ENG-1949 — Page 173

Golf

The first ball was probably driven in Hong Kong about the autumn of 1888 when the late Sir Gershom Stewart and Captain Murray Rumsey, the Harbour Master, started to play "golf" on the race course at Happy Valley. There were no holes or greens, but granite sets marked the distances. In the following year the 91st Regiment, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, arrived and the Hong Kong Golf Club was inaugurated with a membership of ten. A club house was erected in 1895 at Deep Water Bay and on the occasion of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee authority was obtained by the Governor for the club to be called the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club.

In 1911 the present 18 hole 'Old Course' at Fanling was opened and some years later an additional 18 hole course, the 'New Course' and a 9 hole 'Relief Course' were added. The club houses and courses suffered severely during the Japanese occupation but by 1948 all facilities were restored.

Softball

The introduction of softball into local sporting circles dates back to 1936 when members of the now defunct English Forum Debating Society first started to play the game on Sunday mornings as a routine weekly exercise. Other teams shortly emerged and a controlling body was formed in 1937 to organize a league. In the beginning the game was played only by men, a total of eight teams playing in the first year of the organized leagues, but an exhibition given by a touring band of American girls who played selected local sides composed of men encouraged local women to learn the game. By the next year eight ladies teams had been organized. This popularity spread to the younger members of the community and in 1940 a Junior League for men was started. By 1949 the Softball Association registered 450 players in a total of 34 teams. In keeping with other sports an International Series is played regularly, representatives of six nations entering in the past year.

Tourist Facilities

Hong Kong situated on the main thoroughfare from Europe to the ports of the Far East is at its most attractive in late autumn and early winter when the weather is usually sunny and clear without the excessive heat and damp of

summer.

In the two principal towns of the Colony, Victoria on the island and Kowloon on the mainland, there are three large European-run hotels, many Chinese hotels and innumer- able restaurants where the best of Western or Chinese food is available. The shopping centres are particularly attractive to travellers from Europe and provide every variety of purchase exquisite Chinese brocades, ivory, paintings and

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