1938-10-20 — Page 6

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Personalities of Old Hongkong

Mr.

Henry Charles Sirr

Few men were more pessimistic about the future of Hong- kong than Mr. Henry Charles Sirr, a brilliant if somewhat erratic Irish barrister and author, who spent a few troubled years in the Colony during its early years. He was a sincere if inexact impressionist, and his literary efforts were intended to present a

picture of life in the Far East as it was at that time.

GRIN AND BEAR IT

By Lichty

Pelity

MR. Henry Charles Sirr kong as a thriving Colony and was born in County port, Not so sanguine in his Cork, Ireland about the hopes was Mr. Sirr, however, for he had been here scarcely a year year 1815. He was a before the lofty expectations | member of a wealthy and at the time of his arrival became influential family who saw changed to an attitude of the that he received the best greatest gloom and disgust. He possible education, sending did not seem to "hit it off" any him to the University of nity, and those who had cases too well with the local commu- Stubba Rd. Dublin, where he graduated in court were wont to patronise

B. A. in 1838. His college his brethren at the Bar. studies were intended to It was perhaps this feeling of prepare him for the profes- being isolated that embittered could bring out his book. One is speedily sion of law, and after his him, and he determined if he may wonder why, if he disliked Colony was the sole reason, for successful admission to the ever left the Colony he would living here so much, he did fines such as these appear in Hongkong Telegraph. go out to the Far East, luto many others who have sojourn pastures" and the answer' pro- duty that we owe our fellow-men Irish Bar, he determined to "expose" it in a book. Like not earlier depart for "greener the book: "We deem it £

Phone 27778/9

The

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1938.

SALUTE TO CHINA'S VERDUN

9-14

"Before we start, I'd like to know whe's going to drive-you or

vour mother?"

ed in the East, Mr. Sirr was bably is that as long as

assured that the

of

no doubt by those won- obsessed with an urge to write, thought there was any chance of the insalubrity of China. he to speak truthfully and plainly drous tales which were and this "yen" as it would be of earning a comfortable living generally, but especially being circulated about the termed in modern alang occupied here, he was determined to stay. Hongkong, for had we but one opportunities to be found in Her Majesty's newly opened Crown Colony of Hongkong.

More Lucrativo

Career

Gallant Tehan, Verdun of the Far East, falls after holding the might of Japan's Imperialism, Impotent for three months. Whatever the outcome of the 29, 1844, in Sino-Japanese War,

BY T. PAUL

Mr. Sirr arrived here on May GREGORY

company with Tchan several other young barristers

of

Record Of Deaths

and as soon as that failed, he sincere friend, who had told us felt that the community was to the honest truth concerning that. blame, and it was time for him charnel house Hongkong, not all to leave.

the wealth of the East would The real reason, however, for have lured us thither."" his sudden departure for Home in 1848, was

the apparently

Biased Remarks downfall of Mr. Percy Caulin- His description of Hongkong court McSwyney, & fellow has since become famous, for countryman, and like himself a there is scarcely a writer upon barrister. Mr. Sirr felt much the Colony's early history who sympathy for Mr. McSwyney, has not quoted his biased

re-

should go down in history as a who had come to the East in all his leisure hours. He pro- who in a few brief years had marks at some time or other. To name with fame enduring even search of fame and fortune. All ceeded to fill note-books with all fallen from a position of wealth those who live in our present- more than that gained by were armed with official com- sorts Taierhchwang, where the "in- China, but no sooner had they what he thought would be the "shake the dust of the Colony century ago, according to Mir. missions as H. B. M. Consuls to which would aid in penning ignominy, and determined to almost ludicrous that scarcely a statistics-material into a state of the most hopeless day flourishing Colony It seems vincibility" of Japan's Army, arrived in Hongkong than they most "damning indictment" of was first proved a myth.

decided that after all a far more the Colony-which

from his feet." At any rate the Sirr, this beautiful island was scarcely Tehan is, or was, an obscure lucrative carcer was to be se twenty years later was to earn time for the publication of his nothing more than "an arid, little rail town on the Kiukiang-

cured in

the profession of the proud title of being the "Gem book had now arrived, and pro- fetid, broiling spot." But those law, and Nanchang Railway. Japan cap- up their government appoint- sions."

proceeded to throw of Britain's Eastern Posses- vided with little more than a who wish to pursue the subject tured Kiukiang 3% months ago ments and set themselves up as

trunkful of manuscripts he ar- further should read Mr. Sirr rived in London. The long anti- two volumes to be found in the and boasted that the fall of practising barristers. He was Hankow and the severing of the admitted to the practice of law.

cipated expose of Hongkong's Public Library, and while they frailties was Q two-volumed will be amused at his remarkable Canton-Hankow Railway would at the first acssions of the The vital statistics of the in- affair entitled "China and the candour in discussing the Colony quickly follow. But obscure 1844. This was a historic occa- fant Colony were his especial Chinese: Their Religion, in which they live, and amazed little Tehan provided a defence sion, indeed, and some of those interest, and he took a rather Character, Customs, Manufac- at his ruthless condemnation of that startled and disheartened first barristers who were ad- sardonic delight in recording the turcs, etc.," (London, 1849). it, they cannot avoid being im the Invaders and roused the were associated with the legal occurred due to

mitted to practice at this time number of deaths which then All the minute statistics which pressed at his obvious sincerity..

malaria, or he had so painstakingly collected This work, it may be mentioned, admiration of the world. Its profession for many years in the "Hongkong fever" as it was then in Hongkong appear in the work, was not the only literary attack, ultimate fall was inevitable, but Colony. Most of them, too,

called. A hatred not only of and although from a perusal the author made upon Hong- Japan's victory took three costly achieved successful careers, and Hongkong but of China gener. of the title one may be inclined kong, for in the Dublin Univer- and bloody months to achieve.

their names

numbered ally consumed him, and he could to wonder what connection the sity Magazine, of July 1847, among those who had visions of scarcely bide his time until he work has with Hongkong, one may be found a rather amusing the eventual prosperity of Hong-

skit on the Colony's first 10. C., Major General D'Aguilar failed lamentably-to curb the

are

Bombarded as no city in the world has been bombarded be- fore, gallant little Tehan has dia- appeared from the face of the of any battery, naval, military earth. Only those who control or air force establishments or

Japan's purse strings know how much the cost of its destruction

was to the invaders.

DON'T TAKE

THAT PHOTO

G.

GENTLEMAN OF THE ROAD who heroically attempted--but

HAVE many visitors to my wee He was looking much the same as strident matutinal street calls blacksmith shop, which stands at usual, ftylsh and fresh. At theand hawkers' cries which disturb anchorages, or of any British the extreme north of the village-back of his head his hair curled

warships, with apparatus cap- They come and they go. My roaring was shabby, but with a strong pair modern resident.

tinkers, beggars, vagrants. tramps. wards for the want of cutting. He the slumbers of so many

п

It is only natural that they should

but I had never seen him under the influence.

He took out a binckened can and

טת

a

able of reproducing such de-are attracts them as a candle attracts of boots on his feet. His face and

a moth. At least, it is feasible eyes were those of a meth-drier Unfavourable Reception fences may be imprisoned for a excuse for an introduction. month. Even the entering of pause by my ever-open door, for my

As for Mr. Sirr, he seema fo have

made

more BUC- defence works without reproduc-glowing fire is the first thing that small packet of tea, and asked if

T would boil some water for It is a serious offence in tion devices is an offence that bellows are the first thing that strikes while he waited. I asked him how his book by the public did not

meets their eyes and

him, cess as an author than he had my roaring He talked to me of things in generatias a barrister. The reception of Hongkong to sketch, draw or may net imprisonment.

their ears as they enter the village, business was with him. He said photograph any defence works.

it after having tramped miles and miles to be sure of wonderful landscapes without see-good with him because life was good. anticipated, for, all things said wau good. Business was always prove as favourable as he had

Footweary and forlorn they come,

and done, the average English- like inhabitants from another world.

man at Home did not care one He told me that eight days before iota whether Hongkong was as From my door 1 sec them, mere he had been in Inverness, That is specks at Arst on the long ribbon of 150 miles from Perth, and Perth is bad as Mr. Sirr affirmed it to be rond, but growing rapidly Inrger fully 20 miles from my blacksmith or not. The world was too and larger, as if my fire were beckon- shop. Ife walked all the way, pedd-large, and Her Majesty's posses- ing them to friendliness and comfort. lng his wares by day, sleeping un-

Moral: Better

An Englishman, who unwitting-now about that photograph than ing a living soul. ly contravened the Defences sorry later. (Sketching Prevention) Ordin-TRYING TO

ance of 1895,

WAR

before the

Court yesterday for taking FIND A WAR photographs at Stanley,

The definition

of Defence

that the authorities

or

from.

names

-

night.

Chinese place

add

der hedger and in lodging-houses by sions too far flung, to worry works in the Ordinance is such dealing with the flood of "copy" land, England, Ireland, and Wales. that were strange to me. He seemed Chiney," and after all, life in

greatly to the worries of oditora

about a little dot of soil. "out They come from all parts--Scot- 110 named places in the Highlands somewhere near the const of on the Sino-Japanese hostilities. But the majority are Scots, and when to know every road and byway of civillan can effect. arrests for Yesterday, an unofficial source they speak I know at once from their the Highlanas, and he was an inter-good old England was all that any offence committed in the reported the capture by Japa- they come.

dialect from which part of Scotland sting speaker, uneducated but really mattered, vicinity of naval, military or air nese troops of Sheklung, impor-

Intelligent. force property. It is not per tant railway centre 35 miles 1ght, for their pipe from my fire; or, speakes of home. After

He had spent the previous night Mr. Sirr when he saw that his They ask a heat from my fire; or in a Perth lodging-house. He spoke literary inclinations; were not missiblo

a boiling of water from my fire or to photograph or

of lodging-houses as an immigrant sketch batteries, field works, later another

Canton, Half-an-hour if it is raining, a little time by my were the only home he had known fitable, immediately sought and all, they going lo turn out any too pro- fortifications, naval, military or

message semi- fire to dry their shabby clothes-al-for the best part of a lifetime.

obtained a government appoint- ways something from my fire, officially confirmed the capture) air force premises, naval anchor-of Sheklun. But the Sheklun from me, after my fire has introduced should he?

I asked him if he never thought? And invariably something more about settling down. He smiled,iment in Ceylon. Here he was. ages, or even British warships: which was semi-officially capus, anything from a pipeful of baccy A bed in summer was cheep enough. rather checkered career, and summer was here again, alleged to have experienced a Photography from the Peak in tured was not the Sheklung of water to a making of

to an old pair of bools; from a drink. A silent Highland hillside, and away after a few short years in that practically any direction would

rumoured to have been captured.

Lear

from nil cares. A better bed, be a contravention of the Regu, It was an obscure village on the begging, because with hardly

They have made perfect the art of said, than ever woman made up. part of the East, he retired to Intions.

Heather for blankets and a starry his Homeland where he died in exception highway to Tooncheng, which only to get rid of them. A cake of settle down?

I find myself helping, sky for a roof. Why should be obscurity and penury at the The penalties are high. Any also fell. The Japanese claim soap is about the only commodity His water boiling, he made for the comparatively early age of fifty.. person it does not matter whe- to the capture of Sheklung, the for which they never nek.”

door

never even begged for a match. two-tho forgotten author of I But there is one gentleman of the asked him where he was making the first book about Hongkong. ther he is British or alien-who railway city, was not officially road who, except for the services for, and he enld Edinburgh. He was *See the writer's article on Mr.. contravenes the Regulations may confirmed up to the time the of my fire, asks for nothing. He a native of Edinburgh, and liked to be fined $500 or spend three "Telegraph" went to presa with lives by selling the ustini amallwares took his "ain folks up occasional Percy Caulincourt McSwyney in.

of the door-to-door hawker, I feely.

the "Personalities of Old Hong- First Edition to-day, him only at very irregular Intervals. Gentleman of the road, with no kong" series, in the Hongkong option of a fine. Even a person although original reports of its He walked into my shop the other relatives in all the world, but no Telegraph of Wednesday, July

day, the first Ume for the beal part trouble to anybody! found in the immediate vicinity fali appear authentic.

27, 1938.

Flying Standard Cars months in prison without the its

of a year.

an

Steve,