The Correspondent, October 1989

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tยกr' v The Declaration of lndependence Reuters is more than a name, it's

a

Data for the money, commodities and

securities markets is collected, processed

written guarantee,

Reuters has supplied impartial and

and distributed via a series of computer

accurate news and information at speed since

centres linked by the world's biggest private

1851, Throughout that time our reputation for

global commun ications network,

reliability and independence has been trusted

world's foreign exchange and securities

and respected, Today, as

Reuters dealing systems serve the

the world's largest publisher

of electronic news and information, maintain-

ing such high standards is more important

markets, allowingdealers around the globe to buy and sell currencies and securities,

Through our subsidiary companies, we are also the leading supplier of dealing room

than ever before, Reuters reports the news and provides

the world's largest and most comprehensive realti me fi nancial database,

technology and are building historical dalabases to add value to all our services,

Yet no matter how much our services

collected from 159 Stock

develop and expand, our reputation will

Exchanges and marketsworldwide, with data

remain true to the long-established principles

from over 3,700 subscribers in 80 coun-

of integrity independence and freedom from

tries, aswellasfrom ourown networkof more

bias guaranteed by the Reuter Trust,

lnformation

is

than 7,200 journalists, photographers and cameramen,

So, in the 21st Century Reuters will still be the first word in independence,

> THE WORLD'S LARGEST ELECTRONIC PUBLISHER>

The att of writing.

MONTO BlANC

t

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In

ifl69, mal took his first tentative steps on the moon.

IJaIf a million people spent three days in the mud and ralin at a small

town called \Øoodstock. And three men decided to form the world's first air express company DHL.

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EXPR€:S û

YOU COULDN'T Ð(PRESS IT BETTER.

SPECIAL REPORT

A long þurney to the gflorious past 12-26 As the FCC marks its 40th anniversary in Hong Kong this month, the Club is in fact over 46 years old, says a former TIIE

of the Chinese Government Information Office, Searls says the Club was found-

Norttr Block, 2 l¡wer Albert Road, Hong Kong.

-

-

Paul Bayheld,

Second Vice-President - Irene O'Shea.

Correspondent Member Governors Anthony Dyson, Graham l¡vell, Robin Moyer, Peter Seidlitz, Michael Shuftleworth, David Thurston, Steven Vines.

Journalist Member Governors Bob Davis, Karl

rvVilson.

Associate Member Governors Wendy Hughes, Bryan Lloyd, Saul Lockhart, Dorothy Ryan

Club Manager: Heìnz Grabner, Club Steward: Julia Suen.

TtrD Editor:

Jenkins

Grindrod, meanwhile, interviewed Graham Jenkins, who was once sentenced to death by China's Nationalist Government, and a host of other elder newsmen to compile an informal history of the Club.

Sinan Fisek,

First Vice-President

qNn[S(f,UHUT

REPORTING ASIA

weighty personality dominated the group for years.

Post-war Asia has been a scene of many upheavals.

Death knells of inept governments, birth pangs of new nations, floods, famine, wars...Asia has experienced

Beijing

85

Guangzhou

86

Hong Kong

86

Jakarta

88

Kuala Lumpur

90

Manila

90

New Delhi

93

Pnom Penh

94

Singapore

96

Sydney

96

Taipei

98

the unfolding of human drama in countless ways in the past

four decades. Russell Spurr, who filed his first news cable from the Indian hill station Kalimpong as the Chinese army marched into Tibet almost 40 years ago, recounts the experiences of a newsman on the hop

OFFBEAT Heard

l¡ckhart,

PEOPLE

CHINA- the experiences

Opinions expressed by writers are not necessarily those of the Foreþ Correspondentsr Club.

of a bemused observer

Spurr has also covered China since the mid-

Editorial (Xfice: Unit B, 18/F

Telephone: 58387282, F ax: 18387 262

TECHNOI-]OGY

The Correspondent is published monthly

When cables were the most efficient communication link 42-47

Harvard House, 10S111 Thomson Road, \{anchai, Hong Kong.

Foreign

Club, by:

Printline Ltd, Unit B, 18/F Harvard House, 101111 Thomson Road, \{anchai, Hong Kong

Managing Directon P Viswa Nathan, Operations Di¡ecton Debbie Nuttall,

fext md

page design generated on Ooot" Macintosh ll and firiished art outÞut by Linolronic 300. Printed in

Hong Kong by Kadett Printing Co.,16/F Remex Centre, 42 Wong Chuk Hang Road,

Hong Kong.

37

Clare Hollingworth

the first time in 1954. Strange, says Spurr,

'50s. But he calls himself an itinerant reporter, visiting that complex country for

Correspondentsr

bar... 54-55

here everyday.

OThe Correspondent

of The

across a crowded

The main bar at the pcc is known for its informal atmosphere. Many a lively conversation take place

Cover Concept Peter Wong Cover photo: @ Bob Davis

behalf

where to eat in the region.

85

Publications SubCommittee: Paul Bayfield (Chairman),

for and on

more than six times a year.

They also eat out frequentl¡ whether or not they are travelling. Correspondents based in 12 different Asian cities report on where to stay and

Bangkok

P Viswa Nathan

David Thurston, Saul Wendy Hughes

The Correspondenfs guide to living out in Asia Most members of the pcc travel in Asia - many of them

From Tibet to Vieûram...4O years on ttre hop31-35

Editorial Supervision:

-3 I -

48-52

Almost 40 years ago, a few newsmen and others, who enjoyed the pleasures of alcoholic beverages, decided to form themselves into a group. Thus, Alcoholics Synonymous was founded in Jack Conder's bar in Central, Hong Kong. The group has since moved from place to place for its weekly meetings which are held "for the purpose of drinking beverages of alcoholic content". But for nearly the past two decades the group has been meeting at the Fcc on Saturdays. The late Dick Hughes'

ed on May 18, 1943. Freelance writer Barry

Têlephone: S211511, Fax S8684092

LIFESTYIÆ

A few drinks, a spot of lunch and Saturday rolls on

Club president, Guy Searls. Quoting fuom Dateline: China, a book written by Hollington Tong, the \ryartime director

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS' CLT]B

President

CLUB NEWS

ank you, Elaine

6l

The chairman of the Publications

The grande dame of the pcc who has covered every war since she witnessed Hitler's tanks roll into Poland, turns 78

the stories that stick in your mind...It is those rare occasions that make the job worthwhile.

Sub-Committee, Paul Bayfield, and

publishers of The Corresþondent, Printline Ltd., extend their thanks to Elaine Goodwin for her valuable assistance in

this month.

Communication technology has advanced a great deal in the past 40 years. Today, news copy and news photos move around the world electronically at miraculous speed. But what was reporting like before the digital computer supplanted the typewriter and satellites breathed new life into radio and television broadcasts?

Mimi

Mario

canvassing advertising

65

support for

Mimi Mario, 21, is the youngest member of the Club staff. Joining the Club in 1987, she works in

this

the Club's main dining room.

out her professional advice

Stephen Kwok

special

edition. \[ith-

67

Stephen Kwok, 41, has been working with the Club since its Sutherland House days. Joining the Club in 1973 he has worked his way up and is now bar captain.

and

support

this venture would not have beên so successful.

Thank you, Elaine.

frRRE-r llNA LYsT

frccou{fnuT

ENéì/MADR

across

"ght the hoard.

Imagine an information system so intuitive and powerful that you could get the information you need right at your desk. Even if the data were stored on a temote host computer floors away. Now imagine that with a few keystrokes you_could test your ideas against the data right on the spot, seeing new patterns of useful information, new opportunities and new courses

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-l I

IBM is offering SAA solutions now. Our new software product, OfficeVision, *' is an integrated suite of easy-to-use tools that work together on a variety of IBM computers, from the smallest to the largest. OfficeVision can help you see your data more clearly, organise it more meaningfully and communicate it more effectively. Right across the board.

W'e're

in the results business

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A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

to HE

lñe f oreign C orresp orLlertts' C [u6, Agel 40,

from

Ag unce frørLce -lPres s el Agel 154

Foreþ

Correspondents' Club completes 40 years

in Hong Kong this year and, all things considered, it is doing very well indeed.

First, however, the bad news:

Jtttttttt-tJttttt tt -Jatt-

THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS SERVICE

The world's first news agency, present in 29 countries and territories in Asia and the Pacific and 125 others worldwide.

But to survive without being too much of a burden on club finances, The Corresþondent needs more ads, and continues to look for a special effort from members.

Good news, of course, abounds.

Our finances are healthy, respectable 75 years old by then and

a

veritable antique by

Hong Kong standards, is apparently gazetted to be torn down to make way for "green space" under a proposed flyover. Whether this will actually happen or not is anybody's guess at this stage, but the FCC will certainly engage in

some pre-emptive lobbying.

Ailing badly for a while was our new video club. Just as the board, with heavy heart, was preparing to take radical measures, an unexpected surge in subscriptions gave it a . It is still not a money-maker, but even even will be reason enough to keep proband certainly one of the best video clubs

in Hong Kong going.

This magazine too has had chronic health problems.

Redback since it was relaunched two years ago shows us

rewarding crop of guest spe behind us and more to come our f,fth decade in Hong Kong. l,ord Macl,ehose, who was instrumental in finding our present lavish premises after we were forced out of Sutherland House. l¡rd Maclehose accepted our invitation, but after the first flyers for the party were out, he unfortunately had to decline because of health problems - minor ones, we are assured. o have been

Instead of scurrying for an 1lth hour substitute, the

board decided that there would be not one guest ofhonour, but many: the correspondents, journalists and associates who make up the membership of this Club.

Sinan Fisek

Congratulations from

-taDDt

./JDffD.tr,. f]Jftntttt

that it is the best of its kind in the world; Editor Viswa Nathan summed it all up in the August/September issue.

THE RESIDEIÙT PAST PRESIDEI\TS Guy Searls David J. Roads Bert Okuley Hubert Van Es

1964 - 1965 1966 - t967

t976 - t977 1982 - 1983

Michael Keats Philip Bowring Jim Biddulph Derek Davies

1983 - 1984 1985 - 1986 1986 -t987 1987 - 1989

\Mtr LOOKF'ORWARDTO THE NEXT 40 )'trARS FCC Anniaersary Sþecial

THE coRRESPoNDENT ocroBER rgsg 1

I

SPECIAI. REPORT FORTYYEARS IN HONG KONG

ORMER Reuters correspondent, publisher, no-nonsense newspaper editor, and once an FCC board member GrahamJenkins, has been celebrating his own little known but quite remarkable 40th anniversary this year.

It was in 1949, as the communists marched triumphantly through China

that he was sentenced to death in Shanghai for "rumour mongering" by the beleaguered Kuomintang. He had had his last meal, written his last letter,

listened to other prisoners being shot and had heard a British ambassador, who had arrived to try and negotiate his 11th hour reprieve, turned away from the door.

Indeed news that Melbourne-

Since its formation in Chungking

in 1943 as a 24-

room residential club operated by the Information Service of Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang government, the FCC has travelled a long \ilay to Nanking, to Shanghai and

finally, when communism

swept over mainland China in 1949, to Hong Kong. Today, it is one of the finest press clubs in the world.

rby

Barry Grindrodr And who

has

born Jenkins ed by firing squad made headlines

Jenkins to thank for his

around the wor-

A clus

life? Who succeeded where the highest diplomats in the land

had been execut-

failed?

ld. But around

the time

were hitting the streets and only

pondentsr Club in

a couple of

Shanghai, the forerunner of the club in Hong Kong," says 72-yearold Jenkins.

"Its president Clyde

hours after he had expected to up

against the wall

and shot, Jenkins was released after the last

minute intervention of nationalist

leader Chiang Kai-shek himself.

clom: "No

doubt about it, the reason I am here today to tell the tale is because of the Foreign Corres-

the

newspapers

be lined

\ryITH

Graham Jenkins: The reason I am here today to tell the tale is because of the Foreign Corresþondents' CIub in Shanghai.

12 rl¿n coRRESpoNDENT ogroBER 1989

Farnsworth (who six months later became the FCC's first president in Hongkong when the Club was transferred from the mainland) and members of the board at

that time had the clout necess ary to reach Chiang Kai-shek himself.

'Anumber of them were influencial American journalists and the lastthing Chiangwanted was to damage relations

with the US. So he gave orders that

I

and a newspaper editor who had also been sentenced to death for publishing my story in China, be released."

Broadway Mansion, the Shanghai home of the FCC, is now known as Shang¡hai

Mansions. Asi aw e ek's advertising promotion marketing manager, patricia Bjaaland, who was in Shanghai in August this year, visited the old building. As ène says, "just for fun", and took this picture (far lefi). The club's most farnous home in Hong Kong at 41-A Conduit Road (lefi) was demolished a long time ago to erect a Itrxury aparûnent block there. Above, the present, most auspicious home.

The story began in April, 1949 when the Nationalist capital of Nanking was about to fall and Reuters correspondent Jenkins, reluctantly following advice, caught one of the last Tlm eAcrcRouND:

planes out and headed back to Shanghai.

From there he told the world about the demise of the armies of Chaing I{ai. shek and the fall ofthe leader's seat of

By this time he firm1y believed he was due to make his lastwalk at dawn.

power. Itwas all overbarthe kiling and there was plenty of that going on.

But dawn came and went and at around 11 a.m. Jenkins walked out a free man and a few hours later

The next morning Jenkins was in the Reuters office when three soldiers arrived and arrested him. He was taken

to a house, the headquarters

returned to Hong Kong.

Within weeks all the journalists who had played a part in securing Jenkinsl release were in Hong Kong - with the

of

Kuomintangrs secret police, and asked to reveal his contacts. He refused.

He was told that unless he named

names he would be court martialed under martial law as a rumour monger and shot. He was given an hour to think

about it.

Once again Jenkins refused and a colonel sat across a small table from him duly sentenced him to death.

There was no reason for him not to take the sentence seriously and he did.

The nationalists were bumping off suspected communist spies and sympathisers every day.

"They took me to a room in the base ment and I thought I would be taken to keep my appointrnentwith my Maker at either dusk or dawn," says the former

FCC Anniaersary Sþecial

all-conquering communists having slammed the door firmly shut - and

publisher, managing director and editorin-chief of the now defunct Hong Kong daiTy,The Star While waiting, he got a phone call from another Reuters man in Shanghai, Monty Parrott, who was later to succeed Clyde Farnsworth as president of

At 6 p.m. Jenkins was led upstairs and given his last meal - rice with a bit ofbroccoli on top. A corporal, Jenkins recalls, apologised saying the allowance for last meals was not very

Frnsr ¡Rsp:

big.

off the beaten path at the far end of

Kong FCC.

paper on which to write

what was then a very young Hong

quite

a

few teeth."

He was also given two pieces of a

last letter. He

"He wanted to knowwhatwas going on and I said I was about to be shot,"

wrote

says Jenkins.

"I must say I was surprised that he was allowed to speak to me. But when

He was then taken back to the basement. Shortþ afterwards he heard two

I told him what

was happening the guards cut us off and laid into me. I lost

FCC Annia ersary

Sp

ecial

a

will leaving everything to his

mother.

Chinese men taken outto a tennis court behind the houSe, lined up before a firing squad and shot.

looking for a new Foreign CorrespondentsrClub.

It didn't take them long.

Number 15 Kotewall Road was the address, an old two-storey house well

Robinson Road.

They were small beginnings indeed, as former United Press correspondent Chang Kuo-sin recalls from his home

in Beaverton, Oregon, in the United States. Although he only came out of China in December 1949, he was, he says, considered a founding member of

the Club.

THE CORRESPONDENT

OC-TOBER 1989

13

PECIA

I¡cal colour. Global spectrum.

Chien-ping started his 4Gyear associa-

tion with the Club.

'When

Liao left for the US in 1977 he was guest ofhonour at a banquet attended by no lesser personage than the then

governor of Hong Kong, Sir Murray Maclæhose (now Lord Macl,ehose) himself, among many others. In a tribute on the nightto the Club's mostloyal ser-

vant, its most likeable and respected member, Dick "Cardinal" Hughes,

reflected

on the early days in

Chungking. "Here Mr Liao began to study English, to learn to cook and adjust to the curious drinking habits of the club members, who were them-

Farewell to Liao The much loved member of the Club staff, üao Chien-ping, joined the Clutr soon after it was founded in Chungking.

When üao (secondfrom lzl) resigned in 1977 to emigrate to the US, the doyen of foreign correspondents, Dick Hugþes, (standing) recounted, at a banquet held in honour of liao, how the former bar captain adjusted to the curious drinking habits of Club members. On lJao's rig¡ht is tlre Club's 1976-77 president, Bert Okuley

selves adjusting to the curious local versions of vodka and gin (there was little

At the time there were just 11 full members! Most, if not all of them, had

or no imported booze in those days).

been members

exchanges at the bar were frequently

of the FCC in

"Drinking sessions and cultural

Shanghai's Broadway Mansion.

interrupted by uninvited bombing planes, piloted by non-member

But in fact, the FCC first started in Chungking back in 1943

Japanese."

When the Chinese capital moved from Chungking to Nanking, so did the FCC.

TFn sncNNllùc:

(see The Club a.nd iß ancestry, paCe 17).

it

Thanks to United Press'Walter

was here that the much loved Liao

Logan, who was appointed president,

It was

a

24-room residential club and

the trCC acquired alarge, terraced

Photo: Hugh van Es

it needs through our Global Data Network and advanced telecom-

VISJVEVT/S

munications systems.

NBC REUTERS BBC

Congratulation to the FCC on its 40th anniversary from VISNEWS, The worldrs leading Têlevision News Agency, and first with VISASA, â unique service by satellite covering Asian events for Asia and the world.

14 rrrB CORRESPONDENT

OSTOBER 1989

FCC Anniuersøry Sþecial

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CONSOLIDÄTED ASSETS AT 30 JUNE I 989 EXCEED US$I 24 BILLION.

6 r E

n

The Club and its anceshy IIIEcould-and YY

perhaps should be celebrating the 46th

anniversary of the Foreign Correspondents' CIub this year instead of the 4oth.

Of course what we are celebrating is the 40th anniversary of the Club's establishment in Hongkong. But the ancestry of the Club goes back to May 18, 1943 when the Foreign Correspondents Club was officially formed in wartime Chungking (Chongqing).

An account of the founding of the Club in Chungking can be

found in the book

dateline: China written

by Hollington TonS and published in 195O.

"Holly" Tong, a

veteran newspaperman

who studied journalism in the US, was director of the Chinese

Government Information Office for the

The Asian Wall StreetJournal is Asia's busines drily. No other publication hæ more impact on daily decisions in the worlds of business, govemment and the pmfessions.

Only theJournal brings the full regional and international busines picture into focus every busines day.

The AsianJournal is the only publication ofits kind in Asia. No wonder it is the essential tool ofAsia's busines leadels.

Press Hostel was Tong's brainchild and it

was there that the first FCC was born.

Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times was

the first president

(after the war Atkinson returned to New York

and a career as a drama critic on the Times).

There were three

saying he could work better independently, was Til Durdin was already well known as a China Correspondent, especialþ for his eye witness account of the Japanese "Rape of Nanking" in 1937.

Durdin, despite his refusal to live at the

Press Hostel, was active in the

professional aspects of

the FCC, as he way

Chao Ming-heng of

many years later here in Hong Kong.

Reuters, Michael Yakshamin of Tass, and

dent mentioned in

vice-chairmen: Tommy

Teddy White of Time,

Life and Fortune. (White

later became famous for his books on the Making of the President.

Spencer Moosa of AP was the

first secretary

and Tommy Chau, in

addition to being

vice-chairman,

a

doubled as treasurer.

The one correspon-

dent who refused t<¡ live at the Hostel,

Another correspon-

Tong's accounts of the

SPECIAL REPO RT -

Tudor-style mansion and, courtesy of the Liaol-ogan partnership, three jeeps

for club use from the US Army motor pool at a cost of only US$150 each.

TWo were later sold to Time and Life representatives for US$1,500 each and

one to AP for $1,000!

From

Nank-

ing the FCC moved on to

Shanghai and the top six floors

of

Broadway

Mansion.

That building

Hostel was Henry

still exists, but under another

after the war and continued working in the Reuters' Hong

name, Shanghai

Baugh of Reuters who returned to Hong Kong

Kong office until he

retired.

Maybe we can hold

a 50th anniversary celebration for our ancestor club

-

in 1993.

Guy Seails

Mansions.Thefor-

mer FCC dining David Roads, room on the top president in 1966 floor is now frequentlyused bylocal officials for entertain-

ingforeþguests.

Remembers Chang Kuo-sin, who

a member of the Nanking and Shanghai clubs: "The Club provided a

\ry'as

Forty years ago when the FCC opened its doors ¡n Hong Kong, UPI was there.

Today, around the world and around the clock, UPI is at the scene.

Congratulations to the Club on its anniversary.

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

THT ASIAN 14IA[T STREET JOURNAL The business publication ofAsia

period covering the war. The Chungking

FCC Anniaersary Sþecial

THE CORRESPONDENT OSIOBER T989L7

SPECIAL REPOR:T despatch of the Club's records and files to Hong Kong and

¡Ì\

Kotewall Road.

Former president David

Roads, who was then with theAP

bureau in Hongkong, was New York Herald Tribune correspon-

dentwhen he became president in 1966. Roads, information officer for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, remembers that the condition for tenancy was "that we would keep the noise down to a mild roar, but we got away with

murder."

William Holden was a regular visitor to the Club.

Photo: Honghong Standard

correspondents, accommodation and a place to eat, very important in days when watering hole for the foreign

food was in short

supply.

as Toþo,

"They were not as ambitious or organised as the press clubs in

l¡ndon or l¡s

Angeles."

the red tide of communism swept over the mainland, Mr Liao supervised the Goonsyr Ctmtq: But come '49 and as

,,The Too suÁll, ¡ pl,rc¡: premises were too small for us. we onþ had two or three rooms to accommodâte visiting correspondentsandthebarwasespecially too small as more and more assòciate members joined," says Chang Kuo-sin.

And so in 1951came the move to 414 Conduit Road - a grand old mansion,

with expansive lawns, marble fireplaces, tennis courts and breathtakitrg'oie*..

A beautiful moonlit night at 414 conduit Road was enough [o stir even

The Club's Conduit Road home was

a

grand old mansion with expansive lawns

and breathtaking views. Part of the movie, Loue is a Many Sþlendoured Thing was filmed there. the hardest ofhack hearts to thoughts of romance and, according to the old

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s FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

THE CORRESPONDENT OCTOBERlg8g

19

rt t

timers, there were enough facilities there to turn thoughts into action in more ways than one.

helped the Club tick over.

Nnws emcrour?: Graham Jenkins, who

was a board member of the Club in the

early r50s, recalls

¡wlrys: UPI bureau chiel and a former FCC president, Wendell "Bud" Merick, for example, was married there. Part of Han Suyin's Loae Is a

who had a tendency to over imbibe. 'lMe decided to fire him but he went

William Holden and Jennifer Jones, was

on for weeks and we had many meetings to try and come up with a solution on how to get him out.

UìmoncE'nABrx

Many Sþlendoured Thing, starring

filmed there although the Clubrs role was that of a hospital and not a mansion.

Holden was a regularvisitol as he was some years later when he returned for the making of The World of Suzie Wong.

lnng-time American radio and television entertainer Arthur Godfr y once did a series of radio shows from the

a

v,l

manager at the Club

on a sit down strike in his room.

Itwent

:.-*ë

"At every meeting every board

member would be reminded to remember, 'not a word to the press'."

Eventually the manager disappeared into.the blue one night never to be seen agaln.

Later the muchloved Peppi Paunsen took over as manager. He was a member of an old Austrian restaurant family which showed in the way the food improved. he was also great at the piano and would gather

people around for song sessions.

He later emigrated to California where he opened a place ofhis own.

Red Guards terror hits Hong Kong

opponruwry Losr The FCC at one stage was given the opportunity to buy the premises for $145,000 but

,4t'¡

Guy Searls, president 1964-65

lawn of the club at 414 Conduit Road, and world-famous Edward R. Murrow visited the club several times.

Clark Gable also visited 414 Conduit Road.

Former president Guy Searls recalls that when he joined the FCC in 1953 the entrance fee was only $50 and monthly subscriptions were $30 or $35.

Searls was special correspondent for

CBS News

for 10 years but later

became Mutual Broadcastingrs man in

Hongkong.

It was mostly associate members, says Searls, and associate members were essential for the economic stability of the Club. All major news services had set up headquarters in Tbþo during the post-war occupation, and the

Korean War correspondents were attached to the Japan bureaus.

There was, however, a steady coming and going of correspondents on R

and R from the Korean War which

2O mtn coRRESpoNDENT ocroBER

In May 1967, China's Cultural Revolution spilled over into Hong Kong and swept the territory into violence and bloodshed. During that r.eign of terror which lasted more tJran six months, several people were killed; the British and Chinese soldiers exchanged gunfire across the border one day; the economy crumbled; and, many people fled Hong Kong fearing a communist takeover of the territory. For the world's press, Hong

the Club had neither the money nor the confdence in the future of the territory at that time to take advantage ofthe offerl Eventually the Club was turfed out. The FCC took the landlord to court a bid to stay on but the case was lost,

in

the site was sold for $10 million and today Realty Gardens has risen from the rubble of the grand old house.

And so in 1961the FCC moved to Li Po Chun Chambers midway

Kong was big news again.

Correspondents started flooding back.

Photos: H ong ho ng Stan d ard

between Central and Western districts.

,'ft

It

was a case of "after the Lord Mayor's show" and so began the blackest chapter in the history of the F'CC.

Resignations were commonplace F CC couldn't meet its

and by 1963 the

bills. For

a

few months the Club folded.

But then the faithful few managed to acquire a function room, now known as the Thai Room, on the fourth floor of the Hong Kong Hilton.

The future, however, was still looking far from bright with few members

JÈT

and getting fewer by the month.

But in 1964 Guy Searls, was elected president and immodestly takes credit

1989

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

FCC Anniuersary Special

THE CORRESPONDENT OCTOBER

1989

2I

tufthansa's Asian Commitmêht: It all began 50 yearc ago.

Photos: Robin Moyer

Photo: Robin Moyer

Massacre at Beijing Newsmen were again in full force

for turning the Club around.

"When I took over we were $18,000 in the red, by the time my year of office was over we were $14,000 in the black," says Searls, who nowworks with the Honghong Standard as well as

in June 1989 to report tlre prodemocracy

demonstration at Beijing's

Tiananmen square, the subsequent massacre of the demonstrators

the Christian Science Monitor Radio Service.

(aboue)

Searls was also instrumental

in the Club moving up to the top floor of the Hilton which had spectacular views of the harbour.

Searls also got the hotel to rent the club a suite next to the swimming pool for the summer which allowed all members to use the pool and showers. That was one of the periods of water rationing, andthe 24hour showers were a real blessing. The club also gotthe use of a swimminghut at Stanley Beach.

andthe

spontaneous mass rallies in Hong Kong

(lzl) denouncing the brutality of the Chinese leadership.

Photo: Bob Davis

position within the Club , with 003.

Also in the top 10 and still using the

Club are former BCC man Anthony I¿wrence and former UPI Bureau chief Charlie Smith.

Vietnam and so, say the old timers, the good old days ofthe FCC began.

Regulars Smith, and former presidents Hugh van Es and Bert

Okuþ

still

night, aboutthose days in the frontline.

Asm nRv: Smith recounts the storyfrom the Hilton days of well known cartoonist Fred Joss, known in particular for

Former president Donald Wise, Anthony Lawrence, Derek Williams, Saul l¡ckhart and the FCC's Mother Superior Clare Hollingworth were also up at the sharp end. "Clare was there telling the generals how to fight the war and she was usually right," says Van Es. "She has seen more wars than most

president had the distinction of being number 001 but the current member

his book, Geishas and Gangsters.

Not a man to be without problems of one form or another, Joss one day emp tied his pockets in the Club, removed his shoes and jumped out of the window 25 floors up.

It was during the latter days at the Hilton that Hong Kong was hit by the communist riots of 1967, the territory was big news again and the correspondents started flooding back.

with the lowest number is 1966 president David Roads, a man who has held every

going on across the South China Sea in

He started regular news sheets and professional lunches. One of the first speakers, he recalls, was vicepresident of the Pepsi-Cola corporation, a certain

Mr Richard Nixon.

The year 1965 was a significant one as

a new accounting firm took over the books and insisted the former membership numbers, that were then based on an alphabetical system, be changed to a number system. Stan Rich, ollhe Herald Tribune,who followed Searls in 1965 as

ln otfering our congratulations to the F.C.C. for 40 years of service to the Asian community of journalists, we would like to point out a coincidence

tâlk with glazed eyes, especially late at

There was also a little skirmish

Lufthansa, too, began serving theAsian community as long as 50 years ago. Even then serving the media. We're still here to take you there in style.

generals."

Aworu¡ ntct¡sl¡: "Everything else has to be an anti-climax after Vietnam," says Van Es, who took the famous picture of the helicopter taking off from the roof of the US embassy in Saigon as the communists moved in on the

cþ

G Lufthansa

on April30,

German Airlines

22Tts,

coRRESPoNDENT ocroBER

1989

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

-

that end, Lufthansa has introduced the first European 8747-400 service. Hong Kong to Frankfurt, non-stop. New standards of comfort, convenience and service. A direct reflection of the expectations of the Asian business community.

And proof positive of Lufthansa's Asian Commitment.

To

See your travel agent or your nearest Lufthansa off¡ce

SPECIAL REPO RT 1975, and which became the definitive picture of the end of the war.

Okuley was the man who spotted the chopper on the roof from the UPI office across the road and dragged a reluctant and cursingVan Es from the darkroom to take the shots. '"Ihe only money I made from that picture, which has appeared thousands

to the

of times around the world and, no doubt, will be republished and republished, was US$100. That was a bonus from UPI for winning their picture of the month award!

"The copyright law was changed the following year which, had it been done ayear earlier, would have meant the picture was mine after first publication. I would have been a rich man.

"During the war, correspondents would spend three months in Vietnam and then come to Hong Kong for R and as the correspodents called it, for

R

seven days which we could often stretch to 10 days," says Van Es who was shot down twice during his six years involvmentwith the war, once in a troop carrier and once in behind enemy lines.

a

helicopter

"It really was a time for letting off steam, you had money in your pocket and you spent it. That meant b ooze and broads because when you went back to Vietnam you never knew if the next day was going to be your last."

In

1968 the FCC

moved to the 15th

floor of Sutherland House in Chater Road

Hugþ van Es' award-winning world exclusive for which he got only US$ 1OO,

and with the Vietnam lMar being at its height those early years rvere never dull.

In fact its men's toilets made the Club famous thanks to John le Carre who featured them in his book The Honourable Schoolboy.The view of the harbour from the toilets was one of the finest in Hong

Kong, related the best selling author who spent a lot of time at the Club and was a member for a number of years.

Indeed a number of his characters in The Honourable Schoolboywere based on people he met atthe FCC.

Incidentally two other best selling authors James Clavell and Robert Elegant are still members of the Club with the latter an ex-president.

The FCC moved to its present

premises

in 1982 after 74 years

in

Sutherland House.

Nobody was more

than

Donald Wise.

He relates how in early 1980, as president, he was faced with the task of finding

a new home for the FCC before September when the rent was to more than double.

There was nothing available in Central and estimates of building a Club were pitched at around $18 millionl Someone suggested the old officers'

mess opposite the Hilton.

The idea sounded good and so the former I¡ndon Daily Mirrorwar correspondentwrote to the then governor of

ndents'

Club on its

Hong Kong Sir Murray Maclehose

The view from the loo THE FCC's l4th floor bar in Sutherland House was known far and wide as one of the most comfortable watering holes in the world. Less well known was the spendid tiew from tlre loo' on the same floor. Many a male - and we hear tales of a few females - pondered Hong Kongl,s magnificent Fragrant Harbour from this vantage point for a few minutes each visit

40th Anniversary

to the Club.

The photogmph, taken þ R. Ian Lloyd, frst appeared in the inaug¡rral edition of the

prize-winning

published

A

in f98f

Gu

by Apa Productions. Lloyd in the centre and for a while, the Club was preoccuppied with guessing his identity.

The mammoth guidebook

had

l75,0OO words and 200 colour plates in its first edition (it is updated annually and is still a bestseller) and FCC members played an important role in its creation.

Our thanks for Apa for the use of the photo.

24ryn

coRRESpoNDENT ocToBER

1989

FCC Anniaersary Sþecial

1282 New Mercury Flouse, 22Fenwick Street, Hong Kong.

TeL: 5-274324 Fax: 5-8656788

SPECIAL REPORT

Aboue, tlae Governor of Hong

Kong (1971-82), Sir Murray

with a supporting letter from Derek Davies, then editor of the Far Eastern Econow'tic Reuiew,who seven years later

It has shaken off the image of the rough and ready days and today has the image of a caring club with a social

became the Clubrs President. Wise

conscience, even a campaigning club

asked, basically, if the FCC could have the place for next to "nowf in refurn for

when the need arises and as was so ably demonstrated after the introduc-

keeping it in good order.

tion of the Public Order Bill when then

It was six weeks before he got a reply from the governor who had other ideas, or one at least, and it was a good one.

president Jim Biddulph went off to

The FCC was offered a five year lease on the old ice house - we have

since been granted a second five- year term.

UPI bureau chief Mike Keats who followed \Mise as president, was given the job of turning it from an ice house

godown into what it is today, one of the finest thertnæt some say, press clubs in the world.

Derek Davies, who had two succesthat had become

a

sive terms as president between 1987 and 1989 rates it as the most comfort-

able, least stuffy watering holes of the lot. "Knocks l¡ndon, Washington and New York into a cocked hat," he says.

But today the FCC is more than just a watering hole.

(now Lord Maclehose) who helped the Club move into its present elegant home. Left, Donald Wise, (in dark shirt) and Michael Keats (second from right), both former presidents,

accompanied by the club manager, Heinz Grabner (with glasses) oversees the old ice house being transformed into one of the finest press clubs in the world.

I¡ndon to representthe FCC and bend

few influencial ears.

It provides a plafform for debate and gives the rostrum to those who have something to say in Hong Kong and a

beyond. Some have more to saythan others, some vry it better than others but the speakers listatthe Club overtheyears is a veritable who's who of big names.

F'rom George Bush

to

Barry Humphries, from Mohammed Ali to l¡rd Lichfield, from Danny l¿ Rue to Dame Lydia Dunn, we have had them all.

But the Club is only as good as its membership. Right now there are just over 1460 active members resident in Hong Kong and almost as m¿ìriy absent members all around the world; and, the

bank balance has never been better.

Looking back over 40 years and

beyond, the Club has been home to arnazng characters, brilliant journalists and thousands of honest to goodness professionals from many walks of life.

I am sure there will be those who

can pick me up on a point or two or who might castigate me for omitting names wortþ of a mention. I am sure there are many and I could have written thousands more words, told a hundred more stories.

But space does not permit. I hope, however, I have managed to paint a rea-

sonably fair and accurate picture, cap ture a little of the atmosphere of the Club and its members over the past 40 years in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, here's to the FCC's next 40 years, wherever it may wander. O

Sir Edward Yude, who succeeded Sir Murray as Governor of Hong Kong, officiated the opening of tlre club on November I, 1982.

Lefr, tJne club president, Hugþ Van Es, welcoming tlre Governor and. Right Sir Edward receives a club souvenier from Van Es.

26rrrt

coRRESPoNDENT osroBER

1989

FCC Anniaersary Sþecial

ñ

tLr

Z4}iOUR GLOBAL TELEVISION NEWS

l!

l

I

CLLIB NEWS \

Speakers'Forum

PUBLISHING

N \

OVER the years, the FCC has provided a platform for lively debates on a variety of topics. And speakers have come from all around the world. Among them, world leaders, diplomats, top business executives, movie stars, entertainers, sportsmen, authors, journalists and so on. Here is a selection of people who spoke at the Club in the past few years.

\ Edward Heath

Richard Nixon, visiting Hong Kong of Hong Kong Hilton.

These publications are produced bY

in 1966

Best-

seen with Mrs Marianne I-au

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WRITING, EDITING, GRAPHIC DESIGN,

George Bush

Barry Humphries (alias Dame Edna)

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Carlos Romula

Ibnt's I .gislative Council.

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Martin Iæe, member of Hong

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Kong's Legislative Council,

Former

British

minister

Hong Kods Chief Justice SirT,L Yang

Britain's former foreign secretary, I-ord Carringfon

I-ord Chaffont

5-8387282 Mohammed Ali

I-ord Lichfield

PRINTLINE LTI) Unit B, 1.8/F,Harvard House

10t111Thomson Road,

Former deputy prime minister Jllalaysia, Datuk lVlusa Datuk tlitam.

Wanchai, Hong Kong Telephone: 18387 282

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9f

ax: 18387 262

28 røn coRRESPoNDENT

Senior member of Hong I(ong's Executive Council, Dame Lydia Durn (lefi) and Danny La Rue (aboue)

Former Singapore presidenl Devan Nair

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

Anna Chennault

Hong Kong Stock Exchange boss Robert Fell

THE CORRESPONDENT OCTOBER 1989 29

1

REPO RTIN G ASIA

to the FCC on

I

ltS 40 years From Tibet to Vietrrârr...

40 years on the hop

FartrasternEconomic

ernment was busy denying that

the world was beginning to believe. I was trying to cover this furtive invasion

of

Kalimpong, some 60 miles as any crow might fly from the Tibetan border.

Several full-blown foreign correspondents not half-baked stringers

like myself

had already taken

rooms in the -picturesque Himalayan Hotel, ferretling around thel:azaar for worthwhile snippets of news.

Tltebazaar was hardly the place, as

things turned out, to find anything resembling facts. True, it was the terminus of the Tibetan wool fade, filled with seasonal mule caravans. But the grog

shops seethed with the unlikeliest rumours. Tipsy muleteers, in their grubby felt hats and cloaks, swore they'd seen Mao Zedong astride a big, white charger leading his columns towards a

stricken Lhasa.

Nothing had so far been said official-

FC C Anni

u e

rsary

Sþ

ecial

LH¡ss¡weRos

URGENTEST,

unprecedented f,2-a-day expense

for interviews with the Dalai Lama, ly. The invasion story remained ominously unconfirmed. The Indian gov-

from the Indian hill station

Hr¡t

cabled the foreign editor, promising an

high Himalayas. Reluctantly he settled for Kalimpong but continued to press

by Russell Spurr

II

alleged invasion, sending the Foreign Desk into frenzies of excitement.

allowance. It took a lot to persuade him thatTibet was a closed country, its cap ital at least two weeks trek across the

The fun and frustration of covering a period of upheavals

Asia's Leading Business Neuss Weekly

Sunday Times. The upmarket Sunday had carried my frst wispy reports of the

Chinese troops had even entered Tibet, Prime Minister Nehru had justput out a statement contemptuously dismissing

"the foreign rumour-mongers in Kalimpong". For the first time (and by no means the last) I found myself dangerously out on a limb.

Beijing, of course, kept quiet. The People's Liberation Army was well into eastern Tibet, in fact, but no one was to

Chairman Mao or anyone else remote-

ly connected with the story.

Desperate to dig up something fac-

tual,

I

enlisted the aid of Hamish

Macdonald, father of the three sisters who ran the Himalayan Hotel. It was entirely the wrong move. The old man was part Scots, part Tibetan, a longtime resident of Lhasa and tutor to the previous Dalai l¿ma.

Every lunchtime, he joined the Tibetan muleteers for a jug or two of chumpa, a powerful distillation of fer-

know that for weeks. A British radio operator employed bythe Dalai l¿ma's government had acfuak been captured in the eastern town of Chengdu. He was released from jail five years later and pushed across the border into

mented grain, and came back with sto ries that grew more fantastic by the day.

Hong Kong.

My presence in Kalimpong was at the behest of Kemsley Newspapers, a provincial chain in Britain. I'd been stringing for them since coming to Calcutta earlier in 1950. The chain included, oddly enough, the l¡ndon

to Zhou Enlai in Beijing. I mentioned covering the Tibetan campaign from India. The Premier laug'hed. 'You must have been one of those Western correspondents," he said, "who liberated Lhasa a week before we did."

Tibet was the first big story I ever

I had scarcely been in Kalimpong

a

week before he claimed that Lhasa had fallen.

Four years afterwards, I was talking

THE CORRESPONDENT OCTOBER

1989

31

REPORTING ASIA

REPORTING ASIA and the first person with whom I shared a room was a young language

Parked in a ditch was a jeep with "Daily Telegraph" in gothic script

Chronicle and Jimmy Cameron, writing for the Hulton Pr¿ss, refused to con-

French colonialism might have been a

reconstruction.

This same taste for the sensational set a distinguished body of international correspondents struggling to provide news after

student, recently enlisted in the nowdefunct International News Services.

His name was Robert Elegant.

The billets were an over-crowded shambles. Patrick O'Donovan of the London Sunday Obseruer called the place "a monastery in urgent need of

inscribed below the windshield. A white table cloth was spread across the hood.

Ridley had fished a cold chicken out of his picnic baskel Now he was sfuggling with a bottle opener. I pulled up in a shower of dust.

form. This led oneAmerican columnist, who shall be nameless, to write a piece accusinghis British colleagues of being "a bunch of commies".

retained a certain, sleazy style. Officers

the 25 June 1950 inva-

reformation." There were some wild old parties. Patrick was himself cele-

yelled to Ridley.

Campe de Presse in Hanoi when

"Dreadful old chap," he replied in his exaggerated drawl.'The sherry's warm."

cable came in.

the boring old business of economic

.oo sAiu 1f{Af?

sion of South Korea. It was a herculean task.

Merely getting there could be a saga.

Dennis Warner of the Melbourne Heraldwas aboarda C-119

"Flying Boxcar" loaded with bombs when engine failure caused it to lose altitude on the flight from Japan.

The crew had to roll the bombs out of the

-

sea, in order to reach

very drunk, his arms dangling ape-like

Maggie Higgins of the New York Herald Tribune wasn't supposed to be in Korea at all. The top brass didn't want women cluttering up the battlefield. But after covering a fortuitous last-ditch stand by

at his sides.

"Oo said that?" the giant roared.

Maurice was trying to squeeze underneath his bed.

"I'm aú old man," he quavered. "I need my fu1lnight's sleep."

the us 25th Division at the gates of

The giant looked slowly around, shook his head and departed. The

Pusan- and acting

Malaya, Indonesia and Indochina had

towards the end of the action

kept a hefty press corps on the hop since 1945. The lo,tr collapse in China, the goings-on in the Philippines and

smuggled herself aboard a troop ship to join the landing at Inchon.

Her colleague Keyes Beech, a longtime member of the Hong Kong FCC,

flict in eastern Asia for the next

25

years. Not until well after the fall of Saigon, were most of us able to assess the breathtaking developments transforming Japan and lesser dragons around the Pacific rim; the growth of

old colonial strongholds like Hong

Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and J akartainto modern metropolises; the surprising endurance of democracy; and the sudden and still more surprising retreat from socialism.

My own recollections remain dom-

inated

by military

confrontation because the editors and producers for whom I worked found mayhem made better headlines (and rv shows) than

32 ru.g CORRESPONDENT ocroBER

brating a Guards' Brigade anniversary one night down the corridor from the room I shared with Maurice Fegance of the l¡ndon Daily Herald.

Maurice had served as an enlisted man in France duringWorldWar I. His temper was often on short fuse. The noise of this particular party was keep ing him awake. He stormed out into

Pusan.

Indian independence, upheavals in

postwar Japan were of more interest to the Americans.

The KoreanWar changed all that. It kept the media preoccupied with con-

-

the corridor, shouted "Shut up" and returned to bed. Total silence. "That showed'em," Maurice chuckled.

A moment later our door was ripped clean off the hinges. Into our room stepped a giant sergeant major,

rear doors and into the

if my floundering attempts covered at reportage can honestþ be called coverage. It was the last for years in southern Asia. Events throughout the region had monopolised European attention.

Seoul

as

impromptu nurse

- she

once described to me the hours he spent driving back from the front in search of somewhere to file; I gleaned similar stories fromAlan Wicker, then

noise resumed louder than ever.

I¡rB

rN

ïIr

BI[Ers: Few of us stayed per-

manently in the billets. Most had homes back in Tokyo, whence we gratefulþ repaired whenever there was a 1u11. Some, like Dick Hughes, chose to cover the story entirely from Toþo.

The Hughes byJine in the London

a correspondent for the Exchange Telegraph News Agency, later to win fame and fortune as a UKTV reporter.

Sunday Times carried stories such as International Brigade Being Formed in

like Louis Heren of the

brought editorial rockets raining in on

North Korea; every weekend they

"Things look bad, don't they?" I

r Pnrss CLue: The Toþo Press Club had been thoroughly infected by the raffish behaviour of its members in Korea. One night someone fired a .45 automatic through the elevator door.

The dormitories upstairs were full of, let's say, invited female guests.

I checked in late one night after a trying flight from Seoul with a correspondent-priest, the Reverend Father Pafick LIrB n¡

casm. 'T[hile you ¡¡/ere away the Bteam was keeping the seat warm for you."

Nor

sIASno AT

Am The Korean War was

New York Herald Tribunehadleft Korea by the time I was posted there for the

John Ridley of the London Daily

prevented journalists from taking any-

Telegraþh preferred the barrack-room

thing but the most uncompromising,

life. He had his own permanent room and an endless supply ofgoodies from

anti-communist stand. No one was able to write sympathetically about China, for instance, for the next 20 years.

Inndon Daily

Exþress in 1952. The war

had settled into a static slugging match, marked by a few limited but costly

offensives on either side and a great many heavy artillery bombardments.

The still considerable press corps was billeted in an old Japanese apartment house - one of the few buildings

to survive the successive battles for

1989

the Neen. His appetiteswere legendary.

One summe/s afternoon I was driving

back from the central front where a Chinese offensive had forced us to refeat several miles. The road to the rear was choked with vehicles. Shells were falling among them from time to time.

FCC Anniaersary

Sþ

ecial

got used to calling it "Tu Do") there were opium divans where you could

"I've won the Pulitzer prize!" the

come across Graham Greene; over in the Cholon casinos the leading Corsican drug barons could be found any night patronising the gaming tables.

looked blank.

'T[hat's that?" I asked.

I

Hanoi was less exotic. And a lot more tense. Ever since the ill-fated

would have preferred to stay on in

French commitment at Dien Bien Phu

Japan reporting developments. But the Daily Exþress found that sort of copy much too prosaic. Japan was still dev-

-

BRcr ro mB Knu¡rc Fìems: Personally

"Another of my flock," Father

O'Connor groaned. 'Wait'til he comes for confession!"

The presidential election of 1952 not only brought Eisenhower to power, it brought him to Korea. The toprank correspondents who'd been there at the outset all rushed back to cover the story.

"Nice to see the A-team back on the job," Homer Bigert told Keyes Beech.

George MacArthur of ¡p was standing further down the bar.

"Don't worr¡4" he said with heavy sar-

partly responsible for the growth of McCarthyism in the United States. It

Bþrt

Restaurants served the best Westernstyle food in Asia.

But down the Rue Catinat (I never

O'Connor sJ. The first light of dawn revealed a ur photographer, we both knew in a nearby bed busily engaged with a girl. rrMorning Father, morning Russell,rl said the photographe¡ not pausing in his stride.

His Grace's infuriated rival, O'Donovan.

Times andHomer

in magnificent uniforms haunted the Cercle Sportif in Saigon with their beautiful Vietnamese girl friends.

a

columnist crowed delightedly. I

of the

People

l¡ndon

The slander infuriated me at the time. I waited ayear to get my revenge.

I was breakfasting with the man in the

cruelly exploitive business but it

Abuses perpetrated by South Korean President Syngman Rhee, whose regime we were pledged to defend, became virtually unmentionable. Afew correspondents, such as Steve Barber of the London N¿øs FCC Annia ersary

Sþ

ecial

astated after the Pacific War and overdependent on us aid. The us was liable to be landed, Dick Hughes wrote, "with a nation of beaming limpets."

So back I went to what was then known as French Indochina to cover the last stages of a losing war. There were compensations. Combat is easier to cover than most stories . It is only as dangerous as you care to make it. Your copy is likely to be used. Some of the

most successful

correspondents

around today built their reputations, originally, in the heat of battle.

There were other compensations.

an isolated airborne forfess way over by the Laotian border - Viet Minh rebels had been tightening their hold on the north. They had been hitting hard at the armoured supply fains running between Hanoi and the nearby port of Haiphong.

I happened to be visiting the main

French hospital one morning when the surviving Senegalese escort arrived in a fleet of ambulances off an ambushed train. It wasn't a pretty sight. But it was

impossible to report. Censors went a fnetooth comb.

through our copy with

The story the French wanted us to tell was that the elite troops trapped in Dien Bien Phu were coaxing the ene-

my across killing fields swept by

THE CORRESPONDENT OSIOBER 1989

33

-l

REPORTING ASIA unquenchable F rench firepower.

'1Ve pray they will affack," declared Capitaine de la Sousse, our briefing officer, the day before battle was joined. At dawn next morning, March 11, 1954,

the Viets knocked out the airstrip.

Supply planes were never able to land again, That night Viet infanfy attacked, over-running the outer positions and pulverising the rest. It was only a mat-

ter of time before the beleaguered French garrison was wiped out.'

The French tried air-dropping reinforcements. They jumped blindly into the night, onto a muchcontracted perimeter, mostb to their deaths. Some of us correspondents went out to the airfield trying to thumb a lift on the Flying Boxca¡ only to be arrested by the military police.

The competitive urge to get to grips

with the Dien Bien Phu story, to gain

respondents in their raincoats watched

from the sidelines. Some were contemptuous and disgusted. The

the siege.

We had scarcely begun our meal before a dispatch rider clumped up and

the French surrender.

"Bastards didn't even start to fight," groaned John Mecklin of Life magazine. "Beaten by a bunch of gooks."

The next time I metJohn Mecklin he was information officer at the us

Vietnam, despite the temporary encum-

needed. The restaurantwas humming

brance of their own inadequate creation,

with covertgossip. Dien Bien Phu had

President Ngo Dien Diem.

ffio FhBt'ùcH: Three months later, the defeated French abandoned North Vietram. The evening before they pulled out of Hanoi, the remaining correspondents were surnmoned to army headquarters in the Citadelle. It was

THn nrrnnnr on

dusk and dnzzlng and exceptionally sad.

The honour guard formed a square around the flagstaff. The commanding

Advantage.

Americans were especialy aggrieved at

saluted. He handed de la Sousse a folded signal. The captain read it, nodded and muttered apologies. He leftimmediately without explanation. None was

fallen.

The Unfair

Hongkong Starulanl

some insight beyond the gruesome dai-

Capitaine de la Sousse to dinner. I had

The

- UPI photo: courlesy

ly briefings prompted me to invite dreams of joining one of the relief columns which were reported (quite inaccurateþ to be preparing to raise

Economist

1957: US President Eisenhower with his South Vietoramese counterpart Ngo Dien Diem when the latter went to Washing¡ton to confer with the us leader

general made a defiant, flamboyant speech, the l.egionnaires in their big, braided epaulets presented arms and the band played a plaintive Marsellaise as the tricolour came down for ever.

The flag was ceremoniously folded and presented to an elderly colonel, a colonial veteran, who stood clutching it, weeping, as the bugles blew, the drums rattled and the soldiers did their parade ground thing before tramping away across the gleaming cobbles. The cor-

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

embassy in Saigon. The Americans were committed to defending South

"What we need around here is someone with charisma," my old colleague complained. 'We need someone like" - he pulled out a name one like Sukarno."

-

A month later Diem was dead. He'd been murdered by the Viebramese generals whose coup enjoyed American sup port. It was several years more before I found myself back in the'field. The troops by now were American and their morale was very low indeed.

"Aren't you a bit old for this sort of thing?" mused the young 1st Cavalry lieutenant fresh out of West Point. I had been assigned to his platoon as TV cameraman to film the airborne assault on the Ah Shau valley. "Reckon when I'm your age," he said. "I'll be putting my feet up."

The battalion commander stopped

me next day from joining the first attiack waves. The lieutenantwas killed.

So were most of the men I'd been spending the past three days with, awaiting our turn to go in.

"Have a joint, man, and forget it," said a sympathetic black ct. I didn't find it offered much solace.

The week before Saigon fell I flew down to Saigon. I suppose I wanted to say goodbye. I got no further than the airport. My name was on the immigration blacklist for a broadcast I made

years before, criticising the Thieu regime. Some unfortunate passenger was bumped off the next Hong Kong flight and I was escorted aboard. My chance was gone of escaping with my colleagues off the us embassy roof.

There is a moral to this last, trivial recollection. Western correspondents tend to assume a God-given right to work the way they would back home.

Many of the newly independent

nations of Asia do not see it that way.

They fear the freedom of communication we take for granted in the developed world.

Several times I have flown out of countries such as Pakistan and Indonesia simply to file my story without let

or hindrance. Such initiatives earned me no brownie points in the countries concerned; the authorities did not readily forget nor forgive.

The truth is, governments are hard to fight. Burma is an outstanding example. But fight we must. læt us keep on publishing - even at the risk of being O damned.

THE CORRESPONDENT OCTOBER 1989

35

REPORTING ASIA

The llongkong Standard Congratulates

THE FOREIGI\ CORRESPONDEI\üN' CLUB L946:

The importance of a free press in Hongkong has been reinforced by the llincidentsrr of June 4 in Beijing and the aftermath of that historically critical event.

For 40 years the Foreign Correspondentsr Club has in many ways represented that vital press freedom.

It has provided a meeting place for views and news, for arguments, for widely varying opinions and for the usual mix of rumour and gossip that is associated with the world of newspapers and magazines.

It has provided a venue for journalists to exchange their opinions and share the joys of their craft., irrespective of the boundaries which invariably exist between competing publishing houses.

The Hongkong Standard warmly congratulates the FCC on reaching this milestone and trusts it will continue to perform a pivotal role in the practice of the free press in this region.

The Hongkong Standard Sing Tao building, 1 Wang Kwong Road, Kowloon Bay, Kowloon.

Telephone: 3-7982798

1945:

Mao Zedong in Chungking with Chiang Kaishek

CHII\IA - the experiences of a bemused observer Strange the stories that stick in your mind occasions that make the job worthwhile.

Mffiî':xT?:åi"åþ+îi intellectuals were penning their

ill-considered complaints

It

against the regime by the time I got back to Beijing. Some of the

"foreign friends," the whateverists whose fantasies found fulfilment in China, were staging a reception for Anna

and training far beyond my humble capabilities.

those rare

åi;Ïi

Mao and Zhou Enlai in Yenan

,ä

I prefer to regard myself as a bemused observer of a complex scene; sympathetic to the Chinese people but appalled at the pretensions of their government.

Anyone arrogant enough to try remoulding human nature the way Mao did is either cruel or crazy.

More likely a bit of both.

So unprepared was I for what awaited me on the other side of the Lowu bridge, that the initial impact was quite numbing. Crossing for the first time in 1954, I found a country stabilised and at peace after decades of upheaval.

Nothing wrong with that

I-ouise Strong.

-

I felt then, and I still feel -

"Oh Christ!" exclaimed an extraordinarily English lady, as I walked into the room. "Here comes the one hundred and

that China had been unjustly ostracised for its intervention in Korea. But I was suffocated

first flower!"

by the total conformity of

Standing at her elbow was the British communist, Alan \A/innington. We had first met on opposite sides of the Korean truce talks at Panmunjon. It was hate at first sight.

"You'll never grasp what's going on in China will you?" he

thought and deed demanded by the new mandarins in Zhung nan hai.

Alan Winnington had no The denigration of Stalin had just begun in Moscow while Alan was still saying "Uncle Joe wasn't such a bad old stick. All those reports of purges are

such problems.

sneered.

He could very well have been right. I remembered his jibe last

nothing but bourgeois lies."

But then he also believed

May when mingling with the students in Tiananmen square.

My role in China, let me

hastily emphasise, has always

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

1

989:

Pro-democracy demonstration in Beijing.

the Americans had waged germ warfare in Korea. "I can't share your faith," I

THE coRRESPoNDENT osroBER tssg

37

-t

Congratulations to

The Foreign Correspondents' Club on its 40th anniversary from

t,o* €,hucb J1"" Srolood G/F 58 Central Market Tel: 5-430323

RE PO

RTIN G ASIA

maliciously told

"I'm not that

religious."

People seldom told the truth in China. Way before Simon l.eys wrote Chinese Shadows,I was being given

the runaround by officials

who choreographed my every visit. The

problem was that, unlike Leys, I wasn't always sure I was being

Congratulations to The Foreign Correspondents' Club on its 40th anniversary from

fooled.

I remember dropping in on Liu Li Chan around the autumn of 1954.

The antique shops were still stuffed with items we would class today as treasures. And at amazingly low prices.

Carden Co. Ltd, 58 Castle Peak Road, Kowloon

Congratulations from

One shopkeeper sadly admitted he was being forced to close. He had been taxed to the point of ruination. Private trading was being nationalised: "Worst luck," he added. Since I was on my own, shopping unescorted, this was one of the few genuine glimpses I got of the vast Maoist experiment in collectivism.

C5

I met the same man two years later. His shop had been amalgamated with several others in the

CHATER PROPERTY SERVICES

same street, to make one large store.

He praised his role as a servant of the state. Customers would no longer be

YOUR PERSONAL CONSUUTANTS TEL: 5-265228 FAX: 5-8685011

Congratulations to The Foreign Correspondents' Club on its 40th anniversary from rWANG CHEONG No 2 Second Street G/E Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong Tel: 5-4083 1 5, 5-+08336

Congratulations to

The Foreign Correspondents' Club on its 40th anniversary from

xAo|(t

cheated, he emphasised, although I

H0

noticed that prices had already

started to escalate.

The Press Liaison Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took

charge of visiting journalists. The department wasn't exactly overworked. Most of the visitors were from the Soviet Union - China was bursting with fraternal love for the Elder Brothers from Moscow or from gushingly friendly India. "The future of the world is evolving here before our very eyes," enthused the counsellor at the Indian Embassy in Beijing. He changed his

tune a few years later after the Tibetan border war.

Trust me to hit China, first-off, in

an atmosphere of crisis. Assault forces from Chekiang v/ere driving the xvr from their foothold in the Taching Islands. The 7th Fleet came up, huffing and puffing, and confrontation loomed. My head office bombarded me with cabled

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Dr¿gona

r

Ho rdays

Ltd

L

cence No 3508

RtrPOR'IING

ASTA

&,

President Nixon's visit to China in 1972 and the opening up of China to Western correspondents brougþt a whole new era.

Press Liaison was useless in these

circumstances. The man who answered the phone refused to unwind when I wished him a simple "Good Day".

"Comments on the weather," he

intoned "must come from the

meteorological office."

It was not his job, he made clear, to

hand out official announcements.

They would be carried exclusively by Xinhua, with transcripts available the following day. The best way to keep track of events, I soon found, was to listen religiously to the BBC. It was no more, after all, than Winnington and his friends were doing.

The biggest headache over the years was keeping pace with the party line. Innocents like myself found it confusing to be told things (often by the same person) entirely different from anlthing they'd said a

reinforce the editorial and market position o Yazhou Zhoukan: the credible, i -depth, uhbiased and authoritative editorial for the intellectual Chinese around the world."

Morris Ho Associate Media Director Saatchi & Saatchi Hongkong

year or two before.

One official I knew and liked joined in the then-trendy attacks upon Rossellini's China documentary. There were tears in his eyes as he condemned those who

spoke

of

divisions within the

Chinese leadership.

"Who could possibly believe," he cried "that the chairman's own wife could be working against the party!"

The poor chap had a fit when the Far Eastern Economic Reaiew ran a cartoon of Jiang Qing decked out as the Empress Dowager. Three months later Madam Mao was under arrest.

There were times when

I got my

own back. During a 7970 visit to the

Yazhou Zhoukan, "Eyewitness", June 25, 1989

Beijing Iron & Steel Works the FCC Anniuersary

Sþ

ecial

revolutionary committee, then in charge, reeled off some ridiculous

authorities worried. No one ever attempted to censor his copy (or

production figures. The blast furnaces were being operated, it was claimed, at four times the capacity built in by the "bourgeois" designers. Tën years later, on a return visit, I found the

anybody else's) but there were subtler ways of bringing pressure to bear. My old friend left China, for a while, on strained terms with officialdom after

capacity quoted a great deal lower.

"But you told me such-and-such in 7970," I complained to the manager.

"Has production fallen off this badly?"

The manager looked embarrassed. "Any figures given out during

the Cultural Revolution are bound to have been exaggerated," he lamely mumbled.

I told this story to Jonathan Sharp of Reuters. He had toured China with me during ping-pong,diplomacy, listening to selected parrots recalling

the (pre-revolutionary) "bad old days." A certain "Mama Wu" couldn't wait to tell us how much better life had become since the revolution.

"We were fooled, werèn't we Russell?" Jonathan said bitterly.

"But { tell you this: we won't be

fooled anymore."

The opening up of China to

Western correspondents, especially Americans, after the Nixon visit of \972brought a whole new era.

Jim Pringle was one of the select

his discerning coverage of the 1976 Tiananmen demonstration.

My colleague Jim Laurie of American Broadcasting (ABC) helped develop the satellite feeds from Beijing that shook the world a few months ago; Fox Butterfield of the Neu Yorh Times cut the flow of uncritical comment put out by the first, credulous wave of American correspondents and injected the first acidulous notes into his news copy.

Strange the stories that stick in your mind. Forget the sensations of recent months; looking back over the years the most revealing was also one

of the most trivial. It concerned the American business exhibition staged in Beijing at the end of the last decade.

Jim Laurie reported that the exhibition was seriously behind schedule because the Chinese construction workers, engaged to

erect the stalls, refused to work fast enough. Carpenters had to be flown in from Hong Kong and Singapore.

The outsiders worked day and night,

band who breathed much-needed life

finishing the job while local

Reuters man to take up residence in

craftsmen sat watching them.

The real crisis in China, the crisis of freedom, incentive and the iron

into China coverage. As the first Beijing after the incarceration of

Anthony Grey, he steadfastly refused ever to speak to the official who locked Grey up.

David Bonavia introduced a degree

of expertise that soon had the

rice bowl, was exposed in this one brieftelevision report, open for all to see. It's those rare, rewarding, if prosaic, occasions that make the job worthwhile. - Russell Sþurr

THE CORRESPONDENT OCTOBER

1989

4I

TECHNOLOGY

When cables \ryere the most efficient communication link The'50s were the print journalists high-water mark . . . movie cameras were rarely allowed into press conferences.

by Russell Spurr UR faces fell whenever we them kepthopping after everything in heard the motorbike. Seven o'clock in the evening was the usual time. Up the drive the machines would come, a sharp turn off Poldulam Road in Hong Kong, bearing the messenger from Cable & Wireless carrying the crimped fawn envelope with commands and comments from Fleet Sfeet.

Sometimes itwas nothing more than a harmless query checked out with a quick call to our stringer, Alec Greaves, atthe China MaiI. Occasionally it bore the imprint of a liquid lunch at El Vino's, the staccato cable-ese laced with heavy

It never pays, I learned, to play for laughs in cableattempts at humour.

grams. All too often there were marching orders to some distant part of Asia.

My poor wife would burst into tears.

"The only trouble with Hong Kong," I'd been warned by Charles Foley, everurbane foreign editor

sight.

Our stories didn't always get printed,

which was heart-breaking

if

you'd

slogged several thousand miles just to cover the assignment. And when they appeared in the paper (usually page 2) it was in a breathless 'I was there' (Iwt) style that scorned words like "exclusive."

reply. IIeræ FoUND youR ENTERTAINMENT ALLowANCE oNE HUNDREo SrnRltNc IN CREDIT,

Exchanges were pretty cryptic, even on the subsidised Empire cable rate.

News stories cost a penny a word and we tried to tack our servicers onto the

end of messages with ample use of

latin prefixes. Word from Foley

was

invariably succinct and cutting.

UnrDß, uNlon: I'11 never forget the way he dealt with the Exþress man sent to Cairo on an unusually vague assignment. The

man holed up in the bar of Shepherd's Hotel and failed to file for a week. He was still leaning on the bar when a cable came in from l¡ndon. It was from the foreign editor.

Wnv Urun¡ws euERY, Foley deman-

"Everything in the Exþress is goddam-well exclusive," growled Max Beaverbrook, our Lord and Master.

The reporter took another drink and reached for the message pad. The staff

That was a hands-on proprietor if ever there was one.

in Shepherd's were so well trained, went off immediately.

The l¡rd once sent me a congratulatory cable the same day Foþ threatened to fire me for over-spending my ÊlGamonth entertainment allowance. I shot off a cable of resþation to Foley accompanied by a separate, suitably grovelling acknowledgement to the Beaver.

Rnc;rurr usr¡xr, came Foley's hasty

ded.

it

U¡rxews IS GooD Nnws, the reporter replied. Within the hour, an urgent whammed back frorn l¡ndon: UNNnws UNJoB

-

Fomv.

A resident Cairo correspondent had a girlfriend in Beirut. Each weekend he

would slip off to what was then the Paris of the Middle East. One Sunday

of the London Daily Exþress, "is that all the

matches are away."

Noruucunvmnssr Back

in the midrS0s the

Crown Colony seldom generated much interestin Britain. The pres

ence

of

Now all Faxline 100 customerc can be one

eu+ troops

ahead

along the border was yesterday's sensation; fears of invasion, which

the

with arì

along with a Multifax cover sheet, and we'll send it

incredibly

through to all the numbers you've requested, whether that be 5 copies or 5000!There's no doubt that Multifax

convenient new service called Multifax.

In a

flared briefly in 1949, were gone and conve niently forgotten.

But the

of

step

nutshell, Multifax enables you

to

send

thousands of faxes at the same time to destinations in

Daily

Exþress could never

allow me to sit idly around. Not on f26 a week. The paper operated a hyperactive for-

is the most effìcient way to distribute information to

a

number of destinations.

Hong Kong, without having to re-dial each number

To find out more about Multifax, please call the

and without tying up your fax machine for hours.

Multifax hotline on 5-28717O. Then sit back and

Simply fax your message to Hong Kong Telephone,

relax while Multifax does all the hard work for you.

eign service in those days, with at least 20 full-time correspondents in the field, all of

42

Honsl(onsTelephone

rr¡n coRRESPoNDENT ocroBER

1989

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

DataGomn Slenrf,aes

(

/')?

TECHNOLOGY while he was away the Egyptian Army overthrew King Farouk.

Fenour ABDTcATED, Foley cabled, ìMner youn prANS, euERY.

Telephones barely worked domestically at that time. It was a

major effort calling Paris from l¡ndon. Cables were our main means of communication. Telex was still a gleam in some technician's eye. Outside a few well-

trained oases like Shepherd's, cables hadto be taken personalþto

the nearest Telegraph Office phoning long ones was agony, especialþ in Asia - although the 12hour timelead over London, here in Hong Kong, made things easier.

Itwas trickier in NewYorkwhere the clockwas running againstyou.

The biggest snag was that queries

closing stages ofthe French Indochina war. Delays were so serious that an old

and corrections took endless time.

Australian colleague, the late Ronny Munson, hit on the brilliant idea of filing on pink instead of white flimsies (lightweight typing paper). All he then

Four hours might elapse before a ser-

vicer came into Hong Kong from I¡ndon and a reply landed back on the Foreign Desk. We thought it marvellously efficient at the time; indeed

had to do was grease afewpalms in the

it

F I-r to ensure that all pink messages went to the top of the heap, The scheme collapsed when a suspicious rival caught on and everybody

was, compared with places like

Afghanistan, Indonesia or Indochina.

But there was nothing to compare with the ease with which we bounce messages around today by fax and phone.

in the infamous Campe de Presse began filing on pink, then green, then blue or whatever colour the frantic

Pn'¡r

Munson stuffed in his typewriter.

Air travel was naturally slower. The

Fuuges:The most consistently bad

service came out of Hanoi during the

vt'lw

NOW - rwo DAYS FOR IHE PRICE

Continentol don't lry to be lhe very chaopest cor renlol compony

if it didn't haVe "-::îi.i:î"J"ÏilJî:iå'J;åi Gom munications

#,5.:Hffi#"åi:"1""

tomatch?

(HKlLld. pany

Mercury Houæ, 22 Fenwbk St.æt. HorE Køg l*phoæ: ff621 t 1 1 Telegram: CABLEWRE Telex: 73240 CwADf¡ Hx

N4

Currency, commodities and shares are constantly changing hands while international tansactions are concluded 24 hours a day.

In their dealings with other ma¡kets, the people and corporations of Hong Kong must have communications facilities that provide instant and unlimited access to the rest of the world.

In fact, Hong Kong has the most sophisticated communications system in Asia, developed by Cable & ïVireless through 100 yea:s of experience and leadership in technologry.

The people ofHong Kong have a lot to be proud of in the many ways they can talk to the world.

on lhe mofkel We core too much obout dep€ndoblllty, But, wllh lowor ov€ñsods ond promotlonol costs lhon lhs glonts, we ore obls lo ollor exc6pllonolly good voluo lhe roles we odvsdlse or€ tully lncluslve: thol meons lncluslve of l5tvolue odded tox (VAT), comprêhsnslvg ¡nsuronc€, colllslon domoge wolvor, AA roodslde osslslonce ond un. llmlt€d mlleoge No ungxpecled exlro chorges whon lho llmo comes to poy. ll's os slmplg os thol ptRsot{At sERYtcE

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mark. Television was still flickering into life. Scribes hogged the news scene. Movie cameras were rarely

soNlce ol London's Hgolhrowond Glosgow olrpoñs Mole slmple r€osons whythousonds ol vlsllors lo &lloln ond Erltons resldenl ovg]3eos r€nl cors fiom us yeo? ollel]rÊot.

AÌnmqorcE0f utt$r008.s loke your plck hom ourfleel ol 800 vghlcles ronglng fom Ford Fl€slos lo Mercedo3 - sub{ompæls to llmouslnes.lhe bulk ol ourñeel 13 chonggd ev€ryslx monlhs orlo¡¡, €nsudng low mlleog€ s8r0foR0t R8r00iÆ[0w

ctÍn ¡Ërsr tþ{s¡mc¡

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stoNE cLosÊ HORIO}I ROAD D

^l

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

bly molnlolned cors, heê plck up

59000

'ULLYIrcTUMùIES

to¡ Driv:¡!

TIIB tuctt-wRrrR MARK:

ONE,

38

FORD

lations - surely the most elegant aircraft ever desþed, and over large stretches of Asia the indestructible Dakota. Many a time I've sat saying my prayers in one of those battered old machines as it

Øntnantal GoltMck olrports, Monchosler ond

l0åY

FOR€XIMPLE:SÉAS0N

Whon ll comes lo seMce we're sllll smoll onough lor evEry lndlvlduol cuslomer lo counl. And ol lho some tlm€ r€'r€ lcirge enough

lo oller dgpendobllllV !gcond lo none. A fle€l ol some 800 lmpecco-

Of

AND MORE SAVINGS ON TONGER PfRIODS. ATWAYS WIIH UNTIMITED MIIEAGE.

FORDFIESIA

Dum Dum airport, glowingwith national pride as Indian groundstaff gingerþ feltthe fuselage, They expected to find it heated by high speed flight. The Comet project ended disastrousþ alas, and itwasn't until the earþ'60s thatthe Boeing 707 established jet supremacy.

We had to make do until then with propeller-driven Lockheed Constel-

staggered into Urumchi, Mandalay and, for that matteç the tìny cramped airfield at Kai tak.

t/oilcail

R nY ilCtUSwE R rES.ll0 tltDf)til ûInÀ9

first Comet flight came into Calcutta early in 1951. I'was one of the many Brits who came out to greet the jet at

lYHo D¡xAND A l¡rre r DrAr

WEST DRAYÍON MIDDTES€X U87 AJU PITONE (0895) ¿22¡ü,1

Fff (0895)ü85ól

TELEX9ì 78¿TCONC

cttru

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The '50s were

the print journalists' high-water

allowed into "press" conferences andwhen theywere, rv took aback seat. Covering the release of allied prisoners in Korea, with one of the

original optical Auricons,

I was

assigned to a plaform at the back of

the room and expected to shoot everything on the end of my long focus lens. Zooms were still an unattainable luxury. let me explain at this point how a journalist like myself came to be fooling around with a camera. Since entering British provincial journalism in 1938 I had been fascinated by

THE CORRESPONDENT OCTOBER

7989

45

TECHNOLOGY

TECHNOI-OGY

How cotr,t¡ youR DRr-q.r LRn¡e sns

Sþ

sprint. Then I hurled myself across and settled into a slit fench to await the oth-

reporter when "16 mil" came on the

World War II achrally became a combat

scene and I well remember the battles

BEARD, QUERY.

l¿b went down in Western Australia.

lowing that the line wasn't clear

cameraman, shooting stills in Burma for the Royal Indian Navy where I also picked up basic movie techniques.

During the Korean War, when my Exþress salary was only f,22 aweek,

er half coming towards me. It's what cameramen call "the reverse angle."

Not a shot was fired until one foolhardy cr stuck his head over the parapet and made a rude gesture at the

that raged between the traditionalists who swore by 35mm and the upstart

watching Chinese gunners. Rocket

subs, I moonlighted unashamedly for

after rocket slammed into our position.

Thoroughlyfrightened, we had to wait for nighffall before creeping back to the

Têlecom workers in Australia were staging one of their perennial strikes, but a friendly official in Sydney cut me into the landline as the evening newscast was being carried acrosscounfy. The woman producer in New York had never handled a satfeed before. She was understandably nervous.

enough.

less, in fact, than the Fleet Street desk-

The upI cameraman had snapped the wrong manl But it was satellites that changed world news coverage. A quick "feed" from the remotest spot brought today's coverage instantly into the living room.

photography. And towards the end of

the American networks. They paid US$25 a story. It seemed like a fortune.

Life was expensive in post-occupation Toþo and, without rent or cost of liv-

main line.

ing, I had a wife and one-and-a-half children to support.

A nm¡on

THn pownn or TV:

The first film I shot for

NBC, on the Korean central front, showed life in a forward bunker under fixediine fire from the Chinese positions. Getting there involved a SGyard sprint across cover-less, open ground.

The Americans wisely did most of their sprinting (with supplies and reinforce-

ments) at dead of night but when I turned up with the network logo on my jeep there were plenty of volunteers to do it in broad daylight. Such is the power of the medium.

I was filming with a heavy 35mm hrr-

ret Eymo. The turret held three lenses which would be replaced today by the conventional zoom. The 100-foot daylight loading spools ran no more than two-and-a-half minutes. There was, of course, no sound.

Half my volunteers did the daylight

BREAKTHRoUcH:

Television was

transformed by the advent of the synchronous sound camera. Mute footage suddenly acquired an invaluable new dimension. Cameras had to be soundproofed (or "blimped") like the pioneer Auricons to cut out the grinding and whirring of the filming mechanism.

The Auricons started out with optical sounds; and an easily damaged exciter lamp projected a pattern down the left side of the film. It was superseded by a thin magnetic stripe fixed to the fìlm stock.

Much better sound quality came in with double-system equipment whose sound was monitored on a separate tape recorder. The film still had to be devel-

oped and the sound transferred ("Iifted") onto another track.

The biggest breakthrough was the development of 16mm equipment which

gave a new portability to the business.

I was working in British television as a

innovators.

'You'll never get the same quality," one outraged old-timer told me.

True enough, but the miniaturisation that followed was sufficient tradeoff. It was matched by a similar advance in stills. The standard tool of most newspaper photographers since the twenties had been the bulþ Speed Graphic. I opted for 35mm cameras like the l,eica whenever I could afford them. The pros raised the s¿une moans about quality in what they contemphrousþ dismissed as "miniature" photography.

The firstJapanese carneras, copies of the Leica and Ziess lkon, came on stream in the early '50s. They were much cheaper than their German prototypes; their lenses were in some cases

superior. I took an early Canon to l¡ndon in 1955 and showed it to a dis-

believing Photo Department.

Tlte Exþress chief cameraman took it one evening, almost as an afterthought, to a soccer match between Arsenal and Spartak of Moscow. Afight flared up on the field and my camera, with its R1.4 was the only one capable

of catching the action. The picture made the front page next day. A grateful office purchased the camera at the Hong Kong duty free price, less 20 per cent discountfor used goods.

Stills had been transmitted by wire since before World War II. But all too often there was only one transmitting machine available. The trickwas to get

to it first. The upt vice president for Asia, flamboyant Ernie Hobrecht,

A

spRcB MoNstER:

My first experience of

this sci.fi gadget was immediately after the Kennedy assassination. I completed

my report from Dallas (for the British public affairs show 77¿¿'s Week) andflew the footage to New York for forwarding to l¡ndon. The fixed-orbit, geodetic satellites had notyet been launched. We had three hours to complete our feed before the "bird" trundled away out of reach.

A more comprehensive system was operating when I came back to Hong Kong in 1972. Ihad just witnessed the spectacular coverage of the Nixon visit to Beijing; still a major triumph, to my

mind, of electronic communication.

Soon I was mounting nightly satellites,

forVisnews, of the Viet Cong offensive

in South Vietnam, racing from our Kowloon office through the newly opened (and comparatively unused) HarbourTunnel to the telecine room in old Mercury House.

American Broadcasting (¡ec) later

asked me to piggy-back a feed when

after half-an-hour's shouting and bel-

A far cry too from those tortuous journeys to the cable office when I key up my computer modem and transmit, without line errors, direct from Sydney to the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. Digital technology has supplanted the typewriter. The word

It was nothing to the shock I got when the colour bars on my monitor

processor is, in my opinion, the greatest literary invention since ink. As for

snapped

those electronic cameras the kids carry round these days well, wonders will

off and a space monster

appeared on the screen.

"Is your tape running?" I asked New York, trying to speak as casually as possible. "I think Sþ lab may have picked up a passenger." No such luck. Itwas five minutes before news time. We had caughtthe closing episode of DoctorWhn. WoNlBRs wrLL NEVER c¡Rs¡: Satellites breathed new life into radio broadcasts.

I could (and still do) dial directly to New York and get a near-perfect line.

I'm sure you've found the same, receiv-

ing an overseas phone call, which sounds like it's coming from Tsimshatsui.

Yet only yesterday, it seems, you

booked a crackling circuit out of Saigon, walked up five floors ('?'¿scenseur ne marche þas", Tbny Iawrence

would say despairingþ only to be told

f_mAn,çe

- already getting never cease. They're

smaller and proved their worth in Tiananmen square, along with portable hand phones which seem to me straight out of science fiction.

There's only one danger. There's lately been a trend to trivialise the news, especially on television. Some newscasts in the US, and certainly in Australia, are becoming comedy shows. By all means let's avoid an over-

dose of gloom and doom but laughs are strictly for comics. The news must be delivered without embellishment as

truthfully

as we can get it. A better,

brighter generation of highly educated young people has taken over where old

hacks like me left off. So play it straight, please children. The ball is at feet...

O

your

ExEcunvE

believed he had the opposition stymied on the Dalai lama story.

//

¿.

SEARDBT coD-rflNc?: When the Tibetan God-king fled to India in 1959, Ernie

A

processed all upI film aboard the char-

ter flying him to Calcutta

/-r

-

unlike

Associated Press who waited until they reached a local lab - and had 20 prints

across the Telegraph Offìce counter

before his ap rival came panting along.

Three, four, five prints went off to New York with Ernie beaming at his infuriated colleague. Fifteen more to go... The AP man was tearing his hair

MOTI M. KIRPALANI

From Asia's first financial magazine a toast to the finest club in town the FCC. We raise our PC's and our Rate Cards in salute to 40 great and memorable years. May there be many more.

-

out. Suddenly an urgentfor Ernie came down the wire.

Asian Finance Publications Ltd. 3/F Hollywood Centre, 233 Hollywood Rd., Hong Kong

46 rup coRRESPoNDENT ocroBER 1989

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

Hong Kong in Butterfield & Swire tugs,

under the guns and binoculars of l¿ter he escaped from the Japanese prison camp at

A few drinks ) aspot of lunch and Saturday rolls on

Lunghua and after a journey of 1,200 miles reached friendly territory. Then

he became a paratrooper and ended up

in Hong Kong, to open his famous bar and provide a home for Alcoholics Slmonymous, of which he was the first secretary-treasurer.

Alcoholics Synonymous, a loose grouping started almost 40 years ago by habitues of Jack Conderrs bar in Central, Hong Kong, meets weekly at the FCC.

TH¡ Rou{orRs: Who were the club's orig-

by Anthony I-awrence O CALL Alcoholics Synonymous a club demands some exercise of imagination. It is more a loose

grouping,

a vague expression of con-

viviality. Somewhere in the rules it is laid down that membership be limited to 16 0ater changed to 18) but this is misleading. Nowadays some members enjoy active and some irregular status.

And absent members, passing through Hong Kong, are sometimes unexPectedly present at the regular Saturday morning sessions and wish to know over a couple of drinks, just what has been happening in the five or six years

they were away.

Alcoholics Synonymous enjoys the hospitality of the For-

present membership; but one recalls the late Bob Drummond, old Beijing hand with a fascinating fund of reminiscences, the amiable Captain James Babb, formerly of the United States Navy; the inimitable Richard Hughes, whose weighty personality and humour dominated the club foryears; and many others.

THn orucl¡{s:

YEARSONTOP OFTHEASIASTORY

Japanese naval craft.

According to the records,

inators? Very old Hong Kong hands may remember them. They are recorded by Dick Hughes to include the following, using the word "taipan" somewhat loosely: Sid Jackson (us taipan); Brig. Young

(English taipan); Maurice Rice (us ConsulateGeneral); V[ R Cator (Dutch Consulate); Jim Boyle (Irish taipan) Jack Conder @nglish publican)

THE WEEKLY NEWSMAGAZINE

;

Brewin Cheny (Canadian taipan); Hugh Bellamy (us taipan); Peter Griffiths (English lawyer); and David Mathews (English taipan). Four other

Alcoholics Synonymous was founded on GuyFawkes Day, Sth

November, 1955 in Jack Conder's Bar, centrally situated up an alley off

eign Correspondents'

Queen's

THE CTIARTER (a) To act as a means of during the 24 hours pregathering its members ceding meetings.

together

at appointed (.) To encourage

memthe ú; *h;ç åccident purposeof drinkingbeverh;;; ilaãåuired the ages of alcoholic content. ;il;";;I"ãi;-to offe. (b)To promote the relief consolation to those who

times and places for

correspondents as well as

Road, behind the Shell House.

local journalists have

Jovial Jack

figured importantly in its membership.

Conder himself, known as

Club where it meets in an upstairs room.

Foreign

As the

name implies it is involved in the consumption of

alcoholic liquor, but not fanatically. One member, the late Stephen Chou, could never touch anything stronger than lemonade, but then his talk always had thevitality of a man with a cou-

ple of glasses

of champagne inside him. Notthatreliable HUGHES. whose drinkers have been DICK weighty personality domilacking. This is not nated Alcoholics Synonymous the place to speak of for years

48 ruB coRRESPoNDENT ocroBER 1989

of hangovers acquired

Hong Kong's foremost pub-

lican, had joined

have done so.

signahrres though not clearþ decipherable are reliably believed to be those of

the Shanghai police force as a constable at the age of 21 in 1928, after coming out from Britain as an orderly in the Royal'$rmy Mèdical Corps.

But he resigned from the

Charles Arthur (us taipan); Saxo Kurman (unidentified); Robert Van Name (us taipan) and John Wright

police after three years and worked for a while with the Shanghai Gas Company

was said to contain every known brand in the world. They used to shake dice for

before transferring

to Butterfield & Swire. When Vichy took over the French Concession in Shanghai Jack

smoothly organised the

defection of at least 500 crew members from French ships

and smuggled them out to

Clll¡\A S Ilr\O TSL'I'UNC lhr (ìr¡r¡uni't lios fu rncd rlr rnnl r.¡

lx'v

(New Zealand taipan).

They were all habitues of Jack Conder's bar where the beer menu, in a

decorated board behind the counter,

drinks and, recalls Jim Babb, "There were several who believed that the dice

TIME

ANDTHE F.C.C.-rloGErHER IN HoNG KoNG slNcE 1ft49

were not attuned to their limited resources and that they were paying, over the years, a higher proportion of the bar bills than was to be reasonably expected or desired. So they agreed to found an organisation, dedicated to alle viating the cares of the past week, but

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

TI^rlE

THEWORLD NEWSMAGAZINE

It has been said that although children have never been good at listening to their elders, they never fail to imitate them.

Today's chjldren will one day take over from us. Continuing to shape what has become one of the world's major economic and trading forces.

For they are the future of Hong Kong.

And no matter where their futures take them, through the ranks of business or the corridors of power, no other company will be as directĂž involved in every facet of their lives as Hutchison \Whampoa.

From providing life's daily necessities to the homes they live in. From the power of electricity to space age telecommunications.

Not just today,but tomorrow and in the years that lie ahead.

Hutchison \Ă&#x2DC;hampoa . P art of today's world.

Hutchison Whampoa Limited

ÞY ARTHUR HACKER

TFIE /C,C-

gHUN@KIN@ ßf,ANSil@NS NÞ I .SFAAY fÀe FtRsT F,c.c.

PENE

Þ

ON

fË rsH VENY SPoT YeAP.s AGo

foundation of the club.''

Bud Merick was chosen

HE

you gained a few friends.

LLO

9AI LOR

lñ>r.rptf¡gLY ÞÉAR

^^/ Lr.JsH A¿

of ferocious dedication to

( l$

v. \t

{'

luciditY of stYle oromising '(spe box, þage 48)

'

some Years membershiP has of a .irå*"ì""*ät emphasis infavour There or ;;ii;ti;; cailing Profession'

In

pretãuË1""n times when journalists

anK dominated' One recalls rHats Telegraþh ; ilË;ã"" of the D ailY

iìiãirttuupt representing the.German Þ;;;; ö"tek Round of the New z;";;^;d Þiã.. n"ociation; L"-*li" õ-iüt;]"rmerlY of Reuters; Eddie Chinese i.åttg *tto repiesented -Press; the Dennis and Ñãtioîaüst iìrîåãïôittt ot ttt" obseruer' Itm

Street. and later the venue was .t unnãA to the Foreign Corresoondãnts' Club - first in Sutherlano

ifä"t" ,t¿

then in the present build-

ãiãã"f"¡ -¿ Anthonv l¿wrence of the olthe Far Eastern

ãàtio"t"t

Davies

memEconomic Reuiew was an active RalPh also and some for Years; ber Þi"tá" of naaio Têlevision Hong Kong'

' "^G;;i- ;ere invited from earliest ,lav-s-""d, from the time that records

' often consisting of a verY

at a local restaurant to

have been invited' There and invitahave also been boat picnics'

iiã"t-uu

members to their homes'

w;;üt;ñmbered

is the hosPitalitY

ni-it't"'Not*an Stalkers on Lanlau' öã-"ir.ã. me nbers took Part in

*ãtã i"gufmv kept' something like.500

There is even a club tie' an informal Ëîi -ofit remains "'..ã"tiállv varying attendance' club ã¡tLiïg

52

háve been inscribed' As

"i.itoi.:nu*õs iåiirc -èãting-place, this was stillJack õånãã.;. ¡ar üñtit the autumn of 1963 *hen redevelopmentforced a move to th; Sp""i.h Roôm of Windsor House in D". Vo"r* Road, Central, and later to ãräcãr" ãe Paris in Queen's Roarl'

;;;;;äk;-'

rggcoRREsPoNDENT ocroBER

ôÈnt ut. Jack Conder had been keeping a the clubrecords but when he set uP job the Kowloon in äå*

"tà¡fi.hment

1989

Look atitthis way.

You didn't lose a bottle of Chivâs,

FCC AnniuersarY SPeciaI

---l

Aru Asm r oF

REVm Ideas

& Literature & Asia

AnAsn RrvmwqBoorc

{ @ Odr

YórE

uîr ¿d

&

dk&!t N1¿ÁÀ

rI¿

Arù

o.f

dù

tq

Heard across a crowded room

@ S''W Mftla'¿¡ú/rm6 F¿h n dl¡Þ ¡¡ir ¡eú

An&'r O,e ld a¡loMrh sFr¿rþ¡a¿ofúh(

Dod ntÀ! Ærdu¿

nru

VER the years many an entralling tale, downright lie, jolly joke, sad story and a wry chuckle has been told over a glass of whatever one happens to be drinking at the time. Some of the more memorable snatches of conversation heard above the hubbub at the bar of the FCC include:

4*

8

lss.

i*,i'

+

r

lntroducing a refreshing new monthly magazíne which h"s ís its focus Riia. ]-he Nl néia Rãview ' sivins vou reviews 6u tu?É luminaries clíester, Clare ng, Anthony Lawrence If you are interested in Asia and enjoy a good leilure read, this is what you have 6eón riaiting for. Columás, interviews, music and travel, socierv and the arts, sfyle and architecture, the latest þaperback sellers, what to buy ac the airport beforË yåur n.*, flight, and lots -ót..

Perfect for plane trips or weekends . . . why not subscribe today?

All Asia Review ofBooks infoimation, post this couPon to: "nd'furthe, Geoghegan Publishing Ltd GPO Box 13311 Hong Kong.

For vour free copv of the

"I

ofiten give up drinking weight." (Charlie Smith)

for a month to lose

"No! its not on my bill!"

* (Tony Dyson)

^AEN

Rolex watches?"

l¡vell)

can get hold of some fake

,,I

do . . ." (John

(Russell Cawthorne)

'Ihat's good."

TTtn CORRESPONDENT october

"No! It's not on my bill!"

(Bob Davis)

x "Just- a glass of

(BrianJefferies)

tflen"

water . . . oh, alright a maguerita

(Sue Girdwood)

x

(Bob Davis and BrianJefferies)

"Mumble, rnumble, mumble . . ."

*

grene orshea)

"I leaned down to help him to his feet by his tie" (]ohn læneghan)

go."

"f

always wanted to be a Phys. Ed. But now just a Piss 'ead." (Tony Dyson)

I'm

* (Derek Williams)

,,I

* was speaking to God on the big white telephone."

(Simon Martin)

*

(BrianJefferies)

FCC Anniuersary

Sþ

ecial

"f don't know what it is . . I found it in my nose."

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

lBruce Maxwell)

"I think I'll try the Shepherd's pie. . ."

)< (Mike Keats)

1989

LEGAL ÞEPARTMENT 'There's a naked lady in the jacuzzi. . . what's the co-ed rules again?" €erer Cahill)

(Phillip Bowring)

54

ÞAN K ERs BENÞ

)É

(Dorothy Ryan)

*

"Mine's a small Carlsbergr"

REUTERS TERRITORY .fAU.fAGEMAKERJ

x

"Mine's a small Carlsberg."

*

VALE OF

ÞWARF.'

(oel Houplin)

*

"Has that old tart been in yet?"

Mot

v¡stïoR.t

"f've got 64OKB memory, 2OMB Hard disk storage and a serial communications port.,'

Norman)

"Has that old tart been in yet?"

fHE REVIE.

level with my lips, otherwise my mascara

(Penny Byrne)

"I'll have a J&B on the rocks;,'

*-

EÞÞ8R,.'

YNÞICATE

*

*

tr JEFFERIES

MARK JIX

\.

I

JEAT

Þ

"I've got to pace meself tonight . . ."

* (Graham

tr OKULEYS

ìR,.ANÞ

*

"I'm from G-I-S and I'm here to help you."

COR.NER

(Hugh van Es.

x

RHKYC

ANNEX

CORR.ESPONDENTJ

LOAÞER.f

"Calvados doesn't affect me . . .',

it

LIP5 VAN

FREE

x

"Hold runs."

I . ." (Bert okuley)

"Anyone know where

REÞ

BRIGAÞE E.'

(Keith Shakespeare)

"I'll have one more Bell's, then I must

Address

0oa

x "So do

FCC BAR GUIDE

(BrianJefferies)

\l/ rñ

Name

EÞ

)<

"I'm not balding!"

0ohn Brembridge)

THE CORRESPONDENTOctobeT

1939

55

CLUB NEWS

FOR many years, the Club has been holding comPetitions to test members' ability to lift a pint of lager and drink it fast. Those who have taken part in this form of sport in the '70s (toþ row, second fron't lefi) seem to have withdrawn from competition' However, several new contestants have entered the scene, as witnessed

.inir ?iiqi:,

':

at the most recent competition held

last November.

That contest ended with Karl Wilson as the winner of the men's division while WendY KaY took the

women's title (toþ roa,Iefi) ' Beer drinking contests, bY no means, is the Club's major social event. There are manY other functions that draw large attendance' In the past two Years the Club has had fashion shows, food festivals, not to mention the ladies' night New Year celebrations and ice house

E H

anniversaries.

I

56 run

coRRESPoNDENT ocroBER

1989

FCC AnniuersarY Sþecial

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

r

THE CORRESPONDENT OCTOBF]R 1g8g 57

CLUB NEWS

t,

* I

I

a

(

I

(i 58 rsn

coRRESPoNDENT ocroBER

1989

FCC Anniaersary Sþecial

a

I

PE O PLE AS the pcc celebrates its 40th anniver-

sary in Hong Kong, save a case of

champagne for Clare Hollingworth, the

against Jews and foreigners, retreated

to the corridor. This gave Clare just

enough time to phone the British Embassy for help - almost certainly

doyenne ofwar correspondents for the past 50 years, she will be 78 this month. s ofThe Sunday

saving her life."

Clare's scoop-studded journalistic

Clare during the

career is awash with many more of

rt of ìMorld War II last month, said: 'Age has not diminished the maddening discretion with which she cloaks

such stories, but known oniv to a few

1

Manchester

Guardian, Alastair Hetherington, who

was then editor, called her in and

asked bluntly: "Are

you working for

as now, Clare,

vlo?" (She wasn't,

is

but there were

matched only by her

grounds

modesty, is "a very pri-

unassuming and quite content to be seen as a hardworking profes-

on the paper.)

Yet, curiously, journalism was far-

sional whose lite is

Everythingis geared to heþyou from your Mæintosh, so you owe it to your business to get more

HONG KONG CONVENTÏON AND EXHIBITTON CENTRE Roon 404 10125t89

-

ll:004 m 12:00 [oon

Centre and filled it

with the

latest and most interesting third-

parry hardware and software developments.

The three day exhibition & seminar programme is dedicated to Apples Mæintosh technology and is designed to appeal to everyone from computer professionals to general users, There llevenbe apublic domain library where you can copy valuable Macintosh software free of charge.

Ve'll be unveilng some important new breakthroughs

in Chinese operating systems: The Mæinhsh ChineseTalk and Chinese page layout software, æ

02

00pn

-

Thellagicof Ihæ

Vhat ß ir? ând Hov b use il?

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thest from

very much her work."

The woman who saw Hitler's tanks roll into Poland, the terror of the oes in Algeria, and the horrors of the

Vietnam War, has

puckish streak

for

Hetherington's suspicions elsewhere

vate person, utterly

well æ the specially designed

of the

stories for

her profession."

APPLEVORLD'89 OCTOBER 25TH-27TH

party followed suit.

startled when, after

aclysmic events she has witnessed ... it is only from friends that one discovers the extraordinary life she has led in the pursuit of

AppleÏíorld is backl And this year it's bigger and better than ever.

laughter when recalling the "rather startled" look on the British ambassador's face as other members of the

an impressive run

her own role in the cat-

then,

her clothes off and dived into ttre water.

A diplomat who was present roars with

Then, Clare's turn to be

¡

whose courage

embassy picnic by a river on a hot summer's day when Clare suddenly threw

the

career goals of Clare, the daughter of a well-to-do coun-

ty

family

in

Thistleton, Rutland,

who grew up in a world that expected little more of her than that she marry an eligible landowner like all her other friends. Since her father did not

a

privileged

and

uncanny presence of

mind in crisis situa-

tions. The episode that

best illustrates this goes back to the time

when fascist thugs of Rumania's Iron Guard

believe in "educated women," Clare was sent to a boarding

pounded up the stairs to her third floor flat in

Bucharest in

school f"t young for ililiä frnrin.*orrh. trcu^rt. î¡i¡t^+--)-- times +:^"^^^ :^^ "utlY Clare Hollingworth: Usually, tt the" øao+ most frightening 1940. in wa_r,are when nothing is "trro ladies ladies at al haþþentng' ^ r>horo:southchinafuorningpo$ As recounted by ä-"-îr'^,,--^,,r.was was

took She into gar-

an' sex see

Clare rebelled against Eastbourne and was allowed to begin her real edu_ cation near home at a grammar school

"Disconcerted, the Guards who Em6assy. were conducting a campaign of terror In a lighter vein, there was FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

the

in Ashh.r-.lo-1. 7^"^l 'T.Ll^ in Ashby_de_la_Zouch.

This l^l led +^ to a^ scholarship in Slavonic studies at

r¡ndonuniversityandteachingjobsin

THE CORRESPONDENT OCTOBER

1989

61

PE O PLE Zagreb, Prague and Geneva, where Clare worked for the læague of Nations

on refugee problems.

By this time, Clare had become Mrs Vivian Robinson, the wife of a rich, upperclass Englishman whom her contemporaries describe as "a handsome, hopeless drifter." With his money and

her language skills, the couple spent months roaming the Balkans while Hitler consolidated his power in Berlin.

On the outbreak of World \Mar II, the

Robinsons'marriage ended and both decided to go their separate ways.

In 1939, Clare's knowledge of the languages and potential battlefields of Eastern Europe landed her a staffjob with the Daily TelegraþØ. It also gave the young reporter the extraordinary opportunity of witnessing Germanyrs blitzkreig across the Polish border,

shortþ before dawn on September

1.

For a few hectic hours that morning, Clare found herself trapped behind the rapidly advancing German tanks as she

drove frantically eastwards from the border town of Katowice to $et back to Warsaw with her story. It was at that

dramatic moment, as she desperately dashed down sideroads and tracks to avoid German tanks, that it dawned on Clare what she was going to do with her life: she threw herself into a career as a foreign correspondent.

It was an inspired decision and the timing was flawless, because this was a great time to be a foreign correspondent. Clare moved from The Telegraþh to The Daily Exþress, and reported the fall of the Balkans, the Western Desert

campaign, the civil war in Greece in 1946 and various other post-war crises,

including the bloody birth of Israel.

Srhat made Clare's reputation and

celebrity status among her peers was the Algerian war in the '50s and early '60s. At the height of her zooming career, Clare found happiness in a second marriage, to Geoffrey Hoare, a fellow journalist she first met in Cairo during the war. Hoare had been a Times

correspondent, but by the time they married at the Kensington Registry Office in 1951, he had taken up a post with the News Chronicle inParis.

Clare followed him, working as a

correspondent

for

NZA

Meat Co., Limited AGENT FOR

the

New Zealand chilled beef and Iamb, 10 Fort Street, G/F North Point, Hong Kong Telephone 5-665415 (6 lines) Telex 66129 HX Fax No. 5-8071352

missions with American ground forces in Vietnam and it was just hard slog all the way. In the air, someone else does

all the work and one is much more aware of the danger. Usually, the most frightening times in war are when nothing is happening."

Courage of a different kind was called for, following her husband Geoffrey's death from a stroke in 1965.

She was inVietnam when she heard he had taken ill, and returned in time to share the last three weeks of his life. It

was a terrible blow and even no.w a subject too painful for discussion.

Surprisingly, the key to Clare's professional success, in the view of her peers, "has never been her writing, which is workmanlike; nor her breath-

profit can tum into a loss in a matter of seconds. 'Which is why a

your screen gets your undivided attention.

,\t

Glerate, we've given our undivided attention

to the world's

financial markets. As a pioneer of

electronic real-time information systems, Glerate reports prices, news, plus in-depth commentary and analysis

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To help you react to a changing financial world, you can access comprehensive coverage of any financial

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In addition, Glerate

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computer-based anaþtical tools

with sophisticated

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perform extensive calculations and manipulate live

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Obseruer.

Zhou Enlai's wife was a confidante during Clare's long years in Beijing.

The Shah of Iran remained a friend from their first meeting in the 1940s.

The

Together, they

toured

the

Middle East for their papers, and bought a cottage

in the

and gave riotous

large Paris flat.

By the late '50s, Clare came

to be regarded as one of the best correspondents covering the Algerian war,

defying threats and terror tactics

by the dreaded

OAS squads.

Clare's colleagues and friends all agreed

that she never

62 rr¡r, coRRESPoNDENT ocroBER 1989

"I remember going on dangerous

n today's financial world,

though that is, but rather her range of

parties at their

J-

about what is going on to worry too much. Anyway, I would be a liar if I said that there wasn't a thrill in flying combat missions. There is something very compelling about war in the air.

Guardian, The Economist, and

¡¡

Ittt rdrañnn

action, under fire, you're too concerned

market data. The result: a clear, well-informed view

r-/ USA Top Quality Beef

"The truth is," Clare told MacManus, "that when you're in

IF YOU SPECIALISE IN FNAI\CE, SHOI.]LDN'T YOLIR INFORNIATION SOLJRCE Do TI{E SA[,IE?

taking courage, attractive thought

Manchester

hills behind Antibes,

silms0n.

shows fear under fire because she gets a strange kick out ofviolence.

contacts."

'The reason for Clare's success is her fabled reputation of never having broken an undertaking or going back on a promise to a contact."

Showered with honours, including the osn and the Hannen Swafer prize

'We're

-

as

it

happens.

also dweloping future generations of

transaction services which

will allow

traders to

electronically execute transactions, 24 hows

a day.

Fast and accunte financial information uppermost

in your mind all the time.

Choose the

company that thinks the same way.

for her Algerian coverage, Clare has four books to her name and an autobiography in the Front Line, d:ue to be published byJonathan Cape earþ next year.

China, which is the focus of her work now, mainly for defence magazines, is also the source of her one great regret. "I never got to interview Mao. But then, no one else did. So I don't feel too badly about it."

-

VernonRam

Anecdotes and quotes excerpted formWoman At War,

the Amazing life of Clare HoLlingworth, by James MacManus in The Sund.q Telegraph Reuieu.

FCC Anniaersary Sþecial

is

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PE O PLE IN HER street clothes and mod, wedge hairdo, Mimi Mario would be undistinguishable from the yuppie teenagers who crowd Central's upmarket boutiques.

But inside the dining areas at the Foreign Correspondentsr Club, Mimi,

know and recognise members by their names and

their Club numbers, a valuable aid when greeting a member or in preparing his or her bill.

"The actual challenge,"

the baby{aced waitress with the mostest, is all attention as

in

she drapes the napkin on your lap and waits for your

rush hours and in being able

Form Five at St Margaret Girls'College in Caine Road and responded to ajob advertisement placed by the ncc.

Simon, the assistant head-

waiteç took Mimi under his wing in the initial months as she learned the ropes of a job aboutwhich she knew little. To start with, she didn't even know how to set a table.

Patient coaching by peers

Everyday Thehst.

She also learned, before long, to

Mimi says, "is in being able to remember who ordered what

order while deftly filling your goblet with fresh water.

Mimi, who turned 21 in July, is the rookie among the serving staff, even though she has been with the Club since 1987, the year she finished

FlidnProfiles.

it a drink or a dessert.

and Captain Joseph gave Mimi the confidence and inhouse training to be able to second-guess what a member would want or prefer, be

a

crowded table during the

to deliver that to each person in correct order. In the earþ days, I used to get confused or

nervous and make mistakes.

Thatwaswhen the captain or headwaiter came to my rescue and sorted out the situation. And I made a note of the mistake so as not to repeat it."

Starting with the brealdast routine - the 7 a.m. to 9.30a.m.

shift on the verandah, followed by table setting and other chores until3 p.m. -

Mimi has now graduated to the main dining room, where she moves with quiet efficiency and conidence. The work is less of a challenge now than it seemed when she frst took up the job.

What does the future hold for Mimi? Ideally, she fancies being a flight stewardess.

She can't get that job,

Mimi Mario at work.

Photo: Ray Cranbourne

though, because she is short on qualifications, not having

her education to be able one

completed the minimum requireme_nt of Form Six. But she is not disappointed because she has plans to

job.

Meanwhile, Mimi begins

attend night school to widen

begin any day. - Vernon Ram

day to go into a travel-related

each morning with a cheer-

ful smile, the finest way to

Farewell to Chiao

South China Mglning

lost

Deng calls Zhao a

traitor

Attack marks bittcr strugglc for powcr --re

\,_¿--

----

ã+-* r'5 --5 -.

--,L-,1--_:._a-53i -,---i

A great daily newpaper gives you more than the facts that matter. It's a friend.

And as in all true friendships, little touches add to bigger issues. That's why you'll find more and more people read the South China Morning Post every day.

Make a habit of The Post. Call us today. Ve'll see you never miss another issue.

Chaio Chin-Chen, who has worked with the Club

since 1949 retired last year. Chiao (centre) is seen here receiving a farewell gift from the then president of the Club, Derek Davies.

Photo: Hugh van Es

5-652473 FCC Anni uersary Sþecial

THE CORRESPONDENT OCTOBER 1989

65

KODAK EKTACHROME

IOO(

PE O PLE

F'CC BAR

CAPTAIN

Stephen Kwok may not be the most senior member of the Club staff. But his face has to it the familiarity of an old newspaper masthead.

At 41, the bespectacled and portly bar captain, who has logged 16 years with the Club, has grown accustomed

to his role as he circulates with quiet authority around the Club's main oval bar on the ground floor, supervising a crew of six or seven, dis-

pensing drinks and taking orders for food or snacks, checking stocks and keeping in touch with the bars in the basement and on the dining

room floors.

Stephen Kwok

respectful distance from members, a trait he has

Stephen, who is answerable to Sammy Cheung, who is in charge of all three bars, has seen the Club grow from its Sutherland House days in the r70s, to its present glory.

Blooded by veterans like Liao, the bar supervisor since

passed on to fellow members of the bar staff, there is little that escapes Stephen's eagle eye as he keeps track olcomings and goings in the Club's

the Club's days in Chung-

Richard Hughes and David

king, and three captains (:u, Lai and Chan), Stephen has indeed worked his way to the top after joining the pcc in 1973 as an apprentice waiter. Earlier, he had worked in a garmentfacto

ry at a time when that

industry faced pressures of export restrictions and

trading quotas.

An all-rounderwho can

neatly slide into any department at the ncc,

Stephen's principal asset has been his ability to keep the bar humming through all hours of the day until closing time in the early hours of the morning, particularly on Fridays and holiday weekends.

Though he keeps

a

most active floor.

Stephen also speaks fond-

ly of members like the late Bonavia, men he speaks

Photo: Ray Cranbourne

about with warmth

and

the rcc has not hired bar-

respect. Knowing the regulars around the Oval Bar, like Burt Okuley, Charlie Smith and Irene O'Shea, he has their favourite drinks ready even before they have ordered.

One of the things he has noticed is that the pcc now has more women members than ever before. Asked why

maids, Stephen believes they

somehow would not fit in with the Club's image and clientele. "Also it would be difficult to attract the right Ăžpes, who may not fancy the hours of work, particularly late in the night."

Given the fact there is a

tremendous demand for staff in the hotel industry, which offers better remuneration

packages,

Stephen said he

had not

been

tempted into mak-

ing a change. "I have been here 16

years and have three daughters aged between sev-

en and 15.

I enjoy

Besides,

my work

here among friends. I

certainly don't fan-

cy dropping all this to start afresh somewhere else."

In a

way,

Stephen speaks for most of the senior staff at the

FCC

who

have

become a part of The Club's oval bar Sutherland House where Stephen Kwok received training under Li (in dark su

FCC Anniuersary SĂžecial

the institution that

has now got into their system.

-Vernon Ram

CLUB NEWS

How moods change at parties!

68 ruB

coRRESPoNDENT ogroBER

1989

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

THE coRRESPoNDENT ogroBER rssg

69

CLUB NEWS Sports and I-eisure MANY Club members are active sports people. They take part in a variety of sports - but mainly tennis, squash, sailing and golf.

Snooker, billiards and pool tournaments are held in the Club every year.

Yantze is another popular game played at the Clubrs basement sports bar area lastyear a Club team also took part in

the annual Maclehose Trail walk for charity.

Andy Sloan, (aboue),

the 1978 Clutr pool

champion. Below, a pool game in progress,

CongratuLations to the FCC on its

40th Anniversary from

NAM F"T]NG NIIRSERIES LTD. No. 11, Braemar Hill Shopping Centre, Braemar Hill Road, North Point, Hong Kong. Tel: 5-788416 - 8, 5-788110

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CLUB NEWS

RIGHT: a game of yantze in progress.

BELOW: Scoreboard lor yantøe contest.

log la-.?

We understand that advice comes in many different forms, So when someone comes to us on the advice of a friend, we listen, For fifteen yean, Matheson PFC has been

helping individuals to meet their financialgoals through sound financial advice.

Congratulations to the FCC on its Ruby Anniqtersery. rtlllr

sifl

M*J"4sp,"o."*PHS,\\\{x

1301 World Trade Centre, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Tèlephone 5-8908448, Facsimile 5 -8902524

FCC Anniu ersary Sþecial

THE CORRESPONDENT October ßeS 7 3

PROTECTING PEOPLE AN D PROPE

CLUB NEWS

Todoy, occess control ploys

RTY

o moior

port in personol ond compony security.

At Chubb we've developed flexible ond relioble occess control systems.

Our systems con be used in oll kinds of premises,

Horse racing attracts a good number of Club members (aboae). But some others took to the South China sea for sailing and fishing.

Congratul

o) .S

3 o

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from offices ond foctories to hotels, oportment buildings ond even privote homes.

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Golf has gained

popularity among Club members lately and an FCC GoH Society has been formed this year.

GIVE YOUR PRESENTATIONS

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Just feed your grophics & doto files through the projec-

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Distributed through Golden Communications

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

- Adveûsng

THE CORRESPONDENT October tsss

77

v I_.. ':J-

\

CLUB NEWS

Bre$uet Precision mastery since 1775

I-ast year, a joint FCC/American Club softball team bravely challenged a visiting team from San Francisco's Washington Square Bar & Grill. The

visitors won the match. And this year' a Club team and the Hon$ Kong Yacht Club's weekend sailors matched their skills at cricket.

The yachties rvon the game.

Ir

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,/ ù FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

ê

Sole Agena: Swiss

7

Import Export Tiading Co., Ltd. Hong Kong 5-273046

Congratulations to

The Foreign Correspondents' Club on its 40th anniversarY f rom

Congratulations

THE FOREIGN Congratulations to The Foreign CorresPondents' Club on its 40th anniversarY from

SIJN WAH MARINE PRODUCIS (H.K.) CO. TTD. FAX: 0-4563054 TUEN MUN TOWN LOT 274, AREA44, TELEX: 43e83 GcPRo HX rúrñ uúñ. N.T., HoNG KoNG

CORRESPONDENTS' CLUB

TO THE

on

TEL: 0-4688868

its 40th Anniversary Congratulations to The Foreign Correspttndents' Club on its 40th anniversary from

r'.ö? ""íã*'- ffiFmñËm¿lEl SHING HING FBozEN MEAT

'='ää;fu,

1n

Hong Kong

co.

rärÅ,lorto,

Congratulations to

The Foreign CorresPondents' Club on its 40th anniversary from

Tai Pan Laundry & Dry Cleaning Services, Ltd'

WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF

corrpartnrent 95, Tsuen'Wan 'E' Godown 54-64 Chai \Øan Kok Street, Tstren \Van Hong Kong. Tel: 0-493479I-4Fax:0-4768695

Congratulations to

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GROUPPUBLICATIONS Elle.Eve.HomeJournal .HongKongBusiness.HongKongTatler.Mode.SingaporeEve.SingaporeTatler

CLUB NEWS

I

È: Èi Ë \J tf-,l \rY

/-\ \J :,

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An FCC-backed team took part in the loo-kilometre Maclehose Trail walk last year and collected more than $1O,O0O for charity.

A similar expedition is in the making for this year.

Meanwhile, one Club member went for something more adventurous - paraplane flying in China. He landed on a tree.

¡, ¿{

',fl

I

,,t-'\4 I

ETAK .-Ø¿.,.-.¿¿n,/ -%/ "We toast the FCC , d free press, democracJ and fr ee r esÞonsible þeoþle

eqr

ery wher e ."

-l

LI FE STYI-E

The Correspondent's guide to living out in Asia

Congrotulotions

SURVEY conducted among Fcc members last year found that most members travel in Asia, many of them more than six times a year. Most members also eat out frequently, whether they are travelling or not.

Travelling and eating out being so much apart of our life, The CorresĂžondent asked 12 journalists who cover Asia for regional or world media to name their favourite hotels and restaurants for this "Correspondentrs Guide to Asia". This is what they had to say:

to

The Foreign Correspondents' Club Hong Kong

Bangkok

DIRTY, noisy, trafficjammed. Bangkok is the gateway to Thailand and even more dangerous locations.

Indochina, Burma and the

ever-popular Golden Triangle are each an hour away

If you can't handle the Oriental's fantastic rates,

o1d

correspondent favourites like

the Trocadero and

the redecorated Royale are still good bargains.

Nick's No 1 is popular for European food while wait-

ers on roller skates serve their dishes at the biggest

from the sophistication of outdoor restaurant on earth Thailand's capital of eight -The Tam NakThai.

on its 40th Anniversory

million.

Riverside breakfasts at the "world's best hotel" is mandatory for anyone visit-

If you can't take another day without Dim Sum, the Tien Tien is a good excuse for visiting Patpong Road.

ing Bangkok.

- Karl Wilson

Beijing

THE best hotel is

the Beijing, which is situated in the centre of the city and is

convenient for shopping, sightseeing and obtaining taxis. That is, unless you enjoy waking to wonder whether you are in Dallas,

Amsterdam or London.

Although they no longer

ground floor for meeting people.

TheJianguo is more modern and is popularwith diplo

mats; while the Minxu is good but too far away from the centre for the casual coffee orbeer. There are, now no

old-fashioned bars in the city.

A visit to the

famous

Beijing Duck restaurant is essential so, too, in summer is the Peihai I-ake restau-

rantwhich imitates the cooking of the o1d imperial kitchen. One of the Dowager Empress's cooks - no'w over 80 - has trained manyyoung men but still comes in him-

self at weekends. Another

favourite of mine

is

the

- the Grill which is noted for Kaoroufi

Mongolian dishes and is also situated in an attractive spot

deliver hot water for tea making every morning, the hotel has character and there is a

near the Drum Tower and

wide range of restaurants plus two good cafes on the

beside a lake.

Food at the International

wifh fhe compliments of

UNITY ENGINEERING CO.,

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THE coRRESPoNDENT ogroBER rgsg

85

LI F'E STYLE ers who have the Cantonese craving to do a deal.

What to do? Wander the streets, sfoll along under the

Club is disappointing but the drinks are all right esPeciallY

by the swimming Pool in summer.

-

Clare Hollingworth'

Guangzhou

SOPHISTICATES scoff' "Guangzhou?" they murmur.

'Tlrhat's there?"

Alot.

of the city. Menu imaginative, wine terrific, service supreme.

The Silk Road at the White

Shamian Island where Zou Enlai once led rioters to rout the Brits, and two years later was given sanctuary bY them

thatthe Chinese in Chinacan

most fascinating destinations in China. Because of the centuries-long association with foreigners, it s a lot easier to get about than most Places in

down the Canton Commune Uprising. Stop at one of the hundreds of stalls or restau-

Hong Kong has rubbed off;

of the people who approach you. 'You Hong Kong?" they ask. "My brother there."

China. The proximitY to

people are open, business is

easy, the atmosPhere is relaxed, the red $100 note of

rants for a cold Zhú Jians (Pearl River) beer; you're sure to get a storY from one

Hong Kong is accePted freelY - nay, eagerly-bY shoPkeeP

Where to eat? The best French restaurant in China is

the Connoisseur at the

down on gids who have reaP

in such establishments. The best bar in the city is the Corner Bar at the China Hotel, just over the road from the big Fair build-

peared

The Roof at the Chinagives a view over the old, tiled walls

spreading banyans that border the esplanade alongside the mighty Pearl River. Muse on the ironies of historY on

during the 1927 slaughter when the Kuomintang Put

The old port citY on the Pearl remains one of the

Garden Hotel. The decor is superb. The food is better.

Swan is elegant, and proof a firstclass foreþ restaurant. The renowned, glorious Parxi Tea House is the most

run

famous dimsum establishment on earth. Don't bother

eating Cantonese food in Guangzhou. It's better in HongKong.

Where to drink? Free-

enterprise bars are springing up all over the city. But be

careful if you feel like more a Tsingdao, Baiyun or Zhu Jiang beer (about m¡e10 each.) The current campaign

than

against spiritual pollution means police are cracking

ings. And

if you want to

know what's happening out in the South China Sea oilfields, don't bother with government officials but droP into the magnificent lobbY

bar at the White Swan

where you can sip

a

cocktail

based on mao-tai and watch the Pearl River flow Past the 40ft-high glass windows on its way down to the sea and HongKong. - Keuin Sinclair

ONCE the home of the Pcc, the Hilton Hotel todaY is a

home away from home for the travelling journalist or

ln conjunction with Garfin Productions Ltd, the FCC is offering 1990 diaries and an address book with goldstamped FCC logo and personal name or initials. For your convenience the diairies will be booked and paid for via the FCC' Pñc¡ lHlf Spcci¡l 0urntily Diæouttt

1

-21

Conecpondent¡' Club

De¡k Diary :orei gn Correcpondent¡'

25-{9

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ovsr

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É5

235

150

125

118

135

128

otY Amount

:oleign Correrpondont¡' Oub tocket Add¡o¡¡ Book

from all of us at

Pacific Davies rty Consultants throughout Asia payaole to Forelgn enclosed (cheque paiable Club) Correspondents'

O Payment

O Bill my FCC MembershiP account

0ub

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Free goldstamping for the. following names:

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86 ruB

FIRST PACIFIC

coRRESPoNDENT ocroBER

1989

Free Delivery w¡thin Hong Kong Territorìes' Overseas dolivery will be charged accordingly'

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

(HONG KONG) LIMITED

23RD FLOOR TWO EXCHANGE SQUARE 8

CONNAUGHT PLACE CENTRAL HONG KONG

LIF'ESTYLE foreign correspondent l¡cated in the shadåw of the new Bank of China

skyscraper next door, the Hilton is just a stone's throw

from the FCC's lce House Street quarters. The best bar in town is still that of the Pcc,

the Grandstand Grille, meeting place of the racing fraternity and original home ofthe Long Lunch. Or drop downstairs to "Someplace Else," a basement club frequented by the w crowd and other prime-time swingers.

but the Hilton's Dragon

Back on Hong Kong

Boat is cozy, and it's right

island, in the Causeway Bay district to be precise, head

next door to the world- class

Grille Room.

Whenthe Clubwentbroke

for the Casa Mexicana, whose slogan is "we party every night' and one that the

Kowloon restaurant, not far fromThe Peninsula, where lobby habitues like to sip tea and look for celebrities.

Hong Kong's newest jazz club is named just that, The Jan Club.It's located in the

funky Lan Kwai Fong dis-

Mandarin, but the two I would recommend for visiting hacks are:

The Borobudur

-

the

small exfa distance from the business centre and the wellworn quality of the decor are compensated for by pleasant

trict, just down the road from

lobbies with good restau-

the Fcc, and where aging hipsters mix with yuppies

rants, bars, shops and exten-

and other would-be trend-set-

courts and the biggest hotel-

ters.

A

warning: bring

sive gardens, four tennis swimming pool an1'where.

Try to get a room on one of

takes

extremely seriously.

money, or bread, or moolah.

And finally, for a down-toearth pub, where almost any-

From there it moved to larger quarters upstairs, on the 25th floor below the Eagle's Nest, before finally moving to the

For more leisurely, as well as reasonably priced, dining, head down Wyndham Street from the pcc and duck into

thing goes, drop into the Hong Kong Press Club, strategically situated in Lockhart Road. For the

with

late, lamented Sutherland

Jimmy's Kitchen,

House in early 1968.

For anyone fnding himself across Victoria Harbour "on

Kong landmark. (The same

uninitiated, that's in the heart of the Suzy Wong District.

Bert Okuley

ly well-known I-andau's,

the

which has relocated to the

in the early'60s, it took refuge in a fourth-floor fr.mction room

Tex-Mex eatery

next to the swimming pool.

the Kowloon side,"

a Hong

management runs the equal-

-

the floors recently renovated.

The Hotel Indonesia

built by Sukarno

-

Japanese war reparations in the early 1960s, the hotel was locale for The Year of Liaing

Dangerously and a hint of intrigue still hangs around its lobbies. large rooms, dated

furnishings.

Neither

have your

Sheraton Hotel &Towers is

Sung Hung Kai Centre,

Jakarta

accountant jumping up and

hard to beatwhen it comes to both service and cuisine. Try

Wanchai.)

THERE are plenty of expensive newish hotels like The

funds for:

Jimmy's also operates a

To one of

down, leaving plenty of

our neu)est, but "oldest" cttstomers,

Iløppy 4hlc bùrtlcdoy, tCC! facing tbe next decade togetber/ From your "younger" partner in business, Here's

to

N IXE!CI RF CO M PUTE R

I

Probably thebest beer in theworld.

88 rHB

coRRESPoNDENT osfoBER

198e

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

r LIFESTYLE Eating and drinking: Satay House Senayan,

in the ancient, gloomy bar, and sizzling steak-the house

No shortage of classy lodgings in xr but for atmo-

Jalan Kebon Sirih: an old favourite for satay, gadogado, goat soup etc. Good

speciality responsible for the all-permeating smell and

sphere, the slightly rundown Station Hotel is worth a visit, with its huge rooms,

Indonesian food in clean surroundings, with cold beer.

Natrabu, Jalan Sabang:

another old standard, serving hot (chili-style hot, that is) Padang food.

late Night: Tanamor, Jalan Tanah Abang Timur: deafening music, reasonable cover charge and drinks, dim and smokey atmosphere, the demi-monde lethargically at play.

-

Hamish MacDonald

Kuala l,trmpur

THE Coliseum Cafe

on Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman (ex-Batu Road) is the best-

smoke - in the smoggy restaurant. The grumpy Hainanese waiters all look above 70 and ifyou dropyour fork you might as well drop dead. Rooms for rent upstairs

are some of the cheapest in town, probably for good reason. Somerset Maugham, it is said, would arise at the old

Majestic Hotel (now the National Art Gallery) up the street, brealdast, spend the daywriting, then stroll down to The Coliseum for a few stengahs and dinner before retiring with the young person of his choice. He would arise the following morning, brealdast, spend the day wril

known of several holdouts

ing, then stroll up to The Majestic for a few stengahs .

from colonial times: Stengahs

. . and so on.

ceiling fans, vintage lifts and,

for those so inclined, its alleged resident ghost.

Also on Batu Road is the murlqF "bar that time forgot'', that of the Rex Hotel where, locals swear, the same

during the Commonwealth conference this month and visiting correspondents are welcome.

-

Sinan Fisek

Manila TTIE Manila Hotel should be the hotel of choice for a visiting correspondent. It is convenient, comfortable and a favourite haunt for people

sarong-clad lady has been holding court for 45 years.

When weary of colonial slumming, many KL col-

who make (or like to think they make) the news. The gardens outside include a swimming pool, tennis

Jaya's pub row, Jalan Gasing.

the evenings. The Manila is also accustomed to visiting hacks, and can cater for most

leagues hang out at the Betelnut, a lively pub-cumdisco on Jalan Pinang, or at Rene's Place on Petaling The National Press Club has new quarters in a Jalan Parlimen villa that was reportedly a Japanese interrogation cenfe during World War II. It will be open around the clock

kÈ

courts and a bayside restaurant especially attractive in

of their more demanding requirements, including secretarial and appointment services. Rates are about us$85.

For insomniacs, it also has 24-hour TV from the us Air

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19s9

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial

HONG KONG GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING; CIGARETTE SMOKING IS HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH LOW TAR (MANUFACTURERS ESTIMATE)

LI FE S"IYLE Force base at Clark. Another source, for occasional news tips for hacks on the trot, is

Mama Letty, still plays

a

The top category, which also includes journalists, covers

people who dislike both India and the Indians. Next come those who dislike Indians but like India - the landscape, the lifestyle,big bungalows, servants, polo etc. The third category con-

mean game of Scrabble.

the Intercontinental Hotel in

in Filipino food. Try also The a

Makati, a haunt favoured by politicians on the inside and outside track, newspaper columnists and a few who seem to hanker for the Marcos Days. Eating out is not a Michelin Guide experience in Manila but among

Across the street from D'Spider and the Eagle's Nest and the China füastare

block from Remedios, where

fivo other restaura¡rts: another

the coffee shop at

Graphically speaking

are mostly European, and the Patio Mequene, just off the Circle, which specialises

the better places are the Nielsen Tower in Makati. It

Hobbit, on A. Mabini,

the live music is

good

(though loud) the ambience petite and the food only pass-

in Mexican food (excellentmagueritas) and a dozen or so restaurants in Greenbelt, a shopping plaza cialises

area behind the southwest corner of Ayala and Makiti

rooms in the Immigration

Avenues. Ermita has the most notorious girlie bars: best known of which, for hacks, are The Firehouse, The Blackout, The Blue Hawaü, TheBangkoh and of course, The Spiders Web, now D'Spider and with apiano. The Mamasan,

a bar Tower.

and Customs halls and

in the

Control

Around Remedios Circle, close to Ermita (of fame): The Cafe Adriatico, Bistro Remedios (try the fried crickets for an hors d'oeuvre) and Guernicas, which

Spanish and with tabletouring guitar players, and I-afayette,

able. Back in Makati, Aunt much quieter and recently Mary's Other Aunt spe- reopened. The Manila [Iilton

used to be the Manila airport

terminal: private dining

Guernica, predominantly

is now the Manila Pavilion and has a casino that takes up

the entire second floor.

- Graham Lowell.

New Dehli

ACCORDING to Khushawant Singh, Dehli jounalist par excellance and a man whom visiting correspondents should call on to keep up with New Dehli gossips,

Indians usually divide foreigners into three categories.

sists oflovers who drool over anything about India and the

Indìans. They find Indian mysticism more satisfying

than Christianity,

forehead.

\44richever category you belong to; the best hotel in

the Indian capital is The Oberoi (no more than HK$1,000). Next comes Le

Congratulations to the FCC and all its members I)nTt.lì \S,¡()N(l DFlslGN

a AssoctxÌ'l.s I.INIITìII)

can assist your graphic needs.

Just call 5-81.01055 A

N4INI

POFTFOLIO IS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

Ragas

more melodious than Beethoven, the dhoti more sensible than trousers, hot curries tastier than steaks. Women in this category wear saris and put a red spot on their

your Video Library

t--LI FE STYLE Meridien, which is situated in the centre of the city.

However, for half the price at the Oberoi, you can find a good room at Claridges. If

you are travelling

with

madame andwantto give her

alreat, the garden setting of Claridges is good.

Claridges dates from the days of the British Raj and is

still a favourite of visitors from Britain. The management there takes extreme care - they not only draw the

drapes in rooms for those who dislike the sun but also sew them shut so the guest will not be disturbed.

For dining, diplomats and hacks vote The Bukhara in

the Maurya Sheraton

as

the best Indian restaurant.

Drinks are expensive (about HK$50 for a beer or a shot of whisþ) and available only in

hotels and clubs. My

favourite drinking place in

Dehli is the Golf Club next to The Oberoi.

-

Peter Seidlitz.

Phnom Penh

\.\[TH the final withdrawl of Vietnamese troops from Cambodia, many old Asia hands who covered the war during l¡n Nol days, discov-

ered on their return that much had changed in their beloved Phnom Penh, and

border at Moc Bai. Hotel accommodations in

and a band which plays an amazing mix of Western rock

Phnom Penh have increased, but the quality has declined.

and Russian and Ktrmer pop.

over the Samaki Hotel, which mostwill remember as I-e Phnom and before that

menu which features a broad selection of l{hmer, French,

The Royale.

and Chinese dishes. The

ffi

prices are low, but seem to fluctuate from nightto night,

bottles and bleary eyes.

able second choice, has fallen

since they are not marked on

serious

the menu, They also have a

doldrums. 0f dog day afternoons and weeks of searching for

French wines, at least the

The relief mercenaries who make up the bulk of the foreign community have taken

The Monorom Hotel, which was always a reason-

into state of

delapidation. But at us$16 per night, one can't complain too

good supply of drinkable

(some of us have never been

loudly. The roof of The Monorom has the best breakfast in town, not so

labels say they are French.

Road travel is possible to

price for hiring a Russian Volga with driver is us$300.

Add to thatthe us$2 for some good Russian vodka and us$12.50 for a tin ofcaviar and one can break up the six-hour journey with a pleasant roadside picnic after crossing the

THE TEII BEHITID THE HEADI.IIIES

The current favourite restaurant is The International, located two blocks up the road from The Monorom. They have a

much had not.

The first change was that one could drive from Saigon able to call it Ho Chi Minh City) to Phnom Penh. The

ATTER 40

much because of the food, but because of the lack of flies, which trouble the plen-

tiful street-side

establish-

ments. By nightThe Monorom roof is transformed into a swinging night club packed with Vietnamese taxi dancers

DESERVE

TITTTE CHEER.

A

forty years 0f cold coffee and full ashtrays. 0f empty

0f

distant disasters and domestic

sOmeOne who's been raped and speaks English.

ffi

Four

many parts of the country

including the beach

at

Kompong Som Siem Reap is a us$90 air-

plane ride, but that's the cheap part of the trip. The tourist authorities there charge us$20 to visit Bayon and Angkor Wat, a mere five

CHINA NATIONAT ETECTRONICS IMPORT & ÐßORT CORPORATION decades

of politicians, press

releases and propaganda. 0f

bombs and binges and things that go bump in the night. 0f o o o a o a

Capacitor

o Radio Measuring

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a

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a

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O

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a Special Material

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0n the campaign trail.

Instrument

ffi

Exactly'14,610 days of deadlines,

creased shirts and scuffed shoes.

Broadcast Transmission Equipment

0f

tangled typewriter

ribbons, jammed f ilms and cracked lenses. And only 23 years

a Home Electronics

o

o

knackered Nikons, three-day growths and fear and loathing

Wire Cornmunication Equipment

Electronic Components

of Hong Kong

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ffi

Industrial Electronic Products

Cheersl

You

Trade Development Council press releases.

rea y worked hard for this beer ... and the next.

ffi

Agricultural Electronic Instrument and Equipment o Medical Electronic O

Instrument

Computer & Peripheral Equipment

Address: 166 North Zhongshan Road, Nanjing, China Telex: 34724 ELENJ CN Cable: EIEJB Fax: (025) /639124

1LJ L,/ 7

Lr--rr\\ Ef

trlltr Hong KongTrade Development Council

FCC Anniuersary Sþecial 36

391h

Floor, Convention Plaza, 1 Harbour Road, Hong

Kong

Telephone:

H334333

Telex; /3595 COlilHK

HX

Fax: 5,8240249 Cable: CONIOTRAD HONGKONG

WHEN HONG KONG'S MOST RESPECTED PURVEYOR OF LUXURY GOODS LOOKED AROfIND FOR A PUBLIC REIAflONS CONST]LIANT THEY CHOSE CORPORATE COMMTINICAflONS

LI FE STYLE kilometres away. The only hotel is The Gmnd, which is us$19 per night. Amenities, such as running water, [ghts and a fan can cost more. The

food is inedible and warm beer is us$2 a can.

Be sure to bring plenty of I¡motol and bug spray.

-John Giannini

I trust my next survey of Singapore menus does not

cover the canteen at the Whitley Road headquarters of the Internal Security or

THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS' CLUB

the prison fare of Changi jail.

- Derek Daaies

CARD COTTECTIOII

Sydney SYDNEYis an expensive

cþ

and not one designed for vis-

Singapore

iting journalists. There is no

of the

HACKS in search of a Singapore watering hole,

equivalent

whose expenses do not cover the excellent bars available in

Correspondents Association - but they have no premises,

Singapore's three- and fourstar hostelries, should make

FCC

although there is a Foreign

just lunching occasionally together.

Journalists have two basic for Jack's Place or The watering holes - one for Pavilion, Orchard Road (if they have not already partaken of the ritualistic Sling at the run-down but still atmo-

Omega and Tissot watches, Caran d'Ache lighters and pens, Gaston deLagrange cognac, Pierre Balmain watches, Daϡera fine jewellery, Abel Lepitre champagne, Harbour International Business Centre, Ernest-Borel, St. Honore and Georges Claude watches - a pretty broad range of top quality products and Omtis is responsible for all of them.

promotions to advefiising just wasn't enough, they called in Corporate Communications. That was five years ago.

'We've

been together ever since and our Chief Executive wears an Omega.

CREATIVE COMMLIIVCATIONS AT CORPORATE COMMUIVCATIONS LTD.

Corporate Com¡nunications Ltd. 7O4ßast Town Building 41 Lockhart Road, Hong Kong TeL5-28OOO7 Fax:5-8613559

cally, the Fairfax pub is called

speric Raffles). The Island

The Australian (namesake

Republic's puritanism closed down Bugis Streetwhich the

It is on the corner of

tourist people now want to revive elsewhere by blood transfusions and artificial insemination (results still awaited, but visitors should be aware of the consequences of the close-down: transvestites are no longer concentrated in one place, but can be a lure to the undiscerning all over the place).

The top hotels in Singapore

are the well-known names

\Øhen Omtis decided that limiting their

Fairfax and one for Murdoch, of course. Ironi-

-

The Oriental, Mandarin, Shang¡i-I-a, Westin and so

on: their excellentfacilities are still reasonably cheap by inter-

national city standards.

It is difficult to eat badly in

Singapore, which benefits from Chinese, Malay and Indian expertise and general-

ly likes the admixture of chili. On the off-beat trail, hy the vegetable curries at Komala Villas or the fishhead curries atthe Banana I-eaf.

And the hawkerfood is clean and good: all you can eat of prawn steamboat for s$B at

the stalls opposite the

Catholic News centre in Waterloo Road.

of Murdoch's national paper).

Broadway and lMattle Street just across the road from the Sydney Morning Herald.

I¡nchtime and early evening the backbaris crowded with Fairfax hacks and they have their own version of a Friday night "zoo." The Murdoch pub, The Evening Star (known locally as "The Evil Star') is more athactive phys-

ically than the Oz, with a paved garden area. It is in Surrey Hills opposite News

Ltd. Which one

superb watercolour by intemationally renowned artist

you try

depends on who you know or wish to know.

There is something called The Press Club -fullof taxi drivers and poker machines - which makes the Wanchai establishment of the same name look like the Ritz.

Hotels in cenfal Sydney are far more expensive than Hong

Kong. Acouple of reasonable ones, not too far ,out are The Lau¡son ([Iong Kong owrted) in Bulwara Road, llltimo, also

near the Herøld, or The

Shemton Motor Inn at Potts Point (near the evils of Kings

Murray Zanoni

soon available at the Club office Post

Cards

.

HK$ 2.00 each

Christmas Cards (pacþs of 1O witb enuelopes)

HK$30.00 per pack

Folded Card (þacks of 1O witb enuelopes) (suitable for giÍts, thank you notes, inuitations)

HK$30.00 per pack

Christmas and folded card stze: 5,

x 7,

Cross), notto be confusedwith

ORDERS ACCEPTED NOW

!

('anoil

ì

LI FE STYLE the very expensive Shemton

Wentworürinthe

citY.

If in Sydney, you mustgo to Doyles on the beachfor sea food. It is at Watson's Bay and can be reached bY cab or by ferry from Circular

Quay, just by the OPera House. Do not confuse it

with the very inferior Doyles at Circular QuaY, which is a tourist rip off.

There are several good but touristy pubs and restaurants atThe Rocks, the old restored area almost under the bridge on the southern

side of the harbour, and a very nice place for lunch (only) is The Bulletin in Bulletin Place in the financial area just off Pitt Street.

- Mike Malik

Taipei THE firstthing to remember aboutTaipei is, forget about

cheap. While currency

appreciation and inflation have combined to make it at least as expensive as Toþo, this fact is still mostlY unaP preciated by editors and accountants who vet journalists' expense rePorts. Unless you have a very fat exPense account indeed, don't even

think about the half dozen so-called five star hotels.

These will set you back from

us$15G200 a night.

Two alternatives are The

Grand and The Hotel

Golden Palace. The first is justly renowned as an example of Chinese palace architectural kitsch, the second is on the seventh and eighth floors ofan anonymous office building in downtown Taipei.

The Grand has two main

drawing points: nice-sized rooms (without aview) in the

old building cost just

seem to gro\ry on longtime Taipei residents. Those who like loud rock n'roll bands occcasionally even a good one - might check out The Farmhouse, just down the alley from Sam's.

Many lovers of Chinese

cuisine consider Taipei to offer better eating than Hong

Kong, China, or the main overseas Chinatowns. Two places to start might be

under us$100; and secondly, for the athletically

Peng Yuan at 380 Linsen North Road, for Hunanese

food, and for

generallY

under-appreciated

Taiwanese cuisines, Chi Chia Chuang near the corner of Chang Chun and Linsen North roads. Or if you really want EuroPean food, go to Zumfass, where you're sure to get good - but not cheap

-

Swiss treats.

Congratulations to

inclined, you get free use of a beautiful

The Foreign Correspondents' Club on its 40th anniversary from

Olympic-sized swimming pool and tennis courts. The Hotel Golden Palacemaybe

ü1fiila\fl

a good choice for people who just want a cheap,

clean room. \Mhen last

visited earlier this year, itwas charging aboutus $40 a nisht to its clientele of mostly Japanese businessmen.

Taipei's main "comclubs,

bat zone" of

pubs, and dives is locat-

ed on Shuang Cheng street, near The President Hotel.

Hardcore drinkers might try Sam's Bar; while utterly lacking in atmosphere, its charms

1-11 Au PuiWan Street, Fo-Tan, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong' Tel: 0-6996213 Tlx: 40863 SIMS HX Fax: (852) 0-6917199

Congratulations to The Foreign CorresPondents' Club on its 4oth anniversary from WIT,S¡ON MEAT CO., LTD FROZEN MEAT DEALER Lane, Gr, Fl. (Next to Central Market) Tit Hong 6 Hong Kong Tel: 5-455O62, Tel: 5-451c067 ' 5-412624

alasting impression.

Photographers, Iike fishermen, love to talk about "the big one that got away." But with the Canon EOS 630, there's no excuse for letting great pictures escape because the autofocus is faster and more accurate than ever So when photo opportunities knock, you'll be ready to grab every one of them.

The built-in motor drive lets you bang off up to five frames a second. With that kind of speed, you can catch the instant-by-instant sequence of a fast-breaking event or the subtle changes of expression on a subject's face.

The EOS 630 also has Programmed Image Control for prearranging great shots, 6-zone evaluative metering, Custom Function Control, and a fully integrated fÌash system that automatically handles any lighting situation The Canon EOS 630: The quickest way to take pictures that will be long remembered.

Which member of the EOS family of fine cameras is the right one for you?

Canon

eo5 630

BOOK THE YEAR'S BEST OF HONG HISTORIC POSTCARDS

Cðmera body av¿ilåble in black ånd/or metallic grey, depending on

country

EOS 630 is called EOS 600

in Europe, lhe i\'liddle

East and Àfrica

A SUPERB CHRISTMAS GIFT. PRODUCED BY

eoS650

MEMBERS OF

THE

F.C.C.

FROM THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF

ARTHUR HACKER M.B.E.

DISCOUNT PRICES FOR F.C.C. MEMBERS. AVATLABLE FROM THE CLUB'S

Autofocus, Depth-of-Field AE for easy control, and a host of other features for uncompromising creativity.

eo.s750

Built-in, auto-retract flash that pops up whenever you need it.

eos aso

Quality photography at its

simplest. Offers the same features as the EOS 750, without the builrin flash.

FRONT DESK OR DIRECTLY FROM ROSANNA K\{'OK AT THE STOCK HOUSE PRODUCTIONS LTD. TEL. 5-8I07878.

CANON lNC.: PO Box 5050, Shinjuku Dai-¡ch¡ Se¡mei Bldg, Tokyo 163, Japan CANON HONG KONG TRADING CO., LTo.: Boom.l101-3 & 1121-2, Peninsula Centre,67 lvlody Fìoad, Ts¡mshatsui East, Kowloon, Hong Kong

D6ryfeÆÊ? HA! You S€¿g Auff'lr

Cynics and salesmen don't usually mix.

But at Duty Free Shoppers Internarional they do!

Even the toughest of them all can't say no to a wide range of brand name merchandise that is tax free*, with worldwide guarantees that make shopping risk free, at conveniently located stores that make the whole experience worry free!

So the next time you're travelling to or from of Hong Kong, drop by a DFS International store.

Just...feel free!

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lp6 Ir.¡ Ttrl S

Visit any of these Duty Free Shoppers International Shops: o Chinachem Golden Plaza,77 Mody Road, Tsimshatsui East. o Hankow Centre, 1/F, Hankow Road, Tsimshatsui.

.

China Hong Kong City,'1./F,33 Canton Road, Tsimshatsui. o Ocean Centre, 2120B., Ocean Grminal, Kowloon. o Hong Kong International Airport.

Duty Free Shopperc International Limited WE GUARANTEE OUR MERCHANDISE WORLDWIDE

*

The only merchandise offered for sale at our outlets in Hong Kong wh¡ch ¡ l¡able to duty in Hong Kong ß Liquo¡ Tòbacco and Cosmetics.

Duty on this merchøndise has been paid except where sold under bonded arrangemenß.