Evening star., 1938-08-07
WARTIME GLAM0R
FILLS HONG KONG
British Colony 0verrunning
With Rumors, Refugees
and Arms Vendors.
By ELMER w. PETERSON.

HNSoANs
Associated Press Foreign Correspondent.
HONG KONG.-1t may have been
staid British colony, and in some
ways 1t still is. but the Sino-Japanese
War has had its effect on Hong Kong.
The old-timers have good reason to
rub their eyes and wonder and re-
mark over their whiskies and sodas
that things have changed.
For the events Of the past year have
given Hong Kong a touch of fever, q
dash of glamor. generous dose Of
anxiety and general air of hullabaloo
and mystery and excitement that
knocks the staid British idea for a
loop. to put it mildly.
Hong Kong today is packed with
rumors and rumor- r-mongers. with war
refugees and wealthy Chinese, with
airplane statesmen, munitions statesmen,
adventurers and adventuresses, with
spies-and what else have you.
Doorway for Chinese Arms.
It has been-and is-the doorway
for Chinese military supplies. 1t has
prospered commercially and yet fears
for its economic future. 1t carries on
with the British colonial traditions.
and yet the hotel lobbies are filled
with as strange an assortment of peO-
pie as can be encountered anywhere.
In the dead of night you may 60
out and see caravans of trucks and
supplies going into China. In the
harbor you may see Chinese fishing
tunks which have been damaged by
Japanese warships
You may sit in the Hong Kong hotel
and hear more rumors per minute than
you believed possible.
There's man right behind you-
but don't look now-who they say is
the bodyguard to wealthy and i'm
portant Chinese. An American, they
say, and a crack shot with revolver
Tosses up ping-pong balls and cracks
them of with a gun in each hand, so
they say"
80 They Say" Stock Phrase.
So they say-it's the stock phrase in
Hong Kong nowadays, and it covers
about everything the imagination can
rake up. It's added on to statements
that Hong Kong today has l6-inch
guns mounted somewhere. It's tied on,
as a careful afterthought, to informa-
ton of every description.
And Hong Kong is gay about it all.
~ h1t ID until
! am. before the orchestra breaks
out with God Save the King" in
stead of midnight
Young Chinese are more numerous
among the dancers at the really
swanky tea and dinner dances than
are the foreigners. Hong Kong today
Is q refuge for the Chinese with money.
There are dozens of Westernized young
Chinese who speak only English, who
spend money freely and whose main
purpose in life seems to be that Of
enjoying themselves.
The position of the japanese who
remain on this hilly island. developed
with British money and now strewn
with British barbed wire, machine
gun nests and big guns, isn't any too
enviable.
500 japanese Remain.
There were about $500 japanese;
now there are 500 at the most. They
live In 4 city which is essentially
Chinese and where the public senti-
ment is essentially anti-Japanese.
They are seldom seen around the big
hotels.
But you can still be invited to a
Japanese restaurant to dine on
japanese food and be entertained by
Japanese geisha girls, and be driven
to the restaurant by Chinese taxi
driver whose family may have suffered
through the bombings Of Canton.
It's all a part of wartime Hong
Kong, located at the very edge Of the
war and yet not part Of it. Not yet,
anyway.
over there to your left-but don't
look now-is chap who has just sold
q big consignment of munitions to the
Chinese. The chap with the beard.
He's made a mint of money out here.
So they say