Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
A Different Drumbeat
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Background Information
for
A DIFFERENT DRUMBEAT
RAY MOORE
2013
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 MAP OF CHINA.................................................................................................................6
2 ALFRED ANDREWS WW1 SERVICE RECORD....................................................... 7
3 EYEWITNESS REPORTS OF THE DEC 1920 QUAKE.......................................... 12
4 WHERE THE MOUNTAINS WALKED ARTICLE................................................... 14
A Moslem Fanatic And His Followers Sealed In A Cave................................ 16
A Highway Rides On The Crest Of The Quake..................................... 17
Seven Great Slides Crash Through The Valley Of The Dead......... 18
The Chinese Dragon Waggles His Tail Every Third Century.........................20
"The Footsteps Of The Gods"............................................................................. 22
News Of The Disaster Long Delayed.................................................................23
In The District Where "The Mountains Walked"............................................... 29
The Climax Of Desolation.................................................................................... 30
The First Shock Came At 9:30 In The Evening................................................ 30
Three Lakes Are Formed..................................................................................... 32
Why The Chinese Consider The Calamity A Blessing.................................... 34
All Cave Dwellings Collapsed............................................................................. 34
5 SOME PAGES FROM GFAS 1921 DIARY............................................................... 35
7 THE SWEDISH CROWN PRINCES LETTER...........................................................51
8 ABBOT LOW MOFFATS 1962 LETTER TO GFA ...................................................52
9 REPORTS & APPRECIATION FOR CAPTAIN BAKERS RELEASE................... 57
10 OTHER INTERESTING LETTERS...............................................................................60
Meyrick Howlett. British Consul General........................................................... 61
Pearl Buck.............................................................................................................. 61
General Wavell...................................................................................................... 62
C J Hames. British Foreign Office...................................................................... 63
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12
13
14
1911 REVOLUTION..................................................................................................... 83
15
16
FREDERICK BALLER................................................................................................. 86
17
MAYBETH JUDD.......................................................................................................... 87
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MAP OF CHINA
MAP OF CHINA
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MOUNTAINS that moved in the night; landslides that eddied like waterfalls,
crevasses that swallowed houses and camel trains, and villages that were swept
away under a rising sea of loose earth, were a few of the subsidiary occurrences
that made the earthquake in Kansu one of the most appalling catastrophes in
history.
Though the tremendous shaking-up occurred in December, 1920, the story is only
now beginning to spread beyond the narrow defiles which guard the entrance to
Kansu Province. It is, perhaps, the most poorly advertised calamity that has
occurred in modern times.
Though Kansu is within telegraphic reach of the rest of the world, the details of the
disaster have never come over the wires. The native population was too stunned
and the few foreign residents were too busy in relief work to give any description
of the dancing mountains and vanishing valleys.
Mr. Josef W. Hall (Upton Close) , who visited the earthquake area under the
auspices of the International Famine Relief Committee, has brought back one of
the first accounts of the devastated country and the strange things that happen
when the earth turns itself into a contortionist.
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The area of destruction, 100 by 300 miles in extent, contains ten large cities,
besides numerous villages. In it is the heart of the so-called loess country, where
the soil is a mixture of clay and powdered quartz. A narrower region was
comprised in the landslide district, where the loose earth cascaded down the
valleys and buried every object in its path.
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By some miracle, the watchman at the entrance to the cave escaped with his life,
but the others were buried so deeply that, despite months of digging over an
area of a mile, the Moslems have failed to recover the bodies of their leaders.
A Highway Rides On The Crest Of The Quake
In another district Mr. Hall and his party found that a whole mountain topped by a
temple had slid into a valley. A little beyond they found that a road bordered by
poplar trees had ridden the crest of a slide for three-quarters of a mile, without
apparent damage to the trees or even to the birds' nests in their branches. One
astonished peasant looked out of his window in the morning to find that a high hill
had moved onto the homestead, stopping its line of march within a few feet of his
hut.
In another village the only people left alive were a couple over seventy years old.
They were saved from death only by the fact that their children, displaying a
strange lack of filial piety, had sent
them to live in a house on the outskirts of the
clan village which was buried by an avalanche. The death of their descend- ants
was taken as evidence, by survivors in the neighborhood, that Heaven had
punished the family for its lack of filial respect.
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The most appalling sight of all was the Valley of the Dead, where seven great
slides crashed into a gap in the hills three miles long, killing every living thing in
the area except three men and two dogs.
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The survivors were carried across the valley on the crest of the avalanche, caught
in the cross- current of two other slides, whirled in a gigantic vortex, and
catapulted to the slope of another hill. With them went house, orchard, and
threshing-floor, and the farmer has since placidly begun to till the new location to
which he was so unceremoniously transported.
In a small town on the highway two strangers had put up at the inn on the evening
of the disaster. In the terror and confusion that followed the earthquake, the
landlord completely forgot his two guests. It was not until several days later that he
remembered them, and when, after considerable digging, their room was brought
to light, both men were found alive. Stupefied by the shock, they knew nothing of
what happened and imagined that they had slept through an ordinary night. The
landlord, however, in spite of remonstrances, did not neglect to collect room rent for
the full period of their stay.
One of the districts that has suffered most is the tableland to the north known as the
bunch-grass country, which supplies the camel crop for practically all of Asia. The
soil is an unyielding alkali, which cracked appallingly, since there was no loess
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cushion to mitigate
the force of the
shock. In one town
with a normal
population of several
hundred the
investigators found
only twenty or thirty
survivors.
The loss of nearly
two hundred
thousand lives and
the total destruction
of hundreds of
towns and cities
calls for
reconstruction work
on a staggering
scale. Seven
thousand men have
been employed by the United
International Famine Relief
Society in releasing dammed
streams and thus preventing
disastrous overflows. Their work
and that of their brave foreign
superintendents, now nearing
successful completion, is a
romance of adventure in itself.
Fortunately, there is no orphan
problem, as children in the
devastated districts were so much
in demand that they were
promptly adopted by the survivors.
In Kansu, as in most pioneer
countries, men are so much in
the majority that women are highly
valued. The usual price for a wife
ranges from 100 to 300 taels, and,
as a result, girl babies are adopted
as eagerly as boys.
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Mongolia on the north and east and the Kokonor region of Tibet and Sinkiang
province of Chinese Turkestan on the south and west. It is a country of extreme
ethnographical and religious interest, being the meeting and mixing place of
Buddhist Tibetans and Mongolians, Mohammedan Chinese containing a
Caucasian strain, and the ordinary Chinese of the ''big-church.''
Had the quake disaster struck several hundred miles to the north, west, or south,
the loss of life would have been negligible. As it happened, it selected for
destruction, in the asrriculturallv rich, terraced loess country of the southern half of
the affected area, the most populous portion of the province; and to the north,
although this part is principally uninhabited grazing land, several of the largest
Mohammedan Chinese cities, which were leveled.
Although the density of population is not more than one-tenth that of Shantung or
the East China plain, the loss of life from landslides, collapsed cave homes, and
falling buildings, together with death from exposure of the unsheltered in midwinter
in this high altitude, was, according to official figures, 200,000, and according to
the estimate of the foreign investigators more than half this number.
The reverend John D. Hayes, of the United International Famine Relief Committee,
Peking, and Air. Hall, leaving the Kwanyintang, Honan, railhead on March 6,
1921, took the ancient royal highway through Shensi to Kansu. crossing the
Kansu border near Kingchow and proceeding directly to Pingliang, the great trade
mart of the western half of the province.
The first damage done by earthquake was found to be among the ancient tablets of
Hwa Yin Temple, lying under the shadow of sacred Hwa Mountain, not far beyond
the Honan border.
In Sianfu, the capital of Shensi, some damage was done to houses, but there was
no loss of life. Lesser destruction was wrought in spots between Sianfu and
Pingliang.
In the vicinity of Tsingning and Pingliang, five to six thousand feet above sea-level,
cave-dwellings in the loess cliffs collapsed, causing great loss of life among the
peasants, who principally inhabit this style of home. Cattle, horses, and herds,
stabled and folded in caves, were buried alive.
Passing Pingliang, the investigators found themselves in the belt of complete
destruction, where cities as well as peasant villages suffered heavy loss of life and
all buildings were leveled.
At Wating, where the highway forks, one road going north to Kuyuan and the
Mohammedan region along the Yellow River and the other west to Lanchowfu and
Turkestan, we obtained our first photographs of a ruined city. Taking the road to
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the provincial capital (Lanchowfu), we soon ascended Six Plate Mountain. With the
elevation, evidence of seismic disturbance grew less, to become again abundant
when the loess foothills of the west descent were reached.
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from the line of road following the side hill, swept hundreds of yards over the
stream-bed, and set, intact, upon an angle on top of the heap of loose loess.
(Page 18) It took weeks to re-establish communications over these breakages to rebuild telegraph lines and pack down trails on which horses would not sink to
their bellies and carts to their hubs.
Three Lakes Are Formed
The valley of desolation opened at its western end into a wider, more gradual valley
of horseshoe shape, through which we semicircled to the south upon our return to
Tsingning. At the junction of the valleys stands Swen Family Gap, a town of several
thousand souls, in which one-tenth were killed by collapse of buildings and cave
dwellings ; and the other nine- tenths were saved by the miraculous stoppage of
two bodies of earth shaken loose from another hill and left hanging above the
village, lacking only another half - second's tremor to send them down. A third
avalanche, having flowed from the hills on the opposite side of the valley across the
valley floor and the stream-bed, is piled up in a young mountain near enough to the
village to overshadow the wall.
Our route through this larger valley led us past three lakes formed through the
blocking of the stream by five enormous slides. Some of the scooped-out places
left by these slides were half a mile in width at the mouth, extended back into the
hills for a mile, and furnished enough dirt to cover several square miles of valley
floor. Some were as regular as if they had been made with a gigantic trowel, while
others were as ragged as if they had been ripped out of the hills by the teeth of
some monster.
In each case the earth which came down bore the appearance of having shaken
loose clod from clod and grain from grain, and then cascaded like water, forming
vortices, swirls, and all the convolutions into which a torrent might shape itself.
One of these slides pouring down upon a village had buried every building except
one inhabited by the old progenitors of the clan. This lone patriarchal home stood
on the outskirts and was half covered. Hay and grain were mingled and mixed with
the earth over a distance of half a mile, showing how the dirt had "worked" in its
descent. On the opposite side of this slide a threshing- floor carrying several stacks,
and an apricot orchard, had come down intact.
The cattle had been so caught in the slide that their limbs or heads protruded, and
these had been cleaned by the packs of dogs which roamed the country. Ridgepoles of dwellings turned to sepulchers showed above the ground.
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Two slides causing the lowest of these blockades, coming from the sides of the
valley, buried a village of several hundred persons, converted a shapely, high loess
butte into a ragged mound, and created several miles of lake out of rich valley
farms.
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toward the release of the dammed-up waters. Their efforts, upon recommendation
of the expedition, were incorporated in the work of the relief societies.
Why The Chinese Consider The Calamity A Blessing
Conditions in a score of small valleys in the Tsingning and Hweining
neighborhoods arc similar to those in the three here described. There is probably
no other area, however, where within a half- circle of twenty miles' diameter one
may count seventeen immense landslides.
A hundred miles farther west, near Hweining, a bad slide district exists, and some
sixty miles north of Tsingning three bad slides occurred, one of which is
responsible for the dramatic incident of the burial of Ma the Benevolent, radical
Mohammedan leader, while in a cave-mosque with his retainers for the purpose of
consecrating his proposed Jihad against the non-Mohammedan Chinese
It is this incident which gives the Chinese cause to rate tke earthquake as a
blessing, for their experience of fifty years ago taught them that while ''Heaven
slays its hundreds, the Moslems
massacre their ten thousands." The damage done to the Mohammedan
settlements is in general more severe than that suffered by the Chinese farther
south.
All Cave Dwellings Collapsed
Leaving the Tsingning area, we traveled many miles north to Kuyuan, the largest of
the ruined cities and one-time seat of the imperial resident, beyond which we
trekked through the hardest shaken section of all. Here the friable loess gives way
to the brittle clay-gravel-alkali bunch-grass country, which was too solid to slide,
but which cracked like a porcelain dish hit with an immense weight. Cavedwellings without exception gave way, not one mud brick remained upon another.
Even city walls collapsed, as in Heh Cheng-tze (Black City) and Hai- cheng.
Nine-tenths of the people of this district were in mourning when we arrived, and
there were many new Moslem graveyards. In one cave-village of eighty
inhabitants, sixty were entombed, but half were dug out alive by the remaining
twenty. In another town, Yang Loh-chwang, 80 per cent of the residents perished.
The remaining townsmen lacked even the heart to bury the dead animals pulled
out of the debris, and at the time of our visit three months later, carcasses of
human and animal victims still lay rotting together in the streets.
Such were the scenes of desolation which met our eyes until we emerged suddenly
upon the bank of the Yellow River, irrigated and made attractively fecund by the
enterprising Mohammedans.
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Here evidences of the disaster vanished as abruptly as they had appeared at the
Kansu border.
Note: Although this article is out of copyright, we still sought and obtained the
permission of the National Geographic Society to use it. For this we thank them.
Return to Table of Contents
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Note: At the end of many of GFAs diary entries, he notes how far he has
travelled in that day e.g. 60 li.
One Chinese li = 500 metres (half a
kilometer or about 1/3 of a mile)
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matter in hand and who support Prof. Anderssons work I should like to express my very deep
gratitude to you for all your very valuable assistance. It is indeed most kind of you and we are
indebted to you for your help.
Will you accept my photograph, which I am enclosing, as a very small memento of your kind
collaboration with us?
With warmest thanks
Believe me
Yours very truly
(signed)
Crown Prince of Sweden
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By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ
Published: April 23, 1996
Abbot Low Moffat, a powerful New York State
legislator during the Depression who in a second
career as a diplomat warned against American
involvement in Vietnam, died on Wednesday at a
retirement home in Hightstown, N.J. He was 94.
The cause was cancer, his family said.
In a career that spanned much of the century, Mr.
Abbot was chairman of the State Assembly's powerful
Ways and Means Committee during the 1930's,
helped run the Marshall Plan in Europe during the
1940's and served as chief of the Southeast Asian
affairs division in the United States Department of
State during the 1940's.
As a legislator from the 15th Assembly District in
Manhattan, he controlled every piece of legislation that
affected New York City. He was the first to propose
building a multilane highway from Manhattan to Buffalo
that later became the New York State Thruway. He
also wrote a report that served as the basis for major
revisions in the New York City Charter in the 1940's.
Mr. Moffat's influence was felt well beyond Albany. As a diplomat, he helped mold
United States policy toward newly independent nations in Southeast Asia after World
War II. He warned repeatedly about a surge of nationalism in regions like Indochina.
And he strongly disapproved of the United States' growing involvement in Vietnam.
Abbot Low Moffat was born on the Upper East Side on May 12, 1901. He graduated
from the Groton school in Manhattan, and received a bachelor's degree from
Harvard in 1923 and then a law degree from Columbia University.
As a young man, he traveled the world with a sense of adventure. He rode for 25
days in a cart through Indochina, accompanied by a Chinese boy and a Russian
refugee. From Australia, he stowed away on a freighter bound for the Panama Canal.
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As head of the State Department's Division of South-East Asia Affairs from 1944 to
1947, he expressed great concern about the hard line the United States had taken in
confronting nationalist movements like the one Ho Chi Minh was leading in Vietnam.
"I was bitterly disappointed," he said years later. "But the die was cast. We were
going to follow a hard line on Communism wherever it put up its ugly head. I thought
we were right back in the wars of religion."
He retired from foreign service in 1962 and moved to Princeton, where he remained
active in local political and civic affairs. He also went on to write "Mongkut, the King
of Siam" -- a project suggested to him by the king's great-nephews, who had been
upset with the portrayal of the ruler as a capricious despot in the popular musical
"The King and I," and wanted to set the record straight.
Mr. Moffat is survived by a son, Burnham Moffat of Danville, Calif.,; two daughters,
Nancy Lifland of Princeton, and Jane-Kerin Moffat of Cos Cob, Conn.; eight
grandchildren, and 17 great-grandchildren.
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Meyrick Howlett,
Consul General
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PEARL BUCK
3 Ping Tsang Hsiang,
Nanking,
Jan 18,
China
1934
Sincerely yours,
Pearl S. Buck
(Signed)
PSB:AB
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GENERAL WAVELL
Yours sincerely,
Wavell.
Findlay Andrew Esq.,
C/o Jardine Matheson & Co.,
China: The Long War by R S Maunsell, Redoubt Publishing 2003
Chapter 8: A year of mutual misfortune (Page 237)
For the Chinese Government, the start of October 1941 brought not only a relief borne from the
knowledge that the Japanese had once again suffered a clear-cut defeat at the hands of the 9th
Area Army, but also the sudden appearance of a possible ally in their war against the invading
Japanese. It became known, amongst those individuals privileged enough to be in the higher
circles of the KMT government, that the British government had at last concluded that a state of
war between the British Empire and the Empire of Japan was now inevitable, and that a number
of divisions were to be dispatched to Malaya to prevent the loss of the crucial colony.
Chiang Kai-shek in particular sought to acquire some assurances from his newfound allies: The
most important being a joint-agreement that the security of the Burma Road would be
maintained at all costs, and that any available military aid would be provided to help train and
equip KMT forces. Prime Minister Attlee was unwilling to say or indeed do anything that might be
seen as provocation on the part of the Japanese government, at least until the designated
reinforcements for Burma, Malaya and Singapore were on the ground. He did however agree to
dispatch a military attach and a small team of advisors to Chongqing led by Lieutenant General
Adrian de Wiart and Major General Gordon Grimsdale, ostensibly to act as observers but in
actuality to investigate the needs and requirements of the KMT government and to report them
directly to General Wavell, the newly promoted British commander-in-Chief in the Far East.
Lieutenant General de Wiart was a fiercely determined man, who if less than intellectual
compensated for this with great personal bravery. Major General Grimsdale on the other hand
was Attlees choice for the position, having served for three years as a staff officer in Hong Kong
and being far more knowledgeable upon the military situation in China.
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Amen.
I am enclosing a small check in remembrance of your dear Dad which please use for anything you think best to
express our love for a great man.
Yes, I do remember your Dad used to admonish me by telling me to throw all unnecessary papers away. I
have an album full of all the experiences Findlay and I and our co-workers did for the League of Nations (under Sir John
Hope-Simpson). I am surprised that he did not mention about our efforts in effecting the release of Capt. Baker with
the assistance of the USS Panay (and very much against the action by the British Consul at Hankow) for two British
subjects to rescue a Yankee!
Did you know that prior to the rescue of Captain Baker we also negotiated for the
release of an R.C. priest by the name of Father Sands from the Commies under General Ho Lung?
That was quite
an eventful adventure because your Dad and I were under constant watch by Ho Lung s men in Hankow and we
received threats and demands for ransom money (a la cloak and dagger style!). I took a very nice picture of the USS
Panay which I sold to Life Magazine after the ship was sunk by the Japs. We had loads of help from the U.S.
Consul, General Adam, and also Consul Edmund Chibb, etc., when we were negotiating for the release of Captain
Baker. Edmund was forced to resign from our Foreign Service at a time when the late Senator McCarthy was probing
into the red infiltration into the Government. You probably know Jack Service who was also fired, but later reinstated.
I saw Jack in Washington DC in 1950 when I was posted there for a year, during the time when Jack was being tried.
He was reinstated and cleared later and I believe was Consul at Calcutta. He has retired and is residing somewhere in
this area but I have not been able to obtain his address. During our recent vacation up near Oregan, I learned that
Jack gave a lecture on his experiences with Mao and Chow-En-Lai during the was years in Chungking and Yunnan.
continued on next page . . .
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continued
It was your Dad who introduced me to T.V.Soong and the Generalissimo.
Then Percy
(your cousin?) Came to Hankow and your Dad was in Shanghai on a special mission, so Percy and
I had a grand time. I had to sign execution papers for the culprits who were caught stealing or
disposing of U.S.A. donated wheat and flour for the relief of the flood refugees during your Dads
numerous trips to Nanking etc. to consult with the late T.V.
Our trip to Lanchow was the most exciting of all. At Pingliang (Kansu) in the month of
February the cold was very severe (22F below) and your Dad still insisted on wearing his cotton
pyjamas and slept in his canvas camp cot (which was far too short for him) and I slept in my heavy
clothes with two pairs of pants and woollen sox etc., and I was still cold!
If we do meet one of these fine days, Les, I can tell you many other exciting and
dangerous missions your Dad and I had in N.W.China. Nearly everybody knew him and loved
him. We slept mostly within CIM confines and R.C. compounds. I believe when we were still in
Hankow that your Dad arranged with T.V. to employ you.
There was an incident which I thought most interesting.
That was when GFA went down
to fetch Sir John and they left Shanghai aboard a Chinese gunboat. I went down river to meet
them. Since the Captain and his crew were all Chinese they served only Chinese food. On
board was the Editor of the North China Daily News who was sceptical about the work performed
by us and he wanted to see for himself. I discovered that the Captain of the ship and many of his
officers were from Foochow and since I was born there I was able to speak that dialect much to the
surprise and admiration of the officers. I was given a cabin all to myself and I had ham and eggs
for breakfast. The others were served Chinese dishes and the Editor nearly threw his food when I
playfully poured a generous dose of soya sauce into his porridge.
Another exciting period was the visit of Col. Lindbergh and his wife (former Anne Morrow) when
they were sent by the State Department to assist us in taking pictures over the flooded areas which
we were unable to reach.
They arrived in Hankow when a flood was in progress.
The
Colonels sea plane was shipped up from Shanghai and it was anchored in the Yangtze on the first
night in Hankow. The flood waters reached 27 feet and the next morning there was no sea plane.
It went to the bottom and was swept downstream.
The Lindberghs were recalled home and sent
to South America on another mission covering a disaster area.
Well Les, I really must conclude this letter - we have a visitor from H.K. coming for dinner
tonight.
As ever,
Frank (Doodha) Kay and family.
(Frank Doodha was GFAs secretary)
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Telex TP 622
Telephone 373211
(D.Kwauk)
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Article written by Rev. Roy Seaman who worked with GFA on earthquake relief.
G. F. ANDREW
G. F. Andrew was a man of all-round abilities: administrator, linguist, diplomat.
his mark chiefly as Supervisor of Earthquake Relief Work in Kansu during 1921.
He made
The earthquake, which took place on December 16, 1920 was of immense magnitude,
devastating a vast area and causing an estimated 200,000 casualties. Hills were moved over a
large area going through districts like flowing water; leaving an awesome extent of debris.
About December 9, 1920, when a group of us were travelling towards Lanchow, the capital
of the province, we had passed by a small stream, about eighteen inches to two feet across, and
quite shallow. When next we saw it, it was a huge lake extending for miles, having been damned
up by falling hills.
The disaster cut off news from Kansu to the outside world for several weeks. But news
leaked out gradually and became known to a group known as, The International Relief
Committee in Peking, who realized that it was necessary to make a way for the water to recede,
or there would be floods more devastating than the earthquake. Funds were provided, and G.F.A.
was appointed to supervise the work of digging channels for water to escape. According to my
recollection, there were about five diggings, employing altogether about 2,000 men.
G.F.A. had
his headquarters at the main digging, which was at the stream which had become a lake. I was
his companion there for some months.
The debris above the water was an estimated height of 200 feet. About half way down, a
complete farmhouse was excavated, with its victims. Eventually the digging was completed, and
the danger of flooding thus averted.
I do not remember a great deal about the events of that period. In those days strings of
cash, grouped together in groups of about 1,000, were used as currency. It took several large
carts to move a days wages to the main digging.
I remember an occasion when G.F.A. was talking to a couple of Chinese helpers, one
remarked to the other, He speaks Chinese. This established him as a linguist.
Once, when returning from a visit to another digging, I learned that, during the night, a thief
had stolen a revolver from under G.F.A.s pillow while he was asleep.
Naturally he was deeply
annoyed by this, as there had been a lack of police supervision.
In general, however, G.F.A.
had friendly relationships with all classes of people.
In Lanchow, G.F.A. was on good terms with leading officials. As a result of this, the small
community of foreigners were frequently invited to official feasts, including those of the Governor of
the province.
continued on next page . . .
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continued
G.F.A. was a great lover of animals, chiefly horses and mules. At one time he
owned a magnificent mule, stately and tall, a very valuable animal. On one occasion he
asked me to take the animal for a jaunt into the country, which I did, accompanied by a
servant.
It was supposed to be for the good of the animal, but it was very pleasant for the
rider!
In Lanchow he was very friendly with a poor street vendor called Ikey, to whom we
sometimes gave discarded articles to sell at a street market.
Ikey had the proverbial rich
uncle, who died and left him a fortune. Ikey was full of plans to build hospitals and other
good works, but what G.F.A. was a great lover of animals, chiefly horses and mules. At one
time he owned a happened in those uncertain times I do not know.
In other parts of China, G.F.A. had remarkable experiences, but I was not connected
with them.
All in all, I remember G.F.A. as a man of outstanding ability.
(Signed) Roy A. Seaman
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T.V.SOONG
Soong Tse-ven or Soong Tzu-wen (December 4, 1891 April 26, 1971), was a prominent
businessman and politician in the early 20th century Republic of China. As brother to the
three Soong sisters, Soong's brothers-in-law were Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Generalissimo Chiang
Kai-shek, and financier H. H. Kung.
Born in Shanghai, T. V. Soong received his education at St. John's University in Shanghai
before going on to Harvard University. After graduating in 1915 with a degree in economics, he
worked briefly in New York at the International Banking Corporation and took courses at Columbia
University.
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GRACE
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safe way to transport the large amount of funds he was carrying to purchase
supplies required to keep such a mammoth labor force working. Henry was happy to
discover that Gustaf, who knew the culture and language like a native was going his
direction. What better companion to have along, as he too carried a substantial
amount of money and even some gold. As they set out on that fateful trip on July 22,
1932, neither man knew the danger that awaited them farther down the road. Nor did
they realize this would be their last ride.
EARLY CHILDHOOD
Gustaf Tornvall was born to missionary parents in Shanghai on April 3, 1899. His
parents, David and Therese Tornvall, were among the first missionaries to enter
China under the China Alliance Mission (later Scandinavian Alliance
Mission and now TEAM). Inspired by the passionate plea of
missionary statesman Fredrick Franson, the young couple had arrived in
1891 in the first wave of missionaries of this new society. Following language study
on the coast, they turned their eyes to the interior, pioneering the work in Pingliang,
Kansu province, in 1895. It was in this environment of new beginnings that Gustaf
was born.
Gustaf was made in China - conceived, born, raised, and immersed in that
environment to such an extent that he was more Chinese than
Western. In 1902, at the age of three, he had a special benediction placed upon
him when the much-revered Hudson Taylor visited the Tornvall home.
Laying his hand on Gustafs head, he prayed, Lord, I claim this little child of Thee for
China.
Growing up, Gustafs closest friends were his Chinese playmates. He spoke
Chinese better than English or even Swedish (his parents language).
But even with all the godly influences of home, parents, and mission exerting
themselves, Gustaf had little desire to follow the beliefs of his parents. That
commitment/decision would not happen until later when he was a student at the
China Inland Mission School in Chefoo. As a teenager Gustaf was sent
there for his high school training. While there, at the age of sixteen, he gave his heart
to Christ and consecrated his all to the Lord.
THE NOVICE MISSIONARY
Following graduation, Gustaf went home to his parents work at
Pingliang. Although only seventeen, he thrust himself into the work at his fathers
side, helping to lighten the burden his father was carrying in the multifaceted work
of the station. To provide education, there was a mission school; to
promote spiritual life, a church; and to offer medical care, a hospital. All these
ministries demanded the undivided time and efforts of the Tornvalls. One day as his
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father was baptizing a large group of converts, Gustaf also entered the waters
to receive the rite. His father, moved to tears, baptized his one and
only son who had taken so long to receive for himself the gospel
message that the senior Tornvall had been propagating to the Chinese for over two
decades.
Not long afterward, Gustaf was also designated a missionary with the Scandinavian
Alliance Mission (now TEAM) and worked hard to further the gospel among the
people he had grown to love and call his own. The church, hospital, and school had
all developed and were tending to the welfare of the poor and disadvantaged people
of the area. Gustaf proved himself so dependable that in 1923 when he
was just twenty-five, his father left him in charge of the work while he took the
rest of the family back to Sweden and the States for a break from the work.
IN THE STATES
It was at that time that sorrow and trouble struck Gustaf in a way he could never
have foreseen. While in the midst of the work, word reached him that his father
had suddenly passed away shortly after arriving in Sweden. At the
same time he received urgent word from the Swedish consul in
Shanghai advising all expatriate personnel to immediately evacuate
inland areas due to increasing civil unrest and disturbance Foreign
governments did not want a repeat of the heartless slaughter of their citizens that
had happened during the Boxer rebellion two decades earlier.
Heartbroken and in need of rest himself, Gustaf decided it was a good time to leave
the country to visit his newly widowed mother and six sisters, who had taken up
residence in Chicago. While in Chicago, Gustaf took advantage of the time with his
family to acquire some theological training. He knew that with the passing of his
father much of the spiritual ministry of the mission would fall to him. He entered
Moody Bible Institutes evening school in 1928. Gustaf was singleminded and had but one goalto get his education as quickly as possible and then
return to China. A remark on his Moody record bears this out, tersely stating: does
not expect to remain. Gustaf studied at Moody for the full academic year of
September 1927 - July 1928.
While Gustaf was studying, word came from China that the interior
was gradually opening again to foreigners. Gustafs desire was to be
back helping the people he knew best. He returned by mid-1928. Fluent in the
language and knowledgeable of the culture, Gustaf went even a step
further of identifying with the people by dressing much of the time like the native
Chinese.
WORK OF COMPASSION
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Not long after he resumed his work in Pingliang, a great famine fell on western China.
It was a time of intense human agony. Gustaf witnessed terrible suffering and
physical hardship among the people and felt compelled to engage in
some kind of effort to help. Attending to the overwhelming needs of the
people, it was not long before Gustaf himself experienced mental and spiritual
suffering as he saw friends and acquaintances painfully die from
starvation. The situation was so overwhelming that he came to realize there
was little he could do in and of himself. Then an offer came that would
give an opportunity in a substantial way to help alleviate the suffering.
The China International Famine Relief Commission initiated a program of
giving the stricken people work. The commission would pay laborers to build roads
that could be used by motorized vehicles. Since itpaid the laborers in cash, they
needed a trustworthy manager to handle the funds. Gustaf was asked to serve as
supervisor for the Kansu region. Sensing the relief the work program would
bring the people, Gustaf gladly accepted. In this role Gustaf gained the
admiration of the people and a wide reputation. He was able, cautious and
warmhearted, and a true missionary. Farmers and officials had the greatest respect
for him, said O. J. Todd, the chief engineer.2
Gustaf continued in church development along with relief work. He
visited and supervised the work of his fellow missionaries. Around this time, his sister
Sofia came to join the work. The special treat of having her there was enhanced
when she fell in love with his coworker and friend Earl Peterson. Gustaf
performed their marriage ceremony.
While supervising the road projects, Gustaf made it his habit to preach the gospel to
the work crews. He never lost sight of the main reason he was in China. But
he made certain his relief efforts did not make superficial rice Christians
out of the people, as had been done in other parts. Gustaf made it clear that they
need not attend church in return for being provided with much-needed employment.
VANISHED!
The fateful day came in July of 1932 when Gustaf innocently caught that
automobile ride with Henry Ekvall. Gustaf was aware that potential danger loomed in
the form of lawlessness, and that thought most likely was why he felt it more prudent
to drive from Pingliang to Xian with Ekvall. Just days earlier he had received an
urgent telegram from the U.S. Department of State, communicated by
William Castle, undersecretary, which stated:
Due to the growth of banditry and other forms of lawlessness it is felt that
American citizens are jeopardizing their lives by remaining in the affected
areas. The Department strongly urges that American missionary
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Forewarned and well aware of potential danger, Gustaf, Henry, and two others
started their two-hundred-mile journey by car. They travelled most of that day
and spent the night at the village of Li Chuan on the banks of the
Wei River. The following morning they crossed the river by ferry. A ferry crossing in
the opposite direction had an English Baptist missionary on it, and Gustaf carried on
a conversation with him until they were out of earshot. That was the last
time they were seen by anyone acquainted with them. Gustaf and his
companions were never heard from again. They seemed to have simply vanished!
The fate of Gustaf can only be pieced together by fairly reliable
Chinese accounts of those who encountered them farther along the way. According
to these stories, just a few miles north of Xian, six Chinesesoldiers stopped the car.
Villagers saw the men taken by the soldiers to a house where they were detained for
the rest of the day. It soon became clear that these were renegade soldiers
out to rob the foreigners. We dont know what Gustaf may have
said to his captors as he tried to reason with them for his life. But one can
envision him pointing out that he was a son of the soil, a religious teacher, or
there helping the people. However, all was to no avail.
At dusk the car was driven out into a field, its headlights drawing the notice of a
local farmer who was still working close by. Sensing something sinister,
the farmer kept a watch but did not get too near, as there were about thirty armed
men on horseback escorting the vehicle. Moments later he heard a volley of
gunshots which startled him. He then heard someone cry, There is still one more,
and then two more shots. It seems certain that Gustaf, Ekvall, and the other two had
been summarily executed. Their bodies were never recovered.
When news of Gustafs murder reached Pingliang, it evoked an outcry and
expression of sorrow so deep that all levels of the community
decried his death with great indignation. Such was the stature and
affection he had gained within their hearts. As coworker O. J. Todd
summarized upon hearing word of Gustafs death:
Brave, indeed, are those who pour their lives into the mission fieldsof Shensi
and Kansu these days. Many have suffered and given up their lives, but we
wonder why so able and fine a man as Tornvall should have been taken so
young.
1. Moody Bible Institute Academic Records, Gustaf Tornvall.
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2. O.
8.
J.
Todd, An
3. William Castle,
State.
of
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13
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Methodist Episcopal Church, the Northern Baptist Convention, the Reformed Church
in America, the Congregational church, the Episcopal Church in the United States of
America, the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and the United
Presbyterian Church of North America - to participate in their "Laymen's Foreign
Missions Inquiry". They commissioned a study of missionaries in India, Burma, China,
and Japan and launched a separate inquiry under the chairmanship of the
philosopher and Harvard professor William Ernest Hocking. These two inquiries led
to the publication of a one-volume summary of the findings of the Laymen's Inquiry
entitled Re-Thinking Missions: A Laymen's Inquiry after One Hundred Years in 1932.
Re-Thinking Missions argued that in the face of emerging secularism, Christians
should ally with other world religions, rather than struggle against them.
The seven denominations who had agreed to participate in the Laymen's Inquiry now
distanced themselves from the report. The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions
issued a statement reaffirming the board's commitment to the evangelistic basis of
the missionary enterprise and to Jesus Christ as the only Lord
and Savior.
Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973).
Pearl S. Buck now weighed into the debate. In a review
published in The Christian Century, she praised the report,
saying it should be read by every Christian in America and,
ironically mimicking the biblical literalism of the fundamentalists,
"I think this is the only book I have ever read that seems to me
literally true in its every observation and right in its every
conclusion." Then, in a November 1932 speech before a large
audience at the Astor Hotel, later published in Harper's, Buck decried gauging the
success of missions by the numbers of new church members. Instead she
advocated humanitarian efforts to improve the agricultural, educational, medical, and
sanitary conditions of the community. She described the typical missionary as
"narrow, uncharitable, unappreciative, ignorant." In the Harpers article along with
another in Cosmopolitan published in May 1933, Buck rejected the doctrine of
original sin, saying "I believe that most of us start out wanting to do right and to be
good." She asserted that belief in the virgin birth or the divinity of Christ was not a
prerequisite to being a Christian. She said that the only need is to acknowledge that
one can't live without Christ and to reflect that in one's life.
Macartney quickly called on the Board of Foreign Missions, under the presidency of
Charles Erdman, to denounce Re-Thinking Missions and asked for their response to
Buck's statements. Erdman responded that the Board was committed to historic
evangelical standards and that they felt that Pearl S. Buck's comments were
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unfortunate, but he hoped she might yet be won back to the missionary cause. She
would eventually resign as a Presbyterian missionary in May.
J. Gresham Machen now published a book arguing that the Board of Foreign
Missions was insufficiently evangelical and particularly that its secretary, Robert E.
Speer, had refused to require missionaries to subscribe to the Five Fundamentals. In
New Brunswick Presbytery, Machen proposed an overture to General Assembly
calling on it to ensure that in future, only solidly evangelical Christians be appointed
to the Board of Foreign Missions. Machen and Speer faced off in the Presbytery,
with Speer arguing that conflict and division were bad for the church the
presbytery agreed and refused to make the recommendation.
Clarence Macartney, however, was able to get a similar motion through the
Presbytery of Philadelphia, so the issue came before the General Assembly of 1933.
The majority report of the Standing Committee of Foreign Missions affirmed the
church's adherence to the Westminster Confession; expressed its confidence that
Speer and the Board shared this conviction; and repudiated Re-Thinking Missions.
The minority report argued that the Board was not orthodox and proposed a slate of
conservatives candidates for the Board. The majority report passed overwhelming.
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14
1911 REVOLUTION
The Revolution of 1911, or the Xinhai revolution, began as the Wuchang uprising in
1910. It resulted in the abdication of the child emperor Puyi and the establishment of
the Republic of China on February 12, 1912.
The revolution was a part of extensive popular uprisings that had been occuring
against the Qing dynasty since the mid-1800s. The Wuchang uprising began as
diverse groups joined in southern China to combat Qing rule. Led by Sun Yatsen, the
groups formed what was known as the Revolutionary Alliance, which advocated the
replacement of the Qing with a republican form of government.
By 1911, the Qing dynasty lost much of its influence in the provinces as local
warlords declared sovereignty. General Yuan Shikai was sent to quell the rebellion.
During this time, Sun set up a provisional government in Nanjing under the
Nationalist Party with Yuan's support. Yuan returned to Beijing and forced the
emperor and his mother to abdicate the throne. It was under these circumstances in
which the Republic of China was established in 1912.
The revolution was brought about by a number of factors, including but not limited to
Qing corruption, Western and Japanese subjugation, the growth of local spheres of
power, Warlordism, increased poverty amongst the populace, and Chinese
intellectuals' growing exposure to Western schools of thought. Another motivation for
the Republican supporters was restoring Chinese rule to the Han majority after
centuries of Manchu rule. The political basis for the movement was Sun Yatsen's
Three Principles of the People (Sanmin Zhuyi), nationalism, democracy, and
socialism.
Source: http://secondchina.com/Learning_Modules
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15
A republic was formally established on 1 January 1912 following the Xinhai Revolution,
which itself began with the Wuchang Uprising on 10 October 1911, replacing the Qing
Dynasty and ending over two thousand years of imperial rule in China. The 10th October
was then celebrated annually as the Republic Of China's national day, also known as the
"Double Ten Day". On 29 December 1911, Sun Yat-Sen was elected president by the
Nanjing assembly representing seventeen provinces. On 1 January 1912, he was
officially inaugurated and pledged "to overthrow the despotic Manchu government,
consolidate the Republic of China and plan for the welfare of the people".
Sun, however, lacked the military support to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. Realizing this,
he handed over the presidency to Yuan Shikai, the imperial general, who then forced the
last emperor, Puyi, to abdicate. Yuan was officially elected president in 1913. He ruled
by military power and threatened to execute Senate members who disagreed with his
decisions. He soon dissolved the ruling Kuomintang party, banned "secret
organizations", and ignored the provisional constitution. An attempt at a democratic
election in 1911 ended with the assassination of the elected candidate by a man
recruited by Yuan. Ultimately, Yuan bizarrely declared himself Emperor of the new
Hongxian Dynasty of China in 1915. With stiff opposition from almost every quarter
the dynasty lasted only three months with Yuan the first and last emperor of the
dynasty.
Yuan Shikai
Hongxian Emperor
Emperor of the Empire of China
Yuan Shikai
Reign
22 December 1915 22 March 1916
Predecessor None (title created)
Successor None (title abolished)
Yuan gave up being Emperor in 1916 and died of natural causes shortly after. After
Yuan Shikai's death, shifting alliances of regional warlords fought for control of the
Beijing government. The nation also was threatened from without by the Japanese.
When World War I broke out in 1914, Japan fought on the Allied side and seized
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German holdings in Shandong Province. In 1915 the Japanese set before the warlord
government in Beijing the so-called Twenty One Demands, which would have made
China a Japanese protectorate. The Beijing government rejected some of these demands
but yielded to the Japanese insistence on keeping the Shandong territory already in its
possession. Beijing also recognized Tokyo's authority over southern Manchuria and
eastern Inner Mongolia. In 1917, in a secret communique, Britain, France, and Italy
assented to the Japanese claim in exchange for the Japan's naval action against Germany.
In 1917 China declared war on Germany in the hope of recovering its lost province, then
under Japanese control. But in 1918 the Beijing government signed a secret deal with
Japan accepting the latter's claim to Shandong. When the Paris peace conference of
1919 confirmed the Japanese claim to Shandong and Beijing's sellout became public,
internal reaction was shattering.
On May 4, 1919, there were massive student demonstrations against the Beijing
government and Japan. The political fervor, student activism, and iconoclastic and
reformist intellectual currents set in motion by the patriotic student protest developed
into a national awakening known as the May Fourth Movement. The intellectual milieu
in which the May Fourth Movement developed was known as the New Culture
Movement and occupied the period from 1917 to 1923.
The student demonstrations of May 4, 1919 were the high point of the New Culture
Movement, and the terms are often used synonymously. Students returned from abroad
advocating social and political theories ranging from complete Westernization of China
to the socialism that one day would be adopted by China's communist rulers.
Sun Yat-sen died of cancer in Beijing in March 1925, but the Nationalist movement he
had helped to initiate was gaining momentum. During the summer of 1925, Chiang, as
commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army, set out on the long-delayed
Northern Expedition against the northern warlords. Within nine months, half of China
had been conquered. By 1926, however, the Guomindang had divided into left- and
right-wing factions, and the Communist bloc - established in 1921 -within it was also
growing. In March 1926, Chiang started a thorough purge of all real and thought to be
communists to consolidate his reign.
(Edited from Wikipedia)
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16
FREDERICK BALLER
In 1896 Frederick William Baller was appointed principal of the new training
home for CIM male missionaries at Anching (Anqing), Szechuan (Sichuan). There he
not only helped train missionaries in the Chinese language but also published his
lectures in letters, from an old missionary to his nephew (1907). From 1900 to 1918
he served on the committee to revise the mandarin New and Old Testaments.
Among his many books, the best known are An Anglo-Chinese Dictionary, The
Mandarin Primer (thirteen editions), An Idiom A Lesson, An Analytical Vocabulary
Of The New Testament, Lessons In Wenli, An English Translation Of The Sacred
Edict, and The Life Of Hudson Taylor. He died and was buried in Shanghai shortly
after completing his book on Taylor.
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17
MAYBETH JUDD
Maybeth Judds parents worked in shanghai for some time, and Maybeth and her
older sister Kathy had spent long winter vacations from boarding school bicycling
around the streets of Shanghai. sometimes the two sisters and their father Charles
would get up early in the morning and ride out of the city into the surrounding
countryside, stopping for breakfast at a roadside stand to enjoy a steaming bowl of
noodles or a hot sweet potato.
Chefoo was the location of the boarding school
Maybeth attended when she turned six years old in 1919. She remained as a student
until she was sixteen, nearly through high school.
Chefoo was the boarding school that all the children of missionaries with the China
Inland Mission attended. Maybeth was a second generation Chefooite; her father
also attended Chefoo, in fact, the boarding school had been founded by Hudson
Taylor for the benefit of the six Judd boys, Maybeths father and his brothers.
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18
1816
John Swire
John Swire (1793-1847) establishes a trading
company in Liverpool, UK. Swire gradually
built a successful import-export business,
based mainly on the textile trade. His sons,
John Samuel (1825-1898) and William Hudson
(1830-1884) took the firm overseas and it was
John Samuel Swire in particular whose
entrepreneurial instincts would be at the root
of the firm's successes in years to come.
1855
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1866
1872
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1881
Swire begins construction of the
Taikoo Sugar Refinery. The plant
went into production in 1883.
Encouraged by China Navigation's
growing trade in raw cane sugar
from Java and the Philippines and
ready markets in China and Japan,
Taikoo Sugar ran one of the
world's largest and most
sophisticated plants in its day.
1907
Taikoo Dockyard opens in Hong Kong.
Providing the ideal setting to handle the
repair and construction needs of Swire's
expanding shipping fleet. Taikoo launched
its first riverboat for China Navigation, Shasi,
in 1910, and went on to become one of Hong
Kong's biggest, and also one of its most
progressive employers, with its own housing,
hospital and school.
1941 1945
World War II
The war very nearly destroyed Swire.
By 1945, the Taikoo Sugar Refinery
and Taikoo Dockyard had been
reduced to rubble during bombing
raids on Hong Kong, more than 30
China Navigation vessels had been
captured or sunk, and company
properties throughout the region had
been destroyed or looted.
Taikoo Dockyard
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PostWar
Swire rebuilds its key operational businesses.
By 1950, major local employers Taikoo Sugar
and Taikoo Dockyard were back in full
production, and Swire's paint manufacturing
business had been transferred from Shanghai
to Hong Kong, under the name Swire Duro.
With the Yangtze River closed to foreign
shipping from 1942 and increasing
restrictions on foreign trade, the firm
gradually withdrew from Mainland China, following the Revolution of 1949.
1946
Cathay Pacific Airways is founded by pilots,
Roy Farrell and Sydney de Kantzow, and
registered in Hong Kong. In the same year,
John - "Jock" - Kidston Swire (1893-1983),
became Chairman of John Swire & Sons (This
is probably the Swire that GFA knew).
Determined to find new opportunities for the
firm and recognising that air transport was
the key to the future, Jock Swire looked for ways of involving Swire in this
industry. In 1947, he used Taikoo Dockyard's engineering skills to develop an
aircraft maintenance facility at Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airfield. This company,
named Pacific Air Maintenance Services (PAMAS), would merge with rival
Jardine Air Maintenance Company in 1950 to form Hong Kong Aircraft
Engineering Company (HAECO) - today one of the world's leaders in its field.
Today
Swire in the new century. James Finlay, the world's
largest tea trader, with substantial agricultural
interests in Africa and Sri Lanka, and a Swire
partner since 1976, became a wholly owned group
subsidiary in 2000. In Papua New Guinea, the
country's oldest and largest trading group,
Steamships Trading, has also become a subsidiary.
In Australia, Swire had
greatly increased its stake in the cold storage market,
forming a new national entity, Swire Cold Storage, in
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The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884-1942), 13 June 1932, Page 14
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The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884-1942), 14 June 1929, Page 17
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The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884-1942), 29 June 1932, Page 17
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