@lrlt @srrtßponùwt September 1985
Atribute to atrue professional NEIL DAVIS:1934-85 When they invented the safari (nee TV) suit, they must have had Neil Davis in
mind. In any case, it should have been renamed the Davis Suit. Neil was probably the best-dressed guy I ever met, but never saw in a suit or tie. There was a never a crease out of place, though
I doubt he ever
visited a tailor higher up the fashion ladder than Mr Minh of Saigon. But he moved as easily through the marbled halls of power in Asia, Africa and the Middle East as he did through the jungles of Indochina or the mean streets of Beirut.
He was as much at home around
the
Groaning Table in Phnom Penh as he was around the swimming pool of the Oriental
Hotel. As his longtime colleague John McBeth, of the Far Eastern Economic Review, puf it: "When Neil Davis was born they threw away the mould." If anyone deserved to_ be known as a legend in his own time, it was Neil Davis. He did it all, and always with class. If he ever had an unkind word for anyone, I never heard him utter it. He was rarely seen without a smile.
The morning of September 9 saw an
abortive coup in Thailand. As the rebel tanks took up their positions
outside Bangkok's 1st Division Radio
Station, Sl-year-old Neil Davis, bureau chief for the US-based Na-
tional Broadcasting Company, and his
soundman William Latch were already at the scene.
The ¡ebels lired a barrage at the
radio station, slightly
wounding
Davis, who filmed the action for 50 seconds. During a lull, he and Latch pulled back from the line of lire, but a second burst of cannon hit the wall next to them. Davis was killed instantly by shrapnel and Latch died six hours later in hospital. By four that afternoon, the rebellion had been put down.
tradition,
succinctly:
"Davis had a quick wit, a quicker smile and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of funny stories. [He] was known and liked by military commanders, politicians, soldiers and civilians throughout Southeast Asia.
Not even Neil Davis. Those wars over, Davis moved on, to Lebanon, Angola, Iraq but basing himself in Bangkok. Somewhere along the line
-
he was married, but only briefly. No one ever asked what happened, but you can't be married to a woman and your job.
Bangkok's historic Christ Church on
can television network but money didn't mean that much to him. It was something
the wire-service
Killed with him was his soundman, William Latch. Davis was still filming at the moment he died. Still, he managed to throw his body on to that of Gary Burns of Visnews, knocking him down and away from the shooting. When Saigon fell to the communists 10 years ago, the only TV film of their tanks moving on the presidential palace came from Davis' camera. He was inside waiting for them. He had been in Phnom Penh a few weeks earlier, but left just before its fall. Nobody can be in two places at once.
Convent Road was filled to overflowing for a Davis-Latch memorial service. Late arrivals had to stand outside, The church was filled with wreaths from far-flung friends and colleagues, dozens of whom were unable to travel to Thailand at such short notice them people like Donald - among Wise, Jon Swain, Kate Webb, Udo Nesch, Ed Bradley and Sylvana Foa. Neil Davis smoked a lot; he just never seemed to buy any. He used to say that if he bought them he would smoke more. He bummed his first from me circa 1970 in
He had enough money, given his status as a ranking correspondent for an Ameriyou paid the rent or bought the necessities of life with. On his infrequent visits to Hong Kong, Davis could have stayed in the Peninsula or the Mandarin, or any place he might choose. But it was ahvays the somewhat run-down Harbour Hotel on the Wanchai waterfront, not far from the NBC offices. "The staff know me there," he would explain. "I know I can always get a room." An anonymous hand in UPI's Bangkok bureau perhaps summed it up best and, in
in TV there's no story without film.
Neil Davis
Phnom Penh. When
"His peers considered him the top war correspondent in the region. His concern for the people he encountered on his journalistic travels was legendary. He was always slipping money to people he met who were in need . ." Over the years, people have lost count
of the number of times Davis had
been
wounded, but he always managed to survive. I suppose he should have known bet-
ter, the fateful morning of
September 9,
than to expose himself to the guns of dissident Thai troops attempting to carry out a two-bit coup. But the story came first, and
I
last saw him, in
Manila around the end of 1984, he reached easily for one of my Silk Cut, suggesting that I switch to Marlboro. We had a standing joke over the years, and I reminded him that he now owed me more than 12,000 cigarettes. He claimed the count was closer to 11,500. It was the last time we were to debate the subject. I remember during a two-year spell in the United States catching Neil on the
NBC Nightly News. "Good friend of mine," I remarked to my mother, aged 82. "He looks like a nice young man," she replied. "Sure is, ma," I said. Sure was,
ma.
-
Bert Okuley,
The bar brawl no one minded
For your diary Please note there have been some changes in the dates of forthcoming from and some additions events the schedule we printed last month. Here's the amended list:
-
-
Saturday, October 5.
This is the new date for the Latin
Ameยกican night. There'll be lively music and a great range of buffet dishes.
A lady with a lot of
nerve!
Coming to blows
The week before Dennis Taylor's visit, all three of the FCC snooker and pool championships were decided. Results were: Snooker: Paul Baran beat David Gilhooley. 8-ball: Tony Craig beat Andreas Panayi. L4-1: Merv Haworth beat Mike Winslow. In what one spectator said was the best
night. But it was all in fun. The FCC's
resident pugilist, lightweight David
Gilhooley, was putting visiting middleweight Tom Pendry MP through his paces. The politician was Colony middleweight champion in the 1950s when he was a young British soldier in Hong Kong. Since then, he has retained a lively interest in the territory and its problems. He has returned several times to study conditions here. On hยกs latest trip
final he had ever seen at the Club, Paul Baran came back from two frames down to
take.
The 8-ball final, between last year's win-
ner Tony Craig and newcomer Andreas Panayi, was equally gripping. Playing before what must have been a near-record attendance, Craig rushed into a 4-1 lead in the best-of-nine final. But Panayi displayed unexpected coolness, even after seeing Craig sink the 8-ball
from the break to give him the fifth frame. However, he missed a relatively easy 8ball that would have levelled the game at 4all, and Craig stepped up to finish the match and retain the championship, five frames to three.
The most popular winner this year was undoubtedly Merv Haworth, who won the 14-1 tournament (reckoned by Steve Davis to be the toughest form of American pool) less than a week after celebrating his 67th birthday. Playing with an accuracy that belied his years, he ran out a comfortable winner against Mike Winslow. Final score was 75-38.
-
The winners, Tong Craig, Paul Baran and Ment Haworth with Dennis Taylor,
decidedly not sponsored by the Hong Kong Government
he made
some cutting comments- about the way in which MPs are picked to come to Hong Kong at the taxpayers' expense. He reckons that the selec-
tion is haphazard and does not result in views helpful to Hong Kong being put forward in House of Commons debates. But such weighty matters were not discussed at the Club, where the two boxers, both of them still fit, put on a spontaneous bout. The winner? lt was declared a draw.
Billionaire Bond on beer, boats and blue ribands
the black for the match . . . but missed it.
So did Baran. Then Gilhooley missed again, and this time Baran made no mis-
David Gilhooley and MP Tom Pendry.
Wise men steered clear when two brawlers clashed in the Club main bar during a recent crowded Friday
Our sporting kings
win in the best-of-five snooker final. After Baran won the third frame by 70 points and the fourth by less than 20, he looked a safe bet for victory, being 15 points ahead as they went into the colours. But Gilhooley took them all, right up to the pink, to leave himself in great shape on
-
Anyone who controls 44 per cent of the Australian beer market and was also re-
hotels and gave the Bond Corporation 50 per cent of all hotels in Queensland "where
sponsible for removing the America's Cup fiom the clutches of the New York Yacht Club commands respect. And an attentive luncheon audience at
hotel licences are not being granted." A
the FCC heard Australian tycoon Alan
them:
Bond outline his latest business dealings and plans for retaining the blue riband of
world sailing. He explained how his A$1.2 billion takeover (the biggest in Australia's history) of the Castlemaine-Toohey breweries meant his Bond Corporation was no\ry the dominant force in the beer business in three of the nation's six states - Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. "As people are brewing beer today the same way as they did 100 years ago, and are likely to do so for the next 50 years, it requires very little intelligence," Bond said. "So that suits us down to the ground." The deal also involved taking over 268
cosy deal indeedl
Bond, without the use of any notes whatsoever, rattled off other figures. Among
> A A$16 million return on A$95 million investment in TV stations. > Property developments in a number of cities, including
a 5O-storey building
in
Perth.
being "so full of glory-seeking it departs from realities." The book was "good fiction, but bears no resemblance to the truth," Bond said. Bond thought, to the obvious surprise of the sailing fraternity present, that the main challenge in the next America's Cup would the fact be from New Zealand - despite States were that syndicates in the United putting up US$200 million. With all this money about, Bond noted, "fortunately we have the television rights,
> Oil and gas exploration in Australia,
so we'll get something back."
which imports 35 per cent of its oil needs, a figure which "we believe will increase to 40 per cent as not enough exploration is going on."
His corporation was putting in two boats for the races in Western Australia in 198687, which he expected to be sailed in 30knot winds. There will be "great technological challenges put forward, but as in all sports, it
But it was Bond's suryey of
the America's Cup scene that startled his audience.
He
the recently book by John Bertrand, the denounced
published successful
skipper of the Bond yacht Australia-2,
as
there and do it. "We have a dedicated team of people who intend to do
.
again."
Saturday, November 30
The first bottles of
Beaujolais Nouveau arrive, and we celebrate with
the traditional breakfast and a
gala
dinner. According to one importer, this year's harvest one - a latealthough promises to be "different, unlikely to be great". Come along and judge for yourself, but book early as it is sure to be a sellout. Saturday, December 7 A Spanish/Portuguese buffet is planned for this night, with everything from calamares to caldo verde, not
forgetting vino course.
-
and vinho
-
of
Sunday, December 15
The Club will echo with the patter of tiny feet and the roar of tiny voices as the children's Chยกistmas party gets under way
-
we hope (see over).
Tuesday, December 17
So you think you can sing? Come and listen to how it should be done as the Welsh Choir bring the hills alive with the sound of music.
Feedback Following Chris Minter's review of the
Club's Gยกeek Night and his request for Greek
or Turkish
coffee to be put on
- manager-Heinz Grabner says the menu, that if enough members agree he will be
all has to come together on the day," Bond said. "It's not just the boat. It's the crew, the management, the sails, the masts, navi. you have to get out gation equipment
it
Wednesday, October 23. The Melody Quartet from the Hong Kong Philharmonic will play Strauss waltzes to set the mood for this elegant night with a formal sit-down dinner and a Viennese theme. (These two events have been rescheduled because the quartet are not available to play on a Saturday night.)
Alan Bond
happy to oblige. But it is up to you to come forward and make your request, either to Heinz direct or through the Comments box.
Watch out, there's a thief about
Read all about it
Groucho Marx once said he wouldn't belong to any club that would have him as a .".bet. Brian Eads has a variation: he is wondering if he wants to be a member of a club where members steal umbrellas. In the past month he has had t'üo umbrellas stolen from the rack on rainy days aren't enough locks to go around - there and he is getting fed up with it' Mem-bers who have not had the foresight to bring their own umbrellas on a rainy dayare requested to share a friend's instead of someone that's what it is stealing
around the South China M orning Posf is that the paper is aiming for the top in its search for a Sunday editor. Harold Evans is the name on many staffers' lips. (And the Pos¡ has said itself that there has been one application from Washington DC.)
Lawrence Doyle CBS News
Meanwhile, our piece in last month's issue about the unfortunate literals which crept
Roger Crabb Reuters
else's.
-
It's only gossip,
the rumour
into the ad for the job in the UK
Press
Gazette seems to have upset the press barons
one press Baran - who felt in great detail in Business News that the ad had been typeset in Britain and the errors didn't originate in Quarry Bay. Of course, we never said they did; but now the entire 250,000 readers of the Posl know about the typos instead of just the 2,000 members of the Club, who could be
or at least -moved to explain
-
Perhaps those who have "borrowed" an
umbrelá recently might have their ences prodded sufficiently by this story to return it to the rack. consci-
reasonably expected to know anyway how gremlins cause many a typographical slip.
A question of reprocity First the bad news: Club members head-
there, but due to difficulties they have had in collecting payments from clubs outside the United States they have withdrawn all reciprocal rights. Howéver, the Board is writing to the OPC explaining that we do not wish members to have credit, only the right to use the club and pay on the spot. \üe'll lçt you know if the OPC have a change of heart. And now for the good news: the Board has had two letters from overseas clubs seeking reciprocal arrangements, and in vie.w of thése, ánd various other inquiries we have had, the Board is going to investigate the whole reciprocal-arrangement policy with a view to preparing a publication for members' use listing reciprocal clubs and their
More gossip . . . amember dining in arival establishment overheard the following comment: "Anyone genuinely concerned about doing well in his career should definitely not join the FCC." Whatever can it mean?
A dinner for Neil The main dining room can never have been quieter went up after tary Frontline the last minut morial dinner on Thursday, September 19. The documentary, featuring interviews with Neil and showing some of his best Indochina war footage, will be shown again in the dining room on SaturdaY, SePtember 28 at around 9:30.
The normal a la carte menu will
be
will be a $50 cover , along with dinner, to
a
mory by the of Thailand.
Adam Kelliher
UPI Jonathon Thatcher Reuters
Andre Grenon Reuters
Edward K. W. Ho
TVB
Derek G. Wicks McKenna & Co. Chan Wing Kai Roger Young & Co.
Keeping in touch
Desmond Wigan Jardine Matheson Holdings
Following a letter from journalist member Ted Dunfee, who is now based in Bangkok, the Board has agreed that absent members can have their copies ofThe Cotespondent mailed to them so they can keep in touch with what's going on here.
And if we could find anyone to file for us (always a problem) we might even have some stories from around the region. Any volunteers?
Christmas is coming
facilities and charges.
served, but there
but
Last year's children's Christmas party had to be cancelled through lack of sup'
port, iend aged in yo
Wong King Sun Physical therapist Roger Kalhoefer Landor Associates Designers Paul S. L. Wong
TVB Charles D. Lane
United States Consulate-General
On the move FreeLance journalist member Roger Boschman has recently been appointed Hong Kong correspondent for Asia Today. Roger, who is a well-known travel writer, will be helping editor Barry Peørton, an old
een decided to exyou have children , the date to mark
Asia hand, to produce a viable
December 15.
magazine, he says.
business
Manager Heinz Grabner will be pleased
to hear irom you if you have any ideas for entertainment, and we hope we will get good support this year as we need more than 80 children for the function to b¡eak even. It's not often the Club opens up to children, so make the best of the opportunity. PS: The Anti-Child Lobby should also mark this date in their diaries avoid.
-
as one to
Putting it together Editor
-
Janine Wookey Tel: Work
5-245095 Home 5-593454
Newsletter Liaison - Michael Malik (FEER) Tel: 5-8936688 Printers - Ad-Asia, Worldwide Commercial Bldg, 34 Wyndham Street Central: Tel: 5-256067.