RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 21 economic growth of the colony "While naturally trading for their own benefit, they think that they may justly claim to have contributed in no small way to the development, growth of prosperity of the Colony, and in their capacity as peaceful traders they consider themselves and their businesses a valuable asset to the community It has taken decades of hard work to create such an asset which they consider particularly valuable to the Colony since they have as impartial traders been instrumental to a great extent in attracting to this part business from all quarters of the globe thereby promoting British trade more than that of any other nation." As reasonable as this argument might seem to those who could differentiate between trade and politics, it found no sympathetic response among those who were responsible for the defence of the island and the patriotic call of God and King (CO129/144, p.573 No.520005) The letter was signed by the following firms with the date of their founding: Siemssen and Co. 1848 Arnhold, Karberg and Co. 1865 Melcher and Co. 1866 Sander, Wiele and Co. F. Blackhead and Co. 1854 Reuter, Brockelmann and Co. 1846 Garrels, Borner and Co. 1860 William Meyerink and Co. 1889 Carlowitz and Co. 1866 Deutsche-Asiatische Bank 1900 Carl Bodiker and Co. 1860 Raderkers and Co. 1868 The Medical Hall 1853 Jebsen and Co. 1894 Berblinger and Co. 1908 Bume and Reif 1905. Ferd. Bornemann and Co, 1888 Kruse and Co 1868 C.M. Schellhass Hans Schubart G. Prien 1880 Ulerup and Schluter 1905 China Export Import and Bank Compagnie 1856 Charles J. Gaupp 1859 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 52 establish a branch there of the new Deutsch Bank. Mr. Mammelsdorf to take charge in Yokohama. A special branch will be opened in Hong Kong. Both of these gentlemen were formerly in the Comptoir as was also Mr. Wallach who will take charge at Berlin. Mr. Probst, formerly of Pustau and Co. takes the branch at Hamburg. At Bremen will be Mr. Van der Heyde, formerly of Behre, Meyer and Co Singapore." At the same time as the Deutsch Bank was in the process of opening offices in China, the Deutsche National Bank of Bremen was organised and appointed Melchers and Co. their agent in Hong Kong and Siemssen and Co. their agent in Shanghai (DP 29 June 1872). The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank was registered at the Imperial German Consulate in Shanghai on 15 May 1889. In 1905, M. Hemann, the manager of the Hong Kong branch of the Bank was succeeded by Hugo Suter (DP 17 July 1905). The Bank redeveloped in 1913 the property on Queen's Road which it had occupied since 1901. The building, of modern renaissance style "on chaste and simple lines", was occupied for only a few months before it had to shut its doors with the outbreak of hostilities between England and Germany (SCMP 14 Aug. 1913, HKT 6 Jan. 1914). The building was purchased from the liquidators in 1917 by Sir Paul Chater for $355,000 (SCMP 14 Aug. 1917). From the time of the organization of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1864 to 1914 there were Germans on the Board of the Bank. Woldemar Nissen of Siemssen and Co. was on the Provisional Committee. Another member of the Provisional Committee was Waldemar Schmidt, whose name sounds German, a partner in the English firm of Fletcher and Co. In May 1868 Julius Menke of William Pustau and Co. joined the Board. With the failure of William Pustau and Co. in 1877 the firm was no longer represented. But in the meantime Hermann Melchers of Melchers and Co. was elected to a seat on the Board in 1872. The bank was watchful that the British interests should not be swamped by German and American, Arnhold, Karbegg and Co. had a representative on the board from 1888 and Carlowitz and Co. from 1875. In 1914 all the firms mentioned, but William Pustau and Co., had a partner on the Bank (Dr. King's detailed history of the bank has lists of the directors for each year). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 55 There were two attempts to escape from the Hung Hom Bay Camp. The first try was made by five prisoners. They were assigned to build a platform for concerts. The platform was near the barbed wire fence. It provided a shelter for them to tunnel to freedom and a storage place for the earth removed during their digging. Under cover of darkness, five crept through the tunnel; however, the last of the group was spotted by a sentry, who shouted the usual "Halt or I shoot". The escapee kept on going, and the sentry shot. The bullet hit the bag the prisoner was carrying, containing some of his gear, so he escaped injury, but he was overtaken and captured. Shortly after, another of the escaped internees was found in the hills of the New Territories. Several days later, the remaining three were rounded up near Sai Kung. Some time after this incident, another man arranged to accompany two other prisoners on a visit to a dentist in the Hong Kong Hotel. The dentist was only expecting two patients. He took these two into his surgery; one was to serve as an interpreter for the other. The third man, who had somehow arranged to come along, was left in the waiting room with a guard. He informed the guard he must go to the toilet. The guard accompanied him there; however, he did not go into the toilet as he wished to keep his eye on both the door of the dentist and the door of the toilet to ensure that none of his three prisoners escaped. The man in the toilet was able to escape through a window, but he was caught the same night and returned to the camp. The patriotism aroused by war stirred up in a British colony much doubt, distrust of old friends, ill will, and harsh words. The clubs passed resolutions excluding enemy aliens; the ties of former friendship were severely strained and, in many cases, broken. Many in the Colony who frequently passed the former premises of the Deutsche Asiatische Bank on Queens Road, not far from the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank, were irritated by the continuing presence of the Prussian double-eagled ensign, an architectural feature of the building. Many indignant letters appeared in the correspondence column of the newspapers before the emblem was finally removed. Since my delivery of the talk upon which this paper is based, Anne Selby has published a well-researched article in the South China Morning Post on 25 June, 1988, entitled "When Germans were unwelcome in HK". She used many of the same sources as I have used in the Public Records Office. I would refer interested readers to her article for information I have not included in my account. ================================================================================