1938-12-29 — Page 18

THE HONGKONG Telegraph, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1088.

INHOSPITABLE

SEA

GRIN AND BEAR IT

By Lichty

GOOD! BETTER! BEST!

It's Stout. It's Mill

It's MACKESON'S

he goodness famil

does you DOUBLE 00007

MACKESON'S MILK STOUT

THE ORIGINAL AND GENUINE MILK STOUT Sole Agents:-A. S. WATSON & CO, LTD.

H.M.V.

RECORDINGS

DECEMBER RELEASE

Suitable for the Festive Season.

ORIGINAL ARTISTS IN "THE LAMBETH WALK"

BD596 Lot's all join in the Chorus-With Tommy Handley and His Pals C3034

These Foolish Things Selection, London Palladium Orchestra

Folk Dance.

C3032 Draper's Maggot: The Hola in the Wall

Here Comes the Band.

B8807

FACTS

FOR THE 10 D.P. MOTORIST

The Vauxhall 10-fitr is the anal econoin)- cat Ten the world; did 43.4 mpg. In a recent R.A.C. TIEL

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The Vauxhall 18-tuor has independent Export. Hydraulic Brakes Controlled Synchromesh, All-Steel Construction.

TRY BEFORE YOU BUY

Mag we demonstrate Vauxhall's fino performance and pétrol economy?

HONGKONG HOTEL

Stubbs Rd.

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Vauxhall

-A steamer alongside

HERE few less

the quay at Djibouti

It seems quite strange, land-

featured and impassive-looking, the world than the Red Sea and its coasts, even to realise that somehow or other clustering round the place, and in the winter, let alone in they manage to extract from midsummer. Through this such barren surroundings the inhospitable sea Italian and wherewithal to keep alive. French troops would pour The Red Sea ports-Port Su-

Thospitable places tas ing, to find men, blare nothing-

Ep. 1137 by Usted Youture DynastaIA

"Eat at the Captain's table? I should say not-we ain't used to cating with the help!"

TRY ALSO THE 12 H.Pinto Djibouti, seaport of dan, Massawa, Assab, Djibouti, T. Paul Gregory Tells of

French Somaliland, and Berbera, Aden-all look very Massawa, se aport

of much alike passing by them-a Eritrea, if it comes to

The

a

sen-front, a row of palm trees, white houses, little encampmenta

Hongkong Telegraph show-down between the two of what is called civilisation

Wyndham St., Hongkong 'Phone 26615 December 29, 1938

Black Man's Continent

THE DEY OF ALGIERS hit the French Consul on the March. Modlay-H. M. Coldstream Guards head with his fly-swatter.

C3035

They had been arguing (it was 1832) over a little matter connected with a bill for grain, and the conversation had be- come heated.

Deep River; Go Down, Moses-Fats Waller on the Organ

Hits of the Moment.

D8816

Medloy-New Mayfair Orchestra

BD600

Puszta; The Wind has told me a story-R. Foort-Organ BD595

Woodcutter' Song-Comedy Harmonists 88814

She was, she was, she was: just for fun-Max Miller BD597

When you dream about Hawaii-G. Fitzgerald

B8802

BD527

China Doll Parado; Dainty Debutanto--Two Pianos

There was a diplomatic in- cident, a blockade of Algiers, and a shot was fired. A French Expeditionary Force landed, and the conquest of this part of the African const began.

That fly-swatter ought to rank with the Serajevo bullet. It started one of the most drama-packed incidents of the history of the world--the carve-

Messrs. S. MOUTRIE & Co., Ltd. up of the continent of Africa

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AT

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CHATER ROAD.

KING'S

GRAND NEW YEAR ATTRACTION

ONE WOMAN WHO

The choking dama ole merman

bone courage cervíað bær tæpEJŠ

The model taus kranas mirro

Cácán kasus Bigg

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Dared!

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DRUMS

AT DROPIOUS TECHNICOLOR

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DELMOND TESTER-RODER LIVEŠTV

VALERIA HORTON

a duar në å dro i tante de TRSTAN COUGA

Count the "TELEGRAPHS"

everywhere

among European nations,

It has a very special interest

to-day, because France and Italy now wrangling over

arc

Djibouti.

countries.

For night, too, is hot, sullenly,

heavily hot, and the stars seem beady, like eyes in a fat, perspir- ing face. Flicacttle languidly on features too languid to twitch them away and fans just stir up the sultriness. Trying to think is like trying to drive Д car through fog.

break on

I have known such heat in Upper Egypt when the tempera- and when, waking up at day- ture was 115 deg. in the shade,

the roof of a house where I slept, I looked over the desert, seeing the grey dawn like a threat and the sun come up, fiery, a doom and an abomina- tion

+

*

Hongkong's Most

Famous Pirate

2 + +

that he had once

☆

existing precariously on The heat is a torment, the very edge of desolation. breeze scorches, like the hot air The European officials who barbers blow on to your hair to come on board have a white, dry off a shampoo. You seem to tired look. Their faces bear the NOTHING is more dreaded by by presenting his sister in breathe in duit, hopelessness, so marks of much boredom endur- peaceful marinera than the uarriage to him. that the back of the mouth is ed. It is not difficult to imagine cry of "Pirates ahoy!" The Needless to say that by the what their lives are like, for life utterance of these words chills advent of the 'fifties, Wong was everlastingly dry. The 60n

for a European in the East does the heart, and the mind recalls (securely ensconced in his position beats down with n relentless, not vary much as between one with drend half-forgotten jng a local buccaneer. His fleet dazzling monotony, and you have small station and another. episodes in the history of the of swift, piratical lorchas, man- (not even the satisfaction of

ara: memories of buccaneering ned by trusty crews ensured for knowing that nightfall will bring tween one European and another, the pillaging of ships. the that his warehouse on the Praya Nor does it vary much as be-raids, of surprises in the dark, him a steady stream of loot, so relief.

Your Frenchman or Italian may slaughter of captains and crews, was always ful. Not even Jean look rather more soiled

and and stories of passengers being Lafitte, the most successful coast, creased than your Englishman, kidnapped and held for ransom. pirate of the Louisiana be more inclined to sit in pyja- Nowadays, of course, this cry was more fortunate than he; for mas in the evenings, have a more is seldom heard; for piracy is his shop in Queen's Road pro- indolent, frankly perspiring, practically an occurrence of the viued the most effective cloak frankly homesick, forlorn air. past. Yet some seventy or for the concealment of his real when the activities. What is more, tho But for all there is at the same eighty years ago, round of sunset drinks, the same waters around this Colony, were infinite variety, and the remark- monotonous hospitality, a sense the rendezvous for as blood-ably low prices of his goods, of being transplanted in an un-thirsty a lot of fierce sea-rovers proved unusually attractive, and congenial, unfruitful soil.

ns could be found anywhere, it under such circumstances the must have been heard with business of Wong and Co. despairing frequency. That was flourished. an era of piratical coups, carried War would

Even the recent Abyssinian out by well-organised gangs, not revive these under the leadership of able and sleepy, unappetising regions: An ruthless men.

TN the meantime, he had become known throughout the Co- Englishman who went to Massa-

lony not only as a prosperous wa during the conflict described to me how the place still seemed

merchant and ship-owner, but dead, despite the ships packed ONE of these old-time pirate also as a suspected Imperial spy chiefs was Ma-chow Wong, on behalf of the Chinese Govern- in the harbour and the wharf ;

onded with a jumbled variety of a man whom Europeans of that ment. That he was especially

day nicknamed "the goods, from foodstuffs to road cutter" in allusion to the fact shown by the preferential treat- grass loyal to the Manchu cause is Then the interminable waste material. of sand all round seemed a fit-

naively ex-ment accorded to him in later ting background, it parched too, a little sultry bar, and

He wandered about, and found plained his presence in some years, but that is another

five forbidden cove by saying that he episode in his life. it also a victim of the relentless Europeans in the bar. They had gone there "to gather fuel." sun; and life became cruel and had not had a proper meal for

Singularly enough, the pheno- Ma-chow Wong. whose realmenal prosperity of Ma-chow simplified, and there was no five days.

He took them on name was Wong A-kei, was said

Wong lasted for only soven luxuriance, no rich, tangled board his ship and fed them. to have been born in the San-on jungle, no fertility even

They were enormously grateful, district of Kwangtung about the years, and then the wheel of where; only heat and glare and

year 1822. Practically nothing fortune suddenly ceased to turn Looking at the Red Sea and is known of his carly life, but "ny longer in his favour. its little sleepy ports, which it is thought that his residence Ignominy, too, was to be his might be uninhabited for all the in Hongkong began about the lot, and it all came about activity they show during most time this Colony became a Bri- through the accidental arrest of of the day, thinking of that tish possession.

young American, who was parched, deserted earth, the We do know, however, that later proven to be none other

marvels traveller

that here by the year 1845 when he was than Ell Boggs, the pirate. was in due course should be the first stage in a 23 years of age, he had already This man conflict that has already shaken become acquainted with Mr. D. convicted of his crimes, and the whole European system.

R. Caldwell, then Chinese Inter-while awaiting deportation to preter, who was to serve as his America, in the course of a patron and confidential adviser conversation with his gaolers, for many years.

he related a strange tale of how To add to everything else a Kipling has a story about

he had seen the ostensibly res- sort of saltiness in the air makes three men who, as an experi

pectablo Chinese merchant Ma- it sticky, unsavoury to breathe. ment, set out to make an obscure

chow Wong on previous piratical It has a harbour, Djibouti. It It is not uncommon, in such cir- village famous by putting it YOUNG Wong was in every fornys, and how he wong) had way u man of parts, and by directed the operations which about that the village had un- has a railway terminal (the cumstances, for a liner to stop, animously voted the world to be seven was well established as a vessel and the seizure of her the time that he was twenty-led to the capture of a certain offer end of which is at Addis turn round, and let the following flat. Their project was a com- longkong merchant. It is like-argo of sugar, and the murder Ababa, capital of Italy's newest wind blow through it for half plete

success. Charabancs wise possible that he had already of many of her

crew. Such Colony) also Djibouti. Most an hour so as to get an airing. brought parties of visitors to embarked upon his piratical statements as these were at first the village, it figured in head- carcer, but in those days he was regarded as highly improbable, important of all, it has a city On shore, no such devices are lines and in music-hall songs, but a amall-fry corsair, and it but on being further investiga which, if fortified, will become possible. Italian and French even in the proceedings of Par- was not until the next decade, ted, the truth was elicited; and to the Suez Canal and Red Sea soldiers packel in Massawa and liament.

that he managed to blossom what Gibraltar has become Djibouti just have

Ma-chow Wong was to endure,

connection It is in the same way that forth as the most feared buc-under arrest. In to the Mediterrancan also languidly watching the arrival tho Eritrea-Somaliland

cancer along the South China const Djibouti.

of more ships and waiting with became

He was fortunate, too, with the case, Mr. Charles May, Italian Somaliland, which has tepid water to drink and food shouted it, and children played although he was arreated in 1847 and Mr. A. b. Inglis; the Gover Newsboys in his dealings with the law, and the Superintendent of Police, a coastline of 1,200 miles, has mostly shipped from Europe to at launching attacks from it: it on a suspicion of fraud in con- following amazing summary of nor of Victoria Gaol issued the no harbour, no rallway, no port, ent,

figured in the writings and nection with some merchandise which can he turned into a forti-

speeches of statesmen.

the affair: Yet it purchased by his shop, he was fied naval base. Eritrea has a port-Massawa-but between it

The last independent African kingdom disappeared when Italy annexed Abyssinia. Now there's nothing left to wrangle over but the other man's possessions.

Why is Italy so anxious to obtain possession of this small, arid French Colony, which breeds nothing but goats, grows nothing but a small quantity of gum?

sand.

*

*

any-

It is waterless save along the southern frontier, where lics British Somaliland. It is n chaotic mass of volcanic rocks, Even passengers in luxurious- destitute of vegetation and pre-ly equipped liners, with ice and senting in places a

ecene of fans and nothing to do but loll weird desolation.

ion deck, find the Red Sea intoler- Italy cannot possibly want able when there is a following French Somaliland-and threa-wind. ten even to go to war to get it

its --for colonisation purposes.

resources

or

for

No, that is not the reason.

famous.

const.

4

JA

is now what it was before-the speedily released. It is to he edge of a narrow sea where heat suspected, as some have hinted, and the hinterland lies a chain Flying over auch places, it seems to get canalised, dry and that his friend, Mr. Caldwell had of almost unsurmountable moun-soems extraordinary that they unprofitable, a sea dividing the a great deal to do with his dis- tains.

aunport life at all. You sco civilisation of Europe from the charge from official custody; for France holds, in Djibouti, nothing but desolation, an occa- civilisation of Asin, and partak. It is certain that by this time, the key that can close the door sional shadow where a few trees ing of neither, with the wild to Abyssinia. Italy wants that are, a cluster of houses by the neas of Africa on one side and key.

sca const.

an immense desert on the other.

they had become "blood bro- thera" by adoption, and Wong had further sealed their intimacy

brought

"Ma-chow Wong has been apprehended and his Поина searched, the books and papers being seized, amongst the Intter are some papers in Mr.. Caldwell'a writing, showing · that he had taken a direct interent in the business of

(Continued on Page 5.)