have been an iron-clad contract, no doubt the Lord Kadoorie was in a more generous mood when Swire Properties Ltd decided to take up the slack left by the perfidious antics of the Newbigging Regime (Mr David Newbigging was the Chairman of The Land Company at the time that the contract with the Jewish Club was signed).
It is said that the Lord Kadoorie wanted to make certain that during his reign as Chief Jew of Hongkong, history would record that he master-minded the rebuild- ing of the temple in glorification of God.
This could be likened to another tower built some
years ago with the intention of reaching right up to the home of the Omnipotent One, Jehovah.
The Tower of Babel was never completed but in its place the world was blessed with hundreds of different languages: A legacy which God bestowed on the unworthy who would blaspheme.
One wonders what God will bestow on Hongkong Jews for their constant blaspheming -- or has God already meted out the punishment and the current state of affairs in Robinson Road is proof of this?
The Losers
The Jewish community of Hongkong!
T
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