Gold Smuggling | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Gold Smuggling

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Submitted by cassandra on Mon, 2013-07-29 17:36

Hello

I am writing a romantic mystery novel set in the 1960s (about two thirds the way through), and I need to find out some additional information about gold smuggling in and out of Hong Kong in the 1960s.  I have found an old 'Asia Times' article on the Web about the 'fixed exchange rate' at that time.  To get round this, gold was bought legally on the London gold market and then exported to Macau where it was recast into shapes suitable for smuggling back.

I don't need a vast amount of detail, just enough to give my story credibility.  In my novel the smuggling is small scale, so I want to check that this is a feasible plot, how the gold would have been taken to Macau, what sort of items the gold was was reformed into and how the reshaped gold would have been taken back to Hong Kong by an individual.  (Without involving some of the more unsavoury methods!)  Would it have been taken through customs, would it have been smuggled in by boat etc?

I lived in Hong Kong for 3 years in the 1960s and have a huge fondness for it - I lived at Stanley and this is an extra reason for finding the daily HK War Diaries of great interest.

I have searched the Internet for books about Hong Kong which might give some information, and there are a small clutch of them.  I am hoping some fellow Hong Kong devotees might have access to some of these books and be able to check the indexes for me and let me know what they come up with.

 

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Submitted by harryhktc on Tue, 2013-07-30 15:52.

A seaplane service between HK and Macau operated from the late 1940's until the early 1960's and was known to us laymen at the time as the "Macau Gold Run". From what I remember, the planes touched down and took-off from beside the old Kai Tak runway. I think there was a ramp to enable them to waddle ashore then on to the apron.

You may find the following useful -

"Macao Air Transport Company (Matco), which was set up by entrepreneurs Sydney de Kantzow and Roy Farrell in the late 1940s, transported gold and a few passengers between the two cities until the early 1960s. The pair were also founders of Cathay Pacific.

According to the Cathay Pacific website, Catalina seaplanes were brought into service with the airline in late 1946, primarily to shuttle gold between Hong Kong and Macau.

The lack of an airstrip in Macau in those days meant landing on water was the only option.

On July 16, 1948, a Catalina flying boat, Miss Macao, which was chartered to Matco for flights between Hong Kong and Macau, became the world's first commercial victim of an air hijacking.

Miss Macao was making a routine flight that day with 26 passengers and crew when four hijackers demanded that the plane be taken to a remote area. The hijackers had heard tempting reports of cargoes of gold bullion and planned to hold up the Catalina and divert it to another location where it could be looted.

But the plan failed when one of the hijackers shot the pilot, whose body slumped across the controls, causing the aircraft to dive into the sea. Twenty-six people died. The only survivor was the leader of the hijackers."

By Googling 'gold smuggling Hong Kong Macau' you'll find many interesting - and amusing stories of gold smuggling methods, mainly using fishing junks - and  having lived in Stanley you may probably know 'The Smugglers' Inn' ?

Good luck with your book.

Submitted by cassandra on Tue, 2013-07-30 17:19.

Hi

THank you so much for taking the trouble to reply.  Your story about the seaplane service HK to Macau, and the hijacking of Miss Macau is fascinating.  I'll store that info away for another novel, if I may!

Unfortunately, although you would expect Google to come up trumps with a search worded as you suggest, my frequent searches over many months have yielded only the two articles I mentioned originally.  If you know of a particular source of HK smuggling yarns on the internet, I'd love to check them out.

'The Smugglers' Inn' you mention - is that the one on Stanley Main Street?  (I Googled it!).  I'm pretty sure it wasn't there in the 1960s, unless my memory is playing tricks.  Funnily enough, Stanley Main Street plays a part in my novel, and I have described it, as I remember it - not much there apart from some blocks of apartments.

Many thanks for your information.

Submitted by harryhktc on Wed, 2013-07-31 02:22.

Yes, Stanley has changed a lot from your memories of the 1960's. A fairly up-to-date (2011) view can be seen on Google Earth - search Smugglers Inn, Stanley then select 'streetview' by dragging the pedestrian symbol. You'll see it there along with Pizza Express, the Main Street USA and Pickled Pelican bars !

One way of smuggling albeit small amounts of gold was to sew it inside live chickens and ducks - a method perhaps too 'unsavoury' (lol) to be included in your romantic mystery  !

Submitted by IDJ on Thu, 2013-08-01 14:17.

Gold smuggling used to be a regular feature in the Hong Kong newspapers  in the 1950s-70s where particularly cabin crew and others flying between HK and India were caught and brought to trial. The book Syd's Pirates by Charles Eather has a chapter titled "Outside the Law" where gold smuggling and methods is discussed over a few pages. Page 197 onwards. A search of the on-line SCMP and China Mail archives for the period would no doubt highlight the many cases brought to court.

Gold-Macau

Submitted by cassandra on Sun, 2013-08-04 01:45.

THank you both for your ideas and suggestions.  I have been following these up. The online archive for SCMP goes back only to the 1990s, unfortunately.  However, while searching for that I came across what looks to be a fantastic resource - the 'MMIS archives Hong Kong'.  However, to access it you need a HK library card, which of course I don't have.  I'm assuming you have to be a HK resident to apply for a card - but if anyone knows differently I'd love to know.

And, IDJ, that photograph of boxes of matches and lighters has really got my creative juices into action!

I also came across some other books - one in particular, a HK University Press publication 'Americans and Macau trade - Diplomacy on the South China Sea' looks interesting but is quite a 'learned' tome by the look of it, and very expensive to buy, even second hand.

While researching your suggestions, I have been jolted into seeing things from a different angle and so I have changed route slightly, realizing that smuggling via the Macau ferry (my original thought) is unrealistic and smuggling by boat would have been more likely.  I have been re-writing to take account of this new train of thought.  Thank you for giving me a jolt in the right direction!  (And you're right - my heroine would be very squeamish about hiding contraband in live ducks etc!!!)

Thanks to Gwulo I have followed some very fasinatinglinks, and found some wonderful Utube films which have acted as brilliant reminders of little details that I had forgotten.  Happy memories.

Submitted by IDJ on Sun, 2013-08-04 20:02.

Cassandra

The older Hong Kong newspapers are supposedly available on-line via here

http://gwulo.com/old-hong-kong-newspapers

An easier system to use is the Singapore newspaper library via here

http://newspapers.nl.sg/Default.aspx?source=digitised

Search via “Straits Times” and “Hong Kong gold smuggling” or “Macao gold smuggling” in the year ranges of interest and something may pop up. The Singapore newspapers invariably reprinted Hong Kong news stories.

Ian Fleming, he of James Bond fame, used to write Far East stories when he was Foreign Editor of the Times newspapers group. Later his articles were published in PAN paperback books titled “Thrilling Cities”. One chapter I recall covered Hong Kong and Macao. He probably used the material as the basis of the book/film “The Man with the Golden Gun” where Macau and gold heavily featured.

Submitted by cassandra on Tue, 2013-08-06 22:28.

H IDJ

Sorry not to get back and thank you straight away - I've been too busy following through with your suggestions, and writing of course.  (I have incorporated some information based on the picture you attached, and it is all starting to sound quite authentic!) I haven't tried accessing the newspapers yet through your link, although I have opened the link and read the instructions.  Your tip about the Straits Times is very helpful too.  I would never have thought of Ian Fleming - although I have researched other books about HK - and there is a recent reprint of Thrilling Cities which I plan to buy.  Even if not of any direct use, it will give plenty of 'colour', I'm sure.

I'm also learning what a lot of fantastic information there is on this site, if you know where to search for it.  I will be sure and acknowledge all the help I've received from Gwulo and its forum members.

Submitted by cassandra on Tue, 2013-08-06 22:32.

My latest reply - specifically ot IDJ - has accidntally gone on as a new topic headed H IDJ Sorry not to get back.  Blip!  But I know you will find it.