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THE HONGKONG TE LEGRAPH, FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 1980.
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Wyndham St., Hongkong 'Phone 26615 January 13, 1939
THE SUEZ CANAL
THE THREAT by Egypt's Minister of Finance that the Suez Canal concession will be renewed when it expires twenty years hence is probably an idle one. Egypt would be involved in claims for immediate payment, in cash, of compensa- tion exceeding £1,200,000,000 were she to attempt to take over the canal herself.
The
threat
from
CASE No. 2489 DID NOT SURVIVE
Perhaps the tone of this article is not pleasant. But the "Telegraph" prints it
By
in order to draw attention to the other A Staff
half of the world we Hongkong people Reporter
live in, and to plead for a worthy cause.
"N OUR RESPONSE to the appeals for assis- tance for refugees from China we are apt to forget the whole tragedy affecting a great section of our own people-a tragedy which has influx of destitute new- comers from the war torn [areas of China.
Before me as I write lies the Annud Report of the Hongkong Society for the Protection of facts here;
nothing more-Case Numbera that each tell a tragedy-and what ugly figures they are.
Here is a family of five living on 50 a month, of which they pay $2 for a bedspace which they take turni to occupy
another family of six living on $6 a munth, baby, suf- fering from marasmus and tuber- culosis due to lack of food, dies... widow with four children pleads for help after twice being arrested and fined for hawking without
conce, her sole means of gaining a livelihat.. the list goes on and
A WIDOW with four children, all
five starving. They have no- where to live except in the street. Conjure up a vision of this cano—- Case No. 267 in the Society's files. The widow is an earth-coolic-she works for ten cents a day carrying earth. But she can no longer work. er frail, undir-nourished form is unequal to the strain imposed upon it. The eldest boy-twelve years of age-desperately hawks some their meagre belongings in the streets in the hopes of welling some
of
A whisky-soda? Man, the price of two whisky-zodas was the average monthly income of every Case dealt with by the Society in 1918,
Incidentally, the average was the lowest in the Society's history. In
income for 1932, the
average
n
month of a family was $2.03.. Last year it was only $1.57.
Try and imagine that. Two thou- sand and fifteen familles last year Ilved on an average of $1.57 a month ragh, That's why they ate the rice that gave them berl-berl, and why they died like flies. Not even like tlirs. For a fly usually has his belly full when he dies.
When I said 2,015 fomilics, I was referring to those handied last year by the Society.
its revenue for 1938 was only $20,121. For instance, I received sumcient money to buy only $0,000 worth milk foods and cod liver cil. Medicine, hawkers' licences and other relief took $3,000.
SP
PACE IS FOUND in the Society's
Annual Report for only 29 of the 2,015 cases dealt with last year. In these 20 cases the words "ar- rested for hawking without a Ecence" is used no less then 13 times that Js, in nearly half the cases members of the family ran fout of the police for trying to obtain a living by sell- ing things in the street,
Some people would say that the police could be better employed, that the
arresting. wasted money wa charging, detaining, feeding and in- prisoning the unlucky hawker would go a long way towards alleviating distress among the poverty-stricken if diverted to proper channels. the arrest of a Hawker does not rest with his or her being marched up to the police station by an Indian Con- stable. A European Inspector there to note down the particulars on the Crime Sheel, n warder Icoks after the arrested person in the lock-
For
Italy is probably more immediate, for she has been particularly insistent of late in her demands for a share in the Suez Canal Company-in which Britain owns 330,000 of the 800.000 thing to buy food for his mollier bundles of rags and bones. Next Australa and New Zealand (where and then, after the conviction, there
shares and for a reduction of Its dues. In this demand sho has been supported by Germany and, of course, by Japan, whose appetites are similar. It has, however, become a specifically Italian demand for two reasons: since her conquest of Abyssinin Italy's share of trade passing through the canal has risen to second place and she finds the
and his younger brothers und sie
ters.
The Society paid his bail so that for European babies is cleaner than up, the Indian, an Inspector and an- he could mother his four pitiful any country in the world except ather policeman are required to at- day the Society paid his ine,
tend to the case before Magistrate they look after their babies so well that only four in each thousand die is the prison, where the hawker is in the Brat year of life), has the most again surrounded by a bevy of cm- elals, and fed and housed for any-
*
But the purpose of this article is not to cover so wide a feld ns that provided by the hawking problem.
He hawks too
Indian near an
Ya man can be sent to prison for thing up to a month.
DIDN'T know, did you, that terrible infant mortality of any coun- constable and is arrested.
Prison may await this lad--whose trying to sell newmaners in the year, of every thousand babies born,
The Law calls that a crime. 350 die. only crime is that he sought food street. for his family. The law in Hong- unless the man buys himself a licence first. Just to make sure that tho kong makes no distinction between many people don't sell newspapers, IT'S WHAT we call, in our smug the person who attempts to earn his or the other things that hawiera sell, fashion, the survival of the fit livelihood by selling a Chinese news the number of Hernees issued each test." We call it one of the laws of paper and the one who gains it by year is strictly limited. pilfering or stealing.
Fortunate
for the youth that the Society for
the clutches of the law and sent to
No. C.267 was closed.
•
Nature!
We blame God for many things, blame fim for this terrible
but to
*
*
•
·
T IS to plead for more generous is support for n Soelety that struggling to full the Colony's most worthy cause.
It is to ask that you divert one one-hundredth of the sum you spend the Protcellon of Children heard of COURSE, the chlidren who crime we tolerate in our midst
make up the hundreds of cases
each year on pleasure and entertain- lues, which must be paid in his case. He was reclaimed from dealt with each year by the Society
ment to the Society for the Proter- tion of Children. Or to ask you to sterling, a heavy strain on her the China Youth Society, where he for the Protection of Children should you MAY FIND this article un- now attends school. The mother and consider themselves lucky. They're pleasant reading; truth can be finances; also, since the Abys-new brood were red until the mother alive, aren't they? They've survived unpleasant and this is the truth, smoke one cigarette a day less und sinian War. she has been was well enough again to go to work the first hurdle-escaped the clutches Phone the Society for the Protec- probably be instrumental in saving much savings to the Society's Trea- Annutil of them before they teach the age
Report and
when haunted by the fear that Britain found for her by the Society. Case of death that claims thirty per cent. tion of Children for a copy of their one or two lives by sending just that
It peruse of twelve months.
you sit by your warm fire to-night. surer. and France may close the canal
You didn't know that, either, did Keep your mind off the fact that the to her shipping in time of war. There is actually a strong case that the Suez Canal, like other international waterways, should
an unlicensed be put under proper inter-
The mother was
old baby. national control. But there hawker, with a month
beri-beri. She was suffering from scems no good reason, beyond you do not know what beri-beri is? the general desire for appcase-Eat Insufficient food, and make what you do cat the cheapest type of from Chungking to Chengtu and return ment, to grant Italy (or for that rice. You can get enough for one mutter Germany or Japan) a cent to give you a meal, and bert- Every Mon., Wed, & Fri. from Chungking to Kunming
from Kunming to Hanoi
share in the present manage-herl. Incidentally, you'll die before Every Wed. & Fil.
ment. None of these Powers Kunming-Chongtu-Sian-Lanchow Line
Hanoi-Kunming-Chungking-Chengtu Line
from Hanoi to Kunming
Every Sun., Wed. & Fri, from Kunming to Chungking
Every Thu. & Sat.
Every Wad. & Fri.
OT Case No. 4.2169, re- you? More than one out of every coal consumed by that fire in four I'LL JUST quote the Society's Re-
ported to the Society by a mem- four babies born in Hongkong dies hours represents sumclent wealth for ber of the Women's Auxiliary when before it reaches the age of one year. the Society to cheat death of another two little girls, aged 11. and 3, were This Colony, whose infant mortality young life. arrested for hawking and begging.
fond
long,
Every Thu. & Sat. from Kunming to Lanchow via Chengtu & Sian believes in international control unable to Every Sun. & Fri, from Lanchow to Kunming via Sian & Chengtuor
Lanchow-Ninshia Line
Every Fri, from Lanchow to Ninshia and roturn Chungking-Kweilin-Kunming Lino Chungking-Kweilin and Kweilin-Chungking trice a week Kwellin-Kunming and Kunming-Kwailin once
EURASIA AVIATION CORPORATION Hongkong Office.
King's Bldg., 4th Flr. Tol. 25552, 25553.
CANTON AGENTS
for the
A
wook
Hongkong Telegraph
WM. FARMER & CO.
Victoria Hotel Building. Shameen, Canton,
Tel.. 13501.
The mother in case No. 2480 was wall when the Society Iler poor, withered cares for the interests of found her.
breasts were unable to feed her other countries; and if Britain month old baby. and France have little right to a monopoly of control, Italy has lesa.
The two girls begged-just once- to get enough money to buy a bottle of milk for the dying baby, They were arrested.
The Society was too late to save If international control of waterways is of such terrific im. the baby. It died. They saved the
.Inother. portance to the totalitarians,
*
•
read more? About
"
will Germany and Italy support WANT TO
Cusc No, C.183. This Japan in demanding that the family who occupied * bed-space, United States should withdraw Which means that six people lived from the Panama Canal? We in room, occupied by another ten families. Their share of the room could imagine the reaction in was a narrow space, probably six Washington if such were made, feet long by three feet wide by four
feet high. Yot it in just as logical.
Naturally there was no light, and Britain depends upon the there was only a little hot, foetid nir. Europeans would eensider it a Panama Canal as much, proving grave-this home of the bably, as Japan or Germany do family of six. Lack of sun upon the Suez Canal. Yet brought tuberculosis, lack of food brought beri-beri. The father, was Ile for hawking. Britain does not seem to have arrested also
tried to corn a. few cents by selling any qualms regarding American
Chincas newspapers. The mother administration of the vita was in hospital. The Society was waterway that, links the Pacific in the police court when the father's case was called. He told his pitiful and Atlantic oceans."
soon
GRIN AND BEAR IT
By Lichty
Virboro Ofiktante, bar
12-23
"Now mind, Cadwell-just snip the price tags off the inexpensive.
prezental"
port by way of conclusion: "The Society maintaining four centres. But four centres arc not enough. The value of the centres varies inversely as the distance be- tween them and the homes of the mothers. Duses and trams are not for those who seek the Society's help. A long walk to the nearest centre may involve the loss of a day's wage which
with
an income rate of less than $2 per head in family, cannot lightly be foregone. The mother has to decide between the day's ware and the child's treatment, which
may
be a matter of a few minutes each day but repeated day after day will rescue it from the death the mother
from fears or
the handicapped aratrscence which is the chief cause and of poverty, crime and discose therefore of Imperiance to the com- munity ag a whole.
"But a centre costs
moro than
$5,000 a year and, with the excep- tion of 1936, the Society has spent
Each more than its income
from 1032 onwards.
year
the present emelency of the Society's restricted efforts are ever to approximate to that effectiveness of which adequacy of scale is an essential condition, new centres must be brought into being.
"Two new centres would require an addition to the Society's income of $10,000 and in 1939 we shall aim nt a total income of $40,000, We shall not be appealing for an inde finite sum with which something will be done but for $40,000 to carry on with our present commitments and establish two centres in places more accessible than those now ex- Isting.
"The Government grant of $5,000 amounts to approximately 22 cents for each dollar accruing in. 1938 from
other sources.
60. An increase to centa per dollar would have enabled the opening of one. more sorely: needed" centre,”
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