1938-09-22 — Page 6

6 THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1938.

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Personalities of Old Hongkong

AN

Lieutenant-General

N interest in things Chinese led to a little hump-backed foreigner becoming high-

mnking officer in the Chinese Imperial Army. He Was

Available at all our Garages and Lieutenant-General Homer Lea,

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an American adventurer, who. during the first decade of the present century played an im- portant part in the history of Chinn. He was, moreover, 11 familiar figure here, and while Hongkong could not be said to have been his abode for any great length of time, neverthe- less, he always gravitated back to the Colony, and his sojourn here was fairly consistent.

Homer Lea

BY

T. PAUL

GREGORY

A. S. WATSON & CO., LTD. Hongkong Hotel born in Denver, Colorado, on of the American public which

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1938.

-

Leads Chinese Army.

this book, Lea advanced the idea that

ed on

times. Lea, from his earliest extravagant idea øk carving It was then thought that if able signs of weakness in British

now

J

A

next work the

Saxon.

opposed CORRIRONWTalih ci

33 its fundamental that any trend

Lea now became acquainted with

Lea was appointed commander of the 2nd Army Division and by 1904, had risen to the rank of lieutenant

fighting General. The

while san- guinary did not produce any concrete results, and the news of Kuang Hisu's death in 1908, ended for- After the collapse of the

ever any hopes of restoring the Boxer movement, Lea stayed on

speedily diminishing power of the in the Far East, and his erst- monarchy. Lea, therefore, decided while patron

Kang Yu-wei to return home and "eash in" on the beneût of his Oriental experience. having arriving in the Colony, He now took the pen, and in 1903 he came here to consult with published a Chinese novel entitled him. As Fate. would have The Vermillion Pencil." This was it, a new possibility of mili- speedily followed by a drama called the "Crimson Spider," and later by tary service arose for him. his

Valor of Ignorance.“ remarkable The Empress Dowager, Tsz a military work in two volumes In HsI had succeeded in de

States embark- posing the Emperor, Kuang Hsu, unless the United and there was a patriotic move preparedness she was doomed to be

a large scale scheme of national ment afoot to restore him to the come the victim of an Asiatic aggres Throne. The plan which was sor, and he named Japan 23 the was possible one. The book naturally that Lea organise

and al- enough created a body

a furore, Lieut. General Homer Len was enthusiasm and military ardour formulated in Hongkong

was didinguished, as were though it of troops and

undertake at the rest of his literary efforts, by relief of the dis- crudity and extravagance of style, it November 17, 1876. He was was then glorying in the ex- the the son of Alfred Erskine and ploits of Licut. Colonel The tressed Emperor. He accord was marked by undoubted sincerity. and strange trans- Hersa (Coberly) Lea, both des- odore "Teddy" Roosevelt and ingly proceeded to North China, In Japan, it was hailed as a master- Phone 27778/9.cendants of English emigrants his gallant band of "Rough- and was a leading participant in lated version went through twenty- an attempt which, however, four editions in less than one month. who had established themselves riders." "

proved unsuccessful, In 1901,

His stay in Hongkong stimulated in Virginia during Cavalier He now conceived the rather he returned to the United States. his belief that there were lament-

policy, and

proceeded and most impressionable years out military career in the the reform movement was to suc- "expose" them in his dreamed of the profession of Orient. AL lenst, ali his ceed, the Emperor must be entitled The Day of

from

W3 on restored to his rightful position Lea

radically vocntion incidentally endeavours

any idea of the Dragon Throne, and nations, and thought that if the Bri- Hongkong Telegraph. arms

which seemed singularly in- seemed to be concentrated on on appropriate to one of his physi. the one thought that they would that the Empress Dowager and tish Empire wished to remain strong. prove useful to him later on in her clique must be dispossessed it must emphasise centralisation of cal handicap and short stature China. He begun to haunt the of their power if China was to government

policy, and warned (he was only five foot three); Chinese laundries

and chop continue as a nation. Such was from this would likely prove danger-

Chinese ous. THE CONQUEST OF but like most enthusiasts he toy- suey restaurants in the China- the opinion of most

ed with the idea and determined towns along the Pacific coast, liberals of the day, and the sub- MALARIA

to bring his visions of martial and the genial proprietors of sequent events proved that they Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and soon became his adviser and right-hand-man. He Much of

accompanied the "Father of the Malaria threatens the native splendour into practical reality, these Oriental business establish- were largely right,

for the chaos of Chinese Republic to Nanking and ments proved exceptionally the blame

The population of a great copper

The surge of patriotic fervour obliging in teaching the young the country in later years was was with him in 1911 when

visional government was formed which swept the country at the American the rudiments of Can to be laid directly to the reac- Sun elected mining district

Northern in

President Les, hợtr- outbreak of the war with Spain tonese, In fact, so apt à stu- tionary movements fostered by Sum

ever, was not fated to get on

well Rhodesia and urgent messages:

In 1898, affected him as it did dent did Lea prove that he this strong-willed woman who with the great Revolutionary.

might have been his increasing are flashed to another outpost thousands of other youths, and was soon fairly conversant with had seized the reins of govern-

ment from the hands of the ill-health that brought about their of the Colonial Empire for he did his best to impress the much so that the leaders of the effete but still liberal-minded United States shortly thereafter.

Cantonese colloquial. Indeed, so

separation; for he

returned to the His assistance. It is a striking tri- various recruiting sergeants San Francisco Chinatown were Emperor. To the end of restor- success as an author did not appear bute to the work done in with the fact that he was fit favourably impressed. He was ing Kuang Hsu to the Throne, very heartening; for after the sensa- tionalism of his books first appear- Hongkong by Dr. R. B. Jackson,Į to. serve. One hard-boiled Non- fortunate, too, in meeting Kang Lea was commanded to start once had subsided, they did not sell,

in and

his income froen consequently, 0.8.E.-for it he received re-com told him: "Uncle Sam will Yu-wei, the head of the Chinese training Chinese volunteers

Reform Association, the San Francisco Chinatown this source was practically non- ill-health and cognition from His Majesty the use you when you have out. Empire

then in the United and many of these Cantonese re- existent. In fact, who was grown your hump!" This was

returned penury now seemed to dog him, and King in the last Birthday

although he made a heroic attempt to like a douche of cold water to States on a propaganda mission cruits subsequently

him to China the recoup his declining fortunes by pen- among his compatriots. Kang with Honours-that he should be the hopes of the twenty-two was especially delighted with next year, when a more formid- ning another book, "A History of [appunched by the Secretary of year-old would-be recruit, and Lea, and upon learning that he able attempt was made to defeat the Political Development of China, State for the Colonies and he determined to learn Civil possessed some military know the troops of the Empress he died before it could be finished,

ac- ledge immediately took him Dowager in battle. asked to undertake a new anti-Engineering instead. He

entered Occidental under his patronage. malarial campaign in the heart [cordingly

College in Los Angeles with that Served In Boxer Riots of equatorial Africa.

The story of the ravages of halls of learning was symptoma- Conditions in China were now |A. Minimus and A. Jeyporiensis tic of the restlessness of his in such a chaotic state owing to the Boxer trouble that Kang in Hongkong, and of the final spirit; for during the next year felt his plans for reform conquest of these two vampire or so he was registered as a must be temporarily shelved. but a mountainous, West of Scotland and the coal boat should be in to- Indies of the mosquito world by student in two more Californian Whether it was through Kang's island, with a population of crofters morrow. Dr. Jackson and his able col-colleges--the University of the advice or due to his own initia- and a climate that can be both ap-

Pacific and Leland Stanford tive we do not know, but any palling and sublime. leagues of the Malaria Bureau,

way Lea determined to go out at Palo Alto.

to China immediately. Upon ing one from the mainland, one ficiently rough to prevent the bon is a story that started almost with the founding of this Militarism His Hobby his arrival in Hongkong carly in Ands content and a glorious feeling from crossing with the mails; there July, 1899, he stayed here for of security. There is something ricane, and then the talk is all of Colony in 18-11. In its early In the meantime, he was not sometime apparently studying Barrie-like about

island lite. In stacks blown down and hen-houses communities, So Im-upset. days Hongkong shared with the neglecting his lofty apirations to the political situation in Canton. these little sweltering

In Meanwhile, in August, 1900, a mersed in their own doings, one has fever-ridden | follow a military career. And

Islanders are happy to weil all the courtesies. coast of Guinea the sobriquet of fact, it possessed him more than foreign relief expedition to Pe- the feeling that the people are apart, and

king had been formed, and Lea that the perplexities of the world. Parties are numerous, visiting is an of interest in who had been turned down at with rumours of war and dictatorial institution, and concerts are meet- Man's Grave", and ever. His lack

cannot possibly affecting-places with invariably a cup ofę malaria was known throughout sports perhaps accounted for his Home succeeded in joining as a rumblings,

Lea served in the middle of the pro- ceedings. the Far East as "Hongkong singular devotion to what now soldier.

"White

end in view, but his stay in the

became with him a hobby-the Fever". Four years after the

Requirement of a knowledge of first British flag was hoisted on military science by drilling the the barren slopes of the Penk, most motely group of freaks

General D'Aguilar, whose name and mis-its that could be found is commemorated to-day in anywhere. Somehow or other, street and a cape, declared that Lea managed to get together itʊ retain the Colony would about a thousand men-practi- "require the loss of a whole re- cally all more physically infirm than himself with the strange giment every three years." Be-

iden of forming a cavalry regi- tween June and September, ment, and with himself, of 1844, more than one hundred course, as commander-in-chief. men of the 55th Regiment died The enthusiasm which awept of malaria alone; to-day, the old this singular corps was most tombstones nt Wanchai and remarkable, and while it did not Stanley bear mute testimony to last long. Lea at any rate was ascute enough to profit by pop- the ravages of the disease.

ular ebullience in order to gain Even in the early decades of

valuable military training for this century Hongkong was himself. The success of this hot-bed of body-racking, teeth-venture was, of course, directly rattling fever, and not until the attributable to the tremendous appointment of Dr. Jackson in

#

April, 1930, was anti-malarial

work tackled on a comprehen-disappeared from the central sive scale. To-day, thanks to districts of Victoria and Kow- the achievements of this re-loon, and the work of clearing markable malariologist and his rural districts of the scourge is colleagues, the disease from so far advanced that the Colony

putation of unhealthiness has of Paludism,

THE HONGKONG & SHANTHAI HOTELS, LTD. which Hongkong derived its re-need no longer fear the Vectors

in Los Angeles, California at the carly age of thirty-six years.

ISLAND LIFE

IVING on an island is fun-not a Far more important, it seems, that palm-fringed South Sea paradise, the pests should be go: bone dry

There, with miles of sea separate

them.

GRIN AND BEAR IT

By Lichty

"YOUR TORTHE TOLD WITH

EVERY 75+ DINNER

"Pll have an extra dessert instead of my fortune!"

Weather plays an important part in the lives of the islanders. There are days when the chief topic of con-

versation is whether the sea is suf-

are nights when the wind is a hur-

Go to a dance on a SUTIENET'S evening in a village hall, where the music is that of an accordion. 1: may not be so dignißed as the form)- ai invitation ball, but, given a simple heart, you will be happier there.

Wander out by the sea, watch the twinking lights of the fishing boats, listen to the cry of the seagulls, and Romance is yours.

Then home. over rougha roads, the scent of hoteysuckle in the air and the eyes of the sheep clistening strangely in the lights of the car.

Old customs linger long in the is- Jands. Fast Days are still observed, precentors can be seeni with their tuning forks in many of the little kirks, while the celebration of the New Year is an arduous affair that extends long into the month.

Time is not the stera master it is to the townsman Wants are simple here, the desire for wealth is not prevalent, even if the poor soil would allow it.· There is always time for a crack with a passer-by.

Is

There may not be a picture-house, but acting in the plays for the drama festival

Ove thrilling Char watching synthetic beauties being languoruly unlife-Like. And no fim could beat the beauty of a sun- set as seen freen our own Western Islands.

Year after year holidaymakers re- tum, drawn by an irresistible fa cination. And now, with all this talk of air raid precautions, may they not prøve more desirable than evert

W