Hong Kong in Butterfield & Swire tugs,
under the guns and binoculars of l¿ter he escaped from the Japanese prison camp at
A few drinks ) aspot of lunch and Saturday rolls on
Lunghua and after a journey of 1,200 miles reached friendly territory. Then
he became a paratrooper and ended up
in Hong Kong, to open his famous bar and provide a home for Alcoholics Slmonymous, of which he was the first secretary-treasurer.
Alcoholics Synonymous, a loose grouping started almost 40 years ago by habitues of Jack Conderrs bar in Central, Hong Kong, meets weekly at the FCC.
TH¡ Rou{orRs: Who were the club's orig-
by Anthony I-awrence O CALL Alcoholics Synonymous a club demands some exercise of imagination. It is more a loose
grouping,
a vague expression of con-
viviality. Somewhere in the rules it is laid down that membership be limited to 16 0ater changed to 18) but this is misleading. Nowadays some members enjoy active and some irregular status. And absent members, passing through Hong Kong, are sometimes unexPectedly present at the regular Saturday morning sessions and wish to know over a couple of drinks, just what has been happening in the five or six years
they were away. Alcoholics Synonymous enjoys the hospitality of the For-
present membership; but one recalls the late Bob Drummond, old Beijing hand with a fascinating fund of reminiscences, the amiable Captain James Babb, formerly of the United States Navy; the inimitable Richard Hughes, whose weighty personality and humour dominated the club foryears; and many others. THn orucl¡{s:
YEARSONTOP OFTHEASIASTORY
Japanese naval craft.
According to the records,
inators? Very old Hong Kong hands may remember them. They are recorded by Dick Hughes to include the following, using the word "taipan" somewhat loosely: Sid Jackson (us taipan); Brig. Young
(English taipan); Maurice Rice (us ConsulateGeneral); V[ R Cator (Dutch Consulate); Jim Boyle (Irish taipan) Jack Conder @nglish publican)
THE WEEKLY NEWSMAGAZINE
;
Brewin Cheny (Canadian taipan); Hugh Bellamy (us taipan); Peter Griffiths (English lawyer); and David Mathews (English taipan). Four other
Alcoholics Synonymous was founded on GuyFawkes Day, Sth
November, 1955 in Jack Conder's Bar, centrally situated up an alley off
eign Correspondents'
Queen's
THE CTIARTER (a) To act as a means of during the 24 hours pregathering its members ceding meetings.
together
at appointed (.) To encourage
memthe ú; *h;ç åccident purposeof drinkingbeverh;;; ilaãåuired the ages of alcoholic content. ;il;";;I"ãi;-to offe. (b)To promote the relief consolation to those who
times and places for
correspondents as well as
Road, behind the Shell House.
local journalists have
Jovial Jack
figured importantly in its membership.
Conder himself, known as
Club where it meets in an upstairs room.
Foreign
As the
name implies it is involved in the consumption of
alcoholic liquor, but not fanatically. One member, the late Stephen Chou, could never touch anything stronger than lemonade, but then his talk always had thevitality of a man with a cou-
ple of glasses
of champagne inside him. Notthatreliable HUGHES. whose drinkers have been DICK weighty personality domilacking. This is not nated Alcoholics Synonymous the place to speak of for years
48 ruB coRRESPoNDENT ocroBER 1989
of hangovers acquired
Hong Kong's foremost pub-
lican, had joined
have done so.
signahrres though not clearþ decipherable are reliably believed to be those of
the Shanghai police force as a constable at the age of 21 in 1928, after coming out from Britain as an orderly in the Royal'$rmy Mèdical Corps. But he resigned from the
Charles Arthur (us taipan); Saxo Kurman (unidentified); Robert Van Name (us taipan) and John Wright
police after three years and worked for a while with the Shanghai Gas Company
was said to contain every known brand in the world. They used to shake dice for
before transferring
to Butterfield & Swire. When Vichy took over the French Concession in Shanghai Jack
smoothly organised the
defection of at least 500 crew members from French ships
and smuggled them out to
Clll¡\A S Ilr\O TSL'I'UNC lhr (ìr¡r¡uni't lios fu rncd rlr rnnl r.¡
lx'v
(New Zealand taipan).
They were all habitues of Jack Conder's bar where the beer menu, in a
decorated board behind the counter,
drinks and, recalls Jim Babb, "There were several who believed that the dice
TIME
ANDTHE F.C.C.-rloGErHER IN HoNG KoNG slNcE 1ft49
were not attuned to their limited resources and that they were paying, over the years, a higher proportion of the bar bills than was to be reasonably expected or desired. So they agreed to found an organisation, dedicated to alle viating the cares of the past week, but
FCC Anniuersary Sþecial
TI^rlE
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