The History of Hong Kong (Part 6)

This is the story of the one as a shipping manager he's running the dock, stocking supplies and making sure every order goes out on time. And Granger helps him stay prepared. From shipping supplies to PPE to hand tools, he counts on Granger to keep products moving and trucks rolling. So his operation runs smoothly, no matter the shift. Call 1-800-GRanger. Click Granger.com or just stop by. Granger for the ones who get it done. Hi, everyone. All around the world. Laws low-month comrade here coming to you for the 106th time. History of Hong Kong Part 6 today. We finally made it to the 20th century. Didn't think it would take this long, but no one sent any angry emails demanding that I pick up the pace a little. So we'll just keep moving along at the same rate. Last time we made it all the way up to the governorship of Sir William Blake. Today we're going to start off with Hong Kong's first and only Jewish governor, Sir Matthew Nathan. There's a little fun fact for you. He was governor from 1904 to 1907. During the interim when Blake left in November 1903 and when Nathan arrived on the scene in July 1904. The colonial secretary at the time Sir Francis Henry May wrote in the mid-levels, if that rings a bell, he filled in as acting governor and later colonial secretary. This brief period when May was the guy in charge saw the passing of the peak reservation ordinance, which was a fancy way of saying no Chinese allowed on the peak. But they did make an exception. We'll get to that later on. Unlike Blake, Francis May went after all these anti-ching rabble razors who carried out their nefarious work in Hong Kong to hasten the demise of the dynasty. He had them deported or dealt with. And when Nathan arrived, he got on famously with May because they both saw eye to eye on how things ought to be in the colony. They weren't what you'd call progressive or the most culturally sensitive of government administrators. Sir Matthew Nathan depended heavily on May's 25 years experience in the colony to get him through any rough patches. May served in all 38 years in Hong Kong and was one of the most dominating personalities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nathan Road, or Nathan's folly as it was first referred to in fair of the traffic nightmares that were predicted, was this governor's bright idea to link Calune up with the new territories, or at least up to Boundary Street. When work first began on Nathan Road in 1861, it was originally called Robinson Road after Hercules Robinson. But in 1909, even though governor Nathan sort of left in semi-discraced, haven't been recalled at all, it was renamed after him. Construction of the KCR, the Calune Canton Railway, began during his administration and Nathan's credited with carrying that ball forward. This was really his proudest achievement, and although he was a famous micromanager in this huge project, he made this whole deal happen and reached the border with Shenzhen in 1910 and later on in 1912, it linked up with Guangzhou, or Canton. Once this KCR was an operation, it busted Calune wide open for growth and development. The main thoroughfares of Calune were laid out during Nathan's short time in office. Now, besides Nathan Road in Jamsajai, the Golden Mile, as this road is also known, in Queensland, south of the city of Brisbane, there are Nathan and Nathan Heights, and in Deacon, home of the Australian Mint near the capital city of Canberra, there is Nathan Streets, all named after this governor. He also served down there after his stint in Hong Kong. Nathan was succeeded by the right honorable Lord Lugard, Sir Frederick Lugard, one of the main roads on the peak, is named after him. He served as governor from 1907 and 1912. It's during the time of Sir Frederick Lugard's governorship that the walls came tumbling down in China, the Qing Dynasty fell. Up in Shandong Province, there was the city of Weihai, which had been a British colony called Weihai Wai. It was also known in the British colonial world as Port Edward. This city was tied up with the Russo-Japanese War and the Sino-Japanese War. Port Arthur, or Lucian Co, and all the history associated with that place right before and right after the turn of the century, is a whole big juicy topic for a future podcast series. But for our purposes today, the British had leased Weihai first in 1898. One of the conditions was that they could hold onto it as long as the Russians remained across the water in Port Arthur. Today, Lucian Co is a district of Dalian, right across the narrow channel separating Shandong from Liaoning. Port Arthur was the tip of the Liao Dong Peninsula. If you're a naval enthusiast and you like maps, go look at this place and judge for yourself. You'd be really hard-pressed to find any place in North China that could outdo the ports of Port Arthur and Weihai Wai, as far as ports of strategic military importance. Weihai Wai served as one of the two China ports for the British Navy, Hong Kong being the other one. When the Japanese defeated the Russians, the British got to keep the lease at Weihai Wai, but the terms of the agreement were again that they could stay there as long as the Japanese remained in control of the Liao Dong Peninsula. Well, as far as the suffragic Lugard, the 14th governor of Hong Kong is concerned, he had one of those bright ideas that no one heated and ended up going nowhere. Lugard said, "Let's give Weihai way back to China and take the new territories in Hong Kong and perpetuity instead." Now, whoever the decision-makers were when they smoked their cigars and enjoyed their brandy said, "New territories and perpetuity for Weihai Wai, forget about it, not worth it." So, Lugard's idea of swapping the new territories for keeps in exchange for giving up this very strategic port that the end that have given back anyway in 1930 didn't happen. The decision was, just hold on to the new territories leased till 1997 comes along. After all, that's way far in the future. And because of this, later on in the 1980s, Britain's opening gambit in this great drama was too inquire about the at least that was coming up in 1997. What if Britain had negotiated with China to make the exchange without the specter of the lease hanging over Sino-British relations in the 80s and 90s? Who knows what Hong Kong status might be in 2012? Lugard was also credited with the founding of the University of Hong Kong. This was his pet project in the College of Medicine that I mentioned where Sun Yat Sen attended med school. This college was folded in to the new University of Hong Kong. The initial funding for this whole idea of a Hong Kong University began with conversations between Frederick Lugard and his good friend, the Parcy businessman, Sir Homostee Nauraji Madhi. And Madhi of Madhi Road fame in the very heart of Jim Sajoy. Madhi was raised from benefactors in both the Western and Chinese worlds, and the foundation stone was laid in March of 1910. One of the other landmark events that took place during Lugard's watch was the final clampdown on opium. This time they did it for good. In the entrepreneurs and companies who had a rat in that race fought the new law tooth and nail. This was still a big source of annual revenue for the colony, 29% in fact. Essentially, the forces with vested interests in maintaining the opium trade started got backed into a corner. The time had come finally. When once and for all, the forces back in London, as well as locally in Hong Kong, spoke out against the evils of this foreign mud. No longer could the powers that be obfuscate and dodge this issue or negotiate, you know, to keep the status quo just for a little bit longer. The universal voices of all reasonable people all pretty much lined up against opium and were dead set against allowing the status quo to continue. Popular opinion in London and all around the UK was dead set against the opium trade, so the politicians of the day anxious to please their constituency had to do what they had to do. This was one of those issues where matters in London conflicted with the domestic interests in Hong Kong. There was quite a bit of resentment, you know, the merits of the issue now was standing that this whole opium thing shouldn't have been handled unilaterally by those far away in London. In the end, it was those in Hong Kong who had to deal with the reality of trying to carry the whole thing out and enforce it. It was easy for all those people back at the head office to make all these pronouncements, but getting stuck being the guy on the scene and having to go against the public tide wasn't so easy. The way Hong Kong people acted was very often rooted in traditions and ways of thinking that had been the accepted way for hundreds, and even thousands of years, there was no small amount of resentment and feeling that, you know, who the heck are those guys? Don't know squat, telling us how to run our business. It wasn't so much the moral aspects of stamping out opium as much as it was the whole matter of how was the colony going to fill that 29% shortfall in revenues. Well, you know, taxes went up on luxuries, and that was one of the things that came out of this. The main losers in stamping out the opium trade in Hong Kong went quietly in the night after their losses were mitigated by government promises and Britain and China of further compensation, a small price to pay. Basically, in Hong Kong, the trade was made illegal and enforced strictly. A small amount of prepared opium was still allowed, but no trade in raw opium. Whatever trade remained, it was strictly regulated, and by the time Lugard left Hong Kong in March of 1912, it was clear the bad old days were over, and the opium devons were driven deep underground. All the licensed opium dens in Hong Kong, everyone were all shut down. Okay, Lugard, as I said, was on duty when the Qing Dynasty officially or unofficially fell on double 10th, October 10th, 1911. Sanyat Sen had formed the revolutionary alliance, the Tong Meng Hui, in Tokyo in August of 1905. And the branch that was established in Hong Kong served as the command central for the whole movement until the beginning of the end finally came at the Wu Chang uprising on that historic date of 10, 10, 1911. So Hong Kong's importance to the whole movement to get rid of the dynasty and set up a republic with a constitution and everything. Hong Kong served as the revolutionary base where all these dreamers, mostly from the south of China, got together and made all their plans for China after so many years of the country, you know, being down on its luck. Now, I wasn't present in Hong Kong in 1911 to see the dancing of the streets and jubilation at the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but I was there in 1997 when the colony returned to China and the patriotic display was quite loud and nearly universal. Now, that's what it seemed to me. Apparently, there was quite a bit of joy and celebration at the news of the fall of the Qing. Governor Lugar had written regarding the fall of the Qing that he had witnessed in Hong Kong, quote, "the most amazing outburst which has ever been seen and heard in the history of the colony. The entire Chinese populace appeared to have been temporarily demented with joy. You know, there are four Chinese characters that make a lot of Chinese bow their heads in shame. These are Qing Chaomongyan. This translates to last year's of the Qing, hearing those words, Qing Chaomongyan, back then, and even today, still evokes memories of unequal treaties, getting kicked in the ass all the time by western powers, playing second fiddle to Japan, you know, who had become the alpha male of the Far East, opium, the tie-pings, the boxers, the warlords, and everything that had been a disaster for China. And now the Qing dynasty was gone, and there was this sense of hope for a new beginning. With the Qing dynasty passing from the scene, that hope that China would rise again suddenly became very realistic, and it was in Hong Kong, where a lot of the post-Ching Dynasty planning sessions happened. This wasn't only because the movement was coalescing around Sun Yat Sen and his southern faction of intellectuals, money men, strong men. The other reason was, Hong Kong was a safe haven from the storms going on all over China. It's not like the Qing dynasty fell on October 10th, and the Republic of China was up and running on October 11th, 1911. It took a long while to set everything straight and get almost everyone to agree on a system. There were centers all over China, where plans were being hashed out, certainly Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, but most of all, in Hong Kong. That place was safe because it was Chinese, but not controlled by China. The British didn't want these guys making revolution or causing disturbances on their turf, but they knew what was going on. And for the most part, let it all happen and stay out of the politics, that is, unless the talk turned against them in British colonial policies. You see, the Jubilans felt by the Chinese and Hong Kong got a little out of hand. There was a sentiment wafting about that they got rid of the Qing, and now it was time to get rid of the British too. This sentiment didn't really get enough traction, and those in charge were able to take sufficient action to snuff this out before it got out of hand. All this revolution was great, but the elites of society, and frankly everyone who had something to gain from a stable Hong Kong economy, drew the line, as far as how far they were willing to go to, upset the apple cart in Hong Kong. So, nobody was sorry to see the man choose go, but the end of the dynasty and the formation of a republic, it opened up a new period in Hong Kong as well. Barbers, all around the Chinese parts of town were doing a brisk business, cutting off the cues of the male residents, nobody had to wear that hairstyle anymore. There had been relative peace and prosperity in Hong Kong, since around the time of Governor Blake, public works had been carried out that truly made the colony civilized. Real change was happening where it mattered, quietly and through government management. Malaria was soon wiped out as was cholera, bubonic plague, infrastructure was being built to support that ever-growing population, and it's still going on today. So, from Blake to Lugard, 1898 to 1912, Hong Kong's progress and prosperity kept moving forward at a respectable pace. The whole thing wasn't perfect when it started, but everyone was now settling in and Hong Kong was becoming quite livable. Society wasn't dominated by the British anymore. Chinese who had prospered in Hong Kong during this time also rose to prominence in society and took a major role in shaping the colony's growth and direction. The perennial number two guy, Sir Francis May, he finally got to sit behind the governor's desk as the main guy, rather than as some acting governor or administrator. He founded a lot easier to be the number two man than the actual governor, so great was his experience in Hong Kong and so encyclopedic, his knowledge of the times. He just simply couldn't suffer all these fools telling him what he should do, so he wasn't cut out for this. May, by the way, was Hong Kong's first governor to be the subject of an assassination attempt. It happened to him on his first day when he showed up for work after arriving from Fiji, where he had previously been posted. Sir Francis Henry May served as governor from 1912 to 1919, which means he was on duty when World War I happened. Fortunately for Hong Kong, as far as World War I was concerned, it was far, far away from them, and there wasn't much if any impact on the colony. And this was also true later on at the Great Depression. Hong Kong didn't feel much pain. During May's time in the governor's mansion, the new Republic of China was trying to get up off the ground. It was at this time that your ensure Kai made his bid to become emperor. That whole move by Yuan was a debacle and he died a year later in 1916. And then from that point on, China just fragmented into the warlord era. Hong Kong's population at this time was half a million strong, still growing. February 26, 1918, a temporary grandstand set up at Happy Valley racetrack collapsed and caused a fire to break out after some food stalls caught fire in the chaos. Almost 600 people died in the fire and commotion, and more than 400 were wounded. Even to this day, this is one of the worst fire disasters in Hong Kong history to add to those woes later on. An outbreak of cerebral spinal meningitis broke out that killed more than 1,000 more Hong Kong residents. July 1919, Hong Kong residents all celebrated the conclusion of Great War. There was a grand parade from Happy Valley to Central. Shortly thereafter, so Francis May suffered a mild stroke and then left office in in September of 1919. So, Reginald Stubbs, followed May into government house, no one could have been trained to know how to deal with the monumental changes that were now going on in China. Governor Stubbs sure wasn't. The May 4th movement that followed the Treaty of Versailles didn't have that much of an effect on Hong Kong. Frankly, the colony in 1919 was more plugged into an influence by what went on in and around Canton than by whatever went down in Beijing or north of Guangdong. The Hong Kong government, as it always did, tried its best to tamp down any kind of ostentatious revolutionary activity, but it also didn't take measures to stop it either. Canton was not only a political center that saw a succession of short-lived regimes in the 1920s. It was in this city as well that the communists began to gather and start their organizing. Everything that went on in Canton and Guangzhou, it inevitably spilled over into Hong Kong. It was in the 1920s that Hong Kong, for the first time, actually became a tourist destination, the place had finally made it this far. Thanks to that wonderful British need for order and cleanliness, Hong Kong was developed enough, had hotels and infrastructure to begin supporting the industry. Thanks to the local commerce and industry, there was already enough critical mass to put the place on the map and to be able to offer any visiting tourist the whole China experience with all the conveniences and comforts that the British were famous for and none of the inconveniences of actually having to go to China. The 1920s, that's when it all began, the notion of an exotic Hong Kong vacation. The 1920s saw a massive amount of public works. Roads were built that took you out as far as Shek-Oh at the southern tip of Hong Kong Island, as well as to Repulse Bay and Wang Naichong Gap Roads. During this time, roads were built that took you up to the peak, including the long and winding road that would be named after Governor Stubbs. These were the times of Bolshevism, labor unrest, everywhere, including Hong Kong. The six years that Stubbs served as governor was overshadowed by endless labor unrest. Stubbs tried a whole range of unpopular, heavy handed tactics to tamp it all down, but all that did was cause a massive wave of workers to leave Hong Kong to find work in the booming economies of southern Guangdong. The matter of the Muijai and ongoing controversy, since at least the 1870s, came up in a big way during the time of Reginald Stubbs. As with the case of opium, those in Britain who claimed the whole Muijai system was immoral, turned the thumbscrews on the Hong Kong authorities to do something drastic to get rid of it, you know, depending on if the conservatives or labor, it was in power. Matters would get debated, then swept under the rug, then depending on who came to power, debated again, regardless of how the governor, members of Leggo or Exko felt about the issue, the whole Muijai system had some rather deep roots in Chinese culture and very much so in Cantonese society. It was estimated in the 1920s that at least one half of all Hong Kong families had at least one Muijai working for them. So this wasn't going to be a simple thing to deal with. The people who actually had to run things in Hong Kong, they were often annoyed at the lack of understanding by those in London who seemed oblivious to the potential consequences of enforcing their directives. No less a personage than Winston Churchill himself. On February 22, 1922, fired off a telegram of a governor stub saying, "Muijai, I am not at all satisfied. Unless I am able to state that this institution does not involve the slightest element of compulsory employment, which is the essence of slavery, and that every Muijai of a certain age is in law and in practice free if she wishes to leave her adopted parents or employers, I cannot defend its continued existence in a British colony." London really put the pressure on, which you know there's this amazing Chinese invention called government bureaucracy, and it's spring into action in this case, and with just the right amount of resistance and obfuscation, Stubbs was able to show that he was on this thing, but at the same time nothing got done, and it was business as usual. This Muijai issue continued to drag on into the next governorship. Another thing that began during the time of Cereginal Stubbs was the whole matter of a constitution, and the argument about how important it was or wasn't to give political representation to the people of Hong Kong. The colonial office, you know those back in London who were in charge of running the colonies by remote control, they felt this was totally unnecessary. First of all, the high ups in the colonial office never trusted the Hong Kong local business community. They saw them back then for the self serving a lot that they were, like every constituency, they too were always looking for the best deal for themselves. So any talk of constitutional reform and giving that kind of representation that a constitution might offer was out of the question. The prevailing attitude was that, you know, if you gave these rights to the Euros, then the Eurasians will demand the same rights, and before you know what the local Chinese are gonna want them too. So no one was willing to take this whole idea and run with it. Not in the 1920s, that is. After Sun Yat Sen came to power, he came down to Hong Kong in February 1923 and spoke at Hong Kong University. So Reginald Stubbs graciously received Sun who had for so long been exiled from Hong Kong and not welcomed there for many years. Now he spoke for all of China, or at least for Guangdong Province. Sun Yat Sen had said in his speech that day that Hong Kong had been his revolutionary birthplace where he learned both revolutionary and modern ideas. Sun died in March of 1925 and Stubbs left as governor in October of that same year. He was succeeded by governor Sir Cecil Clemente who was fluent in both Cantonese and Mandarin. The labor problems that transpired during the times of Reginald Stubbs were ultimately worked out under Clemente. This was due in part with the help of Jiang Kai-shek who took over from Sun and ran things down in Canton. This general strike and boycott caused by the nationalism and revolutionary spirit of the day did quite a bit of damage to the economy of Hong Kong. There was the mechanic strike of 1920, the Siemens strike of 1922 and the strike boycott that I had mentioned. This one lasted 1925 to 1926. A lot of business shifted to Shanghai and as Shanghai's fortunes rose, Hong Kong fell. By Clemente's time as governor with Shanghai, where ships called on more than Hong Kong and Shanghai, which was hailed as the Paris of the Orient and Hong Kong, just a colonial backwater. One other thing, Kitek Airport began operations during Clemente's time in 1928. Eight years later, Imperial Airways and Pan Am began providing flights from Hong Kong to hubs, not far away that could take you to San Francisco and London, despite all the uncertainty in China, even with the communist and nationalists now locked in a duel to the death. If you were an entrepreneur or counted yourself among the elites or future elites, there was so much to be optimistic about. It was easy to look to the future and feel confident that with Hong Kong's unique attachment to Great Britain, great days lie ahead. Chinese were still streaming into Hong Kong, mostly from Canton, escaping the uncertainty of China in the 1920s and 30s. Hong Kong had its problems too, but compared to what was going on in China, it was a bedrock of stability. And try of some of the more leftist elements did. They were never successful in igniting the revolutionary flame in Hong Kong. The masses in Hong Kong seemed content to offer any and all moral support to their fellow Chinese across the border. But when it came to signing up to kick the British out or any attempts to incite anti-colonial riots or whatnot, it was hard to get the local Hong Kong people to sign on. Back then, they weren't so sure about the benefits or the impact on their well-being. If the British were forced out and China took over. As more Chinese came, the place became more and more Chinese. That is, Chinese businesses began to dominate. Retail stores, theaters, advertising signs and billboards everywhere, restaurants, teahouses, they were popping up all over the place. Quietly, factories were being set up in the whole foundation for the mini industrial revolution that would happen after World War II was being built. Chinese commerce was growing at an unbelievable rate and with that financial end. economic power came influence. Two worlds existed side-by-side in Hong Kong, and both used and needed the other. As for the Muijai problem, that potato successfully managed to not be addressed decisively and Clemente was able to pass this one off to his successor. A very high degree of pressure was put on Clemente to act, but the tide was not easy enough to turn in Hong Kong, and there was still too much resistance. The Muijai system continued well into the late 1930s, with cases still being reported into the 1970s. Every effort was made to get rid of it or regulate it, but some traditions were simply too deeply entrenched to completely do away with. Clemente did something rather shocking in its day. He dared to nominate a local Chinese to the sacred executive council, or Exco. He couldn't do anything to advance the idea of a Constitution. In lieu of this, he dared to nominate a local Chinese to Exco. This man had about his rock-solid credentials, as one could possibly dream of. Culturally, political astute-ness, intelligence, education, this person was Sir Shoshun Chao, or Zhou Shou Chang. Shoshun Chao was also known by the name Zhou Changling. He was born not too far from the road that bears his name today, Shoshun Hill Road in Deepwater Bay. He was educated at Phillips Academy in Massachusetts and studied at Columbia, and then went on to serve in various capacities in the Qing government. He helped found the mighty Bank of East Asia in 1918, and served in different departments of the Hong Kong government, including Ledgeco. He was appointed to Exco in 1926, and later on was knighted and became Sir Shoshun Chao. During the strikes and boycats of the early 20s, it was Shoshun Chao and another local Eurasian by the name of Sir Robert Hormous Coatwall. Yes, Coatwall Road, in the mid-levels, those two joined forces to counter all the attempts by strike organizers to create havoc in the colony. For this, they were attacked within some elements of the Hong Kong Chinese community for, you know, acting like running dogs of the British imperialists, but their contribution in getting through this rough period during the time of stubs and clementi was invaluable. I haven't mentioned Sir Robert Ho-Tong, Chishiao-Shang, in Mandarin, and that surname was pronounced Chetong. Anyone who's spent more than a few weeks in Hong Kong will see this name all over the place. He was born in what is today Lan Quai Phong, on Da-Gi-Li-R street. His father was a Dutch Jew, and his mother was Chinese, who hailed from across the border in what is now the metropolis of Shenzhen. His career and fate was very much tied to the mast of the Jardine ship. It was their compredor, and he was very good at his job. Like those other Hong Kong legends who I've mentioned in this series, Robert Ho-Tong was of that mold. These were the handful of go-to guys whenever the British had a desperate need to connect with the Hong Kong Chinese. These guys understood the British, the politics, the global situation, the economic merits of every argument, then these pillars of the Chinese community would go do their thing to get the word out or canvas the community to gauge the feeling. Robert Ho-Tong, being Eurasian, had a foot in two worlds. He was brilliant and acquired vast amounts of wealth in all his various endeavors. He was admired by European and Chinese alike, and his advice was always eagerly sought out. When the ordinance passed that said no Chinese allowed on the peak, Robert Ho-Tong was the first one they made an exception for. His spread on the peak, known as Ho-Tong Gardens, still survives today. There was recently a bit of a tussle to redevelop that massive property, but so far it's still a protected monument. Anyways, Robert Ho-Tong is a topic for a future episode. I'll be featuring Robert Ho-Tong in a future podcast about that famous Hong Kong family. He was one of a handful of movers and shakers who were able to mix freely and comfortably in two worlds. As for his influence and ability to shake policy and history, it cannot be underestimated. Remember the Shanghai Massacre, April 1927? We covered that in CHK episode 55. That's when Jiang Kai-Shak put an end to the shotgun wedding between the communists and the nationalists. The communists, their sympathizers, and those were too far to the left of the KMT. If they survived, the bloody work carried out by the Green Gang goons, they scattered, and many of them ended up in Hong Kong. That was a safe haven for the communists, you know, comparatively that is. The British knew they were there and made some effort to limit their organizing activities being done in Hong Kong. By the time of Clemente, after taking into consideration the strikes and the politics of the time, it was felt that Hong Kong was best served by having friendly and open relations with whoever controlled Canton or Guangzhou. Because of the make-up of the colony, overwhelmingly, culturally Cantonese, it was imperative that the Hong Kong government and the local government officials in Canton keep in close cooperation. Whatever was going down in Guangzhou, always reverberated in Hong Kong. Many made efforts to push education in Hong Kong. By this, he meant traditional Chinese education, including all the cultural aspects as well. The attitude was, this stuff was much more benign than all this radical nationalism that was wafting out into the populace. Something had to be done to counter that feeling, or at least keep it under control. After Cecil Clemente left Hong Kong suddenly in February of 1930, he was needed elsewhere in the empire in Singapore. This opened the door for Sir William Peel to serve. He sat behind the governor's desk for five years, leaving in May of 1935. During the time of Peel, and this Peel is one in the same of Peel rise that rode that cuts through Aberdeen Country Park, not Peel Street in the Soho area. Soho, of course, South of Hollywood Road, Hong Kong's very own version of Soho in New York City, South of Houston Street, that Peel Street in Soho is named after the two-time British Prime Minister Robert Peel, not Sir William. During Peel's time, that amazing invention, the telephone, came into use, and regular air service began between Hong Kong and China. So Hong Kong is now starting to become a little recognizable, perhaps to us in our age. Modern society was really gathering steam now. This period, the early 30s, was turbulent all around the world. The depression, all the events that led to the rise of Hitler, Mussolini, and a vicious militant Japan. This was all happening now. In 1930, Ho Chi Minh founded the Vietnamese Communist Party in Hong Kong. The world now was a much more dangerous and complicated place than during the days of William Jardine, Henry Pottinger, and Lord Palmerston. During Sir William Peel's time, there was an attempt to crack down on all houses of ill repute. Brothels were shut down, and the whole thing was driven underground or forced to make adjustments to their business model. Now, when you consider the statistic from the 1920s, that as many as 30 to 40 percent of the Chinese male population of Hong Kong had some sort of VD, it's no wonder that the government had to take action. The prostitution in Hong Kong had been illegal for years. The guys in charge in London saw it to that. But you know how it is when you're so far away, there's always ways to show compliance, but at the same time, keep it going in a quieter, hush-hush way. This allowed for a kind of a licensing system. But now, in Peel's time, even the powers that be back in London, not to mention the new League of Nations and several women's groups, where we're all screaming for the end of licensed prostitution in Hong Kong. The brothels were closed down, but of course this didn't put an end to the market as the demand was still as strong as ever. Like with OPM and other vices, prostitution was simply driven underground, which of course made it impossible to regulate, which led to higher rates of venereal diseases. The Japanese, when they march into Hong Kong, are going to attempt to regulate it. But as we'll see, once they're booted out in 1945, the British will move back in and quash it once and for all, sort of. We're going to put the book mark in right here and pick up with the 19th governor of Hong Kong, Sir Andrew Caldecott, next time. Two things about him. His tenure as governor was the shortest in colonial history, December 1935 to October 1937. He was called away from the governorship suddenly to take over as the the governor of Ceylon. It was during this time that events are going to take a big hit as Japan is going to launch a full scale invasion of China, and then we'll see how after Japan puts a stranglehold on China, Hong Kong plays the role as China's emergency banker and window to the outside world. That's all for next time. I got back from this long trip a few days ago. This one was grueling, expensive, and overly long for yours truly. But I got all my peoples to all their meetings, all the presentations were made, and there were no disasters that hit us. Only one canceled flight from O'Hare to Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York, but other than that, a good, solid, productive, two-week trip. I'm hoping there will be no further traveling to the end of the year. Over nighters to Las Vegas don't count. Next week, we'll go through the Japanese occupation, and then Hong Kong is going to boom like never before, but that's all for next time. This is Las La Montgomery, the ChinaHistoryPodcast.com wishing you all the very best during this festive holiday season. I hope that's going well for all of you. Take care, everyone. See you next time. Whether you're building a roster or a business, great talent can come from anywhere. Pebble helps companies hire and support employees across 185+ countries. Pebble believes you don't build a winning team by limiting where you look for talent. That belief is at the heart of their new partnership with BFC, and the way Pebble helps companies build their own teams every day. With Pebble, companies can hire in over 185 countries, bringing everything together in a single platform that integrates with the tools teams already use. The result is a global team that's actually set up to succeed, with accurate pay, real benefits, and the support they need to thrive wherever they are. Bottom line, great teams can come from anywhere. Pebble helps companies build them. Special offer for podcast listeners. Pebble is normally $399 a month per employee, already a no-brainer for what you get. But right now, there's a limited time offer on their site that makes it even easier to get started. Go to hellopebble.com/sports before it's gone. That's hello pebl.com/sports, terms and conditions apply. Shack here, what's it like to buy a car from Carvana or 100% online and get it delivered to your door? Let me tell you. Your car is here, Mr. Shack. Thank you, Mr. Carvana guy. Can't wait to take it for a spin. Only the best for you, Mr. Shack. Hey, have you always been so big tall and handsome? Not always. I was 6-10 once. Seven days to love it or return it, Mr. Shack? Not that I would. You never do. No, I never do. So buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply. See our seven day return policy at Corvano.com.