The Correspondent, Vol 2 No.9 1977

The

Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong

Vol.2 No.9

Ww The Officers: President

Flublished monthlv as

Anthony Paul First Vice President

organ of rhe Foré'rgn Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong. Offices at 15th Floor, Sutherland House, 3 Chater

Frank Eeatty Second Vice President Keith Jackson

Road, Hong Kong. Tel: 5-

237734 and 5-233003.

Treasurer Derek Davíes Secretary Tony Scott

"Don't be afraÍd, today's my holiday!"

The Staff: Editor

Bert W. Okuley Photographer

Hugh Van Es Eddie Martínez

Advertising

NÍda Cranbourne Pasteup Artist: Chan

an

J'

'

"Joe Bakaloser " Okuley calls him Joe Space and asks what's happening up there in orbit. Others simply call him Freddie, or Fleddie. His real name is Cheng Chi Hung and he's been discovered as having a flair

for humor and art. The posters done for the past holiday season were Fleddie's creations, as are the cartoons and drawings you'll find scattered through this issue.

A tip of the hat and a wish for success.

KwokWai

Cables: CORCLUB HONG KONG. Address alt correspondence to: Editor, Foreign Correspondents' Club of

Hong Kong, 1 5th Floor,

Sutherland House,

3

Chater

Road, Hong Kong. Adver-

tising: Nida Cranbourne, First Floor, 30 lce House St., Hong Kong. Tel: 5-248482. .

Printed by Yee Tin Tong

Printing Press, Ltd., Aik San

Factory Building,

Ground

Floor, Block A, 14, Westlands

Road, Ouarry Bay, Hong Kong. Tel: 5-622271-7.

LE@W

ITATETINE:IDETHI When the President of the US moves it appears that half the American Press but that doesn't Corps moves with him mean the whole world (much less his

-

/'a/22(') r lzlz'rtl Sole Aqents: FRENCH FASHIONS LTD., Hong Kong.

t

hosts) moves the same way

by Alan Dawson

lf President Carter had arrived over Palam airport at New Delhi four days before he actually did, he would have had to arrange an alternate schedule. The airport has no radar, and that means when it's fogged in - as it was for two days nobody lands.

I

was on to the US

Embassy

flacks in Delhi to allow me to draw

up an alternative

schedule for Calcutta. lt would have opened with an hour to clear immigration 3

again co-opted to do the departure

booklette tells the White House

bulletin,

correspondents what extension to call for laundry (in DelhiT), what not

joined the photogs on their stand, and as Air Force One taxied out I ran the half-mile to the phones. And that - gasp, puff - is how I got just

lnterior Qesign ONO

are to say, that very far wall over

servîce

to eat ("by all means stay away

from all raw vegetables and all unpeeled and peeled fruit" - as if there is another kindl. The travelling PX is set up in room 542 of the Ashoka Hotel as a first order of

business, and Delhi-based newsmen clean it out as a first

order of business.

But the White House press

is

also covering the President, and we Asia-based people are, quite rightly,

more or less their servants when they hit the ground filing. They have

an exhausting job and I for

one

don't envy them their jobs even if L

tr o

u = o

co o-

JENNY LEWIS FASH IONS WHENE CLOÍHES ARE A L'TTLE SPECIAL

and a two-hour wait for the bags and customs. Then, downtown to watch the body trucks. The flacks

didn't like that.

Anyway, by the time

Carter

showed up before a red-eyed press corps New Year's Day, the weather

was lndia's version of beautiful. lf you were from Hong Kong, it was

Alan Dawson, who wrote of hís experiences covering President Carter's v¡s¡t to lndía, ís the author of 55 Days, The Fall of Saigon, reviewed elsewhere in this íssue.

On the President's

world's largest and most pampered death watch in history. A 1OO-page

they do get great bylines and cocktail party invitations.

What I'm gett¡ng at is

that

through three 2O-hour days, which included getting sidetracked onto the Air lndia 747 crash, we really got no chance to see Carter. I wrote several stories, edited a lot more than that and made sure the alleged teletype and telex operators didn't fall asleep. Hong Kong's Phil Elliott was either in the office souping pix and sending on the UPI satellite l¡ne to New York, or in his hotel room souping color. There is no hot water in the UPI Delhi bureau.

departure.

I took a different

tack.

I

as close to President Carter as you

One of life's great delights is of course good food and Delhi is a definite non-starter.

Elliott and l. not knowing what else to do, went to the lntercon's

We soeciolise in Commerciolond

imitation of a night club. The wa¡ter,

Wewillsolve

with some prompting,

finally

'

expertstoffot

CLAIìIDGC

had booked out a section of the room and for about US$3O got all

HOUSC

the imported booze and champers we could drink. Understand the lntercon is going 1o put up the price of its New Year's bash next year, or bar the White House Asia press.

It wasn't all fun and games, of

527812-4

and the pool was closed anyway) I slept on the couch and

where

mean very, very hard work and getting the last available room in the hotel, an alleged cabana (the temperature of the water was 55

there was enough room for one person to turn around - if he went into the bathroom first.

From six hours before Carter stepped off the plane through the day after his departure we earned our keep however.

The day Carter "forgot" the mike

was on and said he was going to send Premier Morarji Desai a "blunt

and cold" letter about

nuclear

policy was the news highlight. lt didn't match the Polish interpreter story for sheer class, but it made better hard copy.

really use the landing bulletinT) ask-

Carter of course travels with the

H

course. Covering the President can

Reuters) designated to give the Carter landing time (does anyone

Carter arrives, we phone in the arrival bulletin. We do not get to see the President at all.

¡-ro.

l2c Sncere lns.ronce Bldg. l-lennessy Rd" Florg Korg

4-ó

special basis for the press.

Those three of us (UPl, AP and

points.

The phones are half a mile away and on the other side of the plane.

yorrbudget Tolktoour

a

ed where in the press area the phones were. "Oh, no, sir, the phones are not here in the press area, they are over there." He

Residentiol work.

vour oroblems within

recommended the chicken pepper steak. Chicken and peppers sounded like maybe a safe combination in lndia, so I went along with the gag.

And that's what I did. Gag. Arrrggh.

On the plus side, we went to a New Year's Eve party where ABC

even

opened up the main runwaY on

Controcting

there.

warm and sunny. lf you were from Bangkok, like me, it was cold and sunny. Air Force One didn't need

the radar and the lndians

CIARIDGE HOUSE now offers o complete

You start before the President o-

l

o cg o

E c

o

cc

o

o o

o

gets up and you wind up hours after he's been tucked into his suite (the name does not even imply what it

was) in the 334-room

Delhi

Presidential Palace. lt's a gruelling job, and while we unwound in Delhi after Carter had left, the White House crew was filing as they hit

the ground in Riyadh.

I'll take the Southeast Asian war I zone any day.

5

award-winning PWD handouts, to face daily humilitation over the felt at the hands of Levi's tycoon Tim

\ryin Twinkletoes Tseng survive the thrust of a cue through his ears? \ryill the

Street?,

Whyr have Ken Kiernan and Richard Hawson dropped work on a

$5 million promotion campaign of Nicky Careem to while away the smog-filled afternoons atop Club Street while underlings mind the shop?

Why did Nick Ouin make a hurried return from his vacation at

Mongolian IIot-Pot

convince the odds-makers he's really worth less than near even-money?

Frank Beatty the Sheraton Grill and Ken Macleod girls?

Will the Club physicians,

against a hapless Martin Bishop?

luckless barmen fielding phone calls in the smoke-filled penthouse.

The occasion? The First Annual

ticipants survive the mayhem and attendant bacchanalia.

Each match is the best of five games. and the House Rules apply.

First prize, we're told, is

a

weekend with Ted Thomas. Second

Ouarry Bay or the Australian 8-ball

championships, scheduled at press time to open Monday. Feb. 20. (The Rev. Don Ronk will give the invocation.l The rites of spring may continue until who knows when, since first round matches will be completed

shuffle?

around March

provided, major events are to be broadcast by RHK's Warren Rooke in a direct hookup to the 14th floor gent's room, Some of the best players in the Club (e.g. Sloan, King, Ronk) were among the first entrants. The worst

year's most coveted trophy?

And what about Wing Commander Keith Jackson? Will it be

"lf my wife calls, she's not here!" is the cry being raised to

Derek

Seymour-Jones and Peter (Commando) Miles, ever practice (medicine) again? Will Max Lucas

James Bartlett Miller FCC pool Will Malcolm Surry return to his high-paying Government job or chuck the lot to practice for the

a

cheap Soho hotel? What caused Sam Weller to give up his singing lessons, Bill Stevenson the grog,

3

and succeeding

rounds begin March 6. The semis and finals will come later, if the par-

prize is two weekends with Ted Thomas. Third prize is a ride to

wrinkling his $5 Shau Kei Wan im¡tation mink vest, methodically cleans the table in 30 seconds flat

Itisntt

Why has Derek Maitland forsaken his Stanley beachfront estate, decorated with aulographed photos of Punk Rock stars and

persecute again, for that matter?

While the Bank of America forecloses on penniless widows,

why do Tim Williams and

the rec¡pe that separates

Sheko on Les Leston's motorcycle.

Since seating capacity for spectators is limited, and an alcove for

the international press must

be

players (Ouin, Stevenson) also gamely entered their names.

Dress for all events is informal and refreshments will be available.

Why has Dancing Eddie Tseng.

There is a common opinion that all oins are the same.

It may be true of some. But not of Gordon's. Forthe way r,ve use juniper. coriander and other botanical ingredients in ourdistilling recþe. makes subtle differences to the taste of our gin.

The actualdetails are of course a secret. But the results are not.

Gordon's is tlre best selling gin in the world. Need we say more?

"

the

Taiwanese Typhoon, been shuttling back and forth to TaiPei bearing colorfully decorated sticks of wood with sharp points and sell-

ing them to the likes of

Kevin

Sinclair, Vic Vanzi, Bruce Maxwell and other denizens of the 18th floor?

Why is Ken King quietly

polishing his $1,500 custom-made

rod while Andy Sloan, without

Hal

Moore concentrate on side-pocket t strategy with Jean Chan?

GORDONts The in drink for generations

@trICTtrII'VELL

The author covers the complete spectrum, Soldiers - NVA. South Vietnamese. American are treated sympathetically, as are the civilians of all nationalilies enmeshed in the dramatic lead-up to and "fall" of Saigon. The politicians and

diplomats who must bear responsibility for the final debacle receive harsher censure. and America's last

Ambassador in Saigon, Graham Martin, is lashed for his failures.

Other Americans emerge from the shadows and stand tall, and in the final analysis they salvaged

what remained of American honor in Viet Nam. Fred Gulden would be the last man to proclaim himself a hero.

Fred's company contracted USAID

work. The company and the American Embassy promised to

evacuate all their Vietnamese w orkers, but when the smoke cleared all the firm's American employees had fled except Fred, Here at last is a book on Viet Nam that doesn't moralise, doesn't speculate, and doesn't present the victorious North Vietnamese as in-

Chief in Saigon, he had access to the complete files of UPI's many field correspondents operating in South Viet Nam over the hectic

fallible supermen.

final eight weeks. ln his record Dawson is then able to draw on eight and one-half

Alan Dawson's 55 Days: The Fall of South Víetnam' lPrentice Hall; US$12.50) will delight students of the second lndochina war, particularly correspondents looking for a no-nonsense documentary on one of the major historic events since the end of World War ll.

It places the pieces of the Viet Nam jigsaw together in perspective. The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) certainly doesn't suffer by it, and Dawson's account largely coincides with the official version from

Hanoi that appeared under the name of the NVA Chief-of-Staff Gen Van Tien Dung, which suprisingly dispelled much of the hokey-pokey previously written by several "liberal" Western jourMost of all, this book deals with the human element, which makes it a

background of solid facts that are indisputable. Al Dawson admittedly had a distinct advantage ¡n that, as UnÍted Prcss lnternatÍonal Bureau 8

He arrived as a Canadian serving as a Gl in the American forces, and left as an American citizen (since 1970) heading the Saigon bureau of one of the world's leading news agencies.

his Vietnamese.

Mike Wielke was

a

former mem-

had

throughout earlier offensives.

The breakdown of South Viet Nam's finest general - Ngo Ouang

Truong

-

as he waded through the

surf at Da Nang with the fleeing American Consul-General

with

-

is told

compassion, as are the un-

believable scenes in that city as one million distraught soldiers and civilians try to escape.

than the fine documentary that it is.

side

Dawson's gripping story of the last few days includes a straightforward report of the only North Vietnamese air-raid of the war

of the last plane out, an

American commercial charter airliner, and UPI Correspondent Paul

Vogle's eye-witness account

is

reproduced in full. lt remains one of the classic pieces of reporting of modern times.

A

South Vietnamese soldier is followed on an amazing escape from the Central Highlands early in the offensive until he turned himself in after the surrender. The horrendous and inexplicable mistakes of

South Viet Nam's President

Nguyen Van Thieu are recorded with excellent background material then later to hold on to the northern provinces. But Thieu, hitherto con-

in

South Met Nam. Mike stood by his comm¡tment and refused to leave.

Dawson records that the new com-

munist regime treated people like

Fred Gulden and Mike Mielke with respect, and both were finally returned to the¡r homeland.

55 Days covers the period from

early March, 1975 when the last NVA offensive was commenced until a few days after the surrender on April 30. For the laymen it's an insight into the world of the foreign

correspondent, and Dawson is able to break up the significant time spans clearly, without losing rhythm and to introduce characters

from all walks of life - some of whom reappear later in the account. prehensive sequence of events interwoven with a number of moving highlights and personal tragedies.

The aged "Oueen Mother" Doan Thuy - mother of Viet Nam's last emperor Bao Dai

-

is depicted

in

the imperial capital of Hue, where

the record straight and Dao and his soldiers deserve the posthumous plaudits.

And so it goes on. The author

At Da Nang airport terror-

Americans missing

action

Minh Dao, the 18th turned back the NVA time and again, and never did surrender. Dawson's account puts

stricken refugees clung to the out-

as Thieu's generals pleaded with him not to abandon the Highlands,

in

forces at Xuan Loc. Under their little-known commander, Gen Le

kept a tight rein on his emotions, otherwise this book could have degenerated ¡nto something less

ber of the US Special Forces who was committed to the search for

The author puts together a com-

nalists.

highly readable, set against

years of experience in the South:

who steadfastly refused to abandon

she remained as she always

sidered

a

reasonably cool and

resourceful general himself, ignored

their pleas - seemingly intent on

self-destruction.

Military highlights and debacles interlock with the on-going drama of the fleeing civilians. The tragedy as an American C5 airliner engaged

when an American-trained pilot-

defector led a strike against

Saigon's Tan Son Nhut airbase late on the afternoon of April 28.

And then the final day - which is

actually the opening chapter races through a series of mini and major dramas embracing at last the population of the capital - Saigon, The great and the humble, soldier and civilian, the brave and the notso-brave are reduced 1o the same level, Thousands show to disadvan-

elite South Vietnamese Marines

-

considered the South's best troops - as they first made a valient stand,

then ultimately broke and ran, is offset by the stand of another unit

the last great battle.

The formerly despised 18th lnfantry Division refused to lower at Xuan Loc

-

their colors in the face

of

overwhelmingly superior NVA

feature story written by a colleague in South Viet Nam. But by whatever name it's an important book. 55 Days' is a factual contribution that w¡ll stand the test of r time - and grow.

Neil Davis, born in Tasmania, covered most of the second

lndochina war in Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos as a radio and

telev¡s¡on correspondent for several ¡nternat¡onal networks. Þle was one of the handful of correspondents to remain in Saigon after the communist take-

over. Davis now is a roving cor-

respondent for NBC based in Bangkok, to which he returned th¡s month after an extensive reporting assignment in Africa.

.9.

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Al Dawson doesn't shame

the Saigonese are famous.

Alan Dawson wanted to call 55 Days' "Goodby American, Thank You" - a tribute to a much earlier

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history. The shame of the

courage and resilience for which

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- sponsored mainly by American officialdom - for the myth that it was.

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much-criticized "Operation Babylift" crashes near Saigon and becomes even more tragic as the author exposes the bloodbath syn-

tage, but then it's not forgotten that there were more than four million people in the capital at the time and over 97 percent had no real choice but to stay. The overwhelming ma-

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We know fnom 32 yeaFs of experience Èhaù moving doesn't have Èo be a chaot¡c bu€line€¡s.

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The Srnoothen Moven lets yot-r en¡oy yolJn rrrcrve.

We'll come Èo your kìome and give you a realisÈ¡c quotaÈ¡on, and if you're aatisf¡ed wiÈh that we'll expertly pack and conÈa¡ner¡se your poesessione and insure thern if you wish.

We'll provide door-Èo-door

you with erperienced gervice...anywlrere in the world.

call John Moore at 5-714?37 caÈch h¡rll at the FCC... fon Èlìat smooÈhen move.

or

One of these days General Ber-

nard Penfold will officially open a new Jockey Club charitable in-

stitution somewhere in the New Territories, and as he unveils the plaque the identity of one of Hong Kong's mystery, publicity-shy benefactors will finally be known, The inscription will read: 'The Lucky Kev Sinclair Home for Underprivileged Children."

That's how Kev himself views the inevilable outcome of his sen-

passed on to this writer and neglected to back himself. This writer won no less than $1,0OO on the bet. Kev drove out to the New Territories to inspect the work on the foundations of his contribution

everyone recently by doubling up on a thr¡lling $28 quinella) be if it was not for Joe's dogged. devoted.

patriotic supportT To what extent

would the Jockey Club's

entire

to the Jockey Club's community

community welfare program have suffered if Joe had pulled off that

welfare program.

cliff-hanging six-up

in

"Huh7 WhoosatT

ing from the portable radio, Joe im-

mediately shouted drinks for everyone in the 14th floor bar.

Several members were nearly trampled in the rush to the 14th

Whatsiss?

What ticketT"

"My wÙløilag tlcket? My 16,00O bucksl You've probably already cashed it in, you sw¡ne, and you're

"Somehow I think Lucky Kev and Bakaloser Joe have a more convincing argument than we do."

boundless wealth and opulence

floor, so anxious was everyone to

that is to be his by the end of race 9

fete the incredible luck that had come the way of the man they'd dubbed "Mr Walk for a Million."

By midnight they were

"Jimmy the copy boy."

regularly declares, "has promised me - nay, staked lds rye on the fact - that today the numbers 4, 7, 8, 1O, 12 and 13 are going to write the name Lucky Kev in the annals of racing history and force me to

to a luxury yacht in the Bahamas to escape the begging

ret¡re

letters, investment brokers

and

crippling income tax problems."

And each week, as the numbers 2, 6,9. 11 and 14 stand snorting and steaming in the winner's enclosure, Kev laughingly tosses his slips into a wastepaper basket and

magnaminously reflects upon the

new wing that he's just added to the Jockey Club's home for underprivileged kids.

It hasn't been easy, building that new home. For years now. Kev has

had to scan the racing form each

Saturday morning,

or

LI

he

approach

Jimmy the copy boy, seeking the horses most likely to die of a heart

AC ()F

celebrating Joe's break

the bar, watching the loud, aban-

last yearT With f¡ve winners in the

bag and the sixth about to romp home, Joe was biting his nails down to the quick.

by Oerek Maitland

But Kev isn't the only

unsung

philanthropic hero working quietly in the background each Wednesday

and Saturday at the FCC to support

the needy and generally promote a better standard of life in Hong Kong. Like Lucky Kev they are all modest, publicity-shy men whose

and be shot within yards of the

charitable endeavors are masked by a facade of tough, grim-lipped cynicism.

finish line, unseat their jockeys and bolt through the public enclosure or

president,

attack ¡n the last bend, break a leg

be

disqualified for a minor infringement of rules, like eating a @æ at the starting box.

He has had to completely disregard the totally useless winning tips that Jimmy often comes up with 12

-

like the one last year that he

doned revelry. and smiled warmly.

"Look at those drunken bums," he joked. "They're getting tanked up on my dough. And when they're all well and truly smashed, they're

ERS

Take our immediate past

Joe Bakaloser . Never in the history of this Sport of Kings has there been the sort of uncelebrated benevolence that Joe

Ouietly hands out behind the massed roars and screams at the finish post. Where would the American jockey, Bill Hartack (who astounded

"Boy, if that sixth horse comes in the payout will be a small fortune." he declared, his face creased with a worried frown. "l hate to think what's going to happen to all those orphaned kids out there."

It was only when a rank unknown managed to jerk a bit of rein

from its rider and bolt home that Joe was able to relax and take a cab home, secure in the knowledge that the underprivileged of Hong Kong had won again.

Even when Joe mistakenly backed the wrong horse and picked up a

gonna come over here and mug me for the goddam ticket."

The winning t¡cket Joe had to the care of the only

entrusted

man he could trust at a moment like

that - a certain police inspector who was famous, among other things, for having located an illegal

cathouse on the floor below the FCC. He had done this by simply lying down on the 14th floor carpet and peeking through a crack in the floorboards at the foot of the wall.

He was in that prone posit¡on when the Commissioner of Police and his wife stepped out of the 14th floor elevator to attend a club funct¡on.

Amazing things happened to his career after that, Anyway, this particular inspector

whopping $16,O0O quinella last

took Joe's winning ticket

year, his first thought was not what

with him for safekeeping that night, Joe telephoned him at around two

Hong Kong could do for him, but what he could do for Hong Kong.

With the last excited shrieks of the Cantonese commentator still ring-

in the morning.

'That ticket

sound?"

gett¡ng ready to fly to Spain!"

"For Christ's sake Joe - it's here.

It's right under my pillow."

"How do I know thatT Crackle it with your fingers so I can hear it,"

so

enthusiastically that Joe sat perched on a stool on the other side of

E

the

inspector

thankf ul when Monday morning came round and he could escort Joe to the betting office, where they cashed the ticket,

was somewhat

then

A

those

schools for underprivileged kids that l've helped build?"

Joe rang again at three. And at sleepless weekend

SHEDDING

friends as he prepares for the life of

at Happy Valley.

what would happen to all

four, five and six; and after an entire

November

sational career as one of the doyens of the FCC's racing crowd. Each

week he bounds into the Club's 1 8th floor rest and recreation center waving a fistful of betting slips and bidding farewell to his

wrong hands it could bring the en-

tire Jockey Club to its knees. And

home

- is it safe and

Crackle. Crackle.

"Does that make you feel

better?"

"l just wanna know it's safe,"

Joe insisted. "lf that fell into the

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to

another official building

where Joe performed one of those little-known charitable acts that only anonym¡ty has hidden from the public eye - he paid his income tax bill, so that he would not become a burden on the community and thus divert urgently-needed funds for community development. And they say correspondents have no scruples . . .

Think about that next time you see Lucky Kev and Joe Bakaloser ripping their bett¡ng stubs to bits at the end of race 9 on the 1 8th floor.

They're

not losers. Far from

total¡sator of

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Special Notes J,Ely a¡pnaàte

"

iÍllll"y

n""ill Jú^n,ìo/

chilly."

"Oxford is all you ever imagined and more as a university," John reports from Tubney, Oxfordshire.

"The ambiance of sitting in a 700-

Southeast Asia for the position of FCC Club Manager. the Selection Committee with the approval of the Board of Governors found its man ¡ust across Victoria Harbour.

historians while two equally famous

number

year-old room discussing things with one of the world's leading

yout lcn."oat conhilulìon lo

7I" J)"

After reviewing nearly 3OO applicants from throughout

so far has been "marvelous, if

"l[ y*tþ//y "J"*/,{y, "n,l

Oxford, reports that life in England

X*l

historians listen

th-h,il ß.f,"r",

..

. is beyond

Unda Schulz completed her M.A.

in EduCation through the Michigan

"rlþ.;ly Dear Tony, Plea¡e thank all or¡r friend¡ at

"Merrie Auld" after a rip-roaring sendoff from the Foreign Cor-

dayr in HK and ¡till mi¡¡ it terribly. Tell your wife l'm ¡till

respondents' Club of Japan.

Schulz, who describes himself as "starving student" living on the G.l.

Bill (he was a jet fighter pilot in Viet

glaæes!

Nam) and his VOA leave money. says youngsters Melinda and Ariel

I

have ¡uch fond mernorie¡ of our

uing hel frying pan and wi4e Have a very healthy

happy New Year

-

and

Sincereþ, Bet¡ey

GIFb;Affaits OJohn Schulz. former Voice of America Correspondent in Hong Kong and Tokyo and an FCC Member now on leave of absence for two years of post-graduate studies in lnternational Relations at

stresses purchasing, inventory and quantity controls as essential to Club profitability.

Mrs Winslow is a Chinese lady

and the couple has two children, Mike has been studying Cantonese since his arrival in Hong Kong.

The Selection Committee

OMembers are requested to please not "borrow" the Club

Mike Winslow was chosen from among nearly 300 appl¡cants to take charge of your FCC. He comes

Yangtze cups.

with the highest marks

The 18th floor was thrown into turmoil of sorts recently when it

was discovered that only

about

-

from past employers and your selection comm¡ttee.

seven dice cups remained on the premises

of 30

-

and this after a donation

for the past year and a half has served as Assistant Food &

C'mon, folks, Bar Supervisor C.Y,

Beverage Manager of the Sheraton

Street.

(Sammy) Cheung can arrange the purchase of Yangtze cups at cost if anyone wants to buy a set for use

at home, oMr Hu Van Es has suggested to Elsie Elliot, noted local legislator, gadfly and Magsaysay Awardee, speaks to the FCC. 14

He is Michael Winslow, 31, who

to the Club by Tim

cups

the House Committee that habitues of the pool room contribute their winnings, normally $5 a game, to charity for a one-week period. Any takersT

spent two years in the restaurant trade in California in various executive capacities.

His hotel experience began in the Hilton chain, where he spent

tell us that Mike has a good sense of humor yet is diplomat¡c. He also has considerable theoretical knowledge of personnel hiring and

bedrooms, ffguest-room, huge and huge backyard and double garage."

Hong Kong who kindly consented

Sheraton.

Our spies from the Sheraton Grill

warm

dining room, convenient kitchen

1o become a co-opted member of the Committee.

The selection process was not without its humorous moments.

restaurànt oPeration.

Orient to take up his position at the

domiciled in a 1OO-year-old country cottage eight miles from the center

living room with gorgeous fireplace,

Winslow, a natty dresser who comes to us with full marks from Sheraton General Manager and FCC Member Bob Hamel, also

a

in hotel

Hyatt Regency in Los Angeles where he was Assistant Director, Catering before moving to the

quarantine laws.l John and Linda and the kids are

of Oxford with "three

Committee; and Bill Mortsen of the American Chamber of Commerce in

diploma

Winslow also spent one year at the

are studying in a tiny one-room village school down the road a piece from Oxford. (Their two cats, Kappa and Tanuki, had to be given away because of stringent U.K.

Hotel.

It is expected that Winslow, an American, will be able to take overall charge of the Foreign Correspondents' Club operations by March 1.

Despite his youth, Mike has had varied experience in the catering / hotel business.

He spent six years in catering

of the World Trade Center; Tony Scott, Chairman of the Selectidn

and

earning

one year, working his way from captain to ass¡stant maitre d' hotel.

State Uniirersity extension program in Japan before the Schulz' left for

þ,tL,î*uu

the FCG for their generority.

in

description."

and officers club management with the US Navy after taking a BA in Business Administration and also

has

been at work on the job of finding

a

topnotch manager for the Club since mid-September of last year.

Advertisements were placed in newspapers across Southeast Asia and the 285 written applications subsequently were narrowed to 30

"finalisls." These in turn were reduced to seven candidates reviewed by the Selection Committee and the Board of Governors and Winslow was the unanimous choice.

the Correspondent would like to snap off a salute to the members of

the Selection Committee, who

worked anonymously and gave many hours of their own time in choosing the right man for the d¡fficult job of running the Club on a day-to-day basis:

Tony Paul, FCC President; Bill Areson, FCC Accountant; Eddie Wu of the Baltimore Sun and former FCC President; Annie Wu, Manager

One applicant was asked during

an interview how he would go about handling unruly Club

Members such as over-served journalists or other troublemakers on the Sutherland House premises.

He suggested the possibility of using dogs.

Bvl,O

-

Odds and End-s

Gtøiiofnì POrñì@rroRRGl

@u,rr p@î -ø@nìolläøed ø@rYliioe

Weighted down by the nose-bush, Sammy Yuen of Taipeí takes a breather on the I 6th floor.

get their farewell roasting from B.W. (Bakaloser Joe) Okuley

-

fprr@vüdea lhrolliidlergø ltlhr@lt etrr@ Itc|iilloredl lto øu,¡ilt V@u,rr n@@df sll

and still Jim doesn't know exactly when they leave.

Many, íf not most,cartoonistsdo not do their own

gag-lines. Freddie gives it a try and somet¡mes mrbses a bít, adding to the humor. Below, left, ís a reproduction of the poster that graced the I Bth floor during the holidays.

sP8@&ô& &@e&@ôv8 w@e 8ô888&. t0Z@ March........

March........

March........

March.........

22-30 Penang - 22-30 March (De Luxe)....

Penang -

..HK$ 1,340'00

23-27 Thailand 23-27 Philippines Philippines (De Luxe) 23-27

-

1,290.00 142O'OO 2,12O'OO

2'450'00

THROUCHOUT THE YEAR YOU CAN TBAUET WITH US AilD RELAI hI TRÍIPIGAI. SPTENDOUR !!

FOR

ffiffff?q*f Í L."ä\ä\

4

SALE

"Advent" v¡deo colol

pro¡ector and 6O inch screen. This unit cost $3O,OOO nerr, has been little used, but needs $5,OOO in repairs. will

sell for $IS,OOO, or a near offer. Apply to Liz at the FCG office: 5237734.

Maldives/Sri Lanka Singapore/Malaysia Bangkok Manila Penang

Seychelles Bali . .

days HK$3,990 days HK$2,550 days HK$1,æ0 days HK$l,290 days HK$2,150 days HK$4,690 7 days HK$2,690

14 14 5 5 12 11

CONTACT US FOR FULL INFORMATION AND FOR ANY ASSISTANCE FOR ALL YOUR TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS

cRROrnR[ TRRVEL COn/UlTRnI/ 1204'6 Tung Ming Bldg. 40 Des Voeux Rd., C, Hong Kong Tel.

IIO. ÆGl

ir'2ti2l6l-4 \!!y

lN OUR last issue, SR editor Norman Cousins wrote an editorial about what has changed, and what has not, since my arrival at Saturday Revíew. I would like to complement that candid and com-

plimentary report with an analysis of what I have learned in these eight months.

This complexity makes magazine

publishing more perilous and exciting than other bus¡nesses. lnsen-

sitivity to the needs or tastes of the readers can result ín instant dísaffection, loss of circulation, and defection of advertisers. Such was the case seven years ago, when two men bought Saturday RevÍew

Magazines ate a curious from the McCall Corporation,

business. A group of editors gather in a room to assign and assemble

articles and features that

presumably will interest thousands

or millions of subscribers

-

in Srg's

changed its format and purposes,

and lost tens of millions of dollars in a few months. On the other hand, while editors must be sensitive to the opinions of readers, they must

to make the magazine dazzling. flashy, noisy, outrageous,,talked about." Many members of the advertising community who spend their days determining where to

place advertising suffer, understan-

dably enough, from a sort of numbness to nuancs or subtlety. Of

the hundreds of

magazines they

must evaluate, they have time to rcad only a handful. They tend to prefer those they can describe as

"fun," "hip," "easy to

TtA/hy

in the world do so many travelers like the Reader's Digest?

¡ead.',

Elephantine headlines, colorful

graphics, readily

su

mmarized,,new-

sy" stories, are easier to apprec¡ate and to recommend to a client than

thoughtful, serious articles.

Saturday Review is not the only

one of the news media

being

pressured. Time and Newsweek,tor instance, have escalated their styles

to the point where they sometimes appear more like fashion or gossip

Where does the twain meet between ad and edit in a magazine? Some Saturday Review thoughts on the matter

case, 525,O0O

- of

whom the

editors have met only

a

minute percentage. These articles are then

set in type, laid out in

pages.

Meanwhile.

an advertising sales

not be intimidated by them. The stagnation that results from the fear

of

change can be as fatal to a magazine's growth as too much or

a can of deodorant is what it is, whether three people or three million people buy it. But a

magazine that has more readers or

less readers or different readers

than another is a different magazine

that will attract different advertisers. who will, in turd, give the magazine a dífferent character. A magazine is less a thing than a

process, an ongoing collaboration

between readers, editors, and advertisers.

18

change. The editor of a magazine must also be sensitive to the needs and opinions of advertisers. A magazine is an environment, like a town; one cannot expect a business to spend its

money where

regularly advised by their editors to

deliver stories that

will

excite.

rather than inform, their audience.

The danger of acceding to such pressures is that one will, like the

printed, and distributed. the wrong sort of staff tries to persuade advertisers to purchase pages in the magazine in order to sell their products or messages to a "unique" audience.

Unlike most products, magazines are not separable from the persons who purchase them. A light bulb or

magazines than newsmagazines.

Television news reporters ate

it does not feel

welcome or where the people are not the sort it wants to reach. yet a

magazine. such as Saturday

Revíew that attempts to deliver a fair and objective view of controversial issues cannot shrink from reporting on or criticizing anybody, even if that results in loss of advertising dollars. As soon as fear is

allowed to corrupt editorial

judgment, a magazine will lose the trust and affection of its readers.

One of the most constant and

I have experienced in these eight months is daunting pressures

boy who cried "wolf," lose credibility. Both in response to the marketplace and to our own tastes, SR's new art director and I have

tried to make this magazine,s appearance bolder and more

arresting. Nonetheless, we are con-

stantly aware of the danger of

promising more than we can deliver or of screaming when a whisper will do.

The greatest blessing of the magazine business is its captivating

complexity. Like an honest politician, a magazine must compete for support without violating its principles. lt must try to per-

suade without alienating. surprise without alarming, change without forsaking its identity. publishing a magazine, like raising a child. is

Probably because we're so easy to read. h light installments. An article or two at a time. We're lots of fun, too. Our pages are peppered with humor. With many articles about the exciting cities and countries of the world. The Digest is an international magazine. That's why we appeal to international travelers.

Digest is also handy to carry. To read at airports, aboard jetliners, in hotel rooms.

And, at home.

If you're looking for travelers, just look at who's reading the Reader's Digest.

Reader's Digest is the best-selling magazine at Asian newsstands fwhere travelers pick up their reading material).

Bought at Newsstands Reader's Digest Asia Ed¡tion

Time

Newsweek

Philippines 27,576 7,333 6,800 Malaysia 9,2n 2,717 2]æ Korea 9,612 4,478 1,948 lndonesia 10,¿100 5,520 5,000 Pakistan 4,500 3,650 2,945 Singapore 4,560 2,392 \2û Taiwan 2,ffi 965 1,116 Thailand 42æ 1,616 1,700 Japan 4,(X)0 5,@ 7,æ1 Hong Kong/Macau 2,050 2,291 1,951 Sri Lanka 1,600 558 2æ TOTAL: 78,2ß 37,1il C1,061 Source: ABC Analysis of Paid C¡rculat¡on Beader's Digest, Dec 1976 ¡ssue Time. July 19, 1976 ¡ssue Nemweek, Oct 25, 1976 issue.

frustrat¡ng, exhausting, infuriating,

and exhilarating. But no matter how noisily editors and publishers com-

plain, they confess. when asked, that they would not exhange their profession for any other.

- Garll Tucker

RBtr$?

is good for business. Yours.

The Saturday Revíew

l9

I

-

The Art of Communication Hong Kong has been in the

communications business for over 'l 50 years.

The art of communication is a Chinese tradition and today

the Fortune Teller. with his little bird picking out your fortune, works in sight of the towering office blocks where businessmen communicate with

the rest of the world through Cable and Wireless.

M ulti- national companies use telephone, telegraph, telex, leased circuits and television to keep in contact with their i nternational offices.

The most distant office is now only a telephone number away.

Eff

has made Hong Kong one of the world's largest business centres and nucleus of the East.

The Cable and Wireless Group of Companies know efficient communication means efficient business, that's what Cable and Wireless is all about.

icient communication

@'cclfrfe&wiret A Lยกmited Company lncorporated in England

New lt/ercury House. 22 Fenwick street, Hong Kong. Telephone: b-2g31 11. relex:78240