KOWLOON.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 37, 12 August 1905, Page 9

KOWLOON.

Kowloon may become famous at any moment. It is on the Chinese mainland, i and faces the island of Hong Kong. Behind is a hundred miles of British torritory, made British by. a master-stroke, .not so long ago. Not all the admirals from Noah to Beresford could take Hong Kong- from the sea, and it would require a mighty army of heroes to approach it by land, for that hundred miles is ribbed with mountains which could be jnado impregnable. Not so long ago they 'beheaded criminals on the Kowloon beach. Now the English bathe there, "and instead of an executioner's half-pcre, there is a boat- ' house. r Kowloon also sent the first batch of coolies to tho Rand, but what Kowloon did to make itself known was to givo itself up heart and soul to the British as a dockyard. If there is any Englishman alive who has been over those dcokyards and come away dissatisfied he must be a poor sort of person. Hong Kong and Kowloon are going to save Britain in the ' East. Kowloon is so far away- that we never hear of the men jyho are making her famous. But there are -great men, great Englishmen and Irishmen and Scotchmen, who live amidst the din of the dockyards •of Kowloon, who rise early and go to bed late, all for the sake of England. They are doing a great work for England in another way ; they are educating the Chinese to respect the might of England, and are converting untrained coolies into skilled mechanics, mechanics who could build a battleship quicker ana better' than any race of men on eaHh. I have watched them at work for hours at a time in the Kowloon dockyards, and have come, awayfilled with wonder and admiration on each occasion. But do Englishmen realise what their are doing for^ England at Kowloon? The average man probably has not the slightest idea where, the place is, and does not know if it is celebrated for tea or 'ginger. Ha may know all qboufc it in a" few months. Kowloon is to be ths , terminus at the British end of the Canton -Kowloon railway, and when Britain holds one end of a railway lino it is not long she has a mortgage over the last sleeper at tha other end. Tho ordinary, visitor crossing over the" harbour to Kowloon probably strolls abouß the streets and returns. If he took tho trouble to go a little farther on he would! com© across the- Burma Regiment and tha " camp of tho Sikhs. He would probably, see them playin b football to keep in trim, great, long, loose-limbed fellowa with mahogany beai'ds, men against whom the gates of Hell could not prevail. Now, if any force should advance on Kowlooa from the mainland they would find the Sikhs playing forward, and the Burm* Regiment formed up m the scrum behind, and it will take a mighty lot of shoving to get them out of the way. I watched tha Sikhs playing football on many occasions, and they looked cheerful and healthy. Ib seems, perhaps, a trivial affair' this football of the Sikhs. It is really a very serious matter, and it only shows thab they are officered by good men and true. I remember tho commanding officer of •the Burmaa at Kowloon. Ho must ba agroat man, for he has the look of one. He did not live at a swell hotel, nor was he a great sociory' celebrity. "His work was too serious for that! He lived very quietly at a quiet hotel, He was as regu« lar as clockwork and up in the 'morning early. When he looked at you it was ■* caae of looking right into your' soul .>nd throngn it. Ho kept the' Burmas up to the mark. But he will not become tamous, becauso tlie women rule the', roost in the East, and they do not 'regard* strength of character or genius in others as virtues. Then there was another man in Kowloon I knew — a young man working in tlie docks. He also rose early and wnrM.il hard. He loved his work, and thercfote it is good that he should be there. -Ie was quiet and unassuming, but always kept his mind employed. If tho wonieu*--the society women — do not stop him, 'i« • will rise to fame. • The roar and din and ' clatter of Ilia Kowloon dockyards are still in my cars, and long may it be belore I forgot the industry, the determination, and the resolute faces of the British who work their will there, unknown and unadvertiscd.— W. Monro Anderson, in J,l» PaH MaH Gazette^ 7 -