12 Nov 1941, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

12 Nov 1941, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp

Date(s) of events described: 
Wed, 12 Nov 1941

This afternoon Soong Ching-Ling (Madame Sun Yatsen) opens a carnival on the naval recreation ground at Caroline Hill. The purpose of the event, which is scheduled to run for a month, is to raise funds for the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, (Gung Ho) an organisation set up by New Zealander Rewi Alley and others to create a network of small-scale industrial enterprises to contribute to the Chinese war effort.

Madame Soong is received by T. B. Wilson, head of the American President shipping line, and Morris 'Two-Gun' Cohen - Wilson's head of the Carnival Organising Committee and Cohen's a member.

The event features an exhibition of Gung Ho products and a Philippine circus group brought over from Manila. Rewi Alley has come in from China to be present and leaves for Chongqing in the nick of time - December 6.

Source:

Rewi Alley, An Autobiography, 1997, 147

Note: George Wright-Nooth considers that the famous 'Stanley Tiger' was 'probably from a circus that had been located at Causeway Bay'. Could this have been that circus? (Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, 1994, 98).

Note:

For Wilson see also December 6, 1941.

Comments

Brian, that's a good find - could be the source of the tiger at last.