by Pacific War Uncensored: A War Correspondent's Unvarnished Account of the Fight Against Japan
So my working day now consisted of the following jobs: in the morning I was a private tutor; afternoon an advertising manager; evenings I was a stock broker’s “contact man.” There was also a Portuguese man working in the stockbroker office, and a Chinese man called Mr. Yip. I found the stockbroker job to be very interesting. I processed transactions via telephone or cable on the New York stock exchange, and informed customers of the price at which shares had been bought and sold. The job also put me in contact with some very wealthy people whose transactions would quite often involve tens of thousands of pounds, especially if they were dealing in commodities. It also gave me an insight into how the world of finance worked, at a time when there were a lot of countries coming out of financial depression.
I was less concerned over work and my prospects now, and I thought that the position with the stockbroker was something I could continue with when we returned to Britain. Everything seemed to be going well, and we even decided to buy our first car. One of the main reasons for wanting a car was that we liked to go and visit an area in the south of Hong Kong called Repulse Bay. It was a beautiful setting, where we owned a bamboo beach hut known as a matshed. It would have been possible to get there by bus, but it was awkward when we had all our things to carry and a small baby. I needed to learn to drive a car, and in 1933 Hong Kong you were required to take a driving test, even though this had not yet been introduced to the United Kingdom. On my first attempt I failed, but was very pleased when I managed to pass the second time around. Driving in Hong Kong was not that easy, as it is a peak 1,400 feet high, and most of the roads were steep, narrow, and winding. We used to load the car up with a picnic, and go over to Repulse Bay and the New Territories at every available opportunity.
I was becoming more interested in the stockbroker business, and the factors that made the market fluctuate. At this time the British Government was trying to raise money by issuing bonds. The American stock brokers found these difficult to understand, and gave me the responsibility to find out more about them. I went to interview various bank managers and financiers to get information about the bonds, and then started dealing with all enquiries and transactions relating to them back in the office. As a result, my profile within the business increased, and my efforts in dealing with these English bonds helped to increase business for the brokers. Once more my interest in how the stock market fluctuated grew, and I thought that it would be a good idea if we recorded them in a chart or graph and published it in a newsletter that we could give to our clients.
I suggested this to Mr. Simon, and he was very much in favour of the idea. On reflection, this was one of the most audacious things that I had ever done in my life: here I was, an ex-naval engineer, with relatively little experience of the financial world, commenting on the fluctuations that took place on the New York Stock Exchange. I began producing the newsletter on Sunday evenings, using just pen and paper. I would then present my work to Mr. Simon for approval, and then the newsletter would be printed and sent to bankers, brokers, and businesses. The newsletter was a big success, and it seemed to me quite incredible that I was writing about the world of finance, and that my findings were not only being accepted, but also praised.
The newsletter also attracted the attention of The South China Morning Post, whose editor came to visit Swan, Culbertson and Fritz, and asked whether it would be possible to reproduce the news letter in their paper. Mr. Simon was more than happy for this to happen, as it would provide good publicity for the firm. So the newsletter appeared as a regular feature in the paper, receiving a great deal of attention from many people including John Morris, who was the Far Eastern Manager of the United Press Association. He wrote to our firm and asked if I could do some work for the United Press. Mr. Simon told me about the inquiry, and I was very keen to give it a go, as I could see that further career prospects might stem from it. John Morris then came to our offices to meet me, and explained that the United Press was a news agency that collected news from all over the world and at that time they were particularly interested in financial news. To my surprise, he asked me if I would open a United Press office in Hong Kong. This obviously came as a bit of a shock to me. His proposal was more substantial than I had anticipated and I needed to make a decision over what to do, because Marie was due to go back to Britain. It was now 1934 and she had finished her three-year tour of duty. I felt that there would be more opportunities for me in the future if I started working for United Press, rather than just pursuing the work of a stockbroker. In the end we decided that Marie would return home with Patricia, and I would stay in Hong Kong.
Marie and Pat outside their bamboo matshed in Repulse Bay, Hong Kong. Author collection
John Morris did not stay too long in Hong Kong, and I was left to get the United Press office established by myself. I approached Ben Wylie, General Manager of The South China Morning Post, with whom I had had some dealings while working for the advertising agency, to get advice and also to see if he would let me have an office within his premises. He agreed to let me have a desk in their newsroom, so I purchased various pieces of equipment including a typewriter, mimeograph machine, and stencils for duplicating news bulletins. I had hardly used a typewriter before, and spent many hours practising, mainly with two fingers, trying to increase my speed. I also spent some time visiting other newspapers in Hong Kong to introduce the services that could be provided by the United Press.
Repulse Bay, Hong Kong, the scene of many happy times for Harold, Marie and Pat before the Japanese invasion in 1941. Author collection
In January 1935 the office was ready to start operating. My first assignment was posted to me from New York, which was to report on the imminent birth of a baby to the wife of the American Council General, Mrs. Helen Spiker, who was also a famous socialite. The United Press was keen to report on the birth. Even though it was not the type of news story they would normally cover, they were hoping to become a client of The Washington Post and wanted to impress them with the speed of their service. Mrs. Spiker lived in Canton, which was over 100 miles away from Hong Kong and too far for me to travel from the office to report on the story. So I got in contact with the midwife who was looking after Mrs. Spiker, and asked her if she would call me as soon as the baby was born and give me the details. The midwife kept her word and phoned in the early hours of the morning after the birth. I then got immediately on the phone to the cable office and dictated my first news story:
Helen. Wife of C.J. Spiker American Council General.
Gave birth to baby son 7lb both well.
I felt confident that I had been first with the story, and was quite pleased with my work. Two weeks later I got a letter from United Press in New York, which said that I would be gratified to know that I was five days ahead of our opposition, Reuters and The Associated Press, with releasing the story. However, they also told me that my cable was too long, and as a result cost far too much. They suggested that my cable could have been shortened. First, by not naming the American Council General’s wife or stating to whom she was married, as they had already informed me of these facts. They also said that there was no need to describe the event as a birth of a baby, which was self-explanatory. If Mrs. Spiker had given birth to a 21-year-old son, that would have been news! They suggested that the cable could have read … Spiker birthed son. This was my first lesson in what was known in the newspaper world as cabelese.
The United Press also wanted me to get a radio transmitting service set up, so that we did not have to rely on communicating just by cable, which was something that added to their costs. There was, however, a problem with establishing a reception for radio transmission, because Hong Kong was surrounded by hills. It would have been better if maybe the radio station was established at the top of the peak, but this was quite a long way out of the city and was inconvenient. I had an idea, though, as to how this problem could be overcome: if there was a radio station outside of Hong Kong, then signals from it could be received there and then tr
ansmitted onto us. I researched this possibility, and found a station that was based in Macao, which is a small peninsula 30 miles south of Hong Kong under Portuguese ownership. I met with the Post Master General there, a Señor Martin, who was a very jolly man with a weakness for wine and gambling.
At first he only seemed interested in these latter activities, and it took me two days of drinking wine and playing fan-tan, a game using bamboo sticks, before we eventually got round to talking about the radio trans mission. However, an arrangement was eventually established where radio transmissions would be received in Macao, and then transmitted onto Hong Kong via the telephone system. To my surprise, I also found that every month Señor Martin would send me a cheque for $1,200. I later found out that this was because the news that was being received in Macao was of great use to him, as it contained details regarding the commodities markets in advance of everyone else, which he could then use to his advantage.
Eventually though, we were able to establish our own radio station, and an engineer called George Baxter, who was an expert in radio transmission, erected an aerial on top of the building housing The South China Morning Post. He was also able to copy the news via Morse code at a rate of 72 words per minute, so that we had up-to-date news at our fingertips. The radio station really helped to establish the United Press office, because it put us way ahead of our rivals with the news. Financial news was of particular interest to many bankers and businessmen in Hong Kong, the importance of which was increased as President Roosevelt began making changes to the American economy.
My work at the newspaper also brought me into contact with many interesting and famous people who visited Hong Kong. These included: playwright and composer Noel Coward; famous actors such as Douglas Fairbanks Senior and Carol Lombard; and playwright and author George Bernard Shaw. One of the most memorable persons I met, however, was Charlie Chaplin, who came to Hong Kong when his film Modern Times was released. I was shocked when I received a cable from New York, stating that there had been reports that Charlie Chaplin had died in the Far East, and asking if I knew anything about the story. I investigated this, and found out that Charlie Chaplin had already left Hong Kong and gone to Indo-China. So I sent Chaplin a telegram simply saying “Are you dead? If not please reply to this telegram.” Eventually I got a most amusing reply from him saying “No! Not yet! Are you?” Charlie Chaplin later returned to Hong Kong, and I had the opportunity to speak to him again at a party. I remember saying to him that Hitler had copied his style of moustache, and he agreed and said jokingly that he should do something about it. In subsequent years I have often wondered whether this conversation may have started his inspiration for the film The Great Dictator.
The Hong Kong UP Bureau on the 2nd floor of the South China Morning Post Building in 1937. From right to left: George Baxter, Hung Chiu (office assistant), Harold Guard and Lai Shau-shek (overnight editor). Lai became a correspondent for Ta-Kung-Pao, one of the largest newspapers in China after the Second World War. Author collection
CHAPTER THREE
Pre-War Hong Kong
In 1936 there was a great deal of unrest in the world. Italy had invaded Ethiopia and Hitler had come to power in Germany. There was civil war in Spain as well as unrest in China and Japan, and as a result our office was extremely busy managing all the news as it came in about these events. In Hong Kong at this time there were many different nationalities, including Germans, Japanese, and Chinese, and I was approached by an inspector from the Special Branch, called Shannon, who asked me to pass on any information that may come my way about these various factions that I thought might be suspicious. With my newspaper connections I was able to go into the German Club in Hong Kong, and mingle amongst its members in order to build up a dossier on people who may be Nazi sympathisers. One of these people was a man called Martin Hesse, who apparently was the brother of Rudolph Hesse, Hitler’s deputy. I also observed the Japanese community and helped identify an influential spy called Ohura. He was a Japanese colonel posing as a civilian, and monitoring things such as military installations and water supplies, which would be of help in the event of a military invasion.
President Roosevelt’s new monetary policies were having a great effect on the business markets in Hong Kong. Normally the dollar at this time was worth two shillings, but it would fluctuate and sometimes go as high as three shillings, and then as low as eleven pence. Eventually the government decided to act, and they called a meeting of the “Big Five Banks,” which included The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, The Bank of China, The First National City Bank, The Chartered Bank and The Mercantile Bank, although they did not invite The Chase Bank. The vice president of The Chase Bank was David Bigger, who was very upset about not being included in the Big Five. I met with him, and he was very disparaging about the Big Five and told me that he knew already what they were going to discuss. He told me that the government was going to withdraw all the silver dollars and issue a paper currency, that the currency would be printed by Walter Lowe and Company in Britain, and that it would be brought out to Hong Kong on a P&O ship called the Royal Pindy and arrive sometime in October. He also added that the value of the dollar would be fixed at one shilling and three pence, and that I could print everything he had told me as long as I did not reveal the source.
So I printed the story that the value of the Hong Kong dollar was going to be fixed at one shilling and three pence, and that the Chinese silver dollar was going to be withdrawn. This story created a lot of unrest, as the value of some people’s sterling holdings in Hong Kong would be halved. The chairman of the Big Five Banks immediately denied that the story was true, and I came under a great deal of pressure to either retract the story or reveal my source of information. David Bigger told me to stick to the story, because he said that in the end it would turn out to be true. Weeks and months went by before the silver dollar was eventually withdrawn, and the price of the new paper-based currency was fixed. It was of great relief to me, as I thought that I might get fired over the incident.
The other very big story in 1936 was the story of King Edward VIII, who had succeeded King George V, and had had an affair with an American woman named Mrs. Simpson. These happenings had not been reported in the British press at all, and there had been nothing in the Reuters news about it, but because the United Press was an American news agency they had reports on the whole affair. In fact, the story was first broken by a United Press reporter named Tosty Russell, who had found out that Mrs. Simpson was being divorced from her husband in a small town in Suffolk, England called Ipswich. The story was printed in The South China Morning Post and caused a great deal of controversy, and many people were critical of me and the United Press for revealing it. Finally the abdication of King Edward VIII took place and the United Press was vindicated—its reputation was enhanced and business was increased in the office. The manager of The South China Morning Post, a Scotsman called Ben Wylie, saw the potential of the United Press services, and asked me if our services could be made exclusive to him. I agreed to do this, providing that the subscription fee was increased by five pounds.
I was now becoming well established within the newspaper industry in Hong Kong, and one day was asked by Ben Wylie, the general manager of the Hong Kong Telegraph, if I would temporarily manage his newspaper for him. Ben was a good client of ours; at the time he had a staff shortage because of an employee that had been sent home to England for a serious surgical operation. I agreed to the arrangement while also continuing with my existing job at the United Press, who at that time were selling what they called a “feature service” to newspapers. So, as the manager of the United Press, I wrote to the manager of the Hong Kong Telegraph, which was myself, with the proposition of the “feature service.” Then, as the manager of the Hong Kong Telegraph, I wrote a letter back to the manager of the United Press office, arranging a meeting with myself. Then to clinch the deal I had to go to Ben Wylie, the general manager of the Hong Kong Telegraph, to get his approval. I told him that
I had received a letter from the United Press office in Hong Kong, offering a “feature service” for the newspaper, and that I thought that it seemed like a good idea. He asked if I had managed to negotiate the price down with the United Press, and I said that I had made a good arrangement, and then comically the deal went through.
I did at times, though, get disillusioned with the autocracy of government, and the attitudes of society in Hong Kong. So in order to poke fun, I created a character called Herbert Higgs, who had a weekly column in the Hong Kong Telegraph. His column was headed, “Herbert Higgs in His Own Write.” The editor told me later that the Herbert Higgs column actually put the sales up, and that it was very popular. Herbert Higgs’s popularity was lasting, and I was asked again to write under the pseudo name in 1953, when I was more complementary, saying how safe it felt now in Hong Kong. This story got splashed on the front page of the Hong Kong Telegraph and the next day the whole of the edition had sold out. As a result, the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Mark Young, sent for me, and received me very well, thanking me for writing the column.
Another news item that I investigated was the drugs trade in Hong Kong. My interest in this had been prompted through an American friend called Arthur Campbell, who was an official at the United States Treasury, appointed to the Far East as part of the anti-narcotics team. He was a very jolly companion, but also a very astute and clever detective. Through him I managed to get a deep insight into the trade of drugs, and wrote a number of stories about it. I remember that there was a famous biscuit manufacturer in Hong Kong who made a thin wafer-like biscuit that was sold in very attractive decorated tins. These were exported to the USA, and through Arthur Campbell’s investigations it was revealed that some of the tins contained cocaine. This was worth a great deal of money, because at that time cocaine was selling at $700 per ounce in the USA. There was another firm that was exporting linen blankets to San Francisco. It was discovered by the narcotics team that when the blankets reached their destination, they were taken away and boiled, and the distilled water was found to contain huge amounts of cocaine. The drug trade itself built up a countertrade, where informers on the drug trade received huge rewards, and if a seizure was made in a drugs raid they would get a third of the value of the haul. It was very interesting for me to see how the criminal fraternity operated in Hong Kong.
