Doubts about 'Miss Hong Kong’

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33096, 11 December 1972, Page 17

Doubts about 'Miss Hong Kong’

i (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, Dec. 10. The “News of the ■ World” reported today that the organisers of the “Miss World” competition were to probe reports that this year’s “Miss Hong Kong” was once a boy.

! p ' The popular Sundav news-'* ■paper said that a man they;! did not name had come to If their offices and told them 24- t I year-old Miss Meilin Gay/r who represented Hong Kongl in this year’s contest, had Ip ■ started life as a boy. Is She later underwent medi-;t ; cal treatment, including the \ ■ use of hormones and started r work as a part-time model, I a the man said. f Miss Gay was in the news t a few days ago when an-1 other newspaper said that,t ■ although she claimed in con-|t test literature to be from r Kowloon, she had been work-ip ing part-time in a London J massage parlour for the last If two years and a half. The “News of the World” £ story also quoted a Mr Neil s Toland, manager of a model J casting agency which, it said,;a gave Miss Gay work, as say-;" ing that Miss Gay’s original birth certificate had her re- a gistered as a boy. but this t was later changed to show-t her as a girl. Is

Mr Toland told the newspaper that he had first discovered her secret when the other girls with whom she went on assignments got suspicious because of her mannerisms. He said she had now left Britain. Miss Hong Kong did not gain a place among the 15 semi-finalists in the contest. The “News of the World” story said that Mrs Julia Morley, organiser of the “Miss World” competition had promised to carry out a' full-scale investigation into; the sex change allegation tomorrow. Another popular news-; paper, the “Sunday People” said that Miss Belinda Green,' the Australian . model who won the “Miss World” crown i nine days ago, was not known ’ as “Miss Australia” in her home town although she wasj billed in Britain by that title/ The newspaper’ said that the Cerebral Palsy Association of Svdney owned and' ran the “Miss Australia” com-! petition. This was won by a Melbourne girl. Miss' Michelle Downes. The contest won by Miss Belinda Green, the newspaper said, was sponsored by an Australian department store and she was simply titled “Miss World Entrant.” It was only when she' arrived in Britain that her title changed to “Miss Australia,” the “Sunday People” said. i