By registering with our site you will have full instant access to:
268,000 posts on every subject imaginable contributed by 1000's of members worldwide.
25000 photos and videos mainly relating to the British Merchant Navy.
Members experienced in research to help you find out about friends and relatives who served.
The camaraderie of 1000's of ex Merchant Seamen who use the site for recreation & nostalgia.
Here we are all equal whether ex Deck Boy or Commodore of the Fleet.
A wealth of experience and expertise from all departments spanning 70+ years.
It is simple to register and membership is absolutely free.
N.B. If you are going to be requesting help from one of the forums with finding historical details of a relative
please include as much information as possible to help members assist you. We certainly need full names,
date and place of birth / death where possible plus any other details you have such as discharge book numbers etc.
Please post all questions onto the appropriate forum
-
3rd July 2020, 08:29 AM
#31
Re: Hong Kong offer
#23 Having been bombed out three times in three different cities and ending up on the Yorkshire Moors in a condemned cottage, with no gas, electric, water, sewage etc, concrete floors, ill fitting doors and windows, paraffin lamps, and a two mile trek to recharge the glass accumulator batteries for the radio and then finally moving into a Council house in Hull in 1951 with all facilities, it was a Palace, 1951 was the first time I had actually switched on an electric light in a house I lived in, plus turning on a tap where the water came out and no more tin tub baths in front of the fire were complete luxury. Wouldn't call them the good old days, but they were certainly better than the ones prior to that. I have Hitler to thank for giving me the taste for travel!!
-
Post Thanks / Like
-
3rd July 2020, 08:54 AM
#32
Re: Hong Kong offer
It was never proved conclusively that he died in his bunker Ivan , so a documentary a few weeks ago where a person in Bolivia reckons everyone there believes he lived there and died well into his nineties. All he had to do to change his appearance would be to shave his tash off and comb his hair the other way. People do disappear as others have in history. Lord Lucan and one of the PMs out here just two examples. JS.
Last edited by j.sabourn; 3rd July 2020 at 08:57 AM.
R575129
-
Post Thanks / Like
-
3rd July 2020, 09:31 AM
#33
Re: Hong Kong offer
If I remember things rightly from the handover in 1997 of Hong Kong to the present day the majority of those people living there had a British National overseas passport. The difference from a normal passport Held by British Citizens is that ours states that the holder has the right to live and reside in the U.K. The Hong Kong citizen one does not have that. A lot of the more affluent entrepreneurs and professionals like doctors etc who held the latter passport just before the handover applied for and took out dual citizen ship in Canada,U.S.A.Singapore, the U.K and various other countries as an assurance against what is happening today. There is one part of the ethnic minority that make up the population of Hong Kong Who are originally from The Indian sub continent (About 36000) A lot of these people are treated like second class citizens when it comes to jobs etc. Quite a few that I have spoken to on my last two visits there (In 2016 & 2018) Would jump at the chance to leave the country and possibly the Chinese government would be happy to see them go. As already mentioned earlier in this thread The government will decide Who can go and who will stay. I imagine there is a political list of activists who the government would like to have a word with and those same people would rather be on a plane to a safe haven. BUT there are millions of other citizens who are not involved in any anti-government activity and will remain regardless of the present turmoil and stoically carry on as there forefathers have done in the upheavals that have been going on in the Chinese sub continent over the last couple of thousand years.
-
Post Thanks / Like
-
3rd July 2020, 10:27 AM
#34
Re: Hong Kong offer
#33.. weren’t they classed as British protectorates ? The same as Gibraltar. And various islandsi in the West Indies ,Bermuda and various other places . When the lease runs out on Gibraltar there will be problems also . I believe
also Aden was classed as one also . Palestine also at one time. The list could be endless . JS.
Last edited by j.sabourn; 3rd July 2020 at 10:29 AM.
R575129
-
Post Thanks / Like
-
3rd July 2020, 02:29 PM
#35
Re: Hong Kong offer
John * 34 Gibraltar was covered by the treaty of Utrecht of 1713 which meant that it is ceded to the U.K. in Perpetuity. Similar treaty's do apply to various other protectorates like the Falklands and even certain parts of former colonies Like the Royal Air Force Base in Cyprus They are really part of our former colonial days which annoys the hell out of the Spanish or Argentinians etc. Hong Kong and certain other Islands in the Pearl River Delta were ceded to the U.K. in perpetuity under the treaty of Nanking (Nanjing) in 1842 which was after the first opium war. It was one of many unequal treatise under what can only be called Gun Boat diplomacy that the Chinese were forced to sign with the Imperialist countries. In a later treaty of 1860 the British gained Kowloon on the mainland (All areas below Border street ) with the exception of Kowloon walled city. They also gained Stonecutters Island. In 1898 in another treaty they gained what is now known as the New Territories which is north of the old border up to the Shen Zen River and included a land grab which expanded the old colony in size by about 12 times or some 365 square miles which was on a lease of only 99 years. This area was where most of the food produced in Hong Kong was grown and various other essentials came from. Without the New territories Hong Kong could not survive. So the colonial government under Chris Patten had no choice than to try and get some sort of treaty with China that protected the citizens of Hong Kong when the lease was up. At the time the Peoples Army could have just marched across the border but gave the British a taste of their own medicine with a very week agreement . With China starting to flex both its financial and military might I fear that this is only the start of an eventual reunification of the Country. My apologies if this is written like a history lesson it is not supposed to be . It is my thoughts on a subject that I am sure will become more and more complicated and politically important.
-
Post Thanks / Like
-
4th July 2020, 01:46 AM
#36
Re: Hong Kong offer
There are over 100,000 expat Australians living in Hong Kong, and as much as our Govt has been mouthing off that they will take as many Hongkong Chinese as wants to come, they have failed to mention that none of the Aussies living there seem bothered about leaving, storm in a teacup, the so called freedom parties have already disbanded, give it six months of no interference and it will settle down. Who in their right mind would want all those hooligans, that smashed the trains, shops, Banks, and whatever, probably at the behest of a foreign Govt to destabilize the place, in their country anyway?
Des
R510868
Lest We Forget
-
Post Thanks / Like
-
4th July 2020, 02:11 AM
#37
Re: Hong Kong offer
I’m surprised that Chinese troops were not put into Hong Kong on the trouble first starting. Maybe they had and still have visions of it trying to be another Taiwan ,which they still maintain is part of China if anything the people who will be getting worried today is Taiwan. When Chang Kai Shek first retreated to Formosa as it was formally called as head of the so called national army, he was according to the history books just another former War Lord. Anyone who visited Taiwan in the 60s will still remember how the set up there was, although they called themselves Free China they still had to stand at cinemas for their own national anthem displaying the former War Lord as their Hero, Curfews were imposed at night , and various other indispositions , so wasn’t that free. China is China and should be able to make their own way in life behind their own borders. It’s when they come out from behind those borders and try to impose their will on alien powers that the Big Crunch will come. Publicity is cheap and only talk which is cheaper. What you see in the press and what is going on diplomatically are two different things. JS...
Last edited by j.sabourn; 4th July 2020 at 02:24 AM.
R575129
-
Post Thanks / Like
-
4th July 2020, 05:55 AM
#38
Re: Hong Kong offer
The Chinese will, as always do it their way, may not be conventional but if it works they will use it.
The biggest problem for any who do wish to leave will be actually getting out.
They will have to satisfy the Chinese gov of their intentions and if they get a 'no; then that is the end of it.
As to the man who played hell in WW2 a German of some ill repute.
I well recall in about 1954 or so an article in the Sunday paper written by his batman who claimed he had incinerated his body after he shot himself.
Dig deep enough into the archives and it may still be there.
Happy daze John in Oz.
Life is too short to blend in.
John Strange R737787
World Traveller
-
Post Thanks / Like
-
4th July 2020, 06:40 AM
#39
Re: Hong Kong offer
The Russians also got that body but was supposed to have never been confirmed by others. Today with DNA would be no trouble in identifying . In 1945 all sorts of nazis escaped to South America. A lot through Papal assistance and Vatican passports. Whatever fictional author you read will come up with other theory’s of their own. Cheers JS
- - - Updated - - -
The Russians also got that body but was supposed to have never been confirmed by others. Today with DNA would be no trouble in identifying . In 1945 all sorts of nazis escaped to South America. A lot through Papal assistance and Vatican passports. Whatever fictional author you read will come up with other theory’s of their own. Cheers JS......
R575129
-
Post Thanks / Like
Tags for this Thread
Posting Permissions
- You may not post new threads
- You may not post replies
- You may not post attachments
- You may not edit your posts
-
Forum Rules