Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 29, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba B4 sunday free press Winnipeg june 29, 1997 s i i in a i it a v in a Exzinn e fragrant Harbour scene of Battles Here is a capsule history of Hong Kong a the name Hong Kong Means fragrant Harbour. A archaeological evidence indicates that people have lived in what until now has been the British dependency of Hong Kong since before recorded history. The area came under chinese control about 220 by. Until the 1800s, it consisted of a few Small fishing and farming villages. Pirates used Hong Kong As a land base. A during the 1800s, the chinese government tried to Stop British merchants from smuggling opium into China. A in 1839, the Issue led to the opium War Between China and Britain. Britain won the War and received the Island of Hong Kong As reparation in the treaty of banking. A British naval Captain Charles Elliot and a naval unit under his command had seized Hong Kong still known As pirate Island on Jan. 26,1841, and had declared himself governor of the area. A a chinese Force searching for pirates in the area on oct. 8,1856, arrested the Crew of the British ship Arrow thus triggering the second opium War. A Britain won the second War As Well and on Jan. 19,1861, forced the vanquished chinese to cede the Kowloon Peninsula to Britain. A China a Imperial court ceded More land known As the new territories in a 99-year lease in june 1898, but the treaty stipulated that Britain did not have to pay anything under the lease. A in 1911, the nationalist revolution of Sun Yat sen toppled the chinese Ching dynasty and nationalist sentiment spilled Over into Hong Kong creating some unrest there. A japanese army units attacked and occupied Hong Kong during the opening Battles in the asian theatre of the second world War. Hong Kong fell on Christmas Day 1941. Thousands of Canadian servicemen went into four years of cruel japanese Captivity. Few survived to see the end of the War and return Home. A when Mao tse Tung declared the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in october 1949, thousands of chinese fled to Hong Kong and authorities there had to impose new controls at the Border. A during the 1970s, Britain changed the status of All its remaining overseas possessions to dependency from Colony. Hong Kong officially ceased to be a Colony. A on sept. 22,1982, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher visited Beijing and quarrelled with government officials Over the pros and cons of imperialism and capitalism. A in a joint declaration Britain and China revealed to the world on dec. 19,1984, that China would take control of Hong Kong on july 1,1997, but would leave its capitalist economic system in place for another 50 years. A the last British governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten announced new democratic reforms for the Community on oct. 7,1992. The chinese government called him a late in 1996, . Tung was named by the government in Beijing As the chief executive for Hong Kong after the handover and openly applauded the fact that a we Are finally going to be masters of our own House a a just after Midnight on monday Patten will sail away from Hong Kong As the guest of the Royal family on the Royal yacht Britannia. China has promised not to Start its fireworks display until the Britannia is beyond the considered a mistake continued from by Ince the communist party Victory Over the Kuomintang in 1949, Hong Kong has been a capitalist enclave in a communist continent and has attracted a steady Stream of migrants fleeing poverty communism and xenophobia in search of wealth Freedom and Access to the wider world. The Hong Kong population includes a Large pro communist faction but the majority of the territory a people Are refugees from Mao Schina. The sino British joint declaration signed by Britain a Margaret Thatcher and China a Zhao Ziyang on dec. 19,1984, thrust those refugees Back into the communist Empire from which they fled. On monday night the British shopkeepers will deliver the promised goods. While other British colonies pushed for Independence in the second half of this Century honk Kong Clung to Britain As Long As it could since the Only alternative to British Rule was chinese Rule. The japanese Imperial army showed at Christmas 1941 that Hong Kong could not be defended against a modern army that controlled the Mainland and enjoyed air support. Communist China showed in a series of military actions that it was interested in seizing territories that had formerly been connected with China. Tibet was invaded in 1950 and 1951. Parts of Northern India were seized in 1962. Threatening gestures were occasionally made at Independence Hong Kong and Kowloon have not enough land to provide food and water for their residents. They cannot survive without the new territories and they cannot flourish without Trade Access to the chinese Mainland. Hong Kong therefore had no future As an Independent country resisting incorporation into China. The territory must be either a British dependency or a chinese City. While other limbs dropped away from the British Empire Hong Kong Hung on. Brunei Cyprus Ghana Kenya Malaysia Malta Nigeria. Sudan and Uganda All became Independent countries in the 1950s. Even Small poor places like Papua new Guinea and Solomon islands struck out on their own to become nations. Wealthy Hong Kong however swam against the anti colonial tide for its own commercial reasons and kept the British connection that helped make it Rich a a and kept it out of China a waiting arms. When the end came the wishes and interests of Hong Kong a people were not consulted. Investors in the new territories began to ask in the 1970s what would become of their land after 1997, when the British lease granted by China would expire. The British authorities in turn began asking the Beijing government what should be done. Deng Xiaoping told the Hong Kong governor in 1979 that investors should a put their hearts at he refused to discuss the matter further. Britain kept demanding an answer however and it came from prime minister Zhao Ziyang in 1982 China a claim to sovereignty Over Hong Kong had to be safeguarded. Some Hong Kong residents believe to this Day that Britain a mistake was to Force the Issue. China was never asking to resume control of Hong Kong. The literal minded British insist on having a Clear contract written and signed. The chinese style of business and administration makes More use of the unspoken the creative ambiguity that glues a veneer of agreement Over profound divergences. Had Britain said nothing this theory holds Hong Kong could have coasted along Calm Happy and prosperous in China a shadow.50-year limit be that As it May Britain did ask for an agreement and once the negotiations started it soon became Clear that China would not renew the lease on the new territories and would not accept the Concession of Hong Kong and Kowloon by the earlier unequal treaties. It would agree to preservation of Hong Kong a social and economic system for 50 years after resumption of chinese sovereignty Over the territory. These became the terms of the Thatcher Zhao 1984 joint declaration. The people of Hong Kong were not represented in the negotiations leading to that declaration. It was strictly a Deal Between empires a one old and declining one Young and expanding. Hong Kong veterans takeover with keen Eye Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg free press bore Fagerbak displays his War medals and photo of his brother tape who was reported missing in action. Worries by Paul Wiecek staff reporter you would think Roy Robinson would be irate about what is going to happen on the faraway Island of Hong Kong at the stroke of Midnight tomorrow. The chinese who take Over the former British Colony Are not exactly known for practising the democracy Robinson and 2,000 other canadians were sent to Hong Kong to defend in october 1941. As a Man who travelled to Hong Kong to fight tyranny he ended up spending four years As a prisoner of War. It was a Mission historians now say was a colossal Blunder that Cost 557 of those canadians their lives and doomed the others like Robinson to live out the balance of the War in japanese pow Camps. But All those years behind barbed wire picking maggots out of their meagre portions of Rice taught Robinson and his comrades to be practical men. You cannot eat principles after All. And so the bitterness you might expect to hear from the Hong Kong veterans As the chinese prepare to take Over Hong Kong from the British echoes More of a hardened pragmatism steeled by their advancing years and the indelible memory of living in hell for 44 months. A history takes its course a says Robinson 76. A we always knew the lease would expire one Day and now that a happening. A a it san honourable Robinson is one of about 400 Canadian veterans of the Hong Kong Campaign still alive. The passing years Are claiming those who weren to killed so Many years ago either quickly on the Battlefield or slowly in the pow Camps. While dwindling the surviving veterans of the Winnipeg grenadiers remain Manitoba a special connection to Hong Kong with at least 70-75 veterans continuing to reside in Manitoba. It was the Winnipeg grenadiers along with the Royal rifles of Canada who Jam packed a new zealand luxury liner on oct. 27,1941, and set sail out of Vancouver Harbour for Hong Kong. Most historians now agree the decision to Send canadians poorly trained and poorly equipped to Hong Kong was both half hearted and ill advised a cynical political exercise aimed at waving the Allied Flag that had Little Hope of Ever succeeding against a japanese invasion. And it did no to. By Christmas 1941, the canadians were either dead or would come to wish they were. A Lack of food disease slave labour a it was pretty rough a Borge Fagerbak another former Grenadier still living in Winnipeg recalls of the pow Camps. Many canadians died in the Camps. Others were blinded by malnutrition. Most were scarred Many permanently and not All the scars were on their bodies. One Hong Kong Veteran Long ago described How there were two types of attitudes among the prisoners there were those who were determined the next Day would be the one on which they would be liberated and those who had reconciled themselves to being there for the Long haul. The latter group fared better it is said but no one walked away unscathed. A a it a hard to forget an experience like that a says Fagerbak. It on the eve of the historic turnover of Hong Kong Back to China Ager bake a thoughts Arentt of himself or even those still living on the Island. Fagerbak fears for the fallen. A a in a concerned about our cemeteries Over there whether be cleaned or even allowed cleaned. A a they be always been Well kept and that is As it should fallen canadians lie in two cemeteries in Hong Kong the Hilltop Stanley cemetery and the sprawling Sai wan cemetery which slopes gracefully Down to the Bay. Both have been tended for five decades by the Commonwealth War Graves commission. But like everything else about the chinese takeover there is great uncertainty about what will happen after july i. A until the chinese actually take Over there a not much that can be done a explained Dan Wheeldon Secretary general for Canada on the Graves commission. Wheeldon said the commission has received some preliminary assurances from the chinese that the existing arrangements that allow the cemeteries to be tended will be respected but they re hoping to get those assurances in writing after the chinese have taken Over. That said Wheeldon says honouring the War dead knows no boundaries a and we re not expecting any neither is Angus Mcritchie. A i doubt there will be any change. The chinese Are decent people a said Mcritchie Secretary of the Hong Kong veterans association. Mcritchie is not nearly so confident about the rest of Hong Kong however. There is a pall he says that hangs Over the whole transition. And ifs called Tiana men Square the pro democracy uprising in Beijing in 1989 that was savagely crushed by the chinese. A when you see something like that erupt you have to wonder what a going to happen in Hong Kong a says Mcritchie. A the Hong Kong people have gotten used to be being and it is that Prospect a of violence and bloodshed in the name of Freedom for Hong Kong a that resonates with a Small aging group of veterans in Manitoba As they watch events unfold on the other Side of the Globe. Because it is they More than anyone who know the terrible Cost of such a fight ;