Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/359

Rh MR. T. WRIGHT.—A list of names of newspapers, principally provincial, can have but little interest, and though claiming nearly a quarter of a century's experience as a journalist, the subject of this note has not had a career that lends itself to picturesque narrative. His first trespass upon editorial space was a "letter to the editor, in which, as a boy of ten or eleven, he criticised a "leader" that had emphasised the adage about sparing rods and spoiling children. The editor, Mr. George Chatt, a great man in the North Countree, sent a message to his correspondent: "Join us, and we'll make a journalist of you." Being at that time, thanks to a too indulgent father and a sorely tried tutor, full of leisure, the boy accepted the invitation and entered upon a journalistic career. The first sum he earned was six shillings, for a "turn-over" entitled "The duty of parents to children." He was then about twelve years old. In course of time he acquired the usual local fame by the usual vigorous criticism of the usual deplorable condition of the usual parish pump, attained a high position on the local stepladder and a salary exceptional for one of his years. To count age by the almanack is not always to count truly: Mr. Wright claims that he was really born on the steamer that brought him to the Far East in 1902. Till then, he discovered, he had merely existed in chrysalis form. His advent in Japan, and meteoric career there, is still spoken of with bated breath by those confreres who managed to survive his mordant humour. At the outbreak of the war he achieved special distinction by declining to accept the chance of glory, and dysentery, by going to Korea as the Daily Mail's war correspondent. Instead, he preferred to join the late Mr. "Bob" Little, of North China Daily News fame, at Shanghai, whom he was intended to succeed on retirement. Mr. Little's intention to retire was, apparently, abandoned, and the chair of the Hongkong Daily Press falling vacant, Mr. Wright came to Hongkong, where he has been endeavouring to conduct that fifty-year-old journal strictly in accordance with its own traditions.

MR. BERTRAM AUGUSTUS HALE, manager of the Hongkong Daily Press, is a son of Mr. Charles Hale, for many years town surveyor of Shepton Mallet, Somersetshire. Born in 1870, he was connected with journalism in Devonshire and London for some years, and came East to join the Japan Chronicle in 1895. In 1899 he became editor and part proprietor of the Hiogo News, and whilst in Japan he also acted as correspondent of the London Standard. He arrived in Hongkong in February, 1903, as manager of the Daily Press. He married in November, 1898, Florence, a daughter of the late Charles Boulton, of Dover. He lives at "Wellburn," a pleasantly situated house on the Peak, and is a member of the Hongkong Club.

The Hongkong Telegraph.

The Hongkong Telegraph was established by Mr. Robert Frazer-Smith, and its first issue appeared on June 15, 1881. After a somewhat chequered career, the paper became the property of the late Mr. John Joseph Francis, Q.C., who at that time was undoubtedly the cleverest lawyer practising in Hongkong. Mr. Francis in due course converted the business into a limited liability company, the registration taking place on February 22, 1900.

While owning to a special desire to promote Chinese interests, the Telegraph has followed an entirely independent policy, directing its attention largely to the advancement of the commercial interests of the Colony, without disregarding the various other facets of work on an evening journal. Its connection with Canton, the capital of Southern China, has been singularly successful, owing to the excellence of its news service from that centre of Chinese activity, while it has also established a close connection with the Treaty ports along the coast.

The Telegraph is recognised as a staunch upholder of British trade in Hongkong, and its criticisms and editorials on trade generally, with particular reference to the